Computing the Margin of Victory in Preferential Parliamentary Elections

We show how to use automated computation of election margins to assess the number of votes that would need to change in order to alter a parliamentary outcome for single-member preferential electorates. In the context of increasing automation of Australian electoral processes, and accusations of deliberate interference in elections in Europe and the USA, this work forms the basis of a rigorous statistical audit of the parliamentary election outcome. Our example is the New South Wales Legislative Council election of 2015, but the same process could be used for any similar parliament for which data was available, such as the Australian House of Representatives given the proposed automatic scanning of ballots

Understanding the Impact of COVID-19 on Physical and Mental Fatigue in Youth with Cerebral Palsy

This explorative study examined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, lockdowns, and social distancing on mental and physical fatigue and life role participation of youth with CP. Quantitative data included results from the Fatigue Impact and Severity Self-Assessment (FISSA), Child & Adolescent Scale of Participation (CASP) and the Participation and Environment Measure for Children and Youth (PEM-CY)

The Power of Whispers: A Theory of Rumor, Communication, and Revolution

postprin

Human face recognition using a spatially weighted Hausdorff distance

Version of RecordPublishe

Experiments in the position detection of linear switched reluctance motor

Author name used in this publication: S. W. ZhaoAuthor name used in this publication: N. C. CheungAuthor name used in this publication: W. C. GanAuthor name used in this publication: J. M. YangVersion of RecordPublishe

Compact metallic RFID tag antennas with a loop-fed method

Several compact, low profile and metal-attachable RFID tag antennas with a loop-fed method are proposed for UHF RFID systems. The structure of the proposed antennas comprise of two parts: (1) The radiator part consists of two shorted patches, which can be treated as two quarter-wave patch antennas or a cavity. (2) A small loop printed on the paper serves as the feeding structure. The small loop provides the needed inductance for the tag and is connected to the RFID chip. The input impedance of the antenna can be easily adjusted by changing loop dimensions. The antenna has the compact size of 80 mm × 25 mm × 3.5 mm, and the realized gain about -3.6 dB. The measured results show that these antennas have good performance when attached onto metallic surfaces. © 2011 IEEE.published_or_final_versio

Thermodynamics of carrier distribution within localized electronic states with a broad Gaussian energy distribution and its effect on luminescence behavior of localized states

published_or_final_versio

T-DNA integration patterns in transgenic maize lines mediated by Agrobacterium tumefaciens

To explore transfer deoxyribonucleic acid (T-DNA) integration patterns in the maize genome, we improved the protocol of thermal asymmetric interlaced polymerase chain reaction (TAIL-PCR), and amplified the flanking sequences around T-DNA integration sites from 70 independent transgenic maize lines mediated by Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Out of 64 specific amplified fragments, 32 and 9 are homologous to the sequences of the maize genome and the expression plasmid, respectively. For 26 of them, a filler sequence was found flanking the cleavage sites. These results demonstrate that cleavage occurs not only during the T-DNA borders but also inside or outside the borders. The border sequences and some inside sequences can be deleted, and filler sequences can be inserted. Illegitimate recombination is a major pattern of T-DNA integration, while some hot spots and preference are present on maize chromosomes.Key words: Agrobacterium tumefaciens, maize, thermal asymmetric interlaced PCR, transfer DNA,transgenics

Chemical Composition and Biological Properties of Essential Oils of Two Mint Species

Purpose: To analyze the composition of essential oils of two types of mint as well as compare the antimicrobial, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities of the two oils.Methods: Peppermint (M. piperita L.) and chocolate mint (M. piperita L.) oils were obtained by steam distillation in a Clevenger-type apparatus. The chemical composition of the essential oils was determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the essential oils were determined by broth dilution method. The antioxidant activities of the oils were determined by 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH)DPPH radical scavenging assay, β-Carotene-linoleic acid assay, andnitric oxide (NO) radical scavenging assay.Results: The two essential oils contain high levels of alcohol (43.47-50.10%) and terpene (18.55-21.07%) with the major compound being menthol (28.19-30.35%). The antimicrobial activity (minimum inhibitory concentration, MIC) of peppermint oil against E. coli, S. aureus and P. aeruginosa (0.15, 0.08, 0.92 %v/v, respectively) was stronger than that of chocolate mint (0.23, 0.09, 1.22 %v/v, respectively). In the anti-oxidant test including DPPH and β-Carotenelinoleic acid assays, peppermint oil showed superior antioxidant properties to chocolate mint oil (4.45 - 19.86 μl/mL). However, with regard to scavenging NO radical activity, chocolate mint oil exhibited higher activity than peppermint (0.31 and 0.42 μl/mL, respectively). Chocolate mint oil also exhibited higher anti-inflammatory activity than peppermint oil (0.03 and 0.08 μl/mL, respectively).Conclusion: The results obtained should help to clarify the functional applications of these folk herbs and their essential oils for aromatherapeutic healing and other folkloric uses.Keywords: Peppermint, Chocolate mint, Anti-microbial, Anti-oxidant, Anti-inflammator