Innovation, the diesel engine and vehicle markets: Evidence from OECD engine patents

This paper uses a patent data set to identify factors fostering innovation of diesel engines between 1974 and 2010 in the OECD region. The propensity of engine producers to innovate grew by 1.9 standard deviations after the expansion of the car market, by 0.7 standard deviations following a shift in the EU fuel economy standard, and by 0.23 standard deviations. The propensity to develop emissions control techniques was positively influenced by pollution control laws introduced in Japan, in the US, and in the EU, but not with the expansion of the car market. Furthermore, a decline in loan rates stimulated the propensity to develop emissions control techniques, which were simultaneously crowded out by increases in publicly-funded transport research and development. Innovation activities in engine efficiency are explained by market size, loan rates and by (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) diesel prices, inclusive of taxes. Price effects on innovation, outweigh that of the US corporate average fuel economy standards. Innovation is also positively influenced by past transport research and development. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd

The Effects of Same-Sex Imagery on Affect Valence, Affect Intensity, and Behavioural Change

It has been observed that attitudes toward gay men and lesbian women have slowly improved over the last decade. However, some researchers have opined that this “improvement” may be the result of an over-emphasis on category membership (i.e., descriptions of being gay or lesbian), and the relative omission of sexual behaviour. While a sparse amount of previous research has used sexually explicit stimuli to evoke affective responses in heterosexual participants, the use of such procedures is qualified by the risk of the influence of erotophobia (i.e., a general aversion to any sexually explicit depictions). As a result, alternative stimuli, which are nonsexual but still render the targets’ sexual object choice salient to participants, have been used in lieu of more overt photographs or video clips. The present study sought to expand on previous research that has used images of gay men engaged in everyday intimacies and symbolic threats by also including similar photographs depicting lesbian women and heterosexual couples. Affective responses to each of these groups of images were recorded via feeling thermometers (valence) and a list of six basic emotions (i.e., happiness, disgust, anger, fear, sadness, and surprise). Indicators of old-fashioned and modern homonegativity were also included. Since most affect research has overlooked the intensity of the affective responses provided by participants, this study employed the novel approach of using a mouse that is capable of detecting the pressure used to click it. A multiplicative index (valence X intensity) was created as an indicator of the overall affective response for each participant. Results indicated that, contrary to predictions, images depicting lesbian women were rated as least positive compared to images of gay men and heterosexual couples. In addition, no statistically significant differences in homonegativity emerged across groups. Limitations associated with the current study and avenues for future research are delineated

Does mortality salience play a role in homophobia?

Mortality salience (MS) occurs when a person experiences greater access to thoughts of his/her own eventual death causing fear; it is said that worldview defence structures are activated in an attempt to alleviate this fear. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of mortality salience and viewing one of three sets of images (control, romantic or erotic gay imagery), on levels of homophobia. Eighty-nine male Lakehead University students were randomly assigned to one of six conditions (a 2 X 3 factorial design) and completed a questionnaire package. Neither M S nor image type had significant effects on homophobia scores. However, the MS manipulation also failed to affect the manipulation check (word completion task). While the gay images did not affect homophobia, they elicited strong negative emotional responses, particularly the erotic images, and the responses were strongly correlated with levels of homophobia. Also, religious fundamentalism and need for cognition were found to have significant independent relationships to homophobia

Estimating the grid payments necessary to compensate additional costs to prospective electric vehicle owners who provide vehicle-to-grid ancillary services

The provision of ancillary services in the smart grid by electric vehicles is attractive to grid operators. Vehicles must be aggregated to meet the minimum power requirements of providing ancillary services to the grid. Likely aggregator revenues are insufficient to cover the additional battery degradation costs which would be borne by an existing electric vehicle owner. Moreover, aggregator revenues are insufficient to make electric vehicles competitive with conventional vehicles and encourage uptake by prospective consumers. Net annual costs and hourly compensation payments to electric vehicle owners were most sensitive to battery cost. The fleet provided firm fast reserve from 1900 h for 0.42 h, up to 2.7 h in the best cases. At best, likely aggregator revenue was 20 times less than the compensation required, up to 27,500 times at worst. The electric vehicle fleet may not be large enough to meet the firm fast reserve power and duration requirements until 2020. However, it may not be until 2030 that enough vehicles have been sold to provide this service cost-effectively. Even then, many more electric vehicles will be needed to meet the power level and duration requirements, both more often and for longer to enable participation in an all-day, everyday ancillary services market.The authors acknowledge the funding provided for this work by the Oxford Martin School

Conformal Parametrisation of Loxodromes by Triples of Circles

We provide a parametrisation of a loxodrome by three specially arranged cycles. The parametrisation is covariant under fractional linear transformations of the complex plane and naturally encodes conformal properties of loxodromes. Selected geometrical examples illustrate the usage of parametrisation. Our work extends the set of objects in Lie sphere geometry---circle, lines and points---to the natural maximal conformally-invariant family, which also includes loxodromes.Comment: 14 pages. 9 PDF in four figures, AMS-LaTe

