The influence of photon depth of interaction and non-collinear spread of annihilation photons on PET image spatial resolution

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sanchez-Crespo, Alejandro; Larsson, Stig A.

2006-01-01

The quality of PET imaging is impaired by parallax errors. These errors produce misalignment between the projected location of the true origin of the annihilation event and the line of response determined by the coincidence detection system. Parallax errors are due to the varying depths of photon interaction (DOI) within the scintillator and the non-collinear (NC) emission of the annihilation photons. The aim of this work was to address the problems associated with the DOI and the NC spread of annihilation photons and to develop a quantitative model to assess their impact on image spatial resolution losses for various commonly used scintillators and PET geometries. A theoretical model based on Monte Carlo simulations was developed to assess the relative influence of DOI and the NC spread of annihilation photons on PET spatial resolution for various scintillator materials (BGO, LSO, LuAP, GSO, NaI) and PET geometries. The results demonstrate good agreement between simulated, experimental and published overall spatial resolution for some commercial systems, with maximum differences around 1 mm in both 2D and 3D mode. The DOI introduces an impairment of non-stationary spatial resolution along the radial direction, which can be very severe at peripheral positions. As an example, the radial spatial resolution loss due to DOI increased from 1.3 mm at the centre to 6.7 mm at 20 cm from the centre of a BGO camera with a 412-mm radius in 2D mode. Including the NC, the corresponding losses were 3.0 mm at the centre and 7.3 mm 20 cm from the centre. Without a DOI detection technique, it seems difficult to improve PET spatial resolution and increase sensitivity by reducing the detector ring radius or by extending the detector in the axial direction. Much effort is expended on the design and configuration of smaller detector elements but more effort should be devoted to the DOI complexity. (orig.)

Lattice Three-Species Models of the Spatial Spread of Rabies among FOXES

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Benyoussef, A.; Boccara, N.; Chakib, H.; Ez-Zahraouy, H.

Lattice models describing the spatial spread of rabies among foxes are studied. In these models, the fox population is divided into three-species: susceptible (S), infected or incubating (I), and infectious or rabid (R). They are based on the fact that susceptible and incubating foxes are territorial while rabid foxes have lost their sense of direction and move erratically. Two different models are investigated: a one-dimensional coupled-map lattice model, and a two-dimensional automata network model. Both models take into account the short-range character of the infection process and the diffusive motion of rabid foxes. Numerical simulations show how the spatial distribution of rabies, and the speed of propagation of the epizootic front depend upon the carrying capacity of the environment and diffusion of rabid foxes out of their territory.

Effect of spatial separation of pigs on spread of Streptococcus suis serotype 9.

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Niels Dekker

Full Text Available The spread of an infectious agent in a population can be reduced by interfering in the infectiousness or susceptibility of individuals, and/or in their contact structure. The aim of this study was to quantify the effect of prevention of direct contact between infectious and susceptible pigs on the transmission of Streptococcus suis (S. suis. In three replicate experiments, S. suis-free pigs were housed in boxes either in pairs (25 pairs or alone (15 pigs. The distance between the boxes was ±1 m. At 7 weeks of age, one pig of each pair was inoculated intranasally with S. suis serotype 9; the other pigs were exposed to S. suis by either direct (pairs or indirect contact (individually housed pigs. Tonsillar brush and saliva swab samples from all pigs were collected regularly for 4 weeks post inoculation to monitor colonization with S. suis. All inoculated pigs became infected, and their pen mates became colonized within 2 days. Thirteen indirectly exposed pigs became positive within 7-25 days after exposure. The rate of direct transmission βdir was estimated to be 3.58 per pig per day (95% CI: 2.29-5.60. The rate of indirect transmission increased in time, depending on the cumulative number of days pigs tested positive for the presence of S. suis. The estimate β'ind was 0.001 (95% CI: 0.0006-0.0017 new infections per pig per day for each day that an infected pig was tested positive for S. suis. We conclude that prevention of direct contact reduces the rate at which susceptible pigs become colonized. Simulation studies using these parameters showed, however, that such intervention measure would not limit S. suis serotype 9 spread in a commercial pig farm to a relevant extent, implying that spatial separation of groups op pigs within a compartment would not be effective on a farm.

Spatial relationship of 1-meter equatorial spread-F irregularities and depletions in total electron content

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tsunoda, R.T.; Towle, D.M.

1979-01-01

An experiment was conducted at Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands to investigate the spatial relationship of 1-m equatorial spread-F irregularities to total electron content (TEC) depletions. A high-power radar was operated (1) in a backscatter scan mode to spatially map the distribution of 1-m irregularities, and (2) in a dual-frequency, satellite-track mode to obtain the longitudinal TEC variations. We show that radar backscatter ''plumes'' found in the disturbed, nighttime equatorial ionosphere are longitudinally coincident with TEC depletions. We suggest that the TEC depletions are probably due to the presence of plasma ''bubbles'' in the equatorial F layer

Human mobility and time spent at destination: impact on spatial epidemic spreading.

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Poletto, Chiara; Tizzoni, Michele; Colizza, Vittoria

2013-12-07

Host mobility plays a fundamental role in the spatial spread of infectious diseases. Previous theoretical works based on the integration of network theory into the metapopulation framework have shown that the heterogeneities that characterize real mobility networks favor the propagation of epidemics. Nevertheless, the studies conducted so far assumed the mobility process to be either Markovian (in which the memory of the origin of each traveler is lost) or non-Markovian with a fixed traveling time scale (in which individuals travel to a destination and come back at a constant rate). Available statistics however show that the time spent by travelers at destination is characterized by wide fluctuations, ranging from a single day up to several months. Such varying length of stay crucially affects the chance and duration of mixing events among hosts and may therefore have a strong impact on the spread of an emerging disease. Here, we present an analytical and a computational study of epidemic processes on a complex subpopulation network where travelers have memory of their origin and spend a heterogeneously distributed time interval at their destination. Through analytical calculations and numerical simulations we show that the heterogeneity of the length of stay alters the expression of the threshold between local outbreak and global invasion, and, moreover, it changes the epidemic behavior of the system in case of a global outbreak. Additionally, our theoretical framework allows us to study the effect of changes in the traveling behavior in response to the infection, by considering a scenario in which sick individuals do not leave their home location. Finally, we compare the results of our non-Markovian framework with those obtained with a classic Markovian approach and find relevant differences between the two, in the estimate of the epidemic invasion potential, as well as of the timing and the pattern of its spatial spread. These results highlight the importance of

Visual attention spreads broadly but selects information locally.

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Shioiri, Satoshi; Honjyo, Hajime; Kashiwase, Yoshiyuki; Matsumiya, Kazumichi; Kuriki, Ichiro

2016-10-19

Visual attention spreads over a range around the focus as the spotlight metaphor describes. Spatial spread of attentional enhancement and local selection/inhibition are crucial factors determining the profile of the spatial attention. Enhancement and ignorance/suppression are opposite effects of attention, and appeared to be mutually exclusive. Yet, no unified view of the factors has been provided despite their necessity for understanding the functions of spatial attention. This report provides electroencephalographic and behavioral evidence for the attentional spread at an early stage and selection/inhibition at a later stage of visual processing. Steady state visual evoked potential showed broad spatial tuning whereas the P3 component of the event related potential showed local selection or inhibition of the adjacent areas. Based on these results, we propose a two-stage model of spatial attention with broad spread at an early stage and local selection at a later stage.

Spatial evolutionary epidemiology of spreading epidemics.

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Lion, S; Gandon, S

2016-10-26

Most spatial models of host-parasite interactions either neglect the possibility of pathogen evolution or consider that this process is slow enough for epidemiological dynamics to reach an equilibrium on a fast timescale. Here, we propose a novel approach to jointly model the epidemiological and evolutionary dynamics of spatially structured host and pathogen populations. Starting from a multi-strain epidemiological model, we use a combination of spatial moment equations and quantitative genetics to analyse the dynamics of mean transmission and virulence in the population. A key insight of our approach is that, even in the absence of long-term evolutionary consequences, spatial structure can affect the short-term evolution of pathogens because of the build-up of spatial differentiation in mean virulence. We show that spatial differentiation is driven by a balance between epidemiological and genetic effects, and this quantity is related to the effect of kin competition discussed in previous studies of parasite evolution in spatially structured host populations. Our analysis can be used to understand and predict the transient evolutionary dynamics of pathogens and the emergence of spatial patterns of phenotypic variation. © 2016 The Author(s).

Reduced spread of Campylobacter jejuni in broiler chickens by stimulating the bird's natural barriers.

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Moen, B; Rudi, K; Svihus, B; Skånseng, B

2012-11-01

We have tested the effect of feed structure and feeding regime to prevent the spread of the zoonotic pathogen Campylobacter jejuni in broiler chicken flocks. Birds were offered two types of feed, control diet and a diet supplemented with 15% oat/barley hulls for structure. In addition, the birds were either fed ad libitum or intermittent. One bird in each treatment group was infected with a three-strain-mix of Camp. jejuni, and the spread of Camp. jejuni within the group was investigated. Feed structure increased the gizzard weight, delayed the spread of Camp. jejuni within the group and reduced the relative amount of Camp. jejuni in the caecum compared with the control diet. Our results show that stimulating the bird's natural barriers is a novel and promising intervention strategy to reduce the spread of Camp. jejuni in chicken flocks. Preventing Camp. jejuni in broiler chicken flocks is essential to ensure food safety because this bacterium is transferred to chicken carcasses during the slaughter process and readily survive in unprocessed poultry products. We have evaluated a novel approach for stimulation of the bird's natural barriers in the upper digestive tract with promising results. © 2012 The Authors Journal of Applied Microbiology © 2012 The Society for Applied Microbiology.

Epidemiological models for the spread of anti-malarial resistance

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Antia R

2003-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The spread of drug resistance is making malaria control increasingly difficult. Mathematical models for the transmission dynamics of drug sensitive and resistant strains can be a useful tool to help to understand the factors that influence the spread of drug resistance, and they can therefore help in the design of rational strategies for the control of drug resistance. Methods We present an epidemiological framework to investigate the spread of anti-malarial resistance. Several mathematical models, based on the familiar Macdonald-Ross model of malaria transmission, enable us to examine the processes and parameters that are critical in determining the spread of resistance. Results In our simplest model, resistance does not spread if the fraction of infected individuals treated is less than a threshold value; if drug treatment exceeds this threshold, resistance will eventually become fixed in the population. The threshold value is determined only by the rates of infection and the infectious periods of resistant and sensitive parasites in untreated and treated hosts, whereas the intensity of transmission has no influence on the threshold value. In more complex models, where hosts can be infected by multiple parasite strains or where treatment varies spatially, resistance is generally not fixed, but rather some level of sensitivity is often maintained in the population. Conclusions The models developed in this paper are a first step in understanding the epidemiology of anti-malarial resistance and evaluating strategies to reduce the spread of resistance. However, specific recommendations for the management of resistance need to wait until we have more data on the critical parameters underlying the spread of resistance: drug use, spatial variability of treatment and parasite migration among areas, and perhaps most importantly, cost of resistance.

Spread of plague among black-tailed prairie dogs is associated with colony spatial characteristics

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Johnson, T.L.; Cully, J.F.; Collinge, S.K.; Ray, C.; Frey, C.M.; Sandercock, B.K.

2011-01-01

Sylvatic plague (Yersinia pestis) is an exotic pathogen that is highly virulent in black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus) and causes widespread colony losses and individual mortality rates >95%. We investigated colony spatial characteristics that may influence inter-colony transmission of plague at 3 prairie dog colony complexes in the Great Plains. The 4 spatial characteristics we considered include: colony size, Euclidean distance to nearest neighboring colony, colony proximity index, and distance to nearest drainage (dispersal) corridor. We used multi-state mark-recapture models to determine the relationship between these colony characteristics and probability of plague transmission among prairie dog colonies. Annual mapping of colonies and mark-recapture analyses of disease dynamics in natural colonies led to 4 main results: 1) plague outbreaks exhibited high spatial and temporal variation, 2) the site of initiation of epizootic plague may have substantially influenced the subsequent inter-colony spread of plague, 3) the long-term effect of plague on individual colonies differed among sites because of how individuals and colonies were distributed, and 4) colony spatial characteristics were related to the probability of infection at all sites although the relative importance and direction of relationships varied among sites. Our findings suggest that conventional prairie dog conservation management strategies, including promoting large, highly connected colonies, may need to be altered in the presence of plague. ?? 2011 The Wildlife Society.

Analysis of the Spatial Organization of Pastures as a Contact Network, Implications for Potential Disease Spread and Biosecurity in Livestock, France, 2010.

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Aurore Palisson

Full Text Available The use of pastures is part of common herd management practices for livestock animals, but contagion between animals located on neighbouring pastures is one of the major modes of infectious disease transmission between herds. At the population level, this transmission is strongly constrained by the spatial organization of pastures. The aim of this study was to answer two questions: (i is the spatial configuration of pastures favourable to the spread of infectious diseases in France? (ii would biosecurity measures allow decreasing this vulnerability? Based on GIS data, the spatial organization of pastures was represented using networks. Nodes were the 3,159,787 pastures reported in 2010 by the French breeders to claim the Common Agricultural Policy subsidies. Links connected pastures when the distance between them was below a predefined threshold. Premises networks were obtained by aggregating into a single node all the pastures under the same ownership. Although the pastures network was very fragmented when the distance threshold was short (1.5 meters, relevant for a directly-transmitted disease, it was not the case when the distance threshold was larger (500 m, relevant for a vector-borne disease: 97% of the nodes in the largest connected component. The premises network was highly connected as the largest connected component always included more than 83% of the nodes, whatever the distance threshold. Percolation analyses were performed to model the population-level efficacy of biosecurity measures. Percolation thresholds varied according to the modelled biosecurity measures and to the distance threshold. They were globally high (e.g. >17% of nodes had to be removed, mimicking the confinement of animals inside farm buildings, to obtain the disappearance of the large connected component. The network of pastures thus appeared vulnerable to the spread of diseases in France. Only a large acceptance of biosecurity measures by breeders would allow

Definition of spatial patterns of bark beetle Ips typographus (L.) outbreak spreading in Tatra Mountains (Central Europe), using GIS

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Rastislav Jakus; Wojciech Grodzki; Marek Jezik; Marcin Jachym

2003-01-01

The spread of bark beetle outbreaks in the Tatra Mountains was explored by using both terrestrial and remote sensing techniques. Both approaches have proven to be useful for studying spatial patterns of bark beetle population dynamics. The terrestrial methods were applied on existing forestry databases. Vegetation change analysis (image differentiation), digital...

Reconstructing a spatially heterogeneous epidemic: Characterising the geographic spread of 2009 A/H1N1pdm infection in England

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Birrell, Paul J.; Zhang, Xu-Sheng; Pebody, Richard G.; Gay, Nigel J.; de Angelis, Daniela

2016-07-01

Understanding how the geographic distribution of and movements within a population influence the spatial spread of infections is crucial for the design of interventions to curb transmission. Existing knowledge is typically based on results from simulation studies whereas analyses of real data remain sparse. The main difficulty in quantifying the spatial pattern of disease spread is the paucity of available data together with the challenge of incorporating optimally the limited information into models of disease transmission. To address this challenge the role of routine migration on the spatial pattern of infection during the epidemic of 2009 pandemic influenza in England is investigated here through two modelling approaches: parallel-region models, where epidemics in different regions are assumed to occur in isolation with shared characteristics; and meta-region models where inter-region transmission is expressed as a function of the commuter flux between regions. Results highlight that the significantly less computationally demanding parallel-region approach is sufficiently flexible to capture the underlying dynamics. This suggests that inter-region movement is either inaccurately characterized by the available commuting data or insignificant once its initial impact on transmission has subsided.

Spatial spread of an epidemic through public transportation systems with a hub.

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Fei; Connell McCluskey, C; Cressman, Ross

2013-11-01

This article investigates an epidemic spreading among several locations through a transportation system, with a hub connecting these locations. Public transportation is not only a bridge through which infections travel from one location to another but also a place where infections occur since individuals are typically in close proximity to each other due to the limited space in these systems. A mathematical model is constructed to study the spread of an infectious disease through such systems. A variant of the next generation method is proposed and used to provide upper and lower bounds of the basic reproduction number for the model. Our investigation indicates that increasing transportation efficiency, and improving sanitation and ventilation of the public transportation system decrease the chance of an outbreak occurring. Moreover, discouraging unnecessary travel during an epidemic also decreases the chance of an outbreak. However, reducing travel by infectives while allowing susceptibles to travel may not be enough to avoid an outbreak. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Reducing Current Spread using Current Focusing in Cochlear Implant Users

Science.gov (United States)

Landsberger, David M.; Padilla, Monica; Srinivasan, Arthi G.

2012-01-01

Cochlear implant performance in difficult listening situations is limited by channel interactions. It is known that partial tripolar (PTP) stimulation reduces the spread of excitation (SOE). However, the greater the degree of current focusing, the greater the absolute current required to maintain a fixed loudness. As current increases, so does SOE. In experiment 1, the SOE for equally loud stimuli with different degrees of current focusing is measured via a forward-masking procedure. Results suggest that at a fixed loudness, some but not all patients have a reduced SOE with PTP stimulation. Therefore, it seems likely that a PTP speech processing strategy could improve spectral resolution for only those patients with a reduced SOE. In experiment 2, the ability to discriminate different levels of current focusing was measured. In experiment 3, patients subjectively scaled verbal descriptors of stimuli of various levels of current focusing. Both discrimination and scaling of verbal descriptors correlated well with SOE reduction, suggesting that either technique have the potential to be used clinically to quickly predict which patients would receive benefit from a current focusing strategy. PMID:22230370

Fuel treatment effectiveness in reducing fire intensity and spread rate - An experimental overview

Science.gov (United States)

Eric Mueller; Nicholas Skowronski; Albert Simeoni; Kenneth Clark; Robert Kremens; William Mell; Michael Gallagher; Jan Thomas; Alexander Filkov; Mohamad El Houssami; John Hom; Bret Butler

2014-01-01

Fuel treatments represent a significant component of the wildfire mitigation strategy in the United States. However, the lack of research aimed at quantifying the explicit effectiveness of fuel treatments in reducing wildfire intensity and spread rate limits our ability to make educated decisions about the type and placement of these treatments. As part of a larger...

Spread of white-nose syndrome on a network regulated by geography and climate.

Science.gov (United States)

Maher, Sean P; Kramer, Andrew M; Pulliam, J Tomlin; Zokan, Marcus A; Bowden, Sarah E; Barton, Heather D; Magori, Krisztian; Drake, John M

2012-01-01

Wildlife and plant diseases can reduce biodiversity, disrupt ecosystem services and threaten human health. Emerging pathogens have displayed a variety of spatial spread patterns due to differences in host ecology, including diffusive spread from an epicentre (West Nile virus), jump dispersal on a network (foot-and-mouth disease), or a combination of these (Sudden oak death). White-nose syndrome is a highly pathogenic infectious disease of bats currently spreading across North America. Understanding how bat ecology influences this spread is crucial to management of infected and vulnerable populations. Here we show that white-nose syndrome spread is not diffusive but rather mediated by patchily distributed habitat and large-scale gradients in winter climate. Simulations predict rapid expansion and infection of most counties with caves in the contiguous United States by winter 2105-2106. Our findings show the unique pattern of white-nose syndrome spread corresponds to ecological traits of the host and suggest hypotheses for transmission mechanisms acting at the local scale.

Deterministic ripple-spreading model for complex networks.

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Hu, Xiao-Bing; Wang, Ming; Leeson, Mark S; Hines, Evor L; Di Paolo, Ezequiel

2011-04-01

This paper proposes a deterministic complex network model, which is inspired by the natural ripple-spreading phenomenon. The motivations and main advantages of the model are the following: (i) The establishment of many real-world networks is a dynamic process, where it is often observed that the influence of a few local events spreads out through nodes, and then largely determines the final network topology. Obviously, this dynamic process involves many spatial and temporal factors. By simulating the natural ripple-spreading process, this paper reports a very natural way to set up a spatial and temporal model for such complex networks. (ii) Existing relevant network models are all stochastic models, i.e., with a given input, they cannot output a unique topology. Differently, the proposed ripple-spreading model can uniquely determine the final network topology, and at the same time, the stochastic feature of complex networks is captured by randomly initializing ripple-spreading related parameters. (iii) The proposed model can use an easily manageable number of ripple-spreading related parameters to precisely describe a network topology, which is more memory efficient when compared with traditional adjacency matrix or similar memory-expensive data structures. (iv) The ripple-spreading model has a very good potential for both extensions and applications.

Degree of host susceptibility in the initial disease outbreak influences subsequent epidemic spread

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Severns, Paul M.; Estep, Laura K.; Sackett, Kathryn E.; Mundt, Christopher C.

2014-01-01

Summary Disease epidemics typically begin as an outbreak of a relatively small, spatially explicit population of infected individuals (focus), in which disease prevalence increases and rapidly spreads into the uninfected, at-risk population. Studies of epidemic spread typically address factors influencing disease spread through the at-risk population, but the initial outbreak may strongly influence spread of the subsequent epidemic.We initiated wheat stripe rust Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici epidemics to assess the influence of the focus on final disease prevalence when the degree of disease susceptibility differed between the at-risk and focus populations.When the focus/at-risk plantings consisted of partially genetic resistant and susceptible cultivars, final disease prevalence was statistically indistinguishable from epidemics produced by the focus cultivar in monoculture. In these experimental epidemics, disease prevalence was not influenced by the transition into an at-risk population that differed in disease susceptibility. Instead, the focus appeared to exert a dominant influence on the subsequent epidemic.Final disease prevalence was not consistently attributable to either the focus or the at-risk population when focus/at-risk populations were planted in a factorial set-up with a mixture (~28% susceptible and 72% resistant) and susceptible individuals. In these experimental epidemics, spatial heterogeneity in disease susceptibility within the at-risk population appeared to counter the dominant influence of the focus.Cessation of spore production from the focus (through fungicide/glyphosate application) after 1.3 generations of stripe rust spread did not reduce final disease prevalence, indicating that the focus influence on disease spread is established early in the epidemic.Synthesis and applications. Our experiments indicated that outbreak conditions can be highly influential on epidemic spread, even when disease resistance in the at-risk population

Detection of viruses and the spatial and temporal spread patterns of viral diseases of cucurbits (Cucurbitaceae spp.) in the coastal savannah zone of Ghana

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gyamena, A. E

2013-07-01

Cucurbits are susceptible to over 35 plant viruses; each of these viruses is capable of causing total crop failure in a poorly managed virus pathosystem. The objectives of this study were to detect the viruses that infect six cucurbit species in the coastal savannah zone of Ghana and to describe the spatial and temporal spread patterns of virus epidemics in zucchini squash (Cucurbita pepo L.) by the use of mathematical and geostatistical models. Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.), watermelon (Citrullus lanatus Thunb.), zucchini squash (Cucurbita pepo L.), butternut squash (Cucurbita moschata Duchesne), egushi (Citrullus colocynthis L. Schrad.) and melon (Cucumis melo L.) were grown on an experimental field in the coastal savannah zone of Ghana and were monitored for the expression of virus and virus-like symptoms. The observed symptoms were further confirmed by Double Antibody Sandwich Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (DAS ELISA) and mechanical inoculation of indicator plants. The temporal spread patterns of virus disease in zucchini squash were analyzed by exponential logistic, monomolecular and gompertz mechanistic models. The spatial patterns of virus disease spread in zucchini squash field were analyzed by semivariograms and inverse distance weighing (IDW) methods. Cucumber, zucchini squash, melon and butternut squash were infected by both Cucumber mosaic virus (CMW) and Papaya ringspot virus (PRSV-W). Egushi was infected by CMW but not PRSV-W. None of the six cucurbit species were infected by Watermelon mosaic virus (WMV) or Zucchini yellow mosaic virus (ZYMV). The temporal pattern of disease incidence in the zucchini squash field followed the gompertz function with an average apparent infection rate of 0.026 per day. The temporal pattern of disease severity was best described by the exponential model with coefficient of determination of 94.38 % and rate of progress disease severity of 0.114 per day. As at 49 days after planting (DAP), disease incidence and

Toward 3D Printing of Medical Implants: Reduced Lateral Droplet Spreading of Silicone Rubber under Intense IR Curing.

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Stieghorst, Jan; Majaura, Daniel; Wevering, Hendrik; Doll, Theodor

2016-03-01

The direct fabrication of silicone-rubber-based individually shaped active neural implants requires high-speed-curing systems in order to prevent extensive spreading of the viscous silicone rubber materials during vulcanization. Therefore, an infrared-laser-based test setup was developed to cure the silicone rubber materials rapidly and to evaluate the resulting spreading in relation to its initial viscosity, the absorbed infrared radiation, and the surface tensions of the fabrication bed's material. Different low-adhesion materials (polyimide, Parylene-C, polytetrafluoroethylene, and fluorinated ethylenepropylene) were used as bed materials to reduce the spreading of the silicone rubber materials by means of their well-known weak surface tensions. Further, O2-plasma treatment was performed on the bed materials to reduce the surface tensions. To calculate the absorbed radiation, the emittance of the laser was measured, and the absorptances of the materials were investigated with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy in attenuated total reflection mode. A minimum silicone rubber spreading of 3.24% was achieved after 2 s curing time, indicating the potential usability of the presented high-speed-curing process for the direct fabrication of thermal-curing silicone rubbers.

Epidemic spread in coupled populations with seasonally varying migration rates

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Muzyczyn, Adam; Shaw, Leah B.

2009-03-01

The H5N1 strain of avian influenza has spread worldwide, and this spread may be due to seasonal migration of birds and mixing of birds from different regions in the wintering grounds. We studied a multipatch model for avian influenza with seasonally varying migration rates. The bird population was divided into two spatially distinct patches, or subpopulations. Within each patch, the disease followed the SIR (susceptible-infected-recovered) model for epidemic spread. Migration rates were varied periodically, with a net flux toward the breeding grounds during the spring and towards the wintering grounds during the fall. The case of two symmetric patches reduced to single-patch SIR dynamics. However, asymmetry in the birth and contact rates in the breeding grounds and wintering grounds led to bifurcations to longer period orbits and chaotic dynamics. We studied the bifurcation structure of the model and the phase relationships between outbreaks in the two patches.

Efficient local behavioral-change strategies to reduce the spread of epidemics in networks

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Bu, Yilei; Gregory, Steve; Mills, Harriet L.

2013-10-01

It has recently become established that the spread of infectious diseases between humans is affected not only by the pathogen itself but also by changes in behavior as the population becomes aware of the epidemic, for example, social distancing. It is also well known that community structure (the existence of relatively densely connected groups of vertices) in contact networks influences the spread of disease. We propose a set of local strategies for social distancing, based on community structure, that can be employed in the event of an epidemic to reduce the epidemic size. Unlike most social distancing methods, ours do not require individuals to know the disease state (infected or susceptible, etc.) of others, and we do not make the unrealistic assumption that the structure of the entire contact network is known. Instead, the recommended behavior change is based only on an individual's local view of the network. Each individual avoids contact with a fraction of his/her contacts, using knowledge of his/her local network to decide which contacts should be avoided. If the behavior change occurs only when an individual becomes ill or aware of the disease, these strategies can substantially reduce epidemic size with a relatively small cost, measured by the number of contacts avoided.

Demonstration of Hadoop-GIS: A Spatial Data Warehousing System Over MapReduce.

Science.gov (United States)

Aji, Ablimit; Sun, Xiling; Vo, Hoang; Liu, Qioaling; Lee, Rubao; Zhang, Xiaodong; Saltz, Joel; Wang, Fusheng

2013-11-01

The proliferation of GPS-enabled devices, and the rapid improvement of scientific instruments have resulted in massive amounts of spatial data in the last decade. Support of high performance spatial queries on large volumes data has become increasingly important in numerous fields, which requires a scalable and efficient spatial data warehousing solution as existing approaches exhibit scalability limitations and efficiency bottlenecks for large scale spatial applications. In this demonstration, we present Hadoop-GIS - a scalable and high performance spatial query system over MapReduce. Hadoop-GIS provides an efficient spatial query engine to process spatial queries, data and space based partitioning, and query pipelines that parallelize queries implicitly on MapReduce. Hadoop-GIS also provides an expressive, SQL-like spatial query language for workload specification. We will demonstrate how spatial queries are expressed in spatially extended SQL queries, and submitted through a command line/web interface for execution. Parallel to our system demonstration, we explain the system architecture and details on how queries are translated to MapReduce operators, optimized, and executed on Hadoop. In addition, we will showcase how the system can be used to support two representative real world use cases: large scale pathology analytical imaging, and geo-spatial data warehousing.

Turbulence Spreading into Linearly Stable Zone and Transport Scaling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hahm, T.S.; Diamond, P.H.; Lin, Z.; Itoh, K.; Itoh, S.-I.

2003-01-01

We study the simplest problem of turbulence spreading corresponding to the spatio-temporal propagation of a patch of turbulence from a region where it is locally excited to a region of weaker excitation, or even local damping. A single model equation for the local turbulence intensity I(x, t) includes the effects of local linear growth and damping, spatially local nonlinear coupling to dissipation and spatial scattering of turbulence energy induced by nonlinear coupling. In the absence of dissipation, the front propagation into the linearly stable zone occurs with the property of rapid progression at small t, followed by slower subdiffusive progression at late times. The turbulence radial spreading into the linearly stable zone reduces the turbulent intensity in the linearly unstable zone, and introduces an additional dependence on the rho* is always equal to rho i/a to the turbulent intensity and the transport scaling. These are in broad, semi-quantitative agreements with a number of global gyrokinetic simulation results with zonal flows and without zonal flows. The front propagation stops when the radial flux of fluctuation energy from the linearly unstable region is balanced by local dissipation in the linearly stable region

Agricultural pathogen decontamination technology-reducing the threat of infectious agent spread.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Betty, Rita G.; Bieker, Jill Marie; Tucker, Mark David

2005-10-01

Outbreaks of infectious agricultural diseases, whether natural occurring or introduced intentionally, could have catastrophic impacts on the U.S. economy. Examples of such agricultural pathogens include foot and mouth disease (FMD), avian influenza (AI), citrus canker, wheat and soy rust, etc. Current approaches to mitigate the spread of agricultural pathogens include quarantine, development of vaccines for animal diseases, and development of pathogen resistant crop strains in the case of plant diseases. None of these approaches is rapid, and none address the potential persistence of the pathogen in the environment, which could lead to further spread of the agent and damage after quarantine is lifted. Pathogen spread in agricultural environments commonly occurs via transfer on agricultural equipment (transportation trailers, tractors, trucks, combines, etc.), having components made from a broad range of materials (galvanized and painted steel, rubber tires, glass and Plexiglas shields, etc), and under conditions of heavy organic load (mud, soil, feces, litter, etc). A key element of stemming the spread of an outbreak is to ensure complete inactivation of the pathogens in the agricultural environment and on the equipment used in those environments. Through the combination of enhanced agricultural pathogen decontamination chemistry and a validated inactivation verification methodology, important technologies for incorporation as components of a robust response capability will be enabled. Because of the potentially devastating economic impact that could result from the spread of infectious agricultural diseases, the proposed capability components will promote critical infrastructure protection and greater border and food supply security. We investigated and developed agricultural pathogen decontamination technologies to reduce the threat of infectious-agent spread, and thus enhance agricultural biosecurity. Specifically, enhanced detergency versions of the patented

Rapid simulation of spatial epidemics: a spectral method.

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Brand, Samuel P C; Tildesley, Michael J; Keeling, Matthew J

2015-04-07

Spatial structure and hence the spatial position of host populations plays a vital role in the spread of infection. In the majority of situations, it is only possible to predict the spatial spread of infection using simulation models, which can be computationally demanding especially for large population sizes. Here we develop an approximation method that vastly reduces this computational burden. We assume that the transmission rates between individuals or sub-populations are determined by a spatial transmission kernel. This kernel is assumed to be isotropic, such that the transmission rate is simply a function of the distance between susceptible and infectious individuals; as such this provides the ideal mechanism for modelling localised transmission in a spatial environment. We show that the spatial force of infection acting on all susceptibles can be represented as a spatial convolution between the transmission kernel and a spatially extended 'image' of the infection state. This representation allows the rapid calculation of stochastic rates of infection using fast-Fourier transform (FFT) routines, which greatly improves the computational efficiency of spatial simulations. We demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of this fast spectral rate recalculation (FSR) method with two examples: an idealised scenario simulating an SIR-type epidemic outbreak amongst N habitats distributed across a two-dimensional plane; the spread of infection between US cattle farms, illustrating that the FSR method makes continental-scale outbreak forecasting feasible with desktop processing power. The latter model demonstrates which areas of the US are at consistently high risk for cattle-infections, although predictions of epidemic size are highly dependent on assumptions about the tail of the transmission kernel. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Spatial Clustering of Escherichia coli with Reduced Susceptibility to Cefotaxime and Ciprofloxacin among Dairy Cattle Farms Relative to European Starling Night Roosts.

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Medhanie, G A; Pearl, D L; McEwen, S A; Guerin, M T; Jardine, C M; Schrock, J; LeJeune, J T

2017-05-01

European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) have been implicated in the dispersal of zoonotic enteric pathogens. However, their role in disseminating antimicrobial-resistant organisms through their home range has not been clearly established. The aim of this study was to determine whether starling night roosts served as foci for spreading organisms with reduced susceptibility to antimicrobials among dairy cattle farms. Bovine faecal pats were collected from 150 dairy farms in Ohio. Each farm was visited twice (in summer and fall) between 2007 and 2009. A total of 1490 samples (10 samples/farm over two visits) were tested for Escherichia coli with reduced susceptibility to cefotaxime and ciprofloxacin. Using a spatial scan statistic, focal scans were conducted to determine whether clusters of farms with a high prevalence of organisms with reduced susceptibility to cefotaxime and ciprofloxacin surrounded starling night roosts. Faecal pats 13.42% and 13.56% of samples carried Escherichia coli with reduced susceptibility to cefotaxime and ciprofloxacin, respectively. Statistically significant (P Escherichia coli showing reduced susceptibility to cefotaxime and ciprofloxacin were identified around these night roosts. This finding suggests that the risk of carriage of organisms with reduced susceptibility to antimicrobials in cattle closer to starling night roosts was higher compared to cattle located on farms further from these sites. Starlings might have an important role in spreading antimicrobial-resistant E. coli to livestock environments, thus posing a threat to animal and public health. © 2016 Blackwell Verlag GmbH.

Operator Spreading in Random Unitary Circuits

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Nahum, Adam; Vijay, Sagar; Haah, Jeongwan

2018-04-01

Random quantum circuits yield minimally structured models for chaotic quantum dynamics, which are able to capture, for example, universal properties of entanglement growth. We provide exact results and coarse-grained models for the spreading of operators by quantum circuits made of Haar-random unitaries. We study both 1 +1 D and higher dimensions and argue that the coarse-grained pictures carry over to operator spreading in generic many-body systems. In 1 +1 D , we demonstrate that the out-of-time-order correlator (OTOC) satisfies a biased diffusion equation, which gives exact results for the spatial profile of the OTOC and determines the butterfly speed vB. We find that in 1 +1 D , the "front" of the OTOC broadens diffusively, with a width scaling in time as t1 /2. We address fluctuations in the OTOC between different realizations of the random circuit, arguing that they are negligible in comparison to the broadening of the front within a realization. Turning to higher dimensions, we show that the averaged OTOC can be understood exactly via a remarkable correspondence with a purely classical droplet growth problem. This implies that the width of the front of the averaged OTOC scales as t1 /3 in 2 +1 D and as t0.240 in 3 +1 D (exponents of the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang universality class). We support our analytic argument with simulations in 2 +1 D . We point out that, in two or higher spatial dimensions, the shape of the spreading operator at late times is affected by underlying lattice symmetries and, in general, is not spherical. However, when full spatial rotational symmetry is present in 2 +1 D , our mapping implies an exact asymptotic form for the OTOC, in terms of the Tracy-Widom distribution. For an alternative perspective on the OTOC in 1 +1 D , we map it to the partition function of an Ising-like statistical mechanics model. As a result of special structure arising from unitarity, this partition function reduces to a random walk calculation which can be

Sustained attention training reduces spatial bias in Parkinson's disease: a pilot case series.

Science.gov (United States)

DeGutis, Joseph; Grosso, Mallory; VanVleet, Thomas; Esterman, Michael; Pistorino, Laura; Cronin-Golomb, Alice

2016-01-01

Individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) commonly demonstrate lateralized spatial biases, which affect daily functioning. Those with PD with initial motor symptoms on the left body side (LPD) have reduced leftward attention, whereas PD with initial motor symptoms on the right side (RPD) may display reduced rightward attention. We investigated whether a sustained attention training program could help reduce these spatial biases. Four non-demented individuals with PD (2 LPD, 2 RPD) performed a visual search task before and after 1 month of computer training. Before training, all participants showed a significant spatial bias and after training, all participants' spatial bias was eliminated.

Novel measurement of spreading pattern of influenza epidemic by using weighted standard distance method: retrospective spatial statistical study of influenza, Japan, 1999-2009.

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Shobugawa, Yugo; Wiafe, Seth A; Saito, Reiko; Suzuki, Tsubasa; Inaida, Shinako; Taniguchi, Kiyosu; Suzuki, Hiroshi

2012-06-19

Annual influenza epidemics occur worldwide resulting in considerable morbidity and mortality. Spreading pattern of influenza is not well understood because it is often hampered by the quality of surveillance data that limits the reliability of analysis. In Japan, influenza is reported on a weekly basis from 5,000 hospitals and clinics nationwide under the scheme of the National Infectious Disease Surveillance. The collected data are available to the public as weekly reports which were summarized into number of patient visits per hospital or clinic in each of the 47 prefectures. From this surveillance data, we analyzed the spatial spreading patterns of influenza epidemics using weekly weighted standard distance (WSD) from the 1999/2000 through 2008/2009 influenza seasons in Japan. WSD is a single numerical value representing the spatial compactness of influenza outbreak, which is small in case of clustered distribution and large in case of dispersed distribution. We demonstrated that the weekly WSD value or the measure of spatial compactness of the distribution of reported influenza cases, decreased to its lowest value before each epidemic peak in nine out of ten seasons analyzed. The duration between the lowest WSD week and the peak week of influenza cases ranged from minus one week to twenty weeks. The duration showed significant negative association with the proportion of influenza A/H3N2 cases in early phase of each outbreak (correlation coefficient was -0.75, P = 0.012) and significant positive association with the proportion of influenza B cases in the early phase (correlation coefficient was 0.64, P = 0.045), but positively correlated with the proportion of influenza A/H1N1 strain cases (statistically not significant). It is assumed that the lowest WSD values just before influenza peaks are due to local outbreak which results in small standard distance values. As influenza cases disperse nationwide and an epidemic reaches its peak, WSD value changed to be a

Using mobile phone data to predict the spatial spread of cholera.

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Bengtsson, Linus; Gaudart, Jean; Lu, Xin; Moore, Sandra; Wetter, Erik; Sallah, Kankoe; Rebaudet, Stanislas; Piarroux, Renaud

2015-03-09

Effective response to infectious disease epidemics requires focused control measures in areas predicted to be at high risk of new outbreaks. We aimed to test whether mobile operator data could predict the early spatial evolution of the 2010 Haiti cholera epidemic. Daily case data were analysed for 78 study areas from October 16 to December 16, 2010. Movements of 2.9 million anonymous mobile phone SIM cards were used to create a national mobility network. Two gravity models of population mobility were implemented for comparison. Both were optimized based on the complete retrospective epidemic data, available only after the end of the epidemic spread. Risk of an area experiencing an outbreak within seven days showed strong dose-response relationship with the mobile phone-based infectious pressure estimates. The mobile phone-based model performed better (AUC 0.79) than the retrospectively optimized gravity models (AUC 0.66 and 0.74, respectively). Infectious pressure at outbreak onset was significantly correlated with reported cholera cases during the first ten days of the epidemic (p Mobile operator data is a highly promising data source for improving preparedness and response efforts during cholera outbreaks. Findings may be particularly important for containment efforts of emerging infectious diseases, including high-mortality influenza strains.

Optimizing surveillance for livestock disease spreading through animal movements

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Bajardi, Paolo; Barrat, Alain; Savini, Lara; Colizza, Vittoria

2012-01-01

The spatial propagation of many livestock infectious diseases critically depends on the animal movements among premises; so the knowledge of movement data may help us to detect, manage and control an outbreak. The identification of robust spreading features of the system is however hampered by the temporal dimension characterizing population interactions through movements. Traditional centrality measures do not provide relevant information as results strongly fluctuate in time and outbreak properties heavily depend on geotemporal initial conditions. By focusing on the case study of cattle displacements in Italy, we aim at characterizing livestock epidemics in terms of robust features useful for planning and control, to deal with temporal fluctuations, sensitivity to initial conditions and missing information during an outbreak. Through spatial disease simulations, we detect spreading paths that are stable across different initial conditions, allowing the clustering of the seeds and reducing the epidemic variability. Paths also allow us to identify premises, called sentinels, having a large probability of being infected and providing critical information on the outbreak origin, as encoded in the clusters. This novel procedure provides a general framework that can be applied to specific diseases, for aiding risk assessment analysis and informing the design of optimal surveillance systems. PMID:22728387

Location Aggregation of Spatial Population CTMC Models

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luca Bortolussi

2016-10-01

Full Text Available In this paper we focus on spatial Markov population models, describing the stochastic evolution of populations of agents, explicitly modelling their spatial distribution, representing space as a discrete, finite graph. More specifically, we present a heuristic approach to aggregating spatial locations, which is designed to preserve the dynamical behaviour of the model whilst reducing the computational cost of analysis. Our approach combines stochastic approximation ideas (moment closure, linear noise, with computational statistics (spectral clustering to obtain an efficient aggregation, which is experimentally shown to be reasonably accurate on two case studies: an instance of epidemic spreading and a London bike sharing scenario.

Beam-width spreading of vortex beams in free space

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Wang, Weiwei; Li, Jinhong; Duan, Meiling

2018-01-01

Based on the extended Huygens-Fresnel principle and the definition of second-order moments of the Wigner distribution function, the analytical expression for the beam-width spreading of Gaussian Schell-model (GSM) vortex beams in free space are derived, and used to study the influence of beam parameters on the beam-width spreading of GSM vortex beams. With the increment of the propagation distance, the beam-width spreading of GSM vortex beams will increase; the bigger the topological charge, spatial correlation length, wavelength and waist width are, the smaller the beam-width spreading is.

Mate Finding, Sexual Spore Production, and the Spread of Fungal Plant Parasites.

Science.gov (United States)

Hamelin, Frédéric M; Castella, François; Doli, Valentin; Marçais, Benoît; Ravigné, Virginie; Lewis, Mark A

2016-04-01

Sexual reproduction and dispersal are often coupled in organisms mixing sexual and asexual reproduction, such as fungi. The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of mate limitation on the spreading speed of fungal plant parasites. Starting from a simple model with two coupled partial differential equations, we take advantage of the fact that we are interested in the dynamics over large spatial and temporal scales to reduce the model to a single equation. We obtain a simple expression for speed of spread, accounting for both sexual and asexual reproduction. Taking Black Sigatoka disease of banana plants as a case study, the model prediction is in close agreement with the actual spreading speed (100 km per year), whereas a similar model without mate limitation predicts a wave speed one order of magnitude greater. We discuss the implications of these results to control parasites in which sexual reproduction and dispersal are intrinsically coupled.

Reducing Spread in Climate Model Projections of a September Ice-Free Arctic

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Jiping; Song, Mirong; Horton, Radley M.; Hu, Yongyun

2013-01-01

This paper addresses the specter of a September ice-free Arctic in the 21st century using newly available simulations from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5). We find that large spread in the projected timing of the September ice-free Arctic in 30 CMIP5 models is associated at least as much with different atmospheric model components as with initial conditions. Here we reduce the spread in the timing of an ice-free state using two different approaches for the 30 CMIP5 models: (i) model selection based on the ability to reproduce the observed sea ice climatology and variability since 1979 and (ii) constrained estimation based on the strong and persistent relationship between present and future sea ice conditions. Results from the two approaches show good agreement. Under a high-emission scenario both approaches project that September ice extent will drop to approx. 1.7 million sq km in the mid 2040s and reach the ice-free state (defined as 1 million sq km) in 2054-2058. Under a medium-mitigation scenario, both approaches project a decrease to approx.1.7 million sq km in the early 2060s, followed by a leveling off in the ice extent.

Novel measurement of spreading pattern of influenza epidemic by using weighted standard distance method: retrospective spatial statistical study of influenza, Japan, 1999–2009

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shobugawa Yugo

2012-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Annual influenza epidemics occur worldwide resulting in considerable morbidity and mortality. Spreading pattern of influenza is not well understood because it is often hampered by the quality of surveillance data that limits the reliability of analysis. In Japan, influenza is reported on a weekly basis from 5,000 hospitals and clinics nationwide under the scheme of the National Infectious Disease Surveillance. The collected data are available to the public as weekly reports which were summarized into number of patient visits per hospital or clinic in each of the 47 prefectures. From this surveillance data, we analyzed the spatial spreading patterns of influenza epidemics using weekly weighted standard distance (WSD from the 1999/2000 through 2008/2009 influenza seasons in Japan. WSD is a single numerical value representing the spatial compactness of influenza outbreak, which is small in case of clustered distribution and large in case of dispersed distribution. Results We demonstrated that the weekly WSD value or the measure of spatial compactness of the distribution of reported influenza cases, decreased to its lowest value before each epidemic peak in nine out of ten seasons analyzed. The duration between the lowest WSD week and the peak week of influenza cases ranged from minus one week to twenty weeks. The duration showed significant negative association with the proportion of influenza A/H3N2 cases in early phase of each outbreak (correlation coefficient was −0.75, P = 0.012 and significant positive association with the proportion of influenza B cases in the early phase (correlation coefficient was 0.64, P = 0.045, but positively correlated with the proportion of influenza A/H1N1 strain cases (statistically not significant. It is assumed that the lowest WSD values just before influenza peaks are due to local outbreak which results in small standard distance values. As influenza cases disperse nationwide and an

Novel measurement of spreading pattern of influenza epidemic by using weighted standard distance method: retrospective spatial statistical study of influenza, Japan, 1999–2009

Science.gov (United States)

2012-01-01

Background Annual influenza epidemics occur worldwide resulting in considerable morbidity and mortality. Spreading pattern of influenza is not well understood because it is often hampered by the quality of surveillance data that limits the reliability of analysis. In Japan, influenza is reported on a weekly basis from 5,000 hospitals and clinics nationwide under the scheme of the National Infectious Disease Surveillance. The collected data are available to the public as weekly reports which were summarized into number of patient visits per hospital or clinic in each of the 47 prefectures. From this surveillance data, we analyzed the spatial spreading patterns of influenza epidemics using weekly weighted standard distance (WSD) from the 1999/2000 through 2008/2009 influenza seasons in Japan. WSD is a single numerical value representing the spatial compactness of influenza outbreak, which is small in case of clustered distribution and large in case of dispersed distribution. Results We demonstrated that the weekly WSD value or the measure of spatial compactness of the distribution of reported influenza cases, decreased to its lowest value before each epidemic peak in nine out of ten seasons analyzed. The duration between the lowest WSD week and the peak week of influenza cases ranged from minus one week to twenty weeks. The duration showed significant negative association with the proportion of influenza A/H3N2 cases in early phase of each outbreak (correlation coefficient was −0.75, P = 0.012) and significant positive association with the proportion of influenza B cases in the early phase (correlation coefficient was 0.64, P = 0.045), but positively correlated with the proportion of influenza A/H1N1 strain cases (statistically not significant). It is assumed that the lowest WSD values just before influenza peaks are due to local outbreak which results in small standard distance values. As influenza cases disperse nationwide and an epidemic reaches its peak

Spatial spreading of infectious disease via local and national mobility networks in South Korea

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Kwon, Okyu; Son, Woo-Sik

2017-12-01

We study the spread of infectious disease based on local- and national-scale mobility networks. We construct a local mobility network using data on urban bus services to estimate local-scale movement of people. We also construct a national mobility network from orientation-destination data of vehicular traffic between highway tollgates to evaluate national-scale movement of people. A metapopulation model is used to simulate the spread of epidemics. Thus, the number of infected people is simulated using a susceptible-infectious-recovered (SIR) model within the administrative division, and inter-division spread of infected people is determined through local and national mobility networks. In this paper, we consider two scenarios for epidemic spread. In the first, the infectious disease only spreads through local-scale movement of people, that is, the local mobility network. In the second, it spreads via both local and national mobility networks. For the former, the simulation results show infected people sequentially spread to neighboring divisions. Yet for the latter, we observe a faster spreading pattern to distant divisions. Thus, we confirm the national mobility network enhances synchronization among the incidence profiles of all administrative divisions.

Contribution of human, climate and biophysical drivers to the spatial distribution of wildfires in a French Mediterranean area: where do wildfires start and spread?

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Ruffault, Julien; Mouillot, Florent; Moebius, Flavia

2013-04-01

Understanding the contribution of biophysical and human drivers to the spatial distribution of fires at regional scale has many ecological and economical implications in a context of on-going global changes. However these fire drivers often interact in complex ways, such that disentangling and assessing the relative contribution of human vs. biophysical factors remains a major challenge. Indeed, the identification of biophysical conditions that promote fires are confused by the inherent stochasticity in fire occurrences and fire spread on the one hand and, by the influence of human factors -through both fire ignition and suppression - on the other. Moreover, different factors may drive fire ignition and fire spread, in such a way that the areas with the highest density of ignitions may not coincide with those where large fires occur. In the present study, we investigated the drivers of fires ignition and spread in a Mediterranean area of southern France. We used a 17 years fire database (the PROMETHEE database from 1989-2006) combined with a set of 8 explanatory variables describing the spatial pattern in ignitions, vegetation and fire weather. We first isolated the weather conditions affecting the fire occurrence and their spread using a statistical model of the weather/fuel water status for each fire event.. The results of these statistical models were used to map the fire weather in terms of average number of days with suitable conditions for burning. Then, we used Boosted regression trees (BRT) models to assess the relative importance of the different variables on the distribution of wildfire with different sizes and to assess the relationship between each variables and fire occurrence and spread probabilities. We found that human activities explained up to 50 % of the spatial distribution of fire ignitions (SDI). The distribution of large fire was chiefly explained by fuel characteristics (about 40%). Surprisingly, the weather indices explained only 20 % of

Hadoop-GIS: A High Performance Spatial Data Warehousing System over MapReduce.

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Aji, Ablimit; Wang, Fusheng; Vo, Hoang; Lee, Rubao; Liu, Qiaoling; Zhang, Xiaodong; Saltz, Joel

2013-08-01

Support of high performance queries on large volumes of spatial data becomes increasingly important in many application domains, including geospatial problems in numerous fields, location based services, and emerging scientific applications that are increasingly data- and compute-intensive. The emergence of massive scale spatial data is due to the proliferation of cost effective and ubiquitous positioning technologies, development of high resolution imaging technologies, and contribution from a large number of community users. There are two major challenges for managing and querying massive spatial data to support spatial queries: the explosion of spatial data, and the high computational complexity of spatial queries. In this paper, we present Hadoop-GIS - a scalable and high performance spatial data warehousing system for running large scale spatial queries on Hadoop. Hadoop-GIS supports multiple types of spatial queries on MapReduce through spatial partitioning, customizable spatial query engine RESQUE, implicit parallel spatial query execution on MapReduce, and effective methods for amending query results through handling boundary objects. Hadoop-GIS utilizes global partition indexing and customizable on demand local spatial indexing to achieve efficient query processing. Hadoop-GIS is integrated into Hive to support declarative spatial queries with an integrated architecture. Our experiments have demonstrated the high efficiency of Hadoop-GIS on query response and high scalability to run on commodity clusters. Our comparative experiments have showed that performance of Hadoop-GIS is on par with parallel SDBMS and outperforms SDBMS for compute-intensive queries. Hadoop-GIS is available as a set of library for processing spatial queries, and as an integrated software package in Hive.

Evaluation of spatial dependence of point spread function-based PET reconstruction using a traceable point-like 22Na source

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Taisuke Murata

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The point spread function (PSF of positron emission tomography (PET depends on the position across the field of view (FOV. Reconstruction based on PSF improves spatial resolution and quantitative accuracy. The present study aimed to quantify the effects of PSF correction as a function of the position of a traceable point-like 22Na source over the FOV on two PET scanners with a different detector design. Methods We used Discovery 600 and Discovery 710 (GE Healthcare PET scanners and traceable point-like 22Na sources (<1 MBq with a spherical absorber design that assures uniform angular distribution of the emitted annihilation photons. The source was moved in three directions at intervals of 1 cm from the center towards the peripheral FOV using a three-dimensional (3D-positioning robot, and data were acquired over a period of 2 min per point. The PET data were reconstructed by filtered back projection (FBP, the ordered subset expectation maximization (OSEM, OSEM + PSF, and OSEM + PSF + time-of-flight (TOF. Full width at half maximum (FWHM was determined according to the NEMA method, and total counts in regions of interest (ROI for each reconstruction were quantified. Results The radial FWHM of FBP and OSEM increased towards the peripheral FOV, whereas PSF-based reconstruction recovered the FWHM at all points in the FOV of both scanners. The radial FWHM for PSF was 30–50 % lower than that of OSEM at the center of the FOV. The accuracy of PSF correction was independent of detector design. Quantitative values were stable across the FOV in all reconstruction methods. The effect of TOF on spatial resolution and quantitation accuracy was less noticeable. Conclusions The traceable 22Na point-like source allowed the evaluation of spatial resolution and quantitative accuracy across the FOV using different reconstruction methods and scanners. PSF-based reconstruction reduces dependence of the spatial resolution on the

Fluorescent visualization of a spreading surfactant

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fallest, David W; Lichtenberger, Adele M; Fox, Christopher J; Daniels, Karen E, E-mail: kdaniel@ncsu.ed [Department of Physics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695 (United States)

2010-07-15

The spreading of surfactants on thin films is an industrially and medically important phenomenon, but the dynamics are highly nonlinear and visualization of the surfactant dynamics has been a long-standing experimental challenge. We perform the first quantitative, spatiotemporally resolved measurements of the spreading of an insoluble surfactant on a thin fluid layer. During the spreading process, we directly observe both the radial height profile of the spreading droplet and the spatial distribution of the fluorescently tagged surfactant. We find that the leading edge of a spreading circular layer of surfactant forms a Marangoni ridge in the underlying fluid, with a trough trailing the ridge as expected. However, several novel features are observed using the fluorescence technique, including a peak in the surfactant concentration that trails the leading edge, and a flat, monolayer-scale spreading film that differs from concentration profiles predicted by current models. Both the Marangoni ridge and the surfactant leading edge can be described to spread as R{approx}t{sup {delta}}. We find spreading exponents {delta}{sub H}{approx}0.30 and {delta}{sub {Gamma}}{approx}0.22 for the ridge peak and surfactant leading edge, respectively, which are in good agreement with theoretical predictions of {delta}=1/4. In addition, we observe that the surfactant leading edge initially leads the peak of the Marangoni ridge, with the peak later catching up to the leading edge.

Epidemic spreading in a hierarchical social network.

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Grabowski, A; Kosiński, R A

2004-09-01

A model of epidemic spreading in a population with a hierarchical structure of interpersonal interactions is described and investigated numerically. The structure of interpersonal connections is based on a scale-free network. Spatial localization of individuals belonging to different social groups, and the mobility of a contemporary community, as well as the effectiveness of different interpersonal interactions, are taken into account. Typical relations characterizing the spreading process, like a range of epidemic and epidemic curves, are discussed. The influence of preventive vaccinations on the spreading process is investigated. The critical value of preventively vaccinated individuals that is sufficient for the suppression of an epidemic is calculated. Our results are compared with solutions of the master equation for the spreading process and good agreement of the character of this process is found.

RECOGNIZE: A Social Norms Campaign to Reduce Rumor Spreading in a Junior High School

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Cross, Jennifer E.; Peisner, William

2009-01-01

This article studied changes in rumor spreading and perceptions of peers' rumor spreading among students at one public junior high school following a social norms marketing campaign. Results of the study show that perceptions of peer rumor spreading fell following the campaign, but self-reports of rumor spreading did not decrease. Results suggest…

A metric of influential spreading during contagion dynamics through the air transportation network.

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Christos Nicolaides

Full Text Available The spread of infectious diseases at the global scale is mediated by long-range human travel. Our ability to predict the impact of an outbreak on human health requires understanding the spatiotemporal signature of early-time spreading from a specific location. Here, we show that network topology, geography, traffic structure and individual mobility patterns are all essential for accurate predictions of disease spreading. Specifically, we study contagion dynamics through the air transportation network by means of a stochastic agent-tracking model that accounts for the spatial distribution of airports, detailed air traffic and the correlated nature of mobility patterns and waiting-time distributions of individual agents. From the simulation results and the empirical air-travel data, we formulate a metric of influential spreading--the geographic spreading centrality--which accounts for spatial organization and the hierarchical structure of the network traffic, and provides an accurate measure of the early-time spreading power of individual nodes.

Sustained Attention Training Reduces Spatial Bias in Parkinson's Disease: A Pilot Case Series

OpenAIRE

DeGutis, Joseph; Grosso, Mallory; VanVleet, Thomas; Esterman, Michael; Pistorino, Laura; Cronin-Golomb, Alice

2015-01-01

Individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD) commonly demonstrate lateralized spatial biases, which affect daily functioning. Those with PD with initial motor symptoms on the left body side (LPD) have reduced leftward attention whereas PD with initial motor symptoms on the right side (RPD) may display reduced rightward attention. We investigated whether a sustained attention training program could help reduce these spatial biases. Four non-demented individuals with PD (2 LPD/2 RPD) performed a v...

Spatial repellents on strips of camouflage netting reduce mosquito collections in a field environment

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Barrier treatments can be effective in reducing host seeking mosquito vectors and provide an additional layer of passive defense, reducing disease risk. Devices designed to release spatial repellents or direct application of spatial repellents to artificial surfaces can serve as efficient barriers r...

Nonlinear model of epidemic spreading in a complex social network.

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Kosiński, Robert A; Grabowski, A

2007-10-01

The epidemic spreading in a human society is a complex process, which can be described on the basis of a nonlinear mathematical model. In such an approach the complex and hierarchical structure of social network (which has implications for the spreading of pathogens and can be treated as a complex network), can be taken into account. In our model each individual has one of the four permitted states: susceptible, infected, infective, unsusceptible or dead. This refers to the SEIR model used in epidemiology. The state of an individual changes in time, depending on the previous state and the interactions with other individuals. The description of the interpersonal contacts is based on the experimental observations of the social relations in the community. It includes spatial localization of the individuals and hierarchical structure of interpersonal interactions. Numerical simulations were performed for different types of epidemics, giving the progress of a spreading process and typical relationships (e.g. range of epidemic in time, the epidemic curve). The spreading process has a complex and spatially chaotic character. The time dependence of the number of infective individuals shows the nonlinear character of the spreading process. We investigate the influence of the preventive vaccinations on the spreading process. In particular, for a critical value of preventively vaccinated individuals the percolation threshold is observed and the epidemic is suppressed.

