1,222 research outputs found
DAIRY MARKETS, POLICIES, AND TRADE IN EASTERN EUROPE AND THE FORMER SOVIET UNION
This paper was presented at the INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN LIVESTOCK PRODUCTS SYMPOSIUM in Auckland, New Zealand, January 18-19, 2001. The Symposium was sponsored by: the International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium, the Venture Trust, Massey University, New Zealand, and the Centre for Applied Economics and Policy Studies, Massey University. Dietary changes, especially in developing countries, are driving a massive increase in demand for livestock products. The objective of this symposium was to examine the consequences of this phenomenon, which some have even called a "revolution." How are dietary patterns changing, and can increased demands for livestock products be satisfied from domestic resources? If so, at what cost? What will be the flow-on impacts, for example, in terms of increased demands for feedgrains and the pressures for change within marketing systems? A supply-side response has been the continued development of large-scale, urban-based industrial livestock production systems that in many cases give rise to environmental concerns. If additional imports seem required, where will they originate and what about food security in the importing regions? How might market access conditions be re-negotiated to make increased imports achievable? Other important issues discussed involved food safety, animal health and welfare and the adoption of biotechnology, and their interactions with the negotiation of reforms to domestic and trade policies. Individual papers from this conference are available on AgEcon Search. If you would like to see the complete agenda and set of papers from this conference, please visit the IATRC Symposium web page at: http://www1.umn.edu/iatrc.intro.htmAgricultural and Food Policy, Marketing, International Relations/Trade,
Out-of-plane focusing grating couplers for silicon photonics integration with optical MRAM technology
We present the design methodology and experimental characterization of compact out-of-plane focusing grating couplers for integration with magnetoresistive random access memory technology. Focusing grating couplers have recently found attention as layer-couplers for photonic-electronic integration. The components we demonstrate are designed for a wavelength of 1550 nm, fabricated in a standard 220 nm SOI photonic platform and optimized given the fabrication restrictions for standard 193-nm UV lithography. For the first time, we extend the design based on the phase matching condition to a two-dimensional (2-D) grating design with two optical input ports. We further present the experimental characterization of the focusing behaviour by spatially probing the emitted beam with a tapered-and-lensed fiber and demonstrate the polarization controlling capabilities of the 2-D FGCs
Glassy Phase of Optimal Quantum Control
We study the problem of preparing a quantum many-body system from an initial
to a target state by optimizing the fidelity over the family of bang-bang
protocols. We present compelling numerical evidence for a universal
spin-glass-like transition controlled by the protocol time duration. The glassy
critical point is marked by a proliferation of protocols with close-to-optimal
fidelity and with a true optimum that appears exponentially difficult to
locate. Using a machine learning (ML) inspired framework based on the manifold
learning algorithm t-SNE, we are able to visualize the geometry of the
high-dimensional control landscape in an effective low-dimensional
representation. Across the transition, the control landscape features an
exponential number of clusters separated by extensive barriers, which bears a
strong resemblance with replica symmetry breaking in spin glasses and random
satisfiability problems. We further show that the quantum control landscape
maps onto a disorder-free classical Ising model with frustrated nonlocal,
multibody interactions. Our work highlights an intricate but unexpected
connection between optimal quantum control and spin glass physics, and shows
how tools from ML can be used to visualize and understand glassy optimization
landscapes.Comment: Modified figures in appendix and main text (color schemes). Corrected
references. Added figures in SI and pseudo-cod
Modelling understorey dynamics in temperate forests under global change : challenges and perspectives
The understorey harbours a substantial part of vascular plant diversity in temperate forests and plays an important functional role, affecting ecosystem processes such as nutrient cycling and overstorey regeneration. Global change, however, is putting these understorey communities on trajectories of change, potentially altering and reducing their functioning in the future. Developing mitigation strategies to safeguard the diversity and functioning of temperate forests in the future is challenging and requires improved predictive capacity. Process-based models that predict understorey community composition over time, based on first principles of ecology, have the potential to guide mitigation endeavours but such approaches are rare. Here, we review fourteen understorey modelling approaches that have been proposed during the last three decades. We evaluate their inclusion of mechanisms that are required to predict the impact of global change on understorey communities. We conclude that none of the currently existing models fully accounts for all processes that we deem important based on empirical and experimental evidence. Based on this review, we contend new models are needed to project the complex impacts of global change on forest understoreys. Plant functional traits should be central to such future model developments, as they drive community assembly processes and provide valuable information on the functioning of the understorey. Given the important role of the overstorey, a coupling of understorey models to overstorey models will be essential to predict the impact of global change on understorey composition and structure, and how it will affect the functioning of temperate forests in the future
Regulated InositolâRequiring Protein 1âDependent Decay as a Mechanism of Corin RNA and Protein Deficiency in Advanced Human Systolic Heart Failure
BACKGROUND: The compensatory actions of the endogenous natriuretic peptide system require adequate processing of natriuretic peptide proâhormones into biologically active, carboxylâterminal fragments. Natriuretic peptide proâpeptide processing is accomplished by corin, a transmembrane serine protease expressed by cardiomyocytes. Brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) processing is inadequate in advanced heart failure and is independently associated with adverse outcomes; however, the molecular mechanisms causing impaired BNP processing are not understood. We hypothesized that the development of endoplasmic reticulum stress in cardiomyocytes in advanced heart failure triggers inositolârequiring protein 1 (IRE1)âdependent corin mRNA decay, which would favor a molecular substrate favoring impaired natriuretic peptide proâpeptide processing. METHODS AND RESULTS: Two independent samples of hearts obtained from patients with advanced heart failure at transplant demonstrated that corin RNA was reduced as Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP)/BNP RNA increased. Increases in spliced Xâbox protein 1, a marker for IRE1âendoribonuclease activity, were associated with decreased corin RNA. Moreover, â50% of the hearts demonstrated significant reductions in corin RNA and protein as compared to the nonfailing control sample. In vitro experiments demonstrated that induction of endoplasmic reticulum stress in cultured cardiomyocytes with thapsigargin activated IRE1s endoribonuclease activity and timeâdependent reductions in corin mRNA. In HLâ1 cells, overexpression of IRE1 activated IRE1 endoribonuclease activity and caused corin mRNA decay, whereas IRE1âRNA interference with shRNA attenuated corin mRNA decay after induction of endoplasmic reticulum stress with thapsigargin. Preâtreatment of cells with Actinomycin D to inhibit transcription did not alter the magnitude or time course of thapsigarginâinduced corin mRNA decline, supporting the hypothesis that this was the result of IRE1âmediated corin mRNA degradation. CONCLUSIONS: These data support the hypothesis that endoplasmic reticulum stressâmediated, IRE1âdependent targeted corin mRNA decay is a mechanism leading to corin mRNA resulting in corresponding corin protein deficiency may contribute to the pathophysiology of impaired natriuretic peptide proâhormone processing in humans processing in humans with advanced systolic heart failure
Evanescently-coupled hybrid III-V/silicon laser based on DVS-BCB bonding
© 2014 IEEE. Controllable electrical breakdown of multiwall nanotubes (MWNTs) is studied utilizing the atomic force microscopy (AFM). Electrical breakdown has been known as the way to fundamentally understand the electrical properties of nanotubes and an approach to develop MWNT based transistors and sensors. Normally, electrical breakdown was known to be happened in the center of MWNT because of the thermal accumulation. However, considering the effect of thermal dissipation, the electrical breakdown could be mechanically controlled by an additional heat sink, which could be the substrate of MWNT device. Therefore, the electrical breakdown process is controllable through controlling Joule heating and thermal dissipation. In this research, we study the crucial factors that affect the electrical breakdown. The AFM based nano robot is used to measure the conductance distribution, and manipulate the three dimensional structure of MWNT in order to change the position of heat sink to control the location where electrical breakdown happened. The controllable electrical breakdown is an alternative approach for conducting bandgap engineering in nanodevice and fabricating high performance nano sensors and transistors.Link_to_subscribed_fulltex
PACS and SPIRE range spectroscopy of cool, evolved stars
Context: At the end of their lives AGB stars are prolific producers of dust
and gas. The details of this mass-loss process are still not understood very
well. Herschel PACS and SPIRE spectra offer a unique way of investigating
properties of AGB stars in general and the mass-loss process in particular.
Methods: The HIPE software with the latest calibration is used to process the
available PACS and SPIRE spectra of 40 evolved stars. The spectra are convolved
with the response curves of the PACS and SPIRE bolometers and compared to the
fluxes measured in imaging data of these sources. Custom software is used to
identify lines in the spectra, and to determine the central wavelengths and
line intensities. Standard molecular line databases are used to associate the
observed lines. Because of the limited spectral resolution of the spectrometers
several known lines are typically potential counterparts to any observed line.
To help identifications the relative contributions in line intensity of the
potential counterpart lines are listed for three characteristic temperatures
based on LTE calculations and assuming optically thin emission. Result: The
following data products are released: the reduced spectra, the lines that are
measured in the spectra with wavelength, intensity, potential identifications,
and the continuum spectra, i.e. the full spectra with all identified lines
removed. As simple examples of how this data can be used in future studies we
have fitted the continuum spectra with three power laws and find that the few
OH/IR stars seem to have significantly steeper slopes than the other oxygen-
and carbon-rich objects in the sample. As another example we constructed
rotational diagrams for CO and fitted a two-component model to derive
rotational temperatures.Comment: A&A accepte
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