Printed analogue filter structures

The authors report progress in conductive lithographic film (CLF) technology, which uses the offset lithographic printing process to form electrically conductive patterns on flexible substrates. Networks of planar passive components and interconnects fabricated simultaneously via the CLF process form notch filter networks at 85 kHz

RF circulator structures via offset lithography

Further developments are reported of the conductive lithographic film (CLF) process in which components of radio-frequency circulators are fabricated economically via offset lithography. The performance of centre conductor elements printed from silver-loaded inks on polymer substrates is compared with that of conventional solid copper structures

A study of Polish LDS (Mormon) conversion in two branches in Warsaw, Poland

My dissertation explores how LDS recruitment and conversion occur in two LDS branches in Warsaw, Poland. Regarding recruitment, I focus on the LDS religious and social processes that lead to a small number of Poles joining the LDS Church through LDS baptism. Concerning conversion, I assess the different types of (committed versus less committed) LDS converts that Polish LDS members become after LDS baptism. My dissertation also explores how pre-LDS background/ experience and wider social issues may help or hinder Polish LDS recruitment/conversion. Of particular interest here is how the Catholic Church may influence the political situation in Poland, and how, in turn, this may have a bearing on LDS recruitment/conversion in Poland.Besides focusing on Polish LDS converts, I assess how long-term investigators can stay within the Warsaw/ Polish LDS world for lengthy periods of time without joining the LDS Church.In terms of methodology, I combine participant observation and (structured and unstructured) interviewing to gain insights into how wider social issues; pre-LDS background; LDS social interaction/ networking; and LDS religious training all influence Polish LDS recruitment/conversion. Religious Studie

Influence of the Characteristics of the STM-tip on the Electroluminescence Spectra

We analyze the influence of the characteristics of the STM-tip (applied voltage, tip radius) on the electroluminescence spectra from an STM-tip-induced quantum dot taking into account the many-body effects. We find that positions of electroluminescence peaks, attributed to the electron-hole recombination in the quantum dot, are very sensitive to the shape and size of the confinement potential as determined by the tip radius and the applied voltage. A critical value of the tip radius is found, at which the luminescence peak positions as a function of the tip radius manifest a transition from decreasing behavior for smaller radii to increasing behavior for larger radii. We find that this critical value of the tip radius is related to the confinement in the lateral and normal direction.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figure

Identifying and prioritising services in European terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems

Ecosystems are multifunctional and provide humanity with a broad array of vital services. Effective management of services requires an improved evidence base, identifying the role of ecosystems in delivering multiple services, which can assist policy-makers in maintaining them. Here, information from the literature and scientific experts was used to systematically document the importance of services and identify trends in their use and status over time for the main terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems in Europe. The results from this review show that intensively managed ecosystems contribute mostly to vital provisioning services (e.g. agro-ecosystems provide food via crops and livestock, and forests provide wood), while semi-natural ecosystems (e.g. grasslands and mountains) are key contributors of genetic resources and cultural services (e.g. aesthetic values and sense of place). The most recent European trends in human use of services show increases in demand for crops from agro-ecosystems, timber from forests, water flow regulation from rivers, wetlands and mountains, and recreation and ecotourism in most ecosystems, but decreases in livestock production, freshwater capture fisheries, wild foods and virtually all services associated with ecosystems which have considerably decreased in area (e.g. semi-natural grasslands). The condition of the majority of services show either a degraded or mixed status across Europe with the exception of recent enhancements in timber production in forests and mountains, freshwater provision, water/erosion/natural hazard regulation and recreation/ecotourism in mountains, and climate regulation in forests. Key gaps in knowledge were evident for certain services across all ecosystems, including the provision of biochemicals and natural medicines, genetic resources and the regulating services of seed dispersal, pest/disease regulation and invasion resistance

Locally Perturbed Random Walks with Unbounded Jumps

In \cite{SzT}, D. Sz\'asz and A. Telcs have shown that for the diffusively scaled, simple symmetric random walk, weak convergence to the Brownian motion holds even in the case of local impurities if $d \ge 2$. The extension of their result to finite range random walks is straightforward. Here, however, we are interested in the situation when the random walk has unbounded range. Concretely we generalize the statement of \cite{SzT} to unbounded random walks whose jump distribution belongs to the domain of attraction of the normal law. We do this first: for diffusively scaled random walks on $\mathbf Z^d$ $(d \ge 2)$ having finite variance; and second: for random walks with distribution belonging to the non-normal domain of attraction of the normal law. This result can be applied to random walks with tail behavior analogous to that of the infinite horizon Lorentz-process; these, in particular, have infinite variance, and convergence to Brownian motion holds with the superdiffusive $\sqrt{n \log n}$ scaling.Comment: 16 page

