bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Conceptual and Empirical Themes regarding the Design of Technology Transfer Programs: A Review of Wood Utilization Research in the United States
Authors: Ellefson Paul V. , Kilgore Michael A. , Skog Kenneth E. , Risbrudt Christopher D.
Published: September 2011

Transfer of technologies produced by research is critical to innovation within all organizations. The intent of this paper is to take stock of the conceptual underpinnings of technology transfer processes as they relate to wood utilization research and to identify conditions that promote the successful transfer of research results. Conceptually, research utilization can be viewed from multiple perspectives, including the haphazard diffusion of knowledge in response to vague and imprecise demands for information, scanning of multiple information sources by individuals and organizations searching for useful scientific knowledge, engagement of third parties to organize research results and communicate them to potential users, and ongoing and active collaboration between researchers and potential users of research. Empirical evidence suggests that various types of programs can promote technology transfer (venture capital, angel investors, business incubators, extension services, tax incentives, and in-house entities), the fundamental effectiveness of which depends on research results that are scientifically valid and consistent with the information needs of potential users. Furthermore, evidence suggests preference toward programs that are appropriately organized and governed, suitably led and creatively administered, and periodically evaluated in accordance with clear standards of success.
Effect of the Thickness of Insulator Polymeric Films on the Memory Behavior: The Case of the Polymethylmethacrylate and the Polystyrene
Authors: Avila-Niño J. A. , Sustaita A. O. , Reyes-Reyes M. , López-Sandoval R.
Published: September 2011

The effect of thickness variation on the memory behavior of the polymethylmethacrylate-(PMMA)-based devices has been investigated. The PMMA film thicknesses have been varied between 5 to 300 nm, and we have found that the film thickness determines the type of behavior: ohmic, write-once-read-many-times (WORM) memory with two ON states, WORM memory with a negative differential resistance (NDR) region, and WORM memory without NDR region. The fact that similar results were obtained using different solvents to dilute PMMA (chlorobenzene, chloroform, and dimethyl sulfoxide), as well as using an other insulating polymer such as polystyrene (PS), leads to the conclusion that the phenomenon of memory depends on the aluminum electrodes, organic film thickness, and the compliance current used during the electroformation whereas the type of organic layer (PMMA or PS) has minor influence. From here, we conclude that the conductivity switching of the insulator organic film is due to the injection of aluminum particles into the film during the first voltage cycle.
Wideband Analysis of Mutual Coupling Compensation Methods
Authors: Henault Simon , Antar Yahia M. M.
Published: September 2011

The performance of various mutual coupling estimation and compensation methods is quantified and compared for wideband operation. Their main limitations and the required procedures to estimate the coupling matrix are outlined. It is determined that only the full-wave method is accurate at all frequencies. The performance tradeoffs associated with the other methods are described. General guidelines based on the electrical size and separation of the array elements are formulated for each method. The results can be valuable for both wideband and narrowband receiving antenna arrays.
A Discontinuous Galerkin Method for Two‐Dimensional Shock Wave Modeling
Authors: Lai W. , Khan A. A.
Published: September 2011

A numerical scheme based on discontinuous Galerkin method is proposed for the two‐dimensional shallow water flows. The scheme is applied to model flows with shock waves. The form of shallow water equations that can eliminate numerical imbalance between flux term and source term and simplify computation is adopted here. The HLL approximate Riemann solver is employed to calculate the mass and momentum flux. A slope limiting procedure that is suitable for incompressible two‐dimensional flows is presented. A simple method is adapted for flow over initially dry bed. A new formulation is introduced for modeling the net pressure force and gravity terms in discontinuous Galerkin method. To validate the scheme, numerical tests are performed to model steady and unsteady shock waves. Applications include circular dam break with shock, shock waves in channel contraction, and dam break in channel with 45∘ bend. Numerical results show that the scheme is accurate and efficient to model two‐dimensional shallow water flows with shock waves.
Necessary and Sufficient Condition for Stability of Generalized Expectation Value
Authors: El Kaabouchi Aziz , Abe Sumiyoshi
Published: September 2011

A class of generalized definitions of expectation value is often employed in nonequilibrium statistical mechanics for complex systems. Here, the necessary and sufficient condition is presented for such a class to be stable under small deformations of a given arbitrary probability distribution.
Comparison of Nulliparas Undergoing Cesarean Section in First and Second Stages of Labour: A Prospective Study in a Tertiary Teaching Hospital
Authors: Sucak Ayhan , Çelen Şevki , Akbaba Eren , Soysal Sunullah , Moraloglu Ozlem , Danışman Nuri
Published: September 2011

