Fluorescence spectroscopy has also previously been used to identify sewage effluent in English rivers and estuaries largely because of the high protein-like fluorescence associated with the DOM discharged from sewage treatment works (Baker and Spencer 2004) . The unique proteinlike fluorescence peak (excitation 275 nm, emission 306-308 nm) present in DOM at Lower Peterson during the spawning period has been linked to the protein tyrosine (Stedmon and Markager 2005) . Our findings suggest that salmon carcasses contribute identifiable protein-rich DOM to the aquatic DOM load in Peterson Creek during spawning. Moreover, this salmon-derived DOM can be easily fingerprinted using fluorescence spectroscopy because it is chemically different from the terrestrially derived DOM that forms the bulk of the aquatic DOM load in coastal streams.

Fluorescence spectroscopy has also previously been used to identify sewage effluent in English rivers and estuaries largely because of the high protein-like fluorescence associated with the DOM discharged from sewage treatment works.

The unique proteinlike fluorescence peak (excitation 275 nm, emission 306-308 nm) present in DOM at Lower Peterson during the spawning period has been linked to the protein tyrosine.


In many cases, anxiety or stress is a normal organism reaction in order to cope with unexpected events. However, abnormal reactions to simple daily stress stimuli can cause enduring anxiety. These abnormal reactions are classified as anxiety disorders, which includes various phobias, panic, social anxiety, and generalized anxiety disorders, etc. More than 30% of people have suffered from an anxiety disorder at least once during their lifetime [1] . Anxiety can be caused by multiple causes, such as past experiences, exhaustion, job burnout, loneliness, abuse, etc., and can lead to reduced quality of life and labor productivity at work [2] . Anxiety can severely impact patients' daily life, trigger social communication problems, and diminish life quality. Moreover, anxiety disorders are usually chronic conditions and require a prolonged treatment period [3] .

More than 30% of people have suffered from an anxiety disorder at least once during their lifetime.

Anxiety can be caused by multiple causes, such as past experiences, exhaustion, job burnout, loneliness, abuse, etc., and can lead to reduced quality of life and labor productivity at work.

Moreover, anxiety disorders are usually chronic conditions and require a prolonged treatment period.


The presence of a mechanical work term dW =−pdV allows for the definition of a traditional reciprocating heat engine using the black hole as the working substance [21] . Such a "holographic heat engine" is a closed cycle in thermodynamic state space, as before, with coupling to a hot heat reservoir at temperature T H and a cold heat reservoir at temperature T C , net heat flow Q H in (Q C out, respectively). Again, its efficiency is bounded from above by that of the Carnot engine.

The presence of a mechanical work term dW =−pdV allows for the definition of a traditional reciprocating heat engine using the black hole as the working substance.


Interpretations of such an engine can be made in the underlying (dual) quantum system which supplies the quantum description of the black hole microstates. Every point in state space is identifiable as a holographically dual non-gravitational quantum system [21] . Moving from one point to another can be described in terms of processes entirely describable in terms of quantum field theory, such as thermalization and heat transfer (by coupling to a heat bath) or changing of couplings (perhaps by coupling to external systems or fields).

Every point in state space is identifiable as a holographically dual non-gravitational quantum system.


One of the main applications of the Birkhoff normal form methods concerns the KAM theory for PDEs. It is well known that in order to apply perturbative arguments to construct periodic and quasi-periodic solutions for perturbed autonomous integrable equations one needs to control the frequencies of the expected invariant tori. In the infinite dimensional context, this requires the presence of parameters which modulate the frequencies, since the non-resonance conditions to be imposed are quite complicated. When the considered system does not present external parameters, one has to extract them from the equation itself: a way to do that is to perform a Birkhoff normal form procedure. Actually, the result presented in Theorem 1.6 has been motivated by the study of quasiperiodic solutions for perturbations of the Degasperis-Procesi equation [20] .

Actually, the result presented in Theorem 1.6 has been motivated by the study of quasiperiodic solutions for perturbations of the Degasperis-Procesi equation.


Factors that influence enterprise sustainable innovation. Individual capability is a complex integration of an employee's knowledge, skills, and capability. They are quite essential for the effective and efficient operation of an enterprise. When an enterprise is pursuing the implementation of strategies and sustainable innovation, the process lies in people in the organization. Employee participation means employees participate in the process of formulating and implementing the management decisions. They communicate with managers and further influence the management process of enterprises. In the process of enterprise sustainable innovation, the capability of employees and the degree of participation can influence the organization's sustainable innovation behaviors and therefore influence the organization's innovation performance. The active participation of employees is the powerful guarantee of an enterprise's innovation activities. Many studies show that some individual capabilities, such as the learning capability, effective communication capability, creative capability, and team cooperation capability can strengthen the collective behaviors and organizational capability which is very important for sustainable innovation [13] [14] [15] .

Many studies show that some individual capabilities, such as the learning capability, effective communication capability, creative capability, and team cooperation capability can strengthen the collective behaviors and organizational capability which is very important for sustainable innovation.


Gr-1+CD11b+ cells contribute to injury-induced neovascularization. However, diabetic-derived Gr-1+CD11b+ cells fail to stimulate neovascularization in vivo and have aberrant proliferative, chemotaxis, adhesion and differentiation potential. Sustained expression of Hoxa3 in diabetic-derived Gr-1+CD11b+ cells reverses their diabetic phenotype [13] . Consequently, before attempting to determine an effective and safe way to manipulate the diabetic-derived Gr-1+CD11b+ cells, thus reversing their diabetic phenotype, the usage of Gr-1+CD11b+ cells from healthy donors is one method that could be chosen to enhance diabetic wound healing in clinical practice. Further studies are required to evaluate the feasibility and safety of using non-diabetic Gr1+CD11b+ cells to enhance wound healing in diabetic patients.

Sustained expression of Hoxa3 in diabetic-derived Gr-1+CD11b+ cells reverses their diabetic phenotype.


People are becoming more concerned about their food intake and place greater emphasis on the safety of the food they consume. Thus, food safety has become an important issue among consumers and environmentalists. Chemical hazards, whether chronic or acute, in the food supply have been a major public concern among consumers [1] . Although chemical inputs are an essential part of modern high-input agriculture, it is the toxicity of pesticide residues on and in food which gives rise to these concerns because they could contain certain carcinogenic potentials [2] . The immediate problem faced by consumers is the lack of transparency in the chemical inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides applied in the production process and how many residues are making their way into agricultural products. Since the process of food production has little transparency at field level, it is difficult to keep track of chemical inputs used in terms of timing, frequency, and limits of usage. In the 80s, the issue of sustainability caught consumers' attention in developed countries like the UK, where the need for farmers to exercise control over foodborne hazards has been emphasized to minimize the food safety crises arising at farm level [3] .

Chemical hazards, whether chronic or acute, in the food supply have been a major public concern among consumers.

Although chemical inputs are an essential part of modern high-input agriculture, it is the toxicity of pesticide residues on and in food which gives rise to these concerns because they could contain certain carcinogenic potentials.

In the 80s, the issue of sustainability caught consumers' attention in developed countries like the UK, where the need for farmers to exercise control over foodborne hazards has been emphasized to minimize the food safety crises arising at farm level.


The role(s) of bacteria in coniferous and boreal forest soil processes has received less attention but it has been shown that soil communities are dominated by Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria and Acidobacteria and in lower abundances by Bacteroidetes, Gemmatimonadetes, Firmicutes, Verrucomicrobia and Planctomycetes (Hartmann et al., 2009 (Hartmann et al., , 2012 Yarwood et al., 2009; Baldrian et al., 2012; Sun et al., 2014) . Studies in herbaceous plants, such as Arabidopsis thaliana have indicated that bacteria found in association with plant roots can be characteristic of the root, as they represent a specific subset of bacteria found in soils and are essential for growth and survival of the plants in a given habitat (Bulgarelli et al., 2012; Lundberg et al., 2012) . Furthermore, for mycorrhizal plants the composition and structure of the bacterial communities differ between bulk soil, ectomycorrhizal root tips and nonmycorrhizal root habitats (Burke et al., 2008; Vik et al., 2013; Nguyen and Bruns, 2015) . Thus not only mycorrhiza, but also soil bacterial communities, interact with plant roots and in addition the mycorrhizosphere offers micro-niches for adapted bacteria (Heinonsalo et al., 2001; Warmink et al., 2009) .

The role(s) of bacteria in coniferous and boreal forest soil processes has received less attention but it has been shown that soil communities are dominated by Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria and Acidobacteria and in lower abundances by Bacteroidetes, Gemmatimonadetes, Firmicutes, Verrucomicrobia and Planctomycetes.

Studies in herbaceous plants, such as Arabidopsis thaliana have indicated that bacteria found in association with plant roots can be characteristic of the root, as they represent a specific subset of bacteria found in soils and are essential for growth and survival of the plants in a given habitat.

Furthermore, for mycorrhizal plants the composition and structure of the bacterial communities differ between bulk soil, ectomycorrhizal root tips and nonmycorrhizal root habitats.

Thus not only mycorrhiza, but also soil bacterial communities, interact with plant roots and in addition the mycorrhizosphere offers micro-niches for adapted bacteria.


SHM algorithms are identified as static system identification (SI) and dynamic SI, according to the types of structural response used. Dynamics-based SI techniques assess the state of health of a structural component on the basis of the detection and analysis of its dynamic response. Such techniques can be classified on the basis of the type of response being considered for the investigations, on the frequency or time domain of interrogation and on the modality used to excite the component [2] .

Such techniques can be classified on the basis of the type of response being considered for the investigations, on the frequency or time domain of interrogation and on the modality used to excite the component.