Talking lines: A research protocol integrating verbal and visual narratives to understand the experiences of people affected by rarer forms of dementia

People affected by rarer forms of dementia often have a long and difficult experience obtaining a diagnosis and appropriate support, impacting family, employment and social relationships, quality of life and wellbeing. For this population progressive cognitive symptoms affect skills other than memory and disproportionately occur under the age of 65 years, often resulting in misdiagnosis and lack of appropriate care pathways. The objective of this study will be to better understand the subjective experience of the time period from first noticing symptoms to obtaining a formal diagnosis, through to accessing support, and onward to the present time. Through the concurrent use of line drawings and video-recorded interviews we will collect the stories of people living with different rarer dementias and/or family members who are care partners in Canada and the United Kingdom. Narrative and visual analysis will be used in parallel to methodologically explore how line drawing and verbal discourse interact and inform each other to construct knowledge, and how the use of drawing lines might enrich research interviews and increase accessibility of research participation. This novel research approach may also have implications for clinical interviewing, support services, and public engagement. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to retrospectively explore over time the experiences of people affected by rarer forms of dementia from initial symptoms—to diagnosis—to accessing support—to the present, using visual and verbal methodologies

Effects of interleukin-1β Inhibition on blood pressure, incident hypertension, and residual inflammatory risk

While hypertension and inflammation are physiologically inter-related, the effect of therapies that specifically target inflammation on blood pressure is uncertain. The recent CANTOS (Canakinumab Anti-inflammatory Thrombosis Outcomes Study) afforded the opportunity to test whether IL (interleukin)-1β inhibition would reduce blood pressure, prevent incident hypertension, and modify relationships between hypertension and cardiovascular events. CANTOS randomized 10 061 patients with prior myocardial infarction and hsCRP (high sensitivity C-reactive protein) ≥2 mg/L to canakinumab 50 mg, 150 mg, 300 mg, or placebo. A total of 9549 trial participants had blood pressure recordings during follow-up; of these, 80% had a preexisting diagnosis of hypertension. In patients without baseline hypertension, rates of incident hypertension were 23.4, 26.6, and 28.1 per 100-person years for the lowest to highest baseline tertiles of hsCRP (P>0.2). In all participants random allocation to canakinumab did not reduce blood pressure (P>0.2) or incident hypertension during the follow-up period (hazard ratio, 0.96 [0.85–1.08], P>0.2). IL-1β inhibition with canakinumab reduces major adverse cardiovascular event rates. These analyses suggest that the mechanisms underlying this benefit are not related to changes in blood pressure or incident hypertension

Molecular-orbital theory for the stopping power of atoms in the low velocity regime:the case of helium in alkali metals

A free-parameter linear-combination-of-atomic-orbitals approach is presented for analyzing the stopping power of slow ions moving in a metal. The method is applied to the case of He moving in alkali metals. Mean stopping powers for He present a good agreement with local-density-approximation calculations. Our results show important variations in the stopping power of channeled atoms with respect to their mean values.Comment: LATEX, 3 PostScript Figures attached. Total size 0.54

The Long-Term Future of Extragalactic Astronomy

If the current energy density of the universe is indeed dominated by a cosmological constant, then high-redshift sources will remain visible to us only until they reach some finite age in their rest-frame. The radiation emitted beyond that age will never reach us due to the acceleration of the cosmic expansion rate, and so we will never know what these sources look like as they become older. As a source image freezes on a particular time frame along its evolution, its luminosity distance and redshift continue to increase exponentially with observation time. The higher the current redshift of a source is, the younger it will appear as it fades out of sight. For the popular set of cosmological parameters, I show that a source at a redshift z=5-10 will only be visible up to an age of 4-6 billion years. Arguments relating the properties of high-redshift sources to present-day counterparts will remain indirect even if we continue to monitor these sources for an infinite amount of time. These sources will not be visible to us when they reach the current age of the universe.Comment: Phys. Rev. D, in press (2001