Holistic design of 8-way combining transformers in SiGe technology for use in millimetre-wave power amplifiers

This paper presents the design of a novel 8-way power-combining transformer for use in mm-wave power amplifier (PA). The combiner exhibits a record low insertion loss of 1.25 dB at 83.5 GHz. A complete circuit comprised of a power splitter, two-stage cascode PA array, a power combiner and input/output matching elements was designed and realized in SiGe technology. Measured gain of at least 16.8 dB was obtained from 76.4 GHz to 85.3 GHz with a peak 19.5 dB at 83 GHz. The prototype delivered 12.5 dBm OP and 14 dBm saturated output power when operated from a 3.2 V DC supply voltage at 78 GHz. © 2013 IEEE.

Is a single item stress measure independently associated with subsequent severe injury: a prospective cohort study of 16,385 forest industry employees

Background: A previous review showed that high stress increases the risk of occupational injury by three- to five-fold. However, most of the prior studies have relied on short follow-ups. In this prospective cohort study we examined the effect of stress on recorded hospitalised injuries in an 8-year follow-up.
Methods: A total of 16,385 employees of a Finnish forest company responded to the questionnaire. Perceived stress was measured with a validated single-item measure, and analysed in relation recorded hospitalised injuries from 1986 to 2008. We used Cox proportional hazard regression models to examine the prospective associations between work stress, injuries and confounding factors.
Results: Highly stressed participants were approximately 40% more likely to be hospitalised due to injury over the follow-up period than participants with low stress. This association remained significant after adjustment for age, gender, marital status, occupational status, educational level, and physical work environment.
Conclusions: High stress is associated with an increased risk of severe injury.

Hydroclimatic changes during the 8.2 ka event inferred from Irish subfossil pines

A significant cold event, derived from the Greenland ice cores, took place between 8200 and 8000 cal. BP. Modeling of the event suggests that higher northern latitudes would have experienced considerable decreases in precipitation and that Ireland would have witnessed one of the greatest depressions. However, no well-dated proxy record exists from the British Isles to test the model results. Here we present independent evidence for a phase of major pine recruitment on Irish bogs at around 8150 cal. BP. Dendrochronological dating of subfossil trees from three sites reveal synchronicity in germination across the region, indicative of a regional forcing, and allows for high-precision radiocarbon based dates. The inner-rings of 40% of all samples from the north of Ireland dating to the period 8,500-7,500 cal. BP fall within a 25-year window. The concurrent colonization of pine on peatland is interpreted as drier conditions in the region and provide the first substantive proxy data in support of a significant hydrological change in the north of Ireland accompanying the 8.2 ka event. Our results also indicate that the apparent temporal asynchrony between anomalies in proxy records at the time could be a result of differences in dating methods.

Hydroclimatic changes during the 8.2 ka event revealed by Irish pines

A pivotal cold event, deduced from the Greenland ice cores, took place between 8200 and 8000 cal. BP. Modelling of this climatic episode suggests that higher northern latitudes would have also experienced substantial reduction in rainfall and that Ireland would have observed a notable decline. No well-dated proxy record exists from the British Isles to test the model results. We present significant independent data for a phase of increased Scots pine initiation on Irish bogs at around 8150 cal. BP. Dendrochronological dating of sub-fossil Scots pine trees from three locations reveals synchronicity in germination across the area, indicative of a regional forcing, and allows for high-precision radiocarbon based dates. The starting rings of 40% of all samples from the north of Ireland dating to the period 8500-7500 cal. BP fall within a period of 25 years. The present colonisation model of Scots pine on peatland is interpreted as increasing drier conditions in the region and provides the first meaningful proxy data in support of a significant hydrological change in the north of Ireland accompanying the 8.2 ka event. The dating uncertainties associated with the Irish Scots pine record and the Greenland Ice Core Chronology 2005 (GICC05) do not allow for any overlap between the two. The results indicate that the discrepancy could be a result of dating inaccuracy that could have affected analysis of prior proxy alignments.

