bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Sensitive Approach for Voltammetric Determination of Carbendazim Based on the Use of an Anionic Surfactant
Authors: Petroni Jacqueline Marques , Lucca Bruno Gabriel , Fogliato Daniela Kárin , Ferreira Valdir Souza
Published: January 2016

This report describes by the first time the use of a commercial screen‐printed carbon electrode modified with multi‐walled carbon nanotubes for voltammetric determination of the fungicide carbendazim in the presence of an anionic surfactant. The oxidation of the pesticide showed two anodic and two catodic peaks over a quasi‐reversible system. The quantitative studies were performed using square‐wave voltammetry technique at anodic direction, in that an oxidation peak was observed at +0.98 V vs. Ag/AgCl. Buffer, pH and voltammetric parameters were investigated and optimized. The use of the anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulphate provided a significative improvement on analytical sensitivity and its influence also was evaluated. The best conditions for analysis were achieved using a medium of 0.04 mol L−1 Britton‐Robinson buffer at pH 4.00 containing 6.04×10−4 mol L−1 of surfactant. A calibration curve with good linearity (R=0.999) was obtained and the limit of detection achieved was 1.40×10−8 mol L−1 (2.7 ppb). Lastly, the developed method was successfully applied for determination of carbendazim in a spiked orange juice sample and a recovery of 101.7 % was obtained. The results were compared with HPLC technique with good agreement. Based on the data presented, the proposed method shows great promise to be applied in routine analysis of carbendazim in food samples and the approach based on the anionic surfactant effect can be an improvement for other applications.
Scalable and Cost‐Effective Preparation of Hierarchical Porous Silicon with a High Conversion Yield for Superior Lithium‐Ion Storage
Authors: Liu Xiaolin , Miao Rongrong , Yang Jun , Wang Jinzuan , Bie Yitian , Wang Jiulin , Nuli Yanna
Published: January 2016

Although some reported porous silicon‐based anode materials manifest excellent lithium‐ion storage properties, their scalable and economical synthesis remains a large obstacle to their industrial application. This work presents a scalable and efficient preparation of hierarchical porous silicon by using cost‐effective porous SiO2 as raw material through a modified magnesiothermic reduction approach, in which a rotatable furnace was employed and the hydrofluoric acid (HF) etching treatment was avoided. Moreover, the reaction has a high conversion yield (>95 %). Subsequently, a carbon layer with a thickness of 7 nm has been conformally wrapped onto the surface of the porous silicon through a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process. The obtained porous Si@C composite exhibits a high reversible capacity at 0.3 A g−1, and retained ca. 40 % of its capacity even at 8 A g−1. Moreover, it has an excellent capacity retention over 300 cycles. The strategies disclosed in the present work and the novel porous Si@C composite may have great potential for the next generation of lithium‐ion batteries.
Pelletization of Immobilized Amine Carbon Dioxide Sorbents with Fly Ash and Poly(vinyl chloride)
Authors: Wilfong Walter Christopher , Gray McMahan L. , Kail Brian W. , Howard Bret H.
Published: January 2016

A combination of coal fly ash (FA) and a polymer binder, namely, poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC), was used to pelletize immobilized amine CO2 sorbents. The pelletization of mixtures of FA and 50 wt % tetraethylenepentamine (TEPA) or ethylenimine oligomer mixture (Mw=423)/silica (EI423‐S) with PVC created a rigid PVC/FA/sorbent network. The strength of the network was attributed, in part, to the hydrogen bonding of PVC with the hydroxy and amine groups of the FA and sorbent (infrared spectroscopy). Increasing the PVC molecular weight or FA content enhanced the pellet strength and reduced CO2 capture. The optimum pellet, FA/EI423‐S (20/80)_PVC62 [10 wt % PVC62 (Mw=62 000), 17 wt % FA], captured 1.33 mmol
 g−1 and exhibited a crush strength of 1.42 MPa. The reaction between PVC and amines produced ammonium ions (−NH3+/−NH2+), which reduced the CO2 captured by the pellet during stability testing. This issue was partially resolved by replacing PVC62 with p‐phenylenediamine‐modified PVC62, which also enhanced the pellet CO2 capture to 1.5 mmol
 g−1.
Forecasting SO2 pollution incidents by means of quantile curves based on additive models
Authors: Martínez‐Silva I. , Roca‐Pardiñas J. , Ordóñez C.
Published: January 2016

More than 90% of the sulfur dioxide in the air comes from human sources. Because of the adverse health effects of high levels of sulfur dioxide, specific regulations have been adopted to manage and reduce the amount of sulfur dioxide produced. However, some SO2 emission incidents (i.e. emission exceeding the limits established by law) still occur. The aim of this paper is to predict time series of SO2 concentrations in order to estimate in advance high emission episodes and analyse the influence of previous series in the prediction. Previous studies aimed to forecast SO2 pollution incidents are based on estimating mean values. Instead, we propose the use of quantile curves obtained from additive models as they provide not only the mean but also the whole distribution of the pollution levels. A backfitting algorithm with local polynomial kernel smoothers was used to estimate the model, and critical values of the hypothesis test were obtained by means of bootstrapping. The performance of the method was evaluated using simulated data as well as real data drawn from an SO2 time series of a coal‐fired power station located in northern Spain. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Scalability study of backhaul capacity sensitive network selection scheme in LTE‐WiFi HetNet
Authors: Ting Alvin , Chieng David , Kwong Kae Hsiang , Andonovic Ivan , Wong K. D.
Published: January 2016

