Reduced susceptibility to ischaemic brain damage following photochemical stroke in transgenic mice overexpressing the amyloid precursor protein

published_or_final_versio

Stabilization by Noise for Chafee-Infante Equation in Perforated Domains

The stabilization by noise for parabolic equations in perforated domains, i.e. domains with small holes, is investigated. We show that when the holes are small enough, one can stabilize the unstable equations using suitable multiplicative It\^o noise. The results are quantitative, in the sense that we can explicitly estimate the size of the holes and diffusion coefficients for which stabilization by noise takes place. This is done by using the asymptotic behaviour of the first eigenvalue of the Laplacian as the hole shrinks to a point

A survey of chronic rhinitis in Hong Kong

published_or_final_versio

Sound propagation and scattering in performance halls with balconies

Author name used in this publication: S. K. TangVersion of RecordPublishe

SOME COMMON DIFFICULTIES IN LISTENING OF ENGLISH MAJORED FRESHMEN AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM

The aim of the research “Some common difficulties in listening of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University" is to figure out some major factors causing difficulties for students in listening to English. The research is carried out within 12 weeks. Participants of this study are 100 English majored freshmen course 13, chosen randomly (including students in class 13A, 13B, and 13C) at Tay Do University. During the research time, participants are given questionnaires and paper interviews to show their ideas. The questionnaire and paper interview are two main instruments of this study, which are used to gather information about students' problems facing in listening. As a result, the research through the expected outcome will show some difficulties in listening of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University that related to linguistics like vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, accents and intonation, and background knowledge and unfamiliar topics, psychological obstacle, and the length and speed rate of speech. Article visualizations

Improving the chromatic dispersion tolerance in long-haul fibre links using the coherent optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing

Numerical simulations of the coherent optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing modems are undertaken to investigate the effect of the adaptive modulation, the number of sub-carriers, the cyclic prefix (CP) length, the clipping ratio, quantisation bit resolution and the sampling speed of analogue-to-digital converters (ADCs) on the chromatic dispersion (CD) of a single mode fibre (SMF) at data rates up to 80 Gbps. The use of a large number of sub-carriers is more effective in combating fibre dispersion than employing a long CP; moreover, the optimum number of sub-carriers in the presence of both SMF non-linearities and CD has been identified. The authors show that using a high bit resolution ADC with a high clipping ratio, the transmission distance can be increased at specific data rates. Furthermore, it is shown that ADCs with a low sampling speed also improve the system tolerance to the fibre CD. In addition, simulation results show that the use of adaptive modulation schemes improves spectrum usage efficiency, thus resulting in higher tolerance to the CD when compared with the case in which identical modulation formats are adopted across all sub-carriers

Biofuel trigeneration with energy storage for heating, cooling and power on farms

The drive towards net-zero carbon emissions has prompted many industries to alter the way they operate. The agriculture industry is responsible for a large proportion of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, the feasibility of implementing an anaerobic digestion (AD) system supplying biogas to a trigeneration system with energy storage for the provision of heating, cooling and power has been investigated in the context of a medium-scale arable farm. Two configurations – one supplied with wheat straw only, and the other supplied with wheat straw, barley straw and manure – were identified to meet the energy demands of the farm. Technical feasibility was investigated via simulations run in ECLIPSE, with the two configurations returning overall system efficiencies of 66.8% and 67.1%, respectively. Economic analyses indicated simple payback periods of 9.4 and 11 years, which fall within the expected 20-year lifetime of the project. Furthermore, the potential reduction in CO2 emissions for each scenario was determined to be 42,764 kg and 43,956 kg per year

Viscosity Solutions for a System of PDEs and Optimal Switching

In this paper, we study the $m$-states optimal switching problem in finite horizon, when the switching cost functions are arbitrary and can be positive or negative. This has an economic incentive in terms of central evaluation in cases where such organizations or state grants or financial assistance to power plants that promotes green energy in their production activity or what uses less polluting modes in their production. We show existence for optimal strategy via a verification theorem then we show existence and uniqueness of the value processes by using an approximation scheme. In the markovian framework we show that the value processes can be characterized in terms of deterministic continuous functions of the state of the process. Those latter functions are the unique viscosity solutions for a system of $m$ variational partial differential inequalities with inter-connected obstacles.Comment: 26 pages. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1102.1256, arXiv:0805.1306, arXiv:0904.0707, arXiv:1202.1108, and arXiv:0707.2663 and arXiv:1104.2689 by other authors. IMA Journal of Mathematical Control and Information (2016

Differential neutrophil activation in viral infections: Enhanced TLR-7/8-mediated CXCL8 release in asthma

© 2015 The Authors. Respirology published by Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd on behalf of Asian Pacific Society of Respirology. Background and objective Respiratory viral infections are a major cause of asthma exacerbations. Neutrophils accumulate in the airways and the mechanisms that link neutrophilic inflammation, viral infections and exacerbations are unclear. This study aims to investigate anti-viral responses in neutrophils from patients with and without asthma and to investigate if neutrophils can be directly activated by respiratory viruses. Methods Neutrophils from peripheral blood from asthmatic and non-asthmatic individuals were isolated and stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) (1 μg/mL), f-met-leu-phe (fMLP) (100 nM), imiquimod (3 μg/mL), R848 (1.5 μg/mL), poly I:C (10 μg/mL), RV16 (multiplicity of infection (MOI)1), respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) (MOI1) or influenza virus (MOI1). Cell-free supernatants were collected after 1 h of neutrophil elastase (NE) and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-9 release, or after 24 h for CXCL8 release. Results LPS, fMLP, imiquimod and R848 stimulated the release of CXCL8, NE and MMP-9 whereas poly I:C selectively induced CXCL8 release only. R848-induced CXCL8 release was enhanced in neutrophils from asthmatics compared with non-asthmatic cells (P < 0.01). RSV triggered the release of CXCL8 and NE from neutrophils, whereas RV16 or influenza had no effect. Conclusion Neutrophils release CXCL8, NE and MMP-9 in response to viral surrogates with R848-induced CXCL8 release being specifically enhanced in asthmatic neutrophils. Toll-like receptor (TLR7/8) dysregulation may play a role in neutrophilic inflammation in viral-induced exacerbations. We aimed to investigate and compare neutrophil responses to bacterial compounds and viral mimetics as well as compare responses between people with and without asthma. We also investigated neutrophil responses to live respiratory viruses. Here we provide a novel comprehensive comparison showing differential and specific activation in innate immune cells. See Editorial, page 1

Characteristics and sources of non-methane hydrocarbons in background atmospheres of eastern, southwestern, and southern China

Author name used in this publication: Li, Y. S.2008-2009 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe