On multi-dimensional hypocoercive BGK models

We study hypocoercivity for a class of linearized BGK models for continuous phase spaces. We develop methods for constructing entropy functionals that enable us to prove exponential relaxation to equilibrium with explicit and physically meaningful rates. In fact, we not only estimate the exponential rate, but also the second time scale governing the time one must wait before one begins to see the exponential relaxation in the L1 distance. This waiting time phenomenon, with a long plateau before the exponential decay "kicks in" when starting from initial data that is well-concentrated in phase space, is familiar from work of Aldous and Diaconis on Markov chains, but is new in our continuous phase space setting. Our strategies are based on the entropy and spectral methods, and we introduce a new "index of hypocoercivity" that is relevant to models of our type involving jump processes and not only diffusion. At the heart of our method is a decomposition technique that allows us to adapt Lyapunov's direct method to our continuous phase space setting in order to construct our entropy functionals. These are used to obtain precise information on linearized BGK models. Finally, we also prove local asymptotic stability of a nonlinear BGK model.Comment: 55 pages, 2 figure

Dietary flavonoid intake and incidence of erectile dysfunction

Background: The predominant etiology for erectile dysfunction (ED) is vascular, however limited data are available on the role of diet. A higher intake of several flavonoids reduces diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk but no studies have examined associations between flavonoids and erectile function.   Objective: To examine the relationship between habitual flavonoid sub-class intakes and incidence of ED.   Methods: We conducted a prospective study among 25,096 men from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. Total flavonoid and subclass intakes were calculated from food frequency questionnaires collected every 4 years. Participants rated their erectile function in 2000 (with historical reporting from 1986) and again in 2004 and 2008.   Results: During 10 years of follow-up, 35.6% reported incident ED. After multivariate adjustment, including classic CVD risk factors, several sub-classes were associated with reduced ED incidence; specifically flavones (RR 0.91:95%CI=0.85,0.97; p-trend=0.006), flavanones (RR 0.89;95%CI=0.83,0.95; p-trend=0.0009), and anthocyanins (RR 0.91;95%CI=0.85,0.98; p-trend=0.002) comparing extreme intakes. The results remained significant after additional adjustment for a composite dietary intake score. In analyses stratified by age, a higher intake of flavanones, anthocyanins and flavones was significantlyassociated with a reduction in risk of erectile dysfunction only in men <70 years old and not older men (11-16% reduction in risk (p - interaction 0.002, 0.03, 0.007 for flavones, flavanones and anthocyanins respectively). In food-based analysis, higher total fruit intake, major sources of anthocyanins and flavanones, was associated with 14% reduction in risk of ED (RR 0.86;95%CI=0.79,0.92; p=0.002).The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition AJCN/2015/122010 Version 3.    Conclusions : These data suggest that a higher habitual intake of specific 24 flavonoid-rich foods are associated with reduced ED incidence. Intervention trials are needed to further examine the impact of increasing intakes of commonly consumed flavonoid-rich foods on men’s health

Social Skills Curriculum for Middle School Students at Risk

The purpose of this project was to develop a social skills curriculum for an effective After School Program for students at risk. To accomplish this purpose, current research and literature related to students at risk, motivational strategies, and alternative programs to assist them were reviewed. Additionally, on site visit to an actual program in the Yakima School District were conducted. At-risk students have a high potential for dropping out of school due to the lack of motivation and other factors. Students at risk live marginally outside of the socially excepted norm for adolescent youth. School systems need to have programs in place to meet the needs of these students

Anything But Common: New York\u27s Pending or Anticipated Litigation Limitation to the Common Interest Doctrine Creates More Problems Than It Solves

New York’s highest court recently handed down Ambac v. Countrywide, a decision that has major ramifications in the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) world. Once parties sign a merger or acquisition agreement, they share a common interest in ensuring that both parties comply with applicable laws, a process that requires legal communications with each other’s attorneys. Under the common interest doctrine, Delaware and the majority of federal circuits apply the attorney-client privilege to shield many of these communications from discovery. However, Ambac upset M&A attorneys’ reliance on the common interest doctrine by holding that parties to a merger waive their attorney-client privilege when they share legal advice with the other entity’s attorneys, unless the communications relate to pending or anticipated litigation. In addition to the M&A world, Ambac will have negative consequences for many business entities attempting to comply with the law on advice from counsel during major transactions. While a number of commentators have addressed the litigation requirement tangentially, there is currently no thorough evaluation of the state of this requirement, which has special relevance in the post-Ambac world. This Comment evaluates the history and purpose of the common interest doctrine and surveys the current state of the law across multiple jurisdictions. This Comment then argues that Ambac’s litigation requirement is contrary to the purpose of the attorney-client privilege—to encourage persons and entities to freely seek legal advice in order to comply with the law. Finally, this Comment urges the many jurisdictions with underdeveloped law on the common interest doctrine to reject Ambac’s restrictive litigation requirement

Selenium bioaccumulation and speciation in the benthic invertebrate Chironomus dilutus: an assessment of exposure pathways and bioavailability

