Performance of cluster-based cognitive multihop networks under joint impact of hardware noises and non-identical primary co-channel interference

In this paper, we evaluate outage probability (OP) of a cluster-based multi-hop protocol operating on an underlay cognitive radio (CR) mode. The primary network consists of multiple independent transmit/receive pairs, and the primary transmitters seriously cause co-channel interference (CCI) to the secondary receivers. To improve the outage performance for the secondary network under the joint impact of the CCI and hardware imperfection, we employ the best relay selection at each hop. Moreover, the destination is equipped with multiple antennas and uses the selection combining (SC) technique to enhance the reliability of the data transmission at the last hop. For performance evaluation, we first derive an exact formula of OP for the primary network which is used to calculate the transmit power of the secondary transmitters. Next, an exact closed-form expression of the end-to-end OP for the secondary network is derived over Rayleigh fading channels. We then perform Monte-Carlo simulations to validate the derivations. The results present that the CCI caused by the primary operations significantly impacts on the outage performance of the secondary network

HYDROGEN-PLASMA-TREATED NANO TIO2 FOR PHOTOCATALYTIC OXIDATION OF VOCS IN AIR STREAM

Unlike water treatment processes, the photocatalytic oxidation of VOCs in air stream exhibits many challenges. This study will develop the hydrogen-plasma-treated TiO2 with improvement in photocatalytic activity. The hydrogen-plasma-treatment was carried out in the non-thermal atmospheric pressure reactor at room temperature or above. The catalysts were prepared and analyzed by advanced techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electro-microscopy (SEM) and transmission electro-microscopy (TEM). The photocatalytic activity of the catalyst has been investigated under UV light with various reaction conditions such as different initial toluene/formaldehyde concentrations and water content. Significantly, the conversion of toluene by a plasma-treated sample was 1.5 times higher than the bare TiO2 in a similar reaction condition

Transport Jc in Bulk Superconductors: A Practical Approach?

The characterisation of the critical current density of bulk high temperature superconductors is typically performed using magnetometry, which involves numerous assumptions including, significantly, that Jc within the sample is uniform. Unfortunately, magnetometry is particularly challenging to apply where a local measurement of Jc across a feature, such as a grain boundary, is desired. Although transport measurements appear to be an attractive alternative to magnetization, it is extremely challenging to reduce the cross-sectional area of a bulk sample sufficiently to achieve a sufficiently low critical current that can be generated by a practical current source. In the work described here, we present a technique that enables transport measurements to be performed on sections of bulk superconductors. Metallographic techniques and resin reinforcement were used to create an I-shaped sample of bulk superconductor from a section of Gd-Ba-Cu-O containing 15 wt % Ag2O. The resulting superconducting track had a cross-sectional area of 0.44 mm2. The sample was found to support a critical current of 110 A using a field criterion in the narrowed track region of 1 μV cm-1. We conclude, therefore, that it is possible to measure critical current densities in excess of 2.5 x 108 A m-2 in sections of a bulk superconductor.This work was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, via a Doctoral Training Award (grant number is EP/L504920/1) and funding from grant number EP/K02910X/1. This work was also supported by the Boeing Company. All data are provided in full in the results section of this paper.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from IEEE via http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TASC.2016.253764

Multi-drug resistant Vibrio cholerae O1 variant El Tor isolated in northern Vietnam between 2007 and 2010

Since 2007, there has been a re-emergence of cholera outbreaks in northern Vietnam. To understand the molecular epidemiological relatedness and determine the antibiotic susceptibility profiles of responsible V. cholerae O1 outbreak strains, a representative collection of 100 V. cholerae O1 strains was characterized. V. cholerae O1 strains isolated from diarrhoeal patients in northern Vietnam between 2007 and 2010 were investigated for antibiotic susceptibility and characterized by using phenotypic and genotypic tests, including PFGE analysis. Ten clinical V. cholerae O1 isolates from Bangladesh and Zimbabwe were included for comparison. The results revealed that all isolates were resistant to co-trimoxazole and nalidixic acid, 29 % were resistant to tetracycline and 1 % were resistant to azithromycin. All strains were susceptible to ampicillin–sulbactam, doxycycline, chloramphenicol and ciprofloxacin and 95 % were susceptible to azithromycin. MIC values did show reduced susceptibility to fluoroquinolones and 63 % of the strains were intermediately resistant to tetracycline. The isolates expressed phenotypic traits of both serogroup O1 Ogawa and El Tor and harboured an rstR El Tor and ctxB classical biotype. Among the outbreak isolates, only a single PFGE pattern was observed throughout the study period. This study shows that multi-drug resistant V. cholerae altered El Tor producing classical CT strains are now predominant in northern Vietnam