The main objective of developing the structural health monitoring (SHM) system for structures is to enhance structural safety. However, in bridges, SHM serves other economic benefits such as increased mission reliability, extended life of life-limited components, reduced tests, reduction in "down time, " increased equipment reliability, customization of maintenance actions, and greater awareness of operating personnel, resulting in fewer accidents. SHM also promises to help reduce maintenance costs [1] .

SHM also promises to help reduce maintenance costs.


In Japan, populations of ambrosia beetle Platypus quercivorus (Murayama) (Coleoptera: Platypodidae) are considered to have reached epidemic proportions in recent years. As vectors, their attacks on apparently healthy-looking trees lead to Japanese oak wilt (Ito and Yamada 1998; Kobayashi and Ueda 2005) . Although they attack several species of Fagaceae, beetle reproductive success varies by tree species (Kato et al. 2001; Kobayashi et al. 2004) . In brief, forest tree species fall into three types for P. quercivorus: suitable Fagaceae, unsuitable Fagaceae, and non-host tree species. In such an environment, we suggest that P. quercivorus preferentially selects suitable Fagaceae trees using visual or olfactory cues. Conversely, we postulate that tree species are avoided by P. quercivorus when these trees are associated with a reduced level of beetle fitness.

As vectors, their attacks on apparently healthy-looking trees lead to Japanese oak wilt.

Although they attack several species of Fagaceae, beetle reproductive success varies by tree species.


We have shown that in the early stages of infestation, P. quercivorus has lower preference for unsuitable host tree species. Male P. quercivorus prefer Q. crispula to Q. serrata and C. crenata, and selection is made before boring holes in trees. Discrimination of unsuitable trees within the same species has been demonstrated previously; P. quercivorus distinguishes suitable Q. crispula trees from unsuitable Q. crispula at early stages of infestation (Yamasaki and Futai 2008) . Differences in beetle activity both among and within tree species suggest that selective forces have acted on P. quercivorus during its long coevolution with the host species, and these forces have led to beetle avoidance of unfavorable host trees. Some proximate factor, for example, a volatile emission from trees, must have been used by P. quercivorus to discriminate suitable from unsuitable host tree species. Identification of this factor awaits further studies, which will contribute to the protection of forests dominated by fagaceous trees, the hosts of P. quercivorus.

Discrimination of unsuitable trees within the same species has been demonstrated previously; P. quercivorus distinguishes suitable Q. crispula trees from unsuitable Q. crispula at early stages of infestation.


Data analysis included the following fixed explanatory variables and their interactions: culture (China, Switzerland), study area (urban, rural) and environmental expertise (urban study area: city dwellers versus environmental science students; rural study area: forest visitors versus farmers). Differences in the participants' choices of forest types were analyzed by generalized linear mixed models (multiple logistic regressions). To avoid effects of variability among the pictures within monocultures or species-rich forests and within Chinese and Swiss forests, pictures (n = 40) were used as random-effects explanatory variable (see online supplementary material). In one analysis, the responses were classified according to the preference for species-rich forests versus monocultures (Table 1 , top half and Fig. 1a) , and in a second analysis, they were classified according to the preference for Chinese versus Swiss forests (Table 1 , bottom half and Fig. 1b) . The overall preference ("Mean" in Table 1 ) for species-rich forests or for Chinese forests, respectively, was tested against the mean deviance of the random-effects variable and the mean deviance changes due to entering the fixed-effects variables into the model were tested against mean deviances of their corresponding interactions with the random-effects variable. Here, "tested against" refers to using ratios of mean deviances as approximate F-test statistics. Compared with the use of the deviance as an approximate chi-square test statistic, the use of ratios of mean deviances has the advantage that it allows a simple incorporation of random-effects terms into the generalized linear mixed-model analysis (McCullagh and Nelder 1989) . The analyses were carried out with GenStat (12th edition; VSN International Ltd).

Compared with the use of the deviance as an approximate chi-square test statistic, the use of ratios of mean deviances has the advantage that it allows a simple incorporation of random-effects terms into the generalized linear mixed-model analysis.


A model of compensating RESTful transactions, called jfdi, has been made available by JBoss [11] . To our best knowledge, the model has not been imple-mented yet. In terms of the interface, it is similar to JBoss's lock-based transactions that we described earlier. Although it does not provide any locks, the compensation logic is held on the server side -the transaction objects and compensation controllers (called compensators) are exposed as resources. It is very comfortable for the client that does not need to know how to compensate each operation on that particular service. However, similarly to pessimistic transactions, this design decision invalidates the statelessness constraint.

A model of compensating RESTful transactions, called jfdi, has been made available by JBoss.


Worldwide the most common damage exerted onto surface waters has become evident through the eutrophication effect, since water bodies have become rich in phosphorus and nitrogen, nutrients whose origin can be either land farming activities or byproducts from wastewater organic matter degradation. These excessive nutrient concentrations exert negative impacts onto aquatic ecosystems. The most evident effect is proliferation of algae and macrophytes whose presence not only impacts water quality by degrading it, but also interferes with possible water use in recreation, industrial and agricultural activities, as well as reduces any possible applica-tion to provide drinking water to the nearby communities [1] [2] [3] . It is worthy of mentioning that some decades ago eutrophication was considered a process taking place at lakes and ponds, but actually is having presence at rivers and lakeshores, a phenomenon that has been called "cultural eutrophication" [3, 5, 6] .

The most evident effect is proliferation of algae and macrophytes whose presence not only impacts water quality by degrading it, but also interferes with possible water use in recreation, industrial and agricultural activities, as well as reduces any possible applica-tion to provide drinking water to the nearby communities.

It is worthy of mentioning that some decades ago eutrophication was considered a process taking place at lakes and ponds, but actually is having presence at rivers and lakeshores, a phenomenon that has been called "cultural eutrophication".


Recently, RGB LEDs have been widely used in daily life especially in places where color-changing lighting is required, e.g., homes, shopping centers, and decorations, etc. One example of the colorchanging light fixture is the Philips mood lighting system known as the "Hue," which enables light tuning in terms of tone, contrast, and color spectrum to create ideal lighting conditions by using smart devices such as smartphones or tablets [1] . Such lighting sources offer triple functionalities of illumination, data communication, and localization in an indoor environment [2] . Recently, cameras with a color filter array over an image sensor (IS) have also become very common in smart devices, which opens up valuable opportunities to use RGB LEDs as transmitters and built-in cameras on smart devices as receivers. This is known as optical camera communications (OCC) [3] .

One example of the colorchanging light fixture is the Philips mood lighting system known as the "Hue," which enables light tuning in terms of tone, contrast, and color spectrum to create ideal lighting conditions by using smart devices such as smartphones or tablets.

Such lighting sources offer triple functionalities of illumination, data communication, and localization in an indoor environment.

This is known as optical camera communications (OCC).


We believe that our results for unbounded Ω , i.e. for I = R, are of some independent interest. They easily extend to the case when I is a half-line; we leave it to the reader. The results for the operator ∆ ,N are of a more technical character. They are useful, since they allow one to apply the Dirichlet-Neumann bracketing for study of some other problems. In particular, in our problem for I = R this gives a simple way to obtain the asymptotics of eigenvalues, avoiding an analysis of the resolvent; we show this in Section 6. One more problem concerns the case when I = R and the function h(x) is periodic (Laplacian in a thin periodic waveguide). Here the spectrum of ∆ ,D has the band-gap structure, and we study the location of bands and give a bound for their widths; it turns out that they decay exponentially as → 0. We present our corresponding results in a separate paper [4] .

We present our corresponding results in a separate paper.


This figure represents the traditional 'textbook' case of a CEAC in which OTC statin therapy is both more costly and more effective than no-drug therapy. As none of the pairs represent cost-saving the CEAC cuts the Y-axis at zero. Also as the whole density involves health gains the CEAC asymptotes to 1 [31] .

Also as the whole density involves health gains the CEAC asymptotes to 1.


Power distance as salient aspect of this environment is also interpreted as a cultural difference that can be traced back to Confucian versus Socratic tradition (Nisbett, 2003) . Power distance refers to interaction in institutional contexts and is not a personality trait in the sense of a personal value. While rooted in the same historic difference, individualism/collectivism and power distance are distinct constructs and at least for the aspect of school belongingness the latter eclipses the effect of the former. The collectivist nature of Asian societies in contrast to the salience of individualism in Western societies expresses itself in various aspects of modern societies, but it does not seem to permeate the school as a distinct social setting. Our study suggests that cultures where relationships between subordinated and ordinates (e.g., bosses and employees and teachers and students) are perceived as more equal foster higher belongingness than cultures where there is strict hierarchy. Our findings are also in agreement with a recent Dutch study which found that international students from high power distance countries reported lower social adjustment and attachment to the educational institutions than students from low power-distance countries (Rienties and Tempelaar, 2013) .

Power distance as salient aspect of this environment is also interpreted as a cultural difference that can be traced back to Confucian versus Socratic tradition.

Our findings are also in agreement with a recent Dutch study which found that international students from high power distance countries reported lower social adjustment and attachment to the educational institutions than students from low power-distance countries.


To explain more clearly, we present some notation and conventions. A spin curve is a couple of a smooth projective curve of genus g and a theta characteristic θ . There are 2 2g different types of spin curve structure for every smooth curve Γ and they are partitioned into two classes according to the parity of h 0 (Γ , θ ). A theta characteristic θ is said to be even or odd if h 0 (Γ , θ ) is even or odd, respectively. Correspondingly we speak of even or odd spin curves. The moduli space S g of smooth spin curves exists [1, 23] . Moreover, studies of the forgetful map S g → M g , where M g is the moduli space of curves of genus g, have revealed that S g is a disjoint union of two irreducible components S + g and S − g of relative degrees 2 g−1 (2 g + 1) and 2 g−1 (2 g − 1) corresponding to even and odd spin curves, respectively.

