The Effects of Evolutionary Adaptations on Spreading Processes in Complex Networks

A common theme among the proposed models for network epidemics is the assumption that the propagating object, i.e., a virus or a piece of information, is transferred across the nodes without going through any modification or evolution. However, in real-life spreading processes, pathogens often evolve in response to changing environments and medical interventions and information is often modified by individuals before being forwarded. In this paper, we investigate the evolution of spreading processes on complex networks with the aim of i) revealing the role of evolution on the threshold, probability, and final size of epidemics; and ii) exploring the interplay between the structural properties of the network and the dynamics of evolution. In particular, we develop a mathematical theory that accurately predicts the epidemic threshold and the expected epidemic size as functions of the characteristics of the spreading process, the evolutionary dynamics of the pathogen, and the structure of the underlying contact network. In addition to the mathematical theory, we perform extensive simulations on random and real-world contact networks to verify our theory and reveal the significant shortcomings of the classical mathematical models that do not capture evolution. Our results reveal that the classical, single-type bond-percolation models may accurately predict the threshold and final size of epidemics, but their predictions on the probability of emergence are inaccurate on both random and real-world networks. This inaccuracy sheds the light on a fundamental disconnect between the classical bond-percolation models and real-life spreading processes that entail evolution. Finally, we consider the case when co-infection is possible and show that co-infection could lead the order of phase transition to change from second-order to first-order.Comment: Submitte

An Electronically Reconfigurable Patch Antenna Design for Polarization Diversity with Fixed Resonant Frequency

In this paper, an electronically polarization reconfigurable circular patch antenna with fixed resonant frequency operating at Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) frequency band (2.4-2.48 GHz) is presented. The structure of the proposed design consists of a circular patch as a radiating element fed by coaxial probe, cooperated with four equal-length slits etched on the edge along x-axis and y-axis. A total of four switches was used and embedded across the slits at specific locations, thus controlled the length of the slits. By activating and deactivating the switches (ON and OFF) across the slits, the current on the patch is changed, thus modifying the electric field and polarization of the antenna. Consequently, the polarization excited by the proposed antenna can be switched into three types, either linear polarization, left-hand circular polarization or right-hand circular polarization. This paper proposes a simple approach that able to switch the polarizations and excited at the same operating frequency. Simulated and measured results of ideal case (using copper strip switches) and real case (using PIN diode switches) are compared and presented to demonstrate the performance of the antenna

Biochemical characterization and DNA repair pathway interactions of Mag1-mediated base excision repair in Schizosaccharomyces pombe

The Schizosaccharomyces pombe mag1 gene encodes a DNA repair enzyme with sequence similarity to the AlkA family of DNA glycosylases, which are essential for the removal of cytotoxic alkylation products, the premutagenic deamination product hypoxanthine and certain cyclic ethenoadducts such as ethenoadenine. In this paper, we have purified the Mag1 protein and characterized its substrate specificity. It appears that the substrate range of Mag1 is limited to the major alkylation products, such as 3-mA, 3-mG and 7-mG, whereas no significant activity was found towards deamination products, ethenoadducts or oxidation products. The efficiency of 3-mA and 3-mG removal was 5–10 times slower for Mag1 than for Escherichia coli AlkA whereas the rate of 7-mG removal was similar to the two enzymes. The relatively low efficiency for the removal of cytotoxic 3-methylpurines is consistent with the moderate sensitivity of the mag1 mutant to methylating agents. Furthermore, we studied the initial steps of Mag1-dependent base excision repair (BER) and genetic interactions with other repair pathways by mutant analysis. The double mutants mag1 nth1, mag1 apn2 and mag1 rad2 displayed increased resistance to methyl methanesulfonate (MMS) compared with the single mutants nth1, apn2 and rad2, respectively, indicating that Mag1 initiates both short-patch (Nth1-dependent) and long-patch (Rad2-dependent) BER of MMS-induced damage. Spontaneous intrachromosomal recombination frequencies increased 3-fold in the mag1 mutant suggesting that Mag1 and recombinational repair (RR) are both involved in repair of alkylated bases. Finally, we show that the deletion of mag1 in the background of rad16, nth1 and rad2 single mutants reduced the total recombination frequencies of all three double mutants, indicating that abasic sites formed as a result of Mag1 removal of spontaneous base lesions are substrates for nucleotide excision repair, long- and short-patch BER and RR

