12,694 research outputs found
Implementing Session Centered Calculi
Recently, specific attention has been devoted to the development of service oriented process calculi. Besides the foundational aspects, it is also interesting to have prototype implementations for them in order to assess usability and to minimize the gap between theory and practice. Typically, these implementations are done in Java taking advantage of its mechanisms supporting network applications. However, most of the recurrent features of service oriented applications are re-implemented from scratch. In this paper we show how to implement a service oriented calculus, CaSPiS (Calculus of Services with Pipelines and Sessions) using the Java framework IMC, where recurrent mechanisms for network applications are already provided. By using the session oriented and pattern matching communication mechanisms provided by IMC, it is relatively simple to implement in Java all CaSPiS abstractions and thus to easily write the implementation in Java of a CaSPiS process
Secondary schooling and rural youth transitions in Lesotho and Zimbabwe
Based on case studies centred on two rural secondary schools in Lesotho and Zimbabwe, this paper examines the gendered impacts of schooling on young people’s transitions to adulthood. School attendance is shown, first, to disrupt the conventional pathways to adulthood: young people attending school may leave home sooner than they otherwise would, and take responsibility for their day-to-day survival, while marriage and childbearing are often delayed. More significantly, secondary schooling reflects, and contributes to, a growing sense that adulthood itself is not fixed. An alternative version of adulthood is promoted through schools in which formal sector employment is central. Yet while young people are encouraged to opt for, and work towards, this goal, only a minority are able to obtain paid employment. The apparent possibility of determining one’s own lifecourse serves to cast the majority of young people as failures in their transitions to adulthood
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CIS Modules Process R&D: Final Technical Report, October 2005 - June 2006
The primary objectives of this subcontract were to: address key near-term technical R&D issues for continued improvement in thin-film PV products; continue process development for increased production capacity; pursue long-term R&D contributing to progress toward the MYTP goals for 2020 to increase the conversion efficiency to 15% and reduce module manufacturing costs to less than 2.00/W; and advance the understanding of the requirements needed to achieve better thin-film PV cell and module performance, greater reliability and market acceptance, and investigate materials systems and new devices that can improve the cost/performance ratio of future thin-film PV factories. The demonstrated and maintained high production yield is a major accomplishment supporting attractive cost projections for CIS. Process R&D at successive levels of CIS production has led to the continued demonstration of the prerequisites for commitment to large-scale commercialization. Process and packaging R&D during this and previous subcontracts has demonstrated the potential for further cost and performance improvements
The Aggregate Factor-price Frontier in Bohm-Bawerk's Period of Production Capital Model: A Graphical Derivation
Antibody responses to nasopharyngeal carriage of Streptococcus pneumoniae in adults: A longitudinal household study
Background. Natural immunity to Streptococcus pneumoniae is thought to be induced by exposure to S. pneumoniae or cross-reactive antigens. No longitudinal studies of carriage of and immune responses to S. pneumoniae have been conducted using sophisticated immunological laboratory techniques.Methods. We enrolled 121 families with young children into this study. Nasopharyngeal (NP) swabs were collected monthly for 10 months from all family members and were cultured in a standard fashion. Cultured S. pneumoniae isolates were serotyped. At the beginning (month 0) and end (month 10) of the study, venous blood was collected from family members 118 years old. Serotype-specific antipolysaccharide immunoglobulin G (IgG) and functional antibody and antibodies to pneumolysin, pneumococcal surface protein A (PspA), and pneumococcal surface antigen A (PsaA) were measured in paired serum samples.Results. Levels of anticapsular IgG increased significantly after carriage of serotypes 9V, 14, 18C, 19F, and 23F by an individual or family member. For serotype 14, a higher level of anticapsular IgG at the beginning of the study was associated with reduced odds of carriage (P = .0006). There was a small (similar to 20%) but significant increase in titers of antibodies to PsaA and pneumolysin but no change in titers of antibody to PspA.Conclusions. Adults respond to NP carriage by mounting anticapsular and weak antiprotein antibody responses, and naturally induced anticapsular IgG can prevent carriage
Overexpression of toll-like receptors 3 and 4 in synovial tissue from patients with early rheumatoid arthritis: Toll-like receptor expression in early and longstanding arthritis
