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Characterization of inter-seasonal climatic variability through dry-season rice productivity in the north-west region of Bangladesh
Inter-annual climatic variability in Bangladesh is significant and the probability of occurrence of extreme episodic/ climatic events has increased in the last couple of decades and thus threatening food security. Impact of inter-seasonal climatic va riability on Boro rice (dry season) yield in north-western parts of Bangladesh was analyzed using the historic weather datasets for 1971 to 2010 and MAKESENS model. Boro rice yield increased from 1980 onwards and the growth rate picked up with time. Inter-annual and inter-seasonal climatic variability was noticed through maximum and minimum temperatures, rainfall and sunshine hours. In general, temperatures and rainfall showed increasing trends but sunshine hours were decreasing gradually during the study period. Growth rates in average annual maximum, minimum and mean air temperatures were 0.001, 0.016 and 0.009°C year-1, respectively. On regional scale, Boro-rice seasonal maximum temperature was decreasing by 0.013°C year-1 but minimum and mean temperatures were increasing by 0.024 and 0.006°C year-1, respectively. Annual average sunshine hours in the study location were in decreasing trend by 0.027 hr year-1, but reduction in seasonal sunshine hours was 0.035 hr year-1. Inter-seasonal climatic variability was characterized through the Boro-rice yields in four test regions of north-west region of Bangladesh. Trend line equations were evolved for assessing the impact of climatic variations on Bororice yield. If maximum temperature changes by 1oC, Boro rice yield could be increased by 0.13 t ha-1, but it would reduce by 0.34 t ha-1 with one degree rise in minimum temperature. If sunshine hour decreases by 1 hr, Boro rice yield would decrease by 0.70 t ha-1 in study locations. Combined effects of maximum and minimum temperatures and sunshine hours showed significant influence on grain yields of Boro rice. These imply that temperature tolerant and solar radiation use-efficient rice varieties need to be bred for combating climate change impact in Bangladesh. There is a need to identify optimum sowing/transplanting window for the region, choice of suitable cultivars/ideo-types, and adoption of appropriate water and nutrients management strategies and adoption of appropriate resource conservation technologies for sustainable Boro rice production in Bangladesh
A systematic literature review of the use of social media for business process management
In today’s expansion of new technologies, innovation is found necessary for organizations to be up to date with the latest management trends. Although organizations are increasingly using new technologies, opportunities still exist to achieve the nowadays essential omnichannel management strategy. More precisely, social media are opening a path for benefiting more from an organization’s process orientation. However, social media strategies are still an under-investigated field, especially when it comes to the research of social media use for the management and improvement of business processes or the internal way of working in organizations. By classifying a variety of articles, this study explores the evolution of social media implementation within the BPM discipline. We also provide avenues for future research and strategic implications for practitioners to use social media more comprehensively
Dijet signals of the Little Higgs model with T-parity
The Littest Higgs model with T-parity (LHT), apart from offering a viable
solution to the naturalness problem of the Standard Model, also predicts a set
of new fermions as well as a candidate for dark matter. We explore the
possibility of discovering the heavy T-odd quark Q_H at the LHC in a final
state comprising two hard jets with a large missing transverse momentum. Also
discussed is the role of heavy flavor tagging.Comment: Changes in text. Some references adde
Probing anomalous tbW couplings in single-top production using top polarization at the Large Hadron Collider
We study the sensitivity of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to anomalous tbW
couplings in single-top production in association with a W^- boson followed by
semileptonic decay of the top. We calculate top polarization and the effects of
these anomalous couplings to it at two centre-of-mass (cm) energies of 7 TeV
and 14 TeV. As a measure of top polarization, we look at various laboratory
frame distributions of its decay products, viz., lepton angular and energy
distributions and b-quark angular distributions, without requiring
reconstruction of the rest frame of the top, and study the effect of anomalous
couplings on these distributions. We construct certain asymmetries to study the
sensitivity of these distributions to anomalous tbW couplings. We find that
1\sigma limits on real and imaginary parts of the dominant anomalous coupling
Ref_{2R} which may be obtained by utilizing these asymmetries at the LHC with
cm energy of 14 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 10 fb^{-1} will be
significantly better than the expectations from direct measurements of cross
sections and some other variables at the LHC and over an order of magnitude
better than the indirect limits.Comment: 25 pages, 34 figure
On measurement of top polarization as a probe of production mechanisms at the LHC
In this note we demonstrate the use of top polarization in the study of resonances at the LHC, in the possible case where the dynamics implies
a non-zero top polarization. As a probe of top polarization we construct an
asymmetry in the decay-lepton azimuthal angle distribution (corresponding to
the sign of ) in the laboratory. The asymmetry is non-vanishing
even for a symmetric collider like the LHC, where a positive axis is not
uniquely defined. The angular distribution of the leptons has the advantage of
being a faithful top-spin analyzer, unaffected by possible anomalous
couplings, to linear order. We study, for purposes of demonstration, the case
of a as might exist in the little Higgs models. We identify kinematic cuts
which ensure that our asymmetry reflects the polarization in sign and
magnitude. We investigate possibilities at the LHC with two energy options:
TeV and TeV, as well as at the Tevatron. At the
LHC the model predicts net top quark polarization of the order of a few per
cent for GeV, being as high as for a smaller mass
of the of GeV and for the largest allowed coupling in the model, the
values being higher for the TeV option. These polarizations translate to a
deviation from the standard-model value of azimuthal asymmetry of up to about
() for () TeV LHC, whereas for the Tevatron, values as high as
are attained. For the TeV LHC with an integrated luminosity of 10
fb, these numbers translate into a sensitivity over a large
part of the range GeV.Comment: 28 page, LaTeX, requires JHEP style file, 12 figures. Typos corrected
and references adde
Discrimination of low missing energy look-alikes at the LHC
The problem of discriminating possible scenarios of TeV scale new physics
with large missing energy signature at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has
received some attention in the recent past. We consider the complementary, and
yet unexplored, case of theories predicting much softer missing energy spectra.