Extracting Arabic composite names using genitive principles of Arabic grammar

Named Entity Recognition (NER) is a basic prerequisite of using Natural Language Processing (NLP) for information retrieval. Arabic NER is especially challenging as the language is morphologically rich and has short vowels with no capitalisation convention. This article presents a novel rule-based approach that uses linguistic grammar-based techniques to extract Arabic composite names from Arabic text. Our approach uniquely exploits the genitive Arabic grammar rules; in particular, the rules regarding the identification of definite nouns (معرفة) and indefinite nouns (نكرة) to support the process of extracting composite names. Based on domain knowledge and Arabic Genitive Rules (AGR), the developed approach formalises a set of syntactical rules and linguistic patterns that initially use genitive patterns to classify definiteness within phrases and then extracts proper composite names from the unstructured text. The developed novel approach does not place any constraints on the length of the Arabic composite name and our initial experimentation demonstrated high recall and precision results when the NER algorithm was applied to a financial domain corpus

Omnidirectional Battery Electric Vehicle for Use in Oil Palm Plantation

Concerns on the low labour shortage and the need to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) generation prompted the industrial player to increase mechanisation during operation and adopting low carbon footprint mobile platforms. In this paper, a design and analysis study was conducted and reported on a conceptual battery electric vehicle (BEV) for use in the oil palm plantations. With a maximum operating road speed of 30km/hr and harvesting load of 320kg, the BEV will require a minimum operational power of 44.5kW. In accommodating the soggy ground with the demand to navigate narrow and undulating terrains, the proposed BEV was designed to be equipped with an omnidirectional functionality with continuous track, without the use of conventional wheels. Major components arrangement and design for the omnidirectional mechanism are presented in this paper. This preliminary work will also serve as the foundation towards refining the BEV design, especially on the vehicle functionality and manoeuvrability in the plantation sites. Further recommendations are also outlined that will focus on validating the conceptual design and analysis on the total energy generation and consumption of the BEV

Permeability and tensile strength of concrete with Arabic gum biopolymer

The use of materials of vegetal origin is increasingly being promoted in many industries due to their cost effectiveness and the rising sensitivity to environmental protection and sustainability. Arabic Gum Biopolymer (AGB) is a wild plant byproduct that is abundantly found in Sudan and is also produced in other African countries. It has long been used in various industries. However, its utilization is very limited in the construction sector although there appears to be a significant potential for use of AGB in the building industry. As an example, there is evidence that AGB may be an effective additive to concrete mixes that would improve fresh and hardened concrete properties. The aim of the present work is to provide further experimental evidence on the improvement that can be achieved in the physical and mechanical properties of hardened concrete when AGB is added to the mixture. The experimental results show a significant reduction in permeability for an optimum percentage of AGB and an increase in flexural and tensile strength and in the elastic modulus

Permeability and tensile strength of concrete with Arabic gum biopolymer

The use of materials of vegetal origin is increasingly being promoted in many industries due to their cost effectiveness and the rising sensitivity to environmental protection and sustainability. Arabic Gum Biopolymer (AGB) is a wild plant byproduct that is abundantly found in Sudan and is also produced in other African countries. It has long been used in various industries. However, its utilization is very limited in the construction sector although there appears to be a significant potential for use of AGB in the building industry. As an example, there is evidence that AGB may be an effective additive to concrete mixes that would improve fresh and hardened concrete properties. The aim of the present work is to provide further experimental evidence on the improvement that can be achieved in the physical and mechanical properties of hardened concrete when AGB is added to the mixture. The experimental results show a significant reduction in permeability for an optimum percentage of AGB and an increase in flexural and tensile strength and in the elastic modulus