Abstract: Combined results are reported from searches for the standard model Higgs boson in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV in five Higgs boson decay modes: gamma pair, b-quark pair, tau lepton pair, W pair, and Z pair. The explored Higgs boson mass range is 110-600 GeV. The analysed data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 4.6-4.8 inverse femtobarns. The expected excluded mass range in the absence of the standard model Higgs boson is 118-543 GeV at 95% CL. The observed results exclude the standard model Higgs boson in the mass range 127-600 GeV at 95% CL, and in the mass range 129-525 GeV at 99% CL. An excess of events above the expected standard model background is observed at the low end of the explored mass range making the observed limits weaker than expected in the absence of a signal. The largest excess, with a local significance of 3.1 sigma, is observed for a Higgs boson mass hypothesis of 124 GeV. The global significance of observing an excess with a local significance greater than 3.1 sigma anywhere in the search range 110-600 (110-145) GeV is estimated to be 1.5 sigma (2.1 sigma). More data are required to ascertain the origin of this excess.

Abstract: Background Persistent inflammation has been proposed to contribute to various stages in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease. Interleukin-6 receptor (IL6R) signalling propagates downstream inflammation cascades. To assess whether this pathway is causally relevant to coronary heart disease, we studied a functional genetic variant known to affect IL6R signalling. Methods In a collaborative meta-analysis, we studied Asp358Ala (rs2228145) in IL6R in relation to a panel of conventional risk factors and inflammation biomarkers in 125 222 participants. We also compared the frequency of Asp358Ala in 51 441 patients with coronary heart disease and in 136 226 controls. To gain insight into possible mechanisms, we assessed Asp358Ala in relation to localised gene expression and to postlipopolysaccharide stimulation of interleukin 6. Findings The minor allele frequency of Asp358Ala was 39%. Asp358Ala was not associated with lipid concentrations, blood pressure, adiposity, dysglycaemia, or smoking (p value for association per minor allele >= 0.04 for each). By contrast, for every copy of 358Ala inherited, mean concentration of IL6R increased by 34.3% (95% CI 30.4-38.2) and of interleukin 6 by 14.6% (10.7-18.4), and mean concentration of C-reactive protein was reduced by 7.5% (5.9-9.1) and of fibrinogen by 1.0% (0.7-1.3). For every copy of 358Ala inherited, risk of coronary heart disease was reduced by 3.4% (1.8-5.0). Asp358Ala was not related to IL6R mRNA levels or interleukin-6 production in monocytes. Interpretation Large-scale human genetic and biomarker data are consistent with a causal association between IL6R-related pathways and coronary heart disease.

Abstract: The numerical convergence of smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) can be severely restricted by random force errors induced by particle disorder, especially in shear flows, which are ubiquitous in astrophysics. The increase in the number NH of neighbours when switching to more extended smoothing kernels at fixed resolution (using an appropriate definition for the SPH resolution scale) is insufficient to combat these errors. Consequently, trading resolution for better convergence is necessary, but for traditional smoothing kernels this option is limited by the pairing (or clumping) instability. Therefore, we investigate the suitability of the Wendland functions as smoothing kernels and compare them with the traditional B-splines. Linear stability analysis in three dimensions and test simulations demonstrate that the Wendland kernels avoid the pairing instability for all NH, despite having vanishing derivative at the origin (disproving traditional ideas about the origin of this instability/ instead, we uncover a relation with the kernel Fourier transform and give an explanation in terms of the SPH density estimator). The Wendland kernels are computationally more convenient than the higher-order B-splines, allowing large NH and hence better numerical convergence (note that computational costs rise sub-linear with NH). Our analysis also shows that at low NH the quartic spline kernel with NH ~= 60 obtains much better convergence then the standard cubic spline.

