Hardy’s inequalities for monotone functions on partly ordered measure spaces

We characterize the weighted Hardy inequalities for monotone functions in Rn +. In dimension n = 1, this recovers the standard theory of Bp weights. For n > 1, the result was previously only known for the case p = 1. In fact, our main theorem is proved in the more general setting of partly ordered measure spaces.

Predictive analysis and mapping of indoor radon concentrations in a complex environment using kernel estimation: an application to Switzerland.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to develop models based on kernel regression and probability estimation in order to predict and map IRC in Switzerland by taking into account all of the following: architectural factors, spatial relationships between the measurements, as well as geological information. METHODS: We looked at about 240,000 IRC measurements carried out in about 150,000 houses. As predictor variables we included: building type, foundation type, year of construction, detector type, geographical coordinates, altitude, temperature and lithology into the kernel estimation models. We developed predictive maps as well as a map of the local probability to exceed 300 Bq/m(3). Additionally, we developed a map of a confidence index in order to estimate the reliability of the probability map. RESULTS: Our models were able to explain 28% of the variations of IRC data. All variables added information to the model. The model estimation revealed a bandwidth for each variable, making it possible to characterize the influence of each variable on the IRC estimation. Furthermore, we assessed the mapping characteristics of kernel estimation overall as well as by municipality. Overall, our model reproduces spatial IRC patterns which were already obtained earlier. On the municipal level, we could show that our model accounts well for IRC trends within municipal boundaries. Finally, we found that different building characteristics result in different IRC maps. Maps corresponding to detached houses with concrete foundations indicate systematically smaller IRC than maps corresponding to farms with earth foundation. CONCLUSIONS: IRC mapping based on kernel estimation is a powerful tool to predict and analyze IRC on a large-scale as well as on a local level. This approach enables to develop tailor-made maps for different architectural elements and measurement conditions and to account at the same time for geological information and spatial relations between IRC measurements.

Predicting the physicochemical profile of diastereoisomeric histidine-containing dipeptides by property space analysis.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed at measuring the lipophilicity and ionization constants of diastereoisomeric dipeptides, interpreting them in terms of conformational behavior, and developing statistical models to predict them. METHODS: A series of 20 dipeptides of general structure NH(2) -L-X-(L or D)-His-OMe was designed and synthetized. Their experimental ionization constants (pK(1) , pK(2) and pK(3) ) and lipophilicity parameters (log P(N) and log D(7.4) ) were measured by potentiometry. Molecular modeling in three media (vacuum, water, and chloroform) was used to explore and sample their conformational space, and for each stored conformer to calculate their radius of gyration, virtual log P (preferably written as log P(MLP) , meaning obtained by the molecular lipophilicity potential (MLP) method) and polar surface area (PSA). Means and ranges were calculated for these properties, as was their sensitivity (i.e., the ratio between property range and number of rotatable bonds). RESULTS: Marked differences between diastereoisomers were seen in their experimental ionization constants and lipophilicity parameters. These differences are explained by molecular flexibility, configuration-dependent differences in intramolecular interactions, and accessibility of functional groups. Multiple linear equations correlated experimental lipophilicity parameters and ionization constants with PSA range and other calculated parameters. CONCLUSION: This study documents the differences in lipophilicity and ionization constants between diastereoisomeric dipeptides. Such configuration-dependent differences are shown to depend markedly on differences in conformational behavior and to be amenable to multiple linear regression. Chirality 24:566-576, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Health consultation : Contamination of sump within residential property, Carroll County, Iowa (2007)

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) has been involved in an investigation surrounding the appearance of an unknown oil within the sump in the basement of a residence in Carroll, Iowa. The IDNR has requested the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) to prepare a health consultation regarding their investigation. The IDPH, in cooperation with the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), prepared this health consultation to review the current status of the IDNR investigation and to provide an evaluation of the public health implications of exposure to the unknown oil within the sump. The information in this health consultation was current at the time of writing. Data that emerges later could alter this document’s conclusions and recommendations.

Do geographic distribution, niche property and life form explain plants' vulnerability to global change?

We modelled the future distribution in 2050 of 975 endemic plant species in southern Africa distributed among seven life forms, including new methodological insights improving the accuracy and ecological realism of predictions of global changes studies by: (i) using only endemic species as a way to capture the full realized niche of species, (ii) considering the direct impact of human pressure on landscape and biodiversity jointly with climate, and (iii) taking species' migration into account. Our analysis shows important promises for predicting the impacts of climate change in conjunction with land transformation. We have shown that the endemic flora of Southern Africa on average decreases with 41% in species richness among habitats and with 39% on species distribution range for the most optimistic scenario. We also compared the patterns of species' sensitivity with global change across life forms, using ecological and geographic characteristics of species. We demonstrate here that species and life form vulnerability to global changes can be partly explained according to species' (i) geographical distribution along climatic and biogeographic gradients, like climate anomalies, (ii) niche breadth or (iii) proximity to barrier preventing migration. Our results confirm that the sensitivity of a given species to global environmental changes depends upon its geographical distribution and ecological proprieties, and makes it possible to estimate a priori its potential sensitivity to these changes.