Wireless heterogeneous network (HetNet) with small cells presents a new backhauling challenge that differs from those of experienced by conventional macro‐cells. In practice, the choice of backhaul technology for these small cells whether fibre, xDSL, point‐to‐point and point‐to‐multipoint wireless, or multi‐hop/mesh networks, is often governed by availability and cost and not by required capacity. Therefore, the resulting backhaul capacity of the small cells in HetNet is likely to be non‐uniform because of the mixture of backhaul technologies adopted. In such an environment, a question then arises whether a network selection strategy that considers the small cells' backhaul capacity will improve the end users' usage experience. In this paper, a novel dynamic backhaul capacity sensitive (DyBaCS) network selection scheme is proposed and compared with two commonly used network selection schemes, namely, WiFi First and physical data rate in an LTE‐WiFi HetNet environment. The proposed scheme is evaluated in terms of average connection or user throughput and fairness among users. The effects of varying WiFi backhaul capacity (uniform and non‐uniform distribution), WiFi‐LTE coverage ratio, user density and WiFi access points (APs) density within the HetNet form the focus of this paper. Results show that the DyBaCS scheme generally provides superior fairness and user throughput performance across the range of backhaul capacity considered. Besides, DyBaCS is able to scale much better than WiFi First and physical data rate across different user and WiFi densities. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Shared clonal cytogenetic abnormalities in aberrant mast cells and leukemic myeloid blasts detected by single nucleotide polymorphism microarray‐based whole‐genome scanning
Authors: Frederiksen John K. , Shao Lina , Bixby Dale L. , Ross Charles W.
Published: January 2016

Systemic mastocytosis (SM) is characterized by a clonal proliferation of aberrant mast cells within extracutaneous sites. In a subset of SM cases, a second associated hematologic non‐mast cell disease (AHNMD) is also present, usually of myeloid origin. Polymerase chain reaction and targeted fluorescence in situ hybridization studies have provided evidence that, in at least some cases, the aberrant mast cells are related clonally to the neoplastic cells of the AHNMD. In this work, a single nucleotide polymorphism microarray (SNP‐A) was used to characterize the cytogenetics of the aberrant mast cells from a patient with acute myeloid leukemia and concomitant mast cell leukemia associated with a KIT D816A mutation. The results demonstrate the presence of shared cytogenetic abnormalities between the mast cells and myeloid blasts, as well as additional abnormalities within mast cells (copy‐neutral loss of heterozygosity) not detectable by routine karyotypic analysis. To our knowledge, this work represents the first application of SNP‐A whole‐genome scanning to the detection of shared cytogenetic abnormalities between the two components of a case of SM‐AHNMD. The findings provide additional evidence of a frequent clonal link between aberrant mast cells and cells of myeloid AHNMDs, and also highlight the importance of direct sequencing for identifying uncommon activating KIT mutations. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Contribution of writing to reading: Dissociation between cognitive and motor process in the left dorsal premotor cortex
Authors: Pattamadilok Chotiga , Ponz Aurélie , Planton Samuel , Bonnard Mireille
Published: January 2016

Functional brain imaging studies reported activation of the left dorsal premotor cortex (PMd), that is, a main area in the writing network, in reading tasks. However, it remains unclear whether this area is causally relevant for written stimulus recognition or its activation simply results from a passive coactivation of reading and writing networks. Here, we used chronometric paired‐pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to address this issue by disrupting the activity of the PMd, the so‐called Exner's area, while participants performed a lexical decision task. Both words and pseudowords were presented in printed and handwritten characters. The latter was assumed to be closely associated with motor representations of handwriting gestures. We found that TMS over the PMd in relatively early time‐windows, i.e., between 60 and 160 ms after the stimulus onset, increased reaction times to pseudoword without affecting word recognition. Interestingly, this result pattern was found for both printed and handwritten characters, that is, regardless of whether the characters evoked motor representations of writing actions. Our result showed that under some circumstances the activation of the PMd does not simply result from passive association between reading and writing networks but has a functional role in the reading process. At least, at an early stage of written stimuli recognition, this role seems to depend on a common sublexical and serial process underlying writing and pseudoword reading rather than on an implicit evocation of writing actions during reading as typically assumed. Hum Brain Mapp 37:1531‐1543, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Efficient estimation of flood forecast prediction intervals via single‐ and multi‐objective versions of the LUBE method
Authors: Ye Lei , Zhou Jianzhong , Gupta Hoshin V. , Zhang Hairong , Zeng Xiaofan , Chen Lu
Published: January 2016

Prediction intervals (PIs) are commonly used to quantify the accuracy and precision of a forecast. However, traditional ways to construct PIs typically require strong assumptions about data distribution and involve a large computational burden. Here, we improve upon the recent proposed Lower Upper Bound Estimation method and extend it to a multi‐objective framework. The proposed methods are demonstrated using a real‐world flood forecasting case study for the upper Yangtze River Watershed. Results indicate that the proposed methods are able to efficiently construct appropriate PIs, while outperforming other methods including the widely used Generalized Likelihood Uncertainty Estimation approach. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Ninjurin1 suppresses metastatic property of lung cancer cells through inhibition of interleukin 6 signaling pathway
Authors: Jang Yeong‐Su , Kang Ju‐Hee , Woo Jong Kyu , Kim Hwan Mook , Hwang Jong‐Ik , Lee Sang‐Jin , Lee Ho‐Young , Oh Seung Hyun
Published: January 2016

