Aerodynamics of Pitching Wings: Theory and Experiments

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/140444/1/6.2014-2881.pd

A conscious rethink : Why is brain tissue commonly preserved in the archaeological record? Commentary on: Petrone P, Pucci P, Niola M, et al. Heat-induced brain vitrification from the Vesuvius eruption in C.E. 79. N Engl J Med 2020;382:383-4. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMc1909867

Brain tissue is ubiquitous in the archaeological record. Multiple, independent studies report the finding of black, resinous or shiny brain tissue, and Petrone et al. [2020 “Heat-induced Brain Vitrification from the Vesuvius Eruption in C.E. 79.” N Engl J Med. 382: 383–384; doi:10.1056/NEJMc1909867] raise the intriguing prospect of a role for vitrification in the preservation of ancient biomolecules. However, Petrone et al. (2020) have not made their raw data available, and no detailed laboratory or analytical methodology is offered. Issues of contamination and misinterpretation hampered a decade of research in biomolecular archaeology, such that addressing these sources of bias and facilitating validation of specious findings has become both routine and of paramount importance in the discipline. We argue that the evidence they present does not support their conclusion of heat-induced vitrification of human brain tissue, and that future studies should share palaeoproteomic data in an open access repository to facilitate comparative analysis of the recovery of ancient proteins and patterns of their degradation

Overlapping political budget cycle

We advance the literature on political budget cycles by testing for cycles in expenditures for elections to the legislative and the executive branches. Using municipal data, we identify cycles independently for the two branches, evaluate the effects of overlaps, and account for general year effects. We find sizable effects on expenditures before legislative elections and even larger effects before joint elections to the legislature and the office of mayor. In the case of coincident elections, we show that it is important whether the incumbent chief executive seeks reelection. To account for the potential endogeneity of that decision, we apply an IV approach using age and pension eligibility rules

Conjugation of Organoruthenium(II) 3-(1H-Benzimidazol-2-yl)pyrazolo[3,4-b]pyridines and Indolo[3,2-d]benzazepines to Recombinant Human Serum Albumin: a Strategy To Enhance Cytotoxicity in Cancer Cells

Five organoruthenium complexes [RuCl(η6-arene)(L)]Cl with a modified arene ligand, namely, 4-formylphenoxyacetyl-η6-benzylamide, and L = 3-(1H-benzimidazol-2-yl)-1H-pyrazolo[3,4-b]pyridines or indolo[3,2-d]benzazepines were synthesized and conjugated to recombinant human serum albumin in order to improve their drug targeting and delivery to cancer cells, and a marked increase in cytotoxicity was observed

Turnout and Closeness: Evidence from 60 Years of Bavarian Mayoral Elections

One prediction of the calculus of voting is that electoral closeness positively affects turnout via a higher probability of one vote being decisive. I test this theory with data on all mayoral elections in the German state of Bavaria between 1946 and 2009. Importantly, I use constitutionally prescribed two-round elections to measure electoral closeness and thereby improve on existing work that mostly uses ex- post measures that are prone to endogeneity. The results suggest that electoral closeness matters: A one standard deviation increase in close- ness increases turnout by 1.68 percentage points, which corresponds to 1 6 of a standard deviation in this variable. I also evaluate how other factors like electorate size or rain on election day affect turnout differentially depending on the closeness of the race

Population pharmacokinetic characterization of BAY 81-8973, a full-length recombinant factor VIII: lessons learned ‒ importance of including samples with factor VIII levels below the quantitation limit

Introduction: The pharmacokinetics (PK), safety and efficacy of BAY 81-8973, a full-length, unmodified, recombinant human factor VIII (FVIII), were evaluated in the LEOPOLD trials. Aim: The aim of this study was to develop a population PK model based on pooled data from the LEOPOLD trials and to investigate the importance of including samples with FVIII levels below the limit of quantitation (BLQ) to estimate half-life. Methods: The analysis included 1535 PK observations (measured by the chromogenic assay) from 183 male patients with haemophilia A aged 1‒61 years from the 3 LEOPOLD trials. The limit of quantitation was 1.5 IU dL for the majority of samples. Population PK models that included or excluded BLQ samples were used for FVIII half-life estimations, and simulations were performed using both estimates to explore the influence on the time below a determined FVIII threshold. Results: In the data set used, approximately 16.5% of samples were BLQ, which is not uncommon for FVIII PK data sets. The structural model to describe the PK of BAY 81-8973 was a two-compartment model similar to that seen for other FVIII products. If BLQ samples were excluded from the model, FVIII half-life estimations were longer compared with a model that included BLQ samples. Conclusions: It is essential to assess the importance of BLQ samples when performing population PK estimates of half-life for any FVIII product. Exclusion of BLQ data from half-life estimations based on population PK models may result in an overestimation of half-life and underestimation of time under a predetermined FVIII threshold, resulting in potential underdosing of patients

Digitally Assisted Transmitter Enhancement Techniques for Millimeter Wave Radio Systems

Wireless communication has become an integral part of life in a modern society. The data to be transmitted is modulated on radio frequency carrier signals for transmission where the bandwidth of the signal to be transmitted increases proportional to the speed at which the data is intended to be transmitted. The present generation cellular wireless communication systems employ channel bandwidths as wide as 20 MHz in multipole bands between 800 MHz and 3.5 GHz with digitally modulated multi-carrier transmission schemes and hybrid access schemes in time, frequency and spatial domains. The radio spectrum has stretched to occupy multiple bands below to meet the demand for volume and speed of the data to be communicated. Indoor short range wireless communications of present generation employ channel bandwidths as wide as 160 MHz and transmit at powers lesser than a tenth of that transmitted by cellular systems and employ similar access schemes as cellular wireless systems. There has been a similar evolution in the area of wireless communications through satellites. Next generation wireless communication systems such as 5G and High-Throughput-Satellite systems in the millimetre wave bands have promised a step increase in data rates in the order of several gigabits per second operating multiple frequency bands over and above those in use at present. This necessitates design of state of the art mm-wave transceivers capable of operating in millimetre wave bands with instantaneous bandwidths of several hundreds of MHz. The cost and complexity of implementation of the radio transmission system increases rapidly as the bandwidths increase. This work investigates digital enhancement techniques to enhance performance of wideband radio frequency transmitters. A section of the work focusses on characterizing wideband impairments in radio frequency hardware and mitigating them through digital signal processing. Another section devises digital signal processing operations to jointly enhance power efficiency in radio frequency transmitters along with providing an additional tier of security to the information being transmitted.The third section focusses on methods of transmission of wideband modulated signals by seamlessly interleaving multiple radio frequency transceivers of relatively narrow bandwidths in the frequency domain thereby presenting an architecture for scalable bandwidth transmitters. Overall this thesis presents innovative techniques to mitigate limitations in radio frequency hardware that hinder wideband operation and schemes to construct scalable bandwidth transceivers with scope to reuse legacy radio frequency hardware for next generation communication systems in part or whole