Assessment of the peste des petits ruminants world epizootic situation and estimate its spreading to Russia

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Fayssal Bouchemla

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Aim: This study focuses on the spatial dynamic associated with the spreading of the peste des petits ruminants (PPR disease for the past decade (from the year 2007 to 2017, assesses the resulting situation in the world, and has an emphasis on Russian advantages been a PPR host. Materials and Methods: Outbreaks were confirmed and reported officially by the World Organization for Animal Health (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and polymerase chain reaction were used. Data contain the account number of infected, dead, and all susceptible animals in focus of infection in the period of 2007-2017. Once conventional statistical population was defined, a model was installed. Geo-information system QuickMAP was used to clear up the map disease, and through the @Risk program, we got our forecasting value of future situations (by Monte Carlo method. Results: The spatial study of PPR's occurrence and its spread was mapping according to the incidence of cases and outbreaks. Clusters demonstrated risk levels in the world in the period from 2007 to 2017 year. Based on the epizootological analysis, an assessment of PPR risk and the probability movement of infection in Russia from nearby disadvantaged countries had been carried out. A statistically significant impact of the socioeconomic system on the stationarity index was found equal to 0.63. The PPR risk of spreading could not be ignored. Nevertheless, conducting effective large-scale vaccine companies in a complex of antiepizootic activities against PPR could reduce the risk of spread of the disease up to 91.8%. Conclusion: Despite all mentioned facts above, the PPR probability can only be reduced by coordinating work of border veterinary services, as in disadvantaged as in free from this disease country, that is, what makes an effective and complete eradication of the disease could be quite realistic.

Enhancement of epidemic spread by noise and stochastic resonance in spatial network models with viral dynamics.

Science.gov (United States)

Tuckwell, H C; Toubiana, L; Vibert, J F

2000-05-01

We extend a previous dynamical viral network model to include stochastic effects. The dynamical equations for the viral and immune effector densities within a host population of size n are bilinear, and the noise is white, additive, and Gaussian. The individuals are connected with an n x n transmission matrix, with terms which decay exponentially with distance. In a single individual, for the range of noise parameters considered, it is found that increasing the amplitude of the noise tends to decrease the maximum mean virion level, and slightly accelerate its attainment. Two different spatial dynamical models are employed to ascertain the effects of environmental stochasticity on viral spread. In the first model transmission is unrestricted and there is no threshold within individuals. This model has the advantage that it can be analyzed using a Fokker-Planck approach. The noise is found both to synchronize and uniformize the trajectories of the viral levels across the population of infected individuals, and thus to promote the epidemic spread of the virus. Quantitative measures of the speed of spread and overall amplitude of the epidemic are obtained as functions of the noise and virulence parameters. The mean amplitude increases steadily without threshold effects for a fixed value of the virulence as the noise amplitude sigma is increased, and there is no evidence of a stochastic resonance. However, the speed of transmission, both with respect to its mean and variance, undergoes rapid increases as sigma changes by relatively small amounts. In the second, more realistic, model, there is a threshold for infection and an upper limit to the transmission rate. There may be no spread of infection at all in the absence of noise. With increasing noise level and a low threshold, the mean maximum virion level grows quickly and shows a broad-based stochastic resonance effect. When the threshold within individuals is increased, the mean population virion level increases only

Nonlinear propagation of a spatially incoherent laser beam: self-induced smoothing and reduction of scattering instabilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maximov, A.V.; Ourdev, I.G.; Rozmus, W.; Capjack, C.E.; Mounaix, Ph.; Huller, S.; Pesme, D.; Tikhonchuk, V.T.; Divol, L.

2000-01-01

It is shown that plasma-induced angular spreading and spectral broadening of a spatially incoherent laser beam correspond to increased spatial and temporal incoherence of the laser light. The spatial incoherence is characterized by an effective beam f-number, decreasing in space along the direction of light propagation. Plasma-induced beam smoothing can influence laser-plasma interaction physics. In particular, decreasing the correlation time of the propagating laser light may dramatically reduce the levels of backward stimulated Brillouin and Raman scattering inside the plasma. Also, the decrease of the laser beam effective f-number reduces the reflectivity of backward stimulated Brillouin scattering. (authors)

Clonal Spread in Second Growth Stands of Coast Redwood, Sequoia sempervirens

Science.gov (United States)

Vladimir Douhovnikoff; Richard S. Dodd

2007-01-01

Coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) is one of the rare conifers to reproduce successfully through clonal spread. The importance of this mode of reproduction in stand development is largely unknown. Understanding the importance of clonal spread and the spatial structure of clones is crucial for stand management strategies that would aim to maximize...

The landscape genetics of infectious disease emergence and spread.

Science.gov (United States)

Biek, Roman; Real, Leslie A

2010-09-01

The spread of parasites is inherently a spatial process often embedded in physically complex landscapes. It is therefore not surprising that infectious disease researchers are increasingly taking a landscape genetics perspective to elucidate mechanisms underlying basic ecological processes driving infectious disease dynamics and to understand the linkage between spatially dependent population processes and the geographic distribution of genetic variation within both hosts and parasites. The increasing availability of genetic information on hosts and parasites when coupled to their ecological interactions can lead to insights for predicting patterns of disease emergence, spread and control. Here, we review research progress in this area based on four different motivations for the application of landscape genetics approaches: (i) assessing the spatial organization of genetic variation in parasites as a function of environmental variability, (ii) using host population genetic structure as a means to parameterize ecological dynamics that indirectly influence parasite populations, for example, gene flow and movement pathways across heterogeneous landscapes and the concurrent transport of infectious agents, (iii) elucidating the temporal and spatial scales of disease processes and (iv) reconstructing and understanding infectious disease invasion. Throughout this review, we emphasize that landscape genetic principles are relevant to infection dynamics across a range of scales from within host dynamics to global geographic patterns and that they can also be applied to unconventional 'landscapes' such as heterogeneous contact networks underlying the spread of human and livestock diseases. We conclude by discussing some general considerations and problems for inferring epidemiological processes from genetic data and try to identify possible future directions and applications for this rapidly expanding field.

Reduced fine-scale spatial genetic structure in grazed populations of Dianthus carthusianorum.

Science.gov (United States)

Rico, Y; Wagner, H H

2016-11-01

Strong spatial genetic structure in plant populations can increase homozygosity, reducing genetic diversity and adaptive potential. The strength of spatial genetic structure largely depends on rates of seed dispersal and pollen flow. Seeds without dispersal adaptations are likely to be dispersed over short distances within the vicinity of the mother plant, resulting in spatial clustering of related genotypes (fine-scale spatial genetic structure, hereafter spatial genetic structure (SGS)). However, primary seed dispersal by zoochory can promote effective dispersal, increasing the mixing of seeds and influencing SGS within plant populations. In this study, we investigated the effects of seed dispersal by rotational sheep grazing on the strength of SGS and genetic diversity using 11 nuclear microsatellites for 49 populations of the calcareous grassland forb Dianthus carthusianorum. Populations connected by rotational sheep grazing showed significantly weaker SGS and higher genetic diversity than populations in ungrazed grasslands. Independent of grazing treatment, small populations showed significantly stronger SGS and lower genetic diversity than larger populations, likely due to genetic drift. A lack of significant differences in the strength of SGS and genetic diversity between populations that were recently colonized and pre-existing populations suggested that populations colonized after the reintroduction of rotational sheep grazing were likely founded by colonists from diverse source populations. We conclude that dispersal by rotational sheep grazing has the potential to considerably reduce SGS within D. carthusianorum populations. Our study highlights the effectiveness of landscape management by rotational sheep grazing to importantly reduce genetic structure at local scales within restored plant populations.

Indoor Spatial Updating with Reduced Visual Information.

Science.gov (United States)

Legge, Gordon E; Gage, Rachel; Baek, Yihwa; Bochsler, Tiana M

2016-01-01

Spatial updating refers to the ability to keep track of position and orientation while moving through an environment. People with impaired vision may be less accurate in spatial updating with adverse consequences for indoor navigation. In this study, we asked how artificial restrictions on visual acuity and field size affect spatial updating, and also judgments of the size of rooms. Normally sighted young adults were tested with artificial restriction of acuity in Mild Blur (Snellen 20/135) and Severe Blur (Snellen 20/900) conditions, and a Narrow Field (8°) condition. The subjects estimated the dimensions of seven rectangular rooms with and without these visual restrictions. They were also guided along three-segment paths in the rooms. At the end of each path, they were asked to estimate the distance and direction to the starting location. In Experiment 1, the subjects walked along the path. In Experiment 2, they were pushed in a wheelchair to determine if reduced proprioceptive input would result in poorer spatial updating. With unrestricted vision, mean Weber fractions for room-size estimates were near 20%. Severe Blur but not Mild Blur yielded larger errors in room-size judgments. The Narrow Field was associated with increased error, but less than with Severe Blur. There was no effect of visual restriction on estimates of distance back to the starting location, and only Severe Blur yielded larger errors in the direction estimates. Contrary to expectation, the wheelchair subjects did not exhibit poorer updating performance than the walking subjects, nor did they show greater dependence on visual condition. If our results generalize to people with low vision, severe deficits in acuity or field will adversely affect the ability to judge the size of indoor spaces, but updating of position and orientation may be less affected by visual impairment.

Indoor Spatial Updating with Reduced Visual Information.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gordon E Legge

Full Text Available Spatial updating refers to the ability to keep track of position and orientation while moving through an environment. People with impaired vision may be less accurate in spatial updating with adverse consequences for indoor navigation. In this study, we asked how artificial restrictions on visual acuity and field size affect spatial updating, and also judgments of the size of rooms.Normally sighted young adults were tested with artificial restriction of acuity in Mild Blur (Snellen 20/135 and Severe Blur (Snellen 20/900 conditions, and a Narrow Field (8° condition. The subjects estimated the dimensions of seven rectangular rooms with and without these visual restrictions. They were also guided along three-segment paths in the rooms. At the end of each path, they were asked to estimate the distance and direction to the starting location. In Experiment 1, the subjects walked along the path. In Experiment 2, they were pushed in a wheelchair to determine if reduced proprioceptive input would result in poorer spatial updating.With unrestricted vision, mean Weber fractions for room-size estimates were near 20%. Severe Blur but not Mild Blur yielded larger errors in room-size judgments. The Narrow Field was associated with increased error, but less than with Severe Blur. There was no effect of visual restriction on estimates of distance back to the starting location, and only Severe Blur yielded larger errors in the direction estimates. Contrary to expectation, the wheelchair subjects did not exhibit poorer updating performance than the walking subjects, nor did they show greater dependence on visual condition.If our results generalize to people with low vision, severe deficits in acuity or field will adversely affect the ability to judge the size of indoor spaces, but updating of position and orientation may be less affected by visual impairment.

The watercolor illusion and neon color spreading: a unified analysis of new cases and neural mechanisms

Science.gov (United States)

Pinna, Baingio; Grossberg, Stephen

2005-10-01

Coloration and figural properties of neon color spreading and the watercolor illusion are studied using phenomenal and psychophysical observations. Coloration properties of both effects can be reduced to a common limiting condition, a nearby color transition called the two-dot limiting case, which clarifies their perceptual similarities and dissimilarities. The results are explained by the FACADE neural model of biological vision. The model proposes how local properties of color transitions activate spatial competition among nearby perceptual boundaries, with boundaries of lower-contrast edges weakened by competition more than boundaries of higher-contrast edges. This asymmetry induces spreading of more color across these boundaries than conversely. The model also predicts how depth and figure-ground effects are generated in these illusions.

Measurement of nanoscale molten polymer droplet spreading using atomic force microscopy

Science.gov (United States)

Soleymaniha, Mohammadreza; Felts, Jonathan R.

2018-03-01

We present a technique for measuring molten polymer spreading dynamics with nanometer scale spatial resolution at elevated temperatures using atomic force microscopy (AFM). The experimental setup is used to measure the spreading dynamics of polystyrene droplets with 2 μm diameters at 115-175 °C on sapphire, silicon oxide, and mica. Custom image processing algorithms determine the droplet height, radius, volume, and contact angle of each AFM image over time to calculate the droplet spreading dynamics. The contact angle evolution follows a power law with time with experimentally determined values of -0.29 ± 0.01, -0.08 ± 0.02, and -0.21 ± 0.01 for sapphire, silicon oxide, and mica, respectively. The non-zero steady state contact angles result in a slower evolution of contact angle with time consistent with theories combining molecular kinetic and hydrodynamic models. Monitoring the cantilever phase provides additional information about the local mechanics of the droplet surface. We observe local crystallinity on the molten droplet surface, where crystalline structures appear to nucleate at the contact line and migrate toward the top of the droplet. Increasing the temperature from 115 °C to 175 °C reduced surface crystallinity from 35% to 12%, consistent with increasingly energetically favorable amorphous phase as the temperature approaches the melting temperature. This platform provides a way to measure spreading dynamics of extremely small volumes of heterogeneously complex fluids not possible through other means.

Measuring landscape-scale spread and persistence of an invaded submerged plant community from airborne remote sensing.

Science.gov (United States)

Santos, Maria J; Khanna, Shruti; Hestir, Erin L; Greenberg, Jonathan A; Ustin, Susan L

2016-09-01

Processes of spread and patterns of persistence of invasive species affect species and communities in the new environment. Predicting future rates of spread is of great interest for timely management decisions, but this depends on models that rely on understanding the processes of invasion and historic observations of spread and persistence. Unfortunately, the rates of spread and patterns of persistence are difficult to model or directly observe, especially when multiple rates of spread and diverse persistence patterns may be co-occurring over the geographic distribution of the invaded ecosystem. Remote sensing systematically acquires data over large areas at fine spatial and spectral resolutions over multiple time periods that can be used to quantify spread processes and persistence patterns. We used airborne imaging spectroscopy data acquired once a year for 5 years from 2004 to 2008 to map an invaded submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) community across 2220 km 2 of waterways in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, California, USA, and measured its spread rate and its persistence. Submerged aquatic vegetation covered 13-23 km 2 of the waterways (6-11%) every year. Yearly new growth accounted for 40-60% of the SAV area, ~50% of which survived to following year. Spread rates were overall negative and persistence decreased with time. From this dataset, we were able to identify both radial and saltatorial spread of the invaded SAV in the entire extent of the Delta over time. With both decreasing spread rate and persistence, it is possible that over time the invasion of this SAV community could decrease its ecological impact. A landscape-scale approach allows measurements of all invasion fronts and the spatial anisotropies associated with spread processes and persistence patterns, without spatial interpolation, at locations both proximate and distant to the focus of invasion at multiple points in time. © 2016 by the Ecological Society of America.

Mobile agents affect worm spreading in wireless ad hoc networks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huang, Zi-Gang; Sun, Jin-Tu; Wang, Ying-Hai; Wang, Sheng-Jun; Xu, Xin-Jian

2009-01-01

Considering the dynamic nature of portable computing devices with wireless communication capability, an extended model is introduced for worm spreading in the wireless ad hoc network, with a population of mobile agents in a planar distribution, starting from an initial infected seed. The effect of agents' mobility on worm spreading is investigated via extensive Monte Carlo simulations. The threshold behavior and the dynamics of worm epidemics in the wireless networks are greatly affected by both agents' mobility and spatial and temporal correlations. The medium access control mechanism for the wireless communication promotes the sensitivity of the spreading dynamics to agents' mobility

Short range spread-spectrum radiolocation system and method

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Stephen F.

2003-04-29

A short range radiolocation system and associated methods that allow the location of an item, such as equipment, containers, pallets, vehicles, or personnel, within a defined area. A small, battery powered, self-contained tag is provided to an item to be located. The tag includes a spread-spectrum transmitter that transmits a spread-spectrum code and identification information. A plurality of receivers positioned about the area receive signals from a transmitting tag. The position of the tag, and hence the item, is located by triangulation. The system employs three different ranging techniques for providing coarse, intermediate, and fine spatial position resolution. Coarse positioning information is provided by use of direct-sequence code phase transmitted as a spread-spectrum signal. Intermediate positioning information is provided by the use of a difference signal transmitted with the direct-sequence spread-spectrum code. Fine positioning information is provided by use of carrier phase measurements. An algorithm is employed to combine the three data sets to provide accurate location measurements.

Zeno dynamics in wave-packet diffraction spreading

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Porras, Miguel A. [Departamento de Fisica Aplicada, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Rios Rosas 21, ES-28003 Madrid (Spain); Luis, Alfredo; Gonzalo, Isabel [Departamento de Optica, Facultad de Ciencias Fisicas, Universidad Complutense, ES-28040 Madrid (Spain); Sanz, Angel S. [Instituto de Fisica Fundamental-CSIC, Serrano 123, ES-28006 Madrid (Spain)

2011-11-15

We analyze a simple and feasible practical scheme displaying Zeno, anti-Zeno, and inverse-Zeno effects in the observation of wave-packet spreading caused by free evolution. The scheme is valid both in spatial diffraction of classical optical waves and in time diffraction of a quantum wave packet. In the optical realization, diffraction spreading is observed by placing slits between a light source and a light-power detector. We show that the occurrence of Zeno or anti-Zeno effects depends just on the frequency of observations between the source and detector. These effects are seen to be related to the diffraction mode theory in Fabry-Perot resonators.

Wave-like spread of Ebola Zaire.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

2005-11-01

Full Text Available In the past decade the Zaire strain of Ebola virus (ZEBOV has emerged repeatedly into human populations in central Africa and caused massive die-offs of gorillas and chimpanzees. We tested the view that emergence events are independent and caused by ZEBOV variants that have been long resident at each locality. Phylogenetic analyses place the earliest known outbreak at Yambuku, Democratic Republic of Congo, very near to the root of the ZEBOV tree, suggesting that viruses causing all other known outbreaks evolved from a Yambuku-like virus after 1976. The tendency for earlier outbreaks to be directly ancestral to later outbreaks suggests that outbreaks are epidemiologically linked and may have occurred at the front of an advancing wave. While the ladder-like phylogenetic structure could also bear the signature of positive selection, our statistical power is too weak to reach a conclusion in this regard. Distances among outbreaks indicate a spread rate of about 50 km per year that remains consistent across spatial scales. Viral evolution is clocklike, and sequences show a high level of small-scale spatial structure. Genetic similarity decays with distance at roughly the same rate at all spatial scales. Our analyses suggest that ZEBOV has recently spread across the region rather than being long persistent at each outbreak locality. Controlling the impact of Ebola on wild apes and human populations may be more feasible than previously recognized.

A system for measuring the energy spread of an accelerated beam

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wilkerson, J.F.; Ludwig, E.J.; Clegg, T.B.; Anderson, R.E.

1987-01-01

A system has been implemented to monitor directly the energy spread of analyzed beams from a tandem electrostatic accelerator. The dispersion of a deflection magnet in the beam handling system is used to transform the energy distribution into a spatial distribution, which then is measured by electrostatically sweeping the spatially extended beam across a narrow slit. (orig.)

Reduced dielectric response in spatially varying electric fields

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Jesper Schmidt

2015-01-01

relations between the flux and the gradient of the polarization. Comparison between the theory and molecular dynamics simulations confirms this effect. The effect is significant for small length scale electric field variations and the inclusion of the flux is thus important in nanoscale modeling......In this paper, the dynamical equation for polarization is derived. From this the dielectric response to a spatially varying electric field is analyzed showing a reduced response due to flux of polarization in the material. This flux is modeled as a diffusive process through linear constitutive...

Spatial distribution of emissions to air – the SPREAD model

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Plejdrup, Marlene Schmidt; Gyldenkærne, Steen

The National Environmental Research Institute (NERI), Aarhus University, completes the annual national emission inventories for greenhouse gases and air pollutants according to Denmark’s obligations under international conventions, e.g. the climate convention, UNFCCC and the convention on long...... quality modelling in exposure studies. SPREAD includes emission distributions for each sector in the Danish inventory system; stationary combustion, mobile sources, fugitive emissions from fuels, industrial processes, solvents and other product use, agriculture and waste. This model enables generation...

An agent-based computational model of the spread of tuberculosis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

De Espíndola, Aquino L; Bauch, Chris T; Troca Cabella, Brenno C; Martinez, Alexandre Souto

2011-01-01

In this work we propose an alternative model of the spread of tuberculosis (TB) and the emergence of drug resistance due to the treatment with antibiotics. We implement the simulations by an agent-based model computational approach where the spatial structure is taken into account. The spread of tuberculosis occurs according to probabilities defined by the interactions among individuals. The model was validated by reproducing results already known from the literature in which different treatment regimes yield the emergence of drug resistance. The different patterns of TB spread can be visualized at any time of the system evolution. The implementation details as well as some results of this alternative approach are discussed

Audiotactile integration is reduced in congenital blindness in a spatial ventriloquism task.

Science.gov (United States)

Occelli, Valeria; Bruns, Patrick; Zampini, Massimiliano; Röder, Brigitte

2012-01-01

In the ventriloquism effect, the presentation of spatially discrepant visual information biases the localization of simultaneously presented sounds. Recently, an analogous spatial influence of touch on audition has been observed. By manipulating hand posture, it has been demonstrated that this audiotactile ventriloquist effect predominantly operates in an external frame of reference. In the present study, we examined the contribution of developmental vision to audiotactile interactions as indicated by the ventriloquism effect. Congenitally blind, late blind and sighted adults were asked to report the perceived location of sounds presented from a left, a central or a right location. Auditory stimuli were either delivered alone or concurrently with touches at the left or the right hand. The hands were located to the right and to the left of the lateral speakers and participants either adopted an uncrossed or a crossed hand posture. While sighted controls and late blind participants similarly mislocalized auditory stimuli toward the concurrent tactile stimuli in bimodal trials, the congenitally blind showed a reduced ventriloquism effect. All groups showed a reduced audiotactile ventriloquism effect in the crossed hand condition. However, the magnitude of the reduction was significantly larger in the group of congenitally blind than in the group of sighted controls. These results suggest reduced audio-tactile interactions in spatial processing following a lack of visual input from birth. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Improving beam spectral and spatial quality by double-foil target in laser ion acceleration for ion-driven fast ignition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huang, Chenkun; Albright, Brian J.

2010-01-01

Mid-Z ion driven fast ignition inertial fusion requires ion beams of 100s of MeV energy and < 10% energy spread. An overdense run-scale foil target driven by a high intensity laser pulse can produce an ion beam that has attractive properties for this application. The Break Out Afterburner (BOA) is one laser-ion acceleration mechanism proposed to generate such beams, however the late stages of the BOA tend to produce too large of an energy spread. The spectral and spatial qualities of the beam quickly evolve as the ion beam and co-moving electrons continue to interact with the laser. Here we show how use of a second target foil placed behind a nm-scale foil can substantially reduce the temperature of the co-moving electrons and improve the ion beam energy spread. Particle-In-Cell simulations reveal the dynamics of the ion beam under control. Optimal conditions for improving the spectral and spatial spread of the ion beam is explored for current laser and target parameters, leading to generation of ion beams of energy 100s of MeV and 6% energy spread, a vital step for realizing ion-driven fast ignition.

Drop Spreading with Random Viscosity

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Feng; Jensen, Oliver

2016-11-01

Airway mucus acts as a barrier to protect the lung. However as a biological material, its physical properties are known imperfectly and can be spatially heterogeneous. In this study we assess the impact of these uncertainties on the rate of spreading of a drop (representing an inhaled aerosol) over a mucus film. We model the film as Newtonian, having a viscosity that depends linearly on the concentration of a passive solute (a crude proxy for mucin proteins). Given an initial random solute (and hence viscosity) distribution, described as a Gaussian random field with a given correlation structure, we seek to quantify the uncertainties in outcomes as the drop spreads. Using lubrication theory, we describe the spreading of the drop in terms of a system of coupled nonlinear PDEs governing the evolution of film height and the vertically-averaged solute concentration. We perform Monte Carlo simulations to predict the variability in the drop centre location and width (1D) or area (2D). We show how simulation results are well described (at much lower computational cost) by a low-order model using a weak disorder expansion. Our results show for example how variability in the drop location is a non-monotonic function of the solute correlation length increases. Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

Spatial waves of advance with bistable dynamics: cytoplasmic and genetic analogues of Allee effects.

Science.gov (United States)

Barton, N H; Turelli, Michael

2011-09-01

Unlike unconditionally advantageous "Fisherian" variants that tend to spread throughout a species range once introduced anywhere, "bistable" variants, such as chromosome translocations, have two alternative stable frequencies, absence and (near) fixation. Analogous to populations with Allee effects, bistable variants tend to increase locally only once they become sufficiently common, and their spread depends on their rate of increase averaged over all frequencies. Several proposed manipulations of insect populations, such as using Wolbachia or "engineered underdominance" to suppress vector-borne diseases, produce bistable rather than Fisherian dynamics. We synthesize and extend theoretical analyses concerning three features of their spatial behavior: rate of spread, conditions to initiate spread from a localized introduction, and wave stopping caused by variation in population densities or dispersal rates. Unlike Fisherian variants, bistable variants tend to spread spatially only for particular parameter combinations and initial conditions. Wave initiation requires introduction over an extended region, while subsequent spatial spread is slower than for Fisherian waves and can easily be halted by local spatial inhomogeneities. We present several new results, including robust sufficient conditions to initiate (and stop) spread, using a one-parameter cubic approximation applicable to several models. The results have both basic and applied implications.

Metofluthrin: investigations into the use of a volatile spatial pyrethroid in a global spread of dengue, chikungunya and Zika viruses

OpenAIRE

Buhagiar, Tamara S.; Devine, Gregor J.; Ritchie, Scott A.

2017-01-01

Background Metofluthrin reduces biting activity in Aedes aegypti through the confusion, knockdown, and subsequent kill of a mosquito. A geographical spread in dengue, chikungunya, and Zika viruses, increases intervention demands. Response to a Zika outbreak may require a different strategy than dengue, as high-risk individuals, specifically pregnant women, need to be targeted. Methods In semi-field conditions within a residential property in Cairns, Queensland, the impacts of metofluthrin on ...

Zinc deficiency with reduced mastication impairs spatial memory in young adult mice.

Science.gov (United States)

Kida, Kumiko; Tsuji, Tadataka; Tanaka, Susumu; Kogo, Mikihiko

2015-12-01

Sufficient oral microelements such as zinc and fully chewing of foods are required to maintain cognitive function despite aging. No knowledge exists about the combination of factors such as zinc deficiency and reduced mastication on learning and memory. Here we show that tooth extraction only in 8-week-old mice did not change the density of glial fibrillary acidic protein-labeled astrocytes in the hippocampus or spatial memory parameters. However, tooth extraction followed by zinc deprivation strongly impaired spatial memory and led to an increase in astrocytic density in the hippocampal CA1 region. The impaired spatial performance in the zinc-deficient only (ZD) mice also coincided well with the increase in the astrocytic density in the hippocampal CA1 region. After switching both zinc-deficient groups to a normal diet with sufficient zinc, spatial memory recovered, and more time was spent in the quadrant with the goal in the probe test in the mice with tooth extraction followed by zinc deprivation (EZD) compared to the ZD mice. Interestingly, we found no differences in astrocytic density in the CA1 region among all groups at 22 weeks of age. Furthermore, the escape latency in a visible probe test at all times was longer in zinc-deficient groups than the others and demonstrated a negative correlation with body weight. No significant differences in escape latency were observed in the visible probe test among the ZD, EZD, and normal-fed control at 4 weeks (CT4w) groups in which body weight was standardized to that of the EZD group, or in the daily reduction in latency between the normal-fed control and CT4w groups. Our data showed that zinc-deficient feeding during a young age impairs spatial memory performance and leads to an increase in astrocytic density in the hippocampal CA1 region and that zinc-sufficient feeding is followed by recovery of the impaired spatial memory along with changes in astrocytic density. The combination of the two factors, zinc deficiency

Energy spread in SLC linac with Landau damping

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Seeman, J.

1984-01-01

The possibility of using Landau damping to reduce the growth of the beam size due to transverse wake fields has been known for some time. Recently K. Bane has calculated the effects of Landau damping for the SLC. The energy spread is then slowly removed so that at the end of the linac it has returned to the SLC specification of less than +0.5%. The purpose of the energy spread is to reduce the resonant driving of the tail of the bunch by the head. In this note the expected energy spreads within the beam are tabulated at various positions along the linac for use by those people designing momentum dependent equipment and for those interested in Landau damping

Assimilative and non-assimilative color spreading in the watercolor configuration

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eiji eKimura

2014-09-01

Full Text Available A colored line flanking a darker contour will appear to spread its color onto an area enclosed by the line (watercolor effect. The watercolor effect has been characterized as an assimilative effect, but non-assimilative color spreading has also been demonstrated in the same spatial configuration; e.g., when a black inner contour (IC is paired with a blue outer contour (OC, yellow color spreading can be observed. To elucidate visual mechanisms underlying these different color spreading effects, this study investigated the effects of luminance ratio between the double contours on the induced color by systematically manipulating the IC and OC luminances (Experiment 1 as well as the background luminance (Experiment 2. The results showed that the luminance conditions suitable for assimilative and non-assimilative color spreading were nearly opposite. When the Weber contrast of the IC to the background luminances (IC contrast was smaller than that of the OC (OC contrast, the induced color became similar to the IC color (assimilative spreading. In contrast, when the OC contrast was smaller than or equal to the IC contrast, the induced color became yellow (non-assimilative spreading. Extending these findings, Experiment 3 showed that bilateral color spreading, e.g., assimilative spreading on one side and non-assimilative spreading on the other side, can also be observed in the watercolor configuration. These results suggest that the assimilative and non-assimilative spreading were mediated by different visual mechanisms. The properties of the assimilative spreading are consistent with the model proposed to account for neon color spreading [Grossberg, S. & Mingolla, E. (1985 Percept. Psychophys., 38, 141-171] and extended for the watercolor effect [Pinna, B., & Grossberg, S. (2005 J. Opt. Soc. Am. A, 22, 2207-2221]. However, the present results suggest that additional mechanisms are needed to account for the non-assimilative color spreading.

Assimilative and non-assimilative color spreading in the watercolor configuration.

Science.gov (United States)

Kimura, Eiji; Kuroki, Mikako

2014-01-01

A colored line flanking a darker contour will appear to spread its color onto an area enclosed by the line (watercolor effect). The watercolor effect has been characterized as an assimilative effect, but non-assimilative color spreading has also been demonstrated in the same spatial configuration; e.g., when a black inner contour (IC) is paired with a blue outer contour (OC), yellow color spreading can be observed. To elucidate visual mechanisms underlying these different color spreading effects, this study investigated the effects of luminance ratio between the double contours on the induced color by systematically manipulating the IC and the OC luminance (Experiment 1) as well as the background luminance (Experiment 2). The results showed that the luminance conditions suitable for assimilative and non-assimilative color spreading were nearly opposite. When the Weber contrast of the IC to the background luminance (IC contrast) was smaller in size than that of the OC (OC contrast), the induced color became similar to the IC color (assimilative spreading). In contrast, when the OC contrast was smaller than or equal to the IC contrast, the induced color became yellow (non-assimilative spreading). Extending these findings, Experiment 3 showed that bilateral color spreading, i.e., assimilative spreading on one side and non-assimilative spreading on the other side, can also be observed in the watercolor configuration. These results suggest that the assimilative and the non-assimilative spreading were mediated by different visual mechanisms. The properties of the assimilative spreading are consistent with the model proposed to account for neon color spreading (Grossberg and Mingolla, 1985) and extended for the watercolor effect (Pinna and Grossberg, 2005). However, the present results suggest that additional mechanisms are needed to account for the non-assimilative color spreading.

Ripple-Spreading Network Model Optimization by Genetic Algorithm

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiao-Bing Hu

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Small-world and scale-free properties are widely acknowledged in many real-world complex network systems, and many network models have been developed to capture these network properties. The ripple-spreading network model (RSNM is a newly reported complex network model, which is inspired by the natural ripple-spreading phenomenon on clam water surface. The RSNM exhibits good potential for describing both spatial and temporal features in the development of many real-world networks where the influence of a few local events spreads out through nodes and then largely determines the final network topology. However, the relationships between ripple-spreading related parameters (RSRPs of RSNM and small-world and scale-free topologies are not as obvious or straightforward as in many other network models. This paper attempts to apply genetic algorithm (GA to tune the values of RSRPs, so that the RSNM may generate these two most important network topologies. The study demonstrates that, once RSRPs are properly tuned by GA, the RSNM is capable of generating both network topologies and therefore has a great flexibility to study many real-world complex network systems.

Virulence evolution at the front line of spreading epidemics.

Science.gov (United States)

Griette, Quentin; Raoul, Gaël; Gandon, Sylvain

2015-11-01

Understanding and predicting the spatial spread of emerging pathogens is a major challenge for the public health management of infectious diseases. Theoretical epidemiology shows that the speed of an epidemic is governed by the life-history characteristics of the pathogen and its ability to disperse. Rapid evolution of these traits during the invasion may thus affect the speed of epidemics. Here we study the influence of virulence evolution on the spatial spread of an epidemic. At the edge of the invasion front, we show that more virulent and transmissible genotypes are expected to win the competition with other pathogens. Behind the front line, however, more prudent exploitation strategies outcompete virulent pathogens. Crucially, even when the presence of the virulent mutant is limited to the edge of the front, the invasion speed can be dramatically altered by pathogen evolution. We support our analysis with individual-based simulations and we discuss the additional effects of demographic stochasticity taking place at the front line on virulence evolution. We confirm that an increase of virulence can occur at the front, but only if the carrying capacity of the invading pathogen is large enough. These results are discussed in the light of recent empirical studies examining virulence evolution at the edge of spreading epidemics. © 2015 The Author(s). Evolution © 2015 The Society for the Study of Evolution.

Recent developments in spatial analysis spatial statistics, behavioural modelling, and computational intelligence

CERN Document Server

Getis, Arthur

1997-01-01

In recent years, spatial analysis has become an increasingly active field, as evidenced by the establishment of educational and research programs at many universities. Its popularity is due mainly to new technologies and the development of spatial data infrastructures. This book illustrates some recent developments in spatial analysis, behavioural modelling, and computational intelligence. World renown spatial analysts explain and demonstrate their new and insightful models and methods. The applications are in areas of societal interest such as the spread of infectious diseases, migration behaviour, and retail and agricultural location strategies. In addition, there is emphasis on the uses of new technologoies for the analysis of spatial data through the application of neural network concepts.

Rumor Spreading Model with Trust Mechanism in Complex Social Networks

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Ya-Qi; Yang, Xiao-Yuan; Han, Yi-Liang; Wang, Xu-An

2013-04-01

In this paper, to study rumor spreading, we propose a novel susceptible-infected-removed (SIR) model by introducing the trust mechanism. We derive mean-field equations that describe the dynamics of the SIR model on homogeneous networks and inhomogeneous networks. Then a steady-state analysis is conducted to investigate the critical threshold and the final size of the rumor spreading. We show that the introduction of trust mechanism reduces the final rumor size and the velocity of rumor spreading, but increases the critical thresholds on both networks. Moreover, the trust mechanism not only greatly reduces the maximum rumor influence, but also postpones the rumor terminal time, which provides us with more time to take measures to control the rumor spreading. The theoretical results are confirmed by sufficient numerical simulations.

Spatially differentiated strategies for reducing nitrate loads from agriculture in two Danish catchments

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hashemi, Fatemeh; Olesen, Jørgen Eivind; Hansen, Anne Lausten

2018-01-01

Nutrient loss from agriculture is the largest source of diffuse water pollution in Denmark. To reduce nutrient loads a number of solutions have been implemented, but this has been insufficient to achieve the environmental objectives without unacceptable repercussions for agricultural production...... reducing the source loading or enhancing the natural reduction (denitrification) of N after it is leached from the root zone of agricultural crops. In this study, a new method of spatially differentiated analysis for two Danish catchments (Odense and Norsminde) was conducted that reach across...... the individual farms to achieve selected N-load reduction targets. It includes application of cover crops within current crop rotations, set-a-side application on high N-load areas, and changes in agricultural management based on maps of N-reduction available for two different spatial scales, considering soil...

Ecological multiplex interactions determine the role of species for parasite spread amplification.

Science.gov (United States)

Stella, Massimo; Selakovic, Sanja; Antonioni, Alberto; Andreazzi, Cecilia

2018-04-23

Despite their potential interplay, multiple routes of many disease transmissions are often investigated separately. As an unifying framework for understanding parasite spread through interdependent transmission paths, we present the 'ecomultiplex' model, where the multiple transmission paths among a diverse community of interacting hosts are represented as a spatially explicit multiplex network. We adopt this framework for designing and testing potential control strategies for T. cruzi spread in two empirical host communities. We show that the ecomultiplex model is an efficient and low data-demanding method to identify which species enhances parasite spread and should thus be a target for control strategies. We also find that the interplay between predator-prey and host-parasite interactions leads to a phenomenon of parasite amplification, in which top predators facilitate T. cruzi spread, offering a mechanistic interpretation of previous empirical findings. Our approach can provide novel insights in understanding and controlling parasite spreading in real-world complex systems. © 2018, Stella et al.

Rumor Spreading Model with Trust Mechanism in Complex Social Networks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Ya-Qi; Yang Xiao-Yuan; Han Yi-Liang; Wang Xu-An

2013-01-01

In this paper, to study rumor spreading, we propose a novel susceptible-infected-removed (SIR) model by introducing the trust mechanism. We derive mean-field equations that describe the dynamics of the SIR model on homogeneous networks and inhomogeneous networks. Then a steady-state analysis is conducted to investigate the critical threshold and the final size of the rumor spreading. We show that the introduction of trust mechanism reduces the final rumor size and the velocity of rumor spreading, but increases the critical thresholds on both networks. Moreover, the trust mechanism not only greatly reduces the maximum rumor influence, but also postpones the rumor terminal time, which provides us with more time to take measures to control the rumor spreading. The theoretical results are confirmed by sufficient numerical simulations. (interdisciplinary physics and related areas of science and technology)

Soil nitrate reducing processes - drivers, mechanisms for spatial variation, and significance for nitrous oxide production.

Science.gov (United States)

Giles, Madeline; Morley, Nicholas; Baggs, Elizabeth M; Daniell, Tim J

2012-01-01

The microbial processes of denitrification and dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA) are two important nitrate reducing mechanisms in soil, which are responsible for the loss of nitrate ([Formula: see text]) and production of the potent greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide (N(2)O). A number of factors are known to control these processes, including O(2) concentrations and moisture content, N, C, pH, and the size and community structure of nitrate reducing organisms responsible for the processes. There is an increasing understanding associated with many of these controls on flux through the nitrogen cycle in soil systems. However, there remains uncertainty about how the nitrate reducing communities are linked to environmental variables and the flux of products from these processes. The high spatial variability of environmental controls and microbial communities across small sub centimeter areas of soil may prove to be critical in determining why an understanding of the links between biotic and abiotic controls has proved elusive. This spatial effect is often overlooked as a driver of nitrate reducing processes. An increased knowledge of the effects of spatial heterogeneity in soil on nitrate reduction processes will be fundamental in understanding the drivers, location, and potential for N(2)O production from soils.

On Angular Sampling Methods for 3-D Spatial Channel Models

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fan, Wei; Jämsä, Tommi; Nielsen, Jesper Ødum

2015-01-01

This paper discusses generating three dimensional (3D) spatial channel models with emphasis on the angular sampling methods. Three angular sampling methods, i.e. modified uniform power sampling, modified uniform angular sampling, and random pairing methods are proposed and investigated in detail....... The random pairing method, which uses only twenty sinusoids in the ray-based model for generating the channels, presents good results if the spatial channel cluster is with a small elevation angle spread. For spatial clusters with large elevation angle spreads, however, the random pairing method would fail...... and the other two methods should be considered....

SEBARAN ASPEK KERUANGAN TIPE LONGSORAN DI DAERAH ALIRAN SUNGAI ALO PROVINSI GORONTALO (Spread of Spatial Aspect of Landslide Types at Alo Watershed in Gorontalo Province

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fitryane Lihawa

2015-01-01

Full Text Available ABSTRAK Sebaran aspek keruangan tipe longsoran di DAS Alo Provinsi Gorontalo telah dikaji dan dievaluasi menggunakan bentuk Peta Sebaran Tipe Longsoran Skala 1 : 50.000. Lokasi penelitian ini meliputi seluruh wilayah DAS Alo Provinsi Gorontalo dengan luas 7.588 Ha. Penentuan sampel penelitian dilakukan secara Accidental Sampling yaitu dengan melakukan penelusuran di seluruh wilayah yang rawan longsor di DAS Alo untuk menemukan titik-titik kejadian longsoran. Dalam pengkajian tipe dan sebaran longsoran, dilakukan pengamatan dan pengukuran terhadap kejadian longsoran yang terjadi pada seluruh wilayah DAS Alo yaitu sejumlah 15 (lima belas titik kejadian longsoran.  Tipe longsoran ditentukan melalui pengukuran dan pengamatan morfometri longsoran untuk menentukan indeks klasifikasi longsoran dan hasil analisis tersebut di plot ke dalam Peta Lokasi Sebaran Tipe Longsoran Skala 1 : 50.000 untuk mengetahui sebaran keruangan dari kejadian longsoran di DAS Alo Provinsi Gorontalo. Berdasarkan analisis morfometri dan indeks klasifikasi longsoran menunjukkan bahwa tipe longsoran yang terjadi adalah rotational slide, planar slide, slide flow dan rock block slide. Kejadian longsoran yang terjadi di DAS Alo Provinsi Gorontalo tersebar pada wilayah dengan kemiringan lereng curam dan sangat curam dengan bentuk permukaan lereng cembung dan cenderung lurus. Kejadian longsoran juga terjadi pada wilayah dengan tekstur tanah lempung dan lempung berlanau, serta jenis batuan vulkanik dan batuan beku yang mengandung silika tinggi dan telah mengalami pelapukan. Berdasarkan wilayah  administrasi, kejadian longsoran tersebar di wilayah Kecamatan Tibawa, Kecamatan Pulubala dan Kecamatan Isimu Utara.    ABSTRACT Distribution of spatial aspect of landslide at ALO Watershed of Gorontalo Province has been studied by providing it through form of spread landslide maps at scale of 1 : 50.000. Research site involved all areas of ALO Watershed in Gorontalo Province as having an

Indoor Spatial Updating with Reduced Visual Information

OpenAIRE

Legge, Gordon E.; Gage, Rachel; Baek, Yihwa; Bochsler, Tiana M.

2016-01-01

Purpose Spatial updating refers to the ability to keep track of position and orientation while moving through an environment. People with impaired vision may be less accurate in spatial updating with adverse consequences for indoor navigation. In this study, we asked how artificial restrictions on visual acuity and field size affect spatial updating, and also judgments of the size of rooms. Methods Normally sighted young adults were tested with artificial restriction of acuity in Mild Blur (S...

Positive Analysis of Invasive Species Control as a Dynamic Spatial Process

OpenAIRE

Buyuktahtakin, Esra; Feng, Zhuo; Olsson, Aaryn; Frisvold, George B.; Szidarovszky, Ferenc

2010-01-01

This paper models control of invasive buffelgrass (Pennisetum ciliare), a fire-prone African bunchgrass spreading rapidly across the southern Arizona desert as a spatial dynamic process. Buffelgrass spreads over a gridded landscape. Weed carrying capacity, treatment costs, and damages vary over grid cells. Damage from buffelgrass depends on its spatial distribution in relation to valued resources. We conduct positive analysis of recommended heuristic strategies for buffelgrass control, evalua...

Identifying the Threshold of Dominant Controls on Fire Spread in a Boreal Forest Landscape of Northeast China

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Zhihua; Yang, Jian; He, Hong S.

2013-01-01

The relative importance of fuel, topography, and weather on fire spread varies at different spatial scales, but how the relative importance of these controls respond to changing spatial scales is poorly understood. We designed a “moving window” resampling technique that allowed us to quantify the relative importance of controls on fire spread at continuous spatial scales using boosted regression trees methods. This quantification allowed us to identify the threshold value for fire size at which the dominant control switches from fuel at small sizes to weather at large sizes. Topography had a fluctuating effect on fire spread across the spatial scales, explaining 20–30% of relative importance. With increasing fire size, the dominant control switched from bottom-up controls (fuel and topography) to top-down controls (weather). Our analysis suggested that there is a threshold for fire size, above which fires are driven primarily by weather and more likely lead to larger fire size. We suggest that this threshold, which may be ecosystem-specific, can be identified using our “moving window” resampling technique. Although the threshold derived from this analytical method may rely heavily on the sampling technique, our study introduced an easily implemented approach to identify scale thresholds in wildfire regimes. PMID:23383247

Efficient simulation of the spatial transmission dynamics of influenza.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Meng-Tsung Tsai

2010-11-01

Full Text Available Early data from the 2009 H1N1 pandemic (H1N1pdm suggest that previous studies over-estimated the within-country rate of spatial spread of pandemic influenza. As large spatially resolved data sets are constructed, the need for efficient simulation code with which to investigate the spatial patterns of the pandemic becomes clear. Here, we present a significant improvement to the efficiency of an individual-based stochastic disease simulation framework commonly used in multiple previous studies. We quantify the efficiency of the revised algorithm and present an alternative parameterization of the model in terms of the basic reproductive number. We apply the model to the population of Taiwan and demonstrate how the location of the initial seed can influence spatial incidence profiles and the overall spread of the epidemic. Differences in incidence are driven by the relative connectivity of alternate seed locations. The ability to perform efficient simulation allows us to run a batch of simulations and take account of their average in real time. The averaged data are stable and can be used to differentiate spreading patterns that are not readily seen by only conducting a few runs.

Risk maps for the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza in poultry.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gert Jan Boender

2007-04-01

Full Text Available Devastating epidemics of highly contagious animal diseases such as avian influenza, classical swine fever, and foot-and-mouth disease underline the need for improved understanding of the factors promoting the spread of these pathogens. Here the authors present a spatial analysis of the between-farm transmission of a highly pathogenic H7N7 avian influenza virus that caused a large epidemic in The Netherlands in 2003. The authors developed a method to estimate key parameters determining the spread of highly transmissible animal diseases between farms based on outbreak data. The method allows for the identification of high-risk areas for propagating spread in an epidemiologically underpinned manner. A central concept is the transmission kernel, which determines the probability of pathogen transmission from infected to uninfected farms as a function of interfarm distance. The authors show how an estimate of the transmission kernel naturally provides estimates of the critical farm density and local reproduction numbers, which allows one to evaluate the effectiveness of control strategies. For avian influenza, the analyses show that there are two poultry-dense areas in The Netherlands where epidemic spread is possible, and in which local control measures are unlikely to be able to halt an unfolding epidemic. In these regions an epidemic can only be brought to an end by the depletion of susceptible farms by infection or massive culling. The analyses provide an estimate of the spatial range over which highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses spread between farms, and emphasize that control measures aimed at controlling such outbreaks need to take into account the local density of farms.

Potential corridors and barriers for plague spread in central Asia

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-01

Background Plague (Yersinia pestis infection) is a vector-borne disease which caused millions of human deaths in the Middle Ages. The hosts of plague are mostly rodents, and the disease is spread by the fleas that feed on them. Currently, the disease still circulates amongst sylvatic rodent populations all over the world, including great gerbil (Rhombomys opimus) populations in Central Asia. Great gerbils are social desert rodents that live in family groups in burrows, which are visible on satellite images. In great gerbil populations an abundance threshold exists, above which plague can spread causing epizootics. The spatial distribution of the host species is thought to influence the plague dynamics, such as the direction of plague spread, however no detailed analysis exists on the possible functional or structural corridors and barriers that are present in this population and landscape. This study aims to fill that gap. Methods Three 20 by 20 km areas with known great gerbil burrow distributions were used to analyse the spatial distribution of the burrows. Object-based image analysis was used to map the landscape at several scales, and was linked to the burrow maps. A novel object-based method was developed – the mean neighbour absolute burrow density difference (MNABDD) – to identify the optimal scale and evaluate the efficacy of using landscape objects as opposed to square cells. Multiple regression using raster maps was used to identify the landscape-ecological variables that explain burrow density best. Functional corridors and barriers were mapped using burrow density thresholds. Cumulative resistance of the burrow distribution to potential disease spread was evaluated using cost distance analysis. A 46-year plague surveillance dataset was used to evaluate whether plague spread was radially symmetric. Results The burrow distribution was found to be non-random and negatively correlated with Greenness, especially in the floodplain areas. Corridors and

Propagation dynamics for a spatially periodic integrodifference competition model

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Ruiwen; Zhao, Xiao-Qiang

2018-05-01

In this paper, we study the propagation dynamics for a class of integrodifference competition models in a periodic habitat. An interesting feature of such a system is that multiple spreading speeds can be observed, which biologically means different species may have different spreading speeds. We show that the model system admits a single spreading speed, and it coincides with the minimal wave speed of the spatially periodic traveling waves. A set of sufficient conditions for linear determinacy of the spreading speed is also given.

Accounting for spatially heterogeneous conditions in local-scale surveillance strategies: case study of the biosecurity insect pest, grape phylloxera (Daktulosphaira vitifoliae (Fitch)).

Science.gov (United States)

Triska, Maggie D; Powell, Kevin S; Collins, Cassandra; Pearce, Inca; Renton, Michael

2018-04-29

Surveillance strategies are often standardized and completed on grid patterns to detect pest incursions quickly; however, it may be possible to improve surveillance through more targeted surveillance that accounts for landscape heterogeneity, dispersal and the habitat requirements of the invading organism. We simulated pest spread at a local-scale, using grape phylloxera (Daktulosphaira vitifoliae (Fitch)) as a case study, and assessed the influence of incorporating spatial heterogeneity into surveillance strategies compared to current, standard surveillance strategies. Time to detection, spread within and spread beyond the vineyard were reduced by conducting surveys that target sampling effort in soil that is highly suitable to the invading pest in comparison to standard surveillance strategies. However, these outcomes were dependent on the virulence level of phylloxera as phylloxera is a complex pest with multiple genotypes that influence spread and detectability. Targeting surveillance strategies based on local-scale spatial heterogeneity can decrease the time to detection without increasing the survey cost and surveillance that targets highly suitable soil is the most efficient strategy for detecting new incursions. Additionally, combining targeted surveillance strategies with buffer zones and hygiene procedures, and updating surveillance strategies as additional species information becomes available, will further decrease the risk of pest spread. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Reducing Spatial Data Complexity for Classification Models

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ruta, Dymitr; Gabrys, Bogdan

2007-01-01

Intelligent data analytics gradually becomes a day-to-day reality of today's businesses. However, despite rapidly increasing storage and computational power current state-of-the-art predictive models still can not handle massive and noisy corporate data warehouses. What is more adaptive and real-time operational environment requires multiple models to be frequently retrained which further hinders their use. Various data reduction techniques ranging from data sampling up to density retention models attempt to address this challenge by capturing a summarised data structure, yet they either do not account for labelled data or degrade the classification performance of the model trained on the condensed dataset. Our response is a proposition of a new general framework for reducing the complexity of labelled data by means of controlled spatial redistribution of class densities in the input space. On the example of Parzen Labelled Data Compressor (PLDC) we demonstrate a simulatory data condensation process directly inspired by the electrostatic field interaction where the data are moved and merged following the attracting and repelling interactions with the other labelled data. The process is controlled by the class density function built on the original data that acts as a class-sensitive potential field ensuring preservation of the original class density distributions, yet allowing data to rearrange and merge joining together their soft class partitions. As a result we achieved a model that reduces the labelled datasets much further than any competitive approaches yet with the maximum retention of the original class densities and hence the classification performance. PLDC leaves the reduced dataset with the soft accumulative class weights allowing for efficient online updates and as shown in a series of experiments if coupled with Parzen Density Classifier (PDC) significantly outperforms competitive data condensation methods in terms of classification performance at the

Reducing Spatial Data Complexity for Classification Models

Science.gov (United States)

Ruta, Dymitr; Gabrys, Bogdan

2007-11-01

Intelligent data analytics gradually becomes a day-to-day reality of today's businesses. However, despite rapidly increasing storage and computational power current state-of-the-art predictive models still can not handle massive and noisy corporate data warehouses. What is more adaptive and real-time operational environment requires multiple models to be frequently retrained which further hinders their use. Various data reduction techniques ranging from data sampling up to density retention models attempt to address this challenge by capturing a summarised data structure, yet they either do not account for labelled data or degrade the classification performance of the model trained on the condensed dataset. Our response is a proposition of a new general framework for reducing the complexity of labelled data by means of controlled spatial redistribution of class densities in the input space. On the example of Parzen Labelled Data Compressor (PLDC) we demonstrate a simulatory data condensation process directly inspired by the electrostatic field interaction where the data are moved and merged following the attracting and repelling interactions with the other labelled data. The process is controlled by the class density function built on the original data that acts as a class-sensitive potential field ensuring preservation of the original class density distributions, yet allowing data to rearrange and merge joining together their soft class partitions. As a result we achieved a model that reduces the labelled datasets much further than any competitive approaches yet with the maximum retention of the original class densities and hence the classification performance. PLDC leaves the reduced dataset with the soft accumulative class weights allowing for efficient online updates and as shown in a series of experiments if coupled with Parzen Density Classifier (PDC) significantly outperforms competitive data condensation methods in terms of classification performance at the

An Approach to Indexing and Retrieval of Spatial Data with Reduced R+ Tree and K-NN Query Algorithm

OpenAIRE

S. Palaniappan; T.V. Rajinikanth; A. Govardhan

2015-01-01

Recently, “spatial data bases have been extensively adopted in the recent decade and various methods have been presented to store, browse, search and retrieve spatial objects”. In this study, a method is plotted for retrieving nearest neighbors from spatial data indexed by R+ tree. The approach uses a reduced R+tree for the purpose of representing the spatial data. Initially the spatial data is selected and R+tree is constructed accordingly. Then a function called joining nodes is applied to ...

Slip of Spreading Viscoplastic Droplets.

Science.gov (United States)

Jalaal, Maziyar; Balmforth, Neil J; Stoeber, Boris

2015-11-10

The spreading of axisymmetric viscoplastic droplets extruded slowly on glass surfaces is studied experimentally using shadowgraphy and swept-field confocal microscopy. The microscopy furnishes vertical profiles of the radial velocity using particle image velocimetry (PIV) with neutrally buoyant tracers seeded in the fluid. Experiments were conducted for two complex fluids: aqueous solutions of Carbopol and xanthan gum. On untreated glass surfaces, PIV demonstrates that both fluids experience a significant amount of effective slip. The experiments were repeated on glass that had been treated to feature positive surface charges, thereby promoting adhesion between the negatively charged polymeric constituents of the fluids and the glass surface. The Carbopol and xanthan gum droplets spread more slowly on the treated surface and to a smaller radial distance. PIV demonstrated that this reduced spreading was associated with a substantial reduction in slip. For Carbopol, the effective slip could be eliminated entirely to within the precision of the PIV measurements; the reduction in slip was less effective for xanthan gum, with a weak slip velocity remaining noticeable.

Epidemic Spreading with Heterogeneous Awareness on Human Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yanling Lu

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The spontaneous awareness behavioral responses of individuals have a significant impact on epidemic spreading. In this paper, a modified Susceptible-Alert-Infected-Susceptible (SAIS epidemic model with heterogeneous awareness is presented to study epidemic spreading in human networks and the impact of heterogeneous awareness on epidemic dynamics. In this model, when susceptible individuals receive awareness information about the presence of epidemic from their infected neighbor nodes, they will become alert individuals with heterogeneous awareness rate. Theoretical analysis and numerical simulations show that heterogeneous awareness can enhance the epidemic threshold with certain conditions and reduce the scale of virus outbreaks compared with no awareness. What is more, for the same awareness parameter, it also shows that heterogeneous awareness can slow effectively the spreading size and does not delay the arrival time of epidemic spreading peak compared with homogeneous awareness.

Soil nitrate reducing processes – drivers, mechanisms for spatial variation, and significance for nitrous oxide production

Science.gov (United States)

Giles, Madeline; Morley, Nicholas; Baggs, Elizabeth M.; Daniell, Tim J.

2012-01-01

The microbial processes of denitrification and dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA) are two important nitrate reducing mechanisms in soil, which are responsible for the loss of nitrate (NO3−) and production of the potent greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide (N2O). A number of factors are known to control these processes, including O2 concentrations and moisture content, N, C, pH, and the size and community structure of nitrate reducing organisms responsible for the processes. There is an increasing understanding associated with many of these controls on flux through the nitrogen cycle in soil systems. However, there remains uncertainty about how the nitrate reducing communities are linked to environmental variables and the flux of products from these processes. The high spatial variability of environmental controls and microbial communities across small sub centimeter areas of soil may prove to be critical in determining why an understanding of the links between biotic and abiotic controls has proved elusive. This spatial effect is often overlooked as a driver of nitrate reducing processes. An increased knowledge of the effects of spatial heterogeneity in soil on nitrate reduction processes will be fundamental in understanding the drivers, location, and potential for N2O production from soils. PMID:23264770

Soil nitrate reducing processes – drivers, mechanisms for spatial variation and significance for nitrous oxide production

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Madeline Eleanore Giles

2012-12-01

Full Text Available The microbial processes of denitrification and dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA are two important nitrate reducing mechanisms in soil, which are responsible for the loss of nitrate (NO3-¬ and production of the potent greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide (N2O. A number of factors are known to control these processes, including O2 concentrations and moisture content, N, C, pH and the size and community structure of nitrate reducing organisms responsible for the processes. There is an increasing understanding associated with many of these controls on flux through the nitrogen cycle in soil systems. However, there remains uncertainty about how the nitrate reducing communities are linked to environmental variables and the flux of products from these processes. The high spatial variability of environmental controls and microbial communities across small sub cm areas of soil may prove to be critical in determining why an understanding of the links between biotic and abiotic controls has proved elusive. This spatial effect is often overlooked as a driver of nitrate reducing processes. An increased knowledge of the effects of spatial heterogeneity in soil on nitrate reduction processes will be fundamental in understanding the drivers, location and potential for N2O production from soils.

A network model for Ebola spreading.

