Smart Antennas Made Practical: The SPIDA Way

Smart antennas are a specific type of directional antenna able to dynamically control the gain as a function of direction. This contrasts with more traditional directional antennas, where the dynamic ability is missing, and with omni-directional antennas, which are designed to have equal gain in all directions

Sensory Primary Cilium is a Responsive cAMP Microdomain in Renal Epithelia

Primary cilia are hair-like cellular extensions that sense microenvironmental signals surrounding cells. The role of adenylyl cyclases in ciliary function has been of interest because the product of adenylyl cyclase activity, cAMP, is relevant to cilia-related diseases. In the present study, we show that vasopressin receptor type-2 (V2R) is localized to cilia in kidney epithelial cells. Pharmacologic inhibition of V2R with tolvaptan increases ciliary length and mechanosensory function. Genetic knockdown of V2R, however, does not have any effect on ciliary length, although the effect of tolvaptan on ciliary length is dampened. Our study reveals that tolvaptan may have a cilia-specific effect independent of V2R or verapamil-sensitive calcium channels. Live-imaging of single cilia shows that V2R activation increases cilioplasmic and cytoplasmic cAMP levels, whereas tolvaptan mediates cAMP changes only in a cilia-specific manner. Furthermore, fluid-shear stress decreases cilioplasmic, but not cytoplasmic cAMP levels. Our data indicate that cilioplasmic and cytoplasmic cAMP levels are differentially modulated. We propose that the cilium is a critical sensor acting as a responsive cAMP microcompartment during physiologically relevant stimuli

Researchers’ adoption of an institutional central fund for open-access article-processing charges: a case study using innovation diffusion theory

This article analyzes researchers’ adoption of an institutional central fund (or faculty publication fund) for open-access (OA) article-processing charges (APCs) to contribute to a wider understanding of take-up of OA journal publishing (“Gold” OA). Quantitative data, recording central fund usage at the University of Nottingham from 2006 to 2014, are analyzed alongside qualitative data from institutional documentation. The importance of the settings of U.K. national policy developments and international OA adoption trends are considered. Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT) is used as an explanatory framework. It is shown that use of the central fund grew during the period from covering less than 1% of the University’s outputs to more than 12%. Health and Life Sciences disciplines made greatest use of the fund. Although highly variable, average APC prices rose during the period, with fully OA publishers setting lower average APCs. APCs were paid largely from internal funds, but external funding became increasingly important. Key factors in adoption are identified to be increasing awareness and changing perceptions of OA, communication, disciplinary differences, and adoption mandates. The study provides a detailed longitudinal analysis of one of the earliest central funds to be established globally with a theoretically informed explanatory model to inform future work on managing central funds and developing institutional and national OA policies

Incomplete Punishment Networks in Public Goods Games: Experimental Evidence

Abundant evidence suggests that high levels of contributions to public goods can be sustained through self-governed monitoring and sanctioning. This experimental study investigates the effectiveness of decentralized sanctioning institutions in alternative punishment networks. Our results show that the structure of punishment network significantly affects allocations to the public good. In addition, we observe that network configurations are more important than punishment capacities for the levels of public good provision, imposed sanctions and economic efficiency. Lastly, we show that targeted revenge is a major driver of anti-social punishment

A Bargaining Game Analysis of International Climate Negotiations

Climate negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change have so far failed to achieve a robust international agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Game theory has been used to investigate possible climate negotiation solutions and strategies for accomplishing them. Negotiations have been primarily modelled as public goods games such as the Prisoner’s Dilemma, though coordination games or games of conflict have also been used. Many of these models have solutions, in the form of equilibria, corresponding to possible positive outcomes—that is, agreements with the requisite emissions reduction commitments. Other work on large-scale social dilemmas suggests that it should be possible to resolve the climate problem. It therefore seems that equilibrium selection may be a barrier to successful negotiations. Here we use an N-player bargaining game in an agent-based model with learning dynamics to examine the past failures of and future prospects for a robust international climate agreement. The model suggests reasons why the desirable solutions identified in previous game-theoretic models have not yet been accomplished in practice and what mechanisms might be used to achieve these solutions