The normal distribution in some constrained sample spaces

Phenomena with a constrained sample space appear frequently in practice. This is the case e.g. with strictly positive data, or with compositional data, like percentages or proportions. If the natural measure of difference is not the absolute one, simple algebraic properties show that it is more convenient to work with a geometry different from the usual Euclidean geometry in real space, and with a measure different from the usual Lebesgue measure, leading to alternative models which better fit the phenomenon under study. The general approach is presented and illustrated using the normal distribution, both on the positive real line and on the D-part simplex. The original ideas of McAlister in his introduction to the lognormal distribution in 1879, are recovered and updated

Managing an intellectual property right portfolio in the software industry

Tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli määrittää etuja, joita huolellinen immateriaali-oikeussalkun hallinnointi ohjelmistoalalla luo yritykselle. Tutkimusaineisto on kerätty haastattelemalla eri asemissa olevia ihmisiä kolmesta suomalaisesta ohjelmistoalan tuote- ja palveluyrityksestä. Tutkimuksesta käy ilmi, että ohjelmistoyritysten immateriaalioikeussalkut koostuvat liikesalaisuuksista, tekijänoikeudesta, tavaramerkeistä, verkkotunnuksista ja muutamista patenteista. Kiinnostus patentteihin ohjelmistoalalla on kasvanut erityisesti niiden tuoman tekijänoikeutta vahvemman suojan takia. Tällä hetkellä Euroopassa suhtautuminen ohjelmistopatentteihin on kuitenkin vielä käymistilassa. Jos ohjelmistopatentit hyväksytään, immateriaalioikeussalkun strateginen merkitys kasvaa. Tällöin salkunn hallinnointi tukee yrityksen tavoitteita - esimerkiksi oman toimintavapauden turvaamista - avustaen hakemus-prosessissa, tarkkaillen markkinoita sekä arvioiden yrityksen oman immateriaalioikeussalkun erilaisia hyväksikäyttömahdollisuuksia.

Does land titling matter? The role of land property rights in the war on illicit crops in Colombia

This paper analyzes the role of formalization of land property rights in the war against illicit crops in Colombia. We argue that as a consequence of the increase of state presence and visibility during the period of 2000 and 2009, municipalities with a higher level of formalization of their land property rights saw a greater reduction in the area allocated to illicit crops. We hypothesize that this is due to the increased cost of growing illicit crops on formal land compared to informal, and due to the possibility of obtaining more benets in the newly in- stalled institutional environment when land is formalized. We exploit the variation in the level of formalization of land property rights in a set of municipalities that had their rst cadastral census collected in the period of 1994-2000; this selection procedure guarantees reliable data and an unbiased source of variation. Using fixed effects estimators, we found a signicant negative relationship between the level of formalization of land property rights and the number of hectares allocated to coca crops per municipality. These results remain robust through a number of sensitivity analyses. Our ndings contribute to the growing body of evidence on the positive effects of formal land property rights, and e ective policies in the war on drugs in Colombia.

How diverse is Cologne Carnival? How migrants appropriate popular art spaces

The present article contributes to the ongoing academic debate on migrants' appropriation of artistic and political spaces in Germany. Cologne, one of the largest cities in Germany, is an interesting example of the tension between political discourse centred around multiculturalism and cultural segregation processes. The 'no fool is illegal' carnival organised by asylum seekers shows their capacity to act, as they reinvent an old local tradition by reinterpreting medieval rituals. Today, different groups and associations appropriate this festive art space: migrants, gays and lesbians, feminists and far-left groups either organise their own parties or take part in the official parties and parades as separate groups. As a result, the celebration of diversity figures on the local political agenda and becomes part of the official carnival festivities. This leads to a blurring of boundaries, whereby mainstream popular culture becomes more and more influenced by multicultural elements.

Invisible Environments: Old Age and its spaces

Despite the progressive ageing of a worldwide population, negative attitudes towards old age have proliferated thanks to cultural constructs and myths that, for decades, have presented old age as a synonym of decay, deterioration and loss. Moreover, even though every human being knows he/she will age and that ageing is a process that cannot be stopped, it always seems distant, far off in the future and, therefore, remains invisible. In this paper, I aim to analyse the invisibility of old age and its spaces through two contemporary novels and their ageing females protagonists –Maudie Fowler in Doris Lessing ’s The Diary of a Good Neighbour and Erica March in Rose Tremain ’s The Cupboard. Although invisible to the rest of society, these elderly characters succeed in becoming significant in the lives of younger protagonists who, immersed in their active lives, become aware of the need to enlarge our vision of old age.

Single acquisition electrical property mapping based on relative coil sensitivities: A proof-of-concept demonstration.