Gas-mediated charged particle beam processing of nanostructured materials

Gas mediated processing under a charged particle (electron or ion) beam enables direct-write, high resolution surface functionalization, chemical dry etching and chemical vapor deposition of a wide range of materials including catalytic metals, optoelectronic grade semiconductors and oxides. Here we highlight three recent developments of particular interest to the optical materials and nanofabrication communities: fabrication of self-supporting, three dimensional, fluorescent diamond nanostructures, electron beam induced deposition (EBID) of high purity materials via activated chemisorption, and post-growth purification of nanocrystalline EBID-grown platinum suitable for catalysis applications. © 2014 SPIE

The effect of exercise training interventions in adult kidney transplant recipients: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised control trials

Background: Kidney transplant recipients (KTRs) are characterised by adverse changes in physical fitness and body composition. Post-transplant management involves being physically active, although evidence for the effect of exercise is limited. Objective: To assess the effects of exercise training interventions in KTRs. Methods: NCBI PubMed (MEDLINE) and CENTRAL (EMBASE, WHO ICTRP) databases were searched up to March 2021 to identify eligible randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that studied exercise training in adult KTRs. Outcomes included exercise capacity, strength, blood pressure, body composition, heart rate, markers of dyslipidaemia and renal function, and health-related quality of life (QoL). Results: Sixteen RCTs, containing 827 KTRs, were included. The median intervention length was 14-weeks with participants exercising between 2–7x/week. Most studies used a mixture of aerobic and resistance exercise. Significant improvements were observed in cardiorespiratory function (VO2peak) (3.21 ml/kg/min, p = 0.003), 6MWT (76.3 meters, p = 0.009), physical function (STS-60, 4.8 repetitions, p = 0.04), and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) (0.13 mg/dL, p = 0.03). A moderate increase in maximum heart rate was seen (p = 0.06). A moderate reduction in creatinine was also observed (0.14 mg/dl, p = 0.05). Isolated studies reported improvements in strength, bone health, lean mass, and QoL. Overall, studies had high risk of bias suggestive of publication bias. Conclusions: Exercise training may confer several benefits in adult KTRs, particularly by increasing cardiorespiratory function and exercise capacity, strength, HDL levels, maximum heart rate, and improving QoL. Additional long-term large sampled RCTs, incorporating complex interventions requiring both exercise and dietary behaviour change, are needed to fully understand the effects of exercise in KTRs

Age modulates the injury-induced metallomic profile in the brain

© 2017 The Royal Society of Chemistry. The biological transition metals iron (Fe), copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn) are thought to contribute to the neuronal pathologies that occur following traumatic brain injury (TBI), and indeed our previously published work in young (3 month-old) mice clearly demonstrates a significant spatiotemporal modulation of metals following TBI. Of note, however, is the literature observation that there is both an apparent detrimental effect of aging on TBI outcomes and an alteration in metals and their various transporters with normal advancing age. Therefore, to determine whether there was an interaction between aging, metals and TBI, we have utilised laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry to examine the spatial and temporal distribution of Fe, Zn and Cu following an acute controlled cortical impact brain injury in aged (24 months) rodents. The relative abundance of metals in corresponding regions within the ipsilateral and contralateral hemispheres as well as the hippocampus was assessed. Substantial region and time point specific alterations in Fe, Zn and Cu were identified immediately and up to 28 days post-TBI. The data from this follow-up study has also been compared to our previous data from young animals, and aged mice exhibit an appreciably enhanced and persistent elevation of all metals in every region surveyed, with individual metal disparities at various time points observed post-injury. This may potentially contribute to the acceleration in the onset of cognitive decline and neurological disease that has been observed in the aged population following head trauma

Overlaps Between Autism and Language Impairment: Phenomimicry or Shared Etiology?

Traditionally, autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) and specific language impairment (SLI) are regarded as distinct conditions with separate etiologies. Yet these disorders co-occur at above chance levels, suggesting shared etiology. Simulations, however, show that additive pleiotropic genes cannot account for observed rates of language impairment in relatives, which are higher for probands with SLI than for those with ASD + language impairment. An alternative account is in terms of ‘phenomimicry’, i.e., language impairment in comorbid cases may be a consequence of ASD risk factors, and different from that seen in SLI. However, this cannot explain why molecular genetic studies have found a common risk genotype for ASD and SLI. This paper explores whether nonadditive genetic influences could account for both family and molecular findings. A modified simulation involving G × G interactions obtained levels of comorbidity and rates of impairment in relatives more consistent with observed values. The simulations further suggest that the shape of distributions of phenotypic trait scores for different genotypes may provide evidence of whether a gene is involved in epistasis