Commodity interaction in Freight movement models for Greater Sydney

Central to freight movement models is an understanding of where the freight commodities are produced and consumed. An important driver in the production and/or consumption of each commodity is the production and consumption of other commodities. In this paper, these important interactions between commodities are captured in a path based freight model which incorporates models of commodity production and consumption. We identify the key factors driving the consumption and production of each commodity together with their elasticities. To be suitable for forecasting and policy testing, the estimated models are transformed into linked logit models that allow for important policy measures such as accessibility and commodity generation powers to be estimated. The proposed model has been implemented to generate the amount of commodity of each type produced and consumed in each state of Australia with illustrations of how the production and/or consumption of one commodity triggers the production and/or consumption of others commodities. When built into an integrated transport and land use model system, this capability adds a richness to the way in which freight movements influence and hence impact on the performance of the entire transport network, for both passenger and freight

Jihadist Web Postings and Popular Social Media: A Forensic Psychological Analysis

The development of the Internet has made it easy for individuals to communicate with others around the world, especially with the increased ease of social media. The Internet is used for interpersonal communication such as social media, meeting new people in chat rooms, joining interest distribution lists, among others leisure activities (Lennings, Amon, Brummert, & Lennings, 2010). According to Pew Research (2014), 74% of adults, with 89% of individuals ages 18-29 using social media extensively. This statistic is particularly important as it is estimated approximately 70% of the individuals recruited to engage in terrorism are ages 18 to 23 (Lennings et al., 2010)

Short term doxycycline treatment induces sustained improvement in myocardial infarction border zone contractility.

Decreased contractility in the non-ischemic border zone surrounding a MI is in part due to degradation of cardiomyocyte sarcomeric components by intracellular matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2). We recently reported that MMP-2 levels were increased in the border zone after a MI and that treatment with doxycycline for two weeks after MI was associated with normalization of MMP-2 levels and improvement in ex-vivo contractile protein developed force in the myocardial border zone. The purpose of the current study was to determine if there is a sustained effect of short term treatment with doxycycline (Dox) on border zone function in a large animal model of antero-apical myocardial infarction (MI). Antero-apical MI was created in 14 sheep. Seven sheep received doxycycline 0.8 mg/kg/hr IV for two weeks. Cardiac MRI was performed two weeks before, and then two and six weeks after MI. Two sheep died prior to MRI at six weeks from surgical/anesthesia-related causes. The remaining 12 sheep completed the protocol. Doxycycline induced a sustained reduction in intracellular MMP-2 by Western blot (3649±643 MI+Dox vs 9236±114 MI relative intensity; p = 0.0009), an improvement in ex-vivo contractility (65.3±2.0 MI+Dox vs 39.7±0.8 MI mN/mm2; p<0.0001) and an increase in ventricular wall thickness at end-systole 1.0 cm from the infarct edge (12.4±0.6 MI+Dox vs 10.0±0.5 MI mm; p = 0.0095). Administration of doxycycline for a limited two week period is associated with a sustained improvement in ex-vivo contractility and an increase in wall thickness at end-systole in the border zone six weeks after MI. These findings were associated with a reduction in intracellular MMP-2 activity

Evolution of the Bianchi I, the Bianchi III and the Kantowski-Sachs Universe: Isotropization and Inflation

We study the Einstein-Klein-Gordon equations for a convex positive potential in a Bianchi I, a Bianchi III and a Kantowski-Sachs universe. After analysing the inherent properties of the system of differential equations, the study of the asymptotic behaviors of the solutions and their stability is done for an exponential potential. The results are compared with those of Burd and Barrow. In contrast with their results, we show that for the BI case isotropy can be reached without inflation and we find new critical points which lead to new exact solutions. On the other hand we recover the result of Burd and Barrow that if inflation occurs then isotropy is always reached. The numerical integration is also done and all the asymptotical behaviors are confirmed.Comment: 22 pages, 12 figures, Self-consistent Latex2e File. To be published in Phys. Rev.

AZEuS: An Adaptive Zone Eulerian Scheme for Computational MHD

A new adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) version of the ZEUS-3D astrophysical magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) fluid code, AZEuS, is described. The AMR module in AZEuS has been completely adapted to the staggered mesh that characterises the ZEUS family of codes, on which scalar quantities are zone-centred and vector components are face-centred. In addition, for applications using static grids, it is necessary to use higher-order interpolations for prolongation to minimise the errors caused by waves crossing from a grid of one resolution to another. Finally, solutions to test problems in 1-, 2-, and 3-dimensions in both Cartesian and spherical coordinates are presented.Comment: 52 pages, 17 figures; Accepted for publication in ApJ

A matrix interpolation between classical and free max operations: I. The univariate case

Recently, Ben Arous and Voiculescu considered taking the maximum of two free random variables and brought to light a deep analogy with the operation of taking the maximum of two independent random variables. We present here a new insight on this analogy: its concrete realization based on random matrices giving an interpolation between classical and free settings.Comment: 14 page

Identification and evaluation of suitable reference genes for gene expression studies in the whitefly Bemisia tabaci (Asia I) by reverse transcription quantitative realtime PCR

This study presents a reliable method for performing reverse transcription quantitative realtime PCR (RT-qPCR) to measure gene expression in the whitefly Bemisia tabaci (Asia I) (Gennadius) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae), utilising suitable reference genes for data normalisation. We identified orthologs of commonly used reference genes (actin (ACT), cyclophilin 1 (CYP1), elongation factor 1α (EF1A), glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), ribosomal protein L13a (RPL13A), and α-tubulin (TUB1A)), measured the levels of their transcripts by RT-qPCR during development and in response to thermal stress, and evaluated their suitability as endogenous controls using geNorm, BestKeeper, and NormFinder programs. Overall, TUB1A, RPL13A, and CYP1 were the most stable reference genes during B. tabaci development, and TUB1A, GAPDH, and RPL13A were the most stable reference genes in the context of thermal stress. An analysis of the effects of reference gene choice on the transcript profile of a developmentally-regulated gene encoding vitellogenin demonstrated the importance of selecting the correct endogenous controls for RT-qPCR studies. We propose the use of TUB1A, RPL13A, and CYP1 as endogenous controls for transcript profiling studies of B. tabaci development, whereas the combination of TUB1A, GAPDH, and RPL13A should be employed for studies into thermal stress. The data pre- sented here will assist future transcript profiling studies in whiteflies