The guinea pig ileum lacks the direct, high-potency, M2-muscarinic, contractile mechanism characteristic of the mouse ileum

We explored whether the M2 muscarinic receptor in the guinea pig ileum elicits a highly potent, direct-contractile response, like that from the M3 muscarinic receptor knockout mouse. First, we characterized the irreversible receptor-blocking activity of 4-DAMP mustard in ileum from muscarinic receptor knockout mice to verify its M3 selectivity. Then, we used 4-DAMP mustard to inactivate M3 responses in the guinea pig ileum to attempt to reveal direct, M2 receptor-mediated contractions. The muscarinic agonist, oxotremorine-M, elicited potent contractions in ileum from wild-type, M2 receptor knockout, and M3 receptor knockout mice characterized by negative log EC50 (pEC50) values ± SEM of 6.75 ± 0.03, 6.26 ± 0.05, and 6.99 ± 0.08, respectively. The corresponding Emax values in wild-type and M2 receptor knockout mice were approximately the same, but that in the M3 receptor knockout mouse was only 36% of wild type. Following 4-DAMP mustard treatment, the concentration–response curve of oxotremorine-M in wild-type ileum resembled that of the M3 knockout mouse in terms of its pEC50, Emax, and inhibition by selective muscarinic antagonists. Thus, 4-DAMP mustard treatment appears to inactivate M3 responses selectively and renders the muscarinic contractile behavior of the wild-type ileum similar to that of the M3 knockout mouse. Following 4-DAMP mustard treatment, the contractile response of the guinea pig ileum to oxotremorine-M exhibited low potency and a competitive-antagonism profile consistent with an M3 response. The guinea pig ileum, therefore, lacks a direct, highly potent, M2-contractile component but may have a direct, lower potency M2 component

Climate change adaptation in European river basins

This paper contains an assessment and standardized comparative analysis of the current water management regimes in four case-studies in three European river basins: the Hungarian part of the Upper Tisza, the Ukrainian part of the Upper Tisza (also called Zacarpathian Tisza), Alentejo Region (including the Alqueva Reservoir) in the Lower Guadiana in Portugal, and Rivierenland in the Netherlands. The analysis comprises several regime elements considered to be important in adaptive and integrated water management: agency, awareness raising and education, type of governance and cooperation structures, information management and—exchange, policy development and—implementation, risk management, and finances and cost recovery. This comparative analysis has an explorative character intended to identify general patterns in adaptive and integrated water management and to determine its role in coping with the impacts of climate change on floods and droughts. The results show that there is a strong interdependence of the elements within a water management regime, and as such this interdependence is a stabilizing factor in current management regimes. For example, this research provides evidence that a lack of joint/participative knowledge is an important obstacle for cooperation, or vice versa. We argue that there is a two-way relationship between information management and collaboration. Moreover, this research suggests that bottom-up governance is not a straightforward solution to water management problems in large-scale, complex, multiple-use systems, such as river basins. Instead, all the regimes being analyzed are in a process of finding a balance between bottom-up and top–down governance. Finally, this research shows that in a basin where one type of extreme is dominant—like droughts in the Alentejo (Portugal) and floods in Rivierenland (Netherlands)—the potential impacts of other extremes are somehow ignored or not perceived with the urgency they might deserv

Disclosure of Maternal HIV Status to Children: To Tell or Not To Tell . . . That Is the Question

HIV-infected mothers face the challenging decision of whether to disclose their serostatus to their children. From the perspective of both mother and child, we explored the process of disclosure, providing descriptive information and examining the relationships among disclosure, demographic variables, and child adjustment. Participants were 23 mothers and one of their noninfected children (9 to 16 years of age). Sixty-one percent of mothers disclosed. Consistent with previous research, disclosure was not related to child functioning. However, children sworn to secrecy demonstrated lower social competence and more externalizing problems. Differential disclosure, which occurred in one-third of the families, was associated with higher levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms. Finally, knowing more than mothers had themselves disclosed was related to child maladjustment across multiple domains. Clinical implications and the need for future research are considered