Abstract: Frigyes Karinthy, in his 1929 short story "Lancszemek" (in English, "Chains") suggested that any two persons are distanced by at most six friendship links.1 Stanley Milgram in his famous experiments challenged people to route postcards to a fixed recipient by passing them only through direct acquaintances. Milgram found that the average number of intermediaries on the path of the postcards lay between 4:4 and 5:7, depending on the sample of people chosen. We report the results of the first world-scale social-network graph-distance computations, using the entire Facebook network of active users (≈ 721 million users, ≈ 69 billion friendship links). The average distance we observe is 4:74, corresponding to 3:74 intermediaries or "degrees of separation", prompting the title of this paper. More generally, we study the distance distribution of Facebook and of some interesting geographic subgraphs, looking also at their evolution over time. The networks we are able to explore are almost two orders of magnitude larger than those analysed in the previous literature. We report detailed statistical metadata showing that our measurements (which rely on probabilistic algorithms) are very accurate.

Abstract: We show how users' activity on Facebook relates to their personality, as measured by the standard Five Factor Model. Our dataset consists of the personality profiles and Facebook profile data of 180,000 users. We examine correlations between users' personality and the properties of their Facebook profiles such as the size and density of their friendship network, number uploaded photos, number of events attended, number of group memberships, and number of times user has been tagged in photos. Our results show significant relationships between personality traits and various features of Facebook profiles. We then show how multivariate regression allows prediction of the personality traits of an individual user given their Facebook profile. The best accuracy of such predictions is achieved for Extraversion and Neuroticism, the lowest accuracy is obtained for Agreeableness, with Openness and Conscientiousness lying in the middle.

Abstract: Objective To investigate the burden of later disease associated with moderate/late preterm (32-36 weeks) and early term (37-38 weeks) birth.

Abstract: The relationship between organizational performance and two dimensions of the ‘high performance work system’ – enriched job design and high involvement management (HIM) – is widely assumed to be mediated by worker well-being. We outline the basis for three models: mutual-gains, in which employee involvement increases well-being and this mediates its positive relationship with performance; conflicting outcomes, which associates involvement with increased stress for workers, accounting for its positive performance effects; and counteracting effects, which associates involvement with increased stress and dissatisfaction, reducing its positive performance effects. These are tested using the UK’s Workplace Employment Relations Survey 2004. Job satisfaction mediates the relationship between enriched job design and four performance indicators, supporting the mutual gains model; but HIM is negatively related to job satisfaction and this depresses a positive relationship between HIM and the economic performance me...

Abstract: Dijet production in PbPb collisions at a nucleon–nucleon center-of-mass energy of 276 TeV is studied with the CMS detector at the LHC A data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 150 μb−1 is analyzed Jets are reconstructed using combined information from tracking and calorimetry, using the anti-kT algorithm with R=03 The dijet momentum balance and angular correlations are studied as a function of collision centrality and leading jet transverse momentum For the most peripheral PbPb collisions, good agreement of the dijet momentum balance distributions with pp data and reference calculations at the same collision energy is found, while more central collisions show a strong imbalance of leading and subleading jet transverse momenta attributed to the jet-quenching effect The dijets in central collisions are found to be more unbalanced than the reference, for leading jet transverse momenta up to the highest values studied

Abstract: To identify genetic factors contributing to type 2 diabetes (T2D), we performed large-scale meta-analyses by using a custom similar to 50,000 SNP genotyping array (the ITMAT-Broad-CARe array) with similar to 2000 candidate genes in 39 multiethnic population-based studies, case-control studies, and clinical trials totaling 17,418 cases and 70,298 controls. First, meta-analysis of 25 studies comprising 14,073 cases and 57,489 controls of European descent confirmed eight established T2D loci at genome-wide significance. In silico follow-up analysis of putative association signals found in independent genome-wide association studies (including 8,130 cases and 38,987 controls) performed by the DIAGRAM consortium identified a T2D locus at genome-wide significance (GATAD2A/CILP2/PBX4; p = 5.7 x 10(-9)) and two loci exceeding study-wide significance (SREBF1, and TH/INS; p < 2.4 x 10(-6)). Second, meta-analyses of 1,986 cases and 7,695 controls from eight African-American studies identified study-wide-significant (p = 2.4 x 10(-7)) variants in HMGA2 and replicated variants in TCF7L2 (p = 5.1 x 10(-15)). Third, conditional analysis revealed multiple known and novel independent signals within five T2D-associated genes in samples of European ancestry and within HMGA2 in African-American samples. Fourth, a multiethnic meta-analysis of all 39 studies identified T2D-associated variants in BCL2 (p = 2.1 x 10(-8)). Finally, a composite genetic score of SNPs from new and established T2D signals was significantly associated with increased risk of diabetes in African-American, Hispanic, and Asian populations. In summary, large-scale meta-analysis involving a dense gene-centric approach has uncovered additional loci and variants that contribute to T2D risk and suggests substantial overlap of T2D association signals across multiple ethnic groups.

