Impact of edge-removal on the centrality betweenness of the best spreaders

The control of epidemic spreading is essential to avoid potential fatal consequences and also, to lessen unforeseen socio-economic impact. The need for effective control is exemplified during the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003, which has inflicted near to a thousand deaths as well as bankruptcies of airlines and related businesses. In this article, we examine the efficacy of control strategies on the propagation of infectious diseases based on removing connections within real world airline network with the associated economic and social costs taken into account through defining appropriate quantitative measures. We uncover the surprising results that removing less busy connections can be far more effective in hindering the spread of the disease than removing the more popular connections. Since disconnecting the less popular routes tend to incur less socio-economic cost, our finding suggests the possibility of trading minimal reduction in connectivity of an important hub with efficiencies in epidemic control. In particular, we demonstrate the performance of various local epidemic control strategies, and show how our approach can predict their cost effectiveness through the spreading control characteristics.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

Calderon preconditioner for the electric field integral equation with layered medium Green's function

published_or_final_versio

Methods for fast evaluation of self-energy matrices in tight-binding modeling of electron transport systems

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The numerical steepest descent path method for calculating physical optics integrals on smooth conducting quadratic surfaces

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Corporate Brand Image: Antecedents, Mediating Role and Impact on Stakeholder Expectations

Corporate identity and image are shaped by the entirety of perceptions of a variety of stakeholders, both existing and potential ones, such as customers, suppliers, employees, general public, opinion makers, and government officials. Our study is an empirical investigation of corporate brand image and impact on one such stakeholder group made up of prospective employees. A large multinational, a technical and scientific research firm, a major recruiter of graduates from campuses of reputable universities across the nation was chosen as the subject. This paper develops and tests a path model of the antecedent factors affecting corporate brand image and specific expectations that stakeholders may have of a corporate brand. Based on a thorough literature review, a corporate brand image model that treated as antecedents the four constructs, awareness of organisation’s products, perceptions about culture, personality of the focal firm, and general expectations was proposed. Specific expectations that respondents may have about working with the firm was modeled to be influenced by the corporate brand image of the firm surveyed and also by the mentioned four antecedent constructs. The model is fitted to empirical data obtained from a national sample of 368 respondents using LISREL 8.5 methodology, and strong support was found for five, partial support for two of the nine hypotheses tested. Substantial evidence can be seen for the mediating role of corporate brand image in shaping specific expectations that stakeholders have from the corporate brand. Practical significance and managerial implications for marketing investments and organisational performance are detailed.

Compact metallic RFID tag antennas with a loop-fed method

Several compact, low profile and metal-attachable RFID tag antennas with a loop-fed method are proposed for UHF RFID systems. The structure of the proposed antennas comprise of two parts: (1) The radiator part consists of two shorted patches, which can be treated as two quarter-wave patch antennas or a cavity. (2) A small loop printed on the paper serves as the feeding structure. The small loop provides the needed inductance for the tag and is connected to the RFID chip. The input impedance of the antenna can be easily adjusted by changing loop dimensions. The antenna has the compact size of 80 mm × 25 mm × 3.5 mm, and the realized gain about -3.6 dB. The measured results show that these antennas have good performance when attached onto metallic surfaces. © 2011 IEEE.published_or_final_versio

Calderón Preconditioned PMCHWT Equations for Analyzing Penetrable Objects in Layered Medium

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Estimativa da produção de biogás a partir de dejetos suínos: Avaliação e comparação entre metodologias, aplicadas a um estudo de caso

Trabalho de Conclusão de Curso apresentado ao Instituto Latino-Americano de Tecnologia, Infraestrutura e Território da Universidade Federal da Integração Latino-Americana, como requisito parcial à obtenção do título de Bacharel em Engenharia de Energia. Orientadora: Prof.a Dra. Andreia Cristina FurtadoA busca por uma matriz energética mais sustentável com a utilização de uma menor quantidade de combustíveis fosseis é centro de pesquisa e estudos nos dias atuais. Nesse contexto, o biogás é uma ótima fonte energética, visto que é um biocombustível totalmente renovável oriundo da degradação de matéria orgânica por agentes microbiológicos. No presente estudo é avaliado e estimado a produção de biogás em uma instituição de ensino publica, com atividades voltadas para a prática e manejo na agropecuária. Atualmente a instituição possui diversas cabeças de suínos, bovinos, equinos e aves, porém a delimitação do trabalho será acerca da produção de biogás a partir dos dejetos de suínos. A estimativa de produção foi calculada a partir de três metodologias disponíveis na literatura (CIBiogás, EMBRAPA e uma adaptação da CETESB), além da estimativa futura com a criação de três cenários. No intuito de trazer dados mais fide-dignos ao estudo de caso, foi avaliado também parâmetros físico-químicos dos dejetos como sólidos totais, sólidos voláteis e pH e replicados nas metodologias apresentadas. Ao final foi estimado o volume do biodigestor necessário para atender as demandas calculas e o consumo do biogás como fonte térmica para a instituição como substituto do gás de cozinha (GLP).La búsqueda de una matriz energética más sustentable con el uso de una menor cantidad de combustibles fósiles es un centro de investigación y estudios en la actualidad. En este contexto, el biogás es una excelente fuente de energía, ya que es un biocombustible completamente renovable proveniente de la degradación de la materia orgánica por los agentes microbiológicos. En el presente estudio, se evalúa y estima la producción de biogás en una institución de educación pública, con actividades centradas en la práctica y la gestión en la agricultura. Actualmente, la institución cuenta con varias cabezas de cerdos, vacas, caballos y aves, sin embargo la delimitación del trabajo será sobre la producción de biogás a partir de estiércol. La estimación de producción se calculó a partir de tres metodologías disponibles en la literatura (CIBiogás, EMBRAPA y una adaptación de CETESB), además de la estimación futura con la creación de tres escenarios. Con la finalidad de aportar datos más fidelignos al estudio de caso, fueran evaluados tambien los parámetros fisicoquímicos de los desechos como sólidos totales, sólidos volátiles y pH también se evaluaron y replicaron en las metodologías presentadas. Al final, se estimó el volumen del biodigestor necesario para satisfacer las demandas de cálculo y el consumo de biogás como fuente térmica para la institución como sustituto del gas de cocina (GLP)

Application of dispersion relations to low-energy meson-nucleon scattering

Relativistic dispersion relations are used to derive equations for low-energy S-, P-, and D-wave meson-nucleon scattering under the assumption that the (3,3) resonance dominates the dispersion integrals. The P-wave equations so obtained differ only slightly from those of the static fixed-source theory. The conclusions of the static theory are re-examined in the light of their new derivation