The moduli space S g of smooth spin curves exists.


Throughout the paper, we work over C, the complex number field. The idea to use even spin curves for studies of threefolds or higher dimensional varieties goes back to Tjurin [33] . Mukai was the first to extend this idea [21] . One of his results concerns the geometry of lines on a general smooth prime Fano threefold X of genus 12. He showed that the Hilbert scheme of lines on X is a smooth curve H 1 of genus three, there exists a theta characteristic θ on H 1 without global sections, and X is recovered from the even spin curve (H 1 , θ ) as a certain variety of power sums.

The idea to use even spin curves for studies of threefolds or higher dimensional varieties goes back to Tjurin.

Mukai was the first to extend this idea.


IR-induced lung injury is characterized by a marked polymorphonuclear leukocyte (PMNs) infiltration in the lung interstitium and alveolar space [7] . These observations were semi-quantitatively confirmed by both increasing MPO-positive cells and the number of neutrophils in the lung, both of which were attenuated by Ac2-26 treatment. Our findings were consistent with those of previous reports where treatment with Ac2-26 in rats significantly reduced PMN recruitment and MPO activity in IR-injured hearts, intestines, and LPS-induced lung injuries [10] [11] [12] . In addition, Ac2-26 significantly reduced the production of TNF-α and CINC-1 in the BALF and suppressed protein carbonylation and peroxidation of membrane lipids in the lung. Previous studies have also demonstrated that the inflammatory cytokine, TNF-α, and chemokine macrophage inflammatory protein 1-α were significantly reduced in IR-injured hearts treated with AnxA1 [14] . These reductions were also coupled with the suppression of IL-8 production in the human epithelial cell line A549 subjected to H/R in this study. Moreover, Ac2-26 attenuated pulmonary vascular permeability as indicated by reduced K f , LWG, W/D, and LW/BW ratios, and protein levels in the BALF, as well as the limited alteration of the tight junction proteins (claudin-3 and occludin) in the alveolar walls. These data were comparable with those of other experiments revealing that Ac2-26 has the ability to mitigate pulmonary vascular permeability in intestinal IR-and LPS-induced lung injury [10, 11] .

IR-induced lung injury is characterized by a marked polymorphonuclear leukocyte (PMNs) infiltration in the lung interstitium and alveolar space.

Our findings were consistent with those of previous reports where treatment with Ac2-26 in rats significantly reduced PMN recruitment and MPO activity in IR-injured hearts, intestines, and LPS-induced lung injuries.

Previous studies have also demonstrated that the inflammatory cytokine, TNF-α, and chemokine macrophage inflammatory protein 1-α were significantly reduced in IR-injured hearts treated with AnxA1.

These data were comparable with those of other experiments revealing that Ac2-26 has the ability to mitigate pulmonary vascular permeability in intestinal IR-and LPS-induced lung injury.


The new form of assignments, in which students are required to solve problems using software packages as well as manually, will be implemented in semester 2, 2009. . It can also be argued that some authors are also working on something similar to the authors of this paper. The difference between their work and this is that they use software packages to help teaching engineering courses other than engineering management science but all are enhancing their learning and teaching by using relevant software packages [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] .

The difference between their work and this is that they use software packages to help teaching engineering courses other than engineering management science but all are enhancing their learning and teaching by using relevant software packages.


Some approaches to improve materials performance include the synergistic combination of chemical, physical and biological properties. If successful, polymer nanocomposites can combine the most suitable characteristics of nanoparticles and nanostructures with those of the polymer matrix. By tuning multiple parameters at the same time, a broad spectrum of functionalities are being developed that can be used for engineering new materials for specific biomedical products [17] .

By tuning multiple parameters at the same time, a broad spectrum of functionalities are being developed that can be used for engineering new materials for specific biomedical products.


The design of implantable neural recording microsystems for the wireless transmission of brain activity has focused the attention of many research groups during the last years [1] [2] [3] [4] . These microsystems can be very useful both in clinical (as part of therapeutic procedures in patients with neurological diseases) and neuroscience applications. Compared to wired systems, these solutions provide untethered communications with the external world, allowing for more freedom of movement and avoiding the risk of infections associated with percutaneous plugs.

The design of implantable neural recording microsystems for the wireless transmission of brain activity has focused the attention of many research groups during the last years.


Zhang and Shasha review older work on tree differencing and present a fast algorithm for solving the edit-distance problem on ordered trees, with updates, insertions, and deletions [28] . These classical algorithms require all costs to be known beforehand, and cannot handle changing costs for parts of the trees based on whether other parts match. Chawathe and Garcia-Molina presented an algorithm to find changes in structured data modeled by unordered trees, which also includes move, copy and glue operations [6] . Their algorithm is a heuristic, iterative update mechanism like ours, but only accommodates tree edges. Note that the edit-distance problem between unordered trees is, in general, NPcomplete [29] .

Zhang and Shasha review older work on tree differencing and present a fast algorithm for solving the edit-distance problem on ordered trees, with updates, insertions, and deletions.

Chawathe and Garcia-Molina presented an algorithm to find changes in structured data modeled by unordered trees, which also includes move, copy and glue operations.

Note that the edit-distance problem between unordered trees is, in general, NPcomplete.


The partitioning algorithm represents programs using program representation graphs, which combine aspects of program dependence graphs and static single assignment forms but do not contain the kind of semantic information in ASGs (e.g., type information). The algorithm applies to programs in a limited language without procedures or functions. Binkley used a similar approach to define an algorithm for eliminating unnecessary regression tests and for reducing the size of the program that must be tested, although his algorithm applies to a language with procedures [4] . Jackson and Ladd proposed documenting the semantic difference between two versions of a procedure by comparing the dependence relations between input and outputs before and after the change [15] . Berzkins shows how the semantics of a program can be modeled by partial functions, and sets up Boolean and Browerian algebras to define what is meant by adding and removing functionality in different version of a program [3] . He then uses this model to study the problem of merging two sets of changes.

Binkley used a similar approach to define an algorithm for eliminating unnecessary regression tests and for reducing the size of the program that must be tested, although his algorithm applies to a language with procedures.

Jackson and Ladd proposed documenting the semantic difference between two versions of a procedure by comparing the dependence relations between input and outputs before and after the change.

Berzkins shows how the semantics of a program can be modeled by partial functions, and sets up Boolean and Browerian algebras to define what is meant by adding and removing functionality in different version of a program.


Air pollution is one of the most complex problems in the contemporary world. As a side effect of urbanisation and industrialisation, it is a factor responsible for many negative impacts affecting the well-being of fauna and flora, as well as the environment as a whole. Air pollution can affect plants directly through the leaves, as well as indirectly by the acidification of the soil environment (Kumar and Nandini 2013) . The effects of atmospheric pollution are generally observed on leaves because they are the first receptors (Randhi and Reddy 2012) . Many studies have also showed that the majority of plants exposed to polluted atmosphere first have physiological changes before visible damage to the leaves (Abida and Harikrishna 2010) .

Air pollution can affect plants directly through the leaves, as well as indirectly by the acidification of the soil environment.

The effects of atmospheric pollution are generally observed on leaves because they are the first receptors.

Many studies have also showed that the majority of plants exposed to polluted atmosphere first have physiological changes before visible damage to the leaves.


Clay colloidal properties can be affected by the presence of anions which serve as negatively charged electrolytes. Anions can adsorb to the clay surface by a variety of mechanisms including electrostatic attractive forces, specific adsorption via ligand exchange with protonated surface hydroxyl groups, cation bridging and water bridging in the presence of hydrated cations on the surface (Murphy and Zachara, 1995) . Generally, adsorption of anions results in a more negative surface charge and enhances the repulsive force between clay particles and favors dispersion state of clay in suspension (Chorom and Rengasamy, 1995) . In the dynamic light scattering experiments, coagulation of the clay fraction in the presence of almost all anions (except oxalate) was observed. This might be due to the effect of high ionic strength where Na + can serve as positive charges that favor coagulation of the clay. However, anions can act to mitigate the effect of Na + on coagulation. Results from the test tube experiments (as shown in Fig. 3 ) revealed that an increase of anion concentration can prohibit coagulation. In both dynamic light scattering and test tube experiments, oxalate was found to be the most effective anion in counteracting coagulation, whereas Cl − shows the weakest effect.

Anions can adsorb to the clay surface by a variety of mechanisms including electrostatic attractive forces, specific adsorption via ligand exchange with protonated surface hydroxyl groups, cation bridging and water bridging in the presence of hydrated cations on the surface.

Generally, adsorption of anions results in a more negative surface charge and enhances the repulsive force between clay particles and favors dispersion state of clay in suspension.


In fact, it is difficult to accurately predict the relationship between ridership and fare change rate, which is a core issue for making a new fare policy. For example, in New York City, before the fare increase in 2003, the agency did not have any experience with either the direct ridership effects of price change or the shift of customers if the fare increases at different rates [19] . As expected, the effects of the price change on transit demand have attracted major attention in previous studies [20] [21] [22] . It is worth noting that there are distinctive travel characteristics and cultures among different cities. The influence of fare change on the ridership may display diverse patterns among these cities.

For example, in New York City, before the fare increase in 2003, the agency did not have any experience with either the direct ridership effects of price change or the shift of customers if the fare increases at different rates.

As expected, the effects of the price change on transit demand have attracted major attention in previous studies.


