Pairs of Frequency-based Nonhomogeneous Dual Wavelet Frames in the Distribution Space

In this paper, we study nonhomogeneous wavelet systems which have close relations to the fast wavelet transform and homogeneous wavelet systems. We introduce and characterize a pair of frequency-based nonhomogeneous dual wavelet frames in the distribution space; the proposed notion enables us to completely separate the perfect reconstruction property of a wavelet system from its stability property in function spaces. The results in this paper lead to a natural explanation for the oblique extension principle, which has been widely used to construct dual wavelet frames from refinable functions, without any a priori condition on the generating wavelet functions and refinable functions. A nonhomogeneous wavelet system, which is not necessarily derived from refinable functions via a multiresolution analysis, not only has a natural multiresolution-like structure that is closely linked to the fast wavelet transform, but also plays a basic role in understanding many aspects of wavelet theory. To illustrate the flexibility and generality of the approach in this paper, we further extend our results to nonstationary wavelets with real dilation factors and to nonstationary wavelet filter banks having the perfect reconstruction property

Making urbanizing deltas more resilient by design

Talking about ‘resilience’ and ‘adaptability’ seems to be a new fashion in the world of architecture and urbanism. Many people use these terms without explaining what they mean. Both terms are often used in combination with, and even as synonym of, terms like ‘incremental’ and ‘bottom-up’ and as an alternative of large scale ‘top-down’ interventions by the state.But it is far more than a new fashion; the use of these terms indicates a process of fundamental transition of paradigms in planning and design. This paradigm-change is related to a farewell of modernist and reductionist ideas and approaches in science, engineering and design. For a long time these modernist ideas were dominating, suggesting that it is possible to know and understand the world (the social world as well as the physical world) completely, and that, based on this knowledge, it is possible to plan and control the development of the world completely.A large range of events contributed to the rising idea that it is impossible to know, predict and control the world completely: the social revolts of the 1960s, the messages of the Club of Rome in the 1970s, the concerns with climate change since the 1990s and many more. They contributed to an increasing awareness that systems in nature as well in society are complex, and that the developments of these complex systems are non-linear, with a basically uncertain future ( Scheffer 2009; Mitchell 2009). This uncertain future means that we have to take into account that disturbances can happen suddenly, unexpected, and also that external conditions can change substantially. Moreover, the size and scale of these disturbances and changes are unknown.The situation and the challenges in urbanizing deltas are interesting examples in the current discussion. In a recent report, composed by TU Delft and the Delta Alliance, commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the preparation of the UN-Habitat-III conference, the authors argue that delta regions are the most promising regions of the world, but in the same time these regions are the most vulnerable zones, were floods, draught, salinization and pollution result in major risks for millions of people, for economic development and for the environment (Meyer, Peters 2016)

Entanglement Enhanced Multiplayer Quantum Games

We investigate the 3-player quantum Prisoner's Dilemma with a certain strategic space, a particular Nash equilibrium that can remove the original dilemma is found. Based on this equilibrium, we show that the game is enhanced by the entanglement of its initial state.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure

Structural transitions in the synaptic SNARE complex during Ca2+-triggered exocytosis

The synaptic SNARE complex is a highly stable four-helix bundle that links the vesicle and plasma membranes and plays an essential role in the Ca2+-triggered release of neurotransmitters and hormones. An understanding has yet to be achieved of how this complex assembles and undergoes structural transitions during exocytosis. To investigate this question, we have mutated residues within the hydrophobic core of the SNARE complex along the entire length of all four chains and examined the consequences using amperometry to measure fusion pore opening and dilation. Mutations throughout the SNARE complex reduced two distinct rate processes before fusion pore opening to different degrees. These results suggest that two distinct, fully assembled conformations of the SNARE complex drive transitions leading to open fusion pores. In contrast, a smaller number of mutations that were scattered through the SNARE complex but were somewhat concentrated in the membrane-distal half stabilized open fusion pores. These results suggest that a structural transition within a partially disassembled complex drives the dilation of open fusion pores. The dependence of these three rate processes on position within the SNARE complex does not support vectorial SNARE complex zipping during exocytosis