Objective. We performed a prospective observational audit study to compare neonatal and maternal outcomes of the primary cesarean sections performed in first stage versus second stage of labour.Methods. One thousand three hundred and eighty-nine nullipara women who had undergone cesarean section in a tertiary teaching hospital between February 1, 2009 and January 31, 2010 were included in the study. Primary maternal outcomes of interest were uterine atonia, transfusion requirement, urinary system injury, requirement for hysterectomy, and duration of hospital stay.Results. A total of 1389 women underwent cesarean section at this 12 month time period. Of these 1389 cesarean sections, 1271 were in the first stage of the labour and 171 were in the second stage of the labour. Urinary injuries, transfusion requirement, and uterine atonia hysterectomy were significantly more frequent in women who underwent cesarean section in the second stage of the labour compared to women undergoing cesarean section in the first stage of the labour.Conclusion. Cesarean section in the second stage of the labour is associated with increased maternal and neonatal morbidities. Special attention is required to the patients undergoing cesarean section in the second stage of the labour.
Nonoperative Modalities to Treat Symptomatic Cervical Spondylosis
Authors: Hirpara Kieran Michael , Butler Joseph S. , Dolan Roisin T. , O'Byrne John M. , Poynton Ashley R.
Published: September 2011

Cervical spondylosis is a common and disabling condition. It is generally felt that the initial management should be nonoperative, and these modalities include physiotherapy, analgesia and selective nerve root injections. Surgery should be reserved for moderate to severe myelopathy patients who have failed a period of conservative treatment and patients whose symptoms are not adequately controlled by nonoperative means. A review of the literature supporting various modalities of conservative management is presented, and it is concluded that although effective, nonoperative treatment is labour intensive, requiring regular review and careful selection of medications and physical therapy on a case by case basis.
Toward Intelligent Hemodynamic Monitoring: A Functional Approach
Authors: Squara Pierre , Waldmann Carl
Published: September 2011

Technology is now available to allow a complete haemodynamic analysis; however this is only used in a small proportion of patients and seems to occur when the medical staff have the time and inclination. As a result of this, significant delays occur between an event, its diagnosis and therefore, any treatment required. We can speculate that we should be able to collect enough real time information to make a complete, real time, haemodynamic diagnosis in all critically ill patients. This article advocates for “intelligent haemodynamic monitoring”. Following the steps of a functional analysis, we answered six basic questions. (1) What is the actual best theoretical model for describing haemodynamic disorders? (2) What are the needed and necessary input/output data for describing this model? (3) What are the specific quality criteria and tolerances for collecting each input variable? (4) Based on these criteria, what are the validated available technologies for monitoring each input variable, continuously, real time, and if possible non-invasively? (5) How can we integrate all the needed reliably monitored input variables into the same system for continuously describing the global haemodynamic model? (6) Is it possible to implement this global model into intelligent programs that are able to differentiate clinically relevant changes as opposed to artificial changes and to display intelligent messages and/or diagnoses?
Anodic Stripping Voltammetry of Se4+on Gold-Modified Boron-Doped Diamond Electrodes
Authors: Fierro Stéphane , Watanabe Takeshi , Akai Kazumi , Yamanuki Mikito , Einaga Yasuaki
Published: September 2011

Electrochemical detection of Se4+has been performed by anodic stripping voltammetry on a boron-doped diamond (BDD) electrode modified with gold nanoparticles deposited through chronocoulometry. This method is based on the affinity between the gold nanoparticles and Se0, while the BDD electrode is presented as an ideal material for metal modification due to its unique properties. The resulting anodic stripping voltammograms exhibited a clear peak at 0.9 V versus AgCl related to Se4+, and highly accurate (r2=0.99) calibration curves could be obtained for a selenium concentration range between 10 and 100 μg/L. The influence of Se deposition time and other metals dissolved in solution (Cu, Cd, Pb, Cr, and B) has been investigated as well, and it was found that the Se4+calibration curves remained unaltered. For all the experiments performed, a detection limit around 10 μg/L was achieved. The high accuracy and reproducibility of the results as well as the excellent stability of the electrode material proves the excellent capabilities of this system for selenium detection.
Nitrogen-DopedTiO2Photocatalyst Prepared by Mechanochemical Method: Doping Mechanisms and Visible Photoactivity of Pollutant Degradation
Authors: Tang Yu-Chao , Huang Xian-Huai , Yu Han-Qing , Tang Li-Hua
Published: September 2011