Specific to public transportation pricing policy, many previous studies have addressed the equity issues of flat fares versus distance-based fares. Early studies indicated that flat the flat fare polices are neither efficiency nor equitable [39, 40] . Comparing five alternative fare proposals of Alameda-Contra District, the flat fares per ride were found to be least equitable, even when the base fare was lowered [5] . The reason is that lower income riders and younger users more frequently rely on the public transportation services than the higher income riders and elder users. Based on travel pattern analyses, lower income riders are found to travel shorter distances and more often during non-rush hours, and thus poor users are actually subsidizing rich ones [41] . Often, a long term of flat fare policy may directly contribute to the financial deterioration and, consequently, increase fares due to budget shortfalls. Then, public transportation operators would shift the flat fares to other fare structures, such as distance-based fares, such as the Beijing case.

Early studies indicated that flat the flat fare polices are neither efficiency nor equitable.

Comparing five alternative fare proposals of Alameda-Contra District, the flat fares per ride were found to be least equitable, even when the base fare was lowered.

Based on travel pattern analyses, lower income riders are found to travel shorter distances and more often during non-rush hours, and thus poor users are actually subsidizing rich ones.


Additionally, in the field of the transportation pricing policy research, a traditional concern on the pricing policy formulation is user equity, which has been discussed for many decades [37] . Equity refers to the distribution of impacts (benefits and costs) and whether the distribution is fair and appropriate. Two categories of equity are acknowledged: horizontal equity and vertical equity. Horizontal equity focuses on how the passengers equally share public resources and spend travel costs [38] . Vertical equity emphasizes allocating resources among individuals according to different abilities and needs, which is to provide resources to those who need the resources most, such as the low-income and youth [37] .

Additionally, in the field of the transportation pricing policy research, a traditional concern on the pricing policy formulation is user equity, which has been discussed for many decades.

Horizontal equity focuses on how the passengers equally share public resources and spend travel costs.

Vertical equity emphasizes allocating resources among individuals according to different abilities and needs, which is to provide resources to those who need the resources most, such as the low-income and youth.


In China, rail transit has played an important role in economic vitality and urban sustainable development of the large cities with high population density. As a city's backbone system, urban rail transportation can satisfy the travel demands of the low income residents and commuters, which assists in creating a better urban environment [1] . Especially, urban rail transit should provide a high level of services in order to shift travelers away from private cars and reduce road traffic congestion [2] . Among the factors that influence the service quality of urban rail transit, fare is the most indispensable and fundamental one [3] . Understanding the relationship between passenger satisfaction trend and fare change will benefit decision makers in developing appropriate fare policies.

As a city's backbone system, urban rail transportation can satisfy the travel demands of the low income residents and commuters, which assists in creating a better urban environment.

Especially, urban rail transit should provide a high level of services in order to shift travelers away from private cars and reduce road traffic congestion.

Among the factors that influence the service quality of urban rail transit, fare is the most indispensable and fundamental one.


Several fMRI studies in episodic migraine (EM) have revealed abnormal connectivity within the CEN and DMN, as well as between the two networks [4] . However, our current understanding on how the IFBNs are affected in CM continues to be limited. In CM, the processing of migraine pain likely shifts from nociceptive brain regions to other networks important in cognitive, affective, and emotional processing. Currently, the differences and similarities are poorly understood between patients with CM and those with CM who overuse acute pain medication. Availability of such knowledge would have significant consequential implications for comprehensive classification of CM and has proven to be a commonly debated subject [5] .

Several fMRI studies in episodic migraine (EM) have revealed abnormal connectivity within the CEN and DMN, as well as between the two networks.

Availability of such knowledge would have significant consequential implications for comprehensive classification of CM and has proven to be a commonly debated subject.


In this paper, we will investigate the effect of antenna mutual coupling (MC) on the full-duplex single-channel MIMO system with the aim of self-interference eliminations. Based on the mutual-coupling model, the signals with selfinterference can be preknown. As a result, it is possible to eliminate all self-interference signals by subtracting from preknown signals. The concept of transmitting and receiving mutual impedances is employed to incorporate the antenna MC effect into the correlated channel model [16] . This model is applied to work out the suppression technique to reduce the self-interference performed by subtracting the interference signals from the transmitting signals that are suitably tuned according to the interaction between multiple antennas. This is because the self-interference signals do not depend on the environments. Then, the proposed technique can be done on the manufacturing process. The paper presents the comparison between the MC full-duplex single-channel systems with and without the proposed technique. The channel capacity performance is the key performance used to indicate the merit of proposed technique. The results show that the proposed technique is not only to suppress the interference but also to improve the system performance capacity.

The concept of transmitting and receiving mutual impedances is employed to incorporate the antenna MC effect into the correlated channel model.


In fact, siblings of children with disabilities and chronic illnesses can experience numerous experiences related to this peculiar situation, as less parental attention, changing roles, structure and family activities, identification with the disabled child, feelings of guilt or shame, as well as negative reactions from people outside the family. The difficulties may be even more pronounced in small families, in which the task of care of a disabled child cannot be divided easily and there are no other siblings to compensate for the lack of parental attention. Furthermore, the increase of stress in the parents can generate concomitant or residual adverse effects in those siblings (Oliveira 2009) .

Furthermore, the increase of stress in the parents can generate concomitant or residual adverse effects in those siblings.


Background Based Conversations (BBCs) have demonstrated a potential for generating more informative responses (Zhou, Prabhumoye, and Black 2018) . Given some background knowledge (e.g., an article in the form of free text) and a conversation, the BBC task is to generate responses by referring to the background knowledge and considering the dialogue history context at the same time. A key challenge in BBCs is Knowledge Selection (KS), which is the task of finding the appropriate background knowledge (e.g., a text fragment about a movie plot) based on which the next response is to be generated.

Background Based Conversations (BBCs) have demonstrated a potential for generating more informative responses.


The prevalence for all potential DDIs in patients treated in the primary care setting was 63%. Rates ranging from 9.2% to 78.8% have been described in patients under ambulatory care for all potential DDIs [11, 30] . This broad range of prevalence values may be partially explained by factors such as study design, methodology, definitions, characteristics of the population, number of medications prescribed, therapeutic traditions and compendium of drug interactions [10, 30, 31] .

Rates ranging from 9.2% to 78.8% have been described in patients under ambulatory care for all potential DDIs.

This broad range of prevalence values may be partially explained by factors such as study design, methodology, definitions, characteristics of the population, number of medications prescribed, therapeutic traditions and compendium of drug interactions.


A special credit has been paid in the past to the study of the ionospheric Alfvén resonator (IAR) that arises due to a strong increase in the Alfvén wave refractive index in the ionosphere (Polyakov, 1976; Polyakov and Rapoport, 1981) . The resonator lower boundary coincides with the E-layer where nearly all plasma parameters undergo a strong jump. The upper boundary is located at a few thousands of kilometers from the Earth's surface due to the reflection of the IAR eigenmodes caused by a nearly exponential decrease in plasma density above the maximum of the F-layer. The latter results in the violation of the WKB approximation and partial wave reflections that form a resonance cavity in the topside ionosphere. The same cavity serves as the waveguide for the fast/compressional mode.

A special credit has been paid in the past to the study of the ionospheric Alfvén resonator (IAR) that arises due to a strong increase in the Alfvén wave refractive index in the ionosphere.


It is of common knowledge that traditional mechanisms of the IAR excitation, such as feedback instability, become less important in the mid-and low-latitudes. In these regions of the ionosphere the electric fields are basically generated by neutral winds (Kelley, 1989) . As a result, we have restricted our consideration to high-altitude winds. In part, this mechanism is similar to acoustic autovibration in such a system as "a police whistle". Indeed, let us imagine a cylindrical case/shell bounded from one end and opened from another. It is known that an aerial flux externally tangent to the open end of the shell results in excitation of the aerial column eigenmodes. In such a case the energy flux coming from the external source is governed solely by the aerial column. The fluctuations of the tangent aerial flux whose frequencies are close to the aerial column eigenfrequencies in the shell can give rise to enhancement of the eigenmode magnitudes.

In these regions of the ionosphere the electric fields are basically generated by neutral winds.


Trends in consumer electronics, IT and telecommunications are imposing increasingly more stringent requirements on the performance of separable connectors. These industries are collectively demanding devices with high-speed, high bandwidth performance in addition to reduced overall dimensions. Manufacturers are thus responding by focusing development on connectors capable of operating at higher signal frequencies (up to 6 GHz as standard), with higher pin density. For applications in portable consumer electronics, high interconnection density and low formfactor are key requirements. In such devices, zero-insertion force connectors, using flexible printed circuit (FPC) cable, are a common embodiment, and mass-produced devices with minimum pitch and height of 0.3 mm and 1.5 mm, respectively, are now commercially available [1] . Although such connectors are designed for dc or low-frequency operation, concomitant requirements for small size and high speed do arise when making connections between integrated circuits and motherboards in, for example, hand-held computer devices.

In such devices, zero-insertion force connectors, using flexible printed circuit (FPC) cable, are a common embodiment, and mass-produced devices with minimum pitch and height of 0.3 mm and 1.5 mm, respectively, are now commercially available.


In the same vein, the pH of the water samples in the study areas increased from 5.89 to 7.98. This is responsible for the concentrations of free cyanide obtained from each sampling point in the study. That is, the relative concentration of free cyanide in water is largely controlled by the pH of the water [4] .

That is, the relative concentration of free cyanide in water is largely controlled by the pH of the water.


Ti-6Al-4V alloy, originally developed as an aeronautical material, has been tested as a replacement for CP-Ti, because of its high mechanical properties with sufficient corrosion resistance [9] [10] [11] . However, the cytoxicity of elemental vanadium is questionable [12, 13] . Subsequently, some researches prove that vanadium and aluminum ions released from this ternary alloy can induce cytotoxic effects or neurological disorders, respectively [14] . Also, for long term, this alloy has transferred insufficient load to adjacent bones, resulting in bone resorption and eventual loosening of the implant [15, 16] .

