A water model study of the flow asymmetry inside a continuous slab casting mold

The work studies the extent of asymmetric flow in water models of continuous casting molds of two different configurations. In the molds where fluid is discharged through multiple holes at the bottom, the flow pattern in the lower portion depends on the size of the lower two recirculating domains. If they reach the mold bottom, the flow pattern in the lower portion is symmetrical about the central plane; otherwise, it is asymmetrical. On the other hand, in the molds where the fluid is discharged through the entire mold cross section, the flow pattern is always asymmetrical if the aspect ratio is 1:6.25 or more. The fluid jet swirls while emerging through the nozzle. The interaction of the swirling Jets with the wide sidewalls of the mold gives rise to asymmetrical flow inside the mold. In the molds with lower aspect ratios, where the jets do not touch the wide side walls, the flow pattern is symmetrical about the central plane.

The fisc and the frontier: Approaches to cross-border charity in Australia and the UK

The late twentieth century witnessed the transformation of the global economy beyond the fixed geographic boundaries of the nation-state system to one dominated by financial centers, global markets, and transnational firms. In the two decades to 2011, cross-border philanthropy from OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) donor countries to the developing world grew from approximately USD 5 billion to USD 32 billion (OECD, n.d.),[1] with some estimates for 2011 as high as USD 59 billion (Center for Global Prosperity, 2013). This is only part of cross-border philanthropy, which also includes remittances from migrant communities, social-media-enabled global fundraising, and medical research collaborations.

Convergent evolution of marine mammals is associated with distinct substitutions in common genes

Phenotypic convergence is thought to be driven by parallel substitutions coupled with natural selection at the sequence level. Multiple independent evolutionary transitions of mammals to an aquatic environment offer an opportunity to test this thesis. Here, whole genome alignment of coding sequences identified widespread parallel amino acid substitutions in marine mammals; however, the majority of these changes were not unique to these animals. Conversely, we report that candidate aquatic adaptation genes, identified by signatures of likelihood convergence and/or elevated ratio of nonsynonymous to synonymous nucleotide substitution rate, are characterized by very few parallel substitutions and exhibit distinct sequence changes in each group. Moreover, no significant positive correlation was found between likelihood convergence and positive selection in all three marine lineages. These results suggest that convergence in protein coding genes associated with aquatic lifestyle is mainly characterized by independent substitutions and relaxed negative selection.

The cross-talk of LDL-cholesterol with cell migration: Insights from the Niemann Pick Type C1 mutation

Cholesterol is considered indispensible for the recruitment and functioning of integrins in focal adhesions for cell migration. However, the physiological cholesterol pools that control integrin trafficking and focal adhesion assembly remain unclear. Using Niemann Pick Type C1 (NPC) mutant cells, which accumulate Low Density lipoprotein (LDL)-derived cholesterol in late endosomes (LE), several recent studies indicate that LDL-cholesterol has multiple roles in regulating focal adhesion dynamics. Firstly, targeting of endocytosed LDL-cholesterol from LE to focal adhesions controls their formation at the leading edge of migrating cells. Other newly emerging literature suggests that this may be coupled to vesicular transport of integrins, Src kinase and metalloproteases from the LE compartment to focal adhesions. Secondly, our recent work identified LDL-cholesterol as a key factor that determines the distribution and ability of several Soluble NSF Attachment Protein (SNAP) Receptor (SNARE) proteins, key players in vesicle transport, to control integrin trafficking to the cell surface and extracellular matrix (ECM) secretion. Collectively, dietary, genetic and pathological changes in cholesterol metabolism may link with efficiency and speed of integrin and ECM cell surface delivery in metastatic cancer cells. This commentary will summarize how direct and indirect pathways enable LDL-cholesterol to modulate cell motility.

Broadband Suspended Microstrip Antenna For Circular Polarization

In this paper we propose a circularly polarized (CP) microstrip antenna on a suspended substrate with a coplanar capacitive feed and a slot within the rectangular patch. The antenna has an axial ratio bandwidth (< 3 dB) of 7.1%. The proposed antenna exhibits a much higher impedance bandwidth of about 49% (S11 < -10 dB) and also yields return loss better than -15 dB in the useful range of circular polarization. Measured characteristics of the antenna are in good agreement with the simulated results. The radiation patterns indicate good cross polarization rejection and low back lobe radiations. The design proposed here can be scaled to any frequency of interest.

