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Industry 5.0 envisions close cooperation between humans and machines requiring ultra-reliable and low latency communications (URLLC). The Intelligent Reflecting Surface (IRS) has the potential to play a crucial role in realizing wireless URLLC for Industry 5.0. IRS is forecast to be a key enabler of 6G wireless communication networks as it can significantly improve wireless network performance by creating a controllable radio environment. In this paper, we first provide an overview of IRS technology and then conceptualize the potential for IRS implementation in a future smart manufacturing environment to support the emergence of Industry 5.0 with a series of applications. Finally, to stimulate future research in this area, we discuss the strength, open challenges, and opportunities of IRS technology in modern smart manufacturing., Comment: Accepted in IEEE Communications Magazine

The lamellar double hydroxides (LDH), also known as Hydrotalcites (HTs), co-rrespond to a family of two-dimensional clay materials notorious for their uni-que lamellar structures, versatile composition and ion exchange properties. Inthis research, the determination of the stoichiometry ratio of a set of Hydrotal-cites clays, synthesized in the lab by the co-precipitated method, is reported.The content from the trivalent and divalent metals that conform the clays struc-tures was determined through flame atomic absorption spectroscopy. Two typesof HTs were synthesized, Ni (HT-Ni) and Mg (HT-Mg); where, according to theresulting calculations, the stoichiometric formulas correspond toNi0.82Al0.18(OH)2(NO3)0.18and Mg0.80Al0.20(OH)2(NO3)0.20respectively, formu-las that show great similarities with reported values on the available literature.Furthermore, the synthesized clays were also characterized by X-Ray Diffraction, FT-IR spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy; where the X-Raydiffraction patterns confirmed the formation of nanometric size HTs particles,with the HT-Mg clay showing better crystalline properties., Los hidróxidos dobles laminares (LDH, por sus siglas en inglés), también deno-minados como Hidrotalcitas (HTs), son una clase de materiales arcillosos bidi-mensionales conocidos por su estructura laminar única, composición versátily propiedades de intercambio iónico. En este trabajo se reporta la determina-ción de la relación estequiométrica de arcillas tipo HTs sintetizadas en el labo-ratorio por el método de co-precipitación. El contenido de metales di ytri-valente que conforman las estructuras de las arcillas fue cuantificado por es-pectroscopia de absorción atómica por llama. Se sintetizaron dos tipos de HTs,Ni (HT-Ni) y Mg (HT-Mg); donde de acuerdo con los cálculos realizados la for-mula estequiométrica para la primera arcilla es Ni0,82Al0,18(OH)2(NO3)0,18yMg0,80Al0,20(OH)2(NO3)0,20para la segunda, resultados que concuerdan per-fectamente con la literatura. Las arcillas sintetizadas fueron caracterizadas pordifracción de rayos X, espectroscopia FT-IR y microscopia electrónica de ba-rrido. Los patrones de difracción de rayos X confirmaron la formación de HTsde tamaño de partícula nanométrico, donde la HT-Mg sintetizada posee mejo-res propiedades cristalinas.

The lamellar double hydroxides (LDH), also known as Hydrotalcites (HTs), co-rrespond to a family of two-dimensional clay materials notorious for their uni-que lamellar structures, versatile composition and ion exchange properties. Inthis research, the determination of the stoichiometry ratio of a set of Hydrotal-cites clays, synthesized in the lab by the co-precipitated method, is reported.The content from the trivalent and divalent metals that conform the clays struc-tures was determined through flame atomic absorption spectroscopy. Two typesof HTs were synthesized, Ni (HT-Ni) and Mg (HT-Mg); where, according to theresulting