The role of heme oxygenase-1 in hematopoietic system and its microenvironment

Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences - Hematopoietic system transports all necessary nutrients to the whole organism and provides the immunological protection. Blood cells have high turnover,...     

Do Long‐Run Theory Restrictions Help in Forecasting?

Do long‐run equilibrium relations suggested by economic theory help to improve the forecasting performance of a cointegrated vector error correction model (VECM)? In this paper we try to answer this question in the context of a two‐country model developed for the Canadian and US economies. We compare the forecasting performance of the exactly identified cointegrated VECMs to the performance of the over‐identified VECMs with the long‐run theory restrictions imposed. We allow for model uncertainty and conduct this comparison for every possible combination of the cointegration ranks of the Canadian and US models. We show that the over‐identified structural cointegrated models generally outperform the exactly identified models in forecasting Canadian macroeconomic variables. We also show that the pooled forecasts generated from the over‐identified models beat most of the individual exactly identified and over‐identified models as well as the VARs in levels and in differences. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stability Analysis and Performance Evaluation of Delayed Bilateral Telerobotic Systems over a Lossy Communication Channel

The focus of this paper is to address a novel control technique for stability and transparency analysis of bilateral telerobotic systems in the presence of data loss and time delay in the communication channel. Different control strategies have been reported to compensate the effects of time delay in the communication channel;however, most of them result in poor performance under data loss. First, a model for data loss is proposed using a finite series representation of a set of periodic continuous pulses.To improve the performance and data reconstruction, a holder circuits is also introduced. The passivity of the overall system is provided via the wave variable technique based on the proposed model for the data loss. The stability analysis of the system is then derived using the Lyapunov theorem under the time delay and the data loss. Finally, experimental results are given to illustrate the capability of the proposed control technique.     

Feasibility of a novel beamforming algorithm via retrieving spatial harmonics

This paper introduces an algorithm for beamforming systems by the aid of multidimensional harmonic retrieval(MHR).This algorithm resolves problems,removes limitations of sampling and provides a more robust beamformer.A new sample space is created that can be used for estimating weights of a new beamforming called spatial-harmonics retrieval beamformer(SHRB).Simulation results show that SHRB has a better performance,accuracy,and applicability and more powerful eigenvalues than conventional beamformers.A simple mathematical proof is provided.By changing the number of harmonics,as a degree of freedom that is missing in conventional beamformers,SHRB can achieve more optimal outputs without increasing the number of spatial or temporal samples.We will demonstrate that SHRB offers an improvement of 4 dB in signal to noise ratio(SNR) in bit error rate(BER) of 10~(-4) over conventional beamformers.In the case of direction of arrival(DOA) estimation,SHRB can estimate the DOA of the desired signal with an SNR of-25 dB,when conventional methods cannot have acceptable response.     

Antifungal activity of magnetically separable Fe3O4/ZnO/AgBr nanocomposites prepared by a facile microwave-assisted method

In the present work, magnetically separable Fe-₃O₄/ZnO/AgBr nanocomposites with different weight ratios of Fe₃O₄ to ZnO/AgBr were prepared by a facile microwave-assisted method. The resultant samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction（XRD）, scanning electron microscopy（SEM）, transmission electron microscopy（TEM）, energy dispersive analysis of X-rays（EDX）, and vibrating sample magnetometery（VSM）. Antifungal activity of the as-prepared samples was evaluated against Fusarium graminearum and Fusarium oxysporum as two phytopathogenic fungi. Among the nanocomposites, the sample with 1:8 weight ratio of Fe₃O₄ to ZnO/AgBr was selected as the best nanocomposite. This nanocomposite inactivates Fusarium graminearum and Fusarium oxysporum at 120 and 60 min, respectively. Moreover, it was observed that the microwave irradiation time has considerable influence on the antifungal activity and the sample prepared by irradiation for 10 min showed the best activity. Moreover, the nanocomposite without any thermal treatment displayed the superior activity.     

Forecasting the Effects of a Canada–US Currency Union on Output and Prices: A Counterfactual Analysis

This paper is a counterfactual analysis investigating the consequences of the formation of a currency union for Canada and the USA: whether outputs increase and prices decrease if these countries form a currency union. We use a two‐country cointegrated model to conduct the counterfactual analysis, where the conditional forecasts are generated based on the Gaussian assumption. To deal with structural breaks and model uncertainty, conditional forecasts are generated from different models/estimation windows and the model‐averaging technique is used to combine the forecasts. We also examine the robustness of our results to parameter uncertainty using the wild bootstrap method. The results show that forming the currency union would probably boost the Canadian economy, whereas it would not have significant effects on US output or Canadian and US price levels. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Synthesis of a NiTi_2–AlNi–Al_2O_3 nanocomposite by mechanical alloying and heat treatment of Al–TiO_2–NiO

The aim of the present study was to investigate the phases formed during ball milling of Al–TiO_2–NiO. For this purpose, a mixture of Al–TiO_2–NiO with a molar ratio of 6:1:1 was used. Characterization of the milled powders by X-ray diffraction, differential thermal analysis, field-emission scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy showed the formation of nanocrystalline NiTi_2 along with AlNi. A thermodynamical investigation confirmed that NiO was reduced by Al during ball milling, which consequently promoted TiO_2 reduction and the formation of NiTi_2. Al is capable of reducing NiO either during ball milling or at temperatures above the melting point of Al; by contrast, TiO_2 can be reduced by Al only by milling.