Abstract: A search has been made for events containing an energetic jet and an imbalance in transverse momentum using a data sample of pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV. This signature is common to both dark matter and extra dimensions models. The data were collected by the CMS detector at the LHC and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 inverse femtobarns. The number of observed events is consistent with the standard model expectation. Constraints on the dark matter-nucleon scattering cross sections are determined for both spin-independent and spin-dependent interaction models. For the spin-independent model, these are the most constraining limits for a dark matter particle with mass below 3.5 GeV, a region unexplored by direct detection experiments. For the spin-dependent model, these are the most stringent constraints over the 0.1-200 GeV mass range. The constraints on the Arkani-Hamed, Dimopoulos, and Dvali model parameter MD determined as a function of the number of extra dimensions are also an improvement over the previous results.

Abstract: The recording and sharing of cooking recipes, a human activity dating back thousands of years, naturally became an early and prominent social use of the web. The resulting online recipe collections are repositories of ingredient combinations and cooking methods whose large-scale and variety yield interesting insights about both the fundamentals of cooking and user preferences. At the level of an individual ingredient we measure whether it tends to be essential or can be dropped or added, and whether its quantity can be modified. We also construct two types of networks to capture the relationships between ingredients. The complement network captures which ingredients tend to co-occur frequently, and is composed of two large communities: one savory, the other sweet. The substitute network, derived from user-generated suggestions for modifications, can be decomposed into many communities of functionally equivalent ingredients, and captures users' preference for healthier variants of a recipe. Our experiments reveal that recipe ratings can be well predicted with features derived from combinations of ingredient networks and nutrition information.

Abstract: Sugarcane is an important crop for economic development of Brazil, once it represents an ethanol and sugar source, as well as the biomass residue (bagasse) that is used for electric energy production. Due to its increasing potential uses, sugarcane bagasse was analyzed for energy & non-energy consumption in this work. For that, the amount of bagasse used for this purpose since 1999/2000 to 2012/2013 seasons was discussed as well as the energy from sugarcane bagasse commercialized on energy auctions in Brazil. Additionally, an estimative of bagasse quantity to be used for electric energy and for second-generation ethanol for 2015 and 2030 was shown. The volume of sugarcane bagasse production has increased year by year, and it is possible to observe that there is an increase amount of available bagasse being used for power generation (energy consumption), in cogeneration arrangements. The Brazilian Energy Plan scenarios estimate a mass sugarcane bagasse offering to be used only for second-generation ethanol around 7.0 × 10 6 tonnes year −1 for 2015, and 25.9 × 10 6 tonnes year −1 for 2030. Apart from the bagasse that provides all energy required by sugarcane process, mills can generate an energy surplus and sell it to the grid. Power generation from sugarcane bagasse has been made possible through financing by the Brazilian Program of Incentives for Alternative Sources of Electrical Power (PROINFA) which is a renewable energy and can be commercialized through energy auctions.

Abstract: The old, red stars that constitute the bulges of galaxies, and the massive black holes at their centres, are the relics of a period in cosmic history when galaxies formed stars at remarkable rates and active galactic nuclei (AGN) shone brightly as a result of accretion onto black holes. It is widely suspected, but unproved, that the tight correlation between the mass of the black hole and the mass of the stellar bulge1 results from the AGN quenching the surrounding star formation as it approaches its peak luminosity2, 3, 4. X-rays trace emission from AGN unambiguously5, whereas powerful star-forming galaxies are usually dust-obscured and are brightest at infrared and submillimetre wavelengths6. Here we report submillimetre and X-ray observations that show that rapid star formation was common in the host galaxies of AGN when the Universe was 2-6 billion years old, but that the most vigorous star formation is not observed around black holes above an X-ray luminosity of 1044 ergs per second. This suppression of star formation in the host galaxy of a powerful AGN is a key prediction of models in which the AGN drives an outflow7, 8, 9, expelling the interstellar medium of its host and transforming the galaxy's properties in a brief period of cosmic time

