Nonlinear supratransmission in multicomponent systems

A method is proposed to solve the challenging problem of determining the supratransmission threshold (onset of instability of harmonic boundary driving inside a band gap) in multicomponent nonintegrable nonlinear systems. It is successfully applied to the degenerate three-wave resonant interaction in a birefringent quadratic medium where the process generates spatial gap solitons. No analytic expression is known for this model showing the broad applicability of the method to nonlinear systems.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Bloggers and the Blogosphere in Lebanon & Syria: meanings and activities

The use of blogging and its potential effects on society and politics have been widely debated but the meanings and understandings that bloggers themselves hold about the activity have not been sufficiently explored; indeed in Lebanon and Syria they have barely been investigated at all. Through interviews with bloggers, ISPs, Internet café owners and others, as well as informal online participant observation and an online questionnaire, this thesis explores the structural and cultural variables that have allowed Lebanese and Syrian bloggers to understand and use blogs in their own specific ways. The study not only recounts what bloggers say about themselves but investigates the structural variables that surround them, including government and institutional policy, censorship, impediments to Internet access, historical conditions under which blogging emerged, attitudes to the Internet, changing events and new entrants to blogging. By its comparative nature, the project reveals how the meanings that bloggers attach to their blogging activities and to their socialization with other bloggers are situated in the social and historical conditions under which blogging is practiced. The changing meanings blogging acquired for bloggers during the course of this research illustrated its shifting and relational attributes. Thus an unexpectedly complex array of interrelated factors is shown to contribute to the tool acquiring certain meanings and being used in specific ways. The research uncovers differing reasons between Lebanese and Syrian bloggers as to why they blog, what socialisation with other bloggers means to them, and what marks of differentiation such as anonymity and choice of language they use to distinguish the activity of one blogger from another. Both the Lebanese and Syrian bloggers at this point belong to a collective effort of other bloggers in their own countries, but the thesis also shows the meanings of socialisation online and how it is regarded change over time

Convective instability induced by nonlocality in nonlinear diffusive systems

We consider a large class of nonlinear diffusive systems with nonlocal coupling. By using a non-perturbative analytical approach we are able to determine the convective and absolute instabilities of all the uniform states of these systems. We find a huge window of convective instability that should provide a great opportunity to study experimentally and theoretically noise sustained patterns.Comment: 5 pages, accepted for publication in PR

Implementation of the Integrated TOD Spatial Model for Jakarta Metropolitan Region

Jakarta Metropolitan Region (JMR) is the biggest megacity urban areas in Indonesia. However,theexistingpublictransportfacilitiesarenotadequatelyfulfillingthedemand ofitsinhabitant.Therefore,itisimportantforovercomingthoseissueswithshedlighton the integration of spatial and transportation by applying Transit Oriented Development (TOD) model. The method of this paper using the spatial and transportation approach by differentiates TOD each railway stations based on the typology. The results were that the TOD spatial model is focusing on solving public transport issues related to urban planning. Therefore, certain policy from stakeholders for this region greatly encourages transport planning in a more sustainable manner

Effect of Different Levels of Lavandula Stoechas Essence on Production Performance and Egg Quality of Laying Hens

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of different levels of Lavander stoechas essence on performance and egg quality of laying hens for 8 weeks. This experiment was conducted with 160 Hy-Line (W36) laying hens (30 wks of age), randomly divided into 4 experimental groups, 5 replicates and 8 birds per each (2 cages for each replicate and 4 birds in each cage). Treatments were control (without Lavander essence), and levels of 200, 400, and 600 ppm Lavander essence. All hens were provided the layer diets (2870 kcal/kg ME and 15.5 % CP) ad- libitum and received 16 h of light/ 8 h of dark. Performance parameters including egg weight and egg production were recorded daily and feed intake, feed conversion ratio (grams of feed:grams of egg) and egg quality were measured weekly. The following characteristics were recorded for the individual eggs: weight, shape index, eggshell breaking strength, shell thickness, yolk color, and Haugh unit. Levels of 200 and 400 ppm of Lavander essence showed a significant increase in production percentage and egg weight but these parameters decreased at level of 600 ppm. Feed intake was highest for control, 200 and 400 ppm essence dietary levels but level of 600 ppm showed significant decrease. Addition of essence to the diet had no effect on FCR. Shape index and Haugh unit were not significantly affected by the treatments. Higher yolk color score was observed in treatments containing Lavander essence in comparison with control (p<0.05). Levels of 200 and 400 ppm essence increased significantly egg shell quality including thickness, weight and shell breaking strength. The results showed that the addition of essences of Lavender up to 400 ppm increased production performance and improved egg quality