Nitrogen-doped TiO2(N/TiO2) photocatalysts were prepared using a mechanochemical method with raw amorphous TiO2as precursors and various nitrogenous compounds doses (NH4F, NH4HCO3, NH3·H2O, NH4COOCH3, and CH4N2O). The photocatalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), thermal gravimetric-differential thermal analysis (TG-DTA), and UV-Vis diffuse reflection spectra (UV-Vis-DRS). Their photocatalytic activities were evaluated with the degradation of p-nitrophenol and methyl orange under UV or sunlight irradiation. The catalysts had a strong visible light absorption which correspond to doped nitrogen and consequent oxygen deficient. The results of photocatalytic activity showed the visible light adsorption mechanisms, as the doped nitrogen species gave rise to a mid-gap level slightly above the top of the (O-2p) valence band, but not from the mixed band gap of the N-2p and O-2p electronic levels.
Egg, Red Meat, and Poultry Intake and Risk of Lethal Prostate Cancer in the Prostate-Specific Antigen-Era: Incidence and Survival
Authors: Richman Erin L. , Kenfield Stacey A. , Stampfer Meir J. , Giovannucci Edward L. , Chan June M.
Published: September 2011

Red and processed meat may increase risk of advanced prostate cancer. Data on postdiagnostic diet and prostate cancer are sparse, but postdiagnostic intake of poultry with skin and eggs may increase risk of disease progression. Therefore, we prospectively examined total, unprocessed, and processed red meat, poultry, and eggs in relation to risk of lethal prostate cancer (e.g., men without cancer at baseline who developed distant organ metastases or died from prostate cancer during follow-up) among 27, 607 men followed from 1994 to 2008. We also conducted a case-only survival analysis to examine postdiagnostic consumption of these foods and risk of lethal prostate cancer among the 3,127 men initially diagnosed with nonmetastatic prostate cancer during follow-up. In the incidence analysis, we observed 199 events during 306,715 person-years. Men who consumed 2.5 or more eggs per week had an 81% increased risk of lethal prostate cancer compared with men who consumed less than 0.5 eggs per week (HR: 1.81; 95% CI: 1.13–2.89; Ptrend: 0.01). In the case-only survival analysis, we observed 123 events during 19,354 person-years. There were suggestive, but not statistically significant, positive associations between postdiagnostic poultry (HR ≥ 3.5 vs. <1.5 servings per week: 1.69; 95% CI: 0.96–2.99; Ptrend: 0.07) and postdiagnostic processed red meat (HR ≥ 3 vs. <0.5 servings per week: 1.45; 95% CI: 0.73–2.87; Ptrend: 0.08) and risk of progression of localized prostate cancer to lethal disease. In conclusion, consumption of eggs may increase risk of developing a lethal form of prostate cancer among healthy men. Cancer Prev Res; 4(12); 2110–21. ©2011 AACR.
Identification and Characterization of Sall1-Expressing Cells Present in the Adult Mouse Kidney
Authors: Abedin M. Joynal , Imai Naohiko , Rosenberg Mark E. , Gupta Sandeep
Published: September 2011

Background: Sall1 is a transcription factor that best identifies stem cells present in the mouse embryonic kidney. Mutations in Sall1 gene in mice can lead to dysgenesis of kidney, while in humans it results in the Townes-Brocks syndrome, which is associated with the kidney agenesis. Unlike the embryonic kidney, Sall1 expression in the adult kidney is largely unknown. We hypothesized that similar to the embryonic kidney, Sall1 expression can identify stem cells present in the adult kidney. Accordingly in this study, we identified Sall1-expressing cells in the adult mouse kidney, determined their role in kidney regeneration following ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI), and sought the effect of age on Sall1 expression. Methods and Results: By immunofluorescence Sall1-expressing cells were identified in the proximal tubule at the cortico-medullary junction and constituted 0.5% of all tubular cells. Rare Sall1-positive cells were also identified in the outer cortex and distal tubules. Sall1 expression was not seen in the glomerular, interstitial, or vascular compartments. Following IRI, 90% of Sall1-expressing cells proliferated and 5% of Sall1-positive cells showed asymmetrical cell division with one of the two adjacent Sall1-positive cells incorporating chlorodeoxyuridine (CldU). Following IRI, there was an increase in Sall1 expression at 4 and 12 h, a decrease at 5 and 10 days, and baseline expression at day 30 by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and Western blot analysis. There was no age-related change in Sall1 expression as determined by qRT-PCR, Western blot analysis, and immunofluorescence. Conclusions: We conclude that Sall1-expressing cells are present in the adult mouse kidney, predominantly in the proximal tubules. Sall1-expressing cells proliferate following IRI and some of the Sall1-positive cells undergo asymmetrical cell division. Therefore, Sall1 is a promising marker for identification of stem cells present in the adult mouse kidney.
Evidence Implicating Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor-γ in the Pathogenesis of Preeclampsia
Authors: McCarthy Fergus P. , Drewlo Sascha , English Fred A. , Kingdom John , Johns Edward J. , Kenny Louise C. , Walsh Sarah K.
Published: September 2011