Ti-6Al-4V alloy, originally developed as an aeronautical material, has been tested as a replacement for CP-Ti, because of its high mechanical properties with sufficient corrosion resistance.

However, the cytoxicity of elemental vanadium is questionable.

Subsequently, some researches prove that vanadium and aluminum ions released from this ternary alloy can induce cytotoxic effects or neurological disorders, respectively.

Also, for long term, this alloy has transferred insufficient load to adjacent bones, resulting in bone resorption and eventual loosening of the implant.


The power cable used is trefoil formed, PVC insulated, unarmoured, single core copper wire, 35 mm 2 cross-sectional area, with a length of 1 km, and a fundamental design current of 185 A. The distribution transformer is a dry-type, star-star connected transformer with the nameplate ratings of 2 MVA and 6300 V/ 400 V, where its per-unit winding eddy-current loss under rated conditions is measured as 0.231 [23] . The reactive power supplied by the fixed capacitor bank is given as 100 kvar (per-phase). Consequentially, the calculated system data for the equivalent single-phase mode is provided in Table 1 . Harmonic components of single-phase background voltage and non-linear load current (referred to the primary side of the transformer) are given in Table 2 . Also, the simulation results of the uncompensated system are shown in Table 3 .

The power cable used is trefoil formed, PVC insulated, unarmoured, single core copper wire, 35 mm 2 cross-sectional area, with a length of 1 km, and a fundamental design current of 185 A. The distribution transformer is a dry-type, star-star connected transformer with the nameplate ratings of 2 MVA and 6300 V/ 400 V, where its per-unit winding eddy-current loss under rated conditions is measured as 0.231.


Most consumers think about mitigating the harmonic distortion only when they suffer from low-power factor and pay the price directly in cash or indirectly in technical problems caused by the ineffective use of their equipment because of the operation in a distorted non-sinusoidal environment. In this context, despite their different corresponding losses, an ampere drawn at any harmonic order is evaluated the same as the ampere drawn at the fundamental frequency. Furthermore, all harmonic frequencies are unreasonably assumed to have the same effect on the system losses [6] . The main possible reason is that most of the conventional methods of energy metering do not take into account harmonic distortion, and consequently harmonic distortion penalties and incentives may be underway in research, but are not applied yet in practice [7] .

Furthermore, all harmonic frequencies are unreasonably assumed to have the same effect on the system losses.

The main possible reason is that most of the conventional methods of energy metering do not take into account harmonic distortion, and consequently harmonic distortion penalties and incentives may be underway in research, but are not applied yet in practice.


The undesirable effects of non-sinusoidal conditions in a power system are usually related to the increase of the equipment losses. Nowadays, the structure of the power system networks continues its complication because of the growth of the distributed generationbased renewable energy technologies, and the advance in the use of non-linear loads. Thus, much attention should be paid to power system harmonic distortion to meet the present and future requirements of quality of electric power systems [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] .

Thus, much attention should be paid to power system harmonic distortion to meet the present and future requirements of quality of electric power systems.


As described above there were two measures of presence: subjective and objective. First we will present the results of the subjective measure from the UCL questionnaire, which consists of 13 questions. Participants were to answer the questions on a 7-point Likert scale. The topics covered are: the sense of being in the Virtual Environment (VE), the extent to which the VE becomes the dominant reality, and the extent to which the VE is remembered as a place. Three of those 13 questions are used to measure the reported behavioral presence based on studies indicating that behaviors as a response to stressful stimuli and reported behavioral presence correlate. Therefore a participant would react with more pit-avoidance, the more real the precipice would seem. Another three questions measure reported ease of locomotion -the ability to navigate effortless in the virtual world. The remaining seven questions measure the reported presence: the "sense of being" in a place or environment (e.g. a virtual environment) even when one is physically situated in another [18] .

The remaining seven questions measure the reported presence: the "sense of being" in a place or environment (e.g. a virtual environment) even when one is physically situated in another.


Increasing the ionic conductivity and their lithium ion transport number of said SPEs would further boost their use, since the main challenge is to combine mechanical stability with ionic conductivity. The main conduction mechanism in SPEs is the ionic transport through the segmental motion of the polymer main chain, which in this context constitutes a paradox: a more flexible polymer can transport ions better, but then fails in terms of rigidity [11] . The popular use of low-T g polyethers, such as poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO), rely on the dissolution of lithium salt though the interaction of ether groups found in the main chain, and increasing the temperature increases the segmental motion and thus the ionic conductivity. One way to further increase the flexibility of the functional ether group, and simultaneously reduce the non-conductive crystalline domains, is to lace the ether groups outside the main chain as in a comb polymer [12] . Comb polymers hold the promise of higher ionic conduction since the mobility of the side chain is higher than for the polymer backbone. Here, the main chain could for example be a polyacrylate with oligoether side chains giving higher ionic conductivity due to increased flexibility [13, 14] . A problem faced by increasing the flexibility of the polymer is that the material becomes softer and thus loose its mechanical properties, which also holds true for comb polymers. One way to overcome this problem is to use a block copolymer (BCP) design approach, where the blocks separate into discrete phases such as a soft ionic conducting phase and a hard mechanically stable phase [15] [16] [17] .

The main conduction mechanism in SPEs is the ionic transport through the segmental motion of the polymer main chain, which in this context constitutes a paradox: a more flexible polymer can transport ions better, but then fails in terms of rigidity.

One way to further increase the flexibility of the functional ether group, and simultaneously reduce the non-conductive crystalline domains, is to lace the ether groups outside the main chain as in a comb polymer.

Here, the main chain could for example be a polyacrylate with oligoether side chains giving higher ionic conductivity due to increased flexibility.

One way to overcome this problem is to use a block copolymer (BCP) design approach, where the blocks separate into discrete phases such as a soft ionic conducting phase and a hard mechanically stable phase.


BCP electrolytes constitute complex systems, comprising several variables in terms of polymer composition, salt concentration, and morphological organization. Yet, understanding phase behavior in BCPs with added salts, and how these phases behave over a wide temperature range, need to be understood in order to link ionic conductivity and mechanics requirements, since this is fundamental for the development of mechanically robust SPEs with good lithium ion conduction [18, 19] . Phase separation becomes an important issue for systems where salt addition has the possibility to induce phase separation. While many different BCP SPE systems have been evaluated throughout the years, the most studied system so far is the polystyrene-polyethylenoxide (PS-PEO) copolymers where ionic conductivity, mechanical properties and micro phase separation have been studied in depth [20] [21] [22] [23] .

Yet, understanding phase behavior in BCPs with added salts, and how these phases behave over a wide temperature range, need to be understood in order to link ionic conductivity and mechanics requirements, since this is fundamental for the development of mechanically robust SPEs with good lithium ion conduction.

While many different BCP SPE systems have been evaluated throughout the years, the most studied system so far is the polystyrene-polyethylenoxide (PS-PEO) copolymers where ionic conductivity, mechanical properties and micro phase separation have been studied in depth.


One drawback with working with PEO is that it's SPEs are generally semi-crystalline below 60°C, which has a negative impact on the ionic conductivity [24] . One way to avoid this is to move the PEO functionality to a side-chain in the polymer, thus creating a comb copolymer. We have previously synthesized and studied two such comb copolymer systems in order to study the effect of random copolymerization compared to block copolymerization, where both the ionic conductivity and the miscibility of the blocks were studied [12, 25] . An interesting finding was that the BAB block copolymer, where B is methyl methacrylate and A oligo(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate, did not microphase separate. From an application point of view this is not desirable, since the hypothesis is that by separating hydrophobic and hydrophilic constituents on the same polymer chain, a local nano-scale ordering of these segments with different polarity can be realized, promoting both ionic conductivity and mechanical stability. This can, in turn, result in better power performance of the batteries.

One drawback with working with PEO is that it's SPEs are generally semi-crystalline below 60°C, which has a negative impact on the ionic conductivity.

We have previously synthesized and studied two such comb copolymer systems in order to study the effect of random copolymerization compared to block copolymerization, where both the ionic conductivity and the miscibility of the blocks were studied.


The electrolytes used today constitute a major threat to Li-battery safety [1] [2] [3] [4] . Replacing flammable and harmful liquid electrolytes with solid polymer electrolytes (SPEs) would drastically improve this situation. SPE materials are today well-known for energy storage applications, but still suffer from too low ionic conductivity for most commercial products. However, with an increase in operating temperature to 60°C-80°C, which is not an obstacle for electric vehicles, their ionic conductivity increases drastically [5] [6] [7] . Energy storage materials made from polymers are therefore certainly an interesting option for these applications and the SPE area can be foreseen to experience a renaissance during the coming decade(s) [8] [9] [10] .

The electrolytes used today constitute a major threat to Li-battery safety.

However, with an increase in operating temperature to 60°C-80°C, which is not an obstacle for electric vehicles, their ionic conductivity increases drastically.

Energy storage materials made from polymers are therefore certainly an interesting option for these applications and the SPE area can be foreseen to experience a renaissance during the coming decade(s).


Traces generated by FONTS not only help to overcome the paucity of information on lightpath utilization in the real world, but also help in the comprehensive validation of resource provisioning strategies by simulating complex scenarios created by the play of multiple variables in the reservation system. FONTS recognizes the switching nodes in an optical network but is independent of their interconnection. Hence it is scalable and can also be used to model network traffic in existing networks. It has been used in the DWDM-RAM project to ascertain network blocking probability results [13] . It is also being used by the authors in validating the effects of novel scheduling algorithms for lightpath provisioning [9] . In this paper we use FONTS to study the effect of traffic distribution on the rejection probability, while the effect on utilization is currently being studied. In keeping with the philosophy of exposing services through web portals, a web interface to FONTS has been developed. Traces can be configured, generated, evaluated, and downloaded via this interface [11] .

