Mean percentage of returns for stock market linked savings accounts

Stock market linked savings accounts have become more and more popular. The returns of these accounts are random so the returns, even the initial capital, are not guaranteed. They are very much different from the familiar fixed-term-fixed-rate savings accounts. The aim of this paper is to perform the stochastic and numerical analysis on the stock market linked savings accounts in order to establish the theory on the mean percentage of return (MPR). We will mainly perform the case studies on 5 typical plans linked to the UK Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) 100 Index, but the theory developed is fully illustrated so that it can be applied to other plans by the reader

Charge recycling 8T SRAM design for low voltage robust operation

It is attractive to design power efficient and robust SRAM in low voltage and high performance systems for mobile or battery-powered electronics. To reduce the power consumption resulting from bit-line activities, a new bit-line charge recycling circuit is proposed for 8T SRAMs. By eliminating the use of analog blocks required in existing circuits in literature, this proposed charge recycling scheme results in less design complexity. In addition, two types of SRAM cells are employed to improve the robustness in write operation, and hierarchical bit-line structure is applied to reduce the power consumption in read operation. Post-layout simulations demonstrate the proposed design results in 3.08 and 2.62 times enhancement of WSNM and SWN compared to conventional 6T SRAM design in the same technology, respectively. The power consumption of proposed design results in a reduction of 64.2% and 27.5% in write and read power consumption compared to 6T SRAM design. Moreover, given the same supply voltage (e.g., 1.2 V), post-layout simulation shows the proposed design is able to run at 5 times higher clock rate than the existing designs in literature. Given the same clock frequency requirement (e.g., 100 MHz), a lower supply voltage (e.g., 0.7 V) can sustain robust operation of the proposed design

Power Efficient SRAM Design with Integrated Bit Line Charge Pump

Bit line toggling of SRAM systems in write operations leads to the largest portion of power dissipation. To reduce this amount of power loss and achieve power efficient memory, we propose a new SRAM design that integrates charge pump circuits to harvest and reuse bit line charge. In this work, a power-efficient charge recycling SRAM is designed and implemented in 180nm CMOS technology. Post-layout simulation demonstrates an 11% of power saving and 3.8% of area overhead, if the bit width of SRAM is chosen as 8. Alternatively, 22% of power reduction is obtained if the bit width of SRAM is extended to 64. Compared with existing charge recycling SRAM schemes, this proposed SRAM is robust to process variation, demonstrates good read/write stability, and illustrates better trade-off between design complexity and power reduction

Evaluation of probiotic strain Bacillus subtilis C-3102 as a feed supplement for koi carp (Cyprinus carpio)

In this study, the effects of dietary probiotic Bacillus subtilis C-3102 (Calsporin®) on the growth performance, predominant intestinal microbiota, expression of cytokines genes in three organs (liver, intestine and kidney) and protection against Aeromonas hydrophila infection of koi carp were investigated. Fish were fed two different diets, 1-control diet (non-supplemented) and 2-experimental diet (supplemented with 1 g/kg Calsporin®) for five weeks. Tissue samples were collected at days 0, 10, 20 and 35. The results showed that the weight gain (WG) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were significantly improved by dietary Bacillus subtilis C-3102 (P < 0.01). Dietary probiotic did not affect the body skin colouration of koi carp (P > 0.05). Variation of intestinal bacterial communities were studied by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) which revealed that even though Bacillus subtilis C-3102 was not detected as a prominent component in the intestinal tract of koi carp at any time point, it could affect the intestinal microbiota community at the early stages of the trial, becoming weaker in the later stages. Concerning the gene expression results, the expression of HSP70 gene was up-regulated at day 10 and 35 the liver; no effects were observed in the intestine and kidney. A general trend of upregulation of cytokines expression (IL-1β, IL-10, TNF-α and TGF-β) was observed in liver the (except IL-1β) and intestine, but unchanged in the kidney (except IL-10). The intraperitoneal injection challenge demonstrated that there was no positive effect of dietary B. subtilis C-3102 supplementation against A. hydrophila. These results suggested that B. subtilis C-3102 can provide beneficial effects on growth, feed utilization and modulating intestinal microbiota community