Abstract: With their blistering expansions in recent years, popular on-line social sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Bebo, have become some of the major news sources as well as the most effective channels for viral marketing nowadays. However, alongside these promising features comes the threat of misinformation propagation which can lead to undesirable effects, such as the widespread panic in the general public due to faulty swine flu tweets on Twitter in 2009. Due to the huge magnitude of online social network (OSN) users and the highly clustered structures commonly observed in these kinds of networks, it poses a substantial challenge to efficiently contain viral spread of misinformation in large-scale social networks.In this paper, we focus on how to limit viral propagation of misinformation in OSNs. Particularly, we study a set of problems, namely the β1T -- Node Protectors, which aims to find the smallest set of highly influential nodes whose decontamination with good information helps to contain the viral spread of misinformation, initiated from the set I, to a desired ratio (1 − β) in T time steps. In this family set, we analyze and present solutions including inapproximability result, greedy algorithms that provide better lower bounds on the number of selected nodes, and a community-based heuristic method for the Node Protector problems. To verify our suggested solutions, we conduct experiments on real world traces including NetHEPT, NetHEPT_WC and Facebook networks. Empirical results indicate that our methods are among the best ones for hinting out those important nodes in comparison with other available methods.

Abstract: Financial inclusion can be defined as the access to formal financial services at an affordable cost for all members of an economy, favoring mainly low-income groups. It has been recognized as a critical element in policies for poverty reduction and economic growth. Some successful experiences with financial inclusion reported in developing countries are associated with the use of information and communication technology (ICT)-based branchless banking. One of these experiences is the Brazilian correspondent model, an ICT-based network responsible for delivering financial services to tens of millions of poor Brazilians, most of them having no other way to access banking services. This article presents a case study of financial inclusion in Autazes, a county in the Amazon region not served by banks until 2002, when a correspondent started its operations there. Since then, Autazes has experienced economic and social changes, due in part to government social benefits and other banking services delivered at the local level. The results of our field study in Autazes suggest that financial inclusion through the correspondents' process positively contributes to local socio-economic development but, at the same time, presents clear negative signs such as low-income population over-indebtedness, reproduction of social exclusion practices and reinforcement of power asymmetries. We conclude that although access to financial resources is a fundamental way to promote local development to low-income population, such access should be accompanied by other inclusive mechanisms like financial education in order to be effective.

Abstract: Observed by more than 1.5 billion Muslims, Ramadan is one of the most celebrated religious traditions in the world. We investigate stock returns during Ramadan for 14 predominantly Muslim countries over the years 1989–2007. The results show that stock returns during Ramadan are significantly higher and less volatile than during the rest of the year. No discernible declines in market liquidity are recorded. We find these results consistent with a notion that Ramadan positively affects investor psychology, as it promotes feelings of solidarity and social identity among Muslims world-wide, leading to optimistic beliefs that extend to investment decisions.

Abstract: A search for neutral Higgs bosons decaying to tau pairs at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV is performed using a dataset corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 fb^(−1) recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC. The search is sensitive to both the standard model Higgs boson and to the neutral Higgs bosons predicted by the minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model (MSSM). No excess of events is observed in the tau-pair invariant-mass spectrum. For a standard model Higgs boson in the mass range of 110–145 GeV upper limits at 95% confidence level (CL) on the production cross section are determined. We exclude a Higgs boson with m_H=115 GeV with a production cross section 3.2 times of that predicted by the standard model. In the MSSM, upper limits on the neutral Higgs boson production cross section times branching fraction to tau pairs, as a function of the pseudoscalar Higgs boson mass, m_A, sets stringent new bounds in the parameter space, excluding at 95% CL values of tan β as low as 7.1 at m_A=160 GeV in the m^(max)_h benchmark scenario.

