A Strategic Market Game with Seigniorage Costs of Fiat Money

A model that includes the cost of producing money is presented and the nature of the inefficient equilibria in the model are examined. It is suggested that if one acknowledges that transactions are a form of production, which requires the consumption resources, then the concept of Pareto optimality is inappropriate for assessing efficiency. Instead it becomes necessary to provide an appropriate comparative analysis of alternative transactions mechanisms in the appropriate context.Strategic market games, Seigniorage costs, Inefficiency

Detecting heavy charged Higgs bosons at the LHC with triple b-tagging

We investigate the charged Higgs boson signal at the LHC using its dominant production and decay modes with triple b-tagging, i.e. $tH^- \to t\bar tb \to b\bar bb W^+ W^-$, followed by leptonic decay of one W and hadronic decay of the other. We consider the continuum background from the associated production of $t\bar t$ with a b- or a light quark or gluon jet, which can be mis-tagged as b-jet. We reconstruct the top quark masses to identify the 3rd b-jet accompanying the $t\bar t$ pair, and use its p_T distribution to distinguish the signal from the background. Combining this with the reconstruction of the $H^\pm$ mass gives a viable signature over two interesting regions of the parameter space - i.e. $\tan\beta \sim 1$ and $\sim m_t/m_b$.Comment: 10 pages, latex, 4 figure

Space-Frequency Equalization for Broadband Single Carrier MIMO Systems

In this paper, a frequency domain (FD) receiver architecture implemented using estimated channel parameters is derived for broadband single carrier modulations. Co-channel and inter-symbol interferences are compensated by a minimum mean squared error based integrated space-frequency-equalizer (SFE) using the estimated parameters. The integrated SFE in the FD consists of coupled FIR structures, that are jointly optimized by maximizing the desired signal to interference plus noise ratio. We develop analytical expressions and present simulation results for the integrated SFE. Simulation results demonstrate that excellent receiver performance is achieved even for channels with large ISI spans. The proposed SC-SFE outperforms previous layered space frequency (LSF) receivers with imperfect channel knowledge. Further, the parallel receiver architecture yields equal diversity gains to all data streams without the error propagation that is common to most LSF schemes

Improved Information Outage Rate in Certain MIMO Systems

We propose a simple class of encoding/decoding techniques which can be used to improve the information outage rate of certain multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. Gains in outage rate can be achieved at low to moderate signal to noise ratios in MIMO systems which have fewer receive antennas than transmit antennas. This performance improvement is due to extra ``virtual'' receive antennas which are created with low complexity signal processing. A simple space-time block code system using virtual receive antennas is also investigated

Cooperative Relaying with CPFSK and Distributed Space-Time Trellis Codes

Cooperative relaying allows single antenna users to achieve diversity and coding gains by utilizing nearby users' transmitting capabilities. We consider a relay system employing constant envelope continuous phase frequency shift keying. Distributed space-time trellis codes are implemented with a novel multiple relay protocol

Two-user Cooperative Transmission Using Superposition Modulation and Soft Information Combining

We propose a cooperative transmission scheme for two users with one common relay using superposition modulation. It uses distributed Turbo codes (DTCs) for each user. The relay always decodes, then interleaves and re-encodes the decoded data. A new packet is formed by combining the re-encoded packets from both users using superposition modulation. This packet is forwarded to the destination with the average receive SNRs of each user. The destination uses the cooperative Turbo decoder of [1] to improve performance. Simulation results show the proposed scheme outperforms XOR based schemes and is simple to implement

Cooperative Relaying with CPFSK and Distributed Space-Time Trellis Codes

Cooperative relaying allows single antenna users to achieve diversity and coding gains by utilizing nearby users' transmitting capabilities. We consider a relay system employing constant envelope continuous phase frequency shift keying. Distributed space-time trellis codes are implemented with a novel multiple relay protocol

Absence of the cbb3 terminal oxidase reveals an active oxygen-dependent cyclase involved in bacteriochlorophyll biosynthesis in Rhodobacter sphaeroides.