Simplex-Coded BOTDA Sensor Over 120 km SMF with 1 m Spatial Resolution Assisted by Optimized Bidirectional Raman Amplification

Bidirectional low-noise Raman amplification and simplex coding based on the return-to-zero modulation format are optimized through numerical simulations for long-range Brillouin optical time-domain analysis sensing. Experimental results are reported on sensing capabilities along 120-km distance with 1-m spatial resolution, and worst-case temperature and strain resolution values of 1.3 °C and 26 με, respectively

Re-Assessing TOD Index in Jakarta Metropolitan Region (JMR)

Transit Oriented Development (TOD) is believed to be able to overcome the issues of urban transport. However, in practice, the current TOD in Jakarta&nbsp; Metropolitan Region (JMR) is still a deficiency in accommodating the needs of transportation movement and not in facilitating services in terms of TOD function. The objective of this paper was to re-assess the service quality of actual TOD in 54 commuter railway stations. The paper performed criteria-indicators and measured a composite TOD index by using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP)-multicriteria model, statistics test, and Geographical Information System (GIS) application. TOD index was found that urban areas have a high TOD index. On the other hand, the suburban areas have a low TOD-index. The statistical test showed that there was a strong correlation between different criteria. This paper concluded that most of the stations which were located in the suburban area had a low index thus need improvement. Consequently, the station areas needed to have a policy relevance. &nbsp

Reverse taxonomy for elucidating diversity of insect-associated nematodes: a case study with termites

BACKGROUND: The molecular operational taxonomic unit(MOTU)has recently been applied to microbial and microscopic animal biodiversity surveys. However, in many cases, some of the MOTUs cannot be definitively tied to any of the taxonomic groups in current databases. To surmount these limitations, the concept of "reverse taxonomy" has been proposed, i.e. to primarily list the MOTUs with morphological information, and then identify and/or describe them at genus/species level using subsamples or by re-isolating the target organisms. Nevertheless, the application of "reverse taxonomy" has not been sufficiently evaluated. Therefore, the practical applicability of "reverse taxonomy" is tested using termite-associated nematodes as a model system for phoretic/parasitic organisms which have high habitat specificity and a potential handle (their termite host species) for re-isolation attempts. METHODOLOGY: Forty-eight species (from 298 colonies) of termites collected from the American tropics and subtropics were examined for their nematode associates using the reverse taxonomy method and culturing attempts (morphological identification and further sequencing efforts). The survey yielded 51 sequence types (= MOTUs) belonging to 19 tentatively identified genera. Within these, four were identified based on molecular data with preliminary morphological observation, and an additional seven were identified or characterized from successful culturing, leaving eight genera unidentified. CONCLUSIONS: That 1/3 of the genera were not successfully identified suggests deficiencies in the depth of available sequences in the database and biological characters, i.e. usually isolated as phoretic/parasitic stages which are not available for morphological identification, and too many undiscovered lineages of nematodes. Although there still is the issue of culturability of nematodes, culturing attempts could help to make reverse taxonomy methods more effective. However, expansion of the database, i.e., production of more DNA barcodes tied to biological information by finding and characterizing additional new and known lineages, is necessary for analyzing functional diversity.Natsumi Kanzaki, Robin M. Giblin-Davis, Rudolf H. Scheffrahn, Hisatomo Taki, Alejandro Esquivel, Kerrie A. Davies and E. Allen Herr