Rotterdam

This paper can be seen as the overall introduction in which the Rotterdam Rijnmond case study region and its spatial and flood risk challenge are introduced. It describes the strong historical relation between flood risk management interventions and the spatial development of the region. The region is protected against floods by an extensive system of (sea)barriers and dike-rings. Positioned on the edge of the Rhine-Meuse delta, the region developed as a port area and is part of the so-called Randstad area: the most densified area of the Netherlands. Due to climate change, increasing sea levels and peak river discharges are expected in the future, resulting in an increased flood risk. In order to address this future flood risk challenge, the second Delta Committee was established - the first Delta Committee was established after the 1953 flood that flooded part of the Netherlands. This Delta Committee develops regional strategies for flood risk reduction for the long-term period, up to 2100. As part of the strategy development process, four conceptual regional flood risk reduction strategies are developed, which can be perceived as cornerstones of the playing field of possible flood risk reduction strategies for the region. Those cornerstone strategies vary from the complete damming of the delta (thus lowering the extreme water levels behind the barrier) to opening up the delta and dealing with the expectedly high water levels by elevating the region’s dike-rings. The different cornerstones offer different potentials and threats for the spatial development of the region. In addition, at a local scale, the different cornerstones impact the spatial quality of the dike zones and flood plains in different ways. This strong relation between the flood risk management interventions and spatial composition and quality of the region supports the urgency of approaching the future flood risk reduction task in a comprehensive way

Stijgend water, zinkende steden: De worsteling van Venetië en Rotterdam met het landschap van lagune en delta

Since the turn of the century, high water levels in cities in coastal and delta areas have given rise to ever-increasing problems. It is not just the many cities in the ‘Global South’, burdened with inadequate defences against high water levels, that are having to contend with increased flooding. Even relatively wealthy cities in Europe and the United States, the damage wreaked by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans (2005) and by Hurricane Sandy in New York (2013) still fresh in their minds, have good reason to be concerned. In Europe, as recently as November 2019, the Grande Dame of water cities, Venice, suffered its worst acqua alta (high water event) since 1966. Large parts of the city were under water for an extended period of time, with huge consequences not only for the city’s many art treasures and heritage structures, but also for the economy, the well-being and the habitability of the city.Several months later, in February 2020, the Netherlands, dubbed by some ‘the safest delta in the world’, had to pull out all the stops in order to withstand the combined forces of high riverwater discharge and a spring tide at sea. For the first time, the many riverbed widenings carried out in the years 2005-2015 in the context of the national ‘Room for the River’ programme, were able to demonstrate their effectiveness. Largeparts of the river area, normally used for arable and livestock farming or as nature areas, were subjected to controlled flooding, thereby preventing the inundation of cities along the rivers.Hoge waterstanden in steden in kust- en deltagebieden leiden sinds de laatste eeuwwisseling tot steeds meer problemen. Niet alleen veel steden in de ‘Global South’, met gebrekkige voorzieningen om zich tegen hoge waterstanden te verdedigen, kampen met toenemende overstromingen. Ook relatief rijke steden in Europa en de Verenigde Staten hebben alle redenen zich zorgen te maken, met de gevolgen van de orkaan Katrina voor New Orleans (2005) en Sandy voor New York (2013) nog vers in het geheugen. In Europa werd recent, in november 2019, de Grande Dame van steden in en aan het water, Venetië getroffen door het ernstigste acqua alta (hoogwater) sinds 1966. Grote delen van de stad stonden langere tijd onder water, met grote gevolgen voor de vele kunstschatten en monumenten, maar ook voor de economie, het welzijn en de bewoonbaarheid van de stad.Enkele maanden later, in februari 2020, moesten in Nederland, door sommigen ‘de veiligste delta ter wereld’ genoemd, alle zeilen worden bijgezet om een combinatie van hoge waterafvoer door de rivieren en springtij op zee het hoofd te kunnen bieden. De vele rivierbedverbredingen die in de periode 2005-2015 zijn gerealiseerd in het kader van het nationale programma ‘Ruimte voor de Rivier’ konden nu voor het eerst hun nut bewijzen.Grote delen van het rivierengebied, normaal in gebruik voor akkerbouw en veeteelt of als natuurgebied, werden gecontroleerd onder water gezet, waardoor overstromingen van steden langs de rivieren werden voorkomen. Dit procedé  bleek overal in het rivierengebied succesvol te werken – behalve in de regio Rotterdam, die buiten het programma ‘Ruimte voor de Rivier’ viel en geen voorzieningen kent voor tijdelijke rivierbedverbreding