Nerve injury‐induced protein 1 (Ninjurin1, Ninj1) is a cell surface molecule that can mediate homophilic adhesion and promote neurite outgrowth from cultured dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons. Interestingly, Ninj1 overexpressed in human cancer; however, its role in metastasis is not clear. This study showed that inhibition of Ninj1 promotes lung cancer metastasis through interleukin 6 (IL‐6)/STAT3 signaling. Ninj1 levels were relatively low in highly motile lung cancer cells. While inhibition of Ninj1 enhanced cell migration in lung cancer cells, overexpression of Ninj1 significantly suppressed it. We found that inhibition of Ninj1 significantly increased expression and secretion of IL‐6 in A549 cells. We also found that inhibition of IL‐6 decreased intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM‐1) expression. In addition, inhibition of Ninj1 significantly increased cell motility and invasiveness of lung cancer cells. In anin vivomodel, we found that Ninj1 suppression did not affect tumor growth but induced significant increase in incidence of lung metastasis, and sizes and number of tumor nodules. Taken together, our data clearly demonstrate that Ninj1 suppresses migration, invasion and metastasis of lung cancerviainhibition of the IL‐6 signaling pathwayin vitroandin vivo.
Sunitinib activates Axl signaling in renal cell cancer
Authors: van der Mijn Johannes C. , Broxterman Henk J. , Knol Jaco C. , Piersma Sander R. , De Haas Richard R. , Dekker Henk , Pham Thang V. , Van Beusechem Victor W. , Halmos Balazs , Mier James W. , Jiménez Connie R. , Verheul Henk M.W.
Published: January 2016

Mass spectrometry‐based phosphoproteomics provides a unique unbiased approach to evaluate signaling network in cancer cells. The tyrosine kinase inhibitor sunitinib is registered as treatment for patients with renal cell cancer (RCC). We investigated the effect of sunitinib on tyrosine phosphorylation in RCC tumor cells to get more insight in its mechanism of action and thereby to find potential leads for combination treatment strategies. Sunitinib inhibitory concentrations of proliferation (IC50) of 786‐O, 769‐p and A498 RCC cells were determined by MTT‐assays. Global tyrosine phosphorylation was measured by LC‐MS/MS after immunoprecipitation with the antiphosphotyrosine antibody p‐TYR‐100. Phosphoproteomic profiling of 786‐O cells yielded 1519 phosphopeptides, corresponding to 675 unique proteins including 57 different phosphorylated protein kinases. Compared to control, incubation with sunitinib at its IC50 of 2 µM resulted in downregulation of 86 phosphopeptides including CDK5, DYRK3, DYRK4, G6PD, PKM and LDH‐A, while 94 phosphopeptides including Axl, FAK, EPHA2 and p38α were upregulated. Axl‐ (y702), FAK‐ (y576) and p38α (y182) upregulation was confirmed by Western Blot in 786‐O and A498 cells. Subsequent proliferation assays revealed that inhibition of Axl with a small molecule inhibitor (R428) sensitized 786‐O RCC cells and immortalized endothelial cells to sunitinib up to 3 fold. In conclusion, incubation with sunitinib of RCC cells causes significant upregulation of multiple phosphopeptides including Axl. Simultaneous inhibition of Axl improves the antitumor activity of sunitinib. We envision that evaluation of phosphoproteomic changes by TKI treatment enables identification of new targets for combination treatment strategies.
The proportion cured of patients diagnosed with Stage III–IV cutaneous malignant melanoma in Sweden 1990–2007: A population‐based study
Authors: Eriksson Hanna , Lyth Johan , Andersson Therese M‐L
Published: January 2016

The survival in cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM) is highly dependent on the stage of the disease. Stage III–IV CMM patients are at high risk of relapse with a heterogeneous outcome, but not all experience excess mortality due to their disease. This group is referred to as the cure proportion representing the proportion of patients who experience the same mortality rate as the general population. The aim of this study was to estimate the cure proportion of patients diagnosed with Stage III–IV CMM in Sweden. From the population‐based Swedish Melanoma Register, we included 856 patients diagnosed with primary Stage III–IV CMM, 1990–2007, followed‐up through 2013. We used flexible parametric cure models to estimate cure proportions and median survival times (MSTs) of uncured by sex, age, tumor site, ulceration status (in Stage III patients) and disease stage. The standardized (over sex, age and site) cure proportion was lower in Stage IV CMMs (0.15, 95% CI 0.09–0.22) than non‐ulcerated Stage III CMMs (0.48, 95% CI 0.41–0.55) with a statistically significant difference of 0.33 (95% CI = 0.24–0.41). Ulcerated Stage III CMMs had a cure proportion of 0.27 (95% CI 0.21–0.32) with a statistically significant difference compared to non‐ulcerated Stage III CMMs (difference 0.21; 95% CI = 0.13–0.30). The standardized MST of uncured was approximately 9–10 months longer for non‐ulcerated versus ulcerated Stage III CMMs. We could demonstrate a significantly better outcome in patients diagnosed with non‐ulcerated Stage III CMMs compared to ulcerated Stage III CMMs and Stage IV disease after adjusting for age, sex and tumor site.
Use of an explicit rule decreases procrastination in university students
Authors: Johnson Paul E. , Perrin Christopher J. , Salo Allen , Deschaine Elyssa , Johnson Beth
Published: January 2016