Preliminary data on the aquatic invertebrate fauna of the Ma River, Thanh Hoa province: Research article

A field survey for the invertebrate fauna conducted in the Ma River, Thanh Hoa province in 2013. The research applied multivariable analysis performed by the Primer v.6 software, such as CLUSTER, one-way ANOSIM, BEST and DIVERSE. The results showed a list of 138 aquatic invertebrate species. Of these, most were freshwater wide-distributing species coupled with others characterized for brackish and marine waters. The biodiversity status was quite high compared to several other rivers in the North of Vietnam. The list contained many economic-valued species and 2 of these were listed in the Red Data Book of Vietnam. The aquatic invertebrates showed a significant relation to the two different combinations of physiochemical factors for zooplanktons and zoobenthos, respectively. The values of the species number, abundance and Shannon-Weiner index for both of zooplanktons and zoobenthos showed a curved trend from the upper river segments to lower river segments. These figures for zooplanktons peaked in the middle river segments, whereas the numbers for zoobenthos achieved the highest numbers in the estuaries. The species composition of the estuaries differentiated significantly from that of other freshwater habitats.Năm 2013 đã tiến hành một đợt điều tra khu hệ động vật không xương sống sông Mã, tỉnh Thanh Hóa. Nghiên cứu sử các phân tích đa biến thông qua phần mền Primer v.6, bao gồm: CLUSTER, one-way ANOSIM, BEST và DIVERSE. Kết quả phân tích thu được 138 loài với thành phần loài chủ yếu là những loài nước ngọt thường gặp và phân bố rộng, ngoài ra còn có các loài đặc trưng cho nước lợ và mặn. Trong số các loài thu được, nhiều loài có giá trị kinh tế và 2 loài có tên trong Sách Đỏ Việt Nam. Khu hệ động vật không xương sống sông Mã có quan hệ chặt với hai nhóm chỉ số thủy lý hóa học khác nhau, tương ứng cho động vật nổi và động vật đáy. Giá trị các chỉ số sinh học gồm số lượng loài, mật độ và Shannon-Weiner hồi quy theo đường cong phi tuyến từ thượng lưu tới hạ lưu; đạt giá trị cao nhất tại cửa sông đối với động vật đáy và vùng trung lưu với động vật nổi. Thành phần loài cửa sông khác biệt rõ rệt với thành phần loài các sinh cảnh nước ngọt khác

Modelling the progression of pandemic influenza A (H1N1) in Vietnam and the opportunities for reassortment with other influenza viruses

BACKGROUND: A novel variant of influenza A (H1N1) is causing a pandemic and, although the illness is usually mild, there are concerns that its virulence could change through reassortment with other influenza viruses. This is of greater concern in parts of Southeast Asia, where the population density is high, influenza is less seasonal, human-animal contact is common and avian influenza is still endemic. METHODS: We developed an age- and spatially-structured mathematical model in order to estimate the potential impact of pandemic H1N1 in Vietnam and the opportunities for reassortment with animal influenza viruses. The model tracks human infection among domestic animal owners and non-owners and also estimates the numbers of animals may be exposed to infected humans. RESULTS: In the absence of effective interventions, the model predicts that the introduction of pandemic H1N1 will result in an epidemic that spreads to half of Vietnam's provinces within 57 days (interquartile range (IQR): 45-86.5) and peaks 81 days after introduction (IQR: 62.5-121 days). For the current published range of the 2009 H1N1 influenza's basic reproductive number (1.2-3.1), we estimate a median of 410,000 cases among swine owners (IQR: 220,000-670,000) with 460,000 exposed swine (IQR: 260,000-740,000), 350,000 cases among chicken owners (IQR: 170,000-630,000) with 3.7 million exposed chickens (IQR: 1.9 M-6.4 M), and 51,000 cases among duck owners (IQR: 24,000 - 96,000), with 1.2 million exposed ducks (IQR: 0.6 M-2.1 M). The median number of overall human infections in Vietnam for this range of the basic reproductive number is 6.4 million (IQR: 4.4 M-8.0 M). CONCLUSION: It is likely that, in the absence of effective interventions, the introduction of a novel H1N1 into a densely populated country such as Vietnam will result in a widespread epidemic. A large epidemic in a country with intense human-animal interaction and continued co-circulation of other seasonal and avian viruses would provide substantial opportunities for H1N1 to acquire new genes

Search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at √ s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses 20.3 fb−1 of √ s = 8 TeV data collected in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are required to have at least one jet with pT > 120 GeV and no leptons. Nine signal regions are considered with increasing missing transverse momentum requirements between Emiss T > 150 GeV and Emiss T > 700 GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model expectations. The results are translated into exclusion limits on models with either large extra spatial dimensions, pair production of weakly interacting dark matter candidates, or production of very light gravitinos in a gauge-mediated supersymmetric model. In addition, limits on the production of an invisibly decaying Higgs-like boson leading to similar topologies in the final state are presente

