Serial perturbation of MinK in IKs implies an alpha-helical transmembrane span traversing the channel corpus.

I(Ks) channels contain four pore-forming KCNQ1 subunits and two accessory MinK subunits. MinK influences surface expression, voltage-dependence of gating, conduction, and pharmacology to yield the attributes characteristic of native channels in heart. The structure and location of the MinK transmembrane domain (TMD) remains a matter of scrutiny. As perturbation of gating analysis has correctly inferred the peripheral location and alpha-helical nature of TMDs in pore-forming subunits, the method is applied here to human MinK. Tryptophan and Asparagine substitution at 23 consecutive sites yields perturbation with alpha-helical periodicity (residues 44-56) followed by an alternating impact pattern (residues 56-63). Arginine substitution across the span suggests that as few as eight sites are occluded from aqueous solution (residues 50-57). We favor a TMD model that is alpha-helical with the external portion of the span at a lipid-protein boundary and the inner portion within the channel corpus in complex interactions

Privacy-Preserving Electronic Ticket Scheme with Attribute-based Credentials

Electronic tickets (e-tickets) are electronic versions of paper tickets, which enable users to access intended services and improve services' efficiency. However, privacy may be a concern of e-ticket users. In this paper, a privacy-preserving electronic ticket scheme with attribute-based credentials is proposed to protect users' privacy and facilitate ticketing based on a user's attributes. Our proposed scheme makes the following contributions: (1) users can buy different tickets from ticket sellers without releasing their exact attributes; (2) two tickets of the same user cannot be linked; (3) a ticket cannot be transferred to another user; (4) a ticket cannot be double spent; (5) the security of the proposed scheme is formally proven and reduced to well known (q-strong Diffie-Hellman) complexity assumption; (6) the scheme has been implemented and its performance empirically evaluated. To the best of our knowledge, our privacy-preserving attribute-based e-ticket scheme is the first one providing these five features. Application areas of our scheme include event or transport tickets where users must convince ticket sellers that their attributes (e.g. age, profession, location) satisfy the ticket price policies to buy discounted tickets. More generally, our scheme can be used in any system where access to services is only dependent on a user's attributes (or entitlements) but not their identities.Comment: 18pages, 6 figures, 2 table

Space charge accumulation under the effects of temperature gradient on solid dielectric DC cable

It is well known that existence and accumulation of space charge within the insulating material poses threat to the reliability in the operation of dc power cables. When the cables are loaded under high voltage direct current (HVDC), temperature gradient is developed across the insulation material. In this paper, commercial ac XLPE power cables were used under an application voltage of 80 kV dc with different temperature gradients loaded between the insulating material. Space charge distributions were then measured across the insulation of the cable by means of a modified pulsed electroacoustic (PEA) system with a current transformer attached. Therefore, a replica of a power cable under load conditions could be obtained, which allows us to investigate the formation, migration and accumulation of space charges in a power cable both without and with different temperature gradients consideration across the bulk of the insulating material. Discussion will be made thoroughly in order to understand the space charge phenomenon of power cable under its service temperature

Space Charge Accumulation under Effects of Temperature Gradient and Applied Voltage Reversal on Solid Dielectric DC Cable

A well-known fact of the existence and accumulation of space charge within the insulating material poses threat to the reliability in the operation of dc power cables. When power cables are loaded under high voltage direct current (HVDC), temperature gradient is developed across the insulation. Results of space charge evolution in commercial ac XLPE power cables under an application of 80 kV dc supply at different temperature gradients and during external voltage reversal are discussed in this paper. The space charge distributions were measured across the insulation of the cable by means of a modified pulsed electroacoustic (PEA) system with a current transformer attached. Therefore, a replica of a power cable under load conditions could be obtained, which allows us to investigate the formation, migration and accumulation of space charges in a power cable both without and with different temperature gradients consideration across the bulk of the insulating material during voltage reversal. Discussion will be made thoroughly in order to understand the space charge phenomenon of power cable under its service temperature as space charge accumulation during polarity reversal plays an important factor on the electric field distribution within the insulation material

A Study of Effective Regulation Model in Privatizing the Public Enterprises

The privatization deems to be an important policy towards to the solutions of public ownership faults. However, the privatizing a monopoly industry could not damage the consumers’ interests inevitably. Thus, it is necessary to introduce the government regulation towards to the privatized monopoly industry. The premises of the privatization combined with regulation model are: controlling the privatization of a monopoly industry shall increase the efficiency, improved service quality and lower the costs to consumers. The method for this research is to review existing literature and study the regulations and the regulation in the developed nations comparing their variations and to find out the most efficient regulation models to design or amend for other nations. The objective of this study is to study the privatization experiences from the existing nations and convert to those nations may need for reference. At the end, this paper also found that the effective regulation model may not only bring down the costs of the public services, but also improved the efficiency to a near market competition standard

Analyses of National Football League 2011-17 Team Values: Stadium Renovation & Construction Trumps Winning

The National Football League (NFL) is the most valuable league out of America’s “Big Four” professional sports. This paper examined the valuation of the NFL teams during the six-year span from 2011-2017. The data of team’s value and other various information such as average game attendance, winning percentage, and record of stadium renovation and construction were retrieved from various webpages sponsored by Forbes and ESPN. According to the results of analyses, we witnessed the actualization of the Rule of 72 that demonstrated the NFL as a fast-growing vibrant industry. The authors further concluded that involvement in stadium renovation and construction is a more important financial contributor to a team’s value than winning. However, we rejected this common practice in the NFL industry, because the teams are reaping the benefits at the expense of the taxpayers

Financial Management and Gender Equality in Interscholastic Athletics

Interscholastic athletic programs must avoid gender-based budgetary inequity lawsuits to ensure their successful operation. Potential problem areas are the methods used to generate athletic funds, female sports funding and the maintenance of Title IX compliance. Eighty-two interscholastic athletic directors from eastern Kentucky region shared their perceptions concerning these potential problem areas. They completed an online survey based on past literature [1, 2, 3] addressing themes concerning effective strategies for generating athletic funds and maintaining equitable athletic budgets for both gender sports. The results indicated that participants adopted both direct sales (food, apparels, and tangible product items) and indirect sales (advertising spaces, conducting camps, and offering services) to generate revenues for their athletic programs. They had adopted the popular fundraising methods which were commonly suggested by past literature. In general, participants also agreed that female students should receive necessary financial support and opportunity to accommodate their participatory need. It is suggested that keeping an accurate Title IX report is the key to ensure a high level of Title IX compliance. Potentially the most controversial finding is that participants prefer to keep the majority of funds for football and men’s basketball