Determination of aerodynamic sensitivity coefficients for wings in transonic flow

The quasianalytical approach is applied to the 3-D full potential equation to compute wing aerodynamic sensitivity coefficients in the transonic regime. Symbolic manipulation is used to reduce the effort associated with obtaining the sensitivity equations, and the large sensitivity system is solved using 'state of the art' routines. The quasianalytical approach is believed to be reasonably accurate and computationally efficient for 3-D problems

Old country passions: an international examination of country image, animosity, and affinity among ethnic consumers

Ethnic consumers are an important market segment in both traditionally multicultural countries as well as newer recipients of growing immigration movements. Such consumers may carry with them views toward "old friends and foes" which may influence their attitudes toward the products of countries perceived as friendly or hostile in relation to their original home countries. This study examines together for the first time four place-related constructs, namely, country and people images, product images, affinity, and animosity, and their potential effects on purchase intentions, juxtaposing these measures against views toward countries that may be perceived as friendly or hostile from the perspective of the ethnic consumers' homeland, alongside a neutral "benchmark" country for comparison. The results show that country/people and product images, affinity, and animosity work differently depending on the target country, product and people evaluations are influenced by both affective and cognitive factors, and attitudes vary in their predictive ability on purchase intentions, sometimes in line with earlier findings and sometimes not. Implications and directions for future research are discussed

Agricultural land-use change and disappearance of farmlands in Kaduna Metropolis-Nigeria

This study assessed agricultural land-use change in Kaduna metropolis. This study combined the use of remote sensing and geographic  information system (GIS) application to ascertain the rate of agriculturalland-use change from 1980 to 2012 in the study area. The four imageries (Landsat MSS 1980, Landsat TM 1990, Landsat ETM+ 2005 and Nigeria Sat X 2012) used were classified and compared to understand the rate and extent of agricultural land-use change during the different periods. The  findings revealed that the study area experienced a significant reduction inagricultural land and these leads to continued disappearance of farmlands. Lastly, the decrease in agricultural lands leads to loss of livelihood, reduction in food supply and increase poverty. This has raised so many concerns about the sustainability of Urban and Peri Urban Agriculture (UPA) production in the study area whereby the small scale farmers are the most affected.Key Words: Land-Use, Urban, Farmers, Remote Sensing, Geographic Information System (GIS) and Kaduna, Nigeri

Noise uncertainty effect on multi-channel cognitive radio networks

Achieving high throughput is the most important goal of cognitive radio networks. The main process in cognitive radio is spectrum sensing that targets getting vacant channels. There are many sensing methods like matched filter, feature detection, interference temperature and energy detection which is employed in the proposed system; however, energy detection suffers from noise uncertainty. In this paper a study of throughput under noise fluctuation effect is introduced. The work in this paper proposes multi-channel system; the overall multi-channel throughput is studied under noise fluctuation effect. In addition, the proficiency of the network has been examined under different number of channels and sensing time with noise uncertainty

CIR-based Adaptive K-Best Sphere Decoder for DVB-T2

Abstract-Multi-antenna processing first appeared in Digital Video Broadcasting in the 2 nd generation terrestrial system DVB-T2 by defining an optional MISO processing based on modified version of Alamouti codes in frequency domain. Decoding methods recommended by the DVB-T2 is the linear methods ZF and MMSE. In this paper we propose to use a modified K-Best Sphere Decoder (SD), to enhance the system performance in a frequency selective time varying channel with some modification to target the reduction of the fixed K-Best SD complexity to be more suitable for hardware implementations over different platforms. The proposed modified K-Best SD that we name Adaptive K-Best SD (AKBSD) exploit the channel impulse response (CIR) to measure the channel selectivity as an indicator of the channel state.BER simulations show how the performance is enhanced when applying the AKBSD method rather than the linear methods defined by the DVB-T2 implementation guide with low extra added complexity

Ethnic identity, consumer ethnocentrism, and purchase intentions among bi-cultural ethnic consumers: "divided loyalties" or “dual allegiance”?