Science.gov (United States)

Rizzo, Alessandro; Pedalino, Biagio; Porfiri, Maurizio

2016-04-07

The availability of accurate models for the spreading of infectious diseases has opened a new era in management and containment of epidemics. Models are extensively used to plan for and execute vaccination campaigns, to evaluate the risk of international spreadings and the feasibility of travel bans, and to inform prophylaxis campaigns. Even when no specific therapeutical protocol is available, as for the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), models of epidemic spreading can provide useful insight to steer interventions in the field and to forecast the trend of the epidemic. Here, we propose a novel mathematical model to describe EVD spreading based on activity driven networks (ADNs). Our approach overcomes the simplifying assumption of homogeneous mixing, which is central to most of the mathematically tractable models of EVD spreading. In our ADN-based model, each individual is not bound to contact every other, and its network of contacts varies in time as a function of an activity potential. Our model contemplates the possibility of non-ideal and time-varying intervention policies, which are critical to accurately describe EVD spreading in afflicted countries. The model is calibrated from field data of the 2014 April-to-December spreading in Liberia. We use the model as a predictive tool, to emulate the dynamics of EVD in Liberia and offer a one-year projection, until December 2015. Our predictions agree with the current vision expressed by professionals in the field, who consider EVD in Liberia at its final stage. The model is also used to perform a what-if analysis to assess the efficacy of timely intervention policies. In particular, we show that an earlier application of the same intervention policy would have greatly reduced the number of EVD cases, the duration of the outbreak, and the infrastructures needed for the implementation of the intervention. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The SIS Model of Epidemic Spreading in a Hierarchical Social Network

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grabowski, A.; Kosinski, R.A.

2005-01-01

The phenomenon of epidemic spreading in a population with a hierarchical structure of interpersonal interactions is described and investigated numerically. The SIS model with temporal immunity to a disease and a time of incubation is used. In our model spatial localization of individuals belonging to different social groups, effectiveness of different interpersonal interactions and the mobility of a contemporary community are taken into account. The structure of interpersonal connections is based on a scale-free network. The influence of the structure of the social network on typical relations characterizing the spreading process, like a range of epidemic and epidemic curves, is discussed. The probability that endemic state occurs is also calculated. Surprisingly it occurs, that less contagious diseases has greater chance to survive. The influence of preventive vaccinations on the spreading process is investigated and critical range of vaccinations that is sufficient for the suppression of an epidemic is calculated. Our results of numerical calculations are compared with the solutions of the master equation for the spreading process, and good agreement is found. (author)

Turing-like structures in a functional model of cortical spreading depression

Science.gov (United States)

Verisokin, A. Yu.; Verveyko, D. V.; Postnov, D. E.

2017-12-01

Cortical spreading depression (CSD) along with migraine waves and spreading depolarization events with stroke or injures are the front-line examples of extreme physiological behaviors of the brain cortex which manifest themselves via the onset and spreading of localized areas of neuronal hyperactivity followed by their depression. While much is known about the physiological pathways involved, the dynamical mechanisms of the formation and evolution of complex spatiotemporal patterns during CSD are still poorly understood, in spite of the number of modeling studies that have been already performed. Recently we have proposed a relatively simple mathematical model of cortical spreading depression which counts the effects of neurovascular coupling and cerebral blood flow redistribution during CSD. In the present study, we address the main dynamical consequences of newly included pathways, namely, the changes in the formation and propagation speed of the CSD front and the pattern formation features in two dimensions. Our most notable finding is that the combination of vascular-mediated spatial coupling with local regulatory mechanisms results in the formation of stationary Turing-like patterns during a CSD event.

Epidemic spreading on random surfer networks with infected avoidance strategy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Feng Yun; Ding Li; Huang Yun-Han; Guan Zhi-Hong

2016-01-01

In this paper, we study epidemic spreading on random surfer networks with infected avoidance (IA) strategy. In particular, we consider that susceptible individuals’ moving direction angles are affected by the current location information received from infected individuals through a directed information network. The model is mainly analyzed by discrete-time numerical simulations. The results indicate that the IA strategy can restrain epidemic spreading effectively. However, when long-distance jumps of individuals exist, the IA strategy’s effectiveness on restraining epidemic spreading is heavily reduced. Finally, it is found that the influence of the noises from information transferring process on epidemic spreading is indistinctive. (paper)

Double random phase spread spectrum spread space technique for secure parallel optical multiplexing with individual encryption key

Science.gov (United States)

Hennelly, B. M.; Javidi, B.; Sheridan, J. T.

2005-09-01

A number of methods have been recently proposed in the literature for the encryption of 2-D information using linear optical systems. In particular the double random phase encoding system has received widespread attention. This system uses two Random Phase Keys (RPK) positioned in the input spatial domain and the spatial frequency domain and if these random phases are described by statistically independent white noises then the encrypted image can be shown to be a white noise. Decryption only requires knowledge of the RPK in the frequency domain. The RPK may be implemented using a Spatial Light Modulators (SLM). In this paper we propose and investigate the use of SLMs for secure optical multiplexing. We show that in this case it is possible to encrypt multiple images in parallel and multiplex them for transmission or storage. The signal energy is effectively spread in the spatial frequency domain. As expected the number of images that can be multiplexed together and recovered without loss is proportional to the ratio of the input image and the SLM resolution. Many more images may be multiplexed with some loss in recovery. Furthermore each individual encryption is more robust than traditional double random phase encoding since decryption requires knowledge of both RPK and a lowpass filter in order to despread the spectrum and decrypt the image. Numerical simulations are presented and discussed.

Spreading Speed, Traveling Waves, and Minimal Domain Size in Impulsive Reaction–Diffusion Models

KAUST Repository

Lewis, Mark A.

2012-08-15

How growth, mortality, and dispersal in a species affect the species\\' spread and persistence constitutes a central problem in spatial ecology. We propose impulsive reaction-diffusion equation models for species with distinct reproductive and dispersal stages. These models can describe a seasonal birth pulse plus nonlinear mortality and dispersal throughout the year. Alternatively, they can describe seasonal harvesting, plus nonlinear birth and mortality as well as dispersal throughout the year. The population dynamics in the seasonal pulse is described by a discrete map that gives the density of the population at the end of a pulse as a possibly nonmonotone function of the density of the population at the beginning of the pulse. The dynamics in the dispersal stage is governed by a nonlinear reaction-diffusion equation in a bounded or unbounded domain. We develop a spatially explicit theoretical framework that links species vital rates (mortality or fecundity) and dispersal characteristics with species\\' spreading speeds, traveling wave speeds, as well as minimal domain size for species persistence. We provide an explicit formula for the spreading speed in terms of model parameters, and show that the spreading speed can be characterized as the slowest speed of a class of traveling wave solutions. We also give an explicit formula for the minimal domain size using model parameters. Our results show how the diffusion coefficient, and the combination of discrete- and continuous-time growth and mortality determine the spread and persistence dynamics of the population in a wide variety of ecological scenarios. Numerical simulations are presented to demonstrate the theoretical results. © 2012 Society for Mathematical Biology.

What limits the spread of two congeneric butterfly species after their reintroduction: quality or spatial arrangement of habitat?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Langevelde, van F.; Wynhoff, I.

2009-01-01

Population growth and spread of recently reintroduced species is crucial for the success of their reintroduction. We analysed what limits the spread of two congeneric butterfly species Maculinea teleius and Maculinea nausithous, over 10 years following their reintroduction. During this time, their

Average intensity and spreading of partially coherent model beams propagating in a turbulent biological tissue

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wu, Yuqian; Zhang, Yixin; Wang, Qiu; Hu, Zhengda

2016-01-01

For Gaussian beams with three different partially coherent models, including Gaussian-Schell model (GSM), Laguerre-Gaussian Schell-model (LGSM) and Bessel-Gaussian Schell-model (BGSM) beams propagating through a biological turbulent tissue, the expression of the spatial coherence radius of a spherical wave propagating in a turbulent biological tissue, and the average intensity and beam spreading for GSM, LGSM and BGSM beams are derived based on the fractal model of power spectrum of refractive-index variations in biological tissue. Effects of partially coherent model and parameters of biological turbulence on such beams are studied in numerical simulations. Our results reveal that the spreading of GSM beams is smaller than LGSM and BGSM beams on the same conditions, and the beam with larger source coherence width has smaller beam spreading than that with smaller coherence width. The results are useful for any applications involved light beam propagation through tissues, especially the cases where the average intensity and spreading properties of the light should be taken into account to evaluate the system performance and investigations in the structures of biological tissue. - Highlights: • Spatial coherence radius of a spherical wave propagating in a turbulent biological tissue is developed. • Expressions of average intensity and beam spreading for GSM, LGSM and BGSM beams in a turbulent biological tissue are derived. • The contrast for the three partially coherent model beams is shown in numerical simulations. • The results are useful for any applications involved light beam propagation through tissues.

Spreading of healthy mood in adolescent social networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Hill, E M; Griffiths, F E; House, T

2015-08-22

Depression is a major public health concern worldwide. There is evidence that social support and befriending influence mental health, and an improved understanding of the social processes that drive depression has the potential to bring significant public health benefits. We investigate transmission of mood on a social network of adolescents, allowing flexibility in our model by making no prior assumption as to whether it is low mood or healthy mood that spreads. Here, we show that while depression does not spread, healthy mood among friends is associated with significantly reduced risk of developing and increased chance of recovering from depression. We found that this spreading of healthy mood can be captured using a non-linear complex contagion model. Having sufficient friends with healthy mood can halve the probability of developing, or double the probability of recovering from, depression over a 6-12-month period on an adolescent social network. Our results suggest that promotion of friendship between adolescents can reduce both incidence and prevalence of depression. © 2015 The Authors.

Asymptotic behaviour for a system describing epidemics with migration and spatial spread of infection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kirane, M.; Kouachi, S.

1991-08-01

A parabolic system with linear interactions is considered with specific applications to the spread of infectious diseases. Using a Payne-type functional we prove the global existence of a unique solution and analyze its large time behaviour. (author). 14 refs

Spreading convulsions, spreading depolarization and epileptogenesis in human cerebral cortex

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dreier, Jens P; Major, Sebastian; Pannek, Heinz-Wolfgang

2012-01-01

Spreading depolarization of cells in cerebral grey matter is characterized by massive ion translocation, neuronal swelling and large changes in direct current-coupled voltage recording. The near-complete sustained depolarization above the inactivation threshold for action potential generating...... stimulations. Eventually, epileptic field potentials were recorded during the period that had originally seen spreading depression of activity. Such spreading convulsions are characterized by epileptic field potentials on the final shoulder of the large slow potential change of spreading depolarization. We...

Comparing fire spread algorithms using equivalence testing and neutral landscape models

Science.gov (United States)

Brian R. Miranda; Brian R. Sturtevant; Jian Yang; Eric J. Gustafson

2009-01-01

We demonstrate a method to evaluate the degree to which a meta-model approximates spatial disturbance processes represented by a more detailed model across a range of landscape conditions, using neutral landscapes and equivalence testing. We illustrate this approach by comparing burn patterns produced by a relatively simple fire spread algorithm with those generated by...

Introduced pathogens follow the invasion front of a spreading alien host

Science.gov (United States)

Ann E. Hajek; Patrick C. Tobin

2011-01-01

When an invasive species first colonizes an area, there is an interval before any host-specific natural enemies arrive at the new location. Population densities of newly invading species are low, and the spatial and temporal interactions between spreading invasive species and specific natural enemies that follow are poorly understood. We measured infection rates of two...

Evaluating crown fire rate of spread predictions from physics-based models

Science.gov (United States)

C. M. Hoffman; J. Ziegler; J. Canfield; R. R. Linn; W. Mell; C. H. Sieg; F. Pimont

2015-01-01

Modeling the behavior of crown fires is challenging due to the complex set of coupled processes that drive the characteristics of a spreading wildfire and the large range of spatial and temporal scales over which these processes occur. Detailed physics-based modeling approaches such as FIRETEC and the Wildland Urban Interface Fire Dynamics Simulator (WFDS) simulate...

Modelling the introduction and spread of non-native species: international trade and climate change drive ragweed invasion.

Science.gov (United States)

Chapman, Daniel S; Makra, László; Albertini, Roberto; Bonini, Maira; Páldy, Anna; Rodinkova, Victoria; Šikoparija, Branko; Weryszko-Chmielewska, Elżbieta; Bullock, James M

2016-09-01

Biological invasions are a major driver of global change, for which models can attribute causes, assess impacts and guide management. However, invasion models typically focus on spread from known introduction points or non-native distributions and ignore the transport processes by which species arrive. Here, we developed a simulation model to understand and describe plant invasion at a continental scale, integrating repeated transport through trade pathways, unintentional release events and the population dynamics and local anthropogenic dispersal that drive subsequent spread. We used the model to simulate the invasion of Europe by common ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia), a globally invasive plant that causes serious harm as an aeroallergen and crop weed. Simulations starting in 1950 accurately reproduced ragweed's current distribution, including the presence of records in climatically unsuitable areas as a result of repeated introduction. Furthermore, the model outputs were strongly correlated with spatial and temporal patterns of ragweed pollen concentrations, which are fully independent of the calibration data. The model suggests that recent trends for warmer summers and increased volumes of international trade have accelerated the ragweed invasion. For the latter, long distance dispersal because of trade within the invaded continent is highlighted as a key invasion process, in addition to import from the native range. Biosecurity simulations, whereby transport through trade pathways is halted, showed that effective control is only achieved by early action targeting all relevant pathways. We conclude that invasion models would benefit from integrating introduction processes (transport and release) with spread dynamics, to better represent propagule pressure from native sources as well as mechanisms for long-distance dispersal within invaded continents. Ultimately, such integration may facilitate better prediction of spatial and temporal variation in invasion

Topological data analysis of contagion maps for examining spreading processes on networks

KAUST Repository

Taylor, Dane

2015-07-21

Social and biological contagions are influenced by the spatial embeddedness of networks. Historically, many epidemics spread as a wave across part of the Earth\\'s surface; however, in modern contagions long-range edges - for example, due to airline transportation or communication media - allow clusters of a contagion to appear in distant locations. Here we study the spread of contagions on networks through a methodology grounded in topological data analysis and nonlinear dimension reduction. We construct \\'contagion maps\\' that use multiple contagions on a network to map the nodes as a point cloud. By analysing the topology, geometry and dimensionality of manifold structure in such point clouds, we reveal insights to aid in the modelling, forecast and control of spreading processes. Our approach highlights contagion maps also as a viable tool for inferring low-dimensional structure in networks.

Topological data analysis of contagion maps for examining spreading processes on networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Taylor, Dane; Klimm, Florian; Harrington, Heather A; Kramár, Miroslav; Mischaikow, Konstantin; Porter, Mason A; Mucha, Peter J

2015-07-21

Social and biological contagions are influenced by the spatial embeddedness of networks. Historically, many epidemics spread as a wave across part of the Earth's surface; however, in modern contagions long-range edges-for example, due to airline transportation or communication media-allow clusters of a contagion to appear in distant locations. Here we study the spread of contagions on networks through a methodology grounded in topological data analysis and nonlinear dimension reduction. We construct 'contagion maps' that use multiple contagions on a network to map the nodes as a point cloud. By analysing the topology, geometry and dimensionality of manifold structure in such point clouds, we reveal insights to aid in the modelling, forecast and control of spreading processes. Our approach highlights contagion maps also as a viable tool for inferring low-dimensional structure in networks.

Topological data analysis of contagion maps for examining spreading processes on networks

Science.gov (United States)

Taylor, Dane; Klimm, Florian; Harrington, Heather A.; Kramár, Miroslav; Mischaikow, Konstantin; Porter, Mason A.; Mucha, Peter J.

2015-07-01

Social and biological contagions are influenced by the spatial embeddedness of networks. Historically, many epidemics spread as a wave across part of the Earth's surface; however, in modern contagions long-range edges--for example, due to airline transportation or communication media--allow clusters of a contagion to appear in distant locations. Here we study the spread of contagions on networks through a methodology grounded in topological data analysis and nonlinear dimension reduction. We construct `contagion maps' that use multiple contagions on a network to map the nodes as a point cloud. By analysing the topology, geometry and dimensionality of manifold structure in such point clouds, we reveal insights to aid in the modelling, forecast and control of spreading processes. Our approach highlights contagion maps also as a viable tool for inferring low-dimensional structure in networks.

Topological data analysis of contagion maps for examining spreading processes on networks

KAUST Repository

Taylor, Dane; Klimm, Florian; Harrington, Heather A.; Kramá r, Miroslav; Mischaikow, Konstantin; Porter, Mason A.; Mucha, Peter J.

2015-01-01

Social and biological contagions are influenced by the spatial embeddedness of networks. Historically, many epidemics spread as a wave across part of the Earth's surface; however, in modern contagions long-range edges - for example, due to airline transportation or communication media - allow clusters of a contagion to appear in distant locations. Here we study the spread of contagions on networks through a methodology grounded in topological data analysis and nonlinear dimension reduction. We construct 'contagion maps' that use multiple contagions on a network to map the nodes as a point cloud. By analysing the topology, geometry and dimensionality of manifold structure in such point clouds, we reveal insights to aid in the modelling, forecast and control of spreading processes. Our approach highlights contagion maps also as a viable tool for inferring low-dimensional structure in networks.

Spatial networks

Science.gov (United States)

Barthélemy, Marc

2011-02-01

Complex systems are very often organized under the form of networks where nodes and edges are embedded in space. Transportation and mobility networks, Internet, mobile phone networks, power grids, social and contact networks, and neural networks, are all examples where space is relevant and where topology alone does not contain all the information. Characterizing and understanding the structure and the evolution of spatial networks is thus crucial for many different fields, ranging from urbanism to epidemiology. An important consequence of space on networks is that there is a cost associated with the length of edges which in turn has dramatic effects on the topological structure of these networks. We will thoroughly explain the current state of our understanding of how the spatial constraints affect the structure and properties of these networks. We will review the most recent empirical observations and the most important models of spatial networks. We will also discuss various processes which take place on these spatial networks, such as phase transitions, random walks, synchronization, navigation, resilience, and disease spread.

Spreading Depression, Spreading Depolarizations, and the Cerebral Vasculature

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ayata, Cenk; Lauritzen, Martin

2015-01-01

Spreading depression (SD) is a transient wave of near-complete neuronal and glial depolarization associated with massive transmembrane ionic and water shifts. It is evolutionarily conserved in the central nervous systems of a wide variety of species from locust to human. The depolarization spreads...

On a model of spatial spread of epidemics with long-distance travel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Blyuss, Konstantin B.

2005-01-01

This Letter studies the dynamics of infectious diseases which are spread geographically through long-distance travel between two regions and subsequent local redistribution through a process of diffusion. A particular case of an equiproportionate travel is considered, and the model describes migration rather than short visits. We examine uniform and nonuniform steady states together with their linear stability. Numerical simulations are performed to illustrate the evolution of initial distribution of population towards its final stage, which is represented by uniform distribution of the total population among infected individuals

Outwitting the series resistance in scanning spreading resistance microscopy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schulze, A.; Cao, R.; Eyben, P.; Hantschel, T.; Vandervorst, W.

2016-01-01

The performance of nanoelectronics devices critically depends on the distribution of active dopants inside these structures. For this reason, dopant profiling has been defined as one of the major metrology challenges by the international technology roadmap of semiconductors. Scanning spreading resistance microscopy (SSRM) has evolved as one of the most viable approaches over the last decade due to its excellent spatial resolution, sensitivity and quantification accuracy. However, in case of advanced device architectures like fins and nanowires a proper measurement of the spreading resistance is often hampered by the increasing impact of parasitic series resistances (e.g. bulk series resistance) arising from the confined nature of the aforementioned structures. In order to overcome this limitation we report in this paper the development and implementation of a novel SSRM mode (fast Fourier transform-SSRM: FFT-SSRM) which essentially decouples the spreading resistance from parasitic series resistance components. We show that this can be achieved by a force modulation (leading to a modulated spreading resistance signal) in combination with a lock-in deconvolution concept. In this paper we first introduce the principle of operation of the technique. We discuss in detail the underlying physical mechanisms as well as the technical implementation on a state-of-the-art atomic force microscope (AFM). We demonstrate the performance of FFT-SSRM and its ability to remove substantial series resistance components in practice. Eventually, the possibility of decoupling the spreading resistance from the intrinsic probe resistance will be demonstrated and discussed. - Highlights: • A novel electrical AFM mode for carrier profiling in confined volumes is presented. • Thereby the force and hence the contact area between AFM probe and sample is modulated. • Information on the spreading resistance is derived using a lock-in approach. • Bulk series resistance components are

Effects of human dynamics on epidemic spreading in Côte d'Ivoire

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Ruiqi; Wang, Wenxu; Di, Zengru

2017-02-01

Understanding and predicting outbreaks of contagious diseases are crucial to the development of society and public health, especially for underdeveloped countries. However, challenging problems are encountered because of complex epidemic spreading dynamics influenced by spatial structure and human dynamics (including both human mobility and human interaction intensity). We propose a systematical model to depict nationwide epidemic spreading in Côte d'Ivoire, which integrates multiple factors, such as human mobility, human interaction intensity, and demographic features. We provide insights to aid in modeling and predicting the epidemic spreading process by data-driven simulation and theoretical analysis, which is otherwise beyond the scope of local evaluation and geometrical views. We show that the requirement that the average local basic reproductive number to be greater than unity is not necessary for outbreaks of epidemics. The observed spreading phenomenon can be roughly explained as a heterogeneous diffusion-reaction process by redefining mobility distance according to the human mobility volume between nodes, which is beyond the geometrical viewpoint. However, the heterogeneity of human dynamics still poses challenges to precise prediction.

Guidance on methodology for evaluation of the effectiveness of options for reducing the risk of introduction and spread of organisms harmful to plant health in the EU territory

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Baker, R.; Candresse, T.; Dormannsné Simon, E.

2012-01-01

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) requested the Panel on Plant Health (PLH Panel) to provide guidance for the evaluation of the effectiveness of the options for plants and plant products for reducing the risk of introduction and spread of harmful organisms in the European Union territory...... and guidance documents for assessing a proposed RRO. In addition, the current document provides recommendations for assessing RROs, specifically: on experimental design; on the use of statistical methods including approaches for studying uncertainty; on the use of quantitative pathway analysis and spread...

Modelling the spread of American foulbrood in honeybees

Science.gov (United States)

Datta, Samik; Bull, James C.; Budge, Giles E.; Keeling, Matt J.

2013-01-01

We investigate the spread of American foulbrood (AFB), a disease caused by the bacterium Paenibacillus larvae, that affects bees and can be extremely damaging to beehives. Our dataset comes from an inspection period carried out during an AFB epidemic of honeybee colonies on the island of Jersey during the summer of 2010. The data include the number of hives of honeybees, location and owner of honeybee apiaries across the island. We use a spatial SIR model with an underlying owner network to simulate the epidemic and characterize the epidemic using a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) scheme to determine model parameters and infection times (including undetected ‘occult’ infections). Likely methods of infection spread can be inferred from the analysis, with both distance- and owner-based transmissions being found to contribute to the spread of AFB. The results of the MCMC are corroborated by simulating the epidemic using a stochastic SIR model, resulting in aggregate levels of infection that are comparable to the data. We use this stochastic SIR model to simulate the impact of different control strategies on controlling the epidemic. It is found that earlier inspections result in smaller epidemics and a higher likelihood of AFB extinction. PMID:24026473

Spatial assessment of animal manure spreading and groundwater nitrate pollution

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Roberta Infascelli

2009-11-01

Full Text Available Nitrate concentration in groundwater has frequently been linked to non-point pollution. At the same time the existence of intensive agriculture and extremely intensive livestock activity increases the potential for nitrate pollution in shallow groundwater. Nitrate used in agriculture could cause adverse effects on human and animal health. In order to evaluate the groundwater nitrate pollution, and how it might evolve in time, it is essential to develop control systems and to improve policies and incentives aimed at controlling the amount of nitrate entering downstream water systems. The province of Caserta in southern Italy is characterized by high levels of animal manure loading. A comparison between manure nitrogen production and nitrate concentration in groundwater was carried out in this area, using geostatistical tools and spatial statistics. The results show a discrepancy between modelling of nitrate leaching and monitoring of the groundwater and, moreover, no spatial correlation between nitrogen production in livestock farms and nitrate concentration in groundwater, suggesting that producers are not following the regulatory procedures for the agronomic use of manure. The methodology developed in this paper could be applied also in other regions in which European Union fertilization plans are not adequately followed.

Spatial strategies for managing visitor impacts in National Parks

Science.gov (United States)

Leung, Y.-F.; Marion, J.L.

1999-01-01

Resource and social impacts caused by recreationists and tourists have become a management concern in national parks and equivalent protected areas. The need to contain visitor impacts within acceptable limits has prompted park and protected area managers to implement a wide variety of strategies and actions, many of which are spatial in nature. This paper classifies and illustrates the basic spatial strategies for managing visitor impacts in parks and protected areas. A typology of four spatial strategies was proposed based on the recreation and park management literature. Spatial segregation is a common strategy for shielding sensitive resources from visitor impacts or for separating potentially conflicting types of use. Two forms of spatial segregation are zoning and closure. A spatial containment strategy is intended to minimize the aggregate extent of visitor impacts by confining use to limited designated or established Iocations. In contrast, a spatial dispersal strategy seeks to spread visitor use, reducing the frequency of use to levels that avoid or minimize permanent resource impacts or visitor crowding and conflict. Finally, a spatial configuration strategy minimizes impacting visitor behavior though the judicious spatial arrangement of facilities. These four spatial strategics can be implemented separately or in combination at varying spatial scales within a single park. A survey of national park managers provides an empirical example of the diversity of implemented spatial strategies in managing visitor impacts. Spatial segregation is frequently applied in the form of camping restrictions or closures to protect sensitive natural or cultural resources and to separate incompatible visitor activities. Spatial containment is the most widely applied strategy for minimizing the areal extent of resource impacts. Spatial dispersal is commonly applied to reduce visitor crowding or conflicts in popular destination areas but is less frequently applied or

The spatial resolution of epidemic peaks.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Harriet L Mills

2014-04-01

Full Text Available The emergence of novel respiratory pathogens can challenge the capacity of key health care resources, such as intensive care units, that are constrained to serve only specific geographical populations. An ability to predict the magnitude and timing of peak incidence at the scale of a single large population would help to accurately assess the value of interventions designed to reduce that peak. However, current disease-dynamic theory does not provide a clear understanding of the relationship between: epidemic trajectories at the scale of interest (e.g. city; population mobility; and higher resolution spatial effects (e.g. transmission within small neighbourhoods. Here, we used a spatially-explicit stochastic meta-population model of arbitrary spatial resolution to determine the effect of resolution on model-derived epidemic trajectories. We simulated an influenza-like pathogen spreading across theoretical and actual population densities and varied our assumptions about mobility using Latin-Hypercube sampling. Even though, by design, cumulative attack rates were the same for all resolutions and mobilities, peak incidences were different. Clear thresholds existed for all tested populations, such that models with resolutions lower than the threshold substantially overestimated population-wide peak incidence. The effect of resolution was most important in populations which were of lower density and lower mobility. With the expectation of accurate spatial incidence datasets in the near future, our objective was to provide a framework for how to use these data correctly in a spatial meta-population model. Our results suggest that there is a fundamental spatial resolution for any pathogen-population pair. If underlying interactions between pathogens and spatially heterogeneous populations are represented at this resolution or higher, accurate predictions of peak incidence for city-scale epidemics are feasible.

Use of hygiene protocols to control the spread of viruses in a hotel.

Science.gov (United States)

Sifuentes, Laura Y; Koenig, David W; Phillips, Ronnie L; Reynolds, Kelly A; Gerba, Charles P

2014-09-01

The goals of this study were to observe the spread of viruses in a hotel setting and to assess the effectiveness of a hygiene intervention in reducing their spread. Selected fomites in one hotel room were inoculated with bacteriophage ϕx-174, and fomites in a conference center within the same hotel were inoculated using bacteriophage MS2. Cleaning of the contaminated room resulted in the spread of viruses to other rooms by the housekeeping staff. Furthermore, viruses were transferred by hotel guests to the conference center and a communal kitchen area. Additionally, conference attendees transferred viruses from the conference center to their hotel rooms and a communal kitchen area. This study demonstrated how viruses can be spread throughout a hotel setting by both housekeepers and guests. A hygiene intervention, which included providing hand hygiene products and facial tissues to the guests and disinfecting solutions with disposable wipes to the housekeeping staff, was successful in reducing the spread of viruses between the hotel guest rooms and conference center. The hygiene intervention resulted in significantly reduced transfer of the ϕx-174 between the contaminated hotel room and other hotel rooms, communal areas, and the conference center (p = 0.02).

An Accurate Fire-Spread Algorithm in the Weather Research and Forecasting Model Using the Level-Set Method

Science.gov (United States)

Muñoz-Esparza, Domingo; Kosović, Branko; Jiménez, Pedro A.; Coen, Janice L.

2018-04-01

The level-set method is typically used to track and propagate the fire perimeter in wildland fire models. Herein, a high-order level-set method using fifth-order WENO scheme for the discretization of spatial derivatives and third-order explicit Runge-Kutta temporal integration is implemented within the Weather Research and Forecasting model wildland fire physics package, WRF-Fire. The algorithm includes solution of an additional partial differential equation for level-set reinitialization. The accuracy of the fire-front shape and rate of spread in uncoupled simulations is systematically analyzed. It is demonstrated that the common implementation used by level-set-based wildfire models yields to rate-of-spread errors in the range 10-35% for typical grid sizes (Δ = 12.5-100 m) and considerably underestimates fire area. Moreover, the amplitude of fire-front gradients in the presence of explicitly resolved turbulence features is systematically underestimated. In contrast, the new WRF-Fire algorithm results in rate-of-spread errors that are lower than 1% and that become nearly grid independent. Also, the underestimation of fire area at the sharp transition between the fire front and the lateral flanks is found to be reduced by a factor of ≈7. A hybrid-order level-set method with locally reduced artificial viscosity is proposed, which substantially alleviates the computational cost associated with high-order discretizations while preserving accuracy. Simulations of the Last Chance wildfire demonstrate additional benefits of high-order accurate level-set algorithms when dealing with complex fuel heterogeneities, enabling propagation across narrow fuel gaps and more accurate fire backing over the lee side of no fuel clusters.

A method for partial volume correction of PET-imaged tumor heterogeneity using expectation maximization with a spatially varying point spread function

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barbee, David L; Holden, James E; Nickles, Robert J; Jeraj, Robert; Flynn, Ryan T

2010-01-01

Tumor heterogeneities observed in positron emission tomography (PET) imaging are frequently compromised by partial volume effects which may affect treatment prognosis, assessment or future implementations such as biologically optimized treatment planning (dose painting). This paper presents a method for partial volume correction of PET-imaged heterogeneous tumors. A point source was scanned on a GE Discovery LS at positions of increasing radii from the scanner's center to obtain the spatially varying point spread function (PSF). PSF images were fit in three dimensions to Gaussian distributions using least squares optimization. Continuous expressions were devised for each Gaussian width as a function of radial distance, allowing for generation of the system PSF at any position in space. A spatially varying partial volume correction (SV-PVC) technique was developed using expectation maximization (EM) and a stopping criterion based on the method's correction matrix generated for each iteration. The SV-PVC was validated using a standard tumor phantom and a tumor heterogeneity phantom and was applied to a heterogeneous patient tumor. SV-PVC results were compared to results obtained from spatially invariant partial volume correction (SINV-PVC), which used directionally uniform three-dimensional kernels. SV-PVC of the standard tumor phantom increased the maximum observed sphere activity by 55 and 40% for 10 and 13 mm diameter spheres, respectively. Tumor heterogeneity phantom results demonstrated that as net changes in the EM correction matrix decreased below 35%, further iterations improved overall quantitative accuracy by less than 1%. SV-PVC of clinically observed tumors frequently exhibited changes of ±30% in regions of heterogeneity. The SV-PVC method implemented spatially varying kernel widths and automatically determined the number of iterations for optimal restoration, parameters which are arbitrarily chosen in SINV-PVC. Comparing SV-PVC to SINV-PVC demonstrated

Nonlinear theory of the collisional Rayleigh-Taylor instability in equatorial spread F

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chaturvedi, P.K.; Ossakow, S.L.

1977-01-01

The nonlinear behavior of the collisional Rayleigh-Taylor instability is studied in equatorial Spread F by including a dominant two-dimensional nonlinearity. It is found that on account of this nonlinearity the instability saturates by generating damped higher spatial harmonics. The saturated power spectrum for the density fluctuations is discussed. A comparison between experimental observations and theory is presented

Competing spreading processes and immunization in multiplex networks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gao, Bo; Deng, Zhenghong; Zhao, Dawei

2016-01-01

Epidemic spreading on physical contact network will naturally introduce the human awareness information diffusion on virtual contact network, and the awareness diffusion will in turn depress the epidemic spreading, thus forming the competing spreading processes of epidemic and awareness in a multiplex networks. In this paper, we study the competing dynamics of epidemic and awareness, both of which follow the SIR process, in a two-layer networks based on microscopic Markov chain approach and numerical simulations. We find that strong capacities of awareness diffusion and self-protection of individuals could lead to a much higher epidemic threshold and a smaller outbreak size. However, the self-awareness of individuals has no obvious effect on the epidemic threshold and outbreak size. In addition, the immunization of the physical contact network under the interplay between of epidemic and awareness spreading is also investigated. The targeted immunization is found performs much better than random immunization, and the awareness diffusion could reduce the immunization threshold for both type of random and targeted immunization significantly.

Optimizing hybrid spreading in metapopulations.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Changwang; Zhou, Shi; Miller, Joel C; Cox, Ingemar J; Chain, Benjamin M

2015-04-29

Epidemic spreading phenomena are ubiquitous in nature and society. Examples include the spreading of diseases, information, and computer viruses. Epidemics can spread by local spreading, where infected nodes can only infect a limited set of direct target nodes and global spreading, where an infected node can infect every other node. In reality, many epidemics spread using a hybrid mixture of both types of spreading. In this study we develop a theoretical framework for studying hybrid epidemics, and examine the optimum balance between spreading mechanisms in terms of achieving the maximum outbreak size. We show the existence of critically hybrid epidemics where neither spreading mechanism alone can cause a noticeable spread but a combination of the two spreading mechanisms would produce an enormous outbreak. Our results provide new strategies for maximising beneficial epidemics and estimating the worst outcome of damaging hybrid epidemics.

SPREADING SPEEDS AND TRAVELING WAVES FOR NON-COOPERATIVE INTEGRO-DIFFERENCE SYSTEMS

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Haiyan; Castillo-Chavez, Carlos

2014-01-01

The study of spatially explicit integro-difference systems when the local population dynamics are given in terms of discrete-time generations models has gained considerable attention over the past two decades. These nonlinear systems arise naturally in the study of the spatial dispersal of organisms. The brunt of the mathematical research on these systems, particularly, when dealing with cooperative systems, has focused on the study of the existence of traveling wave solutions and the characterization of their spreading speed. Here, we characterize the minimum propagation (spreading) speed, via the convergence of initial data to wave solutions, for a large class of non cooperative nonlinear systems of integro-difference equations. The spreading speed turns out to be the slowest speed from a family of non-constant traveling wave solutions. The applicability of these theoretical results is illustrated through the explicit study of an integro-difference system with local population dynamics governed by Hassell and Comins’ non-cooperative competition model (1976). The corresponding integro-difference nonlinear systems that results from the redistribution of individuals via a dispersal kernel is shown to satisfy conditions that guarantee the existence of minimum speeds and traveling waves. This paper is dedicated to Avner Friedman as we celebrate his immense contributions to the fields of partial differential equations, integral equations, mathematical biology, industrial mathematics and applied mathematics in general. His leadership in the mathematical sciences and his mentorship of students and friends over several decades has made a huge difference in the personal and professional lives of many, including both of us. PMID:24899868

Production of low axial energy spread ion beams with multicusp sources

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, Yung -Hee Y. [Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)

1998-05-01

Multicusp ion sources are capable of producing ions with low axial energy spread which are necessary in applications such as: ion projection lithography (IPL) and focused ion beams for the next generation lithographic tools and nuclear science experiments such as radioactive ion beam production. The axial ion energy spread for multicusp source is approximately 6 eV which is too large for IPL and radioactive ion beam applications. The addition of a magnetic filter which consists of a pair of permanent magnets to the multicusp source reduces the energy spread considerably. The reduction is due to the improvement in the uniformity of the axial plasma potential distribution in the discharge region. Axial ion energy spread of the filament driven ion source has been measured using three different techniques. In all cases, it was found to be less than 2 eV. Energy spread of the radio frequency (RF) driven source has also been explored, and it was found to be less than 3 eV with the proper RF-shielding. A new multicusp source configuration has been designed and constructed to further reduce the energy spread. To achieve a more uniform axial plasma potential distribution, a cylindrical magnetic filter has been designed and constructed for a 2-cm-diameter source. This new source configuration, the co-axial source, is new in its kind. The energy spread in this source has been measured to be a record low of 0.6 eV. Because of the novelty of this device, some plasma parameters inside the source have been studied. Langmuir probe has been used to measure the plasma potential, the electron temperature and the density distribution.

Production of low axial energy spread ion beams with multicusp sources

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Y.H.Y.

1998-05-01

Multicusp ion sources are capable of producing ions with low axial energy spread which are necessary in applications such as: ion projection lithography (IPL) and focused ion beams for the next generation lithographic tools and nuclear science experiments such as radioactive ion beam production. The axial ion energy spread for multicusp source is approximately 6 eV which is too large for IPL and radioactive ion beam applications. The addition of a magnetic filter which consists of a pair of permanent magnets to the multicusp source reduces the energy spread considerably. The reduction is due to the improvement in the uniformity of the axial plasma potential distribution in the discharge region. Axial ion energy spread of the filament driven ion source has been measured using three different techniques. In all cases, it was found to be less than 2 eV. Energy spread of the radio frequency (RF) driven source has also been explored, and it was found to be less than 3 eV with the proper RF-shielding. A new multicusp source configuration has been designed and constructed to further reduce the energy spread. To achieve a more uniform axial plasma potential distribution, a cylindrical magnetic filter has been designed and constructed for a 2-cm-diameter source. This new source configuration, the co-axial source, is new in its kind. The energy spread in this source has been measured to be a record low of 0.6 eV. Because of the novelty of this device, some plasma parameters inside the source have been studied. Langmuir probe has been used to measure the plasma potential, the electron temperature and the density distribution

Performance of a Protected Wireless Sensor Network in a Fire. Analysis of Fire Spread and Data Transmission

Science.gov (United States)

Antoine-Santoni, Thierry; Santucci, Jean-François; de Gentili, Emmanuelle; Silvani, Xavier; Morandini, Frederic

2009-01-01

The paper deals with a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) as a reliable solution for capturing the kinematics of a fire front spreading over a fuel bed. To provide reliable information in fire studies and support fire fighting strategies, a Wireless Sensor Network must be able to perform three sequential actions: 1) sensing thermal data in the open as the gas temperature; 2) detecting a fire i.e., the spatial position of a flame; 3) tracking the fire spread during its spatial and temporal evolution. One of the great challenges in performing fire front tracking with a WSN is to avoid the destruction of motes by the fire. This paper therefore shows the performance of Wireless Sensor Network when the motes are protected with a thermal insulation dedicated to track a fire spreading across vegetative fuels on a field scale. The resulting experimental WSN is then used in series of wildfire experiments performed in the open in vegetation areas ranging in size from 50 to 1,000 m2. PMID:22454563

Roles of the spreading scope and effectiveness in spreading dynamics on multiplex networks

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Ming; Liu, Run-Ran; Peng, Dan; Jia, Chun-Xiao; Wang, Bing-Hong

2018-02-01

Comparing with single networks, the multiplex networks bring two main effects on the spreading process among individuals. First, the pathogen or information can be transmitted to more individuals through different layers at one time, which enlarges the spreading scope. Second, through different layers, an individual can also transmit the pathogen or information to the same individuals more than once at one time, which makes the spreading more effective. To understand the different roles of the spreading scope and effectiveness, we propose an epidemic model on multiplex networks with link overlapping, where the spreading effectiveness of each interaction as well as the variety of channels (spreading scope) can be controlled by the number of overlapping links. We find that for Poisson degree distribution, increasing the epidemic scope (the first effect) is more efficient than enhancing epidemic probability (the second effect) to facilitate the spreading process. However, for power-law degree distribution, the effects of the two factors on the spreading dynamics become complicated. Enhancing epidemic probability makes pathogen or rumor easier to outbreak in a finite system. But after that increasing epidemic scopes is still more effective for a wide spreading. Theoretical results along with reasonable explanation for these phenomena are all given in this paper, which indicates that the epidemic scope could play an important role in the spreading dynamics.

Optimizing Hybrid Spreading in Metapopulations.

OpenAIRE

Zhang, C.; Zhou, S.; Miller, J. C.; Cox, I. J.; Chain, B. M.

2015-01-01

Epidemic spreading phenomena are ubiquitous in nature and society. Examples include the spreading of diseases, information, and computer viruses. Epidemics can spread by local spreading, where infected nodes can only infect a limited set of direct target nodes and global spreading, where an infected node can infect every other node. In reality, many epidemics spread using a hybrid mixture of both types of spreading. In this study we develop a theoretical framework for studying hybrid epidemic...

Optimizing Hybrid Spreading in Metapopulations

OpenAIRE

Zhang, Changwang; Zhou, Shi; Miller, Joel C.; Cox, Ingemar J.; Chain, Benjamin M.

2014-01-01

Epidemic spreading phenomena are ubiquitous in nature and society. Examples include the spreading of diseases, information, and computer viruses. Epidemics can spread by local spreading, where infected nodes can only infect a limited set of direct target nodes and global spreading, where an infected node can infect every other node. In reality, many epidemics spread using a hybrid mixture of both types of spreading. In this study we develop a theoretical framework for studying hybrid epidemic...

Epidemic spreading on random surfer networks with infected avoidance strategy

Science.gov (United States)

Feng, Yun; Ding, Li; Huang, Yun-Han; Guan, Zhi-Hong

2016-12-01

In this paper, we study epidemic spreading on random surfer networks with infected avoidance (IA) strategy. In particular, we consider that susceptible individuals’ moving direction angles are affected by the current location information received from infected individuals through a directed information network. The model is mainly analyzed by discrete-time numerical simulations. The results indicate that the IA strategy can restrain epidemic spreading effectively. However, when long-distance jumps of individuals exist, the IA strategy’s effectiveness on restraining epidemic spreading is heavily reduced. Finally, it is found that the influence of the noises from information transferring process on epidemic spreading is indistinctive. Project supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61403284, 61272114, 61673303, and 61672112) and the Marine Renewable Energy Special Fund Project of the State Oceanic Administration of China (Grant No. GHME2013JS01).

How does increasing immunity change spread kernel parameters in subsequent outbreaks? – A simulation study on Bluetongue Virus

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Græsbøll, Kaare; Bødker, Rene; Enøe, Claes

Modelling the spatial spread of vector borne diseases, one may choose methods ranging from statistic to process oriented. One often used statistic tool is the empirical spread kernel. An empiric spread kernel fitted to outbreak data provides hints on the spread mechanisms, and may provide a good...... estimate on how future epidemics could proceed under similar conditions. However, a number of variables influence the spread of vector borne diseases. If one of these changes significantly after an outbreak, it needs to be incorporated into the model to improve the prediction on future outbreaks. Examples...... of such changes are: vaccinations, acquired immunity, vector density and control, meteorological variations, wind pattern, and so on. Including more and more variables leads to a more process oriented model. A full process oriented approach simulates the movement of virus between vectors and host, describing...

Spread effects - methodology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2004-01-01

Diffusion of technology, environmental effects and rebound effects are the principal effects from the funding of renewable energy and energy economising. It is difficult to estimate the impact of the spread effects both prior to the measures are implemented and after the measures are carried out. Statistical methods can be used to estimate the spread effects, but they are insecure and always need to be complemented with qualitative and subjective evaluations. It is more adequate to evaluate potential spread effects from market and market data surveillance for a selection of technologies and parties. Based on this information qualitative indicators for spread effects can be constructed and used both ex ante and ex post (ml)

Did vaccination slow the spread of bluetongue in France?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maryline Pioz

Full Text Available Vaccination is one of the most efficient ways to control the spread of infectious diseases. Simulations are now widely used to assess how vaccination can limit disease spread as well as mitigate morbidity or mortality in susceptible populations. However, field studies investigating how much vaccines decrease the velocity of epizootic wave-fronts during outbreaks are rare. This study aimed at investigating the effect of vaccination on the propagation of bluetongue, a vector-borne disease of ruminants. We used data from the 2008 bluetongue virus serotype 1 (BTV-1 epizootic of southwest France. As the virus was newly introduced in this area, natural immunity of livestock was absent. This allowed determination of the role of vaccination in changing the velocity of bluetongue spread while accounting for environmental factors that possibly influenced it. The average estimated velocity across the country despite restriction on animal movements was 5.4 km/day, which is very similar to the velocity of spread of the bluetongue virus serotype 8 epizootic in France also estimated in a context of restrictions on animal movements. Vaccination significantly reduced the propagation velocity of BTV-1. In comparison to municipalities with no vaccine coverage, the velocity of BTV-1 spread decreased by 1.7 km/day in municipalities with immunized animals. For the first time, the effect of vaccination has been quantified using data from a real epizootic whilst accounting for environmental factors known to modify the velocity of bluetongue spread. Our findings emphasize the importance of vaccination in limiting disease spread across natural landscape. Finally, environmental factors, specifically those related to vector abundance and activity, were found to be good predictors of the velocity of BTV-1 spread, indicating that these variables need to be adequately accounted for when evaluating the role of vaccination on bluetongue spread.

Lattice model for influenza spreading with spontaneous behavioral changes.

Science.gov (United States)

Fierro, Annalisa; Liccardo, Antonella

2013-01-01

Individual behavioral response to the spreading of an epidemic plays a crucial role in the progression of the epidemic itself. The risk perception induces individuals to adopt a protective behavior, as for instance reducing their social contacts, adopting more restrictive hygienic measures or undergoing prophylaxis procedures. In this paper, starting with a previously developed lattice-gas SIR model, we construct a coupled behavior-disease model for influenza spreading with spontaneous behavioral changes. The focus is on self-initiated behavioral changes that alter the susceptibility to the disease, without altering the contact patterns among individuals. Three different mechanisms of awareness spreading are analyzed: the local spreading due to the presence in the neighborhood of infective individuals; the global spreading due to the news published by the mass media and to educational campaigns implemented at institutional level; the local spreading occurring through the "thought contagion" among aware and unaware individuals. The peculiarity of the present approach is that the awareness spreading model is calibrated on available data on awareness and concern of the population about the risk of contagion. In particular, the model is validated against the A(H1N1) epidemic outbreak in Italy during the 2009/2010 season, by making use of the awareness data gathered by the behavioral risk factor surveillance system (PASSI). We find that, increasing the accordance between the simulated awareness spreading and the PASSI data on risk perception, the agreement between simulated and experimental epidemiological data improves as well. Furthermore, we show that, within our model, the primary mechanism to reproduce a realistic evolution of the awareness during an epidemic, is the one due to globally available information. This result highlights how crucial is the role of mass media and educational campaigns in influencing the epidemic spreading of infectious diseases.

Lattice model for influenza spreading with spontaneous behavioral changes.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Annalisa Fierro

Full Text Available Individual behavioral response to the spreading of an epidemic plays a crucial role in the progression of the epidemic itself. The risk perception induces individuals to adopt a protective behavior, as for instance reducing their social contacts, adopting more restrictive hygienic measures or undergoing prophylaxis procedures. In this paper, starting with a previously developed lattice-gas SIR model, we construct a coupled behavior-disease model for influenza spreading with spontaneous behavioral changes. The focus is on self-initiated behavioral changes that alter the susceptibility to the disease, without altering the contact patterns among individuals. Three different mechanisms of awareness spreading are analyzed: the local spreading due to the presence in the neighborhood of infective individuals; the global spreading due to the news published by the mass media and to educational campaigns implemented at institutional level; the local spreading occurring through the "thought contagion" among aware and unaware individuals. The peculiarity of the present approach is that the awareness spreading model is calibrated on available data on awareness and concern of the population about the risk of contagion. In particular, the model is validated against the A(H1N1 epidemic outbreak in Italy during the 2009/2010 season, by making use of the awareness data gathered by the behavioral risk factor surveillance system (PASSI. We find that, increasing the accordance between the simulated awareness spreading and the PASSI data on risk perception, the agreement between simulated and experimental epidemiological data improves as well. Furthermore, we show that, within our model, the primary mechanism to reproduce a realistic evolution of the awareness during an epidemic, is the one due to globally available information. This result highlights how crucial is the role of mass media and educational campaigns in influencing the epidemic spreading of infectious

Spreading of Somma-Vesuvio Volcanic Complex: is the Hazard for Plinian Eruptions being reduced?

Science.gov (United States)

Borgia, A.; Tizzani, P.; Solaro, G.; Luongo, G.; Fusi, N.

2003-12-01

Contrary to what is the common knowledge, a detailed structural study of active faulting and rifting of the summit area of Somma-Vesuvio volcanic complex, combined with INSAR, levelling data and seismic profiling at sea suggests that the present-day long-term dynamic behaviour of the complex and of its summit caldera is characterized by volcanic spreading. The structural evolution is controlled by a number of asymmetric, intersecting leaf-grabens. The boundary faults of these grabens intersect at different angles the Somma caldera walls generating a set of wedge-horsts. While normal faulting characterizes the Somma caldera walls, the lavas of the past 150 years, infilling the caldera, have been rifted all around the southern, eastern and northern base of Vesuvio's cone, which, in turn, is being displaced seaward. Associated to the subsidence and extension of the summit area, relative uplift occurs along the coast; in addition, deformation of recent sediments 6-18 km offshore also indicate compression and uplift, which appears to be unrelated to regional tectonics. A preliminary evaluation indicates that rifting of the lavas is in the order of 1-2 mm/a with a southwestward average direction of displacement. Based on these data, we suggest that a wide sector of Somma-Vesuvio is spreading on its plastic sedimentary substratum, which have been identified by drilling. Volcanic spreading appears to have controlled the magmatic evolution and the energy decrease of major historic explosive eruptions since 79 AD. If our interpretation is correct, major plinian eruptions should not occur in the near future. On the other hand, rifting around the caldera suggests that volcanic activity could soon be renewed.

Flame spread over inclined electrical wires with AC electric fields

KAUST Repository

Lim, Seung J.

2017-07-21

Flame spread over polyethylene-insulated electrical wires was studied experimentally with applied alternating current (AC) by varying the inclination angle (θ), applied voltage (VAC), and frequency (fAC). For the baseline case with no electric field applied, the flame spread rate and the flame width of downwardly spreading flames (DSFs) decreased from the horizontal case for −20° ≤ θ < 0° and maintained near constant values for −90° ≤ θ < −20°, while the flame spread rate increased appreciably as the inclination angle of upwardly spreading flames (USFs) increased. When an AC electric field was applied, the behavior of flame spread rate in DSFs (USFs) could be classified into two (three) sub-regimes characterized by various functional dependences on VAC, fAC, and θ. In nearly all cases of DSFs, a globular molten polyethylene formed ahead of the spreading flame edge, occasionally dripping onto the ground. In these cases, an effective flame spread rate was defined to represent the burning rate by measuring the mass loss due to dripping. This effective spread rate was independent of AC frequency, while it decreased linearly with voltage and was independent of the inclination angle. In DSFs, when excessively high voltage and frequency were applied, the dripping led to flame extinction during propagation and the extinction frequency correlated well with applied voltage. In USFs, when high voltage and frequency were applied, multiple globular molten PEs formed at several locations, leading to ejections of multiple small flame segments from the main flame, thereby reducing the flame spread rate, which could be attributed to the electrospray phenomenon.

Increased 20-HETE synthesis explains reduced cerebral blood flow but not impaired neurovascular coupling after cortical spreading depression in rat cerebral cortex

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fordsmann, Jonas Christoffer; ko, Rebecca; Choi, Hyun B

2013-01-01

Cortical spreading depression (CSD) is associated with release of arachidonic acid (AA), impaired neurovascular coupling, and reduced cerebral blood flow (CBF), caused by cortical vasoconstriction. We tested the hypothesis that the released AA is metabolized by the cytochrome P450 enzyme to produce...... neurovascular coupling after CSD. These findings suggest that CSD-induced increments in 20-HETE cause the reduction in CBF after CSD, and that the attenuation of stimulation-induced CBF responses after CSD has a different mechanism. We suggest that blockade of 20-HETE synthesis may be clinically relevant...

Disease spreading with epidemic alert on small-world networks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Han, Xiao-Pu

2007-01-01

Base on two-dimension small-world networks, a susceptible-infected model with epidemic alert is proposed in this Letter. In this model, if some parts of the network are alarmed as dangerous, a fraction of edges between the alarmed parts and others will be removed, and two cases of alerting rules that the degree and frequency of contacts kept unchanged are considered respectively. The numerical simulations show that the spreading velocity is reduced by the accurate and timely epidemic alert, and the more accurate and timely, the stronger the deceleration effect. This model indicates that to broadcast epidemic alert timely is helpful and necessary in the control of epidemic spreading, and in agreement with the general view of epidemic alert. This work is helpful to understand the effects of epidemic alert on disease spreading

A gravity model for the spread of a pollinator-borne plant pathogen.

Science.gov (United States)

Ferrari, Matthew J; Bjørnstad, Ottar N; Partain, Jessica L; Antonovics, Janis

2006-09-01

Many pathogens of plants are transmitted by arthropod vectors whose movement between individual hosts is influenced by foraging behavior. Insect foraging has been shown to depend on both the quality of hosts and the distances between hosts. Given the spatial distribution of host plants and individual variation in quality, vector foraging patterns may therefore produce predictable variation in exposure to pathogens. We develop a "gravity" model to describe the spatial spread of a vector-borne plant pathogen from underlying models of insect foraging in response to host quality using the pollinator-borne smut fungus Microbotryum violaceum as a case study. We fit the model to spatially explicit time series of M. violaceum transmission in replicate experimental plots of the white campion Silene latifolia. The gravity model provides a better fit than a mean field model or a model with only distance-dependent transmission. The results highlight the importance of active vector foraging in generating spatial patterns of disease incidence and for pathogen-mediated selection for floral traits.

Multi-scale model of epidemic fade-out: Will local extirpation events inhibit the spread of white-nose syndrome?

Science.gov (United States)

O'Reagan, Suzanne M; Magori, Krisztian; Pulliam, J Tomlin; Zokan, Marcus A; Kaul, RajReni B; Barton, Heather D; Drake, John M

2015-04-01

White-nose syndrome (WNS) is an emerging infectious disease that has resulted in severe declines of its hibernating bat hosts in North America. The ongoing epidemic of white-nose syndrome is a multi-scale phenomenon becau.se it causes hibernaculum-level extirpations, while simultaneously spreading over larger spatial scales. We investigate a neglected topic in ecological epidemiology: how local pathogen-driven extirpations impact large-scale pathogen spread. Previous studies have identified risk factors for propagation of WNS over hibernaculum and landscape scales but none of these have tested the hypothesis that separation of spatial scales and disease-induced mortality at the hibernaculum level might slow or halt its spread. To test this hypothesis, we developed a mechanistic multi-scale model parameterized using white-nose syndrome.county and site incidence data that connects hibernaculum-level susceptible-infectious-removed (SIR) epidemiology to the county-scale contagion process. Our key result is that hibernaculum-level extirpations will not inhibit county-scale spread of WNS. We show that over 80% of counties of the contiguous USA are likely to become infected before the current epidemic is over and that geometry of habitat connectivity is such that host refuges are exceedingly rare. The macroscale spatiotemporal infection pattern that emerges from local SIR epidemiological processes falls within a narrow spectrum of possible outcomes, suggesting that recolonization, rescue effects, and multi-host complexities at local scales are not important to forward propagation of WNS at large spatial scales. If effective control measures are not implemented, precipitous declines in bat populations are likely, particularly in cave-dense regions that constitute the main geographic corridors of the USA, a serious concern for bat conservation.

Combinatorics of spreads and parallelisms

CERN Document Server

Johnson, Norman

2010-01-01

Partitions of Vector Spaces Quasi-Subgeometry Partitions Finite Focal-SpreadsGeneralizing André SpreadsThe Going Up Construction for Focal-SpreadsSubgeometry Partitions Subgeometry and Quasi-Subgeometry Partitions Subgeometries from Focal-SpreadsExtended André SubgeometriesKantor's Flag-Transitive DesignsMaximal Additive Partial SpreadsSubplane Covered Nets and Baer Groups Partial Desarguesian t-Parallelisms Direct Products of Affine PlanesJha-Johnson SL(2,

Design of Capillary Flows with Spatially Graded Porous Films

Science.gov (United States)

Joung, Young Soo; Figliuzzi, Bruno Michel; Buie, Cullen

2013-11-01

We have developed a new capillary tube model, consisting of multi-layered capillary tubes oriented in the direction of flow, to predict capillary speeds on spatially graded porous films. Capillary flows through thin porous media have been widely utilized for small size liquid transport systems. However, for most media it is challenging to realize arbitrary shapes and spatially functionalized micro-structures with variable flow properties. Therefore, conventional media can only be used for capillary flows obeying Washburn's equation and the modifications thereof. Given this background, we recently developed a method called breakdown anodization (BDA) to produce highly wetting porous films. The resulting surfaces show nearly zero contact angles and fast water spreading speed. Furthermore, capillary pressure and spreading diffusivity can be expressed as functions of capillary height when customized electric fields are used in BDA. From the capillary tube model, we derived a general capillary flow equation of motion in terms of capillary pressure and spreading diffusivity. The theoretical model shows good agreement with experimental capillary flows. The study will provide novel design methodologies for paper-based microfluidic devices.

Spread of Zika virus in the Americas.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Qian; Sun, Kaiyuan; Chinazzi, Matteo; Pastore Y Piontti, Ana; Dean, Natalie E; Rojas, Diana Patricia; Merler, Stefano; Mistry, Dina; Poletti, Piero; Rossi, Luca; Bray, Margaret; Halloran, M Elizabeth; Longini, Ira M; Vespignani, Alessandro

2017-05-30

We use a data-driven global stochastic epidemic model to analyze the spread of the Zika virus (ZIKV) in the Americas. The model has high spatial and temporal resolution and integrates real-world demographic, human mobility, socioeconomic, temperature, and vector density data. We estimate that the first introduction of ZIKV to Brazil likely occurred between August 2013 and April 2014 (90% credible interval). We provide simulated epidemic profiles of incident ZIKV infections for several countries in the Americas through February 2017. The ZIKV epidemic is characterized by slow growth and high spatial and seasonal heterogeneity, attributable to the dynamics of the mosquito vector and to the characteristics and mobility of the human populations. We project the expected timing and number of pregnancies infected with ZIKV during the first trimester and provide estimates of microcephaly cases assuming different levels of risk as reported in empirical retrospective studies. Our approach represents a modeling effort aimed at understanding the potential magnitude and timing of the ZIKV epidemic and it can be potentially used as a template for the analysis of future mosquito-borne epidemics.

Risk spreading, connectivity, and optimal reserve spacing.