The characteristic green color associated with chlorophyll pigments results from the formation of an isocyclic fifth ring on the tetrapyrrole macrocyle during the biosynthesis of these important molecules. This reaction is catalyzed by two unrelated cyclase enzymes employing different chemistries. Oxygenic phototrophs such as plants and cyanobacteria utilize an oxygen-dependent enzyme, the major component of which is a diiron protein named AcsF, while BchE, an oxygen-sensitive [4Fe-4S] cluster protein, dominates in phototrophs inhabiting anoxic environments, such as the purple phototrophic bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides We identify a potential acsF in this organism and assay for activity of the encoded protein in a strain lacking bchE under various aeration regimes. Initially, cells lacking bchE did not demonstrate AcsF activity under any condition tested. However, on removal of a gene encoding a subunit of the cbb3-type respiratory terminal oxidase, cells cultured under regimes ranging from oxic to microoxic exhibited cyclase activity, confirming the activity of the oxygen-dependent enzyme in this model organism. Potential reasons for the utilization of an oxygen-dependent enzyme in anoxygenic phototrophs are discussed. IMPORTANCE: The formation of the E ring of (bacterio)chlorophyll pigments is the least well-characterized step in their biosynthesis, remaining enigmatic for over 60 years. Two unrelated enzymes catalyze this cyclization step; O2-dependent and O2-independent forms dominate in oxygenic and anoxygenic phototrophs, respectively. We uncover the activity of an O2-dependent enzyme in the anoxygenic purple phototrophic bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides, initially by inactivation of the high affinity terminal respiratory oxidase, cytochrome cbb3 We propose that the O2-dependent form allows for the biosynthesis of a low level of bacteriochlorophyll under oxic conditions, so that a rapid initiation of photosynthetic processes is possible for this bacterium upon a reduction of oxygen tension

Evaluation of two lyophilized molecular assays to rapidly detect foot-and-mouth disease virus directly from clinical samples in field settings

Accurate, timely diagnosis is essential for the control, monitoring and eradication of foot‐and‐mouth disease (FMD). Clinical samples from suspect cases are normally tested at reference laboratories. However, transport of samples to these centralized facilities can be a lengthy process that can impose delays on critical decision making. These concerns have motivated work to evaluate simple‐to‐use technologies, including molecular‐based diagnostic platforms, that can be deployed closer to suspect cases of FMD. In this context, FMD virus (FMDV)‐specific reverse transcription loop‐mediated isothermal amplification (RT‐LAMP) and real‐time RT‐PCR (rRT‐PCR) assays, compatible with simple sample preparation methods and in situ visualization, have been developed which share equivalent analytical sensitivity with laboratory‐based rRT‐PCR. However, the lack of robust ‘ready‐to‐use kits’ that utilize stabilized reagents limits the deployment of these tests into field settings. To address this gap, this study describes the performance of lyophilized rRT‐PCR and RT‐LAMP assays to detect FMDV. Both of these assays are compatible with the use of fluorescence to monitor amplification in real‐time, and for the RT‐LAMP assays end point detection could also be achieved using molecular lateral flow devices. Lyophilization of reagents did not adversely affect the performance of the assays. Importantly, when these assays were deployed into challenging laboratory and field settings within East Africa they proved to be reliable in their ability to detect FMDV in a range of clinical samples from acutely infected as well as convalescent cattle. These data support the use of highly sensitive molecular assays into field settings for simple and rapid detection of FMDV

The vector-valued big q-Jacobi transform

Big $q$-Jacobi functions are eigenfunctions of a second order $q$-difference operator $L$. We study $L$ as an unbounded self-adjoint operator on an $L^2$-space of functions on $\mathbb R$ with a discrete measure. We describe explicitly the spectral decomposition of $L$ using an integral transform $\mathcal F$ with two different big $q$-Jacobi functions as a kernel, and we construct the inverse of $\mathcal F$.Comment: 35 pages, corrected an error and typo