Abstract: We propose a new inverse probability weighting (IPW) estimator for moment condition models with missing data. Our estimator is easy to implement and compares favorably with existing IPW estimators, including augmented inverse probability weighting (AIPW) estimators, in terms of efficiency, robustness, and higher order bias. We illustrate our method with a study of the relationship between early Black-White differences in cognitive achievement and subsequent differences in adult earnings. In our dataset the early childhood achievement measure, the main regressor of interest, is missing for many units. bustness, (Augmented) Inverse Probability Weighting (IPW), HigherOrder Comparisons, Black-White Gap, Causal Inference, Average Treatment Effect (ATE)

Abstract: Defective liver gluconeogenesis is the main mechanism leading to fasting hyperglycemia in type 2 diabetes, and, in concert with steatosis, it is the hallmark of hepatic insulin resistance. Experimental obesity results, at least in part, from hypothalamic inflammation, which leads to leptin resistance and defective regulation of energy homeostasis. Pharmacological or genetic disruption of hypothalamic inflammation restores leptin sensitivity and reduces adiposity. Here, we evaluate the effect of a hypothalamic anti-inflammatory approach to regulating hepatic responsiveness to insulin. Obese rodents were treated by intracerebroventricular injections, with immunoneutralizing antibodies against Toll-like receptor (TLR)4 or tumor necrosis factor (TNF)α, and insulin signal transduction, hepatic steatosis, and gluconeogenesis were evaluated. The inhibition of either TLR4 or TNFα reduced hypothalamic inflammation, which was accompanied by the reduction of hypothalamic resistance to leptin and improved insulin signal transduction in the liver. This was accompanied by reduced liver steatosis and reduced hepatic expression of markers of steatosis. Furthermore, the inhibition of hypothalamic inflammation restored defective liver glucose production. All these beneficial effects were abrogated by vagotomy. Thus, the inhibition of hypothalamic inflammation in obesity results in improved hepatic insulin signal transduction, leading to reduced steatosis and reduced gluconeogenesis. All these effects are mediated by parasympathetic signals delivered by the vagus nerve.

Abstract: YouTube is one of the world's most popular websites and hosts numerous amateur and professional videos. Comments on these videos might be researched to give insights into audience reactions to important issues or particular videos. Yet, little is known about YouTube discussions in general: how frequent they are, who typically participates, and the role of sentiment. This article fills this gap through an analysis of large samples of text comments on YouTube videos. The results identify patterns and give some benchmarks against which future YouTube research into individual videos can be compared. For instance, the typical YouTube comment was mildly positive, was posted by a 29-year-old male, and contained 58 characters. About 23% of comments in the complete comment sets were replies to previous comments. There was no typical density of discussion on YouTube videos in the sense of the proportion of replies to other comments: videos with both few and many replies were common. The YouTube audience engaged with each other disproportionately when making negative comments, however; positive comments elicited few replies. The biggest trigger of discussion seemed to be religion, whereas the videos attracting the least discussion were predominantly from the Music, Comedy, and How to & Style categories. This suggests different audience uses for YouTube, from passive entertainment to active debating. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Abstract: . Peat surface CO2 emission, groundwater table depth and peat temperature were monitored for two years along transects in an Acacia plantation on thick tropical peat (>4 m) in Sumatra, Indonesia. A total of 2300 emission measurements were taken at 144 locations, over a 2 year period. The autotrophic root respiration component of CO2 emission was separated from heterotrophic emission caused by peat oxidation in three ways: (i) by comparing CO2 emissions within and beyond the tree rooting zone, (ii) by comparing CO2 emissions with and without peat trenching (i.e. cutting any roots remaining in the peat beyond the tree rooting zone), and (iii) by comparing CO2 emissions before and after Acacia tree harvesting. On average, the contribution of autotrophic respiration to daytime CO2 emission was 21% along transects in mature tree stands. At locations 0.5 m from trees this was up to 80% of the total emissions, but it was negligible at locations more than 1.3 m away. This means that CO2 emission measurements well away from trees were free of any autotrophic respiration contribution and thus represent only heterotrophic emissions. We found daytime mean annual CO2 emission from peat oxidation alone of 94 t ha−1 y−1 at a mean water table depth of 0.8 m, and a minimum emission value of 80 t ha−1 y−1 after correction for the effect of diurnal temperature fluctuations, which may result in a 14.5% reduction of the daytime emission. There is a positive correlation between mean long-term water table depth and peat oxidation CO2 emission. However, no such relation is found for instantaneous emission/water table depth within transects and it is clear that factors other than water table depth also affect peat oxidation and total CO2 emissions. The increase in the temperature of the surface peat due to plantation establishment may explain over 50% of peat oxidation emissions. Our study sets a standard for greenhouse gas flux studies from tropical peatlands under different forms of agricultural land management. It is the first to purposefully quantify heterotrophic CO2 emissions resulting from tropical peat decomposition by separating these from autotrophic emissions. It also provides the most scientifically- and statistically-rigorous study to date of CO2 emissions resulting from anthropogenic modification of this globally significant carbon rich ecosystem. Our findings indicate that past studies have underestimated emissions from peatland plantations, with important implications for the scale of greenhouse gas emissions arising from land use change, particularly in the light of current, rapid agricultural conversion of peatlands in the Southeast Asian region.