Science.gov (United States)

Blowes, Shane A; Connolly, Sean R

2012-01-01

Two important processes determining the dynamics of spatially structured populations are dispersal and the spatial covariance of demographic fluctuations. Spatially explicit approaches to conservation, such as reserve networks, must consider the tension between these two processes and reach a balance between distances near enough to maintain connectivity, but far enough to benefit from risk spreading. Here, we model this trade-off. We show how two measures of metapopulation persistence depend on the shape of the dispersal kernel and the shape of the distance decay in demographic covariance, and we consider the implications of this trade-off for reserve spacing. The relative rates of distance decay in dispersal and demographic covariance determine whether the long-run metapopulation growth rate, and quasi-extinction risk, peak for adjacent patches or intermediately spaced patches; two local maxima in metapopulation persistence are also possible. When dispersal itself fluctuates over time, the trade-off changes. Temporal variation in mean distance that propagules are dispersed (i.e., propagule advection) decreases metapopulation persistence and decreases the likelihood that persistence will peak for adjacent patches. Conversely, variation in diffusion (the extent of random spread around mean dispersal) increases metapopulation persistence overall and causes it to peak at shorter inter-patch distances. Thus, failure to consider temporal variation in dispersal processes increases the risk that reserve spacings will fail to meet the objective of ensuring metapopulation persistence. This study identifies two phenomena that receive relatively little attention in empirical work on reserve spacing, but that can qualitatively change the effectiveness of reserve spacing strategies: (1) the functional form of the distance decay in covariance among patch-specific demographic rates and (2) temporal variation in the shape of the dispersal kernel. The sensitivity of metapopulation

Analysis of Spatiotemporal Characteristics of Pandemic SARS Spread in Mainland China.

Science.gov (United States)

Cao, Chunxiang; Chen, Wei; Zheng, Sheng; Zhao, Jian; Wang, Jinfeng; Cao, Wuchun

2016-01-01

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is one of the most severe emerging infectious diseases of the 21st century so far. SARS caused a pandemic that spread throughout mainland China for 7 months, infecting 5318 persons in 194 administrative regions. Using detailed mainland China epidemiological data, we study spatiotemporal aspects of this person-to-person contagious disease and simulate its spatiotemporal transmission dynamics via the Bayesian Maximum Entropy (BME) method. The BME reveals that SARS outbreaks show autocorrelation within certain spatial and temporal distances. We use BME to fit a theoretical covariance model that has a sine hole spatial component and exponential temporal component and obtain the weights of geographical and temporal autocorrelation factors. Using the covariance model, SARS dynamics were estimated and simulated under the most probable conditions. Our study suggests that SARS transmission varies in its epidemiological characteristics and SARS outbreak distributions exhibit palpable clusters on both spatial and temporal scales. In addition, the BME modelling demonstrates that SARS transmission features are affected by spatial heterogeneity, so we analyze potential causes. This may benefit epidemiological control of pandemic infectious diseases.

Quantifying rates of cell migration and cell proliferation in co-culture barrier assays reveals how skin and melanoma cells interact during melanoma spreading and invasion.

Science.gov (United States)

Haridas, Parvathi; Penington, Catherine J; McGovern, Jacqui A; McElwain, D L Sean; Simpson, Matthew J

2017-06-21

Malignant spreading involves the migration of cancer cells amongst other native cell types. For example, in vivo melanoma invasion involves individual melanoma cells migrating through native skin, which is composed of several distinct subpopulations of cells. Here, we aim to quantify how interactions between melanoma and fibroblast cells affect the collective spreading of a heterogeneous population of these cells in vitro. We perform a suite of circular barrier assays that includes: (i) monoculture assays with fibroblast cells; (ii) monoculture assays with SK-MEL-28 melanoma cells; and (iii) a series of co-culture assays initiated with three different ratios of SK-MEL-28 melanoma cells and fibroblast cells. Using immunostaining, detailed cell density histograms are constructed to illustrate how the two subpopulations of cells are spatially arranged within the spreading heterogeneous population. Calibrating the solution of a continuum partial differential equation to the experimental results from the monoculture assays allows us to estimate the cell diffusivity and the cell proliferation rate for the melanoma and the fibroblast cells, separately. Using the parameter estimates from the monoculture assays, we then make a prediction of the spatial spreading in the co-culture assays. Results show that the parameter estimates obtained from the monoculture assays lead to a reasonably accurate prediction of the spatial arrangement of the two subpopulations in the co-culture assays. Overall, the spatial pattern of spreading of the melanoma cells and the fibroblast cells is very similar in monoculture and co-culture conditions. Therefore, we find no clear evidence of any interactions other than cell-to-cell contact and crowding effects. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Interplant movement and spatial distribution of alate and apterous morphs of Nasonovia ribisnigri (Homoptera: Aphididae) on lettuce.

Science.gov (United States)

Diaz, B M; Barrios, L; Fereres, A

2012-08-01

Knowledge on colonization modes and interplant movement of Nasonovia ribisnigri can contribute to the development of optimal control of this pest. The aim of this study was to determine the spatio-temporal distribution and the mode of spread between adult morphs of Nasonovia ribisnigri, comparing spring and autumn lettuce protected crops. The spatial and temporal pattern was analyzed using the spatial analysis by distance indices (SADIE) methodology and other related displacement indices. The population size of N. ribisnigri was greater in the autumn than in the spring growing seasons due to milder temperatures. The percentage of plants colonized by aphids was higher in spring than in autumn, showing the great dispersal potential of this aphid species independent of their population size. Differential propensity for initial displacement from the central plant was observed between adult morphs in spring, resulting in a greater ability of apterous than alate aphids to spread far away from the source plant. In autumn, both adult morphs showed an initial reduced displacement; however, the number of plants infested (≈20%) with at least one aphid at this initial time (seven days) was similar for both adult morphs and both growing seasons. Analysis of the spatial pattern of both adult morphs revealed a predominantly random distribution for both spring and autumn trials. This pattern was achieved by a prevalent random movement over the area (γ≈0.5). These results highlight the ability of the apterous N. ribisnigri to spread within greenhouse lettuce crops early in the spring, suggesting that detection of the pest by deep visual inspection is required after lettuce emergence.

Explosive spreading on complex networks: The role of synergy.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Quan-Hui; Wang, Wei; Tang, Ming; Zhou, Tao; Lai, Ying-Cheng

2017-04-01

In spite of the vast literature on spreading dynamics on complex networks, the role of local synergy, i.e., the interaction of elements that when combined produce a total effect greater than the sum of the individual elements, has been studied but only for irreversible spreading dynamics. Reversible spreading dynamics are ubiquitous but their interplay with synergy has remained unknown. To fill this knowledge gap, we articulate a model to incorporate local synergistic effect into the classical susceptible-infected-susceptible process, in which the probability for a susceptible node to become infected through an infected neighbor is enhanced when the neighborhood of the latter contains a number of infected nodes. We derive master equations incorporating the synergistic effect, with predictions that agree well with the numerical results. A striking finding is that when a parameter characterizing the strength of the synergy reinforcement effect is above a critical value, the steady-state density of the infected nodes versus the basic transmission rate exhibits an explosively increasing behavior and a hysteresis loop emerges. In fact, increasing the synergy strength can promote the spreading and reduce the invasion and persistence thresholds of the hysteresis loop. A physical understanding of the synergy promoting explosive spreading and the associated hysteresis behavior can be obtained through a mean-field analysis.

Epidemic Spreading in Complex Networks with Resilient Nodes: Applications to FMD

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pilwon Kim

2018-01-01

Full Text Available At the outbreak of the animal epidemic disease, farms that recover quickly from partially infected state can delay or even suppress the wide spreading of the infection over farm networks. In this work, we focus on how the spatial transmission of the infection is affected by both factors, the topology of networks and the internal resilience mechanism of nodes. We first develop an individual farm model to examine the influence of initial number of infected individuals and vaccination rate on the transmission in a single farm. Based on such intrafarm model, the farm network is constructed which reflects disease transmission between farms at various stages. We explore the impact of the farms vaccinated at low rates on the disease transmission into entire farm network and investigate the effect of the control on hub farms on the transmission over the farm network. It is shown that intensive control on the farms vaccinated at low rates and hub farms effectively reduces the potential risk of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD outbreak on the farm network.

Altitudinal Barrier to the Spread of an Invasive Species: Could the Pyrenean Chain Slow the Natural Spread of the Pinewood Nematode?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Julien Haran

Full Text Available Mountain ranges may delimit the distribution of native species as well as constitute potential barriers to the spread of invasive species. The invasive pinewood nematode, Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, is a severe forest pest inducing pine wilt disease. It is vectored in Europe by a native long-horned beetle, Monochamus galloprovincialis. This study explored the potential of the Pyrenean chain to slow or prevent the natural spread of nematode-infested beetles from the Iberian Peninsula, where the nematode is established and is expanding its range, towards France and the rest of Europe. An analysis of the genetic structure and migration patterns of the beetle populations throughout the Pyrenean mountain range was combined with a spread model simulating the potential movements of nematode-infested beetles across it. The central part of the Pyrenees, which corresponds to the highest elevation zone, was shown to prevent gene flow between the French and Spanish populations of M. galloprovincialis on each side of the mountains. Conversely, strong admixture was detected between populations located on both sides of low elevation hills, and especially at the east and west extremities of the mountain range. Simulations of the spread of nematode-infested beetles under various thresholds of beetle survival and pine wilt disease expression gave results consistent with the variation in genetic make-up, suggesting that western and eastern hillsides may represent corridors favoring natural spread of the nematode from the Iberian Peninsula to France. Simulations also showed that temperature rise due to climate change may significantly reduce the extent of the barrier formed by highest elevations. Our results support the hypothesis that the Pyrenean chain represents a partial barrier to the natural spread of nematode-infested beetles. These results, which have to be considered together with potential human-assisted long-distance spread of the nematode, highlight

Age, spreading rates, and spreading asymmetry of the world's ocean crust

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — The authors present four companion digital models of the age, age uncertainty, spreading rates and spreading asymmetries of the world's ocean basins as geographic...

Changing spatial epidemiology of pertussis in continental USA.

Science.gov (United States)

Choisy, Marc; Rohani, Pejman

2012-11-22

Prediction and control of the geographical spread of emerging pathogens has become a central public health issue. Because these infectious diseases are by definition novel, there are few data to characterize their dynamics. One possible solution to this problem is to apply lessons learnt from analyses of historical data on familiar and epidemiologically similar pathogens. However, the portability of the spatial ecology of an infectious disease in a different epoch to other infections remains unexamined. Here, we study this issue by taking advantage of the recent re-emergence of pertussis in the United States to compare its spatial transmission dynamics throughout the 1950s with the past decade. We report 4-year waves, sweeping across the continent in the 1950s. These waves are shown to emanate from highly synchronous foci in the northwest and northeast coasts. In contrast, the recent resurgence of the disease is characterized by 5.5-year epidemics with no particular spatial structure. We interpret this to be the result of dramatic changes in patterns of human movement over the second half of the last century, together with changing age distribution of pertussis. We conclude that extrapolation regarding the spatial spread of contemporaneous pathogens based on analyses of historical incidence may be potentially very misleading.

Warning signals for eruptive events in spreading fires.

Science.gov (United States)

Fox, Jerome M; Whitesides, George M

2015-02-24

Spreading fires are noisy (and potentially chaotic) systems in which transitions in dynamics are notoriously difficult to predict. As flames move through spatially heterogeneous environments, sudden shifts in temperature, wind, or topography can generate combustion instabilities, or trigger self-stabilizing feedback loops, that dramatically amplify the intensities and rates with which fires propagate. Such transitions are rarely captured by predictive models of fire behavior and, thus, complicate efforts in fire suppression. This paper describes a simple, remarkably instructive physical model for examining the eruption of small flames into intense, rapidly moving flames stabilized by feedback between wind and fire (i.e., "wind-fire coupling"-a mechanism of feedback particularly relevant to forest fires), and it presents evidence that characteristic patterns in the dynamics of spreading flames indicate when such transitions are likely to occur. In this model system, flames propagate along strips of nitrocellulose with one of two possible modes of propagation: a slow, structured mode, and a fast, unstructured mode sustained by wind-fire coupling. Experimental examination of patterns in dynamics that emerge near bifurcation points suggests that symptoms of critical slowing down (i.e., the slowed recovery of the system from perturbations as it approaches tipping points) warn of impending transitions to the unstructured mode. Findings suggest that slowing responses of spreading flames to sudden changes in environment (e.g., wind, terrain, temperature) may anticipate the onset of intense, feedback-stabilized modes of propagation (e.g., "blowup fires" in forests).

Analyses of corium spreading in Mark I containment geometry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sienicki, J.J.; Chu, C.C.; Farmer, M.T.

1991-01-01

An assessment of melt spreading in the Mark I system has been carried out using the MELTSPREAD-1 computer code together with supporting analyses. Application of MELTSPREAD-1 confirms the calculation of shell survival in a wet containment for the most probable melt release conditions from NUREG/CR-5423. According to MELTSPREAD-1, a dry containment also may not be threatened by melt spreading. This reflects the heat losses undergone by the melt in the process of spreading to the shell conservatively neglected in NUREG/CR-5423. However, there exist parameter ranges outside the most probable set where shell failure may be calculated. Accounting for the breakup and quenching of melt relocating through a deep layer of subcooled water also conservatively neglected in NUREG/CR-5423 can reduce the set of parameter variations for which containment failure is calculated in the wet case

Reducing fertilizer-nitrogen losses from rowcrop landscapes: Insights and implications from a spatially explicit watershed model

Science.gov (United States)

McLellan, Eileen; Schilling, Keith; Robertson, Dale M.

2015-01-01

We present conceptual and quantitative models that predict changes in fertilizer-derived nitrogen delivery from rowcrop landscapes caused by agricultural conservation efforts implemented to reduce nutrient inputs and transport and increase nutrient retention in the landscape. To evaluate the relative importance of changes in the sources, transport, and sinks of fertilizer-derived nitrogen across a region, we use the spatially explicit SPAtially Referenced Regression On Watershed attributes watershed model to map the distribution, at the small watershed scale within the Upper Mississippi-Ohio River Basin (UMORB), of: (1) fertilizer inputs; (2) nutrient attenuation during delivery of those inputs to the UMORB outlet; and (3) nitrogen export from the UMORB outlet. Comparing these spatial distributions suggests that the amount of fertilizer input and degree of nutrient attenuation are both important in determining the extent of nitrogen export. From a management perspective, this means that agricultural conservation efforts to reduce nitrogen export would benefit by: (1) expanding their focus to include activities that restore and enhance nutrient processing in these highly altered landscapes; and (2) targeting specific types of best management practices to watersheds where they will be most valuable. Doing so successfully may result in a shift in current approaches to conservation planning, outreach, and funding.

Modeling the effects of social impact on epidemic spreading in complex networks

Science.gov (United States)

Ni, Shunjiang; Weng, Wenguo; Zhang, Hui

2011-11-01

We investigate by mean-field analysis and extensive simulations the effects of social impact on epidemic spreading in various typical networks with two types of nodes: active nodes and passive nodes, of which the behavior patterns are modeled according to the social impact theory. In this study, nodes are not only the media to spread the virus, but also disseminate their opinions on the virus-whether there is a need for certain self-protection measures to be taken to reduce the risk of being infected. Our results indicate that the interaction between epidemic spreading and opinion dynamics can have significant influences on the spreading of infectious diseases and related applications, such as the implementation of prevention and control measures against the infectious diseases.

Spatial and temporal changes in sulphate-reducing groundwater bacterial community structure in response to Managed Aquifer Recharge.

Science.gov (United States)

Reed, D A; Toze, S; Chang, B

2008-01-01

The population dynamics of bacterial able to be cultured under sulphate reducing condition was studied in conjunction with changes in aquifer geochemistry using multivariate statistics for two contrasting Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) techniques at two different geographical locations (Perth, Western Australia and Adelaide, South Australia). Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to investigate spatial and temporal changes in the overall chemical signature of the aquifers using an array of chemical analytes which demonstrated a migrating geochemical plume. Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis (DGGE) using DNA from sulphate-reducing bacteria cultures was used to detect spatial and temporal changes in population dynamics. Bacterial and geochemical evidence suggested that groundwater at greatest distance from the nutrient source was least affected by treated effluent recharge. The results suggested that bacterial populations that were able to be cultured in sulphate reducing media responded to the migrating chemical gradient and to the changes in aquifer geochemistry. Most noticeably, sulphate-reducing bacterial populations associated with the infiltration galleries were stable in community structure over time. Additionally, the biodiversity of these culturable bacteria was restored when aquifer geochemistry returned to ambient conditions during the recovery phase at the Adelaide Aquifer Storage and Recovery site. Copyright CSIRO 2008.

Effects of individual popularity on information spreading in complex networks

Science.gov (United States)

Gao, Lei; Li, Ruiqi; Shu, Panpan; Wang, Wei; Gao, Hui; Cai, Shimin

2018-01-01

In real world, human activities often exhibit preferential selection mechanism based on the popularity of individuals. However, this mechanism is seldom taken into account by previous studies about spreading dynamics on networks. Thus in this work, an information spreading model is proposed by considering the preferential selection based on individuals' current popularity, which is defined as the number of individuals' cumulative contacts with informed neighbors. A mean-field theory is developed to analyze the spreading model. Through systematically studying the information spreading dynamics on uncorrelated configuration networks as well as real-world networks, we find that the popularity preference has great impacts on the information spreading. On the one hand, the information spreading is facilitated, i.e., a larger final prevalence of information and a smaller outbreak threshold, if nodes with low popularity are preferentially selected. In this situation, the effective contacts between informed nodes and susceptible nodes are increased, and nodes almost have uniform probabilities of obtaining the information. On the other hand, if nodes with high popularity are preferentially selected, the final prevalence of information is reduced, the outbreak threshold is increased, and even the information cannot outbreak. In addition, the heterogeneity of the degree distribution and the structure of real-world networks do not qualitatively affect the results. Our research can provide some theoretical supports for the promotion of spreading such as information, health related behaviors, and new products, etc.

Epidemic Spread of Symbiotic and Non-Symbiotic Bradyrhizobium Genotypes Across California.

Science.gov (United States)

Hollowell, A C; Regus, J U; Gano, K A; Bantay, R; Centeno, D; Pham, J; Lyu, J Y; Moore, D; Bernardo, A; Lopez, G; Patil, A; Patel, S; Lii, Y; Sachs, J L

2016-04-01

The patterns and drivers of bacterial strain dominance remain poorly understood in natural populations. Here, we cultured 1292 Bradyrhizobium isolates from symbiotic root nodules and the soil root interface of the host plant Acmispon strigosus across a >840-km transect in California. To investigate epidemiology and the potential role of accessory loci as epidemic drivers, isolates were genotyped at two chromosomal loci and were assayed for presence or absence of accessory "symbiosis island" loci that encode capacity to form nodules on hosts. We found that Bradyrhizobium populations were very diverse but dominated by few haplotypes-with a single "epidemic" haplotype constituting nearly 30 % of collected isolates and spreading nearly statewide. In many Bradyrhizobium lineages, we inferred presence and absence of the symbiosis island suggesting recurrent evolutionary gain and or loss of symbiotic capacity. We did not find statistical phylogenetic evidence that the symbiosis island acquisition promotes strain dominance and both symbiotic and non-symbiotic strains exhibited population dominance and spatial spread. Our dataset reveals that a strikingly few Bradyrhizobium genotypes can rapidly spread to dominate a landscape and suggests that these epidemics are not driven by the acquisition of accessory loci as occurs in key human pathogens.

The VULCANO spreading programme

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cognet, G.; Laffont, G.; Jegou, C.; Journeau, C.; Sudreau, F.; Pierre, J.; Ramacciotti, M. [CEA (Atomic Energy Commission), DRN/DER - Bat. 212, CEA Cadarache, 13108 St. Paul Lez Durance (France)

1999-07-01

Among the currently studied core-catcher projects, some of them suppose corium spreading before cooling, in particular the EPR (European Pressurized Reactor) core-catcher concept is based on mixing the corium with a special concrete, spreading the molten mixture on a large multi-layer surface cooled from the bottom and subsequently cooling by flooding with water. Therefore, melt spreading deserves intensive investigation in order to determine and quantify key phenomena which govern the stopping of spreading. In France, for some years, the Nuclear Reactor Division of the Atomic Energy Commission (CEA/DRN) has undertaken a large program to improve knowledge on corium behaviour and coolability. This program is based on experimental and theoretical investigations which are finally gathered in scenario and mechanistic computer codes. In this framework, the real material experimental programme, VULCANO, conducted within an European frame, is currently devoted to the study of corium spreading. In 1997 and 1998, several tests have been performed on dry corium spreading with various composition of melts. Although all the observed phenomena, in particular the differences between simulant and real material melts have not been yet totally explained, these tests have already provided a lot of information about: The behaviour of complex mixtures including refractory oxides, silica, iron oxides and in one case iron metal; Spreading progression, which was never stopped in any of these tests by a crust formation at the front; The structure of spread melts (porosity, crusts,...); Physico-chemical interaction between melt and the refractory substratum which was composed of zirconia bricks. (authors)

The VULCANO spreading programme

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cognet, G.; Laffont, G.; Jegou, C.; Journeau, C.; Sudreau, F.; Pierre, J.; Ramacciotti, M.

1999-01-01

Among the currently studied core-catcher projects, some of them suppose corium spreading before cooling, in particular the EPR (European Pressurized Reactor) core-catcher concept is based on mixing the corium with a special concrete, spreading the molten mixture on a large multi-layer surface cooled from the bottom and subsequently cooling by flooding with water. Therefore, melt spreading deserves intensive investigation in order to determine and quantify key phenomena which govern the stopping of spreading. In France, for some years, the Nuclear Reactor Division of the Atomic Energy Commission (CEA/DRN) has undertaken a large program to improve knowledge on corium behaviour and coolability. This program is based on experimental and theoretical investigations which are finally gathered in scenario and mechanistic computer codes. In this framework, the real material experimental programme, VULCANO, conducted within an European frame, is currently devoted to the study of corium spreading. In 1997 and 1998, several tests have been performed on dry corium spreading with various composition of melts. Although all the observed phenomena, in particular the differences between simulant and real material melts have not been yet totally explained, these tests have already provided a lot of information about: The behaviour of complex mixtures including refractory oxides, silica, iron oxides and in one case iron metal; Spreading progression, which was never stopped in any of these tests by a crust formation at the front; The structure of spread melts (porosity, crusts,...); Physico-chemical interaction between melt and the refractory substratum which was composed of zirconia bricks. (authors)

Facing the challenge of Arctic fisheries management within a context of spatially differentiated ecological-economic externalities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kaiser, Brooks; Fernandez, Linda; Sundet, Jan

inherent in these species’ introductions. The challenges of effectively managing these species are particularly high, mainly due to their twofold role as invasive species and market commodities. Part of the balancing act needed for a solution to the spread of the RKC has been directed at spatial...... less open to the spread of invasive species are now responsible for the expansiveness of the problem. At stake are unique species and co-evolved systems that have taken millennia to develop. Even small-scale disturbances in the pristine Arctic ecosystems are likely to have outsized impacts both...... on an ecological and on an economic level. This work discusses optimal management approaches regarding threats from invasive species on an international scale in order to delineate international policy characteristics that may reduce overall damages and costs. The purposeful introduction of the Red King Crab (RKC...

Self-consistent modeling of plasma response to impurity spreading from intense localized source

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koltunov, Mikhail

2012-07-01

Non-hydrogen impurities unavoidably exist in hot plasmas of present fusion devices. They enter it intrinsically, due to plasma interaction with the wall of vacuum vessel, as well as are seeded for various purposes deliberately. Normally, the spots where injected particles enter the plasma are much smaller than its total surface. Under such conditions one has to expect a significant modification of local plasma parameters through various physical mechanisms, which, in turn, affect the impurity spreading. Self-consistent modeling of interaction between impurity and plasma is, therefore, not possible with linear approaches. A model based on the fluid description of electrons, main and impurity ions, and taking into account the plasma quasi-neutrality, Coulomb collisions of background and impurity charged particles, radiation losses, particle transport to bounding surfaces, is elaborated in this work. To describe the impurity spreading and the plasma response self-consistently, fluid equations for the particle, momentum and energy balances of various plasma components are solved by reducing them to ordinary differential equations for the time evolution of several parameters characterizing the solution in principal details: the magnitudes of plasma density and plasma temperatures in the regions of impurity localization and the spatial scales of these regions. The results of calculations for plasma conditions typical in tokamak experiments with impurity injection are presented. A new mechanism for the condensation phenomenon and formation of cold dense plasma structures is proposed.

A Complex Network Theory Approach for the Spatial Distribution of Fire Breaks in Heterogeneous Forest Landscapes for the Control of Wildland Fires.

Science.gov (United States)

Russo, Lucia; Russo, Paola; Siettos, Constantinos I

2016-01-01

Based on complex network theory, we propose a computational methodology which addresses the spatial distribution of fuel breaks for the inhibition of the spread of wildland fires on heterogeneous landscapes. This is a two-level approach where the dynamics of fire spread are modeled as a random Markov field process on a directed network whose edge weights are determined by a Cellular Automata model that integrates detailed GIS, landscape and meteorological data. Within this framework, the spatial distribution of fuel breaks is reduced to the problem of finding network nodes (small land patches) which favour fire propagation. Here, this is accomplished by exploiting network centrality statistics. We illustrate the proposed approach through (a) an artificial forest of randomly distributed density of vegetation, and (b) a real-world case concerning the island of Rhodes in Greece whose major part of its forest was burned in 2008. Simulation results show that the proposed methodology outperforms the benchmark/conventional policy of fuel reduction as this can be realized by selective harvesting and/or prescribed burning based on the density and flammability of vegetation. Interestingly, our approach reveals that patches with sparse density of vegetation may act as hubs for the spread of the fire.

A Complex Network Theory Approach for the Spatial Distribution of Fire Breaks in Heterogeneous Forest Landscapes for the Control of Wildland Fires.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lucia Russo

Full Text Available Based on complex network theory, we propose a computational methodology which addresses the spatial distribution of fuel breaks for the inhibition of the spread of wildland fires on heterogeneous landscapes. This is a two-level approach where the dynamics of fire spread are modeled as a random Markov field process on a directed network whose edge weights are determined by a Cellular Automata model that integrates detailed GIS, landscape and meteorological data. Within this framework, the spatial distribution of fuel breaks is reduced to the problem of finding network nodes (small land patches which favour fire propagation. Here, this is accomplished by exploiting network centrality statistics. We illustrate the proposed approach through (a an artificial forest of randomly distributed density of vegetation, and (b a real-world case concerning the island of Rhodes in Greece whose major part of its forest was burned in 2008. Simulation results show that the proposed methodology outperforms the benchmark/conventional policy of fuel reduction as this can be realized by selective harvesting and/or prescribed burning based on the density and flammability of vegetation. Interestingly, our approach reveals that patches with sparse density of vegetation may act as hubs for the spread of the fire.

Effect of network topology on the spreading of technologies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kocsis, G.; Kun, F.

2007-01-01

Complete text of publication follows. Technological evolution of socio-economic systems has two major components: (i) Innovation New products, ideas, paradigms emerge as a result of innovations which are then tested by the market. (ii) Spreading Successful technologies spread over the system resulting in an overall technological progress. In the present project we study the spreading of new technological achievements, searching for the conditions of technological development. One of the key components of the spreading of successful technologies is the copying, i.e. members of the system adopt technologies used by other individuals according to certain decision mechanisms. Decision making is usually based on a cost-benefit balance so that a technology gets adopted by a large number of individuals if the upgrading provides enough benefits. The gradual adaptation of high level technologies leads to spreading of technologies and an overall technological progress of the socio-economic system. We proposed an agent based model for the spreading process of such technologies in which the interaction of individuals plays a crucial role. Agents of the model use products of different technologies to collaborate with each other which induce costs proportional to the difference of technological levels. Additional costs arise when technologies of different providers are used. Agents can adopt technologies and providers of their interacting partners in order to reduce their costs leading to microscopic rearrangements of the system. Starting from a random configuration of different technological levels a complex time evolution emerges where the spreading of advanced technologies and the overall technological progress of the system are determined by the amount of advantages more advanced technologies provide, and by the structure of the social environment of agents. When technological progress arises, the spreading of technologies in the system can be described by extreme order

Object-based spatial attention when objects have sufficient depth cues.

Science.gov (United States)

Takeya, Ryuji; Kasai, Tetsuko

2015-01-01

Attention directed to a part of an object tends to obligatorily spread over all of the spatial regions that belong to the object, which may be critical for rapid object-recognition in cluttered visual scenes. Previous studies have generally used simple rectangles as objects and have shown that attention spreading is reflected by amplitude modulation in the posterior N1 component (150-200 ms poststimulus) of event-related potentials, while other interpretations (i.e., rectangular holes) may arise implicitly in early visual processing stages. By using modified Kanizsa-type stimuli that provided less ambiguity of depth ordering, the present study examined early event-related potential spatial-attention effects for connected and separated objects, both of which were perceived in front of (Experiment 1) and in back of (Experiment 2) the surroundings. Typical P1 (100-140 ms) and N1 (150-220 ms) attention effects of ERP in response to unilateral probes were observed in both experiments. Importantly, the P1 attention effect was decreased for connected objects compared to separated objects only in Experiment 1, and the typical object-based modulations of N1 were not observed in either experiment. These results suggest that spatial attention spreads over a figural object at earlier stages of processing than previously indicated, in three-dimensional visual scenes with multiple depth cues.

Spread pattern of the first dengue epidemic in the city of Salvador, Brazil

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carvalho Marilia S

2008-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The explosive epidemics of dengue that have been occurring in various countries have stimulated investigation into new approaches to improve understanding of the problem and to develop new strategies for controlling the disease. The objective of this study was to evaluate the characteristics of diffusion of the first dengue epidemic that occurred in the city of Salvador in 1995. Methods The epidemiological charts and records of notified cases of dengue in Salvador in 1995 constituted the source of data. The cases of the disease were georeferenced according to census areas (spatial units and epidemiological weeks (temporal unit. Kernel density estimation was used to identify the pattern of spatial diffusion using the R-Project computer software program. Results Of the 2,006 census areas in the city, 1,400 (70% registered cases of dengue in 1995 and the spatial distribution of these records revealed that by the end of 1995 practically the entire city had been affected by the virus, with the largest concentration of cases occurring in the western region, composed of census areas with a high population density and predominantly horizontal residences compared to the eastern region of the city, where there is a predominance of vertical residential buildings. Conclusion The pattern found in this study shows the characteristics of the classic process of spreading by contagion that is common to most infectious diseases. It was possible to identify the epicenter of the epidemic from which centrifugal waves of the disease emanated. Our results suggest that, if a more agile control instrument existed that would be capable of rapidly reducing the vector population within a few days or of raising the group immunity of the population by means of a vaccine, it would theoretically be possible to adopt control actions around the epicenter of the epidemic and consequently reduce the incidence of the disease in the city. This finding emphasizes

Explicit goal-driven attention, unlike implicitly learned attention, spreads to secondary tasks.

Science.gov (United States)

Addleman, Douglas A; Tao, Jinyi; Remington, Roger W; Jiang, Yuhong V

2018-03-01

To what degree does spatial attention for one task spread to all stimuli in the attended region, regardless of task relevance? Most models imply that spatial attention acts through a unitary priority map in a task-general manner. We show that implicit learning, unlike endogenous spatial cuing, can bias spatial attention within one task without biasing attention to a spatially overlapping secondary task. Participants completed a visual search task superimposed on a background containing scenes, which they were told to encode for a later memory task. Experiments 1 and 2 used explicit instructions to bias spatial attention to one region for visual search; Experiment 3 used location probability cuing to implicitly bias spatial attention. In location probability cuing, a target appeared in one region more than others despite participants not being told of this. In all experiments, search performance was better in the cued region than in uncued regions. However, scene memory was better in the cued region only following endogenous guidance, not after implicit biasing of attention. These data support a dual-system view of top-down attention that dissociates goal-driven and implicitly learned attention. Goal-driven attention is task general, amplifying processing of a cued region across tasks, whereas implicit statistical learning is task-specific. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Analysis of Spatiotemporal Characteristics of Pandemic SARS Spread in Mainland China

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Chunxiang Cao

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS is one of the most severe emerging infectious diseases of the 21st century so far. SARS caused a pandemic that spread throughout mainland China for 7 months, infecting 5318 persons in 194 administrative regions. Using detailed mainland China epidemiological data, we study spatiotemporal aspects of this person-to-person contagious disease and simulate its spatiotemporal transmission dynamics via the Bayesian Maximum Entropy (BME method. The BME reveals that SARS outbreaks show autocorrelation within certain spatial and temporal distances. We use BME to fit a theoretical covariance model that has a sine hole spatial component and exponential temporal component and obtain the weights of geographical and temporal autocorrelation factors. Using the covariance model, SARS dynamics were estimated and simulated under the most probable conditions. Our study suggests that SARS transmission varies in its epidemiological characteristics and SARS outbreak distributions exhibit palpable clusters on both spatial and temporal scales. In addition, the BME modelling demonstrates that SARS transmission features are affected by spatial heterogeneity, so we analyze potential causes. This may benefit epidemiological control of pandemic infectious diseases.

Spatial-temporal modeling of malware propagation in networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Zesheng; Ji, Chuanyi

2005-09-01

Network security is an important task of network management. One threat to network security is malware (malicious software) propagation. One type of malware is called topological scanning that spreads based on topology information. The focus of this work is on modeling the spread of topological malwares, which is important for understanding their potential damages, and for developing countermeasures to protect the network infrastructure. Our model is motivated by probabilistic graphs, which have been widely investigated in machine learning. We first use a graphical representation to abstract the propagation of malwares that employ different scanning methods. We then use a spatial-temporal random process to describe the statistical dependence of malware propagation in arbitrary topologies. As the spatial dependence is particularly difficult to characterize, the problem becomes how to use simple (i.e., biased) models to approximate the spatially dependent process. In particular, we propose the independent model and the Markov model as simple approximations. We conduct both theoretical analysis and extensive simulations on large networks using both real measurements and synthesized topologies to test the performance of the proposed models. Our results show that the independent model can capture temporal dependence and detailed topology information and, thus, outperforms the previous models, whereas the Markov model incorporates a certain spatial dependence and, thus, achieves a greater accuracy in characterizing both transient and equilibrium behaviors of malware propagation.

Neurokinin-1 enables measles virus trans-synaptic spread in neurons

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Makhortova, Nina R.; Askovich, Peter; Patterson, Catherine E.; Gechman, Lisa A.; Gerard, Norma P.; Rall, Glenn F.

2007-01-01

Measles virus (MV), a morbillivirus that remains a significant human pathogen, can infect the central nervous system, resulting in rare but often fatal diseases, such as subacute sclerosing panencephalitis. Previous work demonstrated that MV was transmitted trans-synaptically and that, while a cellular receptor for the hemagglutinin (H) protein was required for MV entry, it was dispensable for subsequent cell-to-cell spread. Here, we explored what role the other envelope protein, fusion (F), played in trans-synaptic transport. We made the following observations: (1) MV-F expression in infected neurons was similar to that seen in infected fibroblasts; (2) fusion inhibitory peptide (FIP), an inhibitor of MV fusion, prevented both infection and spread in primary neurons; (3) Substance P, a neurotransmitter with the same active site as FIP, also blocked neuronal MV spread; and (4) both genetic deletion and pharmacological inhibition of the Substance P receptor, neurokinin-1 (NK-1), reduced infection of susceptible mice. Together, these data implicate a role for NK-1 in MV CNS infection and spread, perhaps serving as an MV-F receptor or co-receptor on neurons

The Potential Role of Direct and Indirect Contacts on Infection Spread in Dairy Farm Networks.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gianluigi Rossi

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Animals' exchanges are considered the most effective route of between-farm infectious disease transmission. However, despite being often overlooked, the infection spread due to contaminated equipment, vehicles, or personnel proved to be important for several livestock epidemics. This study investigated the role of indirect contacts in a potential infection spread in the dairy farm network of the Province of Parma (Northern Italy. We built between-farm contact networks using data on cattle exchange (direct contacts, and on-farm visits by veterinarians (indirect contacts. We compared the features of the contact structures by using measures on static and temporal networks. We assessed the disease spreading potential of the direct and indirect network structures in the farm system by using data on the infection state of farms by paratuberculosis. Direct and indirect networks showed non-trivial differences with respect to connectivity, contact distribution, and super-spreaders identification. Furthermore, our analyses on paratuberculosis data suggested that the contributions of direct and indirect contacts on diseases spread are apparent at different spatial scales. Our results highlighted the potential role of indirect contacts in between-farm disease spread and underlined the need for a deeper understanding of these contacts to develop better strategies for prevention of livestock epidemics.

Spread of porcine circovirus associated disease (PCVAD in Ontario (Canada swine herds: Part II. Matched case-control study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Young Beth

2010-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The emergence of porcine circovirus associated disease (PCVAD was associated with high mortality in swine populations worldwide. Studies performed in different regions identified spatial, temporal, and spatio-temporal trends as factors contributing to patterns of the disease spread. Patterns consistent with spatial trend and spatio-temporal clustering were already identified in this dataset. On the basis of these results, we have further investigated the nature of local spread in this report. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate risk factors for incidence cases of reported PCVAD. Results A time-matched case-control study was used as a study design approach, and conditional logistic regression as the analytical method. The main exposure of interest was local spread, which was defined as an unidentified mechanism of PCVAD spread between premises located within 3 kilometers of the Euclidean distance. Various modifications of variables indicative of local spread were also evaluated. The dataset contained 278 swine herds from Ontario originally sampled either from diagnostic laboratory submissions or directly from the target population. A PCVAD case was defined on the basis of the producer's recall. Existence of apparent local spread over the entire study period was confirmed (OR = 2.26, 95% CI: 1.06, 4.83, and was further identified to be time-varying in nature - herds experiencing outbreaks in the later part of the epidemic were more likely than control herds to be exposed to neighboring herds experiencing recent PCVAD outbreaks. More importantly, the pattern of local spread was driven by concurrent occurrence of PCVAD on premises under the same ownership (OREXACTwithin ownership = 25.6, 95% CI: 3.4, +inf; OREXACToutside ownership = 1.3, 95% CI: 0.45, 3.3. Other significant factors included PRRSv status of a herd (OREXACT = 1.9, 95% CI: 1.0, 3.9, after adjusting for geographical location by including the binary

Playing an action video game reduces gender differences in spatial cognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Feng, Jing; Spence, Ian; Pratt, Jay

2007-10-01

We demonstrate a previously unknown gender difference in the distribution of spatial attention, a basic capacity that supports higher-level spatial cognition. More remarkably, we found that playing an action video game can virtually eliminate this gender difference in spatial attention and simultaneously decrease the gender disparity in mental rotation ability, a higher-level process in spatial cognition. After only 10 hr of training with an action video game, subjects realized substantial gains in both spatial attention and mental rotation, with women benefiting more than men. Control subjects who played a non-action game showed no improvement. Given that superior spatial skills are important in the mathematical and engineering sciences, these findings have practical implications for attracting men and women to these fields.

Long-range epidemic spreading in a random environment.

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Juhász, Róbert; Kovács, István A; Iglói, Ferenc

2015-03-01

Modeling long-range epidemic spreading in a random environment, we consider a quenched, disordered, d-dimensional contact process with infection rates decaying with distance as 1/rd+σ. We study the dynamical behavior of the model at and below the epidemic threshold by a variant of the strong-disorder renormalization-group method and by Monte Carlo simulations in one and two spatial dimensions. Starting from a single infected site, the average survival probability is found to decay as P(t)∼t-d/z up to multiplicative logarithmic corrections. Below the epidemic threshold, a Griffiths phase emerges, where the dynamical exponent z varies continuously with the control parameter and tends to zc=d+σ as the threshold is approached. At the threshold, the spatial extension of the infected cluster (in surviving trials) is found to grow as R(t)∼t1/zc with a multiplicative logarithmic correction and the average number of infected sites in surviving trials is found to increase as Ns(t)∼(lnt)χ with χ=2 in one dimension.

Origins of chemical diversity of back-arc basin basalts: a segment-scale study of the Eastern Lau Spreading Center

OpenAIRE

Bézos, Antoine; Escrig, Stéphane; Langmuir, Charles H.; Michael, Peter J.; Asimow, Paul D.

2009-01-01

We report major, trace, and volatile element data on basaltic glasses from the northernmost segment of the Eastern Lau Spreading Center (ELSC1) in the Lau back-arc basin to further test and constrain models of back-arc volcanism. The zero-age samples come from 47 precisely collected stations from an 85 km length spreading center. The chemical data covary similarly to other back-arc systems but with tighter correlations and well-developed spatial systematics. We confirm a correlation between v...

Information spreading dynamics in hypernetworks

Science.gov (United States)

Suo, Qi; Guo, Jin-Li; Shen, Ai-Zhong

2018-04-01

Contact pattern and spreading strategy fundamentally influence the spread of information. Current mathematical methods largely assume that contacts between individuals are fixed by networks. In fact, individuals are affected by all his/her neighbors in different social relationships. Here, we develop a mathematical approach to depict the information spreading process in hypernetworks. Each individual is viewed as a node, and each social relationship containing the individual is viewed as a hyperedge. Based on SIS epidemic model, we construct two spreading models. One model is based on global transmission, corresponding to RP strategy. The other is based on local transmission, corresponding to CP strategy. These models can degenerate into complex network models with a special parameter. Thus hypernetwork models extend the traditional models and are more realistic. Further, we discuss the impact of parameters including structure parameters of hypernetwork, spreading rate, recovering rate as well as information seed on the models. Propagation time and density of informed nodes can reveal the overall trend of information dissemination. Comparing these two models, we find out that there is no spreading threshold in RP, while there exists a spreading threshold in CP. The RP strategy induces a broader and faster information spreading process under the same parameters.

Sizing Optimization and Strength Analysis for Spread-type Gear Reducers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wei-Hsuan Hsu

2014-08-01

Full Text Available A reducer is now developed towards the trend of customization service and cost-saving. In this study, a sizing program for the reducer has been developed in order to replace the manual sizing process. We aim at the total center distance of the gear reducer for optimization to reduce gear volume and weight. Also, we checked constrains such as, tooth root bending, tooth contact strength, gear shaft endangered cross-section, bearing life, gear shaft deflection, and torsion angle deformation, etc., to obtain reliable drive strength. Comparisons of sizes and weights before and after optimization confirm that the purpose for reducing production cost is achieved.

Epidemic spreading with activity-driven awareness diffusion on multiplex network.

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Guo, Quantong; Lei, Yanjun; Jiang, Xin; Ma, Yifang; Huo, Guanying; Zheng, Zhiming

2016-04-01

There has been growing interest in exploring the interplay between epidemic spreading with human response, since it is natural for people to take various measures when they become aware of epidemics. As a proper way to describe the multiple connections among people in reality, multiplex network, a set of nodes interacting through multiple sets of edges, has attracted much attention. In this paper, to explore the coupled dynamical processes, a multiplex network with two layers is built. Specifically, the information spreading layer is a time varying network generated by the activity driven model, while the contagion layer is a static network. We extend the microscopic Markov chain approach to derive the epidemic threshold of the model. Compared with extensive Monte Carlo simulations, the method shows high accuracy for the prediction of the epidemic threshold. Besides, taking different spreading models of awareness into consideration, we explored the interplay between epidemic spreading with awareness spreading. The results show that the awareness spreading can not only enhance the epidemic threshold but also reduce the prevalence of epidemics. When the spreading of awareness is defined as susceptible-infected-susceptible model, there exists a critical value where the dynamical process on the awareness layer can control the onset of epidemics; while if it is a threshold model, the epidemic threshold emerges an abrupt transition with the local awareness ratio α approximating 0.5. Moreover, we also find that temporal changes in the topology hinder the spread of awareness which directly affect the epidemic threshold, especially when the awareness layer is threshold model. Given that the threshold model is a widely used model for social contagion, this is an important and meaningful result. Our results could also lead to interesting future research about the different time-scales of structural changes in multiplex networks.

Epidemic spreading with activity-driven awareness diffusion on multiplex network

Science.gov (United States)

Guo, Quantong; Lei, Yanjun; Jiang, Xin; Ma, Yifang; Huo, Guanying; Zheng, Zhiming

2016-04-01

There has been growing interest in exploring the interplay between epidemic spreading with human response, since it is natural for people to take various measures when they become aware of epidemics. As a proper way to describe the multiple connections among people in reality, multiplex network, a set of nodes interacting through multiple sets of edges, has attracted much attention. In this paper, to explore the coupled dynamical processes, a multiplex network with two layers is built. Specifically, the information spreading layer is a time varying network generated by the activity driven model, while the contagion layer is a static network. We extend the microscopic Markov chain approach to derive the epidemic threshold of the model. Compared with extensive Monte Carlo simulations, the method shows high accuracy for the prediction of the epidemic threshold. Besides, taking different spreading models of awareness into consideration, we explored the interplay between epidemic spreading with awareness spreading. The results show that the awareness spreading can not only enhance the epidemic threshold but also reduce the prevalence of epidemics. When the spreading of awareness is defined as susceptible-infected-susceptible model, there exists a critical value where the dynamical process on the awareness layer can control the onset of epidemics; while if it is a threshold model, the epidemic threshold emerges an abrupt transition with the local awareness ratio α approximating 0.5. Moreover, we also find that temporal changes in the topology hinder the spread of awareness which directly affect the epidemic threshold, especially when the awareness layer is threshold model. Given that the threshold model is a widely used model for social contagion, this is an important and meaningful result. Our results could also lead to interesting future research about the different time-scales of structural changes in multiplex networks.

Investigating Coral Disease Spread Across the Hawaiian Archipelago

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Sziklay, Jamie

Coral diseases negatively impact reef ecosystems and they are increasing worldwide; yet, we have a limited understanding of the factors that influence disease risk and transmission. My dissertation research investigated coral disease spread for several common coral diseases in the Hawaiian archipelago to understand how host-pathogenenvironment interactions vary across different spatial scales and how we can use that information to improve management strategies. At broad spatial scales, I developed forecasting models to predict outbreak risk based on depth, coral density and temperature anomalies from remotely sensed data (chapter 1). In this chapter, I determined that host density, total coral density, depth and winter temperature variation were important predictors of disease prevalence for several coral diseases. Expanding on the predictive models, I also found that colony size, wave energy, water quality, fish abundance and nearby human population size altered disease risk (chapter 2). Most of the model variation occurred at the scale of sites and coastline, indicating that local coral composition and water quality were key determinants of disease risk. At the reef scale, I investigated factors that influence disease transmission among individuals using a tissue loss disease outbreak in Kane'ohe Bay, O'ahu, Hawai'i as a case study (chapter 3). I determined that host size, proximity to infected neighbors and numbers of infected neighbors were associated with disease risk. Disease transmission events were very localized (within 15 m) and rates changed dramatically over the course of the outbreak: the transmission rate initially increased quickly during the outbreak and then decreased steadily until the outbreak ended. At the colony scale, I investigated disease progression between polyps within individual coral colonies using confocal microscopy (chapter 4). Here, I determined that fragmented florescent pigment distributions appeared adjacent to the disease front

Reduction in spread of excitation from current focusing at multiple cochlear locations in cochlear implant users.

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Padilla, Monica; Landsberger, David M

2016-03-01

Channel interaction from a broad spread of excitation is likely to be a limiting factor in performance by cochlear implant users. Although partial tripolar stimulation has been shown to reduce spread of excitation, the magnitude of the reduction is highly variable across subjects. Because the reduction in spread of excitation is typically only measured at one electrode for a given subject, the degree of variability across cochlear locations is unknown. The first goal of the present study was to determine if the reduction in spread of excitation observed from partial tripolar current focusing systematically varies across the cochlea. The second goal was to measure the variability in reduction of spread of excitation relative to monopolar stimulation across the cochlea. The third goal was to expand upon previous results that suggest that scaling of verbal descriptors can be used to predict the reduction in spread of excitation, by increasing the limited number of sites previously evaluated and verify the relationships remain with the larger dataset. The spread of excitation for monopolar and partial tripolar stimulation was measured at 5 cochlear locations using a psychophysical forward masking task. Results of the present study suggest that although partial tripolar stimulation typically reduces spread of excitation, the degree of reduction in spread of excitation was found to be highly variable and no effect of cochlear location was found. Additionally, subjective scaling of certain verbal descriptors (Clean/Dirty, Pure/Noisy) correlated with the reduction in spread of excitation suggesting sound quality scaling might be used as a quick clinical estimate of channels providing a reduction in spread of excitation. This quick scaling technique might help clinicians determine which patients would be most likely to benefit from a focused strategy. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Are the Intraday Effects of Central Bank Intervention on Exchange Rate Spreads Asymmetric and State Dependent?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fatum, Rasmus; Pedersen, Jesper; Sørensen, Peter Norman

This paper investigates the intraday effects of unannounced foreign exchange intervention on bid-ask exchange rate spreads using official intraday intervention data provided by the Danish central bank. Our starting point is a simple theoretical model of the bid-ask spread which we use to formulate...... exert a significant influence on the exchange rate spread, but in opposite directions: intervention purchases of the smaller currency, on average, reduce the spread while intervention sales, on average, increase the spread. We also show that intervention only affects the exchange rate spread when...... the state of the market is not abnormally volatile. Our results are consistent with the notion that illiquidity arises when traders fear speculative pressure against the smaller currency and confirms the asymmetry hypothesis of our theoretical model....

Cost analysis and biological ramifications for implementing the gypsy moth Slow the Spread Program

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Patrick C. Tobin

2008-01-01

The gypsy moth Slow the Spread Program aims to reduce the rate of gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar (L.), spread into new areas in the United States. The annual budget for this program has ranged from $10-13 million. Changes in funding levels can have important ramifications to the implementation of this program, and consequently affect the rate of gypsy...

Fast and accurate detection of spread source in large complex networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Paluch, Robert; Lu, Xiaoyan; Suchecki, Krzysztof; Szymański, Bolesław K; Hołyst, Janusz A

2018-02-06

Spread over complex networks is a ubiquitous process with increasingly wide applications. Locating spread sources is often important, e.g. finding the patient one in epidemics, or source of rumor spreading in social network. Pinto, Thiran and Vetterli introduced an algorithm (PTVA) to solve the important case of this problem in which a limited set of nodes act as observers and report times at which the spread reached them. PTVA uses all observers to find a solution. Here we propose a new approach in which observers with low quality information (i.e. with large spread encounter times) are ignored and potential sources are selected based on the likelihood gradient from high quality observers. The original complexity of PTVA is O(N α ), where α ∈ (3,4) depends on the network topology and number of observers (N denotes the number of nodes in the network). Our Gradient Maximum Likelihood Algorithm (GMLA) reduces this complexity to O (N 2 log (N)). Extensive numerical tests performed on synthetic networks and real Gnutella network with limitation that id's of spreaders are unknown to observers demonstrate that for scale-free networks with such limitation GMLA yields higher quality localization results than PTVA does.

Modelling Spatial Interactions in the Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Symbiosis using the Calculus of Wrapped Compartments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cristina Calcagno

2011-09-01

Full Text Available Arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM is the most wide-spread plant-fungus symbiosis on earth. Investigating this kind of symbiosis is considered one of the most promising ways to develop methods to nurture plants in more natural manners, avoiding the complex chemical productions used nowadays to produce artificial fertilizers. In previous work we used the Calculus of Wrapped Compartments (CWC to investigate different phases of the AM symbiosis. In this paper, we continue this line of research by modelling the colonisation of the plant root cells by the fungal hyphae spreading in the soil. This study requires the description of some spatial interaction. Although CWC has no explicit feature modelling a spatial geometry, the compartment labelling feature can be effectively exploited to define a discrete surface topology outlining the relevant sectors which determine the spatial properties of the system under consideration. Different situations and interesting spatial properties can be modelled and analysed in such a lightweight framework (which has not an explicit notion of geometry with coordinates and spatial metrics, thus exploiting the existing CWC simulation tool.

A Lagrangian particle model to predict the airborne spread of foot-and-mouth disease virus

Science.gov (United States)

Mayer, D.; Reiczigel, J.; Rubel, F.

Airborne spread of bioaerosols in the boundary layer over a complex terrain is simulated using a Lagrangian particle model, and applied to modelling the airborne spread of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) virus. Two case studies are made with study domains located in a hilly region in the northwest of the Styrian capital Graz, the second largest town in Austria. Mountainous terrain as well as inhomogeneous and time varying meteorological conditions prevent from application of so far used Gaussian dispersion models, while the proposed model can handle these realistically. In the model, trajectories of several thousands of particles are computed and the distribution of virus concentration near the ground is calculated. This allows to assess risk of infection areas with respect to animal species of interest, such as cattle, swine or sheep. Meteorological input data like wind field and other variables necessary to compute turbulence were taken from the new pre-operational version of the non-hydrostatic numerical weather prediction model LMK ( Lokal-Modell-Kürzestfrist) running at the German weather service DWD ( Deutscher Wetterdienst). The LMK model provides meteorological parameters with a spatial resolution of about 2.8 km. To account for the spatial resolution of 400 m used by the Lagrangian particle model, the initial wind field is interpolated upon the finer grid by a mass consistent interpolation method. Case studies depict a significant influence of local wind systems on the spread of virus. Higher virus concentrations at the upwind side of the hills and marginal concentrations in the lee are well observable, as well as canalization effects by valleys. The study demonstrates that the Lagrangian particle model is an appropriate tool for risk assessment of airborne spread of virus by taking into account the realistic orographic and meteorological conditions.

Ground calibration of the spatial response and quantum efficiency of the CdZnTe hard x-ray detectors for NuSTAR

Science.gov (United States)

Grefenstette, Brian W.; Bhalerao, Varun; Cook, W. Rick; Harrison, Fiona A.; Kitaguchi, Takao; Madsen, Kristin K.; Mao, Peter H.; Miyasaka, Hiromasa; Rana, Vikram

2017-08-01

Pixelated Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CdZnTe) detectors are currently flying on the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope ARray (NuSTAR) NASA Astrophysics Small Explorer. While the pixel pitch of the detectors is ≍ 605 μm, we can leverage the detector readout architecture to determine the interaction location of an individual photon to much higher spatial accuracy. The sub-pixel spatial location allows us to finely oversample the point spread function of the optics and reduces imaging artifacts due to pixelation. In this paper we demonstrate how the sub-pixel information is obtained, how the detectors were calibrated, and provide ground verification of the quantum efficiency of our Monte Carlo model of the detector response.

Reverse preferential spread in complex networks

Science.gov (United States)

Toyoizumi, Hiroshi; Tani, Seiichi; Miyoshi, Naoto; Okamoto, Yoshio

2012-08-01

Large-degree nodes may have a larger influence on the network, but they can be bottlenecks for spreading information since spreading attempts tend to concentrate on these nodes and become redundant. We discuss that the reverse preferential spread (distributing information inversely proportional to the degree of the receiving node) has an advantage over other spread mechanisms. In large uncorrelated networks, we show that the mean number of nodes that receive information under the reverse preferential spread is an upper bound among any other weight-based spread mechanisms, and this upper bound is indeed a logistic growth independent of the degree distribution.

How Is Mono Spread?

Science.gov (United States)

... How Is Mono Spread? Print My sister has mononucleosis. I drank out of her drink before we ... that I have mono now? – Kyle* Mono, or mononucleosis, is spread through direct contact with saliva. This ...

Initial characterization of Vaccinia Virus B4 suggests a role in virus spread

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Burles, Kristin; Irwin, Chad R.; Burton, Robyn-Lee [Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology, Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2S2 (Canada); Schriewer, Jill [Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO (United States); Evans, David H. [Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology, Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2S2 (Canada); Buller, R. Mark [Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO (United States); Barry, Michele, E-mail: michele.barry@ualberta.ca [Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology, Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2S2 (Canada)

2014-05-15

Currently, little is known about the ankyrin/F-box protein B4. Here, we report that B4R-null viruses exhibited reduced plaque size in tissue culture, and decreased ability to spread, as assessed by multiple-step growth analysis. Electron microscopy indicated that B4R-null viruses still formed mature and extracellular virions; however, there was a slight decrease of virions released into the media following deletion of B4R. Deletion of B4R did not affect the ability of the virus to rearrange actin; however, VACV811, a large vaccinia virus deletion mutant missing 55 open reading frames, had decreased ability to produce actin tails. Using ectromelia virus, a natural mouse pathogen, we demonstrated that virus devoid of EVM154, the B4R homolog, showed decreased spread to organs and was attenuated during infection. This initial characterization suggests that B4 may play a role in virus spread, and that other unidentified mediators of actin tail formation may exist in vaccinia virus. - Highlights: • B4R-null viruses show reduced plaque size, and decreased ability to spread. • B4R-null viruses formed mature and extracellular virions; and rearranged actin. • Virus devoid of EVM154, the B4R homolog, was attenuated during infection. • Initial characterization suggests that B4 may play a role in virus spread. • Unidentified mediators of actin tail formation may exist in vaccinia virus.

Initial characterization of Vaccinia Virus B4 suggests a role in virus spread

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Burles, Kristin; Irwin, Chad R.; Burton, Robyn-Lee; Schriewer, Jill; Evans, David H.; Buller, R. Mark; Barry, Michele

2014-01-01

Currently, little is known about the ankyrin/F-box protein B4. Here, we report that B4R-null viruses exhibited reduced plaque size in tissue culture, and decreased ability to spread, as assessed by multiple-step growth analysis. Electron microscopy indicated that B4R-null viruses still formed mature and extracellular virions; however, there was a slight decrease of virions released into the media following deletion of B4R. Deletion of B4R did not affect the ability of the virus to rearrange actin; however, VACV811, a large vaccinia virus deletion mutant missing 55 open reading frames, had decreased ability to produce actin tails. Using ectromelia virus, a natural mouse pathogen, we demonstrated that virus devoid of EVM154, the B4R homolog, showed decreased spread to organs and was attenuated during infection. This initial characterization suggests that B4 may play a role in virus spread, and that other unidentified mediators of actin tail formation may exist in vaccinia virus. - Highlights: • B4R-null viruses show reduced plaque size, and decreased ability to spread. • B4R-null viruses formed mature and extracellular virions; and rearranged actin. • Virus devoid of EVM154, the B4R homolog, was attenuated during infection. • Initial characterization suggests that B4 may play a role in virus spread. • Unidentified mediators of actin tail formation may exist in vaccinia virus

Is Vector Control Sufficient to Limit Pathogen Spread in Vineyards?