Preeclampsia, a major cause of maternal and perinatal mortality and morbidity, is thought to be attributed, in part, to impaired trophoblast invasion. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors are ligand-activated transcription factors expressed in trophoblasts, which regulate the expression of a number of genes involved in cell differentiation and proliferation. We investigated the effect of the administration of a peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ antagonist during uncomplicated pregnancy in rats. Using an intraperitoneal miniosmotic pump, healthy pregnant rats were administered either vehicle or the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ–specific antagonist, T0070907 (1 mg/kg per day from gestational days 11–15). Rats treated with T0070907 developed key features of preeclampsia, including elevated mean arterial blood pressure, proteinuria, endothelial dysfunction, reduced pup weight, and increased platelet aggregation. T0070907-treated rats had reduced plasma vascular endothelial growth factor and increased plasma soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase 1. Furthermore, increases in total placental soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase 1 mRNA and fms-like tyrosine kinase 1 protein were also demonstrated, suggesting the placenta as the main contributor to the increased circulating levels of soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase 1. The labyrinthine trophoblast in the placentas of T0070907-treated rats were less differentiated, had increased cellular proliferation, and were strongly immunopositive for CD-31 staining, indicating adaptive angiogenesis. The present study suggests that peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ may play a pivotal role in the progression of a healthy pregnancy and may critically regulate the risk of preeclampsia. These findings have important implications regarding the underlying etiology of preeclampsia and potential therapeutic targets.
Estimating Climatological Bias Errors for the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP)
Authors: Adler Robert F. , Gu Guojun , Huffman George J.
Published: September 2011

A procedure is described to estimate bias errors for mean precipitation by using multiple estimates from different algorithms, satellite sources, and merged products. The Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) monthly product is used as a base precipitation estimate, with other input products included when they are within ±50% of the GPCP estimates on a zonal-mean basis (ocean and land separately). The standard deviation σ of the included products is then taken to be the estimated systematic, or bias, error. The results allow one to examine monthly climatologies and the annual climatology, producing maps of estimated bias errors, zonal-mean errors, and estimated errors over large areas such as ocean and land for both the tropics and the globe. For ocean areas, where there is the largest question as to absolute magnitude of precipitation, the analysis shows spatial variations in the estimated bias errors, indicating areas where one should have more or less confidence in the mean precipitation estimates. In the tropics, relative bias error estimates (σ/μ, where μ is the mean precipitation) over the eastern Pacific Ocean are as large as 20%, as compared with 10%–15% in the western Pacific part of the ITCZ. An examination of latitudinal differences over ocean clearly shows an increase in estimated bias error at higher latitudes, reaching up to 50%. Over land, the error estimates also locate regions of potential problems in the tropics and larger cold-season errors at high latitudes that are due to snow. An empirical technique to area average the gridded errors (σ) is described that allows one to make error estimates for arbitrary areas and for the tropics and the globe (land and ocean separately, and combined). Over the tropics this calculation leads to a relative error estimate for tropical land and ocean combined of 7%, which is considered to be an upper bound because of the lack of sign-of-the-error canceling when integrating over different areas with a different number of input products. For the globe the calculated relative error estimate from this study is about 9%, which is also probably a slight overestimate. These tropical and global estimated bias errors provide one estimate of the current state of knowledge of the planet’s mean precipitation.
Present Wave Climate in the Bay of Biscay: Spatiotemporal Variability and Trends from 1958 to 2001
Authors: Charles Elodie , Idier Déborah , Thiébot Jérôme , Le Cozannet Gonéri , Pedreros Rodrigo , Ardhuin Fabrice , Planton Serge
Published: September 2011

Climate change impacts on wave conditions can increase the risk of offshore and coastal hazards. The present paper investigates wave climate multidecadal trends and interannual variability in the Bay of Biscay during the past decades (1958–2001). Wave fields are computed with a wave modeling system based on the WAVEWATCH III code and forced by 40-yr European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Re-Analysis (ERA-40) wind fields. It provides both an extended spatiotemporal domain and a refined spatial resolution over the Bay of Biscay. The validation of the wave model is based on 11 buoys, allowing for the use of computed wave fields in the analysis of mean and extreme wave height trends and variability. Wave height, period, and direction are examined for a large array of wave conditions (by seasons, high percentiles of wave heights, different periods). Several trends for recent periods are identified, notably an increase of summer significant wave height, a southerly shift of autumn extreme wave direction, and a northerly shift of spring extreme wave direction. Wave fields exhibit high interannual variability, with a normalized standard deviation of seasonal wave height greater than 15% in wintertime. The relationship with Northern Hemisphere teleconnection patterns is investigated at regional scale, especially along the coast. It highlights a strong correlation between local wave conditions and the North Atlantic Oscillation and the east Atlantic pattern indices. This relationship is further investigated at the local scale with a new method based on bivariate diagrams, allowing the identification of the type of waves (swell, storm, intermediate waves) impacted. These results are discussed in terms of comparison with previous studies and coastal risk implications.
Simulating inter-organizational collaboration network: a multi-relational and event-based approach
Authors: Zhao Kang , Yen John , Ngamassi Louis-Marie , Maitland Carleen , Tapia Andrea H
Published: September 2011