Consumer ethnocentrism has been studied extensively in international marketing in the context of one's country of residence. This paper investigates for the first time the notion of "dual ethnocentrism", which may be encountered among ethnic consumers who have an allegiance toward, or divided loyalties between, two countries: One with which they are ethnically linked, or "home", and one where they presently live and work, or "host". The study examines the relationship between ethnic identity, dual ethnocentrism, and purchase intentions among ethnic consumers, a market segment of growing importance in research and practice. The analysis focuses on differences in the respondents' home- and host-related ethnocentrism and finds that indeed ethnocentric feelings and their effects differ depending on the country of reference. In this light, the study suggests that ethnocentrism is a considerably more complex construct than previously thought, advances our understanding of ethnicity and ethnocentrism, and discusses the theoretical and managerial implications arising from dual ethnocentrism

The Relation between Visceral and Subcutaneous Fat to Bone Mass among Egyptian Children and Adolescents

BACKGROUND: The relation between fat distribution and bone mass is still being debated in children and adolescents.AIM: To verify the influence of both visceral and subcutaneous fat on bone mass among Egyptian children and adolescents.SUBJECTS AND METHODS: The study involved 78 (38 boys and 40 girls) individuals from children (42) and adolescents (36), aged 8-17 years. They were divided into 2 age groups: children group (20 boys and 22 girls) aged 8-12 years and adolescent group (18 boys and 18 girls) aged 13-17 years. Anthropometric measurements, visceral and subcutaneous fat (measured by ultrasound), body composition, BMD and BMC (Measured by DXA), were attempted.RESULTS: Among children, significant positive correlations between visceral fat; in males; and subcutaneous fat; in females; with total BMC, BMD and its Z-score were revealed. After exclusion of age effect, the association between visceral fat in females with total BMD and its Z-score and lumbar BMD-Z-score became significant.  For adolescents, no correlation was observed between either visceral or subcutaneous fat with any parameter of bone mass.CONCLUSIONS: Visceral and subcutaneous fat had significant positive association with bone mass in children; males and females respectively. On the contrary such association disappeared during adolescence

Genotoxic and Anatomical Deteriorations Associated with Potentially Toxic Elements Accumulation in Water Hyacinth Grown in Drainage Water Resources

Potentially toxic elements (PTEs)-induced genotoxicity on aquatic plants is still an open question. Herein, a single clone from a population of water hyacinth covering a large distribution area of Nile River (freshwater) was transplanted in two drainage water resources to explore the hazardous effect of PTEs on molecular, biochemical and anatomical characters of plants compared to those grown in freshwater. Inductivity Coupled Plasma (ICP) analysis indicated that PTEs concentrations in water resources were relatively low in most cases. However, the high tendency of water hyacinth to bio-accumulate and bio-magnify PTEs maximized their concentrations in plant samples (roots in particular). A Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) assay showed the genotoxic effects of PTEs on plants grown in drainage water. PTEs accumulation caused substantial alterations in DNA profiles including the presence or absence of certain bands and even the appearance of new bands. Plants grown in drainage water exhibited several mutations on the electrophoretic profiles and banding pattern of total protein, especially proteins isolated from roots. Several anatomical deteriorations were observed on PTEs-stressed plants including reductions in the thickness of epidermis, cortex and endodermis as well as vascular cylinder diameter. The research findings of this investigation may provide some new insights regarding molecular, biochemical and anatomical responses of water hyacinth grown in drainage water resources.</jats:p

Different Tools for the Assessment of Bone Mass among Egyptian Adults

BACKGROUND: Several tools such as, dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), quantitative computed tomography (QCT) and self-assessment tool (OST), are being used for diagnosis of osteoporosis.OBJECTIVE: to compare the sensitivity and specify detection rate of bone mineral density (BMD) changes for DXA versus QCT and OST among a sample of Egyptian adults of both sexes.SUBJECTS AND METHODS: This study is a cross sectional one, which included 62 Egyptians, aged 20-65 years.  Each individual was assessed for BMD using DXA at femur and spine sites; QCT and OST which take into account body weight and age. Accordingly they were diagnosed as either osteoporotic/osteopenic or normal.RESULTS: The highest prevalence of osteopenia or osteoporosis was diagnosed among menopause women. DXA at femur has diagnosed more cases of osteoporosis (both osteopenic and osteoporotic) as compared to spine DXA or QCT, but OST is out of rang; as it failed to diagnose any case.CONCLUSION: DXA has been found to be more efficacious than QCT scan in the diagnosis of osteoporosis. DXA in femur is better than DXA-spine and QCT. Generally, DXA is the "gold standard" when assessing osteoporosis. Further studies are needed to modify the equation of OST and confirm its efficiency in Egyptians population