Science.gov (United States)

Daugherty, M P; O'Neill, S; Byrne, F; Zeilinger, A

2015-06-01

Vector control is widely viewed as an integral part of disease management. Yet epidemiological theory suggests that the effectiveness of control programs at limiting pathogen spread depends on a variety of intrinsic and extrinsic aspects of a pathosystem. Moreover, control programs rarely evaluate whether reductions in vector density or activity translate into reduced disease prevalence. In areas of California invaded by the glassy-winged sharpshooter (Homalodisca vitripennis Germar), Pierce's disease management relies heavily on chemical control of this vector, primarily via systemic conventional insecticides (i.e., imidacloprid). But, data are lacking that attribute reduced vector pressure and pathogen spread to sharpshooter control. We surveyed 34 vineyards over successive years to assess the epidemiological value of within-vineyard chemical control. The results showed that imidacloprid reduced vector pressure without clear nontarget effects or secondary pest outbreaks. Effects on disease prevalence were more nuanced. Treatment history over the preceding 5 yr affected disease prevalence, with significantly more diseased vines in untreated compared with regularly or intermittently treated vineyards. Yet, the change in disease prevalence between years was low, with no significant effects of insecticide treatment or vector abundance. Collectively, the results suggest that within-vineyard applications of imidacloprid can reduce pathogen spread, but with benefits that may take multiple seasons to become apparent. The relatively modest effect of vector control on disease prevalence in this system may be attributable in part to the currently low regional sharpshooter population densities stemming from area-wide control, without which the need for within-vineyard vector control would be more pronounced. © The Authors 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Electrostatic control of the dynamics of lipid bilayer self-spreading using a nanogap gate

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kashimura, Y; Sumitomo, K; Furukawa, K

2014-01-01

The electrostatic control of lipid bilayer self-spreading was investigated using a device equipped with a nanogap gate. A series of mixtures containing negatively charged and uncharged lipids were employed to tune the charge of a membrane. We found that when a voltage is applied on a lipid bilayer passing through a nanogap, the effect of a voltage application on the dynamics depended largely on the charge of the membrane. For rich charged lipid compositions (>10 mol%), the self-spreading was electrostatically controlled applying an electric field to the nanogap. The origin of the behaviour is the electrostatic trapping of charged lipids. The trapped lipids close the nanogap gate, thus preventing any lipid molecules from passing through it. For poor charged lipid compositions (∼1 mol%), no electrostatic trapping occurred even when a lipid bilayer reached the nanogap. Instead, we observed the cessation of self-spreading after a sufficient post-passage time interval, indicating that the translational flow force of self-spreading overcomes the trapping force. For uncharged lipid compositions, there was no electrostatic trapping throughout the measurement. The results suggest that the lipid charge plays a vital role in the electrostatic control mechanism and allow us to control lipid bilayer formation both spatially and temporally. (paper)

Immunization strategy for epidemic spreading on multilayer networks

Science.gov (United States)

Buono, C.; Braunstein, L. A.

2015-01-01

In many real-world complex systems, individuals have many kinds of interactions among them, suggesting that it is necessary to consider a layered-structure framework to model systems such as social interactions. This structure can be captured by multilayer networks and can have major effects on the spreading of process that occurs over them, such as epidemics. In this letter we study a targeted immunization strategy for epidemic spreading over a multilayer network. We apply the strategy in one of the layers and study its effect in all layers of the network disregarding degree-degree correlation among layers. We found that the targeted strategy is not as efficient as in isolated networks, due to the fact that in order to stop the spreading of the disease it is necessary to immunize more than 80% of the individuals. However, the size of the epidemic is drastically reduced in the layer where the immunization strategy is applied compared to the case with no mitigation strategy. Thus, the immunization strategy has a major effect on the layer were it is applied, but does not efficiently protect the individuals of other layers.

Measurements of monopolar and bipolar current spreads using forward-masking with a fixed probe.

Science.gov (United States)

Bingabr, Mohamed G; Espinoza-Varas, Blas; Sigdel, Saroj

2014-05-01

This research employed a forward-masking paradigm to estimate the current spread of monopolar (MP) and bipolar (BP) maskers, with current amplitudes adjusted to elicit the same loudness. Since the spatial separation between active and return electrodes is smaller in BP than in MP configurations, the BP current spread is more localized and presumably superior in terms of speech intelligibility. Because matching the loudness requires higher current in BP than in MP stimulation, previous forward-masking studies show that BP current spread is not consistently narrower across subjects or electrodes within a subject. The present forward-masking measures of current spread differ from those of previous studies by using the same BP probe electrode configuration for both MP and BP masker configurations, and adjusting the current levels of the MP and BP maskers so as to match them in loudness. With this method, the estimate of masker current spread would not be contaminated by differences in probe current spread. Forward masking was studied in four cochlear implant patients, two females and two males, with speech recognition scores higher than 50%; that is, their auditory-nerve survival status was more than adequate to carry out the experiments. The data showed that MP and BP masker configurations produce equivalent masking patterns (and current spreads) in three participants. A fourth participant displayed asymmetrical patterns with enhancement rather than masking in some cases, especially when the probe and masker were at the same location. This study showed equivalent masking patterns for MP and BP maskers when the BP masker current amplitude was increased to match the loudness of the MP masker, and the same BP probe configuration is used with both maskers. This finding could help to explain why cochlear implant users often fail to accrue higher speech intelligibility benefit from BP stimulation.

A spatial simulation model for the dispersal of the bluetongue vector Culicoides brevitarsis in Australia.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joel K Kelso

Full Text Available The spread of Bluetongue virus (BTV among ruminants is caused by movement of infected host animals or by movement of infected Culicoides midges, the vector of BTV. Biologically plausible models of Culicoides dispersal are necessary for predicting the spread of BTV and are important for planning control and eradication strategies.A spatially-explicit simulation model which captures the two underlying population mechanisms, population dynamics and movement, was developed using extensive data from a trapping program for C. brevitarsis on the east coast of Australia. A realistic midge flight sub-model was developed and the annual incursion and population establishment of C. brevitarsis was simulated. Data from the literature was used to parameterise the model.The model was shown to reproduce the spread of C. brevitarsis southwards along the east Australian coastline in spring, from an endemic population to the north. Such incursions were shown to be reliant on wind-dispersal; Culicoides midge active flight on its own was not capable of achieving known rates of southern spread, nor was re-emergence of southern populations due to overwintering larvae. Data from midge trapping programmes were used to qualitatively validate the resulting simulation model.The model described in this paper is intended to form the vector component of an extended model that will also include BTV transmission. A model of midge movement and population dynamics has been developed in sufficient detail such that the extended model may be used to evaluate the timing and extent of BTV outbreaks. This extended model could then be used as a platform for addressing the effectiveness of spatially targeted vaccination strategies or animal movement bans as BTV spread mitigation measures, or the impact of climate change on the risk and extent of outbreaks. These questions involving incursive Culicoides spread cannot be simply addressed with non-spatial models.

Reduced spatial learning in mice infected with the nematode, Heligmosomoides polygyrus.

Science.gov (United States)

Kavaliers, M; Colwell, D D

1995-06-01

Parasite modification of host behaviour influences a number of critical responses, but little is known about the effects on host spatial abilities. This study examined the effects of infection with the intestinal trichostrongylid nematode, Heligmosomoides polygyrus, on spatial water maze learning by male laboratory mice, Mus musculus. In this task individual mice had to learn the spatial location of a submerged hidden platform using extramaze visual cues. Determinations of spatial performance were made on day 19 post-infection with mice that had been administered either 50 or 200 infective larvae of H. polygyrus. The infected mice displayed over 1 day of testing (6 blocks of 4 trials) significantly poorer acquisition and retention of the water maze task than either sham-infected or control mice, with mice that had received 200 infective larvae displaying significantly poorer spatial performance than individuals receiving 50 larvae. The decrease in spatial learning occurred in the absence of either any symptoms of illness and malaise, or any evident motor, visual and motivational impairments. It is suggested that in this single host system the parasitic infection-induced decrease in spatial learning arises as a side-effect of the host's immunological and neuromodulatory responses and represents a fitness cost of response to infection.

Synergy in spreading processes: from exploitative to explorative foraging strategies.

Science.gov (United States)

Pérez-Reche, Francisco J; Ludlam, Jonathan J; Taraskin, Sergei N; Gilligan, Christopher A

2011-05-27

An epidemiological model which incorporates synergistic effects that allow the infectivity and/or susceptibility of hosts to be dependent on the number of infected neighbors is proposed. Constructive synergy induces an exploitative behavior which results in a rapid invasion that infects a large number of hosts. Interfering synergy leads to a slower and sparser explorative foraging strategy that traverses larger distances by infecting fewer hosts. The model can be mapped to a dynamical bond percolation with spatial correlations that affect the mechanism of spread but do not influence the critical behavior of epidemics. © 2011 American Physical Society

Hidden symmetry of the beam spread function resulting from the reciprocity theorem

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dolin, Lev S.

2016-01-01

It is shown that the optical reciprocity theorem imposes certain constraints on the radiation field structure of a unidirectional point source (beam spread function (BSF)) in a turbid medium with spatially uniform optical properties. To satisfy the reciprocal relation, the BSF should have an additional symmetry property along with axial symmetry. This paper mathematically formulates the BSF symmetry condition that follows from the reciprocity theorem and discusses test results of some approximate analytical BSF models for their compliance with the symmetry requirement. A universal method for eliminating symmetry errors of approximate BSF models is proposed. - Highlights: • Symmetry properties of beam spread function (BSF) are considered. • In uniform turbid medium BSF has hidden symmetry property besides axial symmetry. • The examples of BSF models with and without the required symmetry are given. • A universal method for BSF symmetry error elimination is proposed.

Hybrid spread spectrum radio system

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Stephen F [London, TN; Dress, William B [Camas, WA

2010-02-09

Systems and methods are described for hybrid spread spectrum radio systems. A method, includes receiving a hybrid spread spectrum signal including: fast frequency hopping demodulating and direct sequence demodulating a direct sequence spread spectrum signal, wherein multiple frequency hops occur within a single data-bit time and each bit is represented by chip transmissions at multiple frequencies.

Genetic structure of winter populations of the endangered Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis) prior to the white nose syndrome epidemic: implications for the risk of disease spread

Science.gov (United States)

Maarten J. Vonhof; Sybill K. Amelon; Robert R. Currie; Gary F. McCracken

2016-01-01

The spread of white nose syndrome raises serious concerns about the long-term viability of affected bat species. Here we examine the geographic distribution of genetic variation, levels of population connectivity that may influence the spatial spread of WNS, and the likelihood that recent population declines in regions affected by WNS have led to the loss of unique...

Using Spatial Reinforcement Learning to Build Forest Wildfire Dynamics Models From Satellite Images

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sriram Ganapathi Subramanian

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Machine learning algorithms have increased tremendously in power in recent years but have yet to be fully utilized in many ecology and sustainable resource management domains such as wildlife reserve design, forest fire management, and invasive species spread. One thing these domains have in common is that they contain dynamics that can be characterized as a spatially spreading process (SSP, which requires many parameters to be set precisely to model the dynamics, spread rates, and directional biases of the elements which are spreading. We present related work in artificial intelligence and machine learning for SSP sustainability domains including forest wildfire prediction. We then introduce a novel approach for learning in SSP domains using reinforcement learning (RL where fire is the agent at any cell in the landscape and the set of actions the fire can take from a location at any point in time includes spreading north, south, east, or west or not spreading. This approach inverts the usual RL setup since the dynamics of the corresponding Markov Decision Process (MDP is a known function for immediate wildfire spread. Meanwhile, we learn an agent policy for a predictive model of the dynamics of a complex spatial process. Rewards are provided for correctly classifying which cells are on fire or not compared with satellite and other related data. We examine the behavior of five RL algorithms on this problem: value iteration, policy iteration, Q-learning, Monte Carlo Tree Search, and Asynchronous Advantage Actor-Critic (A3C. We compare to a Gaussian process-based supervised learning approach and also discuss the relation of our approach to manually constructed, state-of-the-art methods from forest wildfire modeling. We validate our approach with satellite image data of two massive wildfire events in Northern Alberta, Canada; the Fort McMurray fire of 2016 and the Richardson fire of 2011. The results show that we can learn predictive, agent

Epidemic spreading in weighted scale-free networks with community structure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chu, Xiangwei; Guan, Jihong; Zhang, Zhongzhi; Zhou, Shuigeng

2009-01-01

Many empirical studies reveal that the weights and community structure are ubiquitous in various natural and artificial networks. In this paper, based on the SI disease model, we investigate the epidemic spreading in weighted scale-free networks with community structure. Two exponents, α and β, are introduced to weight the internal edges and external edges, respectively; and a tunable probability parameter q is also introduced to adjust the strength of community structure. We find the external weighting exponent β plays a much more important role in slackening the epidemic spreading and reducing the danger brought by the epidemic than the internal weighting exponent α. Moreover, a novel result we find is that the strong community structure is no longer helpful for slackening the danger brought by the epidemic in the weighted cases. In addition, we show the hierarchical dynamics of the epidemic spreading in the weighted scale-free networks with communities which is also displayed in the famous BA scale-free networks

A study on spatial decision support systems for HIV/AIDS prevention based on COM GIS technology

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Kun; Luo, Huasong; Peng, Shungyun; Xu, Quanli

2007-06-01

Based on the deeply analysis of the current status and the existing problems of GIS technology applications in Epidemiology, this paper has proposed the method and process for establishing the spatial decision support systems of AIDS epidemic prevention by integrating the COM GIS, Spatial Database, GPS, Remote Sensing, and Communication technologies, as well as ASP and ActiveX software development technologies. One of the most important issues for constructing the spatial decision support systems of AIDS epidemic prevention is how to integrate the AIDS spreading models with GIS. The capabilities of GIS applications in the AIDS epidemic prevention have been described here in this paper firstly. Then some mature epidemic spreading models have also been discussed for extracting the computation parameters. Furthermore, a technical schema has been proposed for integrating the AIDS spreading models with GIS and relevant geospatial technologies, in which the GIS and model running platforms share a common spatial database and the computing results can be spatially visualized on Desktop or Web GIS clients. Finally, a complete solution for establishing the decision support systems of AIDS epidemic prevention has been offered in this paper based on the model integrating methods and ESRI COM GIS software packages. The general decision support systems are composed of data acquisition sub-systems, network communication sub-systems, model integrating sub-systems, AIDS epidemic information spatial database sub-systems, AIDS epidemic information querying and statistical analysis sub-systems, AIDS epidemic dynamic surveillance sub-systems, AIDS epidemic information spatial analysis and decision support sub-systems, as well as AIDS epidemic information publishing sub-systems based on Web GIS.

Partially coherent imaging and spatial coherence wavelets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Castaneda, Roman

2003-03-01

A description of spatially partially coherent imaging based on the propagation of second order spatial coherence wavelets and marginal power spectra (Wigner distribution functions) is presented. In this dynamics, the spatial coherence wavelets will be affected by the system through its elementary transfer function. The consistency of the model with the both extreme cases of full coherent and incoherent imaging was proved. In the last case we obtained the classical concept of optical transfer function as a simple integral of the elementary transfer function. Furthermore, the elementary incoherent response function was introduced as the Fourier transform of the elementary transfer function. It describes the propagation of spatial coherence wavelets form each object point to each image point through a specific point on the pupil planes. The point spread function of the system was obtained by a simple integral of the elementary incoherent response function. (author)

Don't put all your eggs in one nest: spread them and cut time at risk.

Science.gov (United States)

Andersson, Malte; Åhlund, Matti

2012-09-01

In many egg-laying animals, some females spread their clutch among several nests. The fitness effects of this reproductive tactic are obscure. Using mathematical modeling and field observations, we analyze an unexplored benefit of egg spreading in brood parasitic and other breeding systems: reduced time at risk for offspring. If a clutch takes many days to lay until incubation and embryo development starts after the last egg, by spreading her eggs a parasitic female can reduce offspring time in the vulnerable nest at risk of predation or other destruction. The model suggests that she can achieve much of this benefit by spreading her eggs among a few nests, even if her total clutch is large. Field data from goldeneye ducks Bucephala clangula show that egg spreading enables a fecund female to lay a clutch that is much larger than average without increasing offspring time at risk in a nest. This advantage increases with female condition (fecundity) and can markedly raise female reproductive success. These results help explain the puzzle of nesting parasites in some precocial birds, which lay eggs in the nests of other females before laying eggs in their own nest. Risk reduction by egg spreading may also play a role in the evolution of other breeding systems and taxa-for instance, polyandry with male parental care in some birds and fishes.

Time course of spatial and feature selective attention for partly-occluded objects.

Science.gov (United States)

Kasai, Tetsuko; Takeya, Ryuji

2012-07-01

Attention selects objects/groups as the most fundamental units, and this may be achieved by an attention-spreading mechanism. Previous event-related potential (ERP) studies have found that attention-spreading is reflected by a decrease in the N1 spatial attention effect. The present study tested whether the electrophysiological attention effect is associated with the perception of object unity or amodal completion through the use of partly-occluded objects. ERPs were recorded in 14 participants who were required to pay attention to their left or right visual field and to press a button for a target shape in the attended field. Bilateral stimuli were presented rapidly, and were separated, connected, or connected behind an occluder. Behavioral performance in the connected and occluded conditions was worse than that in the separated condition, indicating that attention spread over perceptual object representations after amodal completion. Consistently, the late N1 spatial attention effect (180-220 ms post-stimulus) and the early phase (230-280 ms) of feature selection effects (target N2) at contralateral sites decreased, equally for the occluded and connected conditions, while the attention effect in the early N1 latency (140-180 ms) shifted most positively for the occluded condition. These results suggest that perceptual organization processes for object recognition transiently modulate spatial and feature selection processes in the visual cortex. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Design of Spreading-Codes-Assisted Active Imaging System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alexey Volkov

2015-07-01

Full Text Available This work discusses an innovative approach to imaging which can improve the robustness of existing active-range measurement methods and potentially enhance their use in a variety of outdoor applications. By merging a proven modulation technique from the domain of spread-spectrum communications with the bleeding-edge CMOS sensor technology, the prototype of the modulated range sensor is designed and evaluated. A suitable set of application-specific spreading codes is proposed, evaluated and tested on the prototype. Experimental results show that the introduced modulation technique significantly reduces the impacts of environmental factors such as sunlight and external light sources, as well as mutual interference of identical devices. The proposed approach can be considered as a promising basis for a new generation of robust and cost-efficient range-sensing solutions for automotive applications, autonomous vehicles or robots.

The Impact of the Term Auction Facility on the Liquidity Risk Premium and Unsecured Interbank Spreads

OpenAIRE

Syrstad, Olav

2014-01-01

This paper investigates the effectiveness of the Federal Reserve's Term Auction Facility (TAF) in alleviating the liquidity shortage in USD and reducing the spread between the 3-month Libor rate and the expected policy rate. I construct a proxy for the 3-month liquidity risk premium based on data from the FX forward market which enables me to (i) decompose the Libor spread into a liquidity premium and a credit premium, and (ii) test the effectiveness of the TAF in reducing the liquidity premi...

Spreading depolarizations have prolonged direct current shifts and are associated with poor outcome in brain trauma

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hartings, Jed A; Watanabe, Tomas; Bullock, M Ross

2011-01-01

, although prolonged events have not been observed in animal models. To determine whether detrimental penumbral-type depolarizations occur in human brain trauma, we analysed electrocorticographic recordings obtained by subdural electrode-strip monitoring during intensive care. Of 53 patients studied, 10......Cortical spreading depolarizations occur spontaneously after ischaemic, haemorrhagic and traumatic brain injury. Their effects vary spatially and temporally as graded phenomena, from infarction to complete recovery, and are reflected in the duration of depolarization measured by the negative direct...... current shift of electrocorticographic recordings. In the focal ischaemic penumbra, peri-infarct depolarizations have prolonged direct current shifts and cause progressive recruitment of the penumbra into the core infarct. In traumatic brain injury, the effects of spreading depolarizations are unknown...

Spatially-Resolved Ion Trajectory Measurements During Cl2 Reactive Ion Beam Etching and Ar Ion Beam Etching

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vawter, G. Allen; Woodworth, Joseph R.; Zubrzycki, Walter J.

1999-01-01

The angle of ion incidence at the etched wafer location during RIBE and IBE using Cl 2 , Ar and O 2 ion beams has been characterized using an ion energy and angle analyzer. Effects of beam current and accelerator grid bias on beam divergence and the spatial uniformity of the spread of incident angles are measured. It is observed that increased total beam current can lead to reduced current density at the sample stage due to enhanced beam divergence at high currents. Results are related to preferred etch system design for uniform high-aspect-ratio etching across semiconductor wafers

Default Spread dan Term Spread sebagai Variabel Proxy Siklus Bisnis pada Model Fama-French

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Edwin Hendra

2015-08-01

Full Text Available This research aims to apply the Fama-French models and test the effect of alternative variable of bond yield spread, default spread (RBBB – RAAA and RAAA – RF, and the term spread (RSUN10-RSUN1, as proxy variables of the business cycle, in IDX stock data during 2005-2010. Four types of asset pricing models tested are Sharpe-Lintner CAPM, Fama-French models, Hwang et al.model, and hybrid model. The results showed that the size effect and value effect has an impact on excess stock returns. Slopes of market beta, SMB, and HML are more sensitive to stock big size and high B / M. Default spreads and term spreads in Hwang et al. model can explain the value effect, and weakly explain the size effect, meanwhile the power of explanation disappeared on Hybrid models. Based on the assessment adjusted R2 and the frequency of rejection of non-zero alpha, is found that the hybrid model is the most suitable model.  

Cholinergic enhancement reduces orientation-specific surround suppression but not visual crowding

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anna A. Kosovicheva

2012-09-01

Full Text Available Acetylcholine (ACh reduces the spatial spread of excitatory fMRI responses in early visual cortex and the receptive field sizes of V1 neurons. We investigated the perceptual consequences of these physiological effects of ACh with surround suppression and crowding, two tasks that involve spatial interactions between visual field locations. Surround suppression refers to the reduction in perceived stimulus contrast by a high-contrast surround stimulus. For grating stimuli, surround suppression is selective for the relative orientations of the center and surround, suggesting that it results from inhibitory interactions in early visual cortex. Crowding refers to impaired identification of a peripheral stimulus in the presence of flankers and is thought to result from excessive integration of visual features. We increased synaptic ACh levels by administering the cholinesterase inhibitor donepezil to healthy human subjects in a placebo-controlled, double-blind design. In Exp. 1, we measured surround suppression of a central grating using a contrast discrimination task with three conditions: 1 surround grating with the same orientation as the center (parallel, 2 surround orthogonal to the center, or 3 no surround. Contrast discrimination thresholds were higher in the parallel than in the orthogonal condition, demonstrating orientation-specific surround suppression (OSSS. Cholinergic enhancement reduced thresholds only in the parallel condition, thereby reducing OSSS. In Exp. 2, subjects performed a crowding task in which they reported the identity of a peripheral letter flanked by letters on either side. We measured the critical spacing between the target and flanking letters that allowed reliable identification. Cholinergic enhancement had no effect on critical spacing. Our findings suggest that ACh reduces spatial interactions in tasks involving segmentation of visual field locations but that these effects may be limited to early visual cortical

A spatially explicit model for an Allee effect: why wolves recolonize so slowly in Greater Yellowstone.

Science.gov (United States)

Hurford, Amy; Hebblewhite, Mark; Lewis, Mark A

2006-11-01

A reduced probability of finding mates at low densities is a frequently hypothesized mechanism for a component Allee effect. At low densities dispersers are less likely to find mates and establish new breeding units. However, many mathematical models for an Allee effect do not make a distinction between breeding group establishment and subsequent population growth. Our objective is to derive a spatially explicit mathematical model, where dispersers have a reduced probability of finding mates at low densities, and parameterize the model for wolf recolonization in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE). In this model, only the probability of establishing new breeding units is influenced by the reduced probability of finding mates at low densities. We analytically and numerically solve the model to determine the effect of a decreased probability in finding mates at low densities on population spread rate and density. Our results suggest that a reduced probability of finding mates at low densities may slow recolonization rate.

Cooperative spreading processes in multiplex networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Wei, Xiang; Chen, Shihua; Wu, Xiaoqun; Ning, Di; Lu, Jun-An

2016-06-01

This study is concerned with the dynamic behaviors of epidemic spreading in multiplex networks. A model composed of two interacting complex networks is proposed to describe cooperative spreading processes, wherein the virus spreading in one layer can penetrate into the other to promote the spreading process. The global epidemic threshold of the model is smaller than the epidemic thresholds of the corresponding isolated networks. Thus, global epidemic onset arises in the interacting networks even though an epidemic onset does not arise in each isolated network. Simulations verify the analysis results and indicate that cooperative spreading processes in multiplex networks enhance the final infection fraction.

Spread effects - methodology; Spredningseffekter - metodegrunnlag

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2004-07-01

Diffusion of technology, environmental effects and rebound effects are the principal effects from the funding of renewable energy and energy economising. It is difficult to estimate the impact of the spread effects both prior to the measures are implemented and after the measures are carried out. Statistical methods can be used to estimate the spread effects, but they are insecure and always need to be complemented with qualitative and subjective evaluations. It is more adequate to evaluate potential spread effects from market and market data surveillance for a selection of technologies and parties. Based on this information qualitative indicators for spread effects can be constructed and used both ex ante and ex post (ml)

Impact of delay on disease outbreak in a spatial epidemic model

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Xia-Xia; Wang, Jian-Zhong

2015-04-01

One of the central issues in studying epidemic spreading is the mechanism on disease outbreak. In this paper, we investigate the effects of time delay on disease outbreak in spatial epidemics based on a reaction-diffusion model. By mathematical analysis and numerical simulations, we show that when time delay is more than a critical value, the disease outbreaks. The obtained results show that the time delay is an important factor in the spread of the disease, which may provide new insights on disease control.

Integrating remote sensing and spatially explicit epidemiological modeling

Science.gov (United States)

Finger, Flavio; Knox, Allyn; Bertuzzo, Enrico; Mari, Lorenzo; Bompangue, Didier; Gatto, Marino; Rinaldo, Andrea

2015-04-01

Spatially explicit epidemiological models are a crucial tool for the prediction of epidemiological patterns in time and space as well as for the allocation of health care resources. In addition they can provide valuable information about epidemiological processes and allow for the identification of environmental drivers of the disease spread. Most epidemiological models rely on environmental data as inputs. They can either be measured in the field by the means of conventional instruments or using remote sensing techniques to measure suitable proxies of the variables of interest. The later benefit from several advantages over conventional methods, including data availability, which can be an issue especially in developing, and spatial as well as temporal resolution of the data, which is particularly crucial for spatially explicit models. Here we present the case study of a spatially explicit, semi-mechanistic model applied to recurring cholera outbreaks in the Lake Kivu area (Democratic Republic of the Congo). The model describes the cholera incidence in eight health zones on the shore of the lake. Remotely sensed datasets of chlorophyll a concentration in the lake, precipitation and indices of global climate anomalies are used as environmental drivers. Human mobility and its effect on the disease spread is also taken into account. Several model configurations are tested on a data set of reported cases. The best models, accounting for different environmental drivers, and selected using the Akaike information criterion, are formally compared via cross validation. The best performing model accounts for seasonality, El Niño Southern Oscillation, precipitation and human mobility.

Spread F bubbles - Nonlinear Rayleigh-Taylor mode in two dimensions

Science.gov (United States)

Hudson, M. K.

1978-01-01

The paper discusses long-wavelength developed bottomside spread F which has been attributed to the Rayleigh-Taylor instability. The nonlinear saturation amplitude and the k spectrum of the inertia-dominated Rayleigh-Taylor instability is found in two directions: east-west and vertical. As in the collisional case (Chaturvedi and Ossakow, 1977), the dominant nonlinearity is found to be two-dimensional. It is found that the linearly most unstable modes, which are primarily horizontal, saturate by the nonlinear generation of vertical spatial harmonics. The harmonics are damped by diffusion or recombination. The resulting amplitude spectrum indicates that bubbles are vertically elongated in both inertial and collisional regimes.

Time-series observation of the spreading out of microvessel endothelial cells with atomic force microscopy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Han Dong; Ma Wanyun; Liao Fulong; Yeh Meiling; Ouyang Zhigang; Sun Yunxu

2003-01-01

The spreading out of microvessel endothelial cells plays a key role in angiogenesis and the post-injury healing of endothelial cells. In our study, a physical force applied with an atomic force microscopic (AFM) cantilever tip in contact mode partly broke the peripheral adhesion that just-confluent cultured rat cerebral microvessel endothelial cells had formed with basal structures and resulted in the cells actively withdrawing from the stimulated area. Time-series changes in cell extension were imaged using tapping mode AFM, in conjunction with total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy, intensified charge-coupled device and field emission scanning electron microscopy. We also interpreted phase images of living endothelial cells. The results showed that formation of a fibronectin molecule monolayer is key to the spreading out of the cells. Lamellipods as well as filopods would spread out in temporal and spatial distribution following the formation of fibronectin layer. In addition, a lattice-like meshwork of filopods formed in the regions leading lamellipods, which would possibly provide a fulcrum for the filaments of the cytoskeleton within the leading cell body periphery

Spatial filters for focusing ultrasound images

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Jørgen Arendt; Gori, Paola

2001-01-01

, but the approach always yields point spread functions better or equal to a traditional dynamically focused image. Finally, the process was applied to in-vivo clinical images of the liver and right kidney from a 28 years old male. The data was obtained with a single element transducer focused at 100 mm....... A new method for making spatial matched filter focusing of RF ultrasound data is proposed based on the spatial impulse response description of the imaging. The response from a scatterer at any given point in space relative to the transducer can be calculated, and this gives the spatial matched filter...... for synthetic aperture imaging for single element transducers. It is evaluated using the Field II program. Data from a single 3 MHz transducer focused at a distance of 80 mm is processed. Far from the transducer focal region, the processing greatly improves the image resolution: the lateral slice...

Importance of beam-beam tune spread to collective beam-beam instability in hadron colliders

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jin Lihui; Shi Jicong

2004-01-01

In hadron colliders, electron-beam compensation of beam-beam tune spread has been explored for a reduction of beam-beam effects. In this paper, effects of the tune-spread compensation on beam-beam instabilities were studied with a self-consistent beam-beam simulation in model lattices of Tevatron and Large Hodron Collider. It was found that the reduction of the tune spread with the electron-beam compensation could induce a coherent beam-beam instability. The merit of the compensation with different degrees of tune-spread reduction was evaluated based on beam-size growth. When two beams have a same betatron tune, the compensation could do more harm than good to the beams when only beam-beam effects are considered. If a tune split between two beams is large enough, the compensation with a small reduction of the tune spread could benefit beams as Landau damping suppresses the coherent beam-beam instability. The result indicates that nonlinear (nonintegrable) beam-beam effects could dominate beam dynamics and a reduction of beam-beam tune spread by introducing additional beam-beam interactions and reducing Landau damping may not improve the stability of beams

Terrestrial spreading centers under Venus conditions - Evaluation of a crustal spreading model for Western Aphrodite Terra

Science.gov (United States)

Sotin, C.; Senske, D. A.; Head, J. W.; Parmentier, E. M.

1989-01-01

The model of Reid and Jackson (1981) for terrestrial spreading centers is applied to Venus conditions. On the basis of spreading rate, mantle temperature, and surface temperature, the model predicts both isostatic topography and crustal thickness. The model and Pioneer Venus altimetry and gravity data are used to test the hypothesis of Head and Crumpler (1987) that Western Aphrodite Terra is the location of crustal spreading on Venus. It is concluded that a spreading center model for Ovda Regio in Western Aphrodite Terra could account for the observed topography and line-of-sight gravity anomalies found in the Pioneer data.

The nonlinear theory of slow-wave electron cyclotron masers with inclusion of the beam velocity spread

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kong, Ling-Bao; Wang, Hong-Yu; Hou, Zhi-Ling; Jin, Hai-Bo; Du, Chao-Hai

2013-01-01

The nonlinear theory of slow-wave electron cyclotron masers (ECM) with an initially straight electron beam is developed. The evolution equation of the nonlinear beam electron energy is derived. The numerical studies of the slow-wave ECM efficiency with inclusion of Gaussian beam velocity spread are presented. It is shown that the velocity spread reduces the interaction efficiency. -- Highlights: •The theory of slow-wave electron cyclotron masers is considered. •The calculation of efficiency under the resonance condition is presented. •The efficiency under Gaussian velocity spreads has been obtained

The nonlinear theory of slow-wave electron cyclotron masers with inclusion of the beam velocity spread

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kong, Ling-Bao, E-mail: konglingbao@gmail.com [School of Science, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029 (China); Beijing Key Laboratory of Environmentally Harmful Chemicals Assessment, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029 (China); Wang, Hong-Yu [School of Physics, Anshan Normal University, Anshan 114005 (China); Hou, Zhi-Ling, E-mail: houzl@mail.buct.edu.cn [School of Science, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029 (China); Beijing Key Laboratory of Environmentally Harmful Chemicals Assessment, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029 (China); Jin, Hai-Bo [School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081 (China); Du, Chao-Hai [Institute of Electronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190 (China)

2013-12-15

The nonlinear theory of slow-wave electron cyclotron masers (ECM) with an initially straight electron beam is developed. The evolution equation of the nonlinear beam electron energy is derived. The numerical studies of the slow-wave ECM efficiency with inclusion of Gaussian beam velocity spread are presented. It is shown that the velocity spread reduces the interaction efficiency. -- Highlights: •The theory of slow-wave electron cyclotron masers is considered. •The calculation of efficiency under the resonance condition is presented. •The efficiency under Gaussian velocity spreads has been obtained.

Spatial Distribution of Coffee Wilt Disease Under Roguing and Replanting Conditions: A Case Study from Kaweri Estate in Uganda.

Science.gov (United States)

Pinard, F; Makune, S E; Campagne, P; Mwangi, J

2016-11-01

Based on time and spatial dynamic considerations, this study evaluates the potential role of short- and long-distance dispersal in the spread of coffee wilt disease (CWD) in a large commercial Robusta coffee estate in Uganda (Kaweri, 1,755 ha) over a 4-year period (2008 to 2012). In monthly surveys, total disease incidence, expansion of infection foci, and the occurrence of isolated infected trees were recorded and submitted to spatial analysis. Incidence was higher and disease progression faster in old coffee plantings compared with young plantings, indicating a lack of efficiency of roguing for reducing disease development in old plantings. At large spatial scale (approximately 1 km), Moran indices (both global and local) revealed the existence of clusters characterized by contrasting disease incidences. This suggested that local environmental conditions were heterogeneous or there were spatial interactions among blocks. At finer spatial scale (approximately 200 m), O-ring statistics revealed positive correlation between distant infection sites across distances as great as 60 m. Although these observations indicate the role of short-distance dispersal in foci expansion, dispersal at greater distances (>20 m) appeared to also contribute to both initiation of new foci and disease progression at coarser spatial scales. Therefore, our results suggested the role of aerial dispersal in CWD progression.

Modeling the effects of different fuel treatment mosaics on wildfire spread and behavior in a Mediterranean agro-pastoral area.

Science.gov (United States)

Salis, Michele; Del Giudice, Liliana; Arca, Bachisio; Ager, Alan A; Alcasena-Urdiroz, Fermin; Lozano, Olga; Bacciu, Valentina; Spano, Donatella; Duce, Pierpaolo

2018-04-15

Wildfire spread and behavior can be limited by fuel treatments, even if their effects can vary according to a number of factors including type, intensity, extension, and spatial arrangement. In this work, we simulated the response of key wildfire exposure metrics to variations in the percentage of treated area, treatment unit size, and spatial arrangement of fuel treatments under different wind intensities. The study was carried out in a fire-prone 625 km 2 agro-pastoral area mostly covered by herbaceous fuels, and located in Northern Sardinia, Italy. We constrained the selection of fuel treatment units to areas covered by specific herbaceous land use classes and low terrain slope (post-treatment wildfire behavior by the Minimum Travel Time (MTT) fire spread algorithm. The simulations replicated a set of southwestern wind speed scenarios (16, 24 and 32 km h -1 ) and the driest fuel moisture conditions observed in the study area. Our results showed that fuel treatments implemented near the existing road network were significantly more efficient than the other alternatives, and this difference was amplified at the highest wind speed. Moreover, the largest treatment unit sizes were the most effective in containing wildfire growth. As expected, increasing the percentage of the landscape treated and reducing wind speed lowered fire exposure profiles for all fuel treatment alternatives, and this was observed at both the landscape scale and for highly valued resources. The methodology presented in this study can support the design and optimization of fuel management programs and policies in agro-pastoral areas of the Mediterranean Basin and herbaceous type landscapes elsewhere, where recurrent grassland fires pose a threat to rural communities, farms and infrastructures. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

THE ROLE OF SOCIAL COHESION AS STRATEGY FOR REDUCING TOURISM SPATIAL CONFLICT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

SARI Suzanna Ratih

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Borobudur as one of the international tourist’s destination in Indonesia which having compromised their sense of identity before, tourists have their own set of images about tourism destinations. In that destination tourists usually create some tourism activities which needed space to facilitate. Many times such condition caused many problems that lead conflict among the local people. People tried to provide some supporting tourist facilities in order to fulfil the needs of tourist’s activities. People will further utilize some spaces of their village to build tourist facilities. Rich people usually dominated this kind of business. This becomes the fact that many of the fears surrounding tourism are closely associated with a wide range of social problems, especially in terms of determining tourism spatial. Each people tried to collect dollar from tourist as much as possible to provide tourism spatial by ignoring “guyub” and “gotong royong” as traditional principle of their live. This may create disharmony among the society and some people will not get the benefit from tourism activities. Therefore, to learn more detail about the role of “guyub and gotong royong” as social cohesion among people in Borobudur, there is a need to do this research in order to give some recommended strategy to solve thr problem regarding social cohesion and tourism spatial. By using descriptive method, researcher would like to present a case study about that matter in one of tourism village in Borobudur. The output of this research is to give an overview how tourism activities give significant influence towards the power of social cohesion in reducing the appeared conflict. The developed strategy will be used to tighten the relationship among the people, through re-empowering the traditional social cohesion so called ”guyub” and “gotong-royong”. By doing so, it is expected that integrity and cohesiveness in a social structure could always be

A spatial analysis of the spread of mumps: the importance of college students and their spring-break-associated travel.

Science.gov (United States)

Polgreen, P M; Bohnett, L C; Yang, M; Pentella, M A; Cavanaugh, J E

2010-03-01

To characterize the association between county-level risk factors and the incidence of mumps in the 2006 Iowa outbreak, we used generalized linear mixed models with the number of mumps cases per county as the dependent variable. To assess the impact of spring-break travel, we tested for differences in the proportions of mumps cases in three different age groups. In the final multivariable model, the proportion of Iowa's college students per county was positively associated (Pstudents in a county were spread among more campuses, this was associated with fewer mumps cases. Finally, we found the proportion of mumps cases in both older and younger persons increased after 1 April (P=0.0029), suggesting that spring-break college travel was associated with the spread of mumps to other age groups.

Arp2/3 complex activity in filopodia of spreading cells

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Mendes Paula M

2008-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Cells use filopodia to explore their environment and to form new adhesion contacts for motility and spreading. The Arp2/3 complex has been implicated in lamellipodial actin assembly as a major nucleator of new actin filaments in branched networks. The interplay between filopodial and lamellipodial protrusions is an area of much interest as it is thought to be a key determinant of how cells make motility choices. Results We find that Arp2/3 complex localises to dynamic puncta in filopodia as well as lamellipodia of spreading cells. Arp2/3 complex spots do not appear to depend on local adhesion or on microtubules for their localisation but their inclusion in filopodia or lamellipodia depends on the activity of the small GTPase Rac1. Arp2/3 complex spots in filopodia are capable of incorporating monomeric actin, suggesting the presence of available filament barbed ends for polymerisation. Arp2/3 complex in filopodia co-localises with lamellipodial proteins such as capping protein and cortactin. The dynamics of Arp2/3 complex puncta suggests that they are moving bi-directionally along the length of filopodia and that they may be regions of lamellipodial activity within the filopodia. Conclusion We suggest that filopodia of spreading cells have regions of lamellipodial activity and that this activity affects the morphology and movement of filopodia. Our work has implications for how we understand the interplay between lamellipodia and filopodia and for how actin networks are generated spatially in cells.

Preventing Superinfection in Malaria Spreads with Repellent and Medical Treatment Policy

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Fitri, Fanny; Aldila, Dipo

2018-03-01

Malaria is a kind of a vector-borne disease. That means this disease needs a vector (in this case, the anopheles mosquito) to spread. In this article, a mathematical model for malaria disease spread will be discussed. The model is constructed as a seven-dimensional of a non-linear ordinary differential equation. The interventions of treatment for infected humans and use of repellent are included in the model to see how these interventions could be considered as alternative ways to control the spread of malaria. Analysis will be made of the disease-free equilibrium point along with its local stability criteria, construction of the next generation matrix which followed with the sensitivity analysis of basic reproduction number. We found that both medical treatment and repellent intervention succeeded in reducing the basic reproduction number as the endemic indicator of the model. Finally, some numerical simulations are given to give a better interpretation of the analytical results.

Bifurcation and spatial pattern formation in spreading of disease with incubation period in a phytoplankton dynamics

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Randhir Singh Baghel

2012-02-01

Full Text Available In this article, we propose a three dimensional mathematical model of phytoplankton dynamics with the help of reaction-diffusion equations that studies the bifurcation and pattern formation mechanism. We provide an analytical explanation for understanding phytoplankton dynamics with three population classes: susceptible, incubated, and infected. This model has a Holling type II response function for the population transformation from susceptible to incubated class in an aquatic ecosystem. Our main goal is to provide a qualitative analysis of Hopf bifurcation mechanisms, taking death rate of infected phytoplankton as bifurcation parameter, and to study further spatial patterns formation due to spatial diffusion. Here analytical findings are supported by the results of numerical experiments. It is observed that the coexistence of all classes of population depends on the rate of diffusion. Also we obtained the time evaluation pattern formation of the spatial system.

Spreading to localized targets in complex networks

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Sun, Ye; Ma, Long; Zeng, An; Wang, Wen-Xu

2016-12-01

As an important type of dynamics on complex networks, spreading is widely used to model many real processes such as the epidemic contagion and information propagation. One of the most significant research questions in spreading is to rank the spreading ability of nodes in the network. To this end, substantial effort has been made and a variety of effective methods have been proposed. These methods usually define the spreading ability of a node as the number of finally infected nodes given that the spreading is initialized from the node. However, in many real cases such as advertising and news propagation, the spreading only aims to cover a specific group of nodes. Therefore, it is necessary to study the spreading ability of nodes towards localized targets in complex networks. In this paper, we propose a reversed local path algorithm for this problem. Simulation results show that our method outperforms the existing methods in identifying the influential nodes with respect to these localized targets. Moreover, the influential spreaders identified by our method can effectively avoid infecting the non-target nodes in the spreading process.

Estimation of wave directional spreading

Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

Deo, M.C.; Gondane, D.S.; SanilKumar, V.

One of the useful measures of waves directional spreading at a given location is the directional spreading parameter. This paper presents a new approach to arrive at its characteristic value using the computational technique of Artificial Neural...

Pito Deep reveals spatial/temporal variability of accretionary processes in the lower oceanic crust at fast-spread MOR

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John, B. E.; Cheadle, M. J.; Gee, J. S.; Coogan, L. A.; Gillis, K. M.

2017-12-01

During January and February 2017, the 42-day RV Atlantis PMaG cruise mapped and sampled in-situ fast spread lower crust for 35 km along a flow line at Pito Deep Rift (northeastern Easter microplate). There, ridge-perpendicular escarpments bound Pito Deep and expose up to 3 km sections of crust parallel to the paleo-spreading direction, providing a unique opportunity to test models for the architecture of fast spread lower ocean crust (the plutonic section). Shipboard operations included a >57,000 km2 multi-beam survey; ten Sentry dives over 70 km2 (nominal m-scale resolution) to facilitate acquisition of detailed magnetic and bathymetric data, and optimize Jason II dive siting for rock sampling and geologic mapping; nine Jason II dives in 4 areas, recovering >400 samples of gabbroic lower crust, of which 80% are approximately oriented. Combined Sentry mapping and Jason II sampling and imaging of one area, provides the most detailed documentation of in situ gabbroic crust (>3 km2 of seafloor, over 1000+m vertical section) ever completed. Significantly, the area exposes distinct lateral variation in rock type: in the west 100m of Fe-Ti oxide rich gabbroic rocks overly gabbro and olivine gabbro; however, to the east, exposures of primitive, layered troctolitic rocks extend to within 100m below the dike-gabbro transition. Equivalent troctolitic rocks are found 13 km to the southeast parallel to a flow line, implying shallow primitive rocks are a characteristic feature of EPR lower crust at this location. The high-level position of troctolitic rocks is best explained by construction in a shallow, near steady-state melt lens at a ridge segment center, with some form of gabbro glacier flow active during formation of at least the uppermost lower ocean crust (Perk et al., 2007). Lateral variation in rock type (adjacent oxide gabbro, gabbro, olivine-rich gabbro and troctolite) over short distances taken with complexity in magmatic fabric orientation (mineral and grain size

PSD-95 uncoupling from NMDA receptors by Tat-N-dimer ameliorates neuronal depolarisation in cortical spreading depression

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kucharz, Krzysztof; Søndergaard Rasmussen, Ida; Bach, Anders

2017-01-01

during the first hour after i.v. injection. The Tat-N-dimer suppressed stimulation-evoked synaptic activity by 2-20%, while cortical blood flow and cerebral oxygen metabolic (CMRO2) responses were preserved. During cortical spreading depression, the Tat-N-dimer reduced the average amplitude...... depression on cortical blood flow and CMRO2 We suggest that uncoupling of PSD-95 from NMDA receptors reduces overall neuronal excitability and the amplitude of the spreading depolarisation wave. These findings may be of interest for understanding the neuroprotective effects of the nNOS/PSD-95 uncoupling...

Spreading gossip in social networks

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Lind, Pedro G.; da Silva, Luciano R.; Andrade, José S., Jr.; Herrmann, Hans J.

2007-09-01

We study a simple model of information propagation in social networks, where two quantities are introduced: the spread factor, which measures the average maximal reachability of the neighbors of a given node that interchange information among each other, and the spreading time needed for the information to reach such a fraction of nodes. When the information refers to a particular node at which both quantities are measured, the model can be taken as a model for gossip propagation. In this context, we apply the model to real empirical networks of social acquaintances and compare the underlying spreading dynamics with different types of scale-free and small-world networks. We find that the number of friendship connections strongly influences the probability of being gossiped. Finally, we discuss how the spread factor is able to be applied to other situations.

Spreading gossip in social networks.

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Lind, Pedro G; da Silva, Luciano R; Andrade, José S; Herrmann, Hans J

2007-09-01

We study a simple model of information propagation in social networks, where two quantities are introduced: the spread factor, which measures the average maximal reachability of the neighbors of a given node that interchange information among each other, and the spreading time needed for the information to reach such a fraction of nodes. When the information refers to a particular node at which both quantities are measured, the model can be taken as a model for gossip propagation. In this context, we apply the model to real empirical networks of social acquaintances and compare the underlying spreading dynamics with different types of scale-free and small-world networks. We find that the number of friendship connections strongly influences the probability of being gossiped. Finally, we discuss how the spread factor is able to be applied to other situations.

Scale-free correlations in the geographical spreading of obesity

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Gallos, Lazaros; Barttfeld, Pablo; Havlin, Shlomo; Sigman, Mariano; Makse, Hernan

2012-02-01

Obesity levels have been universally increasing. A crucial problem is to determine the influence of global and local drivers behind the obesity epidemic, to properly guide effective policies. Despite the numerous factors that affect the obesity evolution, we show a remarkable regularity expressed in a predictable pattern of spatial long-range correlations in the geographical spreading of obesity. We study the spatial clustering of obesity and a number of related health and economic indicators, and we use statistical physics methods to characterize the growth of the resulting clusters. The resulting scaling exponents allow us to broadly classify these indicators into two separate universality classes, weakly or strongly correlated. Weak correlations are found in generic human activity such as population distribution and the growth of the whole economy. Strong correlations are recovered, among others, for obesity, diabetes, and the food industry sectors associated with food consumption. Obesity turns out to be a global problem where local details are of little importance. The long-range correlations suggest influence that extends to large scales, hinting that the physical model of obesity clustering can be mapped to a long-range correlated percolation process.

Evaluating the links between climate, disease spread, and amphibian declines.

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Rohr, Jason R; Raffel, Thomas R; Romansic, John M; McCallum, Hamish; Hudson, Peter J

2008-11-11

Human alteration of the environment has arguably propelled the Earth into its sixth mass extinction event and amphibians, the most threatened of all vertebrate taxa, are at the forefront. Many of the worldwide amphibian declines have been caused by the chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), and two contrasting hypotheses have been proposed to explain these declines. Positive correlations between global warming and Bd-related declines sparked the chytrid-thermal-optimum hypothesis, which proposes that global warming increased cloud cover in warm years that drove the convergence of daytime and nighttime temperatures toward the thermal optimum for Bd growth. In contrast, the spatiotemporal-spread hypothesis states that Bd-related declines are caused by the introduction and spread of Bd, independent of climate change. We provide a rigorous test of these hypotheses by evaluating (i) whether cloud cover, temperature convergence, and predicted temperature-dependent Bd growth are significant positive predictors of amphibian extinctions in the genus Atelopus and (ii) whether spatial structure in the timing of these extinctions can be detected without making assumptions about the location, timing, or number of Bd emergences. We show that there is spatial structure to the timing of Atelopus spp. extinctions but that the cause of this structure remains equivocal, emphasizing the need for further molecular characterization of Bd. We also show that the reported positive multi-decade correlation between Atelopus spp. extinctions and mean tropical air temperature in the previous year is indeed robust, but the evidence that it is causal is weak because numerous other variables, including regional banana and beer production, were better predictors of these extinctions. Finally, almost all of our findings were opposite to the predictions of the chytrid-thermal-optimum hypothesis. Although climate change is likely to play an important role in worldwide amphibian declines

COMBINED SURGERY OF SPREAD THYROID CANCER

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V. Zh. Brzhezovsky

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Results of treating of 99 patients with differentiated thyroid cancer spreading beyond the capsule of the organ were analysed. In most cases with spreading the tumor to the tracheal rings performing of organ-preserving operations (from “window-like” tracheal resections to circular tracheal resection with intertracheal anastomosis is possible. Choosing of type of operation to be performed depends on localisation and spread of tumor invasion of trachea, pharynx and esophagus. Using of combined operations in patients with locally-spread thyroid cancer allows to achieve long and stable remission in most of the cases.

On the potential of zero-tail DFT-spread-OFDM in 5G networks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Berardinelli, Gilberto; Tavares, Fernando Menezes Leitão; Sørensen, Troels Bundgaard

2014-01-01

Zero-tail Discrete Fourier Transform -spread OFDM (ZT DFT-s-OFDM) modulation allows to dynamically cope with the delay spread of the multipath channel, thus avoiding the limitations of hard-coded Cyclic Prefix (CP). In this paper, we discuss the potential of ZT DFT-s-OFDM modulation for the envis......, possibility of adopting unified radio numerology among different cells, reduced latency and support of agile link direction switching. The robustness of ZT DFT-s-OFDM towards non-idealities such as phase noise and non-linear power amplifier is also discussed....

Hippocampal Cortactin Levels are Reduced Following Spatial Working Memory Formation, an Effect Blocked by Chronic Calpain Inhibition.

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Olson, Mikel L; Ingebretson, Anna E; Harmelink, Katherine M

2015-06-19

The mechanism by which the hippocampus facilitates declarative memory formation appears to involve, among other things, restructuring of the actin cytoskeleton within neuronal dendrites. One protein involved in this process is cortactin, which is an important link between extracellular signaling and cytoskeletal reorganization. In this paper, we demonstrate that total hippocampal cortactin, as well as Y421-phosphorylated cortactin are transiently reduced following spatial working memory formation in the radial arm maze (RAM). Because cortactin is a substrate of the cysteine protease calpain, we also assessed the effect of chronic calpain inhibition on RAM performance and cortactin expression. Calpain inhibition impaired spatial working memory and blocked the reduction in hippocampal cortactin levels following RAM training. These findings add to a growing body of research implicating cortactin and calpain in hippocampus-dependent memory formation.

A nonlocal spatial model for Lyme disease

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Yu, Xiao; Zhao, Xiao-Qiang

2016-07-01

This paper is devoted to the study of a nonlocal and time-delayed reaction-diffusion model for Lyme disease with a spatially heterogeneous structure. In the case of a bounded domain, we first prove the existence of the positive steady state and a threshold type result for the disease-free system, and then establish the global dynamics for the model system in terms of the basic reproduction number. In the case of an unbound domain, we obtain the existence of the disease spreading speed and its coincidence with the minimal wave speed. At last, we use numerical simulations to verify our analytic results and investigate the influence of model parameters and spatial heterogeneity on the disease infection risk.

Epidemic spreading through direct and indirect interactions.

Science.gov (United States)

Ganguly, Niloy; Krueger, Tyll; Mukherjee, Animesh; Saha, Sudipta

2014-09-01

In this paper we study the susceptible-infected-susceptible epidemic dynamics, considering a specialized setting where popular places (termed passive entities) are visited by agents (termed active entities). We consider two types of spreading dynamics: direct spreading, where the active entities infect each other while visiting the passive entities, and indirect spreading, where the passive entities act as carriers and the infection is spread via them. We investigate in particular the effect of selection strategy, i.e., the way passive entities are chosen, in the spread of epidemics. We introduce a mathematical framework to study the effect of an arbitrary selection strategy and derive formulas for prevalence, extinction probabilities, and epidemic thresholds for both indirect and direct spreading. We also obtain a very simple relationship between the extinction probability and the prevalence. We pay special attention to preferential selection and derive exact formulas. The analysis reveals that an increase in the diversity in the selection process lowers the epidemic thresholds. Comparing the direct and indirect spreading, we identify regions in the parameter space where the prevalence of the indirect spreading is higher than the direct one.

Bit Error Rate Performance of a MIMO-CDMA System Employing Parity-Bit-Selected Spreading in Frequency Nonselective Rayleigh Fading

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Claude D'Amours

2011-01-01

Full Text Available We analytically derive the upper bound for the bit error rate (BER performance of a single user multiple input multiple output code division multiple access (MIMO-CDMA system employing parity-bit-selected spreading in slowly varying, flat Rayleigh fading. The analysis is done for spatially uncorrelated links. The analysis presented demonstrates that parity-bit-selected spreading provides an asymptotic gain of 10log(Nt dB over conventional MIMO-CDMA when the receiver has perfect channel estimates. This analytical result concurs with previous works where the (BER is determined by simulation methods and provides insight into why the different techniques provide improvement over conventional MIMO-CDMA systems.

Complex spatial dynamics of oncolytic viruses in vitro: mathematical and experimental approaches.

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Dominik Wodarz

Full Text Available Oncolytic viruses replicate selectively in tumor cells and can serve as targeted treatment agents. While promising results have been observed in clinical trials, consistent success of therapy remains elusive. The dynamics of virus spread through tumor cell populations has been studied both experimentally and computationally. However, a basic understanding of the principles underlying virus spread in spatially structured target cell populations has yet to be obtained. This paper studies such dynamics, using a newly constructed recombinant adenovirus type-5 (Ad5 that expresses enhanced jellyfish green fluorescent protein (EGFP, AdEGFPuci, and grows on human 293 embryonic kidney epithelial cells, allowing us to track cell numbers and spatial patterns over time. The cells are arranged in a two-dimensional setting and allow virus spread to occur only to target cells within the local neighborhood. Despite the simplicity of the setup, complex dynamics are observed. Experiments gave rise to three spatial patterns that we call "hollow ring structure", "filled ring structure", and "disperse pattern". An agent-based, stochastic computational model is used to simulate and interpret the experiments. The model can reproduce the experimentally observed patterns, and identifies key parameters that determine which pattern of virus growth arises. The model is further used to study the long-term outcome of the dynamics for the different growth patterns, and to investigate conditions under which the virus population eliminates the target cells. We find that both the filled ring structure and disperse pattern of initial expansion are indicative of treatment failure, where target cells persist in the long run. The hollow ring structure is associated with either target cell extinction or low-level persistence, both of which can be viewed as treatment success. Interestingly, it is found that equilibrium properties of ordinary differential equations describing the

Identifying influential spreaders in complex networks through local effective spreading paths

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Xiaojie; Zhang, Xue; Yi, Dongyun; Zhao, Chengli

2017-05-01

How to effectively identify a set of influential spreaders in complex networks is of great theoretical and practical value, which can help to inhibit the rapid spread of epidemics, promote the sales of products by word-of-mouth advertising, and so on. A naive strategy is to select the top ranked nodes as identified by some centrality indices, and other strategies are mainly based on greedy methods and heuristic methods. However, most of those approaches did not concern the connections between nodes. Usually, the distances between the selected spreaders are very close, leading to a serious overlapping of their influence. As a consequence, the global influence of the spreaders in networks will be greatly reduced, which largely restricts the performance of those methods. In this paper, a simple and efficient method is proposed to identify a set of discrete yet influential spreaders. By analyzing the spreading paths in the network, we present the concept of effective spreading paths and measure the influence of nodes via expectation calculation. The numerical analysis in undirected and directed networks all show that our proposed method outperforms many other centrality-based and heuristic benchmarks, especially in large-scale networks. Besides, experimental results on different spreading models and parameters demonstrates the stability and wide applicability of our method.

A suite of models to support the quantitative assessment of spread in pest risk analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Robinet, Christelle; Kehlenbeck, Hella; Kriticos, Darren J; Baker, Richard H A; Battisti, Andrea; Brunel, Sarah; Dupin, Maxime; Eyre, Dominic; Faccoli, Massimo; Ilieva, Zhenya; Kenis, Marc; Knight, Jon; Reynaud, Philippe; Yart, Annie; van der Werf, Wopke

2012-01-01

Pest Risk Analyses (PRAs) are conducted worldwide to decide whether and how exotic plant pests should be regulated to prevent invasion. There is an increasing demand for science-based risk mapping in PRA. Spread plays a key role in determining the potential distribution of pests, but there is no suitable spread modelling tool available for pest risk analysts. Existing models are species specific, biologically and technically complex, and data hungry. Here we present a set of four simple and generic spread models that can be parameterised with limited data. Simulations with these models generate maps of the potential expansion of an invasive species at continental scale. The models have one to three biological parameters. They differ in whether they treat spatial processes implicitly or explicitly, and in whether they consider pest density or pest presence/absence only. The four models represent four complementary perspectives on the process of invasion and, because they have different initial conditions, they can be considered as alternative scenarios. All models take into account habitat distribution and climate. We present an application of each of the four models to the western corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera, using historic data on its spread in Europe. Further tests as proof of concept were conducted with a broad range of taxa (insects, nematodes, plants, and plant pathogens). Pest risk analysts, the intended model users, found the model outputs to be generally credible and useful. The estimation of parameters from data requires insights into population dynamics theory, and this requires guidance. If used appropriately, these generic spread models provide a transparent and objective tool for evaluating the potential spread of pests in PRAs. Further work is needed to validate models, build familiarity in the user community and create a database of species parameters to help realize their potential in PRA practice.