It has been used in the DWDM-RAM project to ascertain network blocking probability results.

It is also being used by the authors in validating the effects of novel scheduling algorithms for lightpath provisioning.

Traces can be configured, generated, evaluated, and downloaded via this interface.


Some of these systems include applications using an adaptable interface, including adaptable protocols. Kunz and Black have introduced a proxy-based customization system that combines many of the above approaches [12] . They use both high-level and low-level proxies, system support for client software to be made aware of resource availability for adaptation, and the Objectspace Voyager mobile code system for dynamic distribution of code.

Kunz and Black have introduced a proxy-based customization system that combines many of the above approaches.


SIS-ECM has shown promise in a few preclinical studies that have demonstrated minimal scar formation and eventual remodelling of the material following implantation [11, 12] . One study in rats demonstrated that RVOT reconstruction with SIS-ECM patches resulted in new cardiac tissue formation in the patched areas and ventricular dimensions near normal baseline values when compared with Dacron reconstructions of the RVOT that resulted in significant ventricular dilatation [13] . The newly formed cardiac tissue was disorganized in comparison with the native myocardium but demonstrated integration of the patch into the surrounding tissue.

SIS-ECM has shown promise in a few preclinical studies that have demonstrated minimal scar formation and eventual remodelling of the material following implantation.

One study in rats demonstrated that RVOT reconstruction with SIS-ECM patches resulted in new cardiac tissue formation in the patched areas and ventricular dimensions near normal baseline values when compared with Dacron reconstructions of the RVOT that resulted in significant ventricular dilatation.


Nanoparticle size can be estimated by using UV/Vis spectroscopy and PWHM (Peak Width at Half Maximum) analysis [22] . The PWHM or FWHM (Full Width at Half Maximum) can also be used to estimate the nanoparticle size distribution in a solution. The wider the peak at half the maximum absorbance the nanoparticle size distribution is wider with larger nanoparticles. In the case of silver nanoparticles, it is known that the UV/Vis absorption spectrum is very sensitive to nanoparticle size and aggregate state since silver nanoparticles absorb the visible part of light due to the surface plasmon resonance [23] . The absorbance peak is at wavelengths of about 400 nm [24] .

Nanoparticle size can be estimated by using UV/Vis spectroscopy and PWHM (Peak Width at Half Maximum) analysis.

In the case of silver nanoparticles, it is known that the UV/Vis absorption spectrum is very sensitive to nanoparticle size and aggregate state since silver nanoparticles absorb the visible part of light due to the surface plasmon resonance.

The absorbance peak is at wavelengths of about 400 nm.


Since the time of the Egyptian and Roman Empires, silver was used to preserve drinking water from microbial contamination. In the 18 th century immigrants who came to America placed silver in milk to extend its lifetime. The use of silver for medical purposes dates back to the 8 th century. With the discovery of antibiotics at the beginning of the 20 th century, the use of silver in medicine diminished. However, due to the appearance of so-called antibiotic-resistant super bacteria, interest in studying antibiotic effects of silver revived [1] .

However, due to the appearance of so-called antibiotic-resistant super bacteria, interest in studying antibiotic effects of silver revived.


The field of built environment is plagued by information silos and lack of standardization that affects the information flow [3] . The industry which touches upon almost every aspect of human activity, is one of the most important at both the micro (things, spaces and buildings) and macro levels (campuses, cities, and regions) for IoT deployment [7, 14] . Where context is important for almost all IoT deployments, spatial nature of the built environment provides a natural and important platform that plays an important role there [5, 6, 10] . As a major platform emerging to host built environment data, BIM is an important technology to consider from IoT integration perspective. This section provides a state-of-the-art review in the area of BIM-IoT integration, Open standards within both BIM and IoT domains and the IoT deployment.

The field of built environment is plagued by information silos and lack of standardization that affects the information flow.

The industry which touches upon almost every aspect of human activity, is one of the most important at both the micro (things, spaces and buildings) and macro levels (campuses, cities, and regions) for IoT deployment.

Where context is important for almost all IoT deployments, spatial nature of the built environment provides a natural and important platform that plays an important role there.


There are growing efforts to reduce its amount. Many researcher have focused on developing structural materials which could reduce the environmental impact of packaging [2] , [3] . The Environmental Degradable Plastics (EDP) material's expansions are increasing in the packaging industry [4] . There are several areas of application, such as the food-stuff industry, as insulation material, as cushioning materials, in the pharmaceutical industry and as packaging of electrostatically sensitive products [5] , [6] , [7] , [8] , [9] , [10] . Our paper's main thrust deals with electrostatically sensitive packaging.

Many researcher have focused on developing structural materials which could reduce the environmental impact of packaging.

The Environmental Degradable Plastics (EDP) material's expansions are increasing in the packaging industry.

There are several areas of application, such as the food-stuff industry, as insulation material, as cushioning materials, in the pharmaceutical industry and as packaging of electrostatically sensitive products.


Packaging is the largest and most rapidly growing category of waste sector. In 2011, 79.9 million tonnes of waste was produced by the EU-27 states. Nearly 20 % of the produced waste was plastic [1] .

Nearly 20 % of the produced waste was plastic.


Consumer perception of information is directly related to cognition [17] . However, consumers' level of cognitive innovativeness plays a significant moderating role between the influencing factors (such as web aesthetics) and the consumers' online shopping experience [18] . Yet, the role of cognitive innovativeness on the use of e-commerce toward new product purchasing intention has not been examined.

Consumer perception of information is directly related to cognition.

However, consumers' level of cognitive innovativeness plays a significant moderating role between the influencing factors (such as web aesthetics) and the consumers' online shopping experience.


Moreover, gender differences can be explained in cognitive and behavioural levels [19] . Previous research has revealed that gender plays a vital role in e-commerce platforms [20, 21] . For-example, men are more focused on value gained through purchases and women focus on trustworthiness and ability to socially interact [22] . Due to the high level of uncertainty in the virtual world, individual trust is affected [23] . To better understand the gender orientation involved in online shopping, it is important to develop effective websites that will help businesses to attract and retain online consumers [20, 21] . E-commerce web design is also important because businesses can lose fifty percent due to consumer unable to find the product what they want [24] . This means that the structural assurance of the website provided by the online store has a clear understanding of the reason why consumer believe that they should shop at one specific website but not others [25] . Although the significance of website visual design and gender differences is extensively recognized in online commerce, differences in gender-based consumer cognitive innovativeness regarding the characteristics of online store influence new product purchasing intention are not well understood nor has the topic been sufficiently investigated.

Moreover, gender differences can be explained in cognitive and behavioural levels.

Previous research has revealed that gender plays a vital role in e-commerce platforms.

For-example, men are more focused on value gained through purchases and women focus on trustworthiness and ability to socially interact.

Due to the high level of uncertainty in the virtual world, individual trust is affected.

To better understand the gender orientation involved in online shopping, it is important to develop effective websites that will help businesses to attract and retain online consumers.

E-commerce web design is also important because businesses can lose fifty percent due to consumer unable to find the product what they want.

This means that the structural assurance of the website provided by the online store has a clear understanding of the reason why consumer believe that they should shop at one specific website but not others.


The overwhelming growth of the world population over the past few decades associated with consumer concern has forced the food industry to find alternatives to synthetic additives in order to meet consumers' expectations and ensuring the global quality of the food products including aspect, texture and flavor (Motarjemi, Moy, & Todd, 2014) . Due to great advances in food technology, there are currently a wide variety of additives, being estimated over 2500 different types that are used by the food industry to achieve the desired effects in food (Branen, Davidson, Salminen, & Thorngate, 2001) . Antimicrobials, antioxidants and antibrowning agents are among the additives mostly used by the food industry to preserve products for longer periods (Carocho, Barreiro, Morales, & Ferreira, 2014) .

The overwhelming growth of the world population over the past few decades associated with consumer concern has forced the food industry to find alternatives to synthetic additives in order to meet consumers' expectations and ensuring the global quality of the food products including aspect, texture and flavor.

Due to great advances in food technology, there are currently a wide variety of additives, being estimated over 2500 different types that are used by the food industry to achieve the desired effects in food.

Antimicrobials, antioxidants and antibrowning agents are among the additives mostly used by the food industry to preserve products for longer periods.


When the driving frequency is significantly high, the conductivity of the rail in the internal field can be treated as infinite and the rail behaves essentially like a perfect electric conductor (PEC). The incident magnetic field is almost totally reflected, namely the magnetic field only exists on the surface of the rail. For a PEC, the FEM would require discretisation of the volume exterior to the object between the conductor and a suitably chosen outer boundary, where a far field boundary condition should be imposed. In contrast, Boundary Element Method (BEM) based on integral formulations becomes an effective way to analyse this kind of scattering problems since meshes are only required on the surface of the object [16] .

In contrast, Boundary Element Method (BEM) based on integral formulations becomes an effective way to analyse this kind of scattering problems since meshes are only required on the surface of the object.


For typical magnetic induction sensing technique for industrial applications, the driving frequency is normally in the range of kHz to 100 kHz. Imaging samples with low conductivities such as biological tissues or ionized water is a difficult task for the low frequency magnetic induction sensing system because the eddy currents induced in the target is very weak and the receiving coil voltage is very small. High frequency magnetic induction sensing system (> MHz) emerged to solve this problem [7, 15] .

High frequency magnetic induction sensing system (> MHz) emerged to solve this problem.