The procrastination behavior of students from a small rural university was decreased by presenting them with a rule indicating that a sooner final due date for a writing assignment would be contingent on procrastination during earlier phases of the paper. A counterbalancedAB BAdesign was used to measure the effects of the rule‐based treatment across 2 introductory psychology classes (N= 33). Overall, participants engaged in less procrastination, missed fewer deadlines, and produced higher quality writing in the treatment condition.
Stability of daily preference across multiple individuals
Authors: Kelley Michael E. , Shillingsburg M. Alice , Bowen Crystal N.
Published: January 2016

Preference stability provides clues about the extent to which a clinician might be able to deliver a particular stimulus contingent on behavior as a reinforcer. Previous research has been somewhat mixed in terms of evidence for preference stability. Results of the current study are consistent with studies that have reported correlations between preference assessments, suggesting that preferences are relatively stable across time.
Evaluation of kidney injury biomarkers in rat amniotic fluid after gestational exposure to cadmium
Authors: Jacobo‐Estrada Tania , Cardenas‐Gonzalez Mariana , Santoyo‐Sánchez Mitzi , Parada‐Cruz Benjamín , Uria‐Galicia Esther , Arreola‐Mendoza Laura , Barbier Olivier
Published: January 2016

Cadmium is a well‐characterized nephrotoxic agent that is also capable of accumulating and diffusing across the placenta; however, only a few studies have addressed its effects over fetal kidneys and none of them has used a panel of sensitive and specific biomarkers for the detection of kidney injury. The goal of this study was to determine cadmium renal effects in rat fetuses by the quantification of early kidney injury biomarkers. Pregnant Wistar rats were exposed by inhalation to an isotonic saline solution or to CdCl2 solution (DDel=1.48 mg Cd kg−1 day−1) during gestational days (GD) 8–20. On GD 21, dams were euthanized and samples obtained. Kidney injury biomarkers were quantified in amniotic fluid samples and fetal kidneys were microscopically evaluated to search for histological alterations. Our results showed that cadmium exposure significantly raised albumin, osteopontin, vascular endothelial growth factor and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases‐1 levels in amniotic fluid, whereas it decreased creatinine. Clusterin, calbindin and IFN‐inducible protein 10 did not show any change. Accordingly, histological findings showed tubular damage and precipitations in the renal pelvis. In conclusion, gestational exposure to cadmium induces structural alterations in fetal renal tissue that can be detected by some kidney injury biomarkers in amniotic fluid samples. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A Computational Protein Phenotype Prediction Approach to Analyze the Deleterious Mutations of Human MED12 Gene
Authors: Banaganapalli Babajan , Mohammed Kaleemuddin , Khan Imran Ali , Al‐Aama Jumana Y. , Elango Ramu , Shaik Noor Ahmad
Published: January 2016

Genetic mutations in MED12, a subunit of Mediator complex are seen in a broad spectrum of human diseases. However, the underlying basis of how these pathogenic mutations elicit protein phenotype changes in terms of 3D structure, stability and protein binding sites remains unknown. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the structural and functional impacts of MED12 mutations, using computational methods as an alternate to traditional in vivo and in vitro approaches. The MED12 gene mutations details and their corresponding clinical associations were collected from different databases and by text‐mining. Initially, diverse computational approaches were applied to categorize the different classes of mutations based on their deleterious impact to MED12. Then, protein structures for wild and mutant types built by integrative modeling were analyzed for structural divergence, solvent accessibility, stability, and functional interaction deformities. Finally, this study was able to identify that genetic mutations mapped to exon‐2 region, highly conserved LCEWAV and Catenin domains induce biochemically severe amino acid changes which alters the protein phenotype as well as the stability of MED12‐CYCC interactions. To better understand the deleterious nature of FS‐IDs and Indels, this study asserts the utility of computational screening based on their propensity towards non‐sense mediated decay. Current study findings may help to narrow down the number of MED12 mutations to be screened for mediator complex dysfunction associated genetic diseases. This study supports computational methods as a primary filter to verify the plausible impact of pathogenic mutations based on the perspective of evolution, expression and phenotype of proteins. J. Cell. Biochem. 117: 2023–2035, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Human Umbilical Cord Wharton's Jelly Stem Cell Conditioned Medium Induces Tumoricidal Effects on Lymphoma Cells Through Hydrogen Peroxide Mediation
Authors: Lin Hao Daniel , Fong Chui‐Yee , Biswas Arijit , Choolani Mahesh , Bongso Ariff
Published: January 2016

