Employment descentralisation: polycentric compaction or sprawl? The case of the Barcelona Metropolitan Region 1986-1996

The Barcelona Metropolitan Region (BMR) has been repeatedly characterised as a polycentric-type urban system. The aim of this study is to corroborate this affirmation by making use of a methodology that enables the identifying of employment subcentres and valuing of the degree of polycentrism of the BMR in 1986 and 1996. The results obtained in the two years confirm the existence and extension of the polycentrism.Employment subcentres, identification, descentralisation, sprawl, compaction, polycentrism.

3D silicon pixel detectors for the ATLAS Forward Physics experiment

The ATLAS Forward Physics (AFP) project plans to install 3D silicon pixel detectors about 210 m away from the interaction point and very close to the beamline (2-3 mm). This implies the need of slim edges of about 100-200 $\mu$m width for the sensor side facing the beam to minimise the dead area. Another challenge is an expected non-uniform irradiation of the pixel sensors. It is studied if these requirements can be met using slightly-modified FE-I4 3D pixel sensors from the ATLAS Insertable B-Layer production. AFP-compatible slim edges are obtained with a simple diamond-saw cut. Electrical characterisations and beam tests are carried out and no detrimental impact on the leakage current and hit efficiency is observed. For devices without a 3D guard ring a remaining insensitive edge of less than 15 $\mu$m width is found. Moreover, 3D detectors are non-uniformly irradiated up to fluences of several 10$^{15}$ n$_{eq}$/cm$^2$ with either a focussed 23 GeV proton beam or a 23 MeV proton beam through holes in Al masks. The efficiency in the irradiated region is found to be similar to the one in the non-irradiated region and exceeds 97% in case of favourable chip-parameter settings. Only in a narrow transition area at the edge of the hole in the Al mask, a significantly lower efficiency is seen. A follow-up study of this effect using arrays of small pad diodes for position-resolved dosimetry via the leakage current is carried out.Comment: 10 pages, submitted to JINS

Finding the Enigmatic Road to Damascus

This paper is a reaction to the current Syrian refugee crisis. It examines how the Sykes-Picot agreement has impacted the Middle East. It gives a brief history of the region. It compares the opinions and facts gathered by several experts on the Middle East. Finally it discusses ways for the west to move forward to make a positive impact for future generations everywhere

Decoherence in neutrino propagation through matter, and bounds from IceCube/DeepCore

We revisit neutrino oscillations in matter considering the open quantum system framework which allows to introduce possible decoherence effects generated by New Physics in a phenomenological manner. We assume that the decoherence parameters $\gamma_{ij}$ may depend on the neutrino energy, as $\gamma_{ij}=\gamma_{ij}^{0}(E/\text{GeV})^n$ $(n = 0,\pm1,\pm2)$. The case of non-uniform matter is studied in detail, both within the adiabatic approximation and in the more general non-adiabatic case. In particular, we develop a consistent formalism to study the non-adiabatic case dividing the matter profile into an arbitrary number of layers of constant densities. This formalism is then applied to explore the sensitivity of IceCube and DeepCore to this type of effects. Our study is the first atmospheric neutrino analysis where a consistent treatment of the matter effects in the three-neutrino case is performed in presence of decoherence. We show that matter effects are indeed extremely relevant in this context. We find that IceCube is able to considerably improve over current bounds in the solar sector ($\gamma_{21}$) and in the atmospheric sector ($\gamma_{31}$ and $\gamma_{32}$) for $n=0,1,2$ and, in particular, by several orders of magnitude (between 3 and 9) for the $n=1,2$ cases. For $n=0$ we find $\gamma_{32},\gamma_{31}< 4.0\cdot10^{-24} (1.3\cdot10^{-24})$ GeV and $\gamma_{21}<1.3\cdot10^{-24} (4.1\cdot10^{-24})$ GeV, for normal (inverted) mass ordering.Comment: 31 pages, 8 figure

Crayfish Harvesting Practices in the Southern Atchafalaya River Basin: Quantitative and Qualitative Assessment of Harvester Techniques and Hydrologic Connectivity Influence on Harvesting Strategies