KATS experiments to simulate corium spreading in the EPR core catcher concept

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eppinger, B.; Fieg, G.; Schuetz, W.; Stegmaier, U.

2001-01-01

In future Light Water Reactors special devices (core catchers) might be required to prevent containment failure by basement erosion after reactor pressure vessel melt-through during a core meltdown accident. Quick freezing of the molten core masses is desirable to reduce release of radioactivity. Several concepts of core catcher de-vices have been proposed based on the spreading of corium melt onto flat surfaces with subsequent cooling by flooding with water. Therefore a series of experiments to investigate high temperature melt spreading on flat surfaces has been carried out using alumina-iron thermite melts as a simulant. The oxidic thermite melt is conditioned by adding other oxides to simulate a realistic corium melt as close as possible. Spreading of oxidic and metallic melts have been performed in one- and two-dimensional geometry. Substrates were chemically inert ceramic layers, dry concrete and concrete with a shallow water layer on top. (authors)

How Fitness Reduced, Antimicrobial Resistant Bacteria Survive and Spread

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Græsbøll, Kaare; Nielsen, Søren Saxmose; Toft, Nils

2014-01-01

More than 30% of E. coli strains sampled from pig farms in Denmark over the last five years were resistant to the commonly used antimicrobial tetracycline. This raises a number of questions: How is this high level sustained if resistant bacteria have reduced growth rates? Given that there are mul...

Free energy analysis of cell spreading.

Science.gov (United States)

McEvoy, Eóin; Deshpande, Vikram S; McGarry, Patrick

2017-10-01

In this study we present a steady-state adaptation of the thermodynamically motivated stress fiber (SF) model of Vigliotti et al. (2015). We implement this steady-state formulation in a non-local finite element setting where we also consider global conservation of the total number of cytoskeletal proteins within the cell, global conservation of the number of binding integrins on the cell membrane, and adhesion limiting ligand density on the substrate surface. We present a number of simulations of cell spreading in which we consider a limited subset of the possible deformed spread-states assumed by the cell in order to examine the hypothesis that free energy minimization drives the process of cell spreading. Simulations suggest that cell spreading can be viewed as a competition between (i) decreasing cytoskeletal free energy due to strain induced assembly of cytoskeletal proteins into contractile SFs, and (ii) increasing elastic free energy due to stretching of the mechanically passive components of the cell. The computed minimum free energy spread area is shown to be lower for a cell on a compliant substrate than on a rigid substrate. Furthermore, a low substrate ligand density is found to limit cell spreading. The predicted dependence of cell spread area on substrate stiffness and ligand density is in agreement with the experiments of Engler et al. (2003). We also simulate the experiments of Théry et al. (2006), whereby initially circular cells deform and adhere to "V-shaped" and "Y-shaped" ligand patches. Analysis of a number of different spread states reveals that deformed configurations with the lowest free energy exhibit a SF distribution that corresponds to experimental observations, i.e. a high concentration of highly aligned SFs occurs along free edges, with lower SF concentrations in the interior of the cell. In summary, the results of this study suggest that cell spreading is driven by free energy minimization based on a competition between decreasing

The trade network in the dairy industry and its implication for the spread of contamination.

Science.gov (United States)

Pinior, B; Konschake, M; Platz, U; Thiele, H D; Petersen, B; Conraths, F J; Selhorst, T

2012-11-01

In case of an outbreak of a foodborne disease, administrative decisions in the context of crisis management are only efficient if they follow standard practices and are specifically adapted to the outbreak situation in a timely manner. These goals are hard to achieve. The complexity of national and global trade structures obscures a clear view of trade flows and, consequently, it is often impossible to unravel complex trade links quickly. Furthermore, increasing public concerns about possible health hazards caused by global trade put additional pressure on decision makers. The aim of this paper was to unveil the specific trade structures of the German milk supply chain, to highlight how these structures could affect the spatial spread of a hypothetical contaminant, and to quantify the risk of the contaminant reaching the consumer. To achieve this goal, the vertical and horizontal trade links between milk producers, dairies, and consumers were taken into account. The horizontal flow of milk between dairies (inter-dairy trade), which is intended to compensate a temporary over- or undersupply of milk, is of special importance in this respect. We hypothesized that the extent of inter-dairy trade would significantly influence the spatial spread of contaminated milk and the contamination risk. This hypothesis was tested using a computer simulation model that predicts the hypothetical spread of a contaminant via trade of milk. The model parameters were estimated using trade data collected in 2004 and 2010. The results of our study indicate that inter-dairy trade significantly influenced the contamination risk. Compared with a scenario with no inter-dairy trade, the risk that contaminated milk will reach the consumer was up to 4 times higher, even with moderate inter-dairy trade. The contamination risk depended on the extent of inter-dairy trade in a nonlinear way and reached its maximum asymptotically when inter-dairy trade increased. The contamination risk exhibited

Forecasting oil price movements with crack spread futures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Murat, Atilim; Tokat, Ekin

2009-01-01

In oil markets, the crack spread refers to the crude-product price relationship. Refiners are major participants in oil markets and they are primarily exposed to the crack spread. In other words, refiner activity is substantially driven by the objective of protecting the crack spread. Moreover, oil consumers are active participants in the oil hedging market and they are frequently exposed to the crack spread. From another perspective, hedge funds are heavily using crack spread to speculate in oil markets. Based on the high volume of crack spread futures trading in oil markets, the question we want to raise is whether the crack spread futures can be a good predictor of oil price movements. We investigated first whether there is a causal relationship between the crack spread futures and the spot oil markets in a vector error correction framework. We found the causal impact of crack spread futures on spot oil market both in the long- and the short-run after April 2003 where we detected a structural break in the model. To examine the forecasting performance, we use the random walk model (RWM) as a benchmark, and we also evaluate the forecasting power of crack spread futures against the crude oil futures. The results showed that (a) both the crack spread futures and the crude oil futures outperformed the RWM; and (b) the crack spread futures are almost as good as the crude oil futures in predicting the movements in spot oil markets. (author)

The application of GIS and RS for epidemics: a case study of the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza in China in 2004-2005

Science.gov (United States)

Zhong, Shaobo; Lan, Guiwen; Zhu, Haiguo; Wen, Renqiang; Zhao, Qiansheng; Huang, Quanyi

2008-12-01

Because of their inherent advantages, Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) are extremely useful for dealing with geographically referenced information. In the study of epidemics, most data are geographically referenced, which makes GIS and RS the perfect even necessary tools for processing, analysis, representation of epidemic data. Comprehensively considering the data requirements in the study of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) coupled with the quality of the existing remotely sensed data in terms of the resolution of space, time and spectra, the data sensed by MODIS are chosen and the relevant methods and procedures of data processing from RS and GIS for some environmental factors are proposed. Through using spatial analysis functions and Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA) of GIS, some results of relationship between HPAI occurrences and these potential factors are presented. The role played by bird migration is also preliminarily illustrated with some operations such as visualization, overlapping etc. provided by GIS. Through the work of this paper, we conclude: Firstly, the migration of birds causes the spread of HPAI all over the country in 2004-2005. Secondly, the migration of birds is the reason why the spread of HPAI is perturbed. That is, for some classic communicable diseases, their spread exhibits obvious spatial diffusion process. However, the spread of HPAI breaks this general rule. We think leap diffusion and time lag are the probable reasons for this kind of phenomena. Potential distribution of HPAI viruses (corresponding to the distribution of flyways and putative risk sources) is not completely consistent with the occurrences of HPAI. For this phenomenon, we think, in addition to the flyways of birds, all kinds of geographical, climatic factors also have important effect on the occurrences of HPAI. Through the case study of HPAI, we can see that GIS and RS can play very important roles in the study of epidemics.

Reconstructing the 2003/2004 H3N2 influenza epidemic in Switzerland with a spatially explicit, individual-based model

Science.gov (United States)

2011-01-01

Background Simulation models of influenza spread play an important role for pandemic preparedness. However, as the world has not faced a severe pandemic for decades, except the rather mild H1N1 one in 2009, pandemic influenza models are inherently hypothetical and validation is, thus, difficult. We aim at reconstructing a recent seasonal influenza epidemic that occurred in Switzerland and deem this to be a promising validation strategy for models of influenza spread. Methods We present a spatially explicit, individual-based simulation model of influenza spread. The simulation model bases upon (i) simulated human travel data, (ii) data on human contact patterns and (iii) empirical knowledge on the epidemiology of influenza. For model validation we compare the simulation outcomes with empirical knowledge regarding (i) the shape of the epidemic curve, overall infection rate and reproduction number, (ii) age-dependent infection rates and time of infection, (iii) spatial patterns. Results The simulation model is capable of reproducing the shape of the 2003/2004 H3N2 epidemic curve of Switzerland and generates an overall infection rate (14.9 percent) and reproduction numbers (between 1.2 and 1.3), which are realistic for seasonal influenza epidemics. Age and spatial patterns observed in empirical data are also reflected by the model: Highest infection rates are in children between 5 and 14 and the disease spreads along the main transport axes from west to east. Conclusions We show that finding evidence for the validity of simulation models of influenza spread by challenging them with seasonal influenza outbreak data is possible and promising. Simulation models for pandemic spread gain more credibility if they are able to reproduce seasonal influenza outbreaks. For more robust modelling of seasonal influenza, serological data complementing sentinel information would be beneficial. PMID:21554680

Influence of livestock markets on the spread of FMD

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Boklund, Anette; Hisham Beshara Halasa, Tariq; Christiansen, Lasse Engbo

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate, whether cattle markets would influence the duration, size and economic consequences of a potential FMD epidemic in Denmark. The spread of FMD was simulated using the InterSpread Plus. For movements of cattle to and from markets, we modeled the frequency...... of movements to markets for the individual herd and categorized herds that could receive contacts from markets. The epidemics were initiated in herds with market contacts. In a basic market scenario, we used the individual herds’ probability of moving animals to markets, while in a control scenario we reduced...... all probabilities of movements to markets to zero, to reflect a situation with no markets. Each scenario was initiated in 386 different herds (index), and for each index herd, the model was run 100 times. The number of extra contacts generated through a market was set to 3.5 and the probability...

Cell adhesion and spreading on polymer surfaces micropatterned by ion beams

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Satriano, C.; Carnazza, S.; Licciardello, A.; Guglielmino, S.; Marletta, G.

2003-01-01

The cell adhesion and spreading behavior on surfaces of poly(ethyleneterephtalate) and poly(hydroxymethylsiloxane) micropatterned by focused 15 keV Ga + beams has been studied. It has been found that while no modification in the cell adhesion process could be observed for unirradiated and irradiated areas on the patterned surfaces, in the case of polyhydroxymethylsiloxane the cell adhesion process is basically confined within the irradiated areas and a clear dependence of the cell ordering on the lateral size of the irradiated areas is observed. The results are discussed in terms of the specific spatially resolved chemical modification induced by Ga + irradiation onto the two different polymers. Thus, the irradiation-induced modification of composition, functional groups concentration, surface free energy, and nanoscale morphology have been studied by means of x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry, contact angle, and atomic force microscopy. The cell adhesion and spreading behavior was found to nicely correlate with the increase of the acid-base component γ AB of the surface free energy and more particularly with the dramatic increase of the Lewis basic electron-donor term

WE-DE-207B-05: Measuring Spatial Resolution in Digital Breast Tomosynthesis: Update of AAPM Task Group 245

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Scaduto, DA; Hu, Y-H; Zhao, W [Stony Brook Medicine, Stony Brook, NY (United States); Goodsitt, M; Chan, H-P [University Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States); Olafsdottir, H [Image Owl, 105 Reykjavik (Iceland); Das, M [University Houston, Houston, TX (United States); Fredenberg, E [Philips Healthcare, Solna (Sweden); Geiser, W [UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX (United States); Goodenough, D [The George Washington University, Washington, DC (United States); Heid, P [ARCADES, Marseille (France); Liu, B [Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA (United States); Mainprize, J [Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, North York, ON (Canada); Reiser, I [The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL (United States); Van Engen, R [LRCB, Nijmegen (Netherlands); Varchena, V [CIRS Inc., Norfolk, VA (United States); Vecchio, S [I.M.S., Pontecchio Marconi (Italy); Glick, S [Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, MD (United States)

2016-06-15

Purpose: Spatial resolution in digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) is affected by inherent/binned detector resolution, oblique entry of x-rays, and focal spot size/motion; the limited angular range further limits spatial resolution in the depth-direction. While DBT is being widely adopted clinically, imaging performance metrics and quality control protocols have not been standardized. AAPM Task Group 245 on Tomosynthesis Quality Control has been formed to address this deficiency. Methods: Methods of measuring spatial resolution are evaluated using two prototype quality control phantoms for DBT. Spatial resolution in the detector plane is measured in projection and reconstruction domains using edge-spread function (ESF), point-spread function (PSF) and modulation transfer function (MTF). Spatial resolution in the depth-direction and effective slice thickness are measured in the reconstruction domain using slice sensitivity profile (SSP) and artifact spread function (ASF). An oversampled PSF in the depth-direction is measured using a 50 µm angulated tungsten wire, from which the MTF is computed. Object-dependent PSF is derived and compared with ASF. Sensitivity of these measurements to phantom positioning, imaging conditions and reconstruction algorithms is evaluated. Results are compared from systems of varying acquisition geometry (9–25 projections over 15–60°). Dependence of measurements on feature size is investigated. Results: Measurements of spatial resolution using PSF and LSF are shown to depend on feature size; depth-direction spatial resolution measurements are shown to similarly depend on feature size for ASF, though deconvolution with an object function removes feature size-dependence. A slanted wire may be used to measure oversampled PSFs, from which MTFs may be computed for both in-plane and depth-direction resolution. Conclusion: Spatial resolution measured using PSF is object-independent with sufficiently small object; MTF is object

Hippocampal Cortactin Levels are Reduced Following Spatial Working Memory Formation, an Effect Blocked by Chronic Calpain Inhibition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mikel L. Olson

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The mechanism by which the hippocampus facilitates declarative memory formation appears to involve, among other things, restructuring of the actin cytoskeleton within neuronal dendrites. One protein involved in this process is cortactin, which is an important link between extracellular signaling and cytoskeletal reorganization. In this paper, we demonstrate that total hippocampal cortactin, as well as Y421-phosphorylated cortactin are transiently reduced following spatial working memory formation in the radial arm maze (RAM. Because cortactin is a substrate of the cysteine protease calpain, we also assessed the effect of chronic calpain inhibition on RAM performance and cortactin expression. Calpain inhibition impaired spatial working memory and blocked the reduction in hippocampal cortactin levels following RAM training. These findings add to a growing body of research implicating cortactin and calpain in hippocampus-dependent memory formation.

Gossip spread in social network Models

Science.gov (United States)

Johansson, Tobias

2017-04-01

Gossip almost inevitably arises in real social networks. In this article we investigate the relationship between the number of friends of a person and limits on how far gossip about that person can spread in the network. How far gossip travels in a network depends on two sets of factors: (a) factors determining gossip transmission from one person to the next and (b) factors determining network topology. For a simple model where gossip is spread among people who know the victim it is known that a standard scale-free network model produces a non-monotonic relationship between number of friends and expected relative spread of gossip, a pattern that is also observed in real networks (Lind et al., 2007). Here, we study gossip spread in two social network models (Toivonen et al., 2006; Vázquez, 2003) by exploring the parameter space of both models and fitting them to a real Facebook data set. Both models can produce the non-monotonic relationship of real networks more accurately than a standard scale-free model while also exhibiting more realistic variability in gossip spread. Of the two models, the one given in Vázquez (2003) best captures both the expected values and variability of gossip spread.

The dynamic and indirect spatial effects of neighborhood conditions on land value, spatial panel dynamic econometrics model

Science.gov (United States)

Fitriani, Rahma; Sumarminingsih, Eni; Astutik, Suci

2017-05-01

Land value is the product of past decision of its use leading to its value, as well as the value of the surrounded land. It is also affected by the local characteristic and the spillover development demand of the previous time period. The effect of each factor on land value will have dynamic and spatial virtues. Thus, a spatial panel dynamic model is used to estimate the particular effects. The model will be useful for predicting the future land value or the effect of implemented policy on land value. The objective of this paper is to derive the dynamic and indirect spatial marginal effects of the land characteristic and the spillover development demand on land value. Each effect is the partial derivative of the expected land value based on the spatial dynamic model with respect to each variable, by considering different time period and different location. The results indicate that the instant change of local or neighborhood characteristics on land value affect the local and the immediate neighborhood land value. However, the longer the change take place, the effect will spread further, not only on the immediate neighborhood.

Perineural spread in head and neck tumors.

Science.gov (United States)

Brea Álvarez, B; Tuñón Gómez, M

2014-01-01

Perineural spread is the dissemination of some types of head and neck tumors along nervous structures. Perineural spread has negative repercussions on treatment because it requires more extensive resection and larger fields of irradiation. Moreover, perineural spread is associated with increased local recurrence, and it is considered an independent indicator of poor prognosis in the TNM classification for tumor staging. However, perineural spread often goes undetected on imaging studies. In this update, we review the concept of perineural spread, its pathogenesis, and the main pathways and connections among the facial nerves, which are essential to understand this process. Furthermore, we discuss the appropriate techniques for imaging studies, and we describe and illustrate the typical imaging signs that help identify perineural spread on CT and MRI. Finally, we discuss the differential diagnosis with other entities. Copyright © 2013 SERAM. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

Modelling the potential spatial distribution of mosquito species using three different techniques

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Cianci, D.; Hartemink, N.; Ibáñez-Justicia, A.

2015-01-01

Background: Models for the spatial distribution of vector species are important tools in the assessment of the risk of establishment and subsequent spread of vector-borne diseases. The aims of this study are to define the environmental conditions suitable for several mosquito species through species

Data driven computing by the morphing fast Fourier transform ensemble Kalman filter in epidemic spread simulations

Science.gov (United States)

Mandel, Jan; Beezley, Jonathan D.; Cobb, Loren; Krishnamurthy, Ashok

2010-01-01

The FFT EnKF data assimilation method is proposed and applied to a stochastic cell simulation of an epidemic, based on the S-I-R spread model. The FFT EnKF combines spatial statistics and ensemble filtering methodologies into a localized and computationally inexpensive version of EnKF with a very small ensemble, and it is further combined with the morphing EnKF to assimilate changes in the position of the epidemic. PMID:21031155

Hydroclimatological And Anthropogenic Drivers For Cholera Spreading

Science.gov (United States)

Righetto, Lorenzo; Bertuzzo, Enrico; Mari, Lorenzo; Casagrandi, Renato; Gatto, Marino; Rinaldo, Andrea

2010-05-01

The nature of waterborne diseases, among which cholera has a prominent importance, calls for a better understanding of the link between epidemic spreading, water and climate. To this end, we have developed a framework which involves a network-based description of a river system, connected with local communities which act as nodes of the network. This has allowed us to produce consistent simulations of real case studies. More recent investigations comprise the evaluation of the spreading velocity of an epidemic wave by means of a reaction-diffusion modeling approach. In particular, we have found that both transport processes and epidemiological quantities, such as the basic reproduction number, have a crucial effect in controlling the spreading of the epidemics. We first developed a description of bacterial movement along the network driven by advection and diffusion; afterward, we have included the movement of human populations. This latter model allowed us to establish the conditions that can trigger epidemic waves that start from the coastal region, where bacteria are autochthonous, and travel inland. In particular, our findings suggest that even relatively low values of human diffusion can have the epidemic propagate upstream. The interaction between climate, hydrology and epidemic events is still much debated, since no clear correlation between climatologic and epidemiological phenomena has emerged so far. However, a spatial assessment of hydrological and epidemiological mechanisms could be crucial to understand the evolution of cholera outbreaks. In particular, a hotly debated topic is the understanding of the mechanisms that can generate patterns of cholera incidence that exhibit an intra-annual double peak, as frequently observed in endemic region such as Bangladesh. One of the possible explanations proposed in the literature is that spring droughts cause bacteria concentration in water to rise dramatically, triggering the first peak. On the other hand

Development of Pistachio (Pistacia vera L.) spread.

Science.gov (United States)

Shakerardekani, Ahmad; Karim, Roselina; Ghazali, Hasanah Mohd; Chin, Nyuk Ling

2013-03-01

Pistachio nut (Pistacia vera L.) is one of the most delicious and nutritious nuts in the world. Pistachio spreads were developed using pistachio paste as the main component, icing sugar, soy protein isolate (SPI), and red palm oil (RPO), at different ratios. The highest mean scores of all the sensory attributes were depicted by spreads that were made without addition of SPI. It was found that the work of shear was 0 to 11.0 kg s for an acceptable spread. Sensory spreadability, overall texture, spreadability, and overall acceptability were negatively correlated (R > 0.83) with the work of shear of spreads. The findings indicated that the presence of RPO had a direct effect on the viscoelastic behavior of the pistachio spreads. The a values, which are related to the green color of the pistachio product ranged from 1.7 to 3.9 for spread without addition of RPO, and 4.0 to 5.3 in the presence of RPO. The development of pistachio spread would potentially increase the food uses of pistachio and introduce consumers with a healthier snack food. © 2013 Institute of Food Technologists®

Towards Data-Driven Simulations of Wildfire Spread using Ensemble-based Data Assimilation

Science.gov (United States)

Rochoux, M. C.; Bart, J.; Ricci, S. M.; Cuenot, B.; Trouvé, A.; Duchaine, F.; Morel, T.

2012-12-01

Real-time predictions of a propagating wildfire remain a challenging task because the problem involves both multi-physics and multi-scales. The propagation speed of wildfires, also called the rate of spread (ROS), is indeed determined by complex interactions between pyrolysis, combustion and flow dynamics, atmospheric dynamics occurring at vegetation, topographical and meteorological scales. Current operational fire spread models are mainly based on a semi-empirical parameterization of the ROS in terms of vegetation, topographical and meteorological properties. For the fire spread simulation to be predictive and compatible with operational applications, the uncertainty on the ROS model should be reduced. As recent progress made in remote sensing technology provides new ways to monitor the fire front position, a promising approach to overcome the difficulties found in wildfire spread simulations is to integrate fire modeling and fire sensing technologies using data assimilation (DA). For this purpose we have developed a prototype data-driven wildfire spread simulator in order to provide optimal estimates of poorly known model parameters [*]. The data-driven simulation capability is adapted for more realistic wildfire spread : it considers a regional-scale fire spread model that is informed by observations of the fire front location. An Ensemble Kalman Filter algorithm (EnKF) based on a parallel computing platform (OpenPALM) was implemented in order to perform a multi-parameter sequential estimation where wind magnitude and direction are in addition to vegetation properties (see attached figure). The EnKF algorithm shows its good ability to track a small-scale grassland fire experiment and ensures a good accounting for the sensitivity of the simulation outcomes to the control parameters. As a conclusion, it was shown that data assimilation is a promising approach to more accurately forecast time-varying wildfire spread conditions as new airborne-like observations of

Fabrication of TiO2-Reduced Graphene Oxide Nanorod Composition Spreads Using Combinatorial Hydrothermal Synthesis and Their Photocatalytic and Photoelectrochemical Applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, Wen-Chung; Tseng, Li-Chun; Chang, Kao-Shuo

2017-09-11

This study is the first to employ combinatorial hydrothermal synthesis and facile spin-coating technology to fabricate TiO 2 -reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanorod composition spreads. The features of this study are (1) the development of a self-designed spin-coating wedge, (2) the systemic investigation of the structure-property relationship of the system, (3) the high-throughput screening of the optimal ratio from a wide range of compositions for photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical (PEC) applications, and (4) the effective coupling between the density gradient TiO 2 nanorod array and the thickness gradient rGO. The formation of rGO in the fabricated TiO 2 -rGO sample was monitored through Fourier transform infrared spectrometry. Transmission electron microscopy images also suggested that the TiO 2 nanorod surfaces were covered with a thin layer of amorphous rGO. The rutile TiO 2 plane evolution along the composition variation was verified through X-ray diffraction. 7% TiO 2 -93% rGO on the nanorod composition spread exhibited the most promising photocatalytic ability; the corresponding photodegradation kinetics, denoted by the photodegradation rate constant (k), was determined to be approximately 12.7 × 10 -3 min -1 . The excellent performance was attributed to the effective coupling between the TiO 2 and rGO, which improved the charge carrier transport, thus inhibiting electron-hole pair recombination. A cycling test implied that 7% TiO 2 -93% rGO is a reliable photocatalyst. A photoluminescence spectroscopy study also supported the superior photocatalytic ability of the sample, which was attributed to its markedly poorer recombination behavior. In addition, without further treatment, the sample exhibited excellent PEC stability; the photocurrent density was more than three times higher than that exhibited by the density gradient TiO 2 nanorods.

Asymmetric gravitational spreading - Analogue experiments on the Svecofennian orogen

Science.gov (United States)

Nikkilä, Kaisa; Korja, Annakaisa; Koyi, Hemin; Eklund, Olav

2015-04-01

Over-thickened orogenic crust may suffer from rheological, gravitational and topographical unbalancing resulting in discharging via gravitational spreading. If the thickened orogen is also hot, then increased temperature may reduce the viscosity of the crust that may induce large-scale horizontal flow. The effect of flow on the crustal architecture has previously been modeled with symmetric two-way spreading or asymmetric one- or two-way spreading (like channel flow) experiments. Most models do not take into account of the contrasting mechanical properties of the juxtaposed terranes. We have made analogue experiments to study gravitational one-way spreading and the interplay between two crustal blocks with contrasting rheological properties. The models are 3 cm thick replicas of 60 km thick crust. They have three horizontal layers representing strong lower, weak middle and brittle upper crust. The models have cuts to study the effect of inherited crustal-scale weakness zones. The experiments have been conducted within a large centrifuge in the Hans Ramberg Tectonic Laboratory at Uppsala University. The analogue models propose that asymmetric, unilateral flow has different effect on the contrasting crustal units, in both horizontal and vertical directions. The laterally heterogeneous crust flows towards the direction of extension, and it rotates and extends the pre-existing weakness zones. The weakness zones facilitate exhumation and they increase strain rate. The weakness zones split the crust into subblocks, which stretch individually and which may show signatures of compression or rotation. The changes in thickness of the model reflect changes in the layers, which may thin or thicken depending on the mechanical properties of crustal layers. A consequence of this the total amount of flattening is less than the model extension. The results are compared to geophysical and geological data from Precambrian Svecofennian orogen in Fennoscandia. The comparison suggest

A Spatial Analysis of the Potato Cyst Nematode Globodera pallida in Idaho.

Science.gov (United States)

Dandurand, Louise-Marie; Contina, Jean Bertrand; Knudsen, Guy R

2018-03-13

The potato cyst nematode (PCN), Globodera pallida, is a globally regulated and quarantine potato pest. It was detected for the first time in the U.S. in the state of Idaho in 2006. A spatial analysis was performed to: (i) understand the spatial arrangement of PCN infested fields in southern Idaho using spatial point pattern analysis; and (ii) evaluate the potential threat of PCN for entry to new areas using spatial interpolation techniques. Data point locations, cyst numbers and egg viability values for each infested field were collected by USDA-APHIS during 2006-2014. Results showed the presence of spatially clustered PCN infested fields (P = 0.003). We determined that the spread of PCN grew in diameter from the original center of infestation toward the southwest as an ellipsoidal-shaped cluster. Based on the aggregated spatial pattern of distribution and the low extent level of PCN infested fields in southern Idaho, we determined that PCN spread followed a contagion effect scenario, where nearby infested fields contributed to the infestation of new fields, probably through soil contaminated agricultural equipment or tubers. We determined that the recent PCN presence in southern Idaho is unlikely to be associated with new PCN entry from outside the state of Idaho. The relative aggregation of PCN infested fields, the low number of cysts recovered, and the low values in egg viability facilitate quarantine activities and confine this pest to a small area, which, in 2017, is estimated to be 1,233 hectares. The tools and methods provided in this study should facilitate comprehensive approaches to improve PCN control and eradication programs as well as to raise public awareness about this economically important potato pest.

Experiments on non-isothermal spreading

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ehrhard, P.

1992-09-01

Experiments are performed on axisymmetric spreading of viscous drops on glass plates. Two liquids are investigated: silicone oil (M-100) spreads to 'infinity' and paraffin oil spreads to a finite-radius steady state. The experiments with silicone oil partly recover the behaviour of previous workers data; those experiments with paraffin oil provide new data. It is found that gravitational forces dominate at long enough times while at shorter times capillary forces dominate. When the plate is heated or cooled with respect to the ambient gas, thermocapillary forces generate flows that alter the spreading dynamics. Heating (cooling) the plate is found to retard (augment) the streading. Moreover, in case of partial wetting, the finally-approached drop radius is smaller (larger) for a heated (cooled) plate. These data are all new. All these observations are in excellent quantitative agreement with the related model predictions of Ehrhard and Davis (1991). A breakdown of the axisymmetric character of the flow is observed only for very long times and/or very thin liquid layers. (orig.) [de

A reduce and replace strategy for suppressing vector-borne diseases: insights from a stochastic, spatial model.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kenichi W Okamoto

Full Text Available Two basic strategies have been proposed for using transgenic Aedes aegypti mosquitoes to decrease dengue virus transmission: population reduction and population replacement. Here we model releases of a strain of Ae. aegypti carrying both a gene causing conditional adult female mortality and a gene blocking virus transmission into a wild population to assess whether such releases could reduce the number of competent vectors. We find this "reduce and replace" strategy can decrease the frequency of competent vectors below 50% two years after releases end. Therefore, this combined approach appears preferable to releasing a strain carrying only a female-killing gene, which is likely to merely result in temporary population suppression. However, the fixation of anti-pathogen genes in the population is unlikely. Genetic drift at small population sizes and the spatially heterogeneous nature of the population recovery after releases end prevent complete replacement of the competent vector population. Furthermore, releasing more individuals can be counter-productive in the face of immigration by wild-type mosquitoes, as greater population reduction amplifies the impact wild-type migrants have on the long-term frequency of the anti-pathogen gene. We expect the results presented here to give pause to expectations for driving an anti-pathogen construct to fixation by relying on releasing individuals carrying this two-gene construct. Nevertheless, in some dengue-endemic environments, a spatially heterogeneous decrease in competent vectors may still facilitate decreasing disease incidence.

SPATIAL STRUCTURE OF WATERFRONT CITIES: COMPARISSON BETWEEN KENDARI AND MANADO

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Slamet Trisutomo

2016-01-01

Full Text Available As an archipelagic country, many cities in Indonesia exist and grow at the waterfronts. This research aims to explore comparatively the spatial structure of two waterfront cities: Kendari represents a bay-front with U-form coast line, and Manado as a sea-front with straight line coast line. The spatial structures are represented by spatial pattern, land use pattern, population density, road network, BCR and urban hierarchy. Data were collected through field survey, reading government documents and doing in-depth interview of some key informants. Descriptive and comparative analyses - both similarities and differences - on spatial structures were focused on the relationships between spatial structures with the existence of the waterfronts. The findings show that at the early period of growth, spatial structures of both cities were formed by the existence of the waterfront similarly. Influenced by physical development such as commercial facilities and housing settlements, the spatial structure recently spreads out to the mainland area created some new sub-centers. Understanding the character of spatial structures will be significant for directing and controlling the urban land use to create a sustainable waterfront city.

Endogenous spatial attention: evidence for intact functioning in adults with autism

Science.gov (United States)

Grubb, Michael A.; Behrmann, Marlene; Egan, Ryan; Minshew, Nancy J.; Carrasco, Marisa; Heeger, David J.

2012-01-01

Lay Abstract Attention allows us to selectively process the vast amount of information with which we are confronted. Focusing on a certain location of the visual scene (visual spatial attention) enables the prioritization of some aspects of information while ignoring others. Rapid manipulation of the attention field (i.e., the location and spread of visual spatial attention) is a critical aspect of human cognition, and previous research on spatial attention in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) has produced inconsistent results. In a series of three experiments, we evaluated claims in the literature that individuals with ASD exhibit a deficit in voluntarily controlling the deployment and size of the spatial attention field. We measured how well participants perform a visual discrimination task (accuracy) and how quickly they do so (reaction time), with and without spatial uncertainty (i.e., the lack of predictability concerning the spatial position of the upcoming stimulus). We found that high–functioning adults with autism exhibited slower reactions times overall with spatial uncertainty, but the effects of attention on performance accuracies and reaction times were indistinguishable between individuals with autism and typically developing individuals, in all three experiments. These results provide evidence of intact endogenous spatial attention function in high–functioning adults with ASD, suggesting that atypical endogenous spatial attention cannot be a latent characteristic of autism in general. Scientific Abstract Rapid manipulation of the attention field (i.e., the location and spread of visual spatial attention) is a critical aspect of human cognition, and previous research on spatial attention in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) has produced inconsistent results. In a series of three psychophysical experiments, we evaluated claims in the literature that individuals with ASD exhibit a deficit in voluntarily controlling the

Heat transfer and fire spread

Science.gov (United States)

Hal E. Anderson

1969-01-01

Experimental testing of a mathematical model showed that radiant heat transfer accounted for no more than 40% of total heat flux required to maintain rate of spread. A reasonable prediction of spread was possible by assuming a horizontal convective heat transfer coefficient when certain fuel and flame characteristics were known. Fuel particle size had a linear relation...

The spatial dynamics of dengue virus in Kamphaeng Phet, Thailand.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Piraya Bhoomiboonchoo

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Dengue is endemic to the rural province of Kamphaeng Phet, Northern Thailand. A decade of prospective cohort studies has provided important insights into the dengue viruses and their generated disease. However, as elsewhere, spatial dynamics of the pathogen remain poorly understood. In particular, the spatial scale of transmission and the scale of clustering are poorly characterized. This information is critical for effective deployment of spatially targeted interventions and for understanding the mechanisms that drive the dispersal of the virus.We geocoded the home locations of 4,768 confirmed dengue cases admitted to the main hospital in Kamphaeng Phet province between 1994 and 2008. We used the phi clustering statistic to characterize short-term spatial dependence between cases. Further, to see if clustering of cases led to similar temporal patterns of disease across villages, we calculated the correlation in the long-term epidemic curves between communities. We found that cases were 2.9 times (95% confidence interval 2.7-3.2 more likely to live in the same village and be infected within the same month than expected given the underlying spatial and temporal distribution of cases. This fell to 1.4 times (1.2-1.7 for individuals living in villages 1 km apart. Significant clustering was observed up to 5 km. We found a steadily decreasing trend in the correlation in epidemics curves by distance: communities separated by up to 5 km had a mean correlation of 0.28 falling to 0.16 for communities separated between 20 km and 25 km. A potential explanation for these patterns is a role for human movement in spreading the pathogen between communities. Gravity style models, which attempt to capture population movement, outperformed competing models in describing the observed correlations.There exists significant short-term clustering of cases within individual villages. Effective spatially and temporally targeted interventions deployed within villages may

Energy Spread Sources in TESLA and TTF

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mosnier, A.; Tessier, J.M.

1995-03-01

The beam energy spread in the TESLA linac must be small enough to limit the emittance dilution due to the dispersive effects. This report summarizes the major sources of energy spread both for the TESLA linac and the TTF linac, where these estimations will be carefully checked with beam experiments. The first part recalls the intra-bunch energy spread while the second part looks into the bunch-to-bunch energy spread induced by rf field fluctuations within the bunch train and from pulse-to-pulse. (author). 3 refs., 4 figs

Coding-Spreading Tradeoff in CDMA Systems

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Bolas, Eduardo

2002-01-01

.... Comparing different combinations of coding and spreading with a traditional DS-CDMA, as defined in the IS-95 standard, allows the criteria to be defined for the best coding-spreading tradeoff in CDMA systems...

Predicting the extinction of Ebola spreading in Liberia due to mitigation strategies

Science.gov (United States)

Valdez, L. D.; Aragão Rêgo, H. H.; Stanley, H. E.; Braunstein, L. A.

2015-07-01

The Ebola virus is spreading throughout West Africa and is causing thousands of deaths. In order to quantify the effectiveness of different strategies for controlling the spread, we develop a mathematical model in which the propagation of the Ebola virus through Liberia is caused by travel between counties. For the initial months in which the Ebola virus spreads, we find that the arrival times of the disease into the counties predicted by our model are compatible with World Health Organization data, but we also find that reducing mobility is insufficient to contain the epidemic because it delays the arrival of Ebola virus in each county by only a few weeks. We study the effect of a strategy in which safe burials are increased and effective hospitalisation instituted under two scenarios: (i) one implemented in mid-July 2014 and (ii) one in mid-August—which was the actual time that strong interventions began in Liberia. We find that if scenario (i) had been pursued the lifetime of the epidemic would have been three months shorter and the total number of infected individuals 80% less than in scenario (ii). Our projection under scenario (ii) is that the spreading will stop by mid-spring 2015.

Dynamics of Ionic Shifts in Cortical Spreading Depression.

Science.gov (United States)

Enger, Rune; Tang, Wannan; Vindedal, Gry Fluge; Jensen, Vidar; Johannes Helm, P; Sprengel, Rolf; Looger, Loren L; Nagelhus, Erlend A

2015-11-01

Cortical spreading depression is a slowly propagating wave of near-complete depolarization of brain cells followed by temporary suppression of neuronal activity. Accumulating evidence indicates that cortical spreading depression underlies the migraine aura and that similar waves promote tissue damage in stroke, trauma, and hemorrhage. Cortical spreading depression is characterized by neuronal swelling, profound elevation of extracellular potassium and glutamate, multiphasic blood flow changes, and drop in tissue oxygen tension. The slow speed of the cortical spreading depression wave implies that it is mediated by diffusion of a chemical substance, yet the identity of this substance and the pathway it follows are unknown. Intercellular spread between gap junction-coupled neurons or glial cells and interstitial diffusion of K(+) or glutamate have been proposed. Here we use extracellular direct current potential recordings, K(+)-sensitive microelectrodes, and 2-photon imaging with ultrasensitive Ca(2+) and glutamate fluorescent probes to elucidate the spatiotemporal dynamics of ionic shifts associated with the propagation of cortical spreading depression in the visual cortex of adult living mice. Our data argue against intercellular spread of Ca(2+) carrying the cortical spreading depression wavefront and are in favor of interstitial K(+) diffusion, rather than glutamate diffusion, as the leading event in cortical spreading depression. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press.

Resource Allocation with Adaptive Spread Spectrum OFDM Using 2D Spreading for Power Line Communications

Science.gov (United States)

Baudais, Jean-Yves; Crussière, Matthieu

2007-12-01

Bit-loading techniques based on orthogonal frequency division mutiplexing (OFDM) are frequently used over wireline channels. In the power line context, channel state information can reasonably be obtained at both transmitter and receiver sides, and adaptive loading can advantageously be carried out. In this paper, we propose to apply loading principles to an spread spectrum OFDM (SS-OFDM) waveform which is a multicarrier system using 2D spreading in the time and frequency domains. The presented algorithm handles the subcarriers, spreading codes, bits and energies assignment in order to maximize the data rate and the range of the communication system. The optimization is realized at a target symbol error rate and under spectral mask constraint as usually imposed. The analytical study shows that the merging principle realized by the spreading code improves the rate and the range of the discrete multitone (DMT) system in single and multiuser contexts. Simulations have been run over measured power line communication (PLC) channel responses and highlight that the proposed system is all the more interesting than the received signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is low.

Spread and Liquidity Issues: A markets comparison

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Strašek Sebastjan

2016-03-01

Full Text Available The financial crises are closely connected with spread changes and liquidity issues. After defining and addressing spread considerations, we research in this paper the topic of liquidity issues in times of economic crisis. We analyse the liquidity effects as recorded on spreads of securities from different markets. We stipulate that higher international risk aversion in times of financial crises coincides with widening security spreads. The paper then introduces liquidity as a risk factor into the standard value-at-risk framework, using GARCH methodology. The comparison of results of these models suggests that the size of the tested markets does not have a strong effect on the models. Thus, we find that spread analysis is an appropriate tool for analysing liquidity issues during a financial crisis.

Hybrid PAPR reduction scheme with Huffman coding and DFT-spread technique for direct-detection optical OFDM systems

Science.gov (United States)

Peng, Miao; Chen, Ming; Zhou, Hui; Wan, Qiuzhen; Jiang, LeYong; Yang, Lin; Zheng, Zhiwei; Chen, Lin

2018-01-01

High peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) of the transmit signal is a major drawback in optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OOFDM) system. In this paper, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a novel hybrid scheme, combined the Huffman coding and Discrete Fourier Transmission-Spread (DFT-spread), in order to reduce high PAPR in a 16-QAM short-reach intensity-modulated and direct-detection OOFDM (IMDD-OOFDM) system. The experimental results demonstrated that the hybrid scheme can reduce the PAPR by about 1.5, 2, 3 and 6 dB, and achieve 1.5, 1, 2.5 and 3 dB receiver sensitivity improvement compared to clipping, DFT-spread and Huffman coding and original OFDM signals, respectively, at an error vector magnitude (EVM) of -10 dB after transmission over 20 km standard single-mode fiber (SSMF). Furthermore, the throughput gain can be of the order of 30% by using the hybrid scheme compared with the cases of without applying the Huffman coding.

Multistate models of bigheaded carps in the Illinois River reveal spatial dynamics of invasive species

Science.gov (United States)

Coulter, Alison A.; Brey, Marybeth; Lubejko, Matthew; Kallis, Jahn L.; Coulter, David P.; Glover, David C.; Whitledge, Gregory W.; Garvey, James E.

2018-01-01

Knowledge of the spatial distributions and dispersal characteristics of invasive species is necessary for managing the spread of highly mobile species, such as invasive bigheaded carps (Bighead Carp [Hypophthalmichthys nobilis] and Silver Carp [H. molitrix]). Management of invasive bigheaded carps in the Illinois River has focused on using human-made barriers and harvest to limit dispersal towards the Laurentian Great Lakes. Acoustic telemetry data were used to parameterize multistate models to examine the spatial dynamics of bigheaded carps in the Illinois River to (1) evaluate the effects of existing dams on movement, (2) identify how individuals distribute among pools, and (3) gauge the effects of reductions in movement towards the invasion front. Multistate models estimated that movement was generally less likely among upper river pools (Starved Rock, Marseilles, and Dresden Island) than the lower river (La Grange and Peoria) which matched the pattern of gated versus wicket style dams. Simulations using estimated movement probabilities indicated that Bighead Carp accumulate in La Grange Pool while Silver Carp accumulate in Alton Pool. Fewer Bighead Carp reached the upper river compared to Silver Carp during simulations. Reducing upstream movement probabilities (e.g., reduced propagule pressure) by ≥ 75% into any of the upper river pools could reduce upper river abundance with similar results regardless of location. Given bigheaded carp reproduction in the upper Illinois River is presently limited, reduced movement towards the invasion front coupled with removal of individuals reaching these areas could limit potential future dispersal towards the Great Lakes.

A comparison principle for an American option on several assets: Index and spread options

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peter Laurence

2003-07-01

Full Text Available Using the method of symmetrization, we compare the price of the American option on an index or spread to that of the solution of a parabolic variational inequality in one spatial variable. This comparison principle is established for a broad class of diffusion operators with time and state dependent coefficients. The purpose is to take a first step towards deriving symmmetrized problems whose solutions bound solutions of multidimensional American option problems with variable coefficients when the computation of the latter lies beyond the scope of the most powerful numerical methods.

Simultaneous spreading and evaporation: recent developments.

Science.gov (United States)

Semenov, Sergey; Trybala, Anna; Rubio, Ramon G; Kovalchuk, Nina; Starov, Victor; Velarde, Manuel G

2014-04-01

The recent progress in theoretical and experimental studies of simultaneous spreading and evaporation of liquid droplets on solid substrates is discussed for pure liquids including nanodroplets, nanosuspensions of inorganic particles (nanofluids) and surfactant solutions. Evaporation of both complete wetting and partial wetting liquids into a nonsaturated vapour atmosphere are considered. However, the main attention is paid to the case of partial wetting when the hysteresis of static contact angle takes place. In the case of complete wetting the spreading/evaporation process proceeds in two stages. A theory was suggested for this case and a good agreement with available experimental data was achieved. In the case of partial wetting the spreading/evaporation of a sessile droplet of pure liquid goes through four subsequent stages: (i) the initial stage, spreading, is relatively short (1-2 min) and therefore evaporation can be neglected during this stage; during the initial stage the contact angle reaches the value of advancing contact angle and the radius of the droplet base reaches its maximum value, (ii) the first stage of evaporation is characterised by the constant value of the radius of the droplet base; the value of the contact angle during the first stage decreases from static advancing to static receding contact angle; (iii) during the second stage of evaporation the contact angle remains constant and equal to its receding value, while the radius of the droplet base decreases; and (iv) at the third stage of evaporation both the contact angle and the radius of the droplet base decrease until the drop completely disappears. It has been shown theoretically and confirmed experimentally that during the first and second stages of evaporation the volume of droplet to power 2/3 decreases linearly with time. The universal dependence of the contact angle during the first stage and of the radius of the droplet base during the second stage on the reduced time has been

Simulation of core melt spreading with lava: theoretical background and status of validation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Allelein, H.-J.; Breest, A.; Spengler, C.

2000-01-01

The goal of this paper is to present the GRS R and D achievements and perspectives of its approach to simulate ex-vessel core melt spreading. The basic idea followed by GRS is the analogy of core melt spreading to volcanic lava flows. A fact first proposed by Robson (1967) and now widely accepted is that lava rheologically behaves as a Bingham fluid, which is characterized by yield stress and plastic viscosity. Recent experimental investigations by Epstein (1996) reveal that corium-concrete mixtures may be described as Bingham fluids. The GRS code LAVA is based on a successful lava flow model, but is adapted to prototypic corium and corium-simulation spreading. Furthermore some detailed physical models such as a thermal crust model on the free melt surface and a model for heat conduction into the substratum are added. Heat losses of the bulk, which is represented by one mean temperature, are now determined by radiation and by temperature profiles in the upper crust and in the substratum. In order to reduce the weak mesh dependence of the original algorithm, a random space method of cellular automata is integrated, which removes the mesh bias without increasing calculation time. LAVA is successfully validated against a lot of experiments using different materials spread. The validation process has shown that LAVA is a robust and fast running code to simulate corium-type spreading. LAVA provides all integral information of practical interest (spreading length, height of the melt after stabilization) and seems to be an appropriate tool for handling large core melt masses within a plant application. (orig.)

Topology dependent epidemic spreading velocity in weighted networks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Duan, Wei; Qiu, Xiaogang; Quax, Rick; Lees, Michael; Sloot, Peter M A

2014-01-01

Many diffusive processes occur on structured networks with weighted links, such as disease spread by airplane transport or information diffusion in social networks or blogs. Understanding the impact of weight-connectivity correlations on epidemic spreading in weighted networks is crucial to support decision-making on disease control and other diffusive processes. However, a real understanding of epidemic spreading velocity in weighted networks is still lacking. Here we conduct a numerical study of the velocity of a Reed–Frost epidemic spreading process in various weighted network topologies as a function of the correlations between edge weights and node degrees. We find that a positive weight-connectivity correlation leads to a faster epidemic spreading compared to an unweighted network. In contrast, we find that both uncorrelated and negatively correlated weight distributions lead to slower spreading processes. In the case of positive weight-connectivity correlations, the acceleration of spreading velocity is weak when the heterogeneity of weight distribution increases. (paper)

FACTORS INFLUENCING YIELD SPREADS OF THE MALAYSIAN BONDS

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Norliza Ahmad

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Malaysian bond market is developing rapidly but not much is understood in terms of macroeconomic factors that could influence the yield spread of the Ringgit Malaysian denominated bonds. Based on a multifactor model, this paper examines the impact of four macroeconomic factors namely: Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI, Industry Production Index (IPI, Consumer Price Index (CPI and interest rates (IR on bond yield spread of the Malaysian Government Securities (MGS and Corporate Bonds (CBs for a period from January 2001 to December 2008. The findings support the expected hypotheses that CPI and IR are the major drivers that influence the changes in MGS yield spreads. However IPI and KLCI have weak and no influence on MGS yield spreads respectively Whilst IR, CPI and IPI have significant influence on the yield spreads of CB1, CB2 and CB3, KLCI has significant influence only on the CB1 yield spread but not on CB2 and CB3 yield spreads.

Epidemic spreading in time-varying community networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Ren, Guangming; Wang, Xingyuan

2014-06-01

The spreading processes of many infectious diseases have comparable time scale as the network evolution. Here, we present a simple networks model with time-varying community structure, and investigate susceptible-infected-susceptible epidemic spreading processes in this model. By both theoretic analysis and numerical simulations, we show that the efficiency of epidemic spreading in this model depends intensively on the mobility rate q of the individuals among communities. We also find that there exists a mobility rate threshold qc. The epidemic will survive when q > qc and die when q epidemic spreading in complex networks with community structure.

Post-Tanner spreading of nematic droplets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mechkov, S; Oshanin, G; Cazabat, A M

2009-01-01

The quasistationary spreading of a circular liquid drop on a solid substrate typically obeys the so-called Tanner law, with the instantaneous base radius R(t) growing with time as R∼t 1/10 -an effect of the dominant role of capillary forces for a small-sized droplet. However, for droplets of nematic liquid crystals, a faster spreading law sets in at long times, so that R∼t α with α significantly larger than the Tanner exponent 1/10. In the framework of the thin film model (or lubrication approximation), we describe this 'acceleration' as a transition to a qualitatively different spreading regime driven by a strong substrate-liquid interaction specific to nematics (antagonistic anchoring at the interfaces). The numerical solution of the thin film equation agrees well with the available experimental data for nematics, even though the non-Newtonian rheology has yet to be taken into account. Thus we complement the theory of spreading with a post-Tanner stage, noting that the spreading process can be expected to cross over from the usual capillarity-dominated stage to a regime where the whole reservoir becomes a diffusive film in the sense of Derjaguin.

Social Content Recommendation Based on Spatial-Temporal Aware Diffusion Modeling in Social Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Farman Ullah

2016-09-01

Full Text Available User interactions in online social networks (OSNs enable the spread of information and enhance the information dissemination process, but at the same time they exacerbate the information overload problem. In this paper, we propose a social content recommendation method based on spatial-temporal aware controlled information diffusion modeling in OSNs. Users interact more frequently when they are close to each other geographically, have similar behaviors, and fall into similar demographic categories. Considering these facts, we propose multicriteria-based social ties relationship and temporal-aware probabilistic information diffusion modeling for controlled information spread maximization in OSNs. The proposed social ties relationship modeling takes into account user spatial information, content trust, opinion similarity, and demographics. We suggest a ranking algorithm that considers the user ties strength with friends and friends-of-friends to rank users in OSNs and select highly influential injection nodes. These nodes are able to improve social content recommendations, minimize information diffusion time, and maximize information spread. Furthermore, the proposed temporal-aware probabilistic diffusion process categorizes the nodes and diffuses the recommended content to only those users who are highly influential and can enhance information dissemination. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.

Spreading dynamics in complex networks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pei, Sen; Makse, Hernán A

2013-01-01

Searching for influential spreaders in complex networks is an issue of great significance for applications across various domains, ranging from epidemic control, innovation diffusion, viral marketing, and social movement to idea propagation. In this paper, we first display some of the most important theoretical models that describe spreading processes, and then discuss the problem of locating both the individual and multiple influential spreaders respectively. Recent approaches in these two topics are presented. For the identification of privileged single spreaders, we summarize several widely used centralities, such as degree, betweenness centrality, PageRank, k-shell, etc. We investigate the empirical diffusion data in a large scale online social community—LiveJournal. With this extensive dataset, we find that various measures can convey very distinct information of nodes. Of all the users in the LiveJournal social network, only a small fraction of them are involved in spreading. For the spreading processes in LiveJournal, while degree can locate nodes participating in information diffusion with higher probability, k-shell is more effective in finding nodes with a large influence. Our results should provide useful information for designing efficient spreading strategies in reality. (paper)

Spreading dynamics in complex networks

Science.gov (United States)

Pei, Sen; Makse, Hernán A.

2013-12-01

Searching for influential spreaders in complex networks is an issue of great significance for applications across various domains, ranging from epidemic control, innovation diffusion, viral marketing, and social movement to idea propagation. In this paper, we first display some of the most important theoretical models that describe spreading processes, and then discuss the problem of locating both the individual and multiple influential spreaders respectively. Recent approaches in these two topics are presented. For the identification of privileged single spreaders, we summarize several widely used centralities, such as degree, betweenness centrality, PageRank, k-shell, etc. We investigate the empirical diffusion data in a large scale online social community—LiveJournal. With this extensive dataset, we find that various measures can convey very distinct information of nodes. Of all the users in the LiveJournal social network, only a small fraction of them are involved in spreading. For the spreading processes in LiveJournal, while degree can locate nodes participating in information diffusion with higher probability, k-shell is more effective in finding nodes with a large influence. Our results should provide useful information for designing efficient spreading strategies in reality.

Nanoscale modeling for ultrathin liquid films: Spreading and coupled layering

Science.gov (United States)

Phillips, David Michael

The hard disk drive (HDD) industry is currently experiencing a compound annual growth rate of 100% for the areal density. Current production drives have an areal density of 80 Gbit in-2, and drives with an areal density of 100 Gbit in-2 have been recently demonstrated. While much of this growth has been fueled by the development of new read/write heads, some of this gain was achieved by reducing the spacing between the heads and the magnetic media. This in turn reduces the spacing at the head-disk interface (HDI). The HDI in a HDD system consists of a slider, which contains the read/write heads, flying over the disk surface on an air bearing. The current designed separation distance, or fly height, is less than 10 nm. This spacing is expected to reduce to a mere 5 nm within the next few years. With the reduced fly height, intermittent contacts at the HDI become more probable. Only a thin lubricant film of perfluoropolyether (PFPE) and a sputtered carbon overcoat on the disk surface protect the slider and the stored data from mechanical and thermal damage. The PFPE film is quite thin, with a thickness of less than 2 nm or about a monolayer of molecules. During an HDI contact, the PFPE film is considered sacrificial and is often depleted in the contact area. In order to maintain adequate protection for the disk surface, PFPE molecules from the surrounding film must replenish the depleted area. This replenishment ability directly opposes the requirement that the PFPE film must not spin-off of the disk surface due to the disk rotation rate, which is as high as 10,000 RPM in current drives. To balance the PFPE films to sufficiently meet both requirements, HDD manufacturers functionalized the endgroups of the PFPE molecules to allow some portion of the lubricant film to reversibly bond with the disk overcoat. The result is a lubricant film that has a slower replenishment but does not spin-off. The work presented here focuses on the replenishment ability of thin films of

Spatial epidemiological techniques in cholera mapping and analysis towards a local scale predictive modelling

Science.gov (United States)

Rasam, A. R. A.; Ghazali, R.; Noor, A. M. M.; Mohd, W. M. N. W.; Hamid, J. R. A.; Bazlan, M. J.; Ahmad, N.

2014-02-01

Cholera spatial epidemiology is the study of the spread and control of the disease spatial pattern and epidemics. Previous studies have shown that multi-factorial causation such as human behaviour, ecology and other infectious risk factors influence the disease outbreaks. Thus, understanding spatial pattern and possible interrelationship factors of the outbreaks are crucial to be explored an in-depth study. This study focuses on the integration of geographical information system (GIS) and epidemiological techniques in exploratory analyzing the cholera spatial pattern and distribution in the selected district of Sabah. Spatial Statistic and Pattern tools in ArcGIS and Microsoft Excel software were utilized to map and analyze the reported cholera cases and other data used. Meanwhile, cohort study in epidemiological technique was applied to investigate multiple outcomes of the disease exposure. The general spatial pattern of cholera was highly clustered showed the disease spread easily at a place or person to others especially 1500 meters from the infected person and locations. Although the cholera outbreaks in the districts are not critical, it could be endemic at the crowded areas, unhygienic environment, and close to contaminated water. It was also strongly believed that the coastal water of the study areas has possible relationship with the cholera transmission and phytoplankton bloom since the areas recorded higher cases. GIS demonstrates a vital spatial epidemiological technique in determining the distribution pattern and elucidating the hypotheses generating of the disease. The next research would be applying some advanced geo-analysis methods and other disease risk factors for producing a significant a local scale predictive risk model of the disease in Malaysia.

Spatial epidemiological techniques in cholera mapping and analysis towards a local scale predictive modelling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rasam, A R A; Ghazali, R; Noor, A M M; Mohd, W M N W; Hamid, J R A; Bazlan, M J; Ahmad, N

2014-01-01

Cholera spatial epidemiology is the study of the spread and control of the disease spatial pattern and epidemics. Previous studies have shown that multi-factorial causation such as human behaviour, ecology and other infectious risk factors influence the disease outbreaks. Thus, understanding spatial pattern and possible interrelationship factors of the outbreaks are crucial to be explored an in-depth study. This study focuses on the integration of geographical information system (GIS) and epidemiological techniques in exploratory analyzing the cholera spatial pattern and distribution in the selected district of Sabah. Spatial Statistic and Pattern tools in ArcGIS and Microsoft Excel software were utilized to map and analyze the reported cholera cases and other data used. Meanwhile, cohort study in epidemiological technique was applied to investigate multiple outcomes of the disease exposure. The general spatial pattern of cholera was highly clustered showed the disease spread easily at a place or person to others especially 1500 meters from the infected person and locations. Although the cholera outbreaks in the districts are not critical, it could be endemic at the crowded areas, unhygienic environment, and close to contaminated water. It was also strongly believed that the coastal water of the study areas has possible relationship with the cholera transmission and phytoplankton bloom since the areas recorded higher cases. GIS demonstrates a vital spatial epidemiological technique in determining the distribution pattern and elucidating the hypotheses generating of the disease. The next research would be applying some advanced geo-analysis methods and other disease risk factors for producing a significant a local scale predictive risk model of the disease in Malaysia

Disruption of Vector Host Preference with Plant Volatiles May Reduce Spread of Insect-Transmitted Plant Pathogens.