Gall-formation (cecidogeny) represents one of nine major categories of arthropod damage to, or physical interaction with, plants (the Functional Feeding Groups of ; the others are external foliage feeding, piercingand-sucking, leaf-mining, seed predation, boring, palynivory, nectarivory and ovipositioning. Although the last of these categories does not strictly involve feeding, it commonly produces diagnostic markings and acid-resistant structures on leaves that can be detected in the fossil record (Pott et al. 2008) . Supplementing these categories is a range of additional fossil evidence (e.g. mouthpart structure, coprolites, detached scaleinsect shields) that helps elucidate arthropod life-strategies intimately associated with certain plant organs through time (Labandeira 1997; Tosolini and Pole 2010) .

Although the last of these categories does not strictly involve feeding, it commonly produces diagnostic markings and acid-resistant structures on leaves that can be detected in the fossil record.

Supplementing these categories is a range of additional fossil evidence (e.g. mouthpart structure, coprolites, detached scaleinsect shields) that helps elucidate arthropod life-strategies intimately associated with certain plant organs through time.


Photonic crystal (PC) has attracted much attention since the initial predictions of Yablonovitch and John [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] . This active research area has been extended to plasma PC which is expected to obtain more particular characteristics than the conventional one [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] . It is well known that electromagnetic waves with frequency below plasma frequency cannot propagate through a bulk plasma; if dielectric components are introduced periodically, it is possible for electromagnetic waves to be guided below the plasma frequency, and photonic band gaps (PBG) can be formed attributing to the surface plasma polarization.

Photonic crystal (PC) has attracted much attention since the initial predictions of Yablonovitch and John.

This active research area has been extended to plasma PC which is expected to obtain more particular characteristics than the conventional one.


The clinical manifestation of the disease has changed to a less aggressive form compared to the pre-antibiotic era. The usual presentation is now an indolent, slowly progressive pneumonia with fever, weight loss, cough, sputum and chest pain. The symptoms and clinical and radiologic signs mimic malignancy or tuberculosis [1] . If the disease progresses to the proximal airway and vessels, life-threatening complications such as massive haemoptysis or bronchoesophageal fistula may occur. The course of the disease depends largely on adequate and early antibiotic therapy. The principal treatment of actinomycosis is long-term use of high-dose intravenous penicillin. However, many recent studies have reported that the short-term treatment is successful and that the traditional intensive, long-term regimen is not necessary [8, 9] . In the setting of abscess, percutaneous drainage in combination with medical therapy may be an option [2] . Surgical resection may be a valid option for patients who do not respond to antibiotics for up to 12 weeks according to a recent study [8] .

The symptoms and clinical and radiologic signs mimic malignancy or tuberculosis.

However, many recent studies have reported that the short-term treatment is successful and that the traditional intensive, long-term regimen is not necessary.

In the setting of abscess, percutaneous drainage in combination with medical therapy may be an option.

Surgical resection may be a valid option for patients who do not respond to antibiotics for up to 12 weeks according to a recent study.


Even though ADHD was not described in literature of traditional Oriental medicine, in traditional Oriental medical theory, ADHD is related to congenital deficiency or insufficient postnatal nourishment that leads to imbalances in the body. It is suggested that the disorder is related to the heart, the liver, the spleen, and the kidneys [16] . TOHM is believed to work by adjusting the inner imbalances of ADHD patients and thereby relieving the symptoms.

It is suggested that the disorder is related to the heart, the liver, the spleen, and the kidneys.


This study identified three distinctive trajectories of both internalizing and externalizing behavioral adjustments, comparable to previous research [10] . The majority of the children (53 %) showed no behavioral problems during the entire treatment as reported by parents. A smaller group of children (24 %) showed adjustment problems at diagnosis, but recovered at the end of treatment to normal. Adjustment problems that not returned to normal were present in a substantial group of children (19 %). Severe maladjustment was present in a small but substantial group of the patients (4 %), experiencing high levels of both internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems. Thus, most children diagnosed with ALL seem to adjust relatively well regarding their psychosocial well-being.

This study identified three distinctive trajectories of both internalizing and externalizing behavioral adjustments, comparable to previous research.


In the 2018 Tour de France, 12 different manufacturers provided the wheels for the 22 participating racing teams (Radley, 2018) . In addition, each manufacturer had several wheels in their catalogue. The wheel selection from this large variety of commercially available options should ideally be based on their performance in terms of aerodynamic drag, weight, inertia and stiffness (Kyle, 1995) . Earlier research has shown that the drag of both wheels can be responsible for about 10% of the combined cyclist-bicycle aerodynamic drag (Greenwell et al., 1995) . In addition, it is well-known that the overall aerodynamic drag provides by far the largest contribution (up to 90% or more) to the total resistance of a cyclist riding at racing speeds on flat terrain (Kyle and Burke, 1984) . From this perspective, even small aerodynamic improvements in different types of equipment can be effective to enhance the performance of a cyclist. Therefore, the accurate and reliable assessment and optimization of the aerodynamic performance of cycling wheels is of large importance.

In the 2018 Tour de France, 12 different manufacturers provided the wheels for the 22 participating racing teams.

The wheel selection from this large variety of commercially available options should ideally be based on their performance in terms of aerodynamic drag, weight, inertia and stiffness.

Earlier research has shown that the drag of both wheels can be responsible for about 10% of the combined cyclist-bicycle aerodynamic drag.

In addition, it is well-known that the overall aerodynamic drag provides by far the largest contribution (up to 90% or more) to the total resistance of a cyclist riding at racing speeds on flat terrain.


To determine whether skin-induced suppression that ameliorates TNBS-colitis is mediated by antiinflammatory cytokines, culture supernatants produced by splenocytes isolated from mice EC treated with TNP-Ig or PBS prior to colitis induction were tested for the presence of IL-4, IL-10 and TGF-b. Data presented in Figure 3C showed that EC immunization with TNP-Ig prior to disease induction results in increased production of IL-10 by MLN when compared with animals that were EC treated with PBS before colitis induction. IL-10 itself functions as an anti-inflammatory cytokine, and limits excessive tissue disruption caused by inflammation. Thus, it is possible that observed amelioration of the disease in our system after skin patching with TNP-Ig is partly mediated by IL-10. Our finding is in line with report from other laboratories showing that indeed IL-10 plays an important role in controlling inflammatory response during TNBS-colitis [4, 28] . However, other sources of these cytokine are possible. Further experiments are required to determine the source of antiinflammatory cytokines in our system.

Our finding is in line with report from other laboratories showing that indeed IL-10 plays an important role in controlling inflammatory response during TNBS-colitis.


We will assume that the reader is familiar with locally compact groupoids and their associated convolution algebras [18, 50] . All Hilbert spaces are assumed to be separable. For such a Hilbert space H, we denote by B(H) the bounded operators on H and by K(H) the compact operators on H. Inner products on Hilbert modules and Hilbert spaces are assumed to be conjugate-linear in the left variable and linear in the right.

We will assume that the reader is familiar with locally compact groupoids and their associated convolution algebras.


It causes the body's immune system to recognize the virus and destroy it (Russell et al., 2006) . This physiological function of NA is inhabitable by a sialic acid analog inhibitor (Xu et al., 2008) . According to previous research,osetamivir is obtained from a synthetic process between aquinic acid natural products compound and active shikimic acid on NA in influenza virus types A and B.

It causes the body's immune system to recognize the virus and destroy it.

This physiological function of NA is inhabitable by a sialic acid analog inhibitor.


We sought to identify risk factors that might be amenable to intervention among vulnerable subgroups, particularly nulliparous and NHB women. Although obesity did not remain statistically significant in the final predictive model in the full sample, we found that obesity was more strongly predictive of PTB among nulliparous women than among parous women, as has been previously documented [26] [27] [28] . For nulliparous women, obesity may provide one marker for who may be at higher risk of PTB, and suggests that more research is warranted to inform care management interventions for this high risk group.

Although obesity did not remain statistically significant in the final predictive model in the full sample, we found that obesity was more strongly predictive of PTB among nulliparous women than among parous women, as has been previously documented.


When performance bounds subject to average data-rate constraints are sought, there are relatively fewer results available. There exist lower bounds on the mean square norm of the plant state that make explicit the fact that, as the average data-rate approaches the absolute minimum for stability, the performance becomes arbitrarily poor when disturbances are present [2, 3] . This holds irrespective of how the coder, decoder and controller are chosen. Unfortunately, it is unclear whether or not these bounds are tight in general [3] .

There exist lower bounds on the mean square norm of the plant state that make explicit the fact that, as the average data-rate approaches the absolute minimum for stability, the performance becomes arbitrarily poor when disturbances are present.

Unfortunately, it is unclear whether or not these bounds are tight in general.


The study of control systems subject to communication constraints has recently received much attention in the control community (see, e.g., the papers in the special issue [1] ). Within this framework, a key question relates to the trade-offs between control objectives and communication constraints. This paper focuses on the interplay between average data-rate constraints (in bits per sample) and stationary performance in a class of networked control systems (NCSs).

The study of control systems subject to communication constraints has recently received much attention in the control community (see, e.g., the papers in the special issue).


The common method to study competency is under skepticism [14] . The validity of "competencies" as measurable constructs appears to be at the core of this controversy [15] . Specifically, the process of deriving competencies requires a rather large inferential leap which is too subjective [2] . For BET, which require the employee to tell the most successful and unsuccessful events, may exist the flash effect. And the employee may just tell the most profound part in their memory which may not be the key factors lead to the performance. And some scholars resort to questionnaire or interview which is also subjective.

The common method to study competency is under skepticism.

The validity of "competencies" as measurable constructs appears to be at the core of this controversy.

Specifically, the process of deriving competencies requires a rather large inferential leap which is too subjective.


The program chose fit indices as follows: Chi-square (X 2 ), NNFI and CFI (critical value is 0.9), RMSEA (critical value is 0.08) [19] . X 2 goodness-of-fit test is the most often used measure standard about a models degree of total fit. According to the critical values of each index, the data in Table 1 showed that the structural equation model described in Figure 1 fit the observed data; the fit indices were comparatively perfect. In this paper, RMSEA equaled 0.06 and less than 0.08 (RMSEA＝0.06 <0.08). The absolute index RMSEA weighed the fit degree between the theoretical model and sample data [19] . This indicated that observed data's ability to interpret knowledge task process with a 9-factors model showed in Figure 2 . The knowledge task process of existing nine factors and the structural relation which metacognition controlled the other mind operations was also verified. Knowledge task process can be interpreted by mind operational concept structure showed in Figure  2 . The nine factors were comprised of metacogniton and other eight factors controlled by metacognition.

The program chose fit indices as follows: Chi-square (X 2 ), NNFI and CFI (critical value is 0.9), RMSEA (critical value is 0.08).

The absolute index RMSEA weighed the fit degree between the theoretical model and sample data.


Wood is a naturally grown material and therefore is gaining popularity for its sustainability as well as its ecological and often also aesthetic advantages over other construction materials. However, the natural growing process also leads to fluctuations in both morphological features and mechanical properties. The morphology is dominated by the fibre course, which in turn is strongly influenced by knots (Phillips et al. 1981) . On the microscale, wood shows an orthotropic material behaviour: the stiffness and strength values are orders of magnitude higher in longitudinal direction of the fibre than in the radial or tangential direction. Since the material orientation follows the fibre course, complex stress and strain fields are observed within naturally grown wood even under simplest loading conditions (Hankinson 1921; Goodman and Bodig 1978) . Thus, the morphological fluctuations have direct impact on the mechanical behaviour of wood.

The morphology is dominated by the fibre course, which in turn is strongly influenced by knots.

Since the material orientation follows the fibre course, complex stress and strain fields are observed within naturally grown wood even under simplest loading conditions.


In the PRISON III trial we compared two zotarolimuseluting stents (ZES), the Endeavor ZES and the Resolute ZES (both Medtronic Inc., Minneapolis, MN, USA), with SES in patients treated for TCO [14] . Results after 1 year demonstrated similar efficacy and safety of the Resolute ZES compared with SES. However, the lesions treated with the Endeavor ZES showed a higher rate of late luminal loss, and a trend towards an increased rate of target lesion revascularization compared with SES. Furthermore, no stent thrombosis was observed in the Endeavor ZES or Resolute ZES groups, and only one possible stent thrombosis after SES implantation. Longer follow-up of this cohort is needed to observe the occurrence of VLST.

In the PRISON III trial we compared two zotarolimuseluting stents (ZES), the Endeavor ZES and the Resolute ZES (both Medtronic Inc., Minneapolis, MN, USA), with SES in patients treated for TCO.


In the discrete Nagumo equation, a similar result cannot be true for small d [ 121. This difference between the continuous and the discrete model has led, for instance, to new insights regarding the formation of spiral waves [ 131. There are already some results known for the discrete Nagumo equation. The first results were concerned with threshold properties of the system, in particular, with conditions forcing nonconvergence to zero of solutions as time approaches infinity and with bounds on the speed of propagation of a "wave of excitation" [3,4-J. It has been conjectured that there are traveling wave solutions of (1 ), i.e., solutions of the form u,( 2) = U(n + ct) with U( -co) = 0 and U( cc ) = 1. Numerically, such solutions were found and analyzed for certain cubic polynomials f [6] . In [S], a first attempt was made to prove the existence of traveling wave solutions; unfortunately the proof given in [S] was not conclusive. It is the aim of this paper to give a rigorous proof of the conjectured existence of traveling wave solutions for sufficiently large d. The precise statement of the result is: THEOREM 1. Suppose f is a Lipschitz continuous function satisfying (2) . Then there exists some d* ~0 such that for d>d* the discrete Nagumo equation (1) admits a solution u,(t) = U(n + ct), where c > 0, UoC'(R,(O,l)), U(-co)=O, U(co)=l, and U'(x)>OforaNxER.

Numerically, such solutions were found and analyzed for certain cubic polynomials f.

Suppose f is a Lipschitz continuous function satisfying.


A typical example is the cubic polynomial f(x) = x(x -a)( 1 -x), where O<a<i. Equation (1) is interesting for several reasons. First, it is the discrete analogue to the well-known Nagumo equation [9] , $=D$+f(u).

First, it is the discrete analogue to the well-known Nagumo equation, $=D$+f(u).


The production of a W boson in association with jets represents one of the most prominent classes of processes at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Thanks to the high cross section and clean experimental signature, W + jet production can be probed with high accuracy over a wide range of jet multiplicities and energy scales [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] . Such measurements provide a powerful testing ground for the Standard Model as well as for perturbative QCD methods and tools that build the fundament of all theoretical simulations of high-energy collisions at hadron colliders. The process pp → W + jets represents also an important background to various benchmark Standard Model reactions, such as tt, single-top, diboson and Higgs-boson production. Moreover W + multijet production is the dominant background in several searches of physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM) that are based on signatures with leptons, missing energy, and jets. In this context, precise theoretical predictions and reliable uncertainty estimates for the W + multijet background can play a critical role for the precision of the measurements and the sensitivity to new phenomena. In particular, the accuracy of theoretical simulations of W + multijet production at large transverse momentum and high jet multiplicity is very important for BSM searches at the TeV scale.

Thanks to the high cross section and clean experimental signature, W + jet production can be probed with high accuracy over a wide range of jet multiplicities and energy scales.


Recently, lee waves made up of high vertical modes have been observed at underwater ridges and continental shelves. Large-amplitude nonlinear waves were observed breaking near the crest of the underwater ridge between Oahu and Kauii (Levine & Boyd 2006; Klymak, Pinkel & Rainville 2008) . These breaking waves led to vertical displacements of over 100 m, and drove large viscous dissipation and mixing. Since the vertical wavelength was only a fraction of the local water depth and obstacle height, we loosely term them 'high mode'. Recent numerical work demonstrates that these high-mode waves are formed at the topographic break during off-ridge tidal flow (Legg & Klymak 2008) . When the tide reverses the waves propagate on-ridge, much like lee waves released from tidal flows over sills in fjords (Farmer & Smith 1980; Klymak & Gregg 2003) . Similar phenomena have been implicated in mixing on the Oregon continental slope (Nash et al. 2007) .

Large-amplitude nonlinear waves were observed breaking near the crest of the underwater ridge between Oahu and Kauii.

Recent numerical work demonstrates that these high-mode waves are formed at the topographic break during off-ridge tidal flow.

When the tide reverses the waves propagate on-ridge, much like lee waves released from tidal flows over sills in fjords.

Similar phenomena have been implicated in mixing on the Oregon continental slope.


In general, the biochemical content of bivalve oocytes, aimed at establishing spawning quality criteria, has only been characterised for conditioned broodstock [9, 17] . The study of oocytes released by 'wild' broodstock will contribute to the definition of quality indices. Such indices can be applied to hatcheries and aquaculture ongrowing systems and can also contribute to the knowledge of the oyster reproduction potential in Europe.

In general, the biochemical content of bivalve oocytes, aimed at establishing spawning quality criteria, has only been characterised for conditioned broodstock.


Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are used for a wide range of missions [1] . They could be utilized within several kinds of warfare like reconnaissance, battle management, chemicalbiological warfare, information warfare, and so forth. They may also be included in other possible warfare such as command/control, force protection, suppression of enemy air defenses, and mine counter measures and psychological operations [2] . But with shared wireless communication media, they are highly sensitive to denial it of service attacks [3] . Jamming is one of these attacks. It is a malicious attack whose objective is to disrupt the communication of the victim network intentionally causing interference or collision at the receiver side [4] .

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are used for a wide range of missions.

They may also be included in other possible warfare such as command/control, force protection, suppression of enemy air defenses, and mine counter measures and psychological operations.

But with shared wireless communication media, they are highly sensitive to denial it of service attacks.

Jamming is one of these attacks.

It is a malicious attack whose objective is to disrupt the communication of the victim network intentionally causing interference or collision at the receiver side.


Environments 2017, 4, 52 11 of 14 major rationalization process. The year 2016 saw the first tariff increment in 15 years as electricity prices increased by up to 45% [42] . Further hikes in tariff are being forecasted, as according to the Vision 2030 policy framework, by year 2020, utility subsidies are set to be cut by around 54 Billion US$ [43] . The trend in increasing the electricity tariff is expected to also motivate the building sector to adopt sustainability measures. Since 1950s the life style in Saudi Arabia has greatly changed. The society has seen a transformation from a Bedouin lifestyle to a modern urban one. The nature of dwellings has been completely revolutionized. For example tents and shelters, that used to be a common housing feature, are almost nonexistent now. Traditional dwellings, employing vernacular architectural techniques such as courtyards and wind towers, were made of construction materials including clay (adobe), coral, limestone, and wood. These have been replaced by concrete and steel built housing, exhibiting weaker thermal characteristics [44] . The modern buildings, also owing to their huge air conditioning load, have a comparatively large energy and environmental footprint.

The year 2016 saw the first tariff increment in 15 years as electricity prices increased by up to 45%.

Further hikes in tariff are being forecasted, as according to the Vision 2030 policy framework, by year 2020, utility subsidies are set to be cut by around 54 Billion US$.

These have been replaced by concrete and steel built housing, exhibiting weaker thermal characteristics.