In this research, we study inter-organizational collaboration from the perspective of multi-relational networks. We develop an agent-based model to simulate how a collaboration network among organizations emerges from organizations’ interactions through another network: the inter-organizational communication network. Our model adds links (or edges) into the collaboration network on the basis of events, which correspond to organizations’ formation of collaborative teams for joint projects. The proposed approach also models the competitive yet non-exclusive dissemination of information among organizations, organizations’ dynamic prioritization of candidate projects, and network-based influence. Applying the model to a case study of the humanitarian sector, we configure and validate the agent-based simulation, and use it to analyze how to promote inter-organizational humanitarian collaboration by encouraging communication. The simulation results suggest that encouraging communication between peripheral organizations can better promote collaboration than other strategies.
Mean square exponential stabilization of networked control systems with Markovian packet dropouts
Authors: Yang Song , Jinxia Xie , Minrui Fei , Weiyan Hou
Published: September 2011

This paper considers the mean square stabilization for a kind of network control system (NCS) in which there exist network-induced delay and stochastic packet dropout between sensor and controller. This kind of NCS is modelled as a Markovian switched system with two subsystems. Using the average dwell time method, we design a state feedback controller to guarantee that NCS be mean square exponentially stable. An illustrative example is provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed results.
Institutional continuity in German collective bargaining: Do employer associations contribute to stability?
Authors: Helfen Markus
Published: September 2011

Employer associations’ organizational capacity to extend collective bargaining coverage (CBC) beyond unionization levels is one important factor contributing to the stability of multi-employer bargaining in Germany. Based on a representative sample of 142 German employer associations, this article carries out an empirical examination of the characteristics influencing this capacity. The major results are that a wider political domain and adherence to social partnership positively contribute to associations’ static capacity to extend CBC, as approximated by membership density. Yet, in a dynamic perspective – approximated by membership growth rates – a paradoxical trend is revealed by which organizational stabilization of associations is achieved at the expense of decoupling firms’ membership status from collective bargaining arrangements, weakening employer associations’ future capacity to extend CBC.
Effect of leachate recirculation and aeration on volatile fatty acid concentrations in aerobic and anaerobic landfill leachate
Authors: Bilgili M Sinan , Demir Ahmet , Varank Gamze
Published: September 2011

The main aim of this study was to investigate the effect of leachate recirculation and aeration on volatile fatty acid (VFA) concentrations in aerobic and anaerobic landfill leachate samples. In this study, two aerobic (A1, A2) and two anaerobic (AN1, AN2) reactors with (A1, AN1) and without (A2, AN2) leachate recirculation were used in order to determine the change of volatile fatty acids components in landfill leachate. VFA degradation rate was almost 100% in each reactor but the degradation rate show notable differences. In aerobic landfill reactors, total VFA concentrations decreased below 1000 mg L−1 after 120 days of operation and only caproic and acetic acids were determined at this time. The stabilization of the VFA concentrations takes about 350 and 450 days for AN1 and AN2 reactors, respectively. VFA concentrations were higher than that of aerobic reactors because of the acidogenic phase occurred in anaerobic environment. According to the results of VFA components, the stabilization of the waste was achieved after 120 days of operation in aerobic landfills. At this time, anaerobic reactors were in the acidogenic phase which results with the high concentrations of VFA. The results also indicated that leachate recirculation does not affect the degradation rate in aerobic landfills as much as it does in anaerobic landfills
Effects of Prepaid Monetary Incentives on Mail Survey Response Rates and on Self-reporting about Delinquency - Empirical findings
Authors: Becker Rolf , Mehlkop Guido
Published: September 2011

Effets des incitations monétaires prépayées sur les taux de réponse aux enquêtes par courrier et sur l’auto-déclaration de la délinquance — Les résultats empiriques : Nous avons mené une expérimentation méthodologique afin de déterminer si les taux de réponse aux enquêtes par courrier peuvent être influencés par les incitations monétaires. Avec de telles incitations, on s’attend à un taux plus élevé de réponse, comme prédit par les théories d’échanges sociaux et la théorie de l’utilité subjective attendue. Cela est particulièrement vrai dans une enquête sur les comportements délinquants du répondant, car les incitations prépayées sont susceptibles de renforcer la confiance envers le chercheur. Dans le cas d’enquêtes où l’argent est promis une fois le questionnaire retourné, nous prévoyons des taux de réponse plus faibles. Les résultats empiriques confirment clairement nos hypothèses, même si les mécanismes sociaux de réciprocité qui sous-tendent le comportement de réponse ne peuvent pas être observés directement. Notre analyse montre également que les incitations monétaires n’encouragent ni des réponses socialement souhaitables, ni des effets de parrainage qui pouvaient provoquer une surdéclaration de délinquance. Enfin, nos résultats ne montrent aucune variation systématique concernant des caractéristiques socio-structurelles et des corrélations avec la délinquance.
Modelling and H∞ control of diesel engine boost pressure using a linear parameter varying technique
Authors: Lee M , Sunwoo M
Published: September 2011