Several groups have reported that human umbilical cord Wharton's jelly stem cells (hWJSCs) possess unique tumoricidal properties against many cancers. However, the exact mechanisms as to how hWJSCs inhibit tumor growth are not known. Recent evidence suggests that exposure of cancer cells to high hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) levels from H2O2‐releasing drugs causes their death. We therefore explored whether the tumoricidal effect of hWJSCs on lymphoma cells was mediated via H2O2. We first exposed lymphoma cells to six different molecular weight cut‐off (MWCO) concentrates of hWJSC‐conditioned medium (hWJSC‐CM) (3, 5, 10, 30, 50, 100 kDa) for 48 h. Since, the 3 kDa‐MWCO concentrate showed the greatest cell inhibition we then investigated whether the tumoricidal effect of the specific 3 kDa‐MWCO concentrate on two different lymphoma cell lines (Ramos and Toledo) was mediated via accumulation of H2O2. We used a battery of assays (MTT, propidium iodide, mitochondria membrane potential, apoptosis, cell cycle, oxidative stress enzymes, hydrogen peroxide, mitochondrial superoxide, hydroxyl radical, peroxynitrile anion, and lipid peroxidation) to test this mechanism. The hWJSC‐CM‐3 kDa MWCO concentrate significantly decreased cell viability and mitochondrial membrane potential and increased cell death and apoptosis in both lymphoma cell lines. There were significant increases in superoxide dismutase with concomitant decreases in glutathione peroxidase, catalase, and thioredoxin peroxidase activities. H2O2 levels, mitochondrial superoxide, hydroxyl radical, peroxynitrile anion, and lipid peroxidation were also significantly increased in both lymphoma cell lines. The results suggested that the hWJSC‐CM‐3 kDa MWCO concentrate regulates cellular H2O2 leading to a tumoricidal effect and may thus be a promising anti‐lymphoma agent. J. Cell. Biochem. 117: 2045–2055, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Structure and electrochemical properties for complexes of nitrocompounds with inorganic ions: A theoretical approach
Authors: Sviatenko Liudmyla K. , Gorb Leonid , Hill Frances C. , Leszczynska Danuta , Leszczynski Jerzy
Published: January 2016

Reduction and oxidation (redox) reactions are widely used for removal of nitrocompounds from contaminated soil and water. Structures and redox properties for complexes of nitrocompounds, such as 2,4,6‐trinitrotoluene (TNT), 2,4‐dinitrotoluene (DNT), 2,4‐dinitroanisole (DNAN), and 5‐nitro‐2,4‐dihydro‐3H−1,2,4‐triazol‐3‐one (NTO), with common inorganic ions (Na+, Cl−,) were investigated at the SMD(Pauling)/PCM(Pauling)/MPWB1K/TZVP level of theory. Atoms in molecules (AIM) theory was applied to analyze the topological properties of the bond critical points involved in the interactions between the nitrocompounds and the ions. Topological analyses show that intermolecular interactions of the types O(N)…Na+, C‐H…Cl−(), and C…Cl−() may be discussed as noncovalent closed‐shell interactions, while N‐H···Cl−() hydrogen bonds are partially covalent in nature. Complexation causes significant decrease of redox activity of the nitrocompounds. Analysis of the reduction potentials of the complexes obtained through application of the Pourbaix diagram of an iron/water system revealed that sodium complexes of NTO might be reduced by metallic iron. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
On 5‐Cycles and 6‐Cycles in Regular n‐Tournaments
Authors: Savchenko S. V.
Published: January 2016

Let T be a tournament of order n and be the number of cycles of length m in T. For and odd n, the maximum of is achieved for any regular tournament of order n (M. G. Kendall and B. Babington Smith, 1940), and in the case it is attained only for the unique regular locally transitive tournament RLTn of order n (U. Colombo, 1964). A lower bound was also obtained for in the class of regular tournaments of order n (A. Kotzig, 1968). This bound is attained if and only if T is doubly regular (when ) or nearly doubly regular (when ) (B. Alspach and C. Tabib, 1982). In the present article, we show that for any regular tournament T of order n, the equality holds. This allows us to reduce the case to the case In turn, the pure spectral expression for obtained in the class implies that for a regular tournament T of order the inequality holds, with equality if and only if T is doubly regular or T is the unique regular tournament of order 7 that is neither doubly regular nor locally transitive. We also determine the value of c6(RLTn) and conjecture that this value coincides with the minimum number of 6‐cycles in the class for each odd
Land Reform and Welfare in Vietnam: Why Gender of the Land‐Rights Holder Matters
Authors: Menon Nidhiya , van der meulen Rodgers Yana , Kennedy Alexis R.
Published: January 2016

Vietnam's 1993 Land Law created a land market by granting households tradable land‐use rights. This study uses mixed methods to analyze whether increased land titling led to improvements in household economic security and whether land titles in women's and men's names had different effects. Using a matched sample of households from Vietnam's 2004 and 2008 Household Living Standards Survey, we find that land‐use rights held exclusively by women or jointly by couples result in beneficial effects that include increased household expenditures, greater women's self‐employment, and lower household vulnerability to poverty. Results from interviews conducted in Vietnam support these conclusions by indicating that women with sole or joint ownership of land enjoyed greater well‐being and higher status. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Assessment of parallel precipitation measurements networks in Piedmont, Italy
Authors: Acquaotta F. , Fratianni S. , Venema V.
Published: January 2016

Long historical climate records usually contain non‐climatic changes that can influence the observed behaviour of meteorological variables. The availability of parallel measurements offers an ideal occasion to study these discontinuities as they record the same climate. The transition from manual to automatic measurements has been analysed in this study. The dataset has been obtained from two independent climate networks in the Piedmont region, in Northwest Italy. From this dataset, 17 pairs of stations with up to 17 years of overlapping have been identified. On average the overlapping period is 12 years with 8760 daily data matched for a pair of stations. This dataset has proven valuable because it has made it possible to study a set of independently managed pairs of standard‐quality stations, while most previous studies in this field analysed data from well‐maintained instruments with the same operator, often at meteorological offices. The transition between two networks has highlighted important differences in the amount of precipitation and in the number of rainy days. On average, the automatic network has measured 12% less precipitation and has recorded 9% more rainy days (8 days) per year than the manual network. Both of these differences produce a spurious change in the precipitation of the analysed area, thus showing the importance of having a homogeneous dataset to identify real climate variations.
Disposable pipette tips extraction: Fundamentals, applications and state of the art
Authors: Bordin Dayanne Cristiane Mozaner , Alves Marcela Nogueira Rabelo , de Campos Eduardo Geraldo , De Martinis Bruno Spinosa
Published: January 2016

