A multiple-access satellite relay system for low data rate users

Multiple access satellite relay system for low data rate user

Exploring the role of voluntary disease schemes on UK farmer bio-security behaviours: Findings from the Norfolk-Suffolk Bovine Viral Diarrhoea control scheme

The article describes the influence of a disease control scheme (the Norfolk-Suffolk Bovine Viral Diarrhoea Disease (BVD) Eradication scheme) on farmers' bio-security attitudes and behaviours. In 2010, a survey of 100 cattle farmers (53 scheme members vs. 47 out of scheme farmers) was undertaken among cattle farmers residing in Norfolk and Suffolk counties in the UK. A cross-sectional independent measures design was employed. The main analytical tool was content analysis. The following variables at the farmer-level were explored: the specific BVD control measures adopted, livestock disease priorities, motivation for scheme membership, wider knowledge acquisition, biosecurity behaviours employed and training course attendance. The findings suggest that participation in the BVD scheme improved farmers' perception of the scheme benefits and participation in training courses. However, no association was found between the taking part in the BVD scheme and livestock disease priorities or motivation for scheme participation, or knowledge about BVD bio-security measures employed. Equally importantly, scheme membership did appear to influence the importance accorded specific bio-security measures. Yet such ranking did not appear to reflect the actual behaviours undertaken. As such, disease control efforts alone while necessary, are insufficient. Rather, to enhance farmer bio-security behaviours significant effort must be made to address underlying attitudes to the specific disease threat involved

Nanodiamond arrays on glass for quantification and fluorescence characterisation

Quantifying the variation in emission properties of fluorescent nanodiamonds is important for developing their wide-ranging applicability. Directed self-assembly techniques show promise for positioning nanodiamonds precisely enabling such quantification. Here we show an approach for depositing nanodiamonds in pre-determined arrays which are used to gather statistical information about fluorescent lifetimes. The arrays were created via a layer of photoresist patterned with grids of apertures using electron beam lithography and then drop-cast with nanodiamonds. Electron microscopy revealed a 90% average deposition yield across 3,376 populated array sites, with an average of 20 nanodiamonds per site. Confocal microscopy, optimised for nitrogen vacancy fluorescence collection, revealed a broad distribution of fluorescent lifetimes in agreement with literature. This method for statistically quantifying fluorescent nanoparticles provides a step towards fabrication of hybrid photonic devices for applications from quantum cryptography to sensing

Discovery and Assessment of New Target Sites for Anti-HIV Therapies

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infects cells by endocytosis and takes over parts of the cell’s reaction pathways in order to reproduce itself and spread the infection. One such pathway taken over by HIV becomes the inflammatory pathway which uses Nuclear Factor κB (NF-κB) as the principal transcription factor. Therefore, knocking out the NF-κB pathway would prevent HIV from reproducing itself. In this report, our goal is to produce a simple model for this pathway with which we can identify potential targets for anti-HIV therapies and test out various hypotheses. We present a very simple model with four coupled first-order ODEs and see what happens if we treat IκK concentration as a parameter that can be controlled (by some unspecified means). In Section 3, we augment this model to account for activation and deactivation of IκK, which is controlled (again, by some unspecified means) by TNF