Genome-wide association study identifies novel loci associated with resistance to bovine tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) caused by Mycobacterium bovis is a re-emerging disease of livestock that is of major economic importance worldwide, as well as being a zoonotic risk there is significant heritability for host resistance to bovine TB (bTB) in dairy cattle. To identify resistance loci for bTB, we undertook a genome-wide association study in female Holstein-Friesian cattle with 592 cases and 559 age-matched controls from case herds. Cases and controls were categorised into distinct phenotypes: skin test and lesion positive vs skin test negative on multiple occasions, respectively these animals were genotyped with the Illumina BovineHD 700K BeadChip. Genome-wide rapid association using linear and logistic mixed models and regression (GRAMMAR), regional heritability mapping (RHM) and haplotype-sharing analysis identified two novel resistance loci that attained chromosome-wise significance, protein tyrosine phosphatase receptor T (PTPRT; P=4.8 × 10 -7) and myosin IIIB (MYO3B; P=5.4 × 10 -6). We estimated that 21% of the phenotypic variance in TB resistance could be explained by all of the informative single-nucleotide polymorphisms, of which the region encompassing the PTPRT gene accounted for 6.2% of the variance and a further 3.6% was associated with a putative copy number variant in MYO3B the results from this study add to our understanding of variation in host control of infection and suggest that genetic marker-based selection for resistance to bTB has the potential to make a significant contribution to bTB control.

Efficient, Scalable, and Solvent-free Mechanochemical Synthesis of the OLED Material Alq(3) (q=8-Hydroxyquinolinate)

The aluminum complex Alq(3) (q = 8-hydroxyquinolinate), which has important applications in organic light-emitting diode materials, is shown to be readily synthesized as a pure phase under solvent-free mechanochemical conditions from Al(OAc)(2)OH and 8-hydroxyquinoline by ball milling. The initial product of the mechanochemical synthesis is a novel acetic acid solvate of Alq(3), and the alpha polymorph of Alq(3) is obtained on subsequent heating/desolvation of this phase. The structure of the mechanochemically prepared acetic acid solvate of Alq(3) has been determined directly from powder X-ray diffraction data and is shown to be a different polymorph from the corresponding acetic acid solvate prepared by solution-state crystallization of Alq(3) from acetic acid. Significantly, the mechanochemical synthesis of Alq(3) is shown to be fully scalable across two orders of magnitude from 0.5 to 50 g scale. The Alq(3) sample obtained from the solvent-free mechanochemical synthesis is analytically pure and exhibits identical photoluminescence behavior to that of a sample prepared by the conventional synthetic route.

Expression of toll-like receptors by human muscle cells in vitro and in vivo:TLR3 is highly expressed in inflammatory and HIV myopathies, mediates IL-8 release and up-regulation of NKG2D-ligands

The particular microenvironment of the skeletal muscle can be the site of complex immune reactions. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) mediate inflammatory stimuli from pathogens and endogenous danger signals and link the innate and adaptive immune system. We investigated innate immune responses in human muscle. Analyzing TLR1-9 mRNA in cultured myoblasts and rhabdomyosarcoma cells, we found constitutive expression of TLR3. The TLR3 ligand Poly (I:C), a synthetic analog of dsRNA, and IFN-gamma increased TLR3 levels. TLR3 was mainly localized intracellularly and regulated at the protein level. Poly (I:C) challenge 1) activated nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB), 2) increased IL-8 release, and 3) up-regulated NKG2D ligands and NK-cell-mediated lysis of muscle cells. We examined muscle biopsy specimens of 6 HIV patients with inclusion body myositis/polymyositis (IBM/PM), 7 cases of sporadic IBM and 9 nonmyopathic controls for TLR3 expression. TLR3 mRNA levels were elevated in biopsy specimens from patients with IBM and HIV-myopathies. Muscle fibers in inflammatory myopathies expressed TLR3 in close proximity of infiltrating mononuclear cells. Taken together, our study suggests an important role of TLR3 in the immunobiology of muscle, and has substantial implications for the understanding of the pathogenesis of inflammatory myopathies or therapeutic interventions like vaccinations or gene transfer.

First-order characteristics of the person-to-vehicle channel at 5.8 GHz

In this paper we investigate the first order characteristics of the radio channel between a moving vehicle and a stationary person positioned by the side of a road at 5.8 GHz. The experiments considered a transmitter positioned at different locations on both the body and receivers positioned on the vehicle. The transmitter was alternated between positions on the central chest region, back and the wrist (facing the roadside) of the body, with the receivers placed on the outside roof, the outside rear window and the inside dashboard of the vehicle. The Rice fading model was applied to the measurement data to assess its suitability for characterizing this emerging type of wireless channel. The Ricean K factors calculated from the data suggest that a significant dominant component existed in the majority of the channels considered in this study.