Science.gov (United States)

Martini, Xavier; Willett, Denis S; Kuhns, Emily H; Stelinski, Lukasz L

2016-05-01

Plant pathogens can manipulate the odor of their host; the odor of an infected plant is often attractive to the plant pathogen vector. It has been suggested that this odor-mediated manipulation attracts vectors and may contribute to spread of disease; however, this requires further broad demonstration among vector-pathogen systems. In addition, disruption of this indirect chemical communication between the pathogen and the vector has not been attempted. We present a model that demonstrates how a phytophathogen (Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus) can increase its spread by indirectly manipulating the behavior of its vector (Asian citrus psyllid, Diaphorina citri Kuwayama). The model indicates that when vectors are attracted to pathogen-infected hosts, the proportion of infected vectors increases, as well as, the proportion of infected hosts. Additionally, the peak of infected host populations occurs earlier as compared with controls. These changes in disease dynamics were more important during scenarios with higher vector mortality. Subsequently, we conducted a series of experiments to disrupt the behavior of the Asian citrus psyllid. To do so, we exposed the vector to methyl salicylate, the major compound released following host infection with the pathogen. We observed that during exposure or after pre-exposure to methyl salicylate, the host preference can be altered; indeed, the Asian citrus psyllids were unable to select infected hosts over uninfected counterparts. We suggest mechanisms to explain these interactions and potential applications of disrupting herbivore host preference with plant volatiles for sustainable management of insect vectors.

An analytical study of the improved nonlinear tolerance of DFT-spread OFDM and its unitary-spread OFDM generalization.

Science.gov (United States)

Shulkind, Gal; Nazarathy, Moshe

2012-11-05

DFT-spread (DFT-S) coherent optical OFDM was numerically and experimentally shown to provide improved nonlinear tolerance over an optically amplified dispersion uncompensated fiber link, relative to both conventional coherent OFDM and single-carrier transmission. Here we provide an analytic model rigorously accounting for this numerical result and precisely predicting the optimal bandwidth per DFT-S sub-band (or equivalently the optimal number of sub-bands per optical channel) required in order to maximize the link non-linear tolerance (NLT). The NLT advantage of DFT-S OFDM is traced to the particular statistical dependency introduced among the OFDM sub-carriers by means of the DFT spreading operation. We further extend DFT-S to a unitary-spread generalized modulation format which includes as special cases the DFT-S scheme as well as a new format which we refer to as wavelet-spread (WAV-S) OFDM, replacing the spreading DFTs by Hadamard matrices which have elements +/-1 hence are multiplier-free. The extra complexity incurred in the spreading operation is almost negligible, however the performance improvement with WAV-S relative to plain OFDM is more modest than that achieved by DFT-S, which remains the preferred format for nonlinear tolerance improvement, outperforming both plain OFDM and single-carrier schemes.

Influences of reduced masticatory sensory input from soft-diet feeding upon spatial memory/learning ability in mice.

Science.gov (United States)

Tsutsui, Keisuke; Kaku, Masato; Motokawa, Masahide; Tohma, Yuiko; Kawata, Toshitsugu; Fujita, Tadashi; Kohno, Shinya; Ohtani, Junji; Tenjoh, Kaoru; Nakano, Mao; Kamada, Hiroko; Tanne, Kazuo

2007-02-01

It has been reported that reduction of masticatory afferent stimulation might influence learning and memory function. In order to clarify the influences of reduced masticatory sensory input on spatial memory/learning ability and neuropathological changes, we conducted the Morris water maze experiment and investigated the number of hippocampal neurons in association with the differences in masticatory afferent stimuli from hard- and soft-diet feeding in mice. The water maze experiment showed no significant difference in learning ability between 180-day-old solid- and powderdiet groups. Meanwhile, the ability was significantly reduced in the 360-day-old powder-diet group as compared with the age-matched solid-diet group. The total number of pyramidal cells in the hippocampal CA1 and CA3 regions was significantly smaller in 360-day-old powder-diet group than in the remaining groups. These results demonstrate that reduction of masticatory afferent stimuli due to long-term soft-diet feeding may induce neuron loss in the hippocampus and reduced memory/learning ability.

Hierarchical modeling of an invasive spread: The eurasian collared-dove streptopelia decaocto in the United States

Science.gov (United States)

Bled, F.; Royle, J. Andrew; Cam, E.

2011-01-01

Invasive species are regularly claimed as the second threat to biodiversity. To apply a relevant response to the potential consequences associated with invasions (e.g., emphasize management efforts to prevent new colonization or to eradicate the species in places where it has already settled), it is essential to understand invasion mechanisms and dynamics. Quantifying and understanding what influences rates of spatial spread is a key research area for invasion theory. In this paper, we develop a model to account for occupancy dynamics of an invasive species. Our model extends existing models to accommodate several elements of invasive processes; we chose the framework of hierarchical modeling to assess site occupancy status during an invasion. First, we explicitly accounted for spatial structure and how distance among sites and position relative to one another affect the invasion spread. In particular, we accounted for the possibility of directional propagation and provided a way of estimating the direction of this possible spread. Second, we considered the influence of local density on site occupancy. Third, we decided to split the colonization process into two subprocesses, initial colonization and recolonization, which may be ground-breaking because these subprocesses may exhibit different relationships with environmental variations (such as density variation) or colonization history (e.g., initial colonization might facilitate further colonization events). Finally, our model incorporates imperfection in detection, which might be a source of substantial bias in estimating population parameters. We focused on the case of the Eurasian Collared-Dove (Streptopelia decaocto) and its invasion of the United States since its introduction in the early 1980s, using data from the North American BBS (Breeding Bird Survey). The Eurasian Collared-Dove is one of the most successful invasive species, at least among terrestrial vertebrates. Our model provided estimation of the

Interfering Waves of Adaptation Promote Spatial Mixing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Martens, Erik Andreas; Hallatschek, Oskar

2011-01-01

A fundamental problem of asexual adaptation is that beneficial substitutions are not efficiently accumulated in large populations: Beneficial mutations often go extinct because they compete with one another in going to fixation. It has been argued that such clonal interference may have led...... to the evolution of sex and recombination in well-mixed populations. Here, we study clonal interference, and mechanisms of its mitigation, in an evolutionary model of spatially structured populations with uniform selection pressure. Clonal interference is much more prevalent with spatial structure than without......, due to the slow wave-like spread of beneficial mutations through space. We find that the adaptation speed of asexuals saturates when the linear habitat size exceeds a characteristic interference length, which becomes shorter with smaller migration and larger mutation rate. The limiting speed...

A sodar for profiling in a spatially inhomogeneous urban environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stuart Bradley

2015-11-01

Full Text Available The urban boundary layer, above the canopy, is still poorly understood. One of the challenges is obtaining data by sampling more than a few meters above the rooftops, given the spatial and temporal inhomogeneities in both horizontal and vertical. Sodars are generally useful tools for ground-based remote sensing of winds and turbulence, but rely on horizontal homogeneity (as do lidars in building up 3-component wind vectors from sampling three or more spatially separated volumes. The time taken for sound to travel to a typical range of 200 m and back is also a limitation. A sodar of radically different design is investigated, aimed at addressing these problems. It has a single vertical transmitted sound pulse. Doppler shifted signals are received from a number of volumes around the periphery of the transmitted beam with microphones which each having tight angular sensitivity at zenith angles slightly off-vertical. The spatial spread of sampled volumes is therefore smaller. By having more receiver microphones than a conventional sodar, the effect of smaller zenith angle is offset. More rapid profiling is also possible with a single vertical transmitted beam, instead of the usual multiple beams.A prototype design is described, together with initial field measurements. It is found that the beam forming using a single dish antenna and the drift of the sound pulse downwind both give rise to reduced performance compared with expectations. It is concluded that, while the new sodar works in principle, the compromises arising in the design mean that the expected advantages have not been realized

Local and Regional Spread of Primary Conjunctival Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

Science.gov (United States)

Desai, Shilpa J; Pruzan, Noelle L; Geske, Michael J; Jeng, Bennie H; Bloomer, Michele M; Vagefi, M Reza

2016-04-06

Two cases of biopsy-proven conjunctival squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) that developed local and regional spread are described. The cases involved a 65-year-old woman and a 79-year-old man who were initially treated at outside institutions for SCC of the conjunctiva. The patients did not have a history of immune compromise. The female patient presented with direct extension into the lacrimal gland but deferred recommended exenteration. Despite eventual exenteration, she developed metastasis to a neck node 6 months later, which was treated with radiotherapy. The male patient presented with local recurrence and a parotid node metastasis treated with exenteration, parotidectomy, selective neck dissection, and postoperative radiotherapy. Review of the outside pathology of both cases revealed positive tumor margins at the time of original resection. Local control of conjunctival SCC is of critical importance to reduce the risk of orbital extension and regional spread.

Evaluation of spatio-temporal Bayesian models for the spread of infectious diseases in oil palm.

Science.gov (United States)

Denis, Marie; Cochard, Benoît; Syahputra, Indra; de Franqueville, Hubert; Tisné, Sébastien

2018-02-01

In the field of epidemiology, studies are often focused on mapping diseases in relation to time and space. Hierarchical modeling is a common flexible and effective tool for modeling problems related to disease spread. In the context of oil palm plantations infected by the fungal pathogen Ganoderma boninense, we propose and compare two spatio-temporal hierarchical Bayesian models addressing the lack of information on propagation modes and transmission vectors. We investigate two alternative process models to study the unobserved mechanism driving the infection process. The models help gain insight into the spatio-temporal dynamic of the infection by identifying a genetic component in the disease spread and by highlighting a spatial component acting at the end of the experiment. In this challenging context, we propose models that provide assumptions on the unobserved mechanism driving the infection process while making short-term predictions using ready-to-use software. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Resource Allocation with Adaptive Spread Spectrum OFDM Using 2D Spreading for Power Line Communications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Baudais Jean-Yves

2007-01-01

Full Text Available Bit-loading techniques based on orthogonal frequency division mutiplexing (OFDM are frequently used over wireline channels. In the power line context, channel state information can reasonably be obtained at both transmitter and receiver sides, and adaptive loading can advantageously be carried out. In this paper, we propose to apply loading principles to an spread spectrum OFDM (SS-OFDM waveform which is a multicarrier system using 2D spreading in the time and frequency domains. The presented algorithm handles the subcarriers, spreading codes, bits and energies assignment in order to maximize the data rate and the range of the communication system. The optimization is realized at a target symbol error rate and under spectral mask constraint as usually imposed. The analytical study shows that the merging principle realized by the spreading code improves the rate and the range of the discrete multitone (DMT system in single and multiuser contexts. Simulations have been run over measured power line communication (PLC channel responses and highlight that the proposed system is all the more interesting than the received signal-to-noise ratio (SNR is low.

Does Bid/Ask Spread React to the Increase of Internet Search Traffic?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ridwan Nurazi

2015-12-01

Full Text Available This article solely examines the effect of investor attentions on bid-ask spread. We find that investors’ attention surrogated by Internet Search Traffic (IST contribute positively and significantly toward bid-ask spread (SPREAD. This result indicates that the incoming information directs the market within the stack circumstance and thin trading activity. Here, our samples were obtained from the manufacturing index, in the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX during the period of observation ranging from 2009 to 2011. The hypothesis testing in this research is performed by using panel data regression analysis (Fixed Effect Model. Test result reveals that the search of online information through Google is beneficially one of the efforts to reduce asymmetry information between informed investors and uninformed investors. Besides, we also note that asymmetric information not only exists between the informed and uninformed investors, but also happens to market makers and informed investors. Finally, our findings lead to a conclusion, in which the high search of information tends to help investors in making appropriate investment decisions.

Spatio-temporal cerebral blood flow perfusion patterns in cortical spreading depression

Science.gov (United States)

Verisokin, Andrey Yu.; Verveyko, Darya V.; Postnov, Dmitry E.

2017-04-01

Cortical spreading depression (CSD) is an example of one of the most common abnormalities in biophysical brain functioning. Despite the fact that there are many mathematical models describing the cortical spreading depression (CSD), most of them do not take into consideration the role of redistribution of cerebral blood flow (CBF), that results in the formation of spatio-temporal patterns. The paper presents a mathematical model, which successfully explains the CBD role in the CSD process. Numerical study of this model has revealed the formation of stationary dissipative structures, visually analogous to Turing structures. However, the mechanism of their formation is not diffusion. We show these structures occur due to another type of spatial coupling, that is related to tissue perfusion rate. The proposed model predicts that at similar state of neurons the distribution of blood flow and oxygenation may by different. Currently, this effect is not taken into account when the Blood oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) contrast imaging used in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Thus, the diagnosis on the BOLD signal can be ambiguous. We believe that our results can be used in the future for a more correct interpretation of the data obtained with fMRI, NIRS and other similar methods for research of the brain activity.

Spreading dynamics of power-law fluid droplets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liang Zhanpeng; Peng Xiaofeng; Wang Xiaodong; Lee, D-J; Su Ay

2009-01-01

This paper aims at providing a summary of the theoretical models available for non-Newtonian fluid spreading dynamics. Experimental findings and model predictions for a Newtonian fluid spreading test are briefly reviewed. Then how the complete wetting and partial wetting power-law fluids spread over a solid substrate is examined. The possible extension of Newtonian fluid models to power-law fluids is also discussed.

Asymmetrically interacting spreading dynamics on complex layered networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Wei; Tang, Ming; Yang, Hui; Younghae Do; Lai, Ying-Cheng; Lee, GyuWon

2014-05-29

The spread of disease through a physical-contact network and the spread of information about the disease on a communication network are two intimately related dynamical processes. We investigate the asymmetrical interplay between the two types of spreading dynamics, each occurring on its own layer, by focusing on the two fundamental quantities underlying any spreading process: epidemic threshold and the final infection ratio. We find that an epidemic outbreak on the contact layer can induce an outbreak on the communication layer, and information spreading can effectively raise the epidemic threshold. When structural correlation exists between the two layers, the information threshold remains unchanged but the epidemic threshold can be enhanced, making the contact layer more resilient to epidemic outbreak. We develop a physical theory to understand the intricate interplay between the two types of spreading dynamics.

The small world yields the most effective information spreading

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lü Linyuan; Chen Duanbing; Zhou Tao

2011-01-01

The spreading dynamics of information and diseases are usually analyzed by using a unified framework and analogous models. In this paper, we propose a model to emphasize the essential difference between information spreading and epidemic spreading, where the memory effects, the social reinforcement and the non-redundancy of contacts are taken into account. Under certain conditions, the information spreads faster and broader in regular networks than in random networks, which to some extent supports the recent experimental observation of spreading in online society (Centola D 2010 Science 329 1194). At the same time, the simulation result indicates that the random networks tend to be favorable for effective spreading when the network size increases. This challenges the validity of the above-mentioned experiment for large-scale systems. More importantly, we show that the spreading effectiveness can be sharply enhanced by introducing a little randomness into the regular structure, namely the small-world networks yield the most effective information spreading. This work provides insights into the role of local clustering in information spreading. (paper)

4Pi microscopy deconvolution with a variable point-spread function.

Science.gov (United States)

Baddeley, David; Carl, Christian; Cremer, Christoph

2006-09-20

To remove the axial sidelobes from 4Pi images, deconvolution forms an integral part of 4Pi microscopy. As a result of its high axial resolution, the 4Pi point spread function (PSF) is particularly susceptible to imperfect optical conditions within the sample. This is typically observed as a shift in the position of the maxima under the PSF envelope. A significantly varying phase shift renders deconvolution procedures based on a spatially invariant PSF essentially useless. We present a technique for computing the forward transformation in the case of a varying phase at a computational expense of the same order of magnitude as that of the shift invariant case, a method for the estimation of PSF phase from an acquired image, and a deconvolution procedure built on these techniques.

Predicting spatial distribution of privet (liguestrum spp.) in South Carolina from MODIS and forest inventory plot data

Science.gov (United States)

Dumitru Salajanu; Dennis M. Jacobs

2009-01-01

Privet's aggressive competitive behavior causes environmental harm to the ecosystem by degrading species diversity and wildlife habitat. Effective control of its spread requires high-quality spatial distribution information. Our...

Credit Spreads Across the Business Cycle

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Mads Stenbo

This paper studies how corporate bond spreads vary with the business cycle. I show that both level and slope of empirical credit spread curves are correlated with the state of the economy, and I link this to variation in idiosyncratic jump risk. I develop a structural credit risk model...... that accounts for both business cycle and jump risk, and show by estimation that the model captures the counter-cyclical level and pro-cyclical slope of empirical credit spread curves. In addition, I provide a new procedure for estimation of idiosyncratic jump risk, which is consistent with observed shocks...

Colonic motility and enema spreading

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hardy, J.G.; Wood, E.; Clark, A.G.; Reynolds, J.R.; Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham

1986-01-01

Radiolabelled enema solution was administered to eight healthy subjects, both in fasted and fed states. Enema spreading was monitored over a 4-h period using gamma scintigraphy and colonic motility was recorded simultaneously using a pressure sensitive radiotelemetry capsule. The rate and extent of enema dispersion were unaffected by eating. Spreading could be correlated with colonic motility and was inhibited by aboral propulsion of the colonic contents. (orig.)

Rapid localized spread and immunologic containment define Herpes simplex virus-2 reactivation in the human genital tract.

Science.gov (United States)

Schiffer, Joshua T; Swan, David; Al Sallaq, Ramzi; Magaret, Amalia; Johnston, Christine; Mark, Karen E; Selke, Stacy; Ocbamichael, Negusse; Kuntz, Steve; Zhu, Jia; Robinson, Barry; Huang, Meei-Li; Jerome, Keith R; Wald, Anna; Corey, Lawrence

2013-04-16

Herpes simplex virus-2 (HSV-2) is shed episodically, leading to occasional genital ulcers and efficient transmission. The biology explaining highly variable shedding patterns, in an infected person over time, is poorly understood. We sampled the genital tract for HSV DNA at several time intervals and concurrently at multiple sites, and derived a spatial mathematical model to characterize dynamics of HSV-2 reactivation. The model reproduced heterogeneity in shedding episode duration and viral production, and predicted rapid early viral expansion, rapid late decay, and wide spatial dispersion of HSV replication during episodes. In simulations, HSV-2 spread locally within single ulcers to thousands of epithelial cells in genital epithelium. DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.00288.001.

Generation and reception of spread-spectrum signals

Science.gov (United States)

Moser, R.

1983-05-01

The term 'spread-spectrum' implies a technique whereby digitized information is added to a pseudo-random number sequence and the resultant bit stream changes some parameter of the carrier frequency in discrete increments. The discrete modulation of the carrier frequency is usually realized either as a multiple level phase shift keyed or frequency shift keyed signal. The resultant PSK-modulated frequency spectrum is referred to as direct sequence spread-spectrum, whereas the FSK-modulated carrier frequency is referred to as a frequency hopped spread spectrum. These can be considered the major subsets of the more general term 'spread-spectrum'. In discussing signal reception, it is pointed out that active correlation methods are used for channel synchronization when the psuedo random sequences are long or when the processing gain is large, whereas the passive methods may be used for either short pseudo-random noise generation codes or to assist in attaining initial synchronization in long sequence spread-spectrum systems.

The simulation of surface fire spread based on Rothermel model in windthrow area of Changbai Mountain (Jilin, China)

Science.gov (United States)

Yin, Hang; Jin, Hui; Zhao, Ying; Fan, Yuguang; Qin, Liwu; Chen, Qinghong; Huang, Liya; Jia, Xiang; Liu, Lijie; Dai, Yuhong; Xiao, Ying

2018-03-01

The forest-fire not only brings great loss to natural resources, but also destructs the ecosystem and reduces the soil fertility, causing some natural disasters as soil erosion and debris flow. However, due to the lack of the prognosis for forest fire spreading trend in forest fire fighting, it is difficult to formulate rational and effective fire-fighting scheme. In the event of forest fire, achieving accurate judgment to the fire behavior would greatly improve the fire-fighting efficiency, and reduce heavy losses caused by fire. Researches on forest fire spread simulation can effectively reduce the loss of disasters. The present study focused on the simulation of "29 May 2012" wildfire in windthrow area of Changbai Mountain. Basic data were retrieved from the "29 May 2012" wildfire and field survey. A self-development forest fire behavior simulated program based on Rothermel Model was used in the simulation. Kappa coefficient and Sørensen index were employed to evaluate the simulation accuracy. The results showed that: The perimeter of simulated burned area was 4.66 km, the area was 56.47 hm2 and the overlapped burned area was 33.68 hm2, and the estimated rate of fire spread was 0.259 m/s. Between the simulated fire and actual fire, the Kappa coefficient was 0.7398 and the Sørensen co-efficient was 0.7419. This proved the application of Rothermel model to conduct fire behavior simulation in windthrow meadow was feasible. It can achieve the goal of forecasting for the spread behavior in windthrow area of Changbai Mountain. Thus, our self-development program based on the Rothermel model can provide a effective forecast of fire spread, which will facilitate the fire suppression work.

Ocean, Spreading Centre

Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

Krishna, K.S.

over the global midoceanic ridges have found some explicit relationships between spreading rate, seismic structure, and ridge-axis morphology. Bibliography Detrick, R. S., Buhl, P., Vera, E., Mutter, J., Orcutt, J., Madsen, J., and Brocher, T., 1987...

Heterogeneous incidence and propagation of spreading depolarizations

Science.gov (United States)

Kaufmann, Dan; Theriot, Jeremy J; Zyuzin, Jekaterina; Service, C Austin; Chang, Joshua C; Tang, Y Tanye; Bogdanov, Vladimir B; Multon, Sylvie; Schoenen, Jean; Ju, Y Sungtaek

2016-01-01

Spreading depolarizations are implicated in a diverse set of neurologic diseases. They are unusual forms of nervous system activity in that they propagate very slowly and approximately concentrically, apparently not respecting the anatomic, synaptic, functional, or vascular architecture of the brain. However, there is evidence that spreading depolarizations are not truly concentric, isotropic, or homogeneous, either in space or in time. Here we present evidence from KCl-induced spreading depolarizations, in mouse and rat, in vivo and in vitro, showing the great variability that these depolarizations can exhibit. This variability can help inform the mechanistic understanding of spreading depolarizations, and it has implications for their phenomenology in neurologic disease. PMID:27562866

Epidemic spreading in time-varying community networks

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ren, Guangming, E-mail: wangxy@dlut.edu.cn, E-mail: ren-guang-ming@163.com [School of Electronic and Information, Guangdong Polytechnic Normal University, Guangzhou 510665 (China); Faculty of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024 (China); Wang, Xingyuan, E-mail: wangxy@dlut.edu.cn, E-mail: ren-guang-ming@163.com [Faculty of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024 (China)

2014-06-15

The spreading processes of many infectious diseases have comparable time scale as the network evolution. Here, we present a simple networks model with time-varying community structure, and investigate susceptible-infected-susceptible epidemic spreading processes in this model. By both theoretic analysis and numerical simulations, we show that the efficiency of epidemic spreading in this model depends intensively on the mobility rate q of the individuals among communities. We also find that there exists a mobility rate threshold q{sub c}. The epidemic will survive when q > q{sub c} and die when q < q{sub c}. These results can help understanding the impacts of human travel on the epidemic spreading in complex networks with community structure.

Epidemic spreading in time-varying community networks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ren, Guangming; Wang, Xingyuan

2014-01-01

The spreading processes of many infectious diseases have comparable time scale as the network evolution. Here, we present a simple networks model with time-varying community structure, and investigate susceptible-infected-susceptible epidemic spreading processes in this model. By both theoretic analysis and numerical simulations, we show that the efficiency of epidemic spreading in this model depends intensively on the mobility rate q of the individuals among communities. We also find that there exists a mobility rate threshold q c . The epidemic will survive when q > q c and die when q  c . These results can help understanding the impacts of human travel on the epidemic spreading in complex networks with community structure

High-temperature spreading kinetics of metals

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rauch, N.

2005-05-15

In this PhD work a drop transfer setup combined with high speed photography has been used to analyze the spreading of Ag on polished polycrystalline Mo and single crystalline Mo (110) and (100) substrates. The objective of this work was to unveil the basic phenomena controlling spreading in metal-metal systems. The observed spreading kinetics were compared with current theories of low and high temperature spreading such as a molecular kinetic model and a fluid flow model. Analyses of the data reveal that the molecular model does describe the fastest velocity data well for all the investigated systems. Therefore, the energy which is dissipated during the spreading process is a dissipation at the triple line rather than dissipation due to the viscosity in the liquid. A comparison of the determined free activation energy for wetting of {delta}G95{approx}145kJ/mol with literature values allows the statement that the rate determining step seems to be a surface diffusion of the Ag atoms along the triple line. In order to investigate possible ridge formation, due to local atomic diffusion of atoms of the substrate at the triple during the spreading process, grooving experiments of the polycrystalline Mo were performed to calculate the surface diffusities that will control ridge evolution. The analyses of this work showed that a ridge formation at the fastest reported wetting velocities was not possible if there is no initial perturbation for a ridge. If there was an initial perturbation for a ridge the ridge had to be much smaller than 1 nm in order to be able to move with the liquid font. Therefore ridge formation does not influence the spreading kinetics for the studied system and the chosen conditions. SEM, AFM and TEM investigations of the triple line showed that ridge formation does also not occur at the end of the wetting experiment when the drop is close to equilibrium and the wetting velocity is slow. (orig.)

Effects of copper-based compounds, antibiotics and a plant activator on population sizes and spread of Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. michiganensis in greenhouse tomato seedlings

OpenAIRE

Milijašević Svetlana; Todorović Biljana; Potočnik Ivana; Rekanović Emil; Stepanović Miloš

2009-01-01

Three copper-based compounds (copper hydroxide, copper oxychloride, copper sulphate), two antibiotics (streptomycin and kasugamycin) and a plant activator (ASM) significantly reduced population sizes and spread of C. michiganensis subsp. michiganensis among tomato seedlings in the greenhouse. Streptomycin had the best effect in reducing pathogen population size in all sampling regions. Moreover, this antibiotic completely stopped the spread of C. michiganensis subsp. michiganensis in the regi...

Non-isothermal spreading of liquid drops on horizontal plates

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ehrhard, P.; Davis, S.H.

1990-05-01

A viscous-liquid drop spreads on a smooth horizontal surface, which is uniformly heated or cooled. Lubrication theory is used to study thin drops subject to capillary, thermocapillary and gravity forces, and a variety of contact-angle-versus-speed conditions. It is found for isothermal drops that gravity is very important at large times and determines the power law for unlimited spreading. Predictions compare well with the experimental data on isothermal spreading for both two-dimensional and axisymmetric configurations. It is found that heating (cooling) retards (augments) the spreading process. When the advancing contact angle is zero, heating will cause the drop to spread only finitely far. For positive advancing contact angles, sufficient cooling will cause unlimited spreading. Thus, the heat transfer serves as a sentitive control on the spreading. (orig.) [de

A Framework for Spatial Risk Assessments: Potential Impacts of Nonindigenous Invasive Species on Native Species

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Craig R. Allen

2006-06-01

Full Text Available Many populations of wild animals and plants are declining and face increasing threats from habitat fragmentation and loss as well as exposure to stressors ranging from toxicants to diseases to invasive nonindigenous species. We describe and demonstrate a spatially explicit ecological risk assessment that allows for the incorporation of a broad array of information that may influence the distribution of an invasive species, toxicants, or other stressors, and the incorporation of landscape variables that may influence the spread of a species or substances. The first step in our analyses is to develop species models and quantify spatial overlap between stressor and target organisms. Risk is assessed as the product of spatial overlap and a hazard index based on target species vulnerabilities to the stressor of interest. We illustrate our methods with an example in which the stressor is the ecologically destructive nonindigenous ant, Solenopsis invicta, and the targets are two declining vertebrate species in the state of South Carolina, USA. A risk approach that focuses on landscapes and that is explicitly spatial is of particular relevance as remaining undeveloped lands become increasingly uncommon and isolated and more important in the management and recovery of species and ecological systems. Effective ecosystem management includes the control of multiple stressors, including invasive species with large impacts, understanding where those impacts may be the most severe, and implementing management strategies to reduce impacts.

Metofluthrin: investigations into the use of a volatile spatial pyrethroid in a global spread of dengue, chikungunya and Zika viruses.

Science.gov (United States)

Buhagiar, Tamara S; Devine, Gregor J; Ritchie, Scott A

2017-05-30

Metofluthrin reduces biting activity in Aedes aegypti through the confusion, knockdown, and subsequent kill of a mosquito. A geographical spread in dengue, chikungunya, and Zika viruses, increases intervention demands. Response to a Zika outbreak may require a different strategy than dengue, as high-risk individuals, specifically pregnant women, need to be targeted. In semi-field conditions within a residential property in Cairns, Queensland, the impacts of metofluthrin on biting behaviour of free-flying Wolbachia-infected Ae. aegypti were evaluated. Mortality in Ae. aegypti exposed to metofluthrin over a 22 h period was 100% compared to 2.7% in an untreated room. No biting activity was observed in mosquitoes up to 5 m from the emanator after 10 min of metofluthrin exposure. Use of metofluthrin reduced biting activity up to 8 m, regardless of the host's proximity (near or far) to a dark harbourage area (HA) (P metofluthrin emanator, the host was most likely bitten when located immediately next to a HA (within 1 m) versus 8 m away from the HA (P = 0.006). The addition of a ceiling fan (0.8 m/s airflow) prevented all biting activity after 10 min of metofluthrin exposure. Previously unexposed Ae. aegypti were less likely to reach the host in a metofluthrin-treated room [Formula: see text]= 31%) compared to an untreated room ([Formula: see text]) (P metofluthrin to infiltrate protected locations within a room causing knockdown in caged mosquitoes, required more time than exposed locations (P Metofluthrin is effective in interrupting indoor host-seeking in Ae. aegypti. Metofluthrin's efficacy is increased by centrally locating the emanator in the room, and by using a fan to increase airflow. Newly treated rooms may require a period of 2-4 h for sufficient distribution of the metofluthrin into protected locations where mosquitoes may be resting.

Epidemic spreading induced by diversity of agents' mobility.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Jie; Chung, Ning Ning; Chew, Lock Yue; Lai, Choy Heng

2012-08-01

In this paper, we study the impact of the preference of an individual for public transport on the spread of infectious disease, through a quantity known as the public mobility. Our theoretical and numerical results based on a constructed model reveal that if the average public mobility of the agents is fixed, an increase in the diversity of the agents' public mobility reduces the epidemic threshold, beyond which an enhancement in the rate of infection is observed. Our findings provide an approach to improve the resistance of a society against infectious disease, while preserving the utilization rate of the public transportation system.

Spatial coherence properties of a compact and ultrafast laser-produced plasma keV x-ray source

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boschetto, D.; Mourou, G.; Rousse, A.; Mordovanakis, A.; Hou, Bixue; Nees, J.; Kumah, D.; Clarke, R.

2007-01-01

The authors use Fresnel diffraction from knife-edges to demonstrate the spatial coherence of a tabletop ultrafast x-ray source produced by laser-plasma interaction. Spatial coherence is achieved in the far field by producing micrometer-scale x-ray spot dimensions. The results show an x-ray source size of 6 μm that leads to a transversal coherence length of 20 μm at a distance of 60 cm from the source. Moreover, they show that the source size is limited by the spatial spread of the absorbed laser energy

Environmental and Human Health Impacts of Spreading Oil and Gas Wastewater on Roads.

Science.gov (United States)

Tasker, T L; Burgos, W D; Piotrowski, P; Castillo-Meza, L; Blewett, T A; Ganow, K B; Stallworth, A; Delompré, P L M; Goss, G G; Fowler, L B; Vanden Heuvel, J P; Dorman, F; Warner, N R

2018-06-19

Thirteen states in the United States allow the spreading of O&G wastewaters on roads for deicing or dust suppression. In this study, the potential environmental and human health impacts of this practice are evaluated. Analyses of O&G wastewaters spread on roads in the northeastern, U.S. show that these wastewaters have salt, radioactivity, and organic contaminant concentrations often many times above drinking water standards. Bioassays also indicated that these wastewaters contain organic micropollutants that affected signaling pathways consistent with xenobiotic metabolism and caused toxicity to aquatic organisms like Daphnia magna. The potential toxicity of these wastewaters is a concern as lab experiments demonstrated that nearly all of the metals from these wastewaters leach from roads after rain events, likely reaching ground and surface water. Release of a known carcinogen (e.g., radium) from roads treated with O&G wastewaters has been largely ignored. In Pennsylvania from 2008 to 2014, spreading O&G wastewater on roads released over 4 times more radium to the environment (320 millicuries) than O&G wastewater treatment facilities and 200 times more radium than spill events. Currently, state-by-state regulations do not require radium analyses prior to treating roads with O&G wastewaters. Methods for reducing the potential impacts of spreading O&G wastewaters on roads are discussed.

Does Bid/Ask Spread React to the Increase of Internet Search Traffic? (P.181-196

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ridwan Nurazi

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This article solely examines the effect of investor attentions on bid-ask spread. We find that investors’ attention surrogated by Internet Search Traffic (IST contribute positively and significantly toward bid-ask spread (SPREAD. This result indicates that the incoming information directs the market within the stack circumstance and thin trading activity. Here, our samples were obtained from the manufacturing index, in the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX during the period of observation ranging from 2009 to 2011. The hypothesis testing in this research is performed by using panel data regression analysis (Fixed Effect Model. Test result reveals that the search of online information through Google is beneficially one of the efforts to reduce asymmetry information between informed investors and uninformed investors. Besides, we also note that asymmetric information not only exists between the informed and uninformed investors, but also happens to market makers and informed investors. Finally, our findings lead to a conclusion, in which the high search of information tends to help investors in making appropriate investment decisions. Keywords: investors’ attention, internet search traffic, google trend, bid-ask spread

Influence of photo-generated carriers on current spreading in double diode structures for electroluminescent cooling

Science.gov (United States)

Radevici, Ivan; Tiira, Jonna; Sadi, Toufik; Oksanen, Jani

2018-05-01

Current crowding close to electrical contacts is a common challenge in all optoelectronic devices containing thin current spreading layers (CSLs). We analyze the effects of current spreading on the operation of the so-called double diode structure (DDS), consisting of a light emitting diode (LED) and a photodiode (PD) fabricated within the same epitaxial growth process, and providing an attractive platform for studying electroluminescent (EL) cooling under high bias conditions. We show that current spreading in the common n-type layer between the LED and the PD can be dramatically improved by the strong optical coupling between the diodes, as the coupling enables a photo-generated current through the PD. This reduces the current in the DDS CSL and enables the study of EL cooling using structures that are not limited by the conventional light extraction challenges encountered in normal LEDs. The current spreading in the structures is studied using optical imaging techniques, electrical measurements, simulations, as well as simple equivalent circuit models developed for this purpose. The improved current spreading leads further to a mutual dependence with the coupling efficiency, which is expected to facilitate the process of optimizing the DDS. We also report a new improved value of 63% for the DDS coupling quantum efficiency.

Pair and triplet approximation of a spatial lattice population model with multiscale dispersal using Markov chains for estimating spatial autocorrelation.

Science.gov (United States)

Hiebeler, David E; Millett, Nicholas E

2011-06-21

We investigate a spatial lattice model of a population employing dispersal to nearest and second-nearest neighbors, as well as long-distance dispersal across the landscape. The model is studied via stochastic spatial simulations, ordinary pair approximation, and triplet approximation. The latter method, which uses the probabilities of state configurations of contiguous blocks of three sites as its state variables, is demonstrated to be greatly superior to pair approximations for estimating spatial correlation information at various scales. Correlations between pairs of sites separated by arbitrary distances are estimated by constructing spatial Markov processes using the information from both approximations. These correlations demonstrate why pair approximation misses basic qualitative features of the model, such as decreasing population density as a large proportion of offspring are dropped on second-nearest neighbors, and why triplet approximation is able to include them. Analytical and numerical results show that, excluding long-distance dispersal, the initial growth rate of an invading population is maximized and the equilibrium population density is also roughly maximized when the population spreads its offspring evenly over nearest and second-nearest neighboring sites. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Spreading Sequence Design and Theoretical Limits for Quasisynchronous CDMA Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fan Pingzhi

2004-01-01

Full Text Available For various quasisynchronous (QS CDMA systems such as LAS-CDMA system which emerged recently, in order to reduce or eliminate the multiple access interference and multipath interference, it is required to design a set of spreading sequences which are mutually orthogonal within a designed shift zone, called orthogonal zone. For traditional orthogonal sequences, such as Walsh sequences and orthogonal Gold sequences, the orthogonality can only be achieved at the inphase point; in other words, the orthogonality is destroyed whenever there is a relative shift between the sequences, that is, their orthogonal zone is 0. In this paper, new concepts of generalized orthogonality (GO and generalized quasiorthogonality (GQO for spreading sequence design in both direct sequence (DS QS-CDMA systems and time/frequency hopping (TH/FH QS-CDMA systems are presented. Besides, selected GO/GQO sequence designs and general theoretical periodic and aperiodic limits, together with several applications in QS-CDMA systems, are also reviewed and analyzed.

Do pathogens become more virulent as they spread? Evidence from the amphibian declines in Central America.

Science.gov (United States)

Phillips, Ben L; Puschendorf, Robert

2013-09-07

The virulence of a pathogen can vary strongly through time. While cyclical variation in virulence is regularly observed, directional shifts in virulence are less commonly observed and are typically associated with decreasing virulence of biological control agents through coevolution. It is increasingly appreciated, however, that spatial effects can lead to evolutionary trajectories that differ from standard expectations. One such possibility is that, as a pathogen spreads through a naive host population, its virulence increases on the invasion front. In Central America, there is compelling evidence for the recent spread of pathogenic Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) and for its strong impact on amphibian populations. Here, we re-examine data on Bd prevalence and amphibian population decline across 13 sites from southern Mexico through Central America, and show that, in the initial phases of the Bd invasion, amphibian population decline lagged approximately 9 years behind the arrival of the pathogen, but that this lag diminished markedly over time. In total, our analysis suggests an increase in Bd virulence as it spread southwards, a pattern consistent with rapid evolution of increased virulence on Bd's invading front. The impact of Bd on amphibians might therefore be driven by rapid evolution in addition to more proximate environmental drivers.

POLA PENYEBARAN SPASIAL INVESTASI DI INDONESIA: SEBUAH PELAJARAN DARI MASA LALU

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. J. Sarungu

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Economic development theorists generally beliefs that investment mainly played an important role in economic growth. Based on that, one can easily to think that spatially disparity of economic growth mostly depends on spatially spread of investment. This work try to investigate the spatially spread pattern of investment in Indonesia in the past before the Asian financial and economic crisis occurred. In that time, the government development policy stressed not only on economic growth but also on reducing economic disparity included spatially. In the recent, the two kinds of economic development policies’ stressing are still continued by the government. Generally, the lessons from the past is that the spatially spread pattern of investment in Indonesia tended to still concentrated in the western Java island (in Jakarta and its surrounding and also in the Sulawesi island. While in the other island, investment tended to spread.

Spatial layout optimization design of multi-type LEDs lighting source based on photoelectrothermal coupling theory

Science.gov (United States)

Xue, Lingyun; Li, Guang; Chen, Qingguang; Rao, Huanle; Xu, Ping

2018-03-01

Multiple LED-based spectral synthesis technology has been widely used in the fields of solar simulator, color mixing, and artificial lighting of plant factory and so on. Generally, amounts of LEDs are spatially arranged with compact layout to obtain the high power density output. Mutual thermal spreading among LEDs will produce the coupled thermal effect which will additionally increase the junction temperature of LED. Affected by the Photoelectric thermal coupling effect of LED, the spectrum of LED will shift and luminous efficiency will decrease. Correspondingly, the spectral synthesis result will mismatch. Therefore, thermal management of LED spatial layout plays an important role for multi-LEDs light source system. In the paper, the thermal dissipation network topology model considering the mutual thermal spreading effect among the LEDs is proposed for multi-LEDs system with various types of power. The junction temperature increment cased by the thermal coupling has the great relation with the spatial arrangement. To minimize the thermal coupling effect, an optimized method of LED spatial layout for the specific light source structure is presented and analyzed. The results showed that layout of LED with high-power are arranged in the corner and low-power in the center. Finally, according to this method, it is convenient to determine the spatial layout of LEDs in a system having any kind of light source structure, and has the advantages of being universally applicable to facilitate adjustment.

Clonal spread of Staphylococcus aureus with reduced susceptibility to oxacillin in a dermatological hospital unit

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thomsen, Marianne Kragh; Rasmussen, Mads; Fuursted, Kurt

2006-01-01

transmission routes in order to intervene and prevent further spread. Clonality of the isolates was confirmed by pulsed field gel electrophoresis. Several breaches in infection control procedures were revealed suggesting both direct and indirect transmission between patients. Defective skin barriers, high...... carrier rates of S. aureus in dermatological patients and high consumption rates of dicloxacillin in the department might facilitate transmission. Following improvement of the general infection control measures, and after reassessment of the antibiotic policy in the department, the outbreak has......In November 2000, we became aware of isolates of Staphylococcus aureus with borderline resistance to oxacillin (BORSA) from patients in the Department of Dermatology, Aarhus University Hospital. The objective was to describe the isolates phenotypically and genotypically and to assess possible...

Spatial profile of contours inducing long-range color assimilation.

Science.gov (United States)

Devinck, Frédéric; Spillmann, Lothar; Werner, John S

2006-01-01

Color induction was measured using a matching method for two spatial patterns, each composed of double contours. In one pattern (the standard), the contours had sharp edges to induce the Watercolor Effect (WCE); in the other, the two contours had a spatial taper so that the overall profile produced a sawtooth edge, or ramped stimulus. These patterns were chosen based on our previous study demonstrating that the strength of the chromatic WCE depends on a luminance difference between the two contours. Low-pass chromatic mechanisms, unlike bandpass luminance mechanisms, may be expected to be insensitive to the difference between the two spatial profiles. The strength of the watercolor spreading was similar for the two patterns at narrow widths of the contour possibly because of chromatic aberration, but with wider contours, the standard stimulus produced stronger assimilation than the ramped stimulus. This research suggests that luminance-dependent chromatic mechanisms mediate the WCE and that these mechanisms are sensitive to differences in the two spatial profiles of the pattern contours only when they are wide.

Dynamical Model about Rumor Spreading with Medium

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiaxia Zhao

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Rumor is a kind of social remark, that is untrue, and not be confirmed, and spreads on a large scale in a short time. Usually, it can induce a cloud of pressure, anxiety, and panic. Traditionally, it is propagated by word of mouth. Nowadays, with the emergence of the internet, rumors can be spread by instant messengers, emails, or publishing. With this new pattern of spreading, an ISRW dynamical model considering the medium as a subclass is established. Beside the dynamical analysis of the model, we mainly explore the mechanism of spreading of individuals-to-individuals and medium-to-individual. By numerical simulation, we find that if we want to control the rumor spreading, it will not only need to control the rate of change of the spreader subclass, but also need to control the change of the information about rumor in medium which has larger influence. Moreover, to control the effusion of rumor is more important than deleting existing information about rumor. On the one hand, government should enhance the management of internet. On the other hand, relevant legal institutions for punishing the rumor creator and spreader on internet who can be tracked should be established. Using this way, involved authorities can propose efficient measures to control the rumor spreading to keep the stabilization of society and development of economy.

Spreading in online social networks: the role of social reinforcement.

Science.gov (United States)

Zheng, Muhua; Lü, Linyuan; Zhao, Ming

2013-07-01

Some epidemic spreading models are usually applied to analyze the propagation of opinions or news. However, the dynamics of epidemic spreading and information or behavior spreading are essentially different in many aspects. Centola's experiments [Science 329, 1194 (2010)] on behavior spreading in online social networks showed that the spreading is faster and broader in regular networks than in random networks. This result contradicts with the former understanding that random networks are preferable for spreading than regular networks. To describe the spreading in online social networks, a unknown-known-approved-exhausted four-status model was proposed, which emphasizes the effect of social reinforcement and assumes that the redundant signals can improve the probability of approval (i.e., the spreading rate). Performing the model on regular and random networks, it is found that our model can well explain the results of Centola's experiments on behavior spreading and some former studies on information spreading in different parameter space. The effects of average degree and network size on behavior spreading process are further analyzed. The results again show the importance of social reinforcement and are accordant with Centola's anticipation that increasing the network size or decreasing the average degree will enlarge the difference of the density of final approved nodes between regular and random networks. Our work complements the former studies on spreading dynamics, especially the spreading in online social networks where the information usually requires individuals' confirmations before being transmitted to others.

Social Distancing Strategies against Disease Spreading

Science.gov (United States)

Valdez, L. D.; Buono, C.; Macri, P. A.; Braunstein, L. A.

2013-12-01

The recurrent infectious diseases and their increasing impact on the society has promoted the study of strategies to slow down the epidemic spreading. In this review we outline the applications of percolation theory to describe strategies against epidemic spreading on complex networks. We give a general outlook of the relation between link percolation and the susceptible-infected-recovered model, and introduce the node void percolation process to describe the dilution of the network composed by healthy individual, i.e., the network that sustain the functionality of a society. Then, we survey two strategies: the quenched disorder strategy where an heterogeneous distribution of contact intensities is induced in society, and the intermittent social distancing strategy where health individuals are persuaded to avoid contact with their neighbors for intermittent periods of time. Using percolation tools, we show that both strategies may halt the epidemic spreading. Finally, we discuss the role of the transmissibility, i.e., the effective probability to transmit a disease, on the performance of the strategies to slow down the epidemic spreading.

Disease spreading in real-life networks

Science.gov (United States)

Gallos, Lazaros; Argyrakis, Panos

2002-08-01

In recent years the scientific community has shown a vivid interest in the network structure and dynamics of real-life organized systems. Many such systems, covering an extremely wide range of applications, have been recently shown to exhibit scale-free character in their connectivity distribution, meaning that they obey a power law. Modeling of epidemics on lattices and small-world networks suffers from the presence of a critical infection threshold, above which the entire population is infected. For scale-free networks, the original assumption was that the formation of a giant cluster would lead to an epidemic spreading in the same way as in simpler networks. Here we show that modeling epidemics on a scale-free network can greatly improve the predictions on the rate and efficiency of spreading, as compared to lattice models and small-world networks. We also show that the dynamics of a disease are greatly influenced by the underlying population structure. The exact same model can describe a plethora of networks, such as social networks, virus spreading in the Web, rumor spreading, signal transmission etc.

Energy spread in ion beam analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Szilagyi, E.

2000-01-01

In ion beam analysis (IBA) the depth profiles are extracted from the experimentally determined energy profiles. The spectra, however, are subject to finite energy resolution of both extrinsic and intrinsic origin. Calculation of those effects such as instrumental beam, geometry and detection-related energy and angular spreads as well as energy straggling, multiple scattering and Doppler effects in the sample itself is not trivial, especially since it involves treatment of non-independent random processes. A proper account for energy spread is vital in IBA not only for correct extraction of elemental and isotopic depth profiles from the measured spectra, but already prior to data acquisition, in optimising experimental conditions to reach the required depth resolution at a certain depth. After a short review of the literature on the different energy spread contributions experimental examples are given from resonance, RBS, elastic BS and ERDA practice in which an account for energy spread contributions is essential. Some further examples illustrate extraction of structural information (roughness, pore size, etc.) from elaborated depth resolution calculation for such layer structures

Energy spread in ion beam analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Szilagyi, E. E-mail: szilagyi@rmki.kkfki.hu

2000-03-01

In ion beam analysis (IBA) the depth profiles are extracted from the experimentally determined energy profiles. The spectra, however, are subject to finite energy resolution of both extrinsic and intrinsic origin. Calculation of those effects such as instrumental beam, geometry and detection-related energy and angular spreads as well as energy straggling, multiple scattering and Doppler effects in the sample itself is not trivial, especially since it involves treatment of non-independent random processes. A proper account for energy spread is vital in IBA not only for correct extraction of elemental and isotopic depth profiles from the measured spectra, but already prior to data acquisition, in optimising experimental conditions to reach the required depth resolution at a certain depth. After a short review of the literature on the different energy spread contributions experimental examples are given from resonance, RBS, elastic BS and ERDA practice in which an account for energy spread contributions is essential. Some further examples illustrate extraction of structural information (roughness, pore size, etc.) from elaborated depth resolution calculation for such layer structures.

Linear theory of equatorial spread F

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hudson, M.K.; Kennel, C.F.

1975-01-01

A fluid dispersion relation for the drift and interchange (Rayleigh-Taylor) modes in a collisional plasma forms the basis for a linear theory of equatorial spread F. The collisional drift mode growth rate will exceed the growth rate of the Rayleigh-Taylor mode at short perpendicular wavelengths and density gradient scale lengths, and the drift mode can grow on top side as well as on bottom side density gradients. However, below the F peak, where spread F predominates, it is concluded that both the drift and the Rayleigh-Taylor modes contribute to the total spread F spectrum, the Rayleigh-Taylor mode dominating at long and the drift mode at short perpendicular wavelengths above the ion Larmor radius

Flame spread along thermally thick horizontal rods

Science.gov (United States)

Higuera, F. J.

2002-06-01

An analysis is carried out of the spread of a flame along a horizontal solid fuel rod, for which a weak aiding natural convection flow is established in the underside of the rod by the action of the axial gradient of the pressure variation that gravity generates in the warm gas surrounding the flame. The spread rate is determined in the limit of infinitely fast kinetics, taking into account the effect of radiative losses from the solid surface. The effect of a small inclination of the rod is discussed, pointing out a continuous transition between upward and downward flame spread. Flame spread along flat-bottomed solid cylinders, for which the gradient of the hydrostatically generated pressure drives the flow both along and across the direction of flame propagation, is also analysed.

Influence of backscattering on the spatial resolution of semiconductor X-ray detectors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hoheisel, M.; Korn, A.; Giersch, J.

2005-01-01

Pixelated X-ray detectors using semiconductor layers or scintillators as absorbers are widely used in high-energy physics, medical diagnosis, or non-destructive testing. Their good spatial resolution performance makes them particularly suitable for applications where fine details have to be resolved. Intrinsic limitations of the spatial resolution have been studied in previous simulations. These simulations focused on interactions inside the conversion layer. Transmitted photons were treated as a loss. In this work, we also implemented the structure behind the conversion layer to investigate the impact of backscattering inside the detector setup. We performed Monte Carlo simulations with the program ROSI (Roentgen Simulation) which is based on the well-established EGS4 algorithm. Line-spread functions of different fully implemented detectors were simulated. In order to characterize the detectors' spatial resolution, the modulation transfer functions (MTF) were calculated. The additional broadening of the line-spread function by carrier transport has been ignored in this work. We investigated two different detector types: a directly absorbing pixel detector where a semiconductor slab is bump-bonded to a readout ASIC such as the Medipix-2 setup with Si or GaAs as an absorbing semiconductor layer, and flat-panel detectors with a Se or a CsI converter. We found a significant degradation of the MTF compared to the case without backscattering. At energies above the K-edge of the backscattering material the spatial resolution drops and can account for the observed low-frequency drop of the MTF. Ignoring this backscatter effect might lead to misinterpretations of the charge sharing effect in counting pixel detectors

Measurement of TLR-induced macrophage spreading by automated image analysis: differential role of Myd88 and MAPK in early and late responses

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jens eWenzel

2011-10-01

Full Text Available Sensing of infectious danger by Toll-like receptors (TLR on macrophages causes not only a reprogramming of the transcriptome but also changes in the cytoskeleton important for cell spreading and motility. Since manual determination of cell contact areas from fluorescence microscopy pictures is very time consuming and prone to bias, we have developed and tested algorithms for automated measurement of macrophage spreading. The two-step method combines identification of cells by nuclear staining with DAPI and cell surface staining of the integrin CD11b. Automated image analysis correlated very well with manual annotation in resting macrophages and early after stimulation, whereas at later time points the automated cell segmentation algorithm and manual annotation showed slightly larger variation. The method was applied to investigate the impact of genetic or pharmacological inhibition of known TLR signaling components. Deificiency in the adapter protein Myd88 strongly reduced spreading activity at the late time points, but had no impact early after LPS stimulation. A similar effect was observed upon pharmacological inhibition of MEK1, the kinase activating the MAPK ERK1/2, indicating that ERK1/2 mediates Myd88-dependent macrophages spreading. In contrast, macrophages lacking the MAPK p38 were impaired in the initial spreading response but responded normally 8 – 24 h after stimulation. The dichotomy of p38 and ERK1/2 MAPK effects on early and late macrophage spreading raises the question which of the respective substrate proteins mediate(s cytoskeletal remodeling and spreading. The automated measurement of cell spreading described here increases the objectivity and greatly reduces the time required for such investigations and is therefore expected to facilitate larger through-put analysis of macrophage spreading, e.g. in siRNA knockdown screens.

Ensemble forecast spread induced by soil moisture changes over mid-south and neighbouring mid-western region of the USA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arturo I. Quintanar

2012-02-01

Full Text Available This study investigated the potential impact of soil moisture perturbations on the statistical spread of an ensemble forecast for three different synoptic events during the summer of 2006. Soil moisture was perturbed from a control simulation to generate a 12 member ensemble with six drier and six moister soils. The impacts on the near-surface atmospheric conditions and on precipitation were analysed. It was found, as previous studies have confirmed, that soil moisture can change the spatial and temporal distribution of precipitation and of the overlying circulation. It was found that regardless of the conditions in synoptic forcing, temperature, relative humidity and horizontal wind field exhibited a spatial correlation coefficient (R close to one with respect to the control simulation. Vertical velocity, however, showed a marked decrease in R down to 0.4 as the precipitation activity increased. For vertical velocity, however, this quantity grew to near 1.0 consistent with R near zero and standard deviations very close to that of the control. These results suggested a more complex picture in which soil moisture perturbations played a major role in modifying precipitation and the near-surface circulation but did not broaden the statistical spread of trajectories in phase space of all variables.

The Spatial Changes of Land Use in the Bucharest Metropolitan Area 1970s – 2000s

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gabriel Simion

2010-11-01

Full Text Available The article explore the dimension of spatial changes of land use in the Bucharest Metropolitan Area (BMA over the past forty years. Using GIS-based land use data sets of the years 1970, 1990 and 2000, combining with statistical data, we attempted to quantify the spatial pattern of land use changes in the BMA. Our findings indicate that most significantly changes occurred with arable lands that have been reduced from 77% of total metropolitan area in 1970 to 71.3% in 2000 and in same time the built up area increase from 6.2% in 1970 to 10.4% in 2000. Vineyards and orchards suffered a reduced of their spread. In the case of vineyards the percentage of total area decrease from 2.7% in 1970 to 0.8% and regarding orchards from 1.1% in 1970 to 0.6% in 2000. The growth of built up indicate the urban influence of Bucharest city on it the large metropolitan area. The decrease of vineyards and orchards can be correlated with agrarian reform passed after the fall of socialist economic system that generated many problems for the farmers that cannot continue to cultivate the land with these kinds of cultures. These findings have implication with the futures strategies on urban and metropolitan planning in this area.

The neoliberalisation of strategic spatial planning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Olesen, Kristian

2014-01-01

scales, and partly through the normalisation of neoliberal discourses in strategic spatial planning processes. This paper analyses the complex relationship, partly of unease and partly of coevolution, between neoliberalism and strategic spatial planning. Furthermore, the paper discusses the key......Strategic spatial planning practices have recently taken a neoliberal turn in many northwestern European countries. This neoliberalisation of strategic spatial planning has materialised partly in governance reforms aiming to reduce or abolish strategic spatial planning at national and regional...... challenges for strategic spatial planning in the face of neoliberalism and argues for a need to strengthen strategic spatial planning’s critical dimension....

The influence of various distracting stimuli on spatial working memory

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Martina Starc

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Protecting information from distraction is essential for optimal performance of working memory. We examined how the presence of distracting stimuli influences spatial working memory and compared the effect of both task-similar and negatively emotionally salient distractors. We checked the effect of distractors on the accuracy of high-resolution representations, as well as the maintenance of spatial categories, and more precisely defined not only the existence but also the direction of the distracting influences (towards or away from the position of the distractor. Participants (n = 25, 8 men, 19–31 years old were asked to remember the exact position of a target scrambled image and recall it with a joystick after a delay. In some trials an additional distracting image (scrambled, neutral or negative was shown during the delay. We measured the spread of responses (standard deviation of angular error and shifts of the average response towards the prototype angles (45° or towards the position of distractors. Distracting stimuli did not affect the spread of responses and decreased the tendency of participants to move the responses towards the prototype angle. Different types of distractors did not differ in this effect. Contrary to expectations, the participants moved their responses away from the position of distractors; this effect was more pronounced for negative distractors. In addition to memorizing the exact position and maintaining attention on the position of the stimulus, participants are likely to strategically use information about spatial category membership (quadrants and information about the position of the distractor. The repulsive effect of the distractor likely results from inhibition of its position and indicates the need to supplement computational models of spatial working memory and to take into account different strategies of working memory use.

Rumor Spreading Model with Immunization Strategy and Delay Time on Homogeneous Networks

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Jing; Wang, Ya-Qi; Li, Ming

2017-12-01

In order to prevent and control the spread of rumors, the implementation of immunization strategies for ignorant individuals is very necessary, where the immunization usually means letting them learn the truth of rumors. Considering the facts that there is always a delay time between rumor spreading and implementing immunization, and that the truth of rumors can also be spread out, this paper constructs a novel susceptible-infected-removed (SIR) model. The propagation dynamical behaviors of the SIR model on homogeneous networks are investigated by using the mean-field theory and the Monte Carlo method. Research shows that the greater the delay time, the worse the immune effect of the immunization strategy. It is also found that the spread of the truth can inhibit to some extent the propagation of rumors, and the trend will become more obvious with the increase of reliability of the truth. Moreover, under the influence of delay time, the existence of nodes’ identification force still slightly reduces the propagation degree of rumors. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 61402531, the Natural Science Basic Research Plan in Shaanxi Province of China under Grant Nos. 2014JQ8358, 2015JQ6231, and 2014JQ8307, the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation under Grant No. 2015M582910, and the Basic Research Foundation of Engineering University of the Chinese People’s Armed Police Force under Grant Nos. WJY201419, WJY201605 and JLX201686

Fire and Heat Spreading Model Based on Cellular Automata Theory

Science.gov (United States)

Samartsev, A. A.; Rezchikov, A. F.; Kushnikov, V. A.; Ivashchenko, V. A.; Bogomolov, A. S.; Filimonyuk, L. Yu; Dolinina, O. N.; Kushnikov, O. V.; Shulga, T. E.; Tverdokhlebov, V. A.; Fominykh, D. S.

2018-05-01

The distinctive feature of the proposed fire and heat spreading model in premises is the reduction of the computational complexity due to the use of the theory of cellular automata with probability rules of behavior. The possibilities and prospects of using this model in practice are noted. The proposed model has a simple mechanism of integration with agent-based evacuation models. The joint use of these models could improve floor plans and reduce the time of evacuation from premises during fires.

Supporting FIRE-suppression strategies combining fire spread MODelling and SATellite data in an operational context in Portugal: the FIRE-MODSAT project

Science.gov (United States)

Sá, Ana C. L.; Benali, Akli; Pinto, Renata M. S.; Pereira, José M. C.; Trigo, Ricardo M.; DaCamara, Carlos C.