In this paper, a model-based boost pressure control of a turbocharged common-rail directed injected diesel engine is proposed. An advanced linear parameter varying (LPV) technique is adopted for model development and an H∞ control scheme is synthesized for control purposes. The LPV technique has an advantage in deriving a linear model from a complex non-linear system and guarantees higher linear model precision. The boost pressure model of the diesel engine is obtained as a simple second-order linear system and the parameters of the model are estimated by the LPV identification method. With the help of the LPV modelling method, the behaviour of boost pressure of the diesel engine is precisely characterized using a second-order linear model. Based on the simplified LPV boost pressure model, a robust H∞ controller is synthesized. The state-space representation is derived to follow the control design framework of an H∞ scheme, and weighting functions for improving control performance are added into the closed-loop control system. The experimental results show that the LPV model-based diesel engine boost pressure control allows better tracking performance than the production engine management system (EMS), which requires difficult calibration work.
Design for reliability of a vehicle transmission system
Authors: Popovic P , Ivanovic G , Mitrovic R , Subic A
Published: September 2011

Robust vehicle design for improved reliability and quality has been one of the key areas of interest in the automotive industry for a number of years. Based on this approach, reliability is designed into the vehicle following a rigorous vehicle design and development process coupled with appropriate design methods, such as failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA), quality function deployment (QFD), design of experiments (DoE), the Taguchi method, and others. While significant progress has been achieved to date in improving the reliability and quality of vehicles, there is still some need to incorporate parts and subsystems with specific reliability functions within the vehicle system reliability model early in the design concept stage and throughout the vehicle design process so that the reliability of systems and subsystems can be designed-in with more confidence. A comprehensive design for reliability model for critical vehicle systems and subsystems coupled with the failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) method could help identify and alleviate potential failure modes, and hence maximize vehicle reliability. This article proposes a design for reliability process that aims to achieve this particular outcome in the case of a mechanical vehicle transmission system. A detailed case study involving design for reliability of a vehicle transmission system is presented.
Combustion characteristics of a diesel engine operating on biodiesel–diesel–ethanol mixtures
Authors: Kannan G R , Anand R
Published: September 2011

Experimental investigation was carried out to analyse the combustion, performance, and emission characteristics of DI diesel engine using selective biodiesel–diesel–ethanol mixture or diestrol fuels. Eleven diestrol fuels were selected on the basis of good miscibility, calorific value, and clear appearance based on the stability test carried out at different temperatures from 40 °C to 10 °C. The engine was made to run under varying loads at a constant speed of 1500 r/min. The results revealed that the maximum heat release rate of diestrol fuel was 7.5 per cent lower than that of diesel, while the cylinder gas pressure was nearly close to that of diesel fuel at 100 per cent load condition. A shorter ignition delay of 12.8° CA was observed with diestrol fuel consisting of 30 per cent biodiesel 60 per cent diesel and 10 per cent ethanol, which was 1.9° CA higher than biodiesel and comparable to that of diesel. Maximum brake thermal efficiency of 29.91 per cent was observed for diestrol fuel. While using diestrol and biodiesel, nitric oxide (NO) and smoke emissions were lower than that of diesel at all the load conditions.
Souvenir salvage and the death of great naval ships
Authors: Gregson Nicky , Crang Mike , Watkins Helen
Published: September 2011

This article re-orientates work on the material culture of war by considering military material culture beyond conflict and demonstrating how military material culture has extended social lives and passes through value regimes, as do many forms of material culture. The article focuses on end-of-life military things, specifically the neglected field of naval vessels. It shows how the social and physical death of naval ships connects to residue military masculinities, particularly through the complexities of souvenir value. Drawing on ethnographic research with veterans’ associations, the authors chart how naval ships become ghostly and how this connects with the salvage of personal mementos, often of a military domestic; they go on to describe the ambivalence of these accommodations within a civilian domestic. The article shows how collective practices of ship memorialization disclose a hierarchy of souvenir value and how souvenir salvage constitutes a distributed sociality from the fragments of destruction to own the memory of what is being destroyed. The authors argue that visioning and visualizing the destruction of naval vessels makes ex-naval personnel witnesses to an object death and highlights the fact that resource recovery regimes need to be re-thought through reincarnation; they also show how the reincarnation of ‘great things’ does not always become them.
The making of Irish-speaking Ireland: The cultural politics of belonging, diversity and power
Authors: Warren Simon
Published: September 2011