OBJECTIVE: To analyze the expression, regulation, and biologic relevance of Toll-like receptors (TLRs) 1-10 in synovial and skin fibroblasts and to determine the expression levels of TLRs 2, 3, and 4 in synovial tissues from patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (RA), longstanding RA, and osteoarthritis (OA). METHODS: Expression of TLRs 1-10 in RA synovial fibroblasts (RASFs), OASFs, and skin fibroblasts was analyzed by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Fibroblasts were stimulated with tumor necrosis factor alpha, interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta), bacterial lipopeptide, poly(I-C), lipopolysaccharide, and flagellin. Production of IL-6 was determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and induction of TLRs 2-5, matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) 3 and 13 messenger RNA by real-time PCR. Expression of TLRs 2-4 in synovial tissues was analyzed by immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: Synovial fibroblasts expressed TLRs 1-6, but not TLRs 7-10. Among the expressed TLRs, TLR-3 and TLR-4 were the most abundant in synovial fibroblasts, and stimulation of synovial fibroblasts with the TLR-3 ligand poly(I-C) led to the most pronounced increase in IL-6, MMP-3, and MMP-13. In contrast, skin fibroblasts did not up-regulate MMP-3 or MMP-13 after stimulation with any of the tested stimuli. In synovial tissues from patients with early RA, TLR-3 and TLR-4 were highly expressed and were comparable to the levels of patients with longstanding RA. These expression levels were elevated as compared with those in OA. CONCLUSION: Our findings of high expression of TLRs, particularly TLRs 3 and 4, at an early stage of RA and the reactivity of synovial fibroblasts in vitro to TLR ligands suggest that TLR signaling pathways resulting in persistent inflammation and joint destruction are activated early in the disease process
Un-reduction
This paper provides a full geometric development of a new technique called
un-reduction, for dealing with dynamics and optimal control problems posed on
spaces that are unwieldy for numerical implementation. The technique, which was
originally concieved for an application to image dynamics, uses Lagrangian
reduction by symmetry in reverse. A deeper understanding of un-reduction leads
to new developments in image matching which serve to illustrate the
mathematical power of the technique.Comment: 25 pages, revised versio
Vlasov moment flows and geodesics on the Jacobi group
By using the moment algebra of the Vlasov kinetic equation, we characterize
the integrable Bloch-Iserles system on symmetric matrices
(arXiv:math-ph/0512093) as a geodesic flow on the Jacobi group. We analyze the
corresponding Lie-Poisson structure by presenting a momentum map, which both
untangles the bracket structure and produces particle-type solutions that are
inherited from the Vlasov-like interpretation. Moreover, we show how the Vlasov
moments associated to Bloch-Iserles dynamics correspond to particular subgroup
inclusions into a group central extension (first discovered in
arXiv:math/0410100), which in turn underlies Vlasov kinetic theory. In the most
general case of Bloch-Iserles dynamics, a generalization of the Jacobi group
also emerges naturally.Comment: 45 page
Anisotropic elastic theory of preloaded granular media
A macroscopic elastic description of stresses in static, preloaded granular
media is derived systematically from the microscopic elasticity of individual
inter-grain contacts. The assumed preloaded state and friction at contacts
ensure that the network of inter-grain contacts is not altered by small
perturbations. The texture of this network, set by the preparation of the
system, is encoded in second and fourth order fabric tensors. A small
perturbation generates both normal and tangential inter-grain forces, the
latter causing grains to reorient. This reorientation response and the
incremental stress are expressed in terms of the macroscopic strain.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures. Accepted version. [email protected]
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Extreme Sensitivity of the Superconducting State in Thin Films
All non-interacting two-dimensional electronic systems are expected to
exhibit an insulating ground state. This conspicuous absence of the metallic
phase has been challenged only in the case of low-disorder, low density,
semiconducting systems where strong interactions dominate the electronic state.
Unexpectedly, over the last two decades, there have been multiple reports on
the observation of a state with metallic characteristics on a variety of
thin-film superconductors. To date, no theoretical explanation has been able to
fully capture the existence of such a state for the large variety of
superconductors exhibiting it. Here we show that for two very different
thin-film superconductors, amorphous indium-oxide and a single-crystal of
2H-NbSe2, this metallic state can be eliminated by filtering external
radiation. Our results show that these superconducting films are extremely
sensitive to external perturbations leading to the suppression of
superconductivity and the appearance of temperature independent, metallic like,
transport at low temperatures. We relate the extreme sensitivity to the
theoretical observation that, in two-dimensions, superconductivity is only
marginally stable.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure
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