Abstract: A central issue in corporate governance research is the extent to which “good” governance practices are universal (one size mostly fits all) or instead depend on country and firm characteristics. We report evidence that supports the second view. We first conduct a case study of Brazil, in which we survey Brazilian firms' governance practices at year-end 2004, construct a corporate governance index, and show that the index, as well as subindices for ownership structure, board procedure, and minority shareholder rights, predicts higher lagged Tobin's q. In contrast to other studies, greater board independence predicts lower Tobin's q. Firm characteristics also matter: governance predicts market value for nonmanufacturing (but not manufacturing) firms, small (but not large) firms, and high-growth (but not low-growth) firms. We then extend prior studies of India, Korea, and Russia, and compare those countries to Brazil, to assess which aspects of governance matter in which countries, and for which types of firms. Our “multi-country” results suggest that country characteristics strongly influence both which aspects of governance predict firm market value, and at which firms that association is found. They support a flexible approach to governance, with ample room for firm choice.

Abstract: The aim of this study is to quantify the prevalence and types of rare chromosome abnormalities (RCAs) in Europe for 2000–2006 inclusive, and to describe prenatal diagnosis rates and pregnancy outcome. Data held by the European Surveillance of Congenital Anomalies database were analysed on all the cases from 16 population-based registries in 11 European countries diagnosed prenatally or before 1 year of age, and delivered between 2000 and 2006. Cases were all unbalanced chromosome abnormalities and included live births, fetal deaths from 20 weeks gestation and terminations of pregnancy for fetal anomaly. There were 10 323 cases with a chromosome abnormality, giving a total birth prevalence rate of 43.8/10 000 births. Of these, 7335 cases had trisomy 21,18 or 13, giving individual prevalence rates of 23.0, 5.9 and 2.3/10 000 births, respectively (53, 13 and 5% of all reported chromosome errors, respectively). In all, 473 cases (5%) had a sex chromosome trisomy, and 778 (8%) had 45,X, giving prevalence rates of 2.0 and 3.3/10 000 births, respectively. There were 1 737 RCA cases (17%), giving a prevalence of 7.4/10 000 births. These included triploidy, other trisomies, marker chromosomes, unbalanced translocations, deletions and duplications. There was a wide variation between the registers in both the overall prenatal diagnosis rate of RCA, an average of 65% (range 5–92%) and the prevalence of RCA (range 2.4–12.9/10 000 births). In all, 49% were liveborn. The data provide the prevalence of families currently requiring specialised genetic counselling services in the perinatal period for these conditions and, for some, long-term care.