As there is enough scope for such models to fake each other by having similar
final states at the LHC, we have outlined a systematic method based on a
combination of different kinematic features which can be used to distinguish
among different possibilities. These features often trace back to the
underlying mass spectrum and the spins of the new particles present in these
models. As examples of "low missing energy look-alikes", we consider
Supersymmetry with R-parity violation, Universal Extra Dimensions with both
KK-parity conserved and KK-parity violated and the Littlest Higgs model with
T-parity violated by the Wess-Zumino-Witten anomaly term. Through detailed
Monte Carlo analysis of the four and higher lepton final states predicted by
these models, we show that the models in their minimal forms may be
distinguished at the LHC, while non-minimal variations can always leave scope
for further confusion. We find that, for strongly interacting new particle
mass-scale ~600 GeV (1 TeV), the simplest versions of the different theories
can be discriminated at the LHC running at sqrt{s}=14 TeV within an integrated
luminosity of 5 (30) fb^{-1}.Comment: 40 pages, 10 figures; v2: Further discussions, analysis and one
figure added, ordering of certain sections changed, minor modifications in
the abstract, version as published in JHE
Progesterone Receptor Activates Msx2 Expression by Downregulating TNAP/Akp2 and Activating the Bmp Pathway in EpH4 Mouse Mammary Epithelial Cells
Previously we demonstrated that EpH4 mouse mammary epithelial cells induced the homeobox transcription factor Msx2 either when transfected with the progesterone receptor (PR) or when treated with Bmp2/4. Msx2 upregulation was unaffected by Wnt inhibitors s-FRP or Dkk1, but was inhibited by the Bmp antagonist Noggin. We therefore hypothesized that PR signaling to Msx2 acts through the Bmp receptor pathway. Herein, we confirm that transcripts for Alk2/ActR1A, a non-canonical BmpR Type I, are upregulated in mammary epithelial cells overexpressing PR (EpH4-PR). Increased phosphorylation of Smads 1,5, 8, known substrates for Alk2 and other BmpR Type I proteins, was observed as was their translocation to the nucleus in EpH4-PR cells. Analysis also showed that Tissue Non-Specific Alkaline Phosphatase (TNAP/Akp2) was also found to be downregulated in EpH4-PR cells. When an Akp2 promoter-reporter construct containing a ½PRE site was transfected into EpH4-PR cells, its expression was downregulated. Moreover, siRNA mediated knockdown of Akp2 increased both Alk2 and Msx2 expression. Collectively these data suggest that PR inhibition of Akp2 results in increased Alk2 activity, increased phosphorylation of Smads 1,5,8, and ultimately upregulation of Msx2. These studies imply that re-activation of the Akp2 gene could be helpful in downregulating aberrant Msx2 expression in PR+ breast cancers
An almond-enriched diet increases plasma α-tocopherol and improves vascular function but does not affect oxidative stress markers or lipid levels
Vascular dysfunction is one of the major causes of cardiovascular (CV) mortality and increases with age. Epidemiological studies suggest that Mediterranean diets and high nut consumption reduce CV disease risk and mortality while increasing plasma α-tocopherol. Therefore, we have investigated whether almond supplementation can improve oxidative stress markers and CV risk factors over 4 weeks in young and middle-aged men. Healthy middle-aged men (56 ± 5.8 years), healthy young men (22.1 ± 2.9 years) and young men with two or more CV risk factors (27.3 ± 5 years) consumed 50 g almond/day for 4 weeks. A control group maintained habitual diets over the same period. Plasma α-tocopherol/cholesterol ratios were not different between groups at baseline and were significantly elevated by almond intervention with 50 g almond/day for 4 weeks (p < 0.05). Plasma protein oxidation and nitrite levels were not different between groups whereas, total-, HDL- and LDL-cholesterols and triglycerides were significantly higher in healthy middle-aged and young men with CV risk factors but were not affected by intake. In the almond-consuming groups, flow-mediated dilatation (FMD) improved and systolic blood pressure reduced significantly after 50 g almonds/day for 4 weeks, but diastolic blood pressure reduced only in healthy men. In conclusion, a short-term almond-enriched diet can increase plasma α-tocopherol and improve vascular function in asymptomatic healthy men aged between 20 and 70 years without any effect on plasma lipids or markers of oxidative stress. © 2014 Informa UK, Ltd
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