Disposable pipette tips extraction consists of a solid‐phase extraction in which the sorbent is poorly dispersed in a pipette tip, which allows a quick and dynamic contact between the aspirated analyte from the sample and the solid phase. It is a technique used particularly in food and forensic analysis, since it requires a small amount of sample and solvent. This article highlights the principles, advantages and disadvantages of the disposable pipette tips extraction method and reviews recent applications.
Preparation of cyclodextrin‐modified monolithic hybrid columns for the fast enantioseparation of hydroxy acids in capillary liquid chromatography
Authors: Szwed Kamila , Ou Junjie , Huang Guang , Lin Hui , Liu Zhongshan , Wang Hongwei , Zou Hanfa
Published: January 2016

Cyclodextrins and their derivatives are one of the most common and successful chiral selectors. However, there have been few publications about the use of cyclodextrin‐modified monoliths. In this study, organic hybrid monoliths were prepared by the immobilization of derivatized β‐cyclodextrin alone or with l‐2‐allylglycine hydrochloride to the polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane methacryl substituted monolith. The main topic of this study is a combined system with dual chiral selectors (l‐2‐allylglycine hydrochloride and β‐cyclodextrin) as monolithic chiral stationary phase. The effect of l‐2‐allylglycine hydrochloride concentration on enantioseparation was investigated. The enantioseparation of the four acidic compounds with resolutions up to 2.87 was achieved within 2.5 min on the prepared chiral monolithic column in capillary liquid chromatography. Moreover, the possible mechanism of enantioseparation was discussed.
Linking zooplankton richness with energy input and insularity along altitudinal and latitudinal gradients
Authors: Lyons Devin A. , Vinebrooke Rolf D.
Published: January 2016

Altitudinal and latitudinal gradients are excellent venues for investigating the direct and indirect effects of air temperature, solar irradiance, and insularity on spatial patterns of aquatic biodiversity. The findings can be used to predict how lake communities will respond to increasingly extreme climate events. We explored hypotheses of energy/climate, geography, and glacial history explaining patterns in species richness in a historical dataset of crustacean zooplankton communities from 436 lakes in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. GIS‐based estimates of solar and thermal energy inputs combined with habitat area and insularity provided the best prediction of local species richness. Energetic and geographic factors explained a moderate proportion of the total variation in species richness (Generalized R2 = 0.50), and were sufficient to account for both altitudinal and latitudinal gradients in zooplankton diversity. History of deglaciation was not supported as a predictor of patterns in species richness. A post hoc analysis with a smaller dataset also found strong support for lake pH, and some support for fish presence as predictors of species richness, but these only increased the proportion of the total variation explained very slightly relative to the model including only energetic and geographic factors (Generalized R2 = 0.55 vs. 0.53). Our findings highlight the multiplicity of local and regional factors of zooplankton species richness in mountain lakes, forecasting that it will increase under a scenario of warmer and drier (i.e., less cloud cover) conditions, especially in high connectivity lakes that cease to be fed by rapidly disappearing glaciers.
Toward disease modification in multiple system atrophy: Pitfalls, bottlenecks, and possible remedies
Authors: Krismer Florian , Seppi Klaus , Stefanova Nadia , Wenning Gregor K.
Published: January 2016

Multiple system atrophy has recently attracted increased attention in basic and clinical research. Understanding of key pathophysiological mechanismshas improved; and, in the past decade, the first clinical trials aiming at diseasemodification were conducted. However, there is still no established interventional therapy available. In this review, the authors summarize recent advances, discuss bottlenecks and possible pitfalls of previous interventional studies, and suggest future research avenues. © 2016 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society
Frequency sweep computation of half‐space scattering using asymptotic waveform evaluation
Authors: Wu Bi‐Yi , Zhang Xiao‐Jie , Sheng Xin‐Qing
Published: January 2016

The asymptotic waveform evaluation (AWE) technique is applied to mixed potential integral equation (MPIE) for fast frequency sweep in half‐space scattering analysis. The AWE procedure requires the evaluation of high order derivative of impedance matrices that consist of complicated Green's function of layered media. Pseudo‐spectral method, a numerical differentiation approach, is employed to calculate these derivatives. Numerical experiments show that AWE technique improves the efficiency of scattering computation in half‐space structure. Furthermore, the presented approach can handle dispersive media. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 58:495–498, 2016
A novel design of multiband printed anchor‐shaped slot antenna
Authors: Ren Wang , Jiang Chen
Published: January 2016