Intra-cluster correlation structure in longitudinal data analysis: Selection criteria and misspecification tests

Selection criteria and misspecification tests for the intra-cluster correlation structure (ICS) in longitudinal data analysis are considered. In particular, the asymptotical distribution of the correlation information criterion (CIC) is derived and a new method for selecting a working ICS is proposed by standardizing the selection criterion as the p-value. The CIC test is found to be powerful in detecting misspecification of the working ICS structures, while with respect to the working ICS selection, the standardized CIC test is also shown to have satisfactory performance. Some simulation studies and applications to two real longitudinal datasets are made to illustrate how these criteria and tests might be useful.

A simple circuit to aid direct measurement of capture cross sections of deep level impurities

An inexpensive and simple circuit to aid the direct measurement of majority carrier capture cross sections of impurity levels in the band gap of a semiconductor by the variable width filling pulse technique is presented. With proper synchronisation, during the period of application of the pulse, the device is disconnected from the capacitance meter to avoid distortion of the pulse and is reconnected again to the meter to record the emission transient. Modes of operation include manual triggering for long emission transients, repetitive triggering for isothermal and DLTS measurements and the DLTS mode which is to be used with signal analysers that already provide a synchronising pulse for disconnection.

A maximum likelihood approach for estimating growth from tag–recapture data

The Fabens method is commonly used to estimate growth parameters k and l infinity in the von Bertalanffy model from tag-recapture data. However, the Fabens method of estimation has an inherent bias when individual growth is variable. This paper presents an asymptotically unbiassed method using a maximum likelihood approach that takes account of individual variability in both maximum length and age-at-tagging. It is assumed that each individual's growth follows a von Bertalanffy curve with its own maximum length and age-at-tagging. The parameter k is assumed to be a constant to ensure that the mean growth follows a von Bertalanffy curve and to avoid overparameterization. Our method also makes more efficient use nf thp measurements at tno and recapture and includes diagnostic techniques for checking distributional assumptions. The method is reasonably robust and performs better than the Fabens method when individual growth differs from the von Bertalanffy relationship. When measurement error is negligible, the estimation involves maximizing the profile likelihood of one parameter only. The method is applied to tag-recapture data for the grooved tiger prawn (Penaeus semisulcatus) from the Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia.

A quasi-likelihood method for fractal-dimension estimation

We propose a simple method of constructing quasi-likelihood functions for dependent data based on conditional-mean-variance relationships, and apply the method to estimating the fractal dimension from box-counting data. Simulation studies were carried out to compare this method with the traditional methods. We also applied this technique to real data from fishing grounds in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia

Maximum likelihood estimation of mortality and growth with individual variability from multiple length-frequency data

We consider estimation of mortality rates and growth parameters from length-frequency data of a fish stock and derive the underlying length distribution of the population and the catch when there is individual variability in the von Bertalanffy growth parameter L-infinity. The model is flexible enough to accommodate 1) any recruitment pattern as a function of both time and length, 2) length-specific selectivity, and 3) varying fishing effort over time. The maximum likelihood method gives consistent estimates, provided the underlying distribution for individual variation in growth is correctly specified. Simulation results indicate that our method is reasonably robust to violations in the assumptions. The method is applied to tiger prawn data (Penaeus semisulcatus) to obtain estimates of natural and fishing mortality.

Boiler room scams destroy lives yet police blame victims

The Queensland Organised Crime Commission of Inquiry recently handed down its findings examining how organised crime has been policed in recent years. While media attention has been focused on the implications for child sexual exploitation and paedophilia, the report also made some substantial findings related to financial crimes such as investment fraud (commonly known as boiler rooms scams). Quite disturbingly, the report notes a strong victim blaming mentality that police expressed towards individuals who invested in fraudulent companies and who subsequently lost money in these boiler room scams. The attitude of the police towards boiler room victims was largely one of apathy towards the likelihood of any investigation, and of blame towards victims for not doing what was perceived to be “due diligence”. This finding illustrates several myths which are argued to exist around investment fraud victims, particularly around the concept of “due diligence”. It also feeds into the idea that victims are greedy/naïve and financially illiterate/not investment savvy. These are both problematic and largely inaccurate. Drawing on examples from my own research with fraud victims, the article will illustrate the complexity and sophistication of many boiler room schemes and demonstrate the difficulties in identifying fraudulent investment opportunities.