A statistical analysis of person–to–vehicle communications channels in an urban environment at 5.8 GHz

In recent years, the embracement of smart devices carried or worn by people have transformed how society interact with one another. This trend has also been observed in the advancement of vehicular networks. Here, developments in wireless technologies for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-roadside (V2R) communications are leading to a new generation of vehicular networks. A natural extension of both types of networks will be their eventual wireless integration. Both people and vehicles will undoubtedly form integral parts of future mobile networks of people and things. Central to this will be the person-to-vehicle (P2V) communications channel. As the P2V channel will be subject to different signal propagation characteristics than either type of communication system considered in isolation, it is imperative the characteristics of the wireless channel must first be fully understood. To the best of the author's knowledge, this is a topic which has not yet been addressed in the open literature. In this paper we will present our most recent research on the statistical characterization of the 5.8 GHz person-to-vehicle channel in an urban environment.

Indoor off–body communications at 5.8 GHz with multiple antennas at the base station: a statistical characterization using the Nakagami–m fading model

In this paper we investigate the first and second order characteristics of the received signal at the output ofhypothetical selection, equal gain and maximal ratio combiners which utilize spatially separated antennas at the basestation. Considering a range of human body movements, we model the model the small-scale fading characteristics ofthe signal using diversity specific analytical equations which take into account the number of available signal branchesat the receiver. It is shown that these equations provide an excellent fit to the measured channel data. Furthermore, formany hypothetical diversity receiver configurations, the Nakagami-m parameter was found to be close to 1.

Tephrochronology and the extended intimate (integration of ice‐core, marine and terrestrial records) event stratigraphy 8-128kab2k

The comparison of palaeoclimate records on their own independent timescales is central to the work of the INTIMATE (INTegrating Ice core, MArine and TErrestrial records) network. For the North Atlantic region, an event stratigraphy has been established from the high-precision Greenland ice-core records and the integrated GICC05 chronology. This stratotype provides a palaeoclimate signal to which the timing and nature of palaeoenvironmental change recorded in marine and terrestrial archives can be compared. To facilitate this wider comparison, without assuming synchroneity of climatic change/proxy response, INTIMATE has also focussed on the development of tools to achieve this. In particular the use of time-parallel marker horizons e.g. tephra layers (volcanic ash). Coupled with the recent temporal extension of the Greenland stratotype, as part of this special issue, we present an updated INTIMATE event stratigraphy highlighting key tephra horizons used for correlation across Europe and the North Atlantic. We discuss the advantages of such an approach, and the key challenges for the further integration of terrestrial palaeoenvironmental records with those from ice cores and the marine realm.

The interaction of surface plasmon polaritons with a silver film edge

A prism coupling arrangement is used to excite surface plasmons at the surface of a thin silver aim and a photon scanning tunnelling microscope is used to detect the evanescent field above the silver surface. Excitation of the silver/ air mode of interest is performed at lambda(1) = 632 . 8 nm using a tightly focused beam, while the control of the tip is effected by exciting a counter-propagating surface plasmon field at a different wavelength. lambda(2) = 543 . 5 nm, using an unfocused beam covering a macroscopic area. Propagation of the red surface plasmon is evidenced by an exponential tail extending away from the launch site, but this feature is abruptly truncated if the surface plasmon encounters the edge of the silver film - there is no specularly reflected 'beam'. Importantly, the radiative decay of the surface mode at the film edge is observable only at larger tip-sample separations, emphasizing the importance of accessing the mesoscopic regime.

Up close and personal: A qualitative study exploring the lived experience of older carers. Mental Health and Learning Disabilities Research. 8 (1). Pp.15-29.

This study explored the experiences of informal carers who were aged 65 years and over. It has been estimated that 15 per cent of those aged 65 or over provide some form of informal care in England. Despite a growing literature on the involvement of older people in research, there is a paucity of literature on the involvement of older carers. In this study, older carers were identified via a General Practice (GP) register in one urban medical practice. Data was collected through a series of focus groups, which were transcribed and analysed using
thematic analysis. Every carer aged 55 or over and registered with the medical practice was invited to take part in the study. Four female carers and one male carer took part in the study (age range 65-83). Themes that emerged during data analysis included, 1) managing things in an emergency, 2) feeling valued because they took part in the research and 3) the day-to-day reality of living with social exclusion. GP registers provide a valuable tool for identifying older
carers who may otherwise be difficult to engage in research. However, persuading GPs to engage with qualitative research may be a challenge.