In this article, two novel printed anchor‐shaped slot antennas for multiband wireless applications are proposed. The first proposed anchor‐shaped slot antenna (ASA1) can generate two wide bands centered at about 2.5‐GHz and 5.5‐GHz, covering the 2.4/5.2/5.8‐GHz WLAN bands (2.4–2.484, 5.15–5.35, and 5.725–5.825 GHz) and 2.5/5.5‐GHz WiMAX bands (2.50–2.69 and 5.25–5.85 GHz). The second proposed design is established on the basis of ASA1. By introducing a pair of F‐shaped slits, an extra resonant mode will be excited at 3.5‐GHz. Therefore, it can be converted to a triple‐band anchor‐shaped slot antenna (ASA2) supporting 2.4/5.2/5.8‐GHz WLAN and 2.5/3.5/5.5‐GHz WiMAX (2.50–2.69, 3.30–3.70, and 5.25–5.85 GHz) applications without changing other original design parameters of ASA1. From the aspect of system design, a platform using the proposed antennas would exhibit more flexibility and expansibility. Having overall dimensions of 35 × 30 mm2, the proposed antennas can be easily integrated into portable devices. Monopole‐like radiation patterns almost remain unchanged in the E‐ and H‐planes over the operating bands and sufficient gains are also obtained. Good agreement can be observed between the simulated and measured results. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 58:521–526, 2016
A compact frequency‐doubling opto‐electronic oscillator using cascaded electroabsorption modulators
Authors: Lee Joo‐Young , Song Jong‐In
Published: January 2016

A compact frequency‐doubling optoelectronic oscillator (FD‐OEO) using two cascaded electro‐absorption modulators (EAMs) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The FD‐OEO is configured with two cascaded EAMs driven by signals having a 180° phase difference, so that the second EAM produces an output signal with a suppressed first‐order side band, thus generating a frequency doubled signal. The phase noise characteristics of the fundamental (10 GHz) and frequency‐doubled (20 GHz) signals are measured to be −94.25 dBc/Hz and −87.71 dBc/Hz, respectively, at a frequency offset of 10 kHz. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 58:526–529, 2016
A linear CMOS power amplifier using class‐D to reduce the number of required inductors
Authors: Son Minoh , Yoo Jinho , Park Changkun
Published: January 2016

We propose a linear class‐D amplifier for the driver stages of RF CMOS linear power amplifiers. To minimize the chip areas for the driver stages of the linear power amplifiers, we propose a technique for the class‐D amplifier to be operated as a linear amplifier. The linear gain and proper bias point for the linear operation are obtained with additional load capacitance and a feedback resistor, respectively. To verify the feasibility of the proposed linear class‐D amplifier, we designed a 1.8‐GHz CMOS linear power amplifier with a differential structure using 180‐nm RF CMOS technology. From the measured linearity and maximum average output power with a WCDMA modulated input signal, we successfully verify the linear operation of the proposed linear class‐D amplifier. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 58:565–569, 2016
UWB patch antenna and breast mimicking phantom design and implementation for microwave breast cancer detection using TIME REVERSAL MUSIC
Authors: Bah Mamadou Hady , Hong Jing‐Song , Jamro Deedar Ali
Published: January 2016

In this manuscript, a small size UWB patch antenna and a breast mimicking phantom are designed and implemented for microwave breast cancer detection using Time Reversal MUSIC. Some new techniques are applied to the antenna in order to achieve a broad bandwidth, high gain, and also to avoid the energy radiation toward the ground plane of the antenna. The resulting dielectric constant of the breast phantom is relatively close to the real normal breast tissues. After the design has been completed, some techniques of Time Reversal MUSIC were employed to mimic the breast cancer detection. The experimental results show that both temporal and spacial images of the target (tumor) are well represented. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 58:549–554, 2016
Compact NB BPF is using modified slow wave resonator with wide upper stopband
Authors: Moattari A.M. , Karimi Gh.
Published: January 2016

A compact narrowband band pass filter (NB BPF) with wide stop‐band has been designed and fabricated. The presented filter based on modified slow wave resonator of microstrip is designed to achieve narrow bandwidth. The bandwidth of this filter capability of changing with the coupled lines is used in the middle of this structure filter. For the first time, by using transmission line theory and coupled line structure, the new design methodology of a narrowband BPF is employed and resonant frequency has been clearly explained. The filter has been designed for operating at center frequency 3.82 GHz, that suitable for WiMAX applications. The measured insertion loss (s21) and return loss (s11) are −0.38 dB and −33 dB, respectively at 3.82 GHz resonant frequencies. The proposed filter is designed, simulated and fabricated and the simulation results are in good agreement with measurement result. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 58:616–619, 2016
Coupling matrix synthesis for dual‐band bandpass filters based on admittance poles and zeros
Authors: Chen Xianhong , Zhang Lijun , Xu Can , Liu Hui , Zheng Zhanqi
Published: January 2016

A novel coupling matrix synthesis method for dual‐band bandpass filter is presented in this article. The output admittance poles and zeros of the single‐band filter prototype are firstly obtained and then transformed into dual‐band prototype. Then the coupling matrix with predefined topology is optimized according to these poles and zeroes directly. This method can be achieved with no need to construct the characteristic function of dual‐band filter and reconfigure the coupling matrix. Symmetric and asymmetric dual‐band bandpass filter coupling matrix synthesis has been carried out to illustrate and validate this method. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 58:603–606, 2016
Linearly polarized small patch array fed by corporate SIW network
Authors: García‐Marín E. , Masa‐Campos J. L. , Sánchez‐Olivares P.
Published: January 2016