Fisheries produce important impacts around the world through the exploitation of a wide range of species. In Louisiana, crayfish is the most emblematic crustacean and supports a multi-million industry based on pond culture and harvest from natural habitats. Although the economic value (USD) of wild-harvested crayfish has decreased from 10% to 3% of total crayfish value from 2013 to 2015, wild harvested crayfish are highly desired by many consumers and have a strong socio-cultural importance in Louisiana and other Gulf of Mexico coastal regions. This project evaluated harvesting practices by: 1) field observation and mapping of harvest sites in southwestern Atchafalaya River Basin; and 2) directed interviews with individual harvesters. Field observations included trap locations, water quality, habitat components, and fishery independent sampling. Weekly field observations were conducted along four transects across a gradient of water quality over two harvesting seasons (2015 and 2016). I also assessed floodplain connectivity with river water sources by conservative tracers sampled at each water quality site biweekly during 2016. Directed interviews of 23 harvesters provided data on fishing strategies, factors used to decide when to start fishing, and selection of harvesting locations. Trap density was first assessed for spatial autocorrelation by Pearson Chi-Square Quadrat Test and Nearest Neighbor Tests and then by generalized linear models including water quality, habitat, harvester answers and conservative tracers. Analyses demonstrated that trap locations were not random, i.e., traps were set in relatively clear water (NTU \u3c 69.4) in in depths from 1-3 m or 3-3.6 m. Very few traps were set high turbidity water regardless of depth. Trap density was positively associated with river water inputs, based on conservative tracer results. Harvester interviews corroborated the importance of tradition (35% - 47%) and depth (88%) when starting harvesting and setting traps. Additionally, harvesters (\u3e 40%) considered water color (likely a surrogate for turbidity) important for trap locations. Although harvesters may not be using water vii quality and chemistry data, their harvesting practices do follow water movements, likely based on accumulated experience with depth, flow velocity and turbidity

Characterization of Epithelial Growth Factor Transcripts Identified in Crotalus Atrox Venom

Epithelial Growth Factor (EGF) is the primary source in regeneration and stimulation of essential fibroblasts cells commonly found in epithelium. Studies have shown that snake venom components are becoming a growing factor in treating illnesses such as cancer, muscular dystrophy, chronic pain, blood pressure, blood clotting, etc. EGF in human cells contains a promising quaternary structure that can bind to snake venom metalloproteinases, proposing a means of activating biochemical responses through protein-protein interactions to regulate unwanted cellular functions. This supports promising research in achieving a greater understanding of regulation along cellular pathways through ligands, increasing the likelihood of targeting unwanted cellular growths (cancer), treating epithelial injuries, enhance pharmaceutical advancements, etc. The purpose of this study was to identify specific transcripts originating from snake venom. We cloned and retrieved the transcripts of EGF from the venom of Western Diamondback Rattlesnake (C. atrox). C. atrox carries a toxin that is known to carry Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF), a protein found in its venom. Messenger RNA from C. atrox crude venom was reverse-transcribed into cDNA and was further subjected to RT-PCR. The amplicons were purified from agarose gel and ligated into a pJET vector to obtain recombinant DNA found in bacterial colonies. At least three unique snake venom EGF transcripts were obtained after screening 23 bacterial clones using gel electrophoresis by molecular size and enzyme digestion patterns. More research would be essential to discovering protein-protein interactions that benefit treatments of illnesses and injuries along epithelium

The blood labyrinthine barrier in the human normal and Meniere's disease macula utricle.

The ultrastructural organization of the blood labyrinthine barrier (BLB) was investigated in the human vestibular endorgan, the utricular macula, using postmortem specimens from individuals with documented normal auditory and vestibular function and surgical specimens from patients with intractable Meniere's disease. Transmission electron microscopic analysis of capillaries located in the normal human utricular stroma showed vascular endothelial cells with few pinocytotic vesicles, covered by a smooth and uniform basement membrane surrounded by pericyte processes. Meniere's disease specimens revealed differential ultrastructural pathological changes in the cellular elements of the microvasculature. With moderate degeneration of the BLB, there were numerous vesicles within the vascular endothelial cells (VECs), with increased numbers at the abluminal face, pericyte process detachment and disruption of the perivascular basement membrane surrounding the VECs. With severe degeneration of the BLB, there was severe vacuolization or frank apparent necrosis of VECs and loss of subcellular organelles. A higher severity of BLB degenerative changes was associated with a higher degree of basement membrane thickening and edematous changes within the vestibular stroma. This study presents the first ultrastructural analysis of the capillaries constituting the BLB in the human vestibular macula utricle from normal and Meniere's disease

A Category-Theoretic Compositional Framework of Perceptron-Based Neural Networks plus an Architecture for Modeling Sequences Conditioned to Time-Structured Context: An Implementation of a Generative Model of Jazz Solo Improvisations

This work introduces an algebraic graphical language of perceptrons, multilayer perceptrons, recurrent neural networks, and long short-term memory neural networks, via string diagrams of a suitable hypergraph category equipped with a concatenation diagram operation by means of a monoidal endofunctor. Using this language, we introduce a neural network architecture for modeling sequential data in which each sequence is subject to a specific context with a temporal structure, that is, each data point of a sequence is conditioned to a different past, present, and future context than the other points. As proof of concept, this architecture is implemented as a generative model of jazz solo improvisations

Recent Advances on Linear Control Theory under Communication Constraints: A Survey

Recent developments in networked control systems have focused on the issue of communications constraints. In this paper, we summarize the main results for stabilization and performance of networked control systems from an information theoretic point of view