PURPOSE: All methods presented to date to map both conductivity and permittivity rely on multiple acquisitions to compute quantitatively the magnitude of radiofrequency transmit fields, B1+. In this work, we propose a method to compute both conductivity and permittivity based solely on relative receive coil sensitivities ( B1-) that can be obtained in one single measurement without the need to neither explicitly perform transmit/receive phase separation nor make assumptions regarding those phases. THEORY AND METHODS: To demonstrate the validity and the noise sensitivity of our method we used electromagnetic finite differences simulations of a 16-channel transceiver array. To experimentally validate our methodology at 7 Tesla, multi compartment phantom data was acquired using a standard 32-channel receive coil system and two-dimensional (2D) and 3D gradient echo acquisition. The reconstructed electric properties were correlated to those measured using dielectric probes. RESULTS: The method was demonstrated both in simulations and in phantom data with correlations to both the modeled and bench measurements being close to identity. The noise properties were modeled and understood. CONCLUSION: The proposed methodology allows to quantitatively determine the electrical properties of a sample using any MR contrast, with the only constraint being the need to have 4 or more receive coils and high SNR. Magn Reson Med, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Better-quasi-order : ideals and spaces

This thesis deals with combinatorics, order theory and descriptive set theory. The first contribution is to the theory of well-quasi-orders (wqo) and better-quasi-orders (bqo). The main result is the proof of a conjecture made by Maurice Pouzet in 1978 his thèse d'état which states that any wqo whose ideal completion remainder is bqo is actually bqo. Our proof relies on new results with both a combinatorial and a topological flavour concerning maps from a front into a compact metric space. The second contribution is of a more applied nature and deals with topological spaces. We define a quasi-order on the subsets of every second countable To topological space in a way that generalises the Wadge quasi-order on the Baire space, while extending its nice properties to virtually all these topological spaces. The Wadge quasi-order of reducibility by continuous functions is wqo on Borei subsets of the Baire space, this quasi-order is however far less satisfactory for other important topological spaces such as the real line, as Hertling, Ikegami and Schlicht notably observed. Some authors have therefore studied reducibility with respect to some classes of discontinuous functions to remedy this situation. We propose instead to keep continuity but to weaken the notion of function to that of relation. Using the notion of admissible representation studied in Type-2 theory of effectivity, we define the quasi-order of reducibility by relatively continuous relations. We show that this quasi-order both refines the classical hierarchies of complexity and is wqo on the Borei subsets of virtually every second countable To space - including every (quasi-)Polish space. -- Cette thèse se situe dans les domaines de la combinatoire, de la théorie des ordres et de la théorie descriptive. La première contribution concerne la théorie des bons quasi-ordres (wqo) et des meilleurs quasi-ordres (bqo). Le résultat principal est la preuve d'une conjecture, énoncée par Pouzet en 1978 dans sa thèse d'état, qui établit que tout wqo dont l'ensemble des idéaux non principaux ordonnés par inclusion forme un bqo est alors lui-même un bqo. La preuve repose sur de nouveaux résultats, qui allient la combinatoire et la topologie, au sujet des fonctions d'un front vers un espace métrique compact. La seconde contribution de cette thèse traite de la complexité topologique dans le cadre des espaces To à base dénombrable. Dans le cas de l'espace de Baire, le quasi-ordre de Wadge est un wqo sur les sous-ensembles Boréliens qui a suscité énormément d'intérêt. Cependant cette relation de réduction par fonctions continues s'avère bien moins satisfaisante pour d'autres espaces d'importance tels que la droite réelle, comme l'ont fait notamment remarquer Hertling, Schlicht et Ikegami. Nous proposons de conserver la continuité et d'affaiblir la notion de fonction pour celle de relation. Pour ce faire, nous utilisons la notion de représentation admissible étudiée en « Type-2 theory of effectivity » initiée par Weihrauch. Nous introduisons alors le quasi-ordre de réduction par relations relativement continues et montrons que celui-ci à la fois raffine les hiérarchies classiques de complexité topologique et forme un wqo sur les sous-ensembles Boréliens de chaque espace quasi-Polonais.

Use and perception of urban green spaces in Barcelona

Background: Although the mechanisms are not well understood yet, evidence exists of the benefits of urban green spaces for human health. As a consequence, one of the concerns of public health interventions must be to promote the use of urban green spaces within cities. Aims: This study aims to explore the citizens’ purposes of use of urban green spaces as well as the elements related to the characteristics of these places that condition their use. Methods: In-depth interviews were conducted with non-hospitalised people living in different areas of Barcelona, with different socioeconomic status and different residential distance to urban green spaces (n = 20). Thematic content analysis of the qualitative data was performed. Results: Physical pursuits and attention restoration were identified as prominent purposes of use of urban green spaces. The natural features of urban green spaces were identified as the most relevant determiners for the use of these places. Conclusions: To promote the use of urban green spaces, qualitative findings from this study suggest that purpose-built places should be provided. Moreover, natural features of urban green spaces must be particularly taken into account when designing and maintaining them.