In this article, a linearly polarized 2 × 2 patch array uniformly fed by a corporate substrate integrated waveguide network for Ku band is presented. Undesired main beam steering is avoided by means of a fully corporate feeding network, although grating lobes may appear due to greater separation between radiating elements. Moreover, a reduced patch separation to avoid grating lobe appearance leads to an antenna matching coefficient degradation due to the proximity of antenna discontinuities. In consequence, a tradeoff approach has been developed, achieving a measured 4.1% matching bandwidth and a measured gain of 13.27 dBi, which corresponds to an 86% radiation efficiency. Good agreement between simulated and measured results is observed in all cases. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 58:587–593, 2016
Improvement of stop‐band performance of a CPW bandpass filter using DGS
Authors: Mondal Pratik , Sahoo Manoranjan , Parui Susanta Kumar
Published: January 2016

A CPW‐based bandpass filter (BPF) is designed in S‐band by open ended series stubs. Two open ended stubs with opposite orientation are placed closely into a CPW line to offer greater field confinement. They provide band accept response with one attenuation zero. An enhanced selectivity is achieved by using four such stubs in symmetric manner. Defected ground structures (DGS's) are used to reject higher harmonics and to obtain a wide stop‐band. To validate the design, a prototype was fabricated. In good agreement with the theoretical results, the measured results of the S‐band bandpass filter achieve insertion loss of <0.2 dB, fractional bandwidth (FBW) of 67% with rising and falling edge selectivity of 35.9 dB/GHz and 45.7 dB/GHz respectively, and around 8‐GHz stop‐band. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 58:593–597, 2016
Dual‐mode stub‐loaded resonator and its applications to single‐ and dual‐band bandpass filters
Authors: Zhang Bo , Huang Jianming , Li Shaosheng , Liu Yuanan
Published: January 2016

In this letter, a novel dual‐mode stub‐loaded resonator is proposed with independently controllable coupling coefficients under different resonant modes. The main structure is constructed by loading a short‐circuited stub in the center of an open‐loop half‐wavelength resonator. Frequencies of first and second resonant modes can be adjusted by changing the dimensions of the loaded stub and open‐loop resonator, respectively. Additionally, a pair of edge‐coupled ear‐structures is added to adjust the difference between the coupling coefficients of different resonant modes. Finally, a dual‐band bandpass filter (BPF) with independently controllable bandwidths as well as a single‐band BPF with high selectivity are designed and fabricated to provide experimental validations on the predicted performances of the proposed filters. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 58:623–626, 2016
Using intentionally mismatching method
Authors: Jang Youna , Park Minwon , Kim Heehwang , Lim Jongsik , Choi Kwansun , Ahn Dal
Published: January 2016

A new ring hybrid is proposed which we call the double ring hybrid. The double ring hybrid is implemented by cascading two branch line hybrids that have intentionally mismatched port impedances between branch line hybrids. The proposed double ring hybrid using two quadrature branch line hybrids not only has the same function as that of the conventional ring hybrid, but also has output ports in the same direction, since the isolation port is located on the opposite side of the output ports. Thus, unlike the conventional ring hybrid, the proposed double ring hybrid may be able to realize cascaded planar structures. The design equations are derived from the concept of the intentionally mismatched port impedances. The proposed double ring hybrid, regardless of whether the two branch line hybrids are connected, has a 12% reduced area compared to the conventional ring hybrid. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 58:638–642, 2016
Hybrid cylindrical dielectric resonator antenna with monopole for tri‐polarized operation
Authors: Deng Changjiang , Feng Zhenghe , He Yan
Published: January 2016

A wideband tri‐polarized antenna is presented in this letter. The proposed hybrid structure consists of a cylindrical dielectric resonator (DR) and a copper cylinder. Tri‐polarized operation is achieved by exciting the HE11δx and HE11δy modes of the DR, and the λ/4 monopole mode of the copper cylinder. The resonant frequency of the monopole mode is well tuned to work cooperatively with the two HE11δ modes. Only one single substrate layer is required to integrate the three balanced feedings. A prototype of the proposed antenna is built and tested. The measured overlapping impedance bandwidth of the three ports is 410 MHz (2.38–2.79 GHz), and the isolation among the three ports is also less than −27 dB across the bandwidth. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 58:635–638, 2016
Hybrid loop/monopole antenna with a passive bandstop circuit for the LTE/GPS operation in the tablet computer
Authors: Wong Kin‐Lu , Liao Zih‐Guang , Li Wei‐Yu
Published: January 2016

A hybrid loop/monopole antenna capable of covering the LTE operation in the 698–960/1710–2690 MHz band and the GPS operation at 1575 MHz for the tablet computer application is presented. With the obtained LTE/GPS operation, the antenna requires a small size of 8 × 40 × 3 mm3 only. The antenna is operated as a coupled‐fed loop antenna for the LTE operation and as a coupled‐fed monopole antenna for the GPS operation. The two antenna structures share the same radiation strip, except that the loop antenna with the end terminal thereof short‐circuited to the device ground plane of the tablet computer and the monopole antenna with the end terminal thereof open‐ended. The two antenna structures are configured into one antenna structure using a passive bandstop circuit connected between the end terminal of the antenna's radiation strip and the device ground plane. The bandstop circuit exhibits a very high impedance in the GPS band and a very low impedance in the LTE band, thereby making the antenna operated as a loop antenna for the LTE operation (698–960/1710–2690 MHz) and a monopole antenna at 1575 MHz for the GPS operation. Details of the proposed hybrid loop/monopole antenna are described. Operating principle of the antenna is addressed, and experimental results of the fabricated antenna are presented and discussed. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 58:630–635, 2016