This paper is about linguistic justice issues in the post-colonial context of an Irish-speaking region in the south-west of Ireland, drawing on a study of political mobilization around the Irish-medium education policy of the region’s secondary school. I explore how the incipient Irish state was involved in a nationalizing project of developing strategies to constitute the Irish polity into a particular nation bound by an language of ‘archaic belonging’. Ithen examine how this nationalizing project was disrupted by structural shifts in the economic and demographic basis for the Irish-speaking communities on the Irish western seaboard. It is in this historical context that the Irish language emerges as a necessary nodal point around which political identity is formed. Local linguistic struggles are conceived as attempts to impose particular kinds of order on a field of meaning.
The universal and the contingent: Some reflections on the transnational flow of planning ideas and practices
Authors: Healey Patsy
Published: September 2011

In this essay, I reflect on the way planning concepts, techniques, instruments and the general idea of ‘planning’ itself flow from one place to another, particularly in the context of the transnational flow of planning ideas. In the past, our conception of such flows was underpinned by linear and singular models of development pathways – the ‘modernization’ myth. This rendered them apparently benign and positive contributions to ‘development’. Today, such concepts have been replaced by a recognition of contingency and complexity, which highlights the particular histories and challenges of localities in different parts of the world, and the damaging consequences when external ideas about planning and development are planted upon specific histories and geographies. This refocusing in turn raises questions about any general meaning of ‘planning’ as a universal good technology for complex urbanized societies. The paper reviews these shifts in conception, and then considers firstly how, as planning academics and practitioners, we should build narratives around particular ‘travelling’ planning ideas, to help critical learning in places where such ideas get to ‘land’. Secondly, I suggest how the idea of ‘planning’ itself might be approached, as a general concept contingently evolving through the experiences and debates we engage in as a ‘community of inquirers’ through which we compose and construct our field of interest. In such a formulation, the general idea of planning is lodged in the tradition of experience, innovation, debate and critique which have accumulated around the practices of managing co-existence in complex urbanized societies.
Guiding the interactive exploration of metabolic pathway interconnections
Authors: Jusufi Ilir , Klukas Christian , Kerren Andreas , Schreiber Falk
Published: September 2011

Approaches to investigate biological processes have been of strong interest in the past few years and are the focus of several research areas, especially Systems Biology. Biochemical networks as representations of processes are very important for a comprehensive understanding of living beings. Drawings of these networks are often visually overloaded and do not scale. A common solution to deal with this complexity is to divide the complete network, for example, the metabolism, into a large set of single pathways that are hierarchically structured. If those pathways are visualized, this strategy generates additional navigation and exploration problems as the user loses the context within the complete network.

In this article, we present a general solution to this problem of visualizing interconnected pathways and discuss it in context of biochemical networks. Our new visualization approach supports the analyst in obtaining an overview to related pathways if they are working within a particular pathway of interest. By using glyphs, brushing, and topological information of the related pathways, our interactive visualization is able to intuitively guide the exploration and navigation process, and thus the analysis processes too. To deal with real data and current networks, our tool has been implemented as a plugin for the VANTED system.
Bardoxolone: Augmenting the Yin in chronic kidney disease
Authors: Thomas Merlin C
Published: September 2011

Nrf-2 (NF-E2-related factor 2) is a regulator of anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and detoxification pathways. Coordinated augmentation of these key defence pathways via Nrf-2 signalling is being investigated for the treatment of chronic diseases, including diabetes and its complications. The first to reach commercial development is the triterpenoid, bardoxolone methyl. In recent clinical trial, bardoxolone rapidly improved kidney function on average by 5–10 ml/min within 4 weeks of therapy. Importantly, this improvement was sustained during one year of active treatment. This suggests that rather that overworking a failing system, bardoxolone appeared to safely augment renal function, at least to one year. If similar improvements in kidney function can be reproduced in the upcoming BEACON trial, it will represent a major advance on conventional therapy and new way to bring balance to the failing kidney.
Forms and Functions of Emotions: Matters of Emotion–Cognition Interactions
Authors: Izard Carroll E.
Published: September 2011

This article clarifies my current and seemingly ever-changing position on issues relating to emotions. The position derives from my differential emotions theory and it changes with new empirical findings and with insights from my own and others’ thinking and writing. The theory distinguishes between first-order emotions and emotion schemas. For example, it proposes that first-order negative emotions are attributable mainly to infants and young children in distress and to older individuals in emergency or highly challenging situations. Emotion schemas are defined as emotion feelings interacting with cognition in motivating the decision making and actions of everyday life.
Basic Emotion Questions
Authors: Levenson Robert W.
Published: September 2011