High Levels of Sequence Diversity in the 5′ UTRs of Human-Specific L1 Elements

Approximately 80 long interspersed element (LINE-1 or L1) copies are able to retrotranspose actively in the human genome, and these are termed retrotransposition-competent L1s. The 5′ untranslated region (UTR) of the human-specific L1 contains an internal promoter and several transcription factor binding sites. To better understand the effect of the L1 5′ UTR on the evolution of human-specific L1s, we examined this population of elements, focusing on the sequence diversity and accumulated substitutions within their 5′ UTRs. Using network analysis, we estimated the age of each L1 component (the 5′ UTR, ORF1, ORF2, and 3′ UTR). Through the comparison of the L1 components based on their estimated ages, we found that the 5′ UTR of human-specific L1s accumulates mutations at a faster rate than the other components. To further investigate the L1 5′ UTR, we examined the substitution frequency per nucleotide position among them. The results showed that the L1 5′ UTRs shared relatively conserved transcription factor binding sites, despite their high sequence diversity. Thus, we suggest that the high level of sequence diversity in the 5′ UTRs could be one of the factors controlling the number of retrotransposition-competent L1s in the human genome during the evolutionary battle between L1s and their host genomes

Decline and repair, and covariate effects

The failure processes of repairable systems may be impacted by operational and environmental stress factors. To accommodate such factors, reliability can be modelled using a multiplicative intensity function. In the proportional intensity model, the failure intensity is the product of the failure intensity function of the baseline system that quantifies intrinsic factors and a function of covariates that quantify extrinsic factors. The existing literature has extensively studied the failure processes of repairable systems using general repair concepts such as age-reduction when no covariate effects are considered. This paper investigates different approaches for modelling the failure and repair process of repairable systems in the presence of time-dependent covariates. We derive statistical properties of the failure processes for such systems

Entangled states that cannot reproduce original classical games in their quantum version

A model of a quantum version of classical games should reproduce the original classical games in order to be able to make a comparative analysis of quantum and classical effects. We analyze a class of symmetric multipartite entangled states and their effect on the reproducibility of the classical games. We present the necessary and sufficient condition for the reproducibility of the original classical games. Satisfying this condition means that complete orthogonal bases can be constructed from a given multipartite entangled state provided that each party is restricted to two local unitary operators. We prove that most of the states belonging to the class of symmetric states with respect to permutations, including the N-qubit W state, do not satisfy this condition.Comment: 4 page

Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays Detected by Auger and AGASA:Corrections for Galactic Magnetic Field Deflections, Source Populations, and Arguments for Multiple-Components

The origin and composition of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Ray Events (UHECRs) are under debate. Here we improve constraints on the source population(s) and compositions of UHECRs by accounting for UHECR deflections within existing Galactic magnetic field models (GMFs). We used Monte Carlo simulations for UHECRs detected by the Pierre Auger Observatory and AGASA in order to determine their outside-the-Galaxy arrival directions, and compared these with Galactic and extragalactic sources. The simulations, which used UHECR compositions from protons to Iron and seven models of the ordered GMF, include uncertainties in the GMF and a turbulent magnetic field. The correlation between UHECRs and nearby extended radiogalaxies (Nagar & Matulich 2008) remains valid, even strengthened, within several GMF models. Both the nearest radiogalaxy CenA, and the nearest radio-extended BL Lac, CGCG 413-019, are likely sources of multiple UHECRs. The correlation appears to be linked to the presence of the extended radio source rather than a tracer of an underlying population. It is possible, but unlikely, that all UHECRs originate in the nearby radiogalaxy CenA. For light UHECRs about a third of UHECRs can be "matched" to nearby galaxies with extended radio jets. The remaining UHECRs could also be explained as originating in extended radiogalaxies if one has at least one of: a large UHECR mean free path, a high cluster and/or intergalactic magnetic field, a heavy composition for two-thirds of the detected UHECRs. Several UHECRs have trajectories which pass close to Galactic magnetars and/or microquasars. If extended radiogalaxies are, or trace, UHECR sources, the most consistent models for the ordered GMF are the BS-S and BS-A models; the GMF models of Sun et al. 2008 are acceptable if a dipole component is added.Comment: to appear in A&