Environmental issues on nuisance weeds

(5 page document

Dual-band wearable textile antenna on an EBG substrate

Performance of a dual-band coplanar patch antenna integrated with an electromagnetic band gap substrate is described. The antenna structure is made from common clothing fabrics and operates at the 2.45 and 5 GHz wireless bands. The design of the coplanar antenna, band gap substrate, and their integration is presented. The band gap array consists of just 3 x 3 elements but reduces radiation into the body by over 10 dB and improves the antenna gain by 3 dB. The performance of the antenna under bending conditions and when placed on the human body are presented

Convex Interval Games

In this paper, convex interval games are introduced and some characterizations are given. Some economic situations leading to convex interval games are discussed. The Weber set and the Shapley value are defined for a suitable class of interval games and their relations with the interval core for convex interval games are established. A square operator is introduced which allows us to obtain interval solutions starting from classical cooperative game theory solutions. It turns out that on the class of convex interval games the square Weber set coincides with the interval core.cooperative games;interval data;convex games;the core;the Weber set;the Shapley value

Prevalence of depression among infertile couples in Iran: A meta-analysis study

Background: Several studies have been conducted in Iran in order to investigate the prevalence of depression among infertile couples. However, there is a remarkable diversity among the results. This meta-analysis was conducted to estimate an overall prevalence rate of depression among infertile couples in Iran. Methods: International and national electronic databases were searched up to June 2011 including MEDLINE, Science Citation Index Expanded, Scopus, SID, MagIran, and IranMedex as well as conference databases. Furthermore, reference lists of articles were screened and the studies' authors were contacted for additional references. Cross-sectional studies addressing the prevalence of depression among infertile couples were included in this meta-analysis. We assessed 12 separate studies involving overall 2818 participants of which 1251 had depression. Results: Overall prevalence rate of depression among infertile couples was 0.47 (95% CI: 0.40, 0.55). The prevalence rate of depression was 0.44 (95% CI: 0.32, 0.56) during 2000 to 2005 and 0.50 (95% CI: 0.43, 0.57 during 2006 to 2011. The prevalence rate of depression was 0.46 (95% CI: 0.39, 0.53) among women and 0.47 (95% CI: 0.40, 0.54) among men. Conclusion: Not only the prevalence of depression in infertile couples was high but also had increasing growth in recent years. Furthermore, despite many studies conducted addressing the prevalence of depression in infertile couples, there is however a remarkable diversity between the results. Thus, one can hardly give a precise estimation of the prevalence rate of depression among infertile couples in Iran now

Cooperation under Interval Uncertainty

Classification: JEL code C71Cooperative game theory;Interval uncertainty;Core;Value;Balancedness

Cores and Stable Sets for Interval-Valued Games

In this paper, interval-type solution concepts for interval-valued cooperative games like the interval core, the interval dominance core and stable sets are introduced and studied. The notion of I-balancedness is introduced, and it is proved that the interval core of an interval-valued cooperative game is nonempty if and only if the game is I-balanced. Relations between the interval core, the dominance core and stable sets of an interval-valued game are established.cooperative games;interval games;the core;the dominance core;stable sets

Search-Money-and-Barter Models of Financial Stabilization

A macroeconomic model based on search-theoretical foundations is built to show that in an economy with structural deficiencies of the Russian Virtual Economy, money substitutes appear as a result of optimizing behavior of agents. Moreover, the volume of money substitutes is typically large, and it is impossible to reduce their volume significantly by using standard instruments as an increase of the money supply or decreasing the tax level. The result obtains for an economy, where there are large natural monopolies and widespread informal networks.

Fisheries hydrography

The article is based on a talk given before a meeting of the Society of Fisheries Technologists, India

Assessment of questionnaires measuring quality of life in infertile couples: A systematic review

Background: Infertility has potentially inappropriate effects on quality of life in infertile couples. Various general and specific questionnaires have been structured for assessing different aspects of quality of life in infertile men, women, or couples. The present systematic review was designed to assess these questionnaires and also identify different factors affecting infertile couples based on the aforesaid questionnaires. Methods: The research strategy involved general and specific terms in relation to couples's infertility and their quality of life. A review was done for studies published from 1982 to 2012 that were indexed in Medline, ISI Web of Science and Scopus as well as abstract books on this subject. We also corresponded with the authors of the references in related studies for introducing more resources and references. Results: In all reviewed studies, different aspects of the quality of life in couples were evaluated including sexual, psychological, social, communicational, environmental, occupational, medical, as well as economical ones. In total, after initial screening of all studies, 10 general and 2 specific questionnaires were retrieved. Although no meta-analysis was found in the review, infertility had a negative effect on quality of life in couples. Conclusion: This study revealed that some general questionnaires such as SF-36 and WHO-QOL were mostly used for assessing quality of life in infertile couples and some specific questionnaires such as FERTI-QoL and Fertility Problem Inventory were rarely used. Thus, it seems that the evaluation of quality of life in infertile couples needs valid instruments for measurement