Uranium mining and milling operations at Key Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada, have been releasing effluent since 1983, resulting in the accumulation of selenium in surface water, sediment, and biota in downstream lakes relative to pre-development and reference lake conditions. Elevated selenium can pose a risk to fish and bird populations in aquatic ecosystems as a result of the trophic transfer of selenium from the base of the aquatic food web. This research program was designed to address specific knowledge gaps related to the bioaccumulation of selenium at the benthic-detrital link of aquatic food webs. To fulfill this objective, laboratory and in situ field experiments were conducted using the benthic invertebrate Chironomus dilutus to identify the exposure pathway(s) and selenium species associated with the bioaccumulation of selenium by benthic invertebrates downstream from the Key Lake operation. Laboratory bioaccumulation tests that exposed midge larvae to 4.3 μg/L as dissolved selenate for 10 d resulted in negligible accumulation of selenium. However, larvae rapidly accumulated selenium over 10 d of exposure to 3.8 and 1.8 μg/L selenite and seleno-DL-methionine (Se-met), respectively. Furthermore, once selenium was accumulated by the larvae from the selenite and Se-met treatments, the majority of it was retained after a 10 d depuration period in clean water. When additional midge larvae were exposed to selenium until emergence, selenium accumulated during the larval stage was passed onto the adults following metamorphosis, with only a small percentage of the selenium (< 5%) transferred to the exuvia. Selenium speciation analysis using X-ray absorption spectroscopy showed that increases in total selenium concentrations corresponded to increased fraction of organic selenides, modeled as selenomethionine, in C. dilutus larvae and adults. Results from the 2008 in situ caging study confirmed that surface water is not a significant selenium exposure pathway for benthic invertebrates at Key Lake. Chironomus dilutus larvae accumulated between 20- and 90-fold more selenium from exposure to sediment compared to exposure to surface water in the high exposure lake. In response to these findings, a second in situ experiment was conducted in 2009 to investigate the importance of dietary selenium (biofilm or detritus) vs. whole-sediment as an exposure pathway. Larvae exposed to sediment detritus (top 2 - 3 mm of sediment) from the exposure site had the highest selenium concentrations after 10 d of exposure (15.6 ± 19 μg/g) compared to larvae exposed to whole-sediment (12.9 ± 1.7 μg/g) or biofilm (9.9 ± 1.6 μg/g). Biofilm had lower total selenium concentrations than the detritus and whole-sediment fractions, but nearly 80% of the selenium was present as organic selenides similar to selenomethionine. Biofilms appear to be an enriched source of organic selenium and are important food items for many benthic consumers. Integrating the separate lines of evidence that were generated during laboratory and in situ bioaccumulation tests helped strengthen the understanding of selenium accumulation in the benthic-detrital food web and subsequent trophic transfer of selenium to benthic invertebrates

Bio Weide-Beef Präsentation

Die Präsentation umfasst 77 Seiten zu allen Aspekten der Produktion, von der Zucht über die Remontenproduktion und den Stallbau bis hin zur Parasitenkontrolle und Vermarktung. Die Produktion von Rindfleisch gemäss den Anforderungen von Bio Weide-Beef ist in der Schweiz ein Betriebszweig mit grossem Wachstumspotenzial

AC transmission system planning choosing lines from a discrete set

Transmission system planning (TSP) is a difficult nonlinear optimization problem involving non-convex quadratic terms, as well as discrete variables. We extend prior results for linear relaxations, drawing on a preliminary notional model of the power grid for the State of Florida. Realistic line choices necessitate a binary formulation, which is at the same time substantially more expensive than the mixed-integer counterpart and more accurate. In many cases, our relaxation directly generates a feasible solution; where it does not, we apply a practical load-deflation heuristic to recover strong solutions.United States. Office of Naval Research (Grant N00014-02-1-0623

Economic Restructuring and the Geography of Organizational Control: Austria 1973-198

Series: IIR-Forschun

Magellan/MMIRS near-infrared multi-object spectroscopy of nebular emission from star forming galaxies at 2<z<3

To investigate the ingredients, which allow star-forming galaxies to present Lyalpha line in emission, we studied the kinematics and gas phase metallicity (Z) of the interstellar medium. We used multi-object NIR spectroscopy with Magellan/MMIRS to study nebular emission from z=2-3 star-forming galaxies discovered in 3 MUSYC fields. We detected emission lines from four active galactic nuclei and 13 high-z star-forming galaxies, including Halpha lines down to a flux of 4.E-17 erg/sec/cm^2. This yielded 7 new redshifts. The most common emission line detected is [OIII]5007, which is sensitive to Z. We were able to measure Z for 2 galaxies and to set upper(lower) limits for another 2(2). The Z values are consistent with 0.3<Z/Zsun<1.2. Comparing the Lyalpha central wavelength with the systemic redshift, we find Delta_v(Lyalpha-[OIII])=70-270 km/sec. High-redshift star-forming galaxies, Lyalpha emitting (LAE) galaxies, and Halpha emitters appear to be located in the low mass, high star-formation rate (SFR) region of the SFR versus stellar mass diagram, confirming that they are experiencing burst episodes of star formation, which are building up their stellar mass. Their Zs are consistent with the relation found for z<2.2 galaxies in the Z versus stellar mass plane. The measured Delta_v(Lyalpha-[OIII]) values imply that outflows of material, driven by star formation, could be present in the z=2-3 LAEs of our sample. Comparing with the literature, we note that galaxies with lower Z than ours are also characterized by similar Delta_v(Lyalpha-[OIII]) velocity offsets. Strong [OIII] is detected in many Lyalpha emitters. Therefore, we propose the Lyalpha/[OIII] flux ratio as a tool for the study of high-z galaxies; while influenced by Z, ionization, and Lyalpha radiative transfer in the ISM, it may be possible to calibrate this ratio to primarily trace one of these effects.Comment: 22 pages, 13 figures, 6 table

The hypocoercivity index for the short time behavior of linear time-invariant ODE systems

We consider the class of conservative-dissipative ODE systems, which is a subclass of Lyapunov stable, linear time-invariant ODE systems. We characterize asymptotically stable, conservative-dissipative ODE systems via the hypocoercivity (theory) of their system matrices. Our main result is a concise characterization of the hypocoercivity index (an algebraic structural property of matrices with positive semi-definite Hermitian part introduced in Achleitner, Arnold, and Carlen (2018)) in terms of the short time behavior of the propagator norm for the associated conservative-dissipative ODE system