A cross-linguistic study of lexical iconicity and its manifestation in bird names

Abstract This dissertation is a cross-linguistic study of lexical iconicity. The study is based on a genealogically stratified sample of 237 languages. The aim is to contribute with an empirical study to the growing dialogue focusing on different forms of lexical iconicity. The conceptual framework of the present study is based on an analysis of types and means of lexical iconicity in the sample languages. Archaeological and cultural evidence are used to tie lexical iconicity to its context. Phenomena related to lexical iconicity are studied both cross-linguistically and language-specifically. The cognitive difference between imitation and symbolism is essential. Lexical iconicity is not only about the iconic relationship between form and referents, but also about how certain iconic properties may become conventional, means used to create sound symbolism. All the sample languages show some evidence of lexical iconicity, demonstrating that it is a universal feature. Nine comparisons of onomatopoeic verbs and nouns, with samples varying between six and 141 languages, show that typologically highly different languages use similar means for creating words based on sound imitation. Two cross-linguistic comparisons of bird names demonstrate that a vast majority of the Eurasian names of the common cuckoo and the world-wide names of crow and raven of the 141 genera are onomatopoeic.

A maximum-likelihood method for estimating natural mortality and catchability coefficient from catch-and-effort data

A simple stochastic model of a fish population subject to natural and fishing mortalities is described. The fishing effort is assumed to vary over different periods but to be constant within each period. A maximum-likelihood approach is developed for estimating natural mortality (M) and the catchability coefficient (q) simultaneously from catch-and-effort data. If there is not enough contrast in the data to provide reliable estimates of both M and q, as is often the case in practice, the method can be used to obtain the best possible values of q for a range of possible values of M. These techniques are illustrated with tiger prawn (Penaeus semisulcatus) data from the Northern Prawn Fishery of Australia.

A quasi-likelihood approach for ordered categorical data with overdispersion

Quasi-likelihood (QL) methods are often used to account for overdispersion in categorical data. This paper proposes a new way of constructing a QL function that stems from the conditional mean-variance relationship. Unlike traditional QL approaches to categorical data, this QL function is, in general, not a scaled version of the ordinary log-likelihood function. A simulation study is carried out to examine the performance of the proposed QL method. Fish mortality data from quantal response experiments are used for illustration.

Application of commercially available, low-cost, miniaturised NIR spectrometers to the assessment of the sugar content of intact fruit

Recent decreases in costs, and improvements in performance, of silicon array detectors open a range of potential applications of relevance to plant physiologists, associated with spectral analysis in the visible and short-wave near infra-red (far-red) spectrum. The performance characteristics of three commercially available ‘miniature’ spectrometers based on silicon array detectors operating in the 650–1050-nm spectral region (MMS1 from Zeiss, S2000 from Ocean Optics, and FICS from Oriel, operated with a Larry detector) were compared with respect to the application of non-invasive prediction of sugar content of fruit using near infra-red spectroscopy (NIRS). The FICS–Larry gave the best wavelength resolution; however, the narrow slit and small pixel size of the charge-coupled device detector resulted in a very low sensitivity, and this instrumentation was not considered further. Wavelength resolution was poor with the MMS1 relative to the S2000 (e.g. full width at half maximum of the 912 nm Hg peak, 13 and 2 nm for the MMS1 and S2000, respectively), but the large pixel height of the array used in the MMS1 gave it sensitivity comparable to the S2000. The signal-to-signal standard error ratio of spectra was greater by an order of magnitude with the MMS1, relative to the S2000, at both near saturation and low light levels. Calibrations were developed using reflectance spectra of filter paper soaked in range of concentrations (0–20% w/v) of sucrose, using a modified partial least squares procedure. Calibrations developed with the MMS1 were superior to those developed using the S2000 (e.g. coefficient of correlation of 0.90 and 0.62, and standard error of cross-validation of 1.9 and 5.4%, respectively), indicating the importance of high signal to noise ratio over wavelength resolution to calibration accuracy. The design of a bench top assembly using the MMS1 for the non-invasive assessment of mesocarp sugar content of (intact) melon fruit is reported in terms of light source and angle between detector and light source, and optimisation of math treatment (derivative condition and smoothing function).