2014-05-01

Large wildfires are infrequent but account for the most severe environmental, ecological and socio-economic impacts. In recent years Portugal has suffered the impact of major heat waves that fuelled records of burnt area exceeding 400.000ha and 300.000ha in 2003 and 2005, respectively. According to the latest IPCC reports, the frequency and amplitude of summer heat waves over Iberia will very likely increase in the future. Therefore, most climate change studies point to an increase in the number and extent of wildfires. Thus, an increase in both wildfire impacts and fire suppression difficulties is expected. The spread of large wildfires results from a complex interaction between topography, meteorology and fuel properties. Wildfire spread models (e.g. FARSITE) are commonly used to simulate fire growth and behaviour and are an essential tool to understand their main drivers. Additionally, satellite active-fire data have been used to monitor the occurrence, extent, and spread of wildfires. Both satellite data and fire spread models provide different types of information about the spatial and temporal distribution of large wildfires and can potentially be used to support strategic decisions regarding fire suppression resource allocation. However, they have not been combined in a manner that fully exploits their potential and minimizes their limitations. A knowledge gap still exists in understanding how to minimize the impacts of large wildfires, leading to the following research question: What can we learn from past large wildfires in order to mitigate future fire impacts? FIRE-MODSAT is a one-year funded project by the Portuguese Foundation for the Science and Technology (FCT) that is founded on this research question, with the main goal of improving our understanding on the interactions between fire spread and its environmental drivers, to support fire management decisions in an operational context and generate valuable information to improve the efficiency of the

MGlu5 antagonism impairs exploration and memory of spatial and non-spatial stimuli in rats

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christoffersen, Gert Rene Juul; Simonyi, Agnes; Schachtman, Todd R.

2008-01-01

and it was found that: 1) Locomotion during exploration of spatial environments and exploration time at novel objects were reduced by i.p. but not by prelimbic administration of MPEP, 2) spatial short-term memory was impaired in cross-maze and object discrimination was reduced after both types of administration, 3......) long-term retention of spatial conditioning in the cross-maze was inhibited after i.p. applications which 4) also inhibited spontaneous alternation performance during maze-exploration. Reduced exploratory locomotion and exploration time after i.p. injections may have contributed to the observed......Metabotropic glutamate receptor subtype 5 (mGlu5) has been implicated in memory processing in some but not all learning tasks.  The reason why this receptor is involved in some tasks but not in others remains to be determined.  The present experiments using rats examined effects of the mGlu5...

Impact of the spatial structure on the returns of the stock indexes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carlos A. Díaz Contreras

2007-09-01

Full Text Available Nowadays, economies are integrated in commercial, financial, social, and cultural terms. Integration facilitates the transmission of impacts associated with economic events originated in one region to other regions, generating unexpected fluctuations at domestic level. Hence, investors may face higher uncertainty and unexpected effects on economic development may be observed. This research shows a significant spatial dependence in stock returns for the America’s countries. Therefore, we demonstrate that there exist spatial externalities, which facilitate that changes affecting to stock returns of each country are spread through the continent, impacting also to the rest of American countries’ returns.

Numerical Simulations of Spread Characteristics of Toxic Cyanide in the Danjiangkou Reservoir in China under the Effects of Dam Cooperation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Libin Chen

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Many accidents of releasing toxic pollutants into surface water happen each year in the world. It is believed that dam cooperation can affect flow field in reservoir and then can be applied to avoiding and reducing spread speed of toxic pollutants to drinking water intake mouth. However, few studies investigated the effects of dam cooperation on the spread characteristics of toxic pollutants in reservoir, especially the source reservoir for water diversion with more than one dam. The Danjiangkou Reservoir is the source reservoir of the China’ South-to-North Water Diversion Middle Route Project. The human activities are active within this reservoir basin and cyanide-releasing accident once happened in upstream inflow. In order to simulate the spread characteristics of cyanide in the reservoir in the condition of dam cooperation, a three-dimensional water quality model based on the Environmental Fluid Dynamics Code (EFDC has been built and put into practice. The results indicated that cooperation of two dams of the Danjiangkou Reservoir could be applied to avoiding and reducing the spread speed of toxic cyanide in the reservoir directing to the water intake mouth for water diversions.

Modeling of marginal burning state of fire spread in live chaparral shrub fuel bed

Science.gov (United States)

X. Zhou; S. Mahalingam; D. Weise

2005-01-01

Prescribed burning in chaparral, currently used to manage wildland fuels and reduce wildfire hazard, is often conducted under marginal burning conditions. The relative importance of the fuel and environmental variables that determine fire spread success in chaparral fuels is not quantitatively understood. Based on extensive experimental study, a two-dimensional...

Lexical Ambiguity: Making a Case against Spread

Science.gov (United States)

Kaplan, Jennifer J.; Rogness, Neal T.; Fisher, Diane G.

2012-01-01

We argue for decreasing the use of the word "spread" when describing the statistical idea of dispersion or variability in introductory statistics courses. In addition, we argue for increasing the use of the word "variability" as a replacement for "spread."

A review of recent results on spread F theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ossakow, S.L.

1979-01-01

Ionospheric Spread F was discovered some four decades ago. Yet only in the past few years has significant progress been made in the theoretical explanation of such phenomena. In particular, considerable effort has been expended to explain equatorial Spread F and the attendant satellite signal propagation scintillation phenomena. The present review dwells mainly in this low latitude area. The various linear plasma instabilities thought to initiate equatorial Spread F are discussed. Recent theoretical and numerical simulation studies of the nonlinear evolution of the collisional Rayleigh-Taylor instability in equatorial Spread F are reviewed. Also, analytical studies of rising equatorial Spread F bubbles in the collisional and collisionless Rayleigh-Taylor regime are discussed, as well as the nohlinear saturation of instabilities in these two regimes. Current theories on very small scale (< approx 10 meters) size irregularities observed by radar backscatter during equatorial Spread F and their relation to the larger wavelength scintillation causing irregularities are discussed. Application of turbulence theory to equatorial Spread F phenomena is reviewed. Remaining problems to be dealt with at equatorial latitudes are summarized. (Auth.)

Understanding the spreading patterns of mobile phone viruses

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Pu; Gonzalez, Marta; Hidalgo, Cesar; Barabasi, Albert-Laszlo

2009-03-01

Mobile viruses are little more than a nuisance today, but given our increased reliance on wireless communication, in the near future they could pose more risk than their PC based counterparts. Despite of the more than three hundred mobile viruses known so far, little is known about their spreading pattern, partly due to a lack of data on the communication and travel patterns of mobile phone users. Starting from the traffic and the communication pattern of six million mobile phone users, we model the vulnerability of mobile communications against potential virus outbreaks. We show that viruses exploiting Bluetooth and multimedia messaging services (MMS) follow markedly different spreading patterns. The Bluetooth virus can reach all susceptible handsets, but spreads relatively slowly, as its spread is driven by human mobility. In contrast, an MMS virus can spread rapidly, but because the underlying social network is fragmented, it can reach only a small fraction of all susceptible users. This difference affects both their spreading rate, the number of infected users, as well as the defense measures one needs to take to protect the system against potential viral outbreak.

Relationship between attenuation coefficients and dose-spread kernels

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boyer, A.L.

1988-01-01

Dose-spread kernels can be used to calculate the dose distribution in a photon beam by convolving the kernel with the primary fluence distribution. The theoretical relationships between various types and components of dose-spread kernels relative to photon attenuation coefficients are explored. These relations can be valuable as checks on the conservation of energy by dose-spread kernels calculated by analytic or Monte Carlo methods

Estimating epidemic arrival times using linear spreading theory

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Lawrence M.; Holzer, Matt; Shapiro, Anne

2018-01-01

We study the dynamics of a spatially structured model of worldwide epidemics and formulate predictions for arrival times of the disease at any city in the network. The model is composed of a system of ordinary differential equations describing a meta-population susceptible-infected-recovered compartmental model defined on a network where each node represents a city and the edges represent the flight paths connecting cities. Making use of the linear determinacy of the system, we consider spreading speeds and arrival times in the system linearized about the unstable disease free state and compare these to arrival times in the nonlinear system. Two predictions are presented. The first is based upon expansion of the heat kernel for the linearized system. The second assumes that the dominant transmission pathway between any two cities can be approximated by a one dimensional lattice or a homogeneous tree and gives a uniform prediction for arrival times independent of the specific network features. We test these predictions on a real network describing worldwide airline traffic.

Effects of rewiring strategies on information spreading in complex dynamic networks

Science.gov (United States)

Ally, Abdulla F.; Zhang, Ning

2018-04-01

Recent advances in networks and communication services have attracted much interest to understand information spreading in social networks. Consequently, numerous studies have been devoted to provide effective and accurate models for mimicking information spreading. However, knowledge on how to spread information faster and more widely remains a contentious issue. Yet, most existing works are based on static networks which limit the reality of dynamism of entities that participate in information spreading. Using the SIR epidemic model, this study explores and compares effects of two rewiring models (Fermi-Dirac and Linear functions) on information spreading in scale free and small world networks. Our results show that for all the rewiring strategies, the spreading influence replenishes with time but stabilizes in a steady state at later time-steps. This means that information spreading takes-off during the initial spreading steps, after which the spreading prevalence settles toward its equilibrium, with majority of the population having recovered and thus, no longer affecting the spreading. Meanwhile, rewiring strategy based on Fermi-Dirac distribution function in one way or another impedes the spreading process, however, the structure of the networks mimic the spreading, even with a low spreading rate. The worst case can be when the spreading rate is extremely small. The results emphasize that despite a big role of such networks in mimicking the spreading, the role of the parameters cannot be simply ignored. Apparently, the probability of giant degree neighbors being informed grows much faster with the rewiring strategy of linear function compared to that of Fermi-Dirac distribution function. Clearly, rewiring model based on linear function generates the fastest spreading across the networks. Therefore, if we are interested in speeding up the spreading process in stochastic modeling, linear function may play a pivotal role.

Litter aeration and spread of Salmonella in broilers.

Science.gov (United States)

Bodí, Sara González; Garcia, Arantxa Villagra; García, Santiago Vega; Orenga, Clara Marín

2013-08-01

Litter quality in the poultry sector is one of the main parameters of health, productivity, and animal welfare. Therefore, innovative management methods have been developed to improve the quality of litter. One of them is litter aeration (LA) by tumbling. However, there is little information related to the effect of this technique on the spreading of pathogens of public health importance such as Salmonella. In this context, the objective of this study was to determine the epidemiology of Salmonella in poultry farms, when serial LA were implemented during the rearing cycle of broilers. For this purpose, an experimental broiler farm with 3 identical rooms was used in the study. Two rooms were assigned to the LA treatment, and the other one served as the control room. Environmental samples were taken in poultry houses after LA in 4 consecutive weeks at the end of the cycle. All samples collected were analyzed according to the standards of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO 6579:2002, Annex D). The results of this study showed that in the control and treated rooms, the percentage of positive samples for Salmonella decreased in the first 3 LA sessions (LA 1, LA 2, and LA 3). However, in the last LA session of rearing (LA 4), the percentage of positive samples increased from 8.2 to 33.2% in the control room instead the treated rooms where the positive samples decreased (P = 0.017). Thus, the aeration of the litter as litter management technique in poultry broiler production does not increase the shedding or the spread of Salmonella throughout broiler houses. In addition, it could be an effective technique to reduce the infective pressure of this bacterium in several areas of the farm or in certain moments of the rearing period with more risk of multiplication and spreading of Salmonella.

Individual stock-option prices and credit spreads

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Cremers, M.; Driessen, J.; Maenhout, P.; Weinbaum, D.

2008-01-01

This paper introduces measures of volatility and jump risk that are based on individual stock options to explain credit spreads on corporate bonds. Implied volatilities of individual options are shown to contain useful information for credit spreads and improve on historical volatilities when

Cost reducing investments and spatial competition

OpenAIRE

Domenico Scalera; Alberto Zazzaro

2005-01-01

In this paper we analyze the relationship between competition and cost reducing investments in the context of a location model. In particular, we derive the symmetric subgame-perfect equilibrium of a three-stage circular city model with closed-loop strategies, and study the effects of changes in competition fundamentals under both a given number of firms and free entry

Dependence of image quality on energy spread for a Bragg diffraction based radiography system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baldelli, P.; Bacci, A.; Bottigli, U.; Ferrario, M.; Gambaccini, M.; Giulietti, D.; Golosio, B.; Maroli, C.; Oliva, P.; Petrillo, V.; Serafini, L.; Stumbo, S.; Taibi, A.; Tomassini, P.; Vaccarezza, C.

2007-01-01

The aim of this work is to investigate the relationship between contrast and energy resolution of a quasi-monochromatic X-ray system based on Bragg diffraction on a mosaic crystal. Three different energies have been considered: 18, 22 and 26 keV. A commercial phantom containing large and small area details and a digital detector have been used. Results show that for large area details and for a certain value of energy, the energy spread of the incident X-ray beams produces a small reduction of the contrast, while for small area details the high reduction of the contrast is principally due to the spatial resolution properties of the system

Influence of trust in the spreading of information

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Hongrun; Arenas, Alex; Gómez, Sergio

2017-01-01

The understanding and prediction of information diffusion processes on networks is a major challenge in network theory with many implications in social sciences. Many theoretical advances occurred due to stochastic spreading models. Nevertheless, these stochastic models overlooked the influence of rational decisions on the outcome of the process. For instance, different levels of trust in acquaintances do play a role in information spreading, and actors may change their spreading decisions during the information diffusion process accordingly. Here, we study an information-spreading model in which the decision to transmit or not is based on trust. We explore the interplay between the propagation of information and the trust dynamics happening on a two-layer multiplex network. Actors' trustable or untrustable states are defined as accumulated cooperation or defection behaviors, respectively, in a Prisoner's Dilemma setup, and they are controlled by a memory span. The propagation of information is abstracted as a threshold model on the information-spreading layer, where the threshold depends on the trustability of agents. The analysis of the model is performed using a tree approximation and validated on homogeneous and heterogeneous networks. The results show that the memory of previous actions has a significant effect on the spreading of information. For example, the less memory that is considered, the higher is the diffusion. Information is highly promoted by the emergence of trustable acquaintances. These results provide insight into the effect of plausible biases on spreading dynamics in a multilevel networked system.

Coherent optical DFT-spread OFDM transmission using orthogonal band multiplexing.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Qi; He, Zhixue; Yang, Zhu; Yu, Shaohua; Yi, Xingwen; Shieh, William

2012-01-30

Coherent optical OFDM (CO-OFDM) combined with orthogonal band multiplexing provides a scalable and flexible solution for achieving ultra high-speed rate. Among many CO-OFDM implementations, digital Fourier transform spread (DFT-S) CO-OFDM is proposed to mitigate fiber nonlinearity in long-haul transmission. In this paper, we first illustrate the principle of DFT-S OFDM. We then experimentally evaluate the performance of coherent optical DFT-S OFDM in a band-multiplexed transmission system. Compared with conventional clipping methods, DFT-S OFDM can reduce the OFDM peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) value without suffering from the interference of the neighboring bands. With the benefit of much reduced PAPR, we successfully demonstrate 1.45 Tb/s DFT-S OFDM over 480 km SSMF transmission.

A random walk evolution model of wireless sensor networks and virus spreading

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Ya-Qi; Yang Xiao-Yuan

2013-01-01

In this paper, considering both cluster heads and sensor nodes, we propose a novel evolving a network model based on a random walk to study the fault tolerance decrease of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) due to node failure, and discuss the spreading dynamic behavior of viruses in the evolution model. A theoretical analysis shows that the WSN generated by such an evolution model not only has a strong fault tolerance, but also can dynamically balance the energy loss of the entire network. It is also found that although the increase of the density of cluster heads in the network reduces the network efficiency, it can effectively inhibit the spread of viruses. In addition, the heterogeneity of the network improves the network efficiency and enhances the virus prevalence. We confirm all the theoretical results with sufficient numerical simulations. (general)

Vinculin promotes cell spreading by mechanically coupling integrins to the cytoskeleton

Science.gov (United States)

Ezzell, R. M.; Goldmann, W. H.; Wang, N.; Parasharama, N.; Ingber, D. E.

1997-01-01

Mouse F9 embryonic carcinoma 5.51 cells that lack the cytoskeletal protein vinculin spread poorly on extracellular matrix compared with wild-type F9 cells or two vinculin-transfected clones (5.51Vin3 and Vin4; Samuels et al., 1993, J. Cell Biol. 121, 909-921). In the present study, we used this model system to determine how the presence of vinculin promotes cytoskeletal alterations and associated changes in cell shape. Microscopic analysis of cell spreading at early times, revealed that 5.51 cells retained the ability to form filopodia; however, they could not form lamellipodia, assemble stress fibers, or efficiently spread over the culture substrate. Detergent (Triton X-100) studies revealed that these major differences in cell morphology and cytoskeletal organization did not result from differences in levels of total polymerized or cross-linked actin. Biochemical studies showed that 5.51 cells, in addition to lacking vinculin, exhibited slightly reduced levels of alpha-actinin and paxillin in their detergent-insoluble cytoskeleton. The absence of vinculin correlated with a decrease in the mechanical stiffness of the integrin-cytoskeleton linkage, as measured using cell magnetometry. Furthermore, when vinculin was replaced by transfection in 5.51Vin3 and 5.51Vin4 cells, the levels of cytoskeletal-associated alpha-actinin and paxillin, the efficiency of transmembrane mechanical coupling, and the formation of actin stress fibers were all restored to near wild-type levels. These findings suggest that vinculin may promote cell spreading by stabilizing focal adhesions and transferring mechanical stresses that drive cytoskeletal remodeling, rather than by altering the total level of actin polymerization or cross-linking.

Minimizing Energy Spread In The REX/HIE-ISOLDE Linac

CERN Document Server

Yucemoz, Mert

2017-01-01

This report tries to minimize the energy spread of the beam at the end of the REX-HIE-ISOLDE Linac using the last RF cavity as a buncher. Beams with very low energy spread are often required by the users of the facility In addition, one of the main reason to have minimum energy spread in longitudinal phase space is that higher beam energy spread translates in to a position spread after interacting with target. This causes an overlap in the position of different particles that makes it difficult to distinguish them. Hence, in order to find the operation settings for minimum energy spread at the end of the REX-HIE-ISOLDE linac and to inspect the ongoing physics, several functions on Matlab were created that runs beam dynamics program called “TRACKV39” that provides some graphs and values as a result for analysis.

ANALISIS VARIABEL YANG BERPENGARUH TERHADAP SPREAD HARGA SAHAM PADA INDUSTRI MANUFAKTUR DI BURSA EFEK JAKARTA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

SRI UTAMI ADY

2012-05-01

ini disebabkan data diambil tahun 1999 dimana pertumbuhan perekonomian masih belum stabil, tidak stabilnya kebijakan dividen perusahaan,dan perbedaan motif investor dalam berinvestasi. Kata kunci: spread harga saham. ABSTRACT Spread was differenced between ask-price and bid-price at the capital market. Ask and bid price made by broker. Spread influenced by two factor : assymetry information and competition between the market maker. The higher assymetry information and the strongger competition at the capital market, a lower ask price and a higher bid price, made a lower spread. Dividend anouncement conveys information to the capital market, thereby reducing assymetry information and made a lower spread. As information proxy, we expect market capitalization (firm size and length of listing. The aim of this research were : (1 to discover the simultaneus and partial relationship between variables, dividend yield, trading volume, return variance, stock price, market capitalization, length of listing and spread. (2 Whose of those variables would give a bigger influenced with spread. Sampel obtained amount to 25 kinds of manufacturer shares traded at the Jakarta Stock Exchange, with purposive tecknical sampling, that was on cash dividend paying and traded on 1999 manufacturer firm. This research used daily stock price at Jakarta Stock Exchange periode of January – Desember 1999. The analysis tools used multiple regression analysis. The result of this research showed that : (1 There was a significanly negative relationship between dividend yield and return variance with spread, a significanly positive relationship between return variance and spread. (2 Stock price was a non significanly negative relationship. (3 There was mulcollinier between trading volume and market capitalization so market capitalization out from the model. (4 Return variance was a bigger influenced with spread. The result was because using 1999th data which economic growth was not stable yet

Drop spreading and penetration into pre-wetted powders

KAUST Repository

Marston, Jeremy

2013-05-01

We present results from an experimental study of the impact of liquid drops onto powder beds which are pre-wetted with the impacting liquid. Using high-speed video imaging, we study both the dynamics of the initial spreading regime and drainage times once the drop has reached its maximum spread on the surface. During the initial spreading stage, we compare our experimental data to a previously developed model which incorporates imbibition into the spreading dynamics and observe reasonable agreement. We find that the maximum spread is a strong function of the moisture content in the powder bed and that the total time from impact to complete drainage is always shorter than that for dry powder. Our results indicate that there is an optimum moisture content (or saturation) which leads to the fastest penetration. We use simple scaling arguments which also identify an optimum moisture content for fastest penetration, which agrees very well with the experimental result. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.

The spreading time in SIS epidemics on networks

Science.gov (United States)

He, Zhidong; Van Mieghem, Piet

2018-03-01

In a Susceptible-Infected-Susceptible (SIS) process, we investigate the spreading time Tm, which is the time when the number of infected nodes in the metastable state is first reached, starting from the outbreak of the epidemics. We observe that the spreading time Tm resembles a lognormal-like distribution, though with different deep tails, both for the Markovian and the non-Markovian infection process, which implies that the spreading time can be very long with a relatively high probability. In addition, we show that a stronger virus, with a higher effective infection rate τ or an earlier timing of the infection attempts, does not always lead to a shorter average spreading time E [Tm ] . We numerically demonstrate that the average spreading time E [Tm ] in the complete graph and the star graph scales logarithmically as a function of the network size N for a fixed fraction of infected nodes in the metastable state.

The VULCANO VE-U7 Corium spreading benchmark

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Journeau, Christophe; Haquet, Jean-Francois [CEA Cadarache, Severe Accident Mastering experimental Laboratory (DEN/DTN/STRI/LMA), 13108 St Paul lez Durance (France); Spindler, Bertrand [CEA Grenoble, Physicochemistry and Multiphasic Thermalhydraulics Laboratory (DEN/DTN/SE2T/LPTM), 17 rue des Martyrs, F-38054 Grenoble CEDEX 9 (France); Spengler, Claus [Gesellschaft fuer Reaktorsicherheit mbH, Department for Thermohydraulics/Process Engineering, Schwertnergasse 1, D-50667 Koeln (Germany); Foit, Jerzy [Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe GmbH, Institut fuer Kern nd Energietechnik (IKET), P.O. Box 3640, D-76021 Karlsruhe (Germany)

2006-07-01

In a hypothetical nuclear reactor severe accident, corium spreading is one possible mitigation measure that has been selected for the EPR design. A post-test benchmark exercise has been organized on the VULCANO VE-U7 corium spreading experiment. In this test, a prototypic corium mixture representative of what could be expected at the opening of EPR reactor-pit gate has been spread on siliceous concrete and on a reference channel in inert refractory ceramic. The spreading progression was not much affected by the presence of concrete and sparging gases. The procedure used to estimate the corium physical properties from its composition and temperature provided a satisfactory data set. The CORFLOW, LAVA and THEMA codes provide satisfactory calculations of the spreading front evolution and of its final length. LAVA and THEMA estimations of the substrate temperatures, which are the initial conditions for longer term Molten Core Concrete Interaction or Corium Ceramic Interaction computations, are also close to the measured data, within the experimental uncertainties. (authors)

The VULCANO VE-U7 Corium spreading benchmark

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Journeau, Christophe; Haquet, Jean-Francois; Spindler, Bertrand; Spengler, Claus; Foit, Jerzy

2006-01-01

In a hypothetical nuclear reactor severe accident, corium spreading is one possible mitigation measure that has been selected for the EPR design. A post-test benchmark exercise has been organized on the VULCANO VE-U7 corium spreading experiment. In this test, a prototypic corium mixture representative of what could be expected at the opening of EPR reactor-pit gate has been spread on siliceous concrete and on a reference channel in inert refractory ceramic. The spreading progression was not much affected by the presence of concrete and sparging gases. The procedure used to estimate the corium physical properties from its composition and temperature provided a satisfactory data set. The CORFLOW, LAVA and THEMA codes provide satisfactory calculations of the spreading front evolution and of its final length. LAVA and THEMA estimations of the substrate temperatures, which are the initial conditions for longer term Molten Core Concrete Interaction or Corium Ceramic Interaction computations, are also close to the measured data, within the experimental uncertainties. (authors)

Modelling unidirectional liquid spreading on slanted microposts

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cavalli, Andrea; Blow, Matthew L.; Yeomans, Julia M.

2013-01-01

A lattice Boltzmann algorithm is used to simulate the slow spreading of drops on a surface patterned with slanted micro-posts. Gibb's pinning of the interface on the sides or top of the posts leads to unidirectional spreading over a wide range of contact angles and inclination angles of the posts....... Regimes for spreading in no, one or two directions are identified, and shown to agree well with a two-dimensional theory proposed in Chu, Xiao and Wang. A more detailed numerical analysis of the contact line shapes allows us to understand deviations from the two dimensional model, and to identify...

Spread of cochlear excitation during stimulation with pulsed infrared radiation: inferior colliculus measurements

Science.gov (United States)

Richter, C.-P.; Rajguru, S. M.; Matic, A. I.; Moreno, E. L.; Fishman, A. J.; Robinson, A. M.; Suh, E.; Walsh, J. T., Jr.

2011-10-01

Infrared neural stimulation (INS) has received considerable attention over the last few years. It provides an alternative method to artificially stimulate neurons without electrical current or the introduction of exogenous chromophores. One of the primary benefits of INS could be the improved spatial selectivity when compared with electrical stimulation. In the present study, we have evaluated the spatial selectivity of INS in the acutely damaged cochlea of guinea pigs and compared it to stimulation with acoustic tone pips in normal-hearing animals. The radiation was delivered via a 200 µm diameter optical fiber, which was inserted through a cochleostomy into the scala tympani of the basal cochlear turn. The stimulated section along the cochlear spiral ganglion was estimated from the neural responses recorded from the central nucleus of the inferior colliculus (ICC). ICC responses were recorded in response to cochlear INS using a multichannel penetrating electrode array. Spatial tuning curves (STCs) were constructed from the responses. For INS, approximately 55% of the activation profiles showed a single maximum, ~22% had two maxima and ~13% had multiple maxima. The remaining 10% of the profiles occurred at the limits of the electrode array and could not be classified. The majority of ICC STCs indicated that the spread of activation evoked by optical stimuli is comparable to that produced by acoustic tone pips.

Spatial separation and entanglement of identical particles

Science.gov (United States)

Cunden, Fabio Deelan; di Martino, Sara; Facchi, Paolo; Florio, Giuseppe

2014-04-01

We reconsider the effect of indistinguishability on the reduced density operator of the internal degrees of freedom (tracing out the spatial degrees of freedom) for a quantum system composed of identical particles located in different spatial regions. We explicitly show that if the spin measurements are performed in disjoint spatial regions then there are no constraints on the structure of the reduced state of the system. This implies that the statistics of identical particles has no role from the point of view of separability and entanglement when the measurements are spatially separated. We extend the treatment to the case of n particles and show the connection with some recent criteria for separability based on subalgebras of observables.

Study of spatial resolution of YAG:Ce cathodoluminescent imaging screens

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Schauer, Petr; Bok, Jan

2013-01-01

Roč. 308, 1 August (2013), s. 68-73 ISSN 0168-583X R&D Projects: GA TA ČR TE01020118; GA ČR GAP102/10/1410; GA MŠk EE.2.3.20.0103 Institutional support: RVO:68081731 Keywords : Spatial resolution * Imaging screen * Electron microscope * Cathodoluminescence * YAG:Ce single crystal * Line spread function * Modulation transfer function Subject RIV: JA - Electronics ; Optoelectronics, Electrical Engineering Impact factor: 1.186, year: 2013

Persistent increase in oxygen consumption and impaired neurovascular coupling after spreading depression in rat neocortex.

Science.gov (United States)

Piilgaard, Henning; Lauritzen, Martin

2009-09-01

Cortical spreading depression (CSD) is associated with a dramatic failure of brain ion homeostasis and increased energy metabolism. There is strong clinical and experimental evidence to suggest that CSD is the mechanism of migraine, and involved in progressive neuronal injury in stroke and head trauma. Here we tested the hypothesis that single episodes of CSD induced acute hypoxia, and prolonged impairment of neurovascular and neurometabolic coupling. Cortical spreading depression was induced in rat frontal cortex, whereas cortical electrical activity and local field potentials (LFPs) were recorded by glass microelectrodes, cerebral blood flow (CBF) by laser-Doppler flowmetry, and tissue oxygen tension (tpO(2)) with polarographic microelectrodes. Cortical spreading depression increased cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen (CMRO(2)) by 71%+/-6.7% and CBF by 238%+/-48.1% for 1 to 2 mins. For the following 2 h, basal tpO(2) and CBF were reduced whereas basal CMRO(2) was persistently elevated by 8.1%+/-2.9%. In addition, within first hour after CSD we found impaired neurovascular coupling (LFP versus CBF), whereas neurometabolic coupling (LFP versus CMRO(2)) remained unaffected. Impaired neurovascular coupling was explained by both reduced vascular reactivity and suppressed function of cortical inhibitory interneurons. The protracted effects of CSD on basal CMRO(2) and neurovascular coupling may contribute to cellular dysfunction in patients with migraine and acutely injured cerebral cortex.

Seeding and layering of equatorial spread F by gravity waves

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hysell, D.L.; Kelley, M.C.; Swartz, W.E.; Woodman, R.F.

1990-01-01

Studies dating back more than 15 years have presented evidence that atmospheric gravity waves play a role in initiating nighttime equatorial F region instabilities. This paper analyzes a spectabular spread F event that for the first time demonstrates a layering which, the authors argue, is controlled by a gravity wave effect. The 50-km vertical wavelength of a gravity wave which they have found is related theoretically to a plasma layering irregularity that originated at low altitudes and then was convected, intact, to higher altitudes. Gravity waves also seem to have determined bottomside intermediate scale undulations, although this fact is not as clear in the data. The neutral wind dynamo effect yields wave number conditions on the gravity wave's ability to modulate the Rayleigh-Taylor instaiblity process. Finally, after evaluating the gravity wave dispersion relation and spatial resonance conditions, we estimate the properties of the seeding wave

Mapping the Spread of Mounted Warfare

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peter Turchin

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Military technology is one of the most important factors affecting the evolution of complex societies. In particular, mounted warfare, the use of horse-riders in military operations, revolutionized war as it spread to different parts of Eurasia and Africa during the Ancient and Medieval eras, and to the Americas during the Early Modern period. Here we use a variety of sources to map this spread.

The joint estimation of term structures and credit spreads

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Houweling, P.; Hoek, J.; Kleibergen, F.R.

1999-01-01

We present a new framework for the joint estimation of the default-free government term structure and corporate credit spread curves. By using a data set of liquid, German mark denominated bonds, we show that this yields more realistic spreads than traditionally obtained spread curves that result

Parameter Scaling for Epidemic Size in a Spatial Epidemic Model with Mobile Individuals.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chiyori T Urabe

Full Text Available In recent years, serious infectious diseases tend to transcend national borders and widely spread in a global scale. The incidence and prevalence of epidemics are highly influenced not only by pathogen-dependent disease characteristics such as the force of infection, the latent period, and the infectious period, but also by human mobility and contact patterns. However, the effect of heterogeneous mobility of individuals on epidemic outcomes is not fully understood. Here, we aim to elucidate how spatial mobility of individuals contributes to the final epidemic size in a spatial susceptible-exposed-infectious-recovered (SEIR model with mobile individuals in a square lattice. After illustrating the interplay between the mobility parameters and the other parameters on the spatial epidemic spreading, we propose an index as a function of system parameters, which largely governs the final epidemic size. The main contribution of this study is to show that the proposed index is useful for estimating how parameter scaling affects the final epidemic size. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed index, we show that there is a positive correlation between the proposed index computed with the real data of human airline travels and the actual number of positive incident cases of influenza B in the entire world, implying that the growing incidence of influenza B is attributed to increased human mobility.

Simulation the spatial resolution of an X-ray imager based on zinc oxide nanowires in anodic aluminium oxide membrane by using MCNP and OPTICS Codes

Science.gov (United States)

Samarin, S. N.; Saramad, S.

2018-05-01

The spatial resolution of a detector is a very important parameter for x-ray imaging. A bulk scintillation detector because of spreading of light inside the scintillator does't have a good spatial resolution. The nanowire scintillators because of their wave guiding behavior can prevent the spreading of light and can improve the spatial resolution of traditional scintillation detectors. The zinc oxide (ZnO) scintillator nanowire, with its simple construction by electrochemical deposition in regular hexagonal structure of Aluminum oxide membrane has many advantages. The three dimensional absorption of X-ray energy in ZnO scintillator is simulated by a Monte Carlo transport code (MCNP). The transport, attenuation and scattering of the generated photons are simulated by a general-purpose scintillator light response simulation code (OPTICS). The results are compared with a previous publication which used a simulation code of the passage of particles through matter (Geant4). The results verify that this scintillator nanowire structure has a spatial resolution less than one micrometer.

Experimental Evaluation of a Mixed Controller That Amplifies Spatial Errors and Reduces Timing Errors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Laura Marchal-Crespo

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Research on motor learning suggests that training with haptic guidance enhances learning of the timing components of motor tasks, whereas error amplification is better for learning the spatial components. We present a novel mixed guidance controller that combines haptic guidance and error amplification to simultaneously promote learning of the timing and spatial components of complex motor tasks. The controller is realized using a force field around the desired position. This force field has a stable manifold tangential to the trajectory that guides subjects in velocity-related aspects. The force field has an unstable manifold perpendicular to the trajectory, which amplifies the perpendicular (spatial error. We also designed a controller that applies randomly varying, unpredictable disturbing forces to enhance the subjects’ active participation by pushing them away from their “comfort zone.” We conducted an experiment with thirty-two healthy subjects to evaluate the impact of four different training strategies on motor skill learning and self-reported motivation: (i No haptics, (ii mixed guidance, (iii perpendicular error amplification and tangential haptic guidance provided in sequential order, and (iv randomly varying disturbing forces. Subjects trained two motor tasks using ARMin IV, a robotic exoskeleton for upper limb rehabilitation: follow circles with an ellipsoidal speed profile, and move along a 3D line following a complex speed profile. Mixed guidance showed no detectable learning advantages over the other groups. Results suggest that the effectiveness of the training strategies depends on the subjects’ initial skill level. Mixed guidance seemed to benefit subjects who performed the circle task with smaller errors during baseline (i.e., initially more skilled subjects, while training with no haptics was more beneficial for subjects who created larger errors (i.e., less skilled subjects. Therefore, perhaps the high functional

Dynamic properties of epidemic spreading on finite size complex networks

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Ying; Liu, Yang; Shan, Xiu-Ming; Ren, Yong; Jiao, Jian; Qiu, Ben

2005-11-01

The Internet presents a complex topological structure, on which computer viruses can easily spread. By using theoretical analysis and computer simulation methods, the dynamic process of disease spreading on finite size networks with complex topological structure is investigated. On the finite size networks, the spreading process of SIS (susceptible-infected-susceptible) model is a finite Markov chain with an absorbing state. Two parameters, the survival probability and the conditional infecting probability, are introduced to describe the dynamic properties of disease spreading on finite size networks. Our results can help understanding computer virus epidemics and other spreading phenomena on communication and social networks. Also, knowledge about the dynamic character of virus spreading is helpful for adopting immunity policy.

Epidemic spread in bipartite network by considering risk awareness

Science.gov (United States)

Han, She; Sun, Mei; Ampimah, Benjamin Chris; Han, Dun

2018-02-01

Human awareness plays an important role in the spread of infectious diseases and the control of propagation patterns. Exploring the interplay between human awareness and epidemic spreading is a topic that has been receiving increasing attention. Considering the fact, some well-known diseases only spread between different species we propose a theoretical analysis of the Susceptible-Infected-Susceptible (SIS) epidemic spread from the perspective of bipartite network and risk aversion. Using mean field theory, the epidemic threshold is calculated theoretically. Simulation results are consistent with the proposed analytic model. The results show that, the final infection density is negative linear with the value of individuals' risk awareness. Therefore, the epidemic spread could be effectively suppressed by improving individuals' risk awareness.

Efficiency of S&P CNX Nifty Index Option of the National Stock Exchange (NSE, India, using Box Spread Arbitrage Strategy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G. P. Girish

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Box spread is a trading strategy in which one simultaneously buys and sells options having the same underlying asset and time to expiration, but different exercise prices. This study examined the efficiency of European style S&P CNX Nifty Index options of National Stock Exchange, (NSE India by making use of high-frequency data on put and call options written on Nifty (Time-stamped transactions data for the time period between 1st January 2002 and 31st December 2005 using box-spread arbitrage strategy. The advantages of box-spreads include reduced joint hypothesis problem since there is no consideration of pricing model or market equilibrium, no consideration of inter-market non-synchronicity since trading box spreads involve only one market, computational simplicity with less chances of mis-specification error, estimation error and the fact that buying and selling box spreads more or less replicates risk-free lending and borrowing. One thousand three hundreds and fifty eight exercisable box-spreads were found for the time period considered of which 78 Box spreads were found to be profitable after incorporating transaction costs (32 profitable box spreads were identified for the year 2002, 19 in 2003, 14 in 2004 and 13 in 2005 The results of our study suggest that internal option market efficiency has improved over the years for S&P CNX Nifty Index options of NSE India.

Spatial and temporal distribution of solute leaching in heterogeneous soils: analysis and application to multisampler lysimeter data

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rooij, de G.H.; Stagnitti, F.

2002-01-01

Accurate assessment of the fate of salts, nutrients, and pollutants in natural, heterogeneous soils requires a proper quantification of both spatial and temporal solute spreading during solute movement. The number of experiments with multisampler devices that measure solute leaching as a function of

Seasonal variations of equatorial spread-F

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

B. V. Krishna Murthy

Full Text Available The occurrence of spread-F at Trivandrum (8.5°N, 77°E, dip 0.5°N has been investigated on a seasonal basis in sunspot maximum and minimum years in terms of the growth rate of irregularities by the generalized collisional Rayleigh-Taylor (GRT instability mechanism which includes the gravitational and cross-field instability terms. The occurrence statistics of spread-F at Trivandrum have been obtained using quarter hourly ionograms. The nocturnal variations of the growth rate of irregularities by the GRT mechanism have been estimated for different seasons in sunspot maximum and minimum years at Trivandrum using h'F values and vertical drift velocities obtained from ionograms. It is found that the seasonal variation of spread-F occurrence at Trivandrum can, in general, be accounted for on the basis of the GRT mechanism.

Seasonal variations of equatorial spread-F

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K. S. V. Subbarao

1994-01-01

Full Text Available The occurrence of spread-F at Trivandrum (8.5°N, 77°E, dip 0.5°N has been investigated on a seasonal basis in sunspot maximum and minimum years in terms of the growth rate of irregularities by the generalized collisional Rayleigh-Taylor (GRT instability mechanism which includes the gravitational and cross-field instability terms. The occurrence statistics of spread-F at Trivandrum have been obtained using quarter hourly ionograms. The nocturnal variations of the growth rate of irregularities by the GRT mechanism have been estimated for different seasons in sunspot maximum and minimum years at Trivandrum using h'F values and vertical drift velocities obtained from ionograms. It is found that the seasonal variation of spread-F occurrence at Trivandrum can, in general, be accounted for on the basis of the GRT mechanism.

Spatial and temporal analysis of drought in greece using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI)

Science.gov (United States)

Livada, I.; Assimakopoulos, V. D.

2007-07-01

In the present study the Standardised Precipitation Index (SPI) is used to detect drought events in spatial and temporal basis. Using monthly precipitation data from 23 stations well spread over Greece and for a period of 51 years, a classification of drought is performed, based on its intensity and duration. Results indicate that, mild and moderate droughts reduce from north to south and from west to east on the 3- and 6-months time scale, while for the class of severe drought, the frequencies in the southern part of Greece are higher than in the other parts of the country. Furthermore the frequency of occurrence of severe and extreme drought conditions is very low over the whole Greek territory on the 12-month running time scale. Finally SPI was compared to the “de Martonne aridity index (I)” and a satisfactory correlation between them was found.

Population genetic structure of a common host predicts the spread of white-nose syndrome, an emerging infectious disease in bats.

Science.gov (United States)

Wilder, Aryn P; Kunz, Thomas H; Sorenson, Michael D

2015-11-01

Landscape complexity influences patterns of animal dispersal, which in turn may affect both gene flow and the spread of pathogens. White-nose syndrome (WNS) is an introduced fungal disease that has spread rapidly throughout eastern North America, causing massive mortality in bat populations. We tested for a relationship between the population genetic structure of the most common host, the little brown myotis (Myotis lucifugus), and the geographic spread of WNS to date by evaluating logistic regression models of WNS risk among hibernating colonies in eastern North America. We hypothesized that risk of WNS to susceptible host colonies should increase with both geographic proximity and genetic similarity, reflecting historical connectivity, to infected colonies. Consistent with this hypothesis, inclusion of genetic distance between infected and susceptible colonies significantly improved models of disease spread, capturing heterogeneity in the spatial expansion of WNS despite low levels of genetic differentiation among eastern populations. Expanding our genetic analysis to the continental range of little brown myotis reveals strongly contrasting patterns of population structure between eastern and western North America. Genetic structure increases markedly moving westward into the northern Great Plains, beyond the current distribution of WNS. In western North America, genetic differentiation of geographically proximate populations often exceeds levels observed across the entire eastern region, suggesting infrequent and/or locally restricted dispersal, and thus relatively limited opportunities for pathogen introduction in western North America. Taken together, our analyses suggest a possibly slower future rate of spread of the WNS pathogen, at least as mediated by little brown myotis. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Climate matching drives spread rate but not establishment success in recent unintentional bird introductions.

Science.gov (United States)

Abellán, Pedro; Tella, José L; Carrete, Martina; Cardador, Laura; Anadón, José D

2017-08-29

Understanding factors driving successful invasions is one of the cornerstones of invasion biology. Bird invasions have been frequently used as study models, and the foundation of current knowledge largely relies on species purposefully introduced during the 19th and early 20th centuries in countries colonized by Europeans. However, the profile of exotic bird species has changed radically in the last decades, as birds are now mostly introduced into the invasion process through unplanned releases from the worldwide pet and avicultural trade. Here we assessed the role of the three main drivers of invasion success (i.e., event-, species-, and location-level factors) on the establishment and spatial spread of exotic birds using an unprecedented dataset recorded throughout the last 100 y in the Iberian Peninsula. Our multimodel inference phylogenetic approach showed that the barriers that need to be overcome by a species to successfully establish or spread are not the same. Whereas establishment is largely related to event-level factors, apparently stochastic features of the introduction (time since first introduction and propagule pressure) and to the origin of introduced species (wild-caught species show higher invasiveness than captive-bred ones), the spread across the invaded region seems to be determined by the extent to which climatic conditions in the new region resemble those of the species' native range. Overall, these results contrast with what we learned from successful deliberate introductions and highlight that different management interventions should apply at different invasion stages, the most efficient strategies being related to event-level factors.

Minimizing the energy spread within a single bunch by shaping its charge distribution

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Loew, G.A.; Wang, J.

1984-06-01

When electrons or positrons in a bunch pass through the periodic structure of a linear accelerator, they leave behind them energy in the form of longitudinal wake fields. The longitudinal fields left behind by early particles in a bunch decrease the energy of later particles. For a linear collider, the energy spread introduced within the bunches by this beam loading effect must be minimized because it limits the degree to which the particles can be focused to a small spot due to chromatic effects in the final focus system. For example, for the SLC, the allowable energy spread is +-0.5%. It has been known for some time that partial compensation of the longitudinal wake field effects can be obtained for any bunch by placing it ahead of the accelerating crest (in space), thereby letting the positive rising sinusoidal field offset the negative beam loading field. The work presented in this report shows that it is possible to obtain complete compensation, i.e., to reduce the energy spread essentially to zero by properly shaping the longitudinal charge distribution of the bunch and by placing it at the correct position on the wave

Dielectric fluid directional spreading under the action of corona discharge

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Shangru; Liu, Jie; Hu, Qun; Jiang, Teng; Yang, Jinchu; Liu, Sheng; Zheng, Huai

2018-01-01

Liquid spreading is a very common nature phenomenon and of significant importance for a broad range of applications. In this study, a dielectric fluid directional spreading phenomenon is presented. Under the action of corona discharge, a dielectric fluid, here a typical silicone directionally spreads along conductive patterns on conductive/nonconductive substrates. Directional spreading behaviors of silicone were experimentally observed on different conductive patterns in detail. Spreading speeds were analyzed at different driving voltages, which induced the corona discharge. The presented phenomenon may be useful to inspire several techniques of manipulating liquid transportation and fabricating micropatterns.

Farm-retail price spread for pork in Malaysia

OpenAIRE

Tey, (John) Yeong-Sheng; Randy, Stringer; Wendy, Umberger

2009-01-01

The price difference between farm and retail levels is called price spread, which is constituted mostly by marketing costs and profits. From the price spread, this paper intends to estimate elasticities of price transmission for pork in Malaysia via different empirical model specifications of markup pricing model. Using data from January 1997 to December 2007, a quantitative analysis of farm-to-retail price spreads was undertaken for pork in Malaysia. It was found that retail price is the onl...

A new method for real-time monitoring of grout spread through fractured rocks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Henderson, A. E.; Robertson, I. A.; Whitfield, J. M.; Garrard, G. F. G.; Swannell, N. G.; Fisch, H.

2008-01-01

Reducing water ingress into the Shaft at Dounreay is essential for the success of future intermediate level waste (ILW) recovery using the dry retrieval method. The reduction is being realised by forming an engineered barrier of ultrafine cementitious grout injected into the fractured rock surrounding the Shaft. Grout penetration of 6 m in <50μm fractures is being reliably achieved, with a pattern of repeated injections ultimately reducing rock mass permeability by up to three orders of magnitude. An extensive field trials period, involving over 200 grout mix designs and the construction of a full scale demonstration barrier, has yielded several new field techniques that improve the quality and reliability of cementitious grout injection for engineered barriers. In particular, a new method has been developed for tracking in real-time the spread of ultrafine cementitious grout through fractured rock and relating the injection characteristics to barrier design. Fieldwork by the multi-disciplinary international team included developing the injection and real-time monitoring techniques, pre- and post injection hydro-geological testing to quantify the magnitude and extent of changes in rock mass permeability, and correlation of grout spread with injection parameters to inform the main works grouting programme. (authors)

Spreading paths in partially observed social networks

Science.gov (United States)

Onnela, Jukka-Pekka; Christakis, Nicholas A.

2012-03-01

Understanding how and how far information, behaviors, or pathogens spread in social networks is an important problem, having implications for both predicting the size of epidemics, as well as for planning effective interventions. There are, however, two main challenges for inferring spreading paths in real-world networks. One is the practical difficulty of observing a dynamic process on a network, and the other is the typical constraint of only partially observing a network. Using static, structurally realistic social networks as platforms for simulations, we juxtapose three distinct paths: (1) the stochastic path taken by a simulated spreading process from source to target; (2) the topologically shortest path in the fully observed network, and hence the single most likely stochastic path, between the two nodes; and (3) the topologically shortest path in a partially observed network. In a sampled network, how closely does the partially observed shortest path (3) emulate the unobserved spreading path (1)? Although partial observation inflates the length of the shortest path, the stochastic nature of the spreading process also frequently derails the dynamic path from the shortest path. We find that the partially observed shortest path does not necessarily give an inflated estimate of the length of the process path; in fact, partial observation may, counterintuitively, make the path seem shorter than it actually is.

Spreading paths in partially observed social networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Onnela, Jukka-Pekka; Christakis, Nicholas A

2012-03-01

Understanding how and how far information, behaviors, or pathogens spread in social networks is an important problem, having implications for both predicting the size of epidemics, as well as for planning effective interventions. There are, however, two main challenges for inferring spreading paths in real-world networks. One is the practical difficulty of observing a dynamic process on a network, and the other is the typical constraint of only partially observing a network. Using static, structurally realistic social networks as platforms for simulations, we juxtapose three distinct paths: (1) the stochastic path taken by a simulated spreading process from source to target; (2) the topologically shortest path in the fully observed network, and hence the single most likely stochastic path, between the two nodes; and (3) the topologically shortest path in a partially observed network. In a sampled network, how closely does the partially observed shortest path (3) emulate the unobserved spreading path (1)? Although partial observation inflates the length of the shortest path, the stochastic nature of the spreading process also frequently derails the dynamic path from the shortest path. We find that the partially observed shortest path does not necessarily give an inflated estimate of the length of the process path; in fact, partial observation may, counterintuitively, make the path seem shorter than it actually is.

Assessment of thema code against spreading experiments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Spindler, B.; Veteau, J.M.; Cecco, L. de; Montanelli, P.; Pineau, D.

2000-01-01

In the frame work of severe accident research, the spreading code THEMA, developed at CEA/DRN, aims at predicting the spreading extent of molten core after a vessel melt-through. The code solves fluid balance equations integrated over the fluid depth for oxidic and/or metallic phases under the shallow water assumption, using a finite difference scheme. Solidification is taken into account through crust formation on the substrate and at contact with the surroundings, as well as increase of fluid viscosity with solid fraction in the melt. A separate energy equation is solved for the solid substrate, including possible ablation. The assessment of THEMA code against the spreading experiments performed in the framework of the corium spreading and coolability project of the European Union is presented. These experiments use either simulating materials at medium (RIT), or at high temperature (KATS), or corium (VULCANO, FARO), conducted at different mass flow rates and with large or low solidification interval. THEMA appears to be able to simulate the whole set of the experiments investigated. Comparison between experimental and computed spreading lengths and substrate temperatures are quite satisfactory. The results show a rather large sensitivity at mass flow rate and inlet temperature, indicating that, generally, efforts should be made to improve the accuracy of the measurements of such parameters in the experiments. (orig.)

Biogeochemical and engineered barriers for preventing spread of contaminants.

Science.gov (United States)

Baltrėnaitė, Edita; Lietuvninkas, Arvydas; Baltrėnas, Pranas

2018-02-01

The intensive industrial development and urbanization, as well as the negligible return of hazardous components to the deeper layers of the Earth, increases the contamination load on the noosphere (i.e., the new status of the biosphere, the development of which is mainly controlled by the conscious activity of a human being). The need for reducing the spread and mobility of contaminants is growing. The insights into the role of the tree in the reduction of contaminant mobility through its life cycle are presented to show an important function performed by the living matter and its products in reducing contamination. For maintaining the sustainable development, natural materials are often used as the media in the environmental protection technologies. However, due to increasing contamination intensity, the capacity of natural materials is not sufficiently high. Therefore, the popularity of engineered materials, such as biochar which is the thermochemically modified lignocellulosic product, is growing. The new approaches, based on using the contaminant footprint, as well as natural (biogeochemical) and engineered barriers for reducing contaminant migration and their application, are described in the paper.

An API for Integrating Spatial Context Models with Spatial Reasoning Algorithms

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kjærgaard, Mikkel Baun

2006-01-01

The integration of context-aware applications with spatial context models is often done using a common query language. However, algorithms that estimate and reason about spatial context information can benefit from a tighter integration. An object-oriented API makes such integration possible...... and can help reduce the complexity of algorithms making them easier to maintain and develop. This paper propose an object-oriented API for context models of the physical environment and extensions to a location modeling approach called geometric space trees for it to provide adequate support for location...... modeling. The utility of the API is evaluated in several real-world cases from an indoor location system, and spans several types of spatial reasoning algorithms....

Mapping Pn amplitude spreading and attenuation in Asia

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yang, Xiaoning [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Phillips, William S [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Stead, Richard J [Los Alamos National Laboratory

2010-12-06

Pn travels most of its path in the mantle lid. Mapping the lateral variation of Pn amplitude attenuation sheds light on material properties and dynamics of the uppermost region of the mantle. Pn amplitude variation depends on the wavefront geometric spreading as well as material attenuation. We investigated Pn geometric spreading, which is much more complex than a traditionally assumed power-law spreading model, using both synthetic and observed amplitude data collected in Asia. We derived a new Pn spreading model based on the formulation that was proposed previously to account for the spherical shape of the Earth (Yang et. al., BSSA, 2007). New parameters derived for the spreading model provide much better correction for Pn amplitudes in terms of residual behavior. Because we used observed Pn amplitudes to construct the model, the model incorporates not only the effect of the Earth's spherical shape, but also the effect of potential upper-mantle velocity gradients in the region. Using the new spreading model, we corrected Pn amplitudes measured at 1, 2, 4 and 6 Hz and conducted attenuation tomography. The resulting Pn attenuation model correlates well with the regional geology. We see high attenuation in regions such as northern Tibetan Plateau and the western Pacific subduction zone, and low attenuation for stable blocks such as Sichuan and Tarim basins.

Scale-dependent approaches to modeling spatial epidemiology of chronic wasting disease.

Science.gov (United States)

Conner, Mary M.; Gross, John E.; Cross, Paul C.; Ebinger, Michael R.; Gillies, Robert; Samuel, Michael D.; Miller, Michael W.

2007-01-01

This e-book is the product of a second workshop that was funded and promoted by the United States Geological Survey to enhance cooperation between states for the management of chronic wasting disease (CWD). The first workshop addressed issues surrounding the statistical design and collection of surveillance data for CWD. The second workshop, from which this document arose, followed logically from the first workshop and focused on appropriate methods for analysis, interpretation, and use of CWD surveillance and related epidemiology data. Consequently, the emphasis of this e-book is on modeling approaches to describe and gain insight of the spatial epidemiology of CWD. We designed this e-book for wildlife managers and biologists who are responsible for the surveillance of CWD in their state or agency. We chose spatial methods that are popular or common in the spatial epidemiology literature and evaluated them for their relevance to modeling CWD. Our opinion of the usefulness and relevance of each method was based on the type of field data commonly collected as part of CWD surveillance programs and what we know about CWD biology, ecology, and epidemiology. Specifically, we expected the field data to consist primarily of the infection status of a harvested or culled sample along with its date of collection (not date of infection), location, and demographic status. We evaluated methods in light of the fact that CWD does not appear to spread rapidly through wild populations, relative to more highly contagious viruses, and can be spread directly from animal to animal or indirectly through environmental contamination.

Crystal mosaic spread determination by slow neutron scattering

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Adib, M.; Naguib, K.; Abdel Kawy, A.; Ashry, A.; Abbas, Y.; Wahba, M.; Maayouf, M.A.

1988-01-01

A method has been established for determination of the crystal mosaic spread. The method is based on recording all neutron-reflected, under bragg condition, from a certain crystal plane. A computer code was developed especially in order to fit the measured wavelength's distribution of the reflected neutrons with the calculated one, assuming that the crystal mosaic spread has a Gaussian shape. The code accounts for the parameters of the time of flight spectrometer used during the present measurements, as well as divergence of the incident neutron beam. The developed method has been applied for determination of the mosaic spread of both zinc and pyrolytic graphite (P.G.) crystals. The mosaic spread values deduced from the present measurements, are 10'+-6' and 3.60 0 +-0.16 0 respectively for Zn and P.G. crystals

Imaging Cajal's neuronal avalanche: how wide-field optical imaging of the point-spread advanced the understanding of neocortical structure-function relationship.

Science.gov (United States)

Frostig, Ron D; Chen-Bee, Cynthia H; Johnson, Brett A; Jacobs, Nathan S

2017-07-01

This review brings together a collection of studies that specifically use wide-field high-resolution mesoscopic level imaging techniques (intrinsic signal optical imaging; voltage-sensitive dye optical imaging) to image the cortical point spread (PS): the total spread of cortical activation comprising a large neuronal ensemble evoked by spatially restricted (point) stimulation of the sensory periphery (e.g., whisker, pure tone, point visual stimulation). The collective imaging findings, combined with supporting anatomical and electrophysiological findings, revealed some key aspects about the PS including its very large (radius of several mm) and relatively symmetrical spatial extent capable of crossing cytoarchitectural borders and trespassing into other cortical areas; its relationship with underlying evoked subthreshold activity and underlying anatomical system of long-range horizontal projections within gray matter, both also crossing borders; its contextual modulation and plasticity; the ability of its relative spatiotemporal profile to remain invariant to major changes in stimulation parameters; its potential role as a building block for integrative cortical activity; and its ubiquitous presence across various cortical areas and across mammalian species. Together, these findings advance our understanding about the neocortex at the mesoscopic level by underscoring that the cortical PS constitutes a fundamental motif of neocortical structure-function relationship.

Unidirectional spreading of oil under solid ice

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Weerasuriya, S.A.; Yapa, P.D.

1993-01-01

Equations are presented to describe the unidirectional spreading of oil under solid ice covers floating in calm water. These spreading equations are derived using a simplified form of the Navier-Stokes equations, and cover both the constant discharge and the constant volume modes. An equation for computing final slick length is also given. Laboratory experiments using physical models were conducted to verify the equations. The experiments used oils of different viscosities, ice cover roughnesses varying from smooth to rough, and a variety of discharge conditions. The emphasis of the study was on the dominant spreading mechanism for oil under ice, which is the buoyancy-viscous phase. The laboratory results agree closely with the theoretical predictions. Discrepancies can be attributed to the experimental difficulties and errors introduced from the assumptions made in deriving the theory. The equations presented will be useful in computing spreading rate during an accidental oil spill or in contingency planning. The equations are simple to use, suitable for hand calculations or for incorporation into numerical models for oil spill simulation. 24 refs., 10 figs., 1 tab

DataSpread: Unifying Databases and Spreadsheets.

Science.gov (United States)

Bendre, Mangesh; Sun, Bofan; Zhang, Ding; Zhou, Xinyan; Chang, Kevin ChenChuan; Parameswaran, Aditya

2015-08-01

Spreadsheet software is often the tool of choice for ad-hoc tabular data management, processing, and visualization, especially on tiny data sets. On the other hand, relational database systems offer significant power, expressivity, and efficiency over spreadsheet software for data management, while lacking in the ease of use and ad-hoc analysis capabilities. We demonstrate DataSpread, a data exploration tool that holistically unifies databases and spreadsheets. It continues to offer a Microsoft Excel-based spreadsheet front-end, while in parallel managing all the data in a back-end database, specifically, PostgreSQL. DataSpread retains all the advantages of spreadsheets, including ease of use, ad-hoc analysis and visualization capabilities, and a schema-free nature, while also adding the advantages of traditional relational databases, such as scalability and the ability to use arbitrary SQL to import, filter, or join external or internal tables and have the results appear in the spreadsheet. DataSpread needs to reason about and reconcile differences in the notions of schema, addressing of cells and tuples, and the current "pane" (which exists in spreadsheets but not in traditional databases), and support data modifications at both the front-end and the back-end. Our demonstration will center on our first and early prototype of the DataSpread, and will give the attendees a sense for the enormous data exploration capabilities offered by unifying spreadsheets and databases.

Infections Unlikely to be Spread Through Swimming Pools