Molecular Detection of Anaerobic Ammonium-Oxidizing (Anammox) Bacteria in High-Temperature Petroleum Reservoirs

Anaerobic ammonium-oxidizing (anammox) process plays an important role in the nitrogen cycle of the worldwide anoxic and mesophilic habitats. Recently, the existence and activity of anammox bacteria have been detected in some thermophilic environments, but their existence in the geothermal subterranean oil reservoirs is still not reported. This study investigated the abundance, distribution and functional diversity of anammox bacteria in nine out of 17 high-temperature oil reservoirs by molecular ecology analysis. High concentration (5.31–39.2 mg l−1) of ammonium was detected in the production water from these oilfields with temperatures between 55°C and 75°C. Both 16S rRNA and hzo molecular biomarkers indicated the occurrence of anammox bacteria in nine out of 17 samples. Most of 16S rRNA gene phylotypes are closely related to the known anammox bacterial genera Candidatus Brocadia, Candidatus Kuenenia, Candidatus Scalindua, and Candidatus Jettenia, while hzo gene phylotypes are closely related to the genera Candidatus Anammoxoglobus, Candidatus Kuenenia, Candidatus Scalindua, and Candidatus Jettenia. The total bacterial and anammox bacterial densities were 6.4 ± 0.5 × 103 to 2.0 ± 0.18 × 106 cells ml−1 and 6.6 ± 0.51 × 102 to 4.9 ± 0.36 × 104 cell ml−1, respectively. The cluster I of 16S rRNA gene sequences showed distant identity (<92%) to the known Candidatus Scalindua species, inferring this cluster of anammox bacteria to be a new species, and a tentative name Candidatus “Scalindua sinooilfield” was proposed. The results extended the existence of anammox bacteria to the high-temperature oil reservoirs

The Imd Pathway Is Involved in Antiviral Immune Responses in Drosophila

Cricket Paralysis virus (CrPV) is a member of the Dicistroviridae family of RNA viruses, which infect a broad range of insect hosts, including the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Drosophila has emerged as an effective system for studying innate immunity because of its powerful genetic techniques and the high degree of gene and pathway conservation. Intra-abdominal injection of CrPV into adult flies causes a lethal infection that provides a robust assay for the identification of mutants with altered sensitivity to viral infection. To gain insight into the interactions between viruses and the innate immune system, we injected wild type flies with CrPV and observed that antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) were not induced and hemocytes were depleted in the course of infection. To investigate the contribution of conserved immune signaling pathways to antiviral innate immune responses, CrPV was injected into isogenic mutants of the Immune Deficiency (Imd) pathway, which resembles the mammalian Tumor Necrosis Factor Receptor (TNFR) pathway. Loss-of-function mutations in several Imd pathway genes displayed increased sensitivity to CrPV infection and higher CrPV loads. Our data show that antiviral innate immune responses in flies infected with CrPV depend upon hemocytes and signaling through the Imd pathway

Caspase-Dependent Inhibition of Mousepox Replication by gzmB

BACKGROUND: Ectromelia virus is a natural mouse pathogen, causing mousepox. The cytotoxic T (Tc) cell granule serine-protease, granzyme B, is important for its control, but the underlying mechanism is unknown. Using ex vivo virus immune Tc cells, we have previously shown that granzyme B is able to activate several independent pro-apoptotic pathways, including those mediated by Bid/Bak/Bax and caspases-3/-7, in target cells pulsed with Tc cell determinants. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Here we analysed the physiological relevance of those pro-apoptotic pathways in ectromelia infection, by incubating ectromelia-immune ex vivo Tc cells from granzyme A deficient (GzmB(+) Tc cells) or granzyme A and granzyme B deficient (GzmAxB(-/-) Tc cell) mice with ectromelia-infected target cells. We found that gzmB-induced apoptosis was totally blocked in ectromelia infected or peptide pulsed cells lacking caspases-3/-7. However ectromelia inhibited only partially apoptosis in cells deficient for Bid/Bak/Bax and not at all when both pathways were operative suggesting that the virus is able to interfere with apoptosis induced by gzmB in case not all pathways are activated. Importantly, inhibition of viral replication in vitro, as seen with wild type cells, was not affected by the lack of Bid/Bak/Bax but was significantly reduced in caspase-3/-7-deficient cells. Both caspase dependent processes were strictly dependent on gzmB, since Tc cells, lacking both gzms, neither induced apoptosis nor reduced viral titers. SIGNIFICANCE: Out findings present the first evidence on the biological importance of the independent gzmB-inducible pro-apoptotic pathways in a physiological relevant virus infection model