Abstract: There is a growing body of evidence supporting implementation of ratio-dependent functional response of predators in ecological models. Those models often provide a satisfactory explanation of the observed patterns of dynamics which cannot be done based on the ‘classical’ models using the prey-dependent functional response. Surprisingly enough, all theoretical analysis of ratio-dependant predator–prey interactions has so far been completed only for the simplest case where the prey growth is logistic. In a large number of ecologically relevant situations, however, the growth rate of a population is subject to an Allee effect and the per capita growth rate increases with population density. Taking into account Allee dynamics for the prey growth in models can alter the previous theoretical findings obtained for the logistic growth paradigm. In this paper, we analyse a ratio-dependent predator–prey system with prey growth subject to an Allee effect. We both consider the cases of a strong Allee effect (the population growth rate is negative at low species density) and the case of a weak Allee effect (the population growth is positive at low population density). For both cases we fulfil a comprehensive bifurcation analysis, constructing the parametric diagrams, and also show possible phase portraits. Then we compare the properties of the ratio-dependant predator–prey model with and without the Allee effect and show a substantial difference in the dynamical behaviour of those systems. We show that including an Allee effect in a ratio-dependent predator–prey model removes the possibility of sustainable oscillations of species densities (population cycles). We show that the ratio-dependent predator–prey model with the Allee effect can solve the paradox of enrichment. However, unlike the same model with logistic growth, incorporating the Allee effect results in a paradox of biological control.

Abstract: The scale-up of the supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) process for grape ( Vitis vinifera L.) seed was studied from the laboratory (0.29 L) to the pilot scale (5.15 L) at 35 MPa and 313 K. The scale-up criterion adopted consisted of maintaining a constant solvent to feed ratio (S/F), and the criterion was successfully used to predict the approximate behavior of the SFE process from the laboratory at the pilot scale for a 17-fold scale-up. Linoleic acid was the major component of the extract; palmitic, stearic and oleic acids were also detected. The economic evaluation showed that it is viable to establish a SFE plant in Brazil for SFE processing of grape seed. From the technical-economic evaluation, for SFE of grape seed at 313 K/35 MPa, an extraction time of 240 min and S/F of 6.6 produced the best relationship between yield and cost.

Abstract: The data collected by smart meters contain a lot of useful information. One potential use of the data is to track the energy consumptions and operating statuses of major home appliances. The results will enable homeowners to make sound decisions on how to save energy and how to participate in demand response programs. This paper presents a new method to breakdown the total power demand measured by a smart meter to those used by individual appliances. A unique feature of the proposed method is that it utilizes diverse signatures associated with the entire operating window of an appliance for identification. As a result, appliances with complicated middle process can be tracked. A novel appliance registration device and scheme is also proposed to automate the creation of appliance signature database and to eliminate the need of massive training before identification. The software and system have been developed and deployed to real houses in order to verify the proposed method.

Abstract: Non-nodal type of mantle cell lymphoma is a specific biological and clinical subgroup of the disease

Abstract: Given a simple weighted undirected graph G=(V,E,d) with d:E??+, the Molecular Distance Geometry Problem (MDGP) consists in finding an embedding x:V??3 such that ?x u ?x v ?=d uv for each {u,v}?E. We show that under a few assumptions usually satisfied in proteins, the MDGP can be formulated as a search in a discrete space. We call this MDGP subclass the Discretizable MDGP (DMDGP). We show that the DMDGP is NP-hard and we propose a solution algorithm called Branch-and-Prune (BP). The BP algorithm performs remarkably well in practice in terms of speed and solution accuracy, and can be easily modified to find all incongruent solutions to a given DMDGP instance. We show computational results on several artificial and real-life instances.

Abstract: L-LDA is a new supervised topic model for assigning "topics" to a collection of documents (e.g., Twitter profiles). User studies have shown that L-LDA effectively performs a variety of tasks in Twitter that include not only assigning topics to profiles, but also re-ranking feeds, and suggesting new users to follow. Building upon these promising qualitative results, we here run an extensive quantitative evaluation of L-LDA. We test the extent to which, compared to the competitive baseline of Support Vector Machines (SVM), L-LDA is effective at two tasks: 1) assigning the correct topics to profiles; and 2) measuring the similarity of a profile pair. We find that L-LDA generally performs as well as SVM, and it clearly outperforms SVM when training data is limited, making it an ideal classification technique for infrequent topics and for (short) profiles of moderately active users. We have also built a web application that uses L-LDA to classify any given profile and graphically map predominant topics in specific geographic regions.