Among discrete emotions, basic emotions are the most elemental; most distinct; most continuous across species, time, and place; and most intimately related to survival-critical functions. For an emotion to be afforded basic emotion status it must meet criteria of: (a) distinctness (primarily in behavioral and physiological characteristics), (b) hard-wiredness (circuitry built into the nervous system), and (c) functionality (provides a generalized solution to a particular survival-relevant challenge or opportunity). A set of six emotions that most clearly meet these criteria (enjoyment, anger, disgust, fear, surprise, sadness) and three additional emotions (relief/contentment, interest, love) for which the evidence is not yet quite as strong is described. Empirical approaches that are most and least useful for establishing basic-emotion status are discussed. Basic emotions are thought to have a central organizing mechanism and to have the capacity to influence behavior, thoughts, and other fundamental processes.
Population distribution models: species distributions are better modeled using biologically relevant data partitions
Authors: Gonzalez Sergio C , Soto-Centeno J Angel , Reed David L
Published: September 2011

Background

Predicting the geographic distribution of widespread species through modeling is problematic for several reasons including high rates of omission errors. One potential source of error for modeling widespread species is that subspecies and/or races of species are frequently pooled for analyses, which may mask biologically relevant spatial variation within the distribution of a single widespread species. We contrast a presence-only maximum entropy model for the widely distributed oldfield mouse (Peromyscus polionotus) that includes all available presence locations for this species, with two composite maximum entropy models. The composite models either subdivided the total species distribution into four geographic quadrants or by fifteen subspecies to capture spatially relevant variation in P. polionotus distributions.

Results

Despite high Area Under the ROC Curve (AUC) values for all models, the composite species distribution model of P. polionotus generated from individual subspecies models represented the known distribution of the species much better than did the models produced by partitioning data into geographic quadrants or modeling the whole species as a single unit.

Conclusions

Because the AUC values failed to describe the differences in the predictability of the three modeling strategies, we suggest using omission curves in addition to AUC values to assess model performance. Dividing the data of a widespread species into biologically relevant partitions greatly increased the performance of our distribution model; therefore, this approach may prove to be quite practical and informative for a wide range of modeling applications.
Agent-based dynamic knowledge representation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa virulence activation in the stressed gut: Towards characterizing host-pathogen interactions in gut-derived sepsis
Authors: Seal John B , Alverdy John C , Zaborina Olga , An Gary
Published: September 2011

Background

There is a growing realization that alterations in host-pathogen interactions (HPI) can generate disease phenotypes without pathogen invasion. The gut represents a prime region where such HPI can arise and manifest. Under normal conditions intestinal microbial communities maintain a stable, mutually beneficial ecosystem. However, host stress can lead to changes in environmental conditions that shift the nature of the host-microbe dialogue, resulting in escalation of virulence expression, immune activation and ultimately systemic disease. Effective modulation of these dynamics requires the ability to characterize the complexity of the HPI, and dynamic computational modeling can aid in this task. Agent-based modeling is a computational method that is suited to representing spatially diverse, dynamical systems. We propose that dynamic knowledge representation of gut HPI with agent-based modeling will aid in the investigation of the pathogenesis of gut-derived sepsis.

Methodology/Principal Findings

An agent-based model (ABM) of virulence regulation in Pseudomonas aeruginosa was developed by translating bacterial and host cell sense-and-response mechanisms into behavioral rules for computational agents and integrated into a virtual environment representing the host-microbe interface in the gut. The resulting gut milieu ABM (GMABM) was used to: 1) investigate a potential clinically relevant laboratory experimental condition not yet developed - i.e. non-lethal transient segmental intestinal ischemia, 2) examine the sufficiency of existing hypotheses to explain experimental data - i.e. lethality in a model of major surgical insult and stress, and 3) produce behavior to potentially guide future experimental design - i.e. suggested sample points for a potential laboratory model of non-lethal transient intestinal ischemia. Furthermore, hypotheses were generated to explain certain discrepancies between the behaviors of the GMABM and biological experiments, and new investigatory avenues proposed to test those hypotheses.

Conclusions/Significance

Agent-based modeling can account for the spatio-temporal dynamics of an HPI, and, even when carried out with a relatively high degree of abstraction, can be useful in the investigation of system-level consequences of putative mechanisms operating at the individual agent level. We suggest that an integrated and iterative heuristic relationship between computational modeling and more traditional laboratory and clinical investigations, with a focus on identifying useful and sufficient degrees of abstraction, will enhance the efficiency and translational productivity of biomedical research.