Strategies for Searching Video Content with Text Queries or Video Examples

The large number of user-generated videos uploaded on to the Internet everyday has led to many commercial video search engines, which mainly rely on text metadata for search. However, metadata is often lacking for user-generated videos, thus these videos are unsearchable by current search engines. Therefore, content-based video retrieval (CBVR) tackles this metadata-scarcity problem by directly analyzing the visual and audio streams of each video. CBVR encompasses multiple research topics, including low-level feature design, feature fusion, semantic detector training and video search/reranking. We present novel strategies in these topics to enhance CBVR in both accuracy and speed under different query inputs, including pure textual queries and query by video examples. Our proposed strategies have been incorporated into our submission for the TRECVID 2014 Multimedia Event Detection evaluation, where our system outperformed other submissions in both text queries and video example queries, thus demonstrating the effectiveness of our proposed approaches

Top-down effects of filter-feeding fish and bivalves moderate bottom-up effects of nutrients on phytoplankton in subtropical shallow lakes: An outdoor mesocosm study

Biomanipulation has been widely used in the ecological restoration of eutrophic lakes for decades. However, biomanipulation is prone to failure if external nutrient loads are not reduced. In order to explore the importance of filter-feeding fish and bivalves on algal control, an outdoor mesocosm experiment was conducted using different nutrient concentrations. Four treatments simulating daily loads of nutrients in Lake Taihu were studied: current, two times, and three times average daily loads of nutrients with both fish (Aristichthys nobilis) and Asian clam (Corbicula fluminea) and as a control current daily loads without fish or bivalves. Results showed that stocking of filter-feeding fish and bivalves (80 g m-3 bighead carp; 200 g cm-2 clams) at two times daily nutrient loads could effectively control water column Chl a concentrations and phytoplankton biomass. At higher nutrient concentrations (TN & GE; 260 & mu;g L-1 d-1; TP & GE; 10 & mu;g L-1 d-1), top-down control of filter-feeding fish and bivalves was less effective and bottom-up effects resulted in significant increases of Chl a concentration. Thus, as phytoplankton biomass in freshwater ecosystems is determined by both the top-down effects of predators and the bottom-up effects of nutrients, external loadings should be controlled when filter-feeding fish and bivalves are used for algal control to ensure the efficacy of biomanipulation.A combination of filter-feeding fish and clams suppressed phytoplankton, which could not be affected by low-level nutrients.Bottom-up effects at high-level nutrients on phytoplankton overcome top-down effects, indicating that nutrient levels should be controlled to optimize the effect of the intervention.imag

Hepcidin as a key iron regulator mediates glucotoxicity-induced pancreatic β-cell dysfunction

It has been well established that glucotoxicity induces pancreatic β-cells dysfunction; however, the precise mechanism remains unclear. Our previous studies demonstrated that high glucose concentrations are associated with decreased hepcidin expression, which inhibits insulin synthesis. In this study, we focused on the role of low hepcidin level-induced increased iron deposition in β-cells and the relationship between abnormal iron metabolism and β-cell dysfunction. Decreased hepcidin expression increased iron absorption by upregulating transferrin receptor 1 (TfR1) and divalent metal transporter 1 (DMT1) expression, resulting in iron accumulation within cells. Prussia blue stain and calcein-AM assays revealed greater iron accumulation in the cytoplasm of pancreatic tissue isolated from db/db mice, cultured islets and Min6 cells in response to high glucose stimulation. Increased cytosolic iron deposition was associated with greater Fe2+ influx into the mitochondria, which depolarized the mitochondria membrane potential, inhibited ATP synthesis, generated excessive ROS and induced oxidative stress. The toxic effect of excessive iron on mitochondrial function eventually resulted in impaired insulin secretion. The restricted iron content in db/db mice via reduced iron intake or accelerated iron clearance improved blood glucose levels with decreased fasting blood glucose (FBG), fasting blood insulin (FIns), HbA1c level, as well as improved intraperitoneal glucose tolerance test (IPGTT) results. Thus, our study may reveal the mechanism involved in the role of hepcidin in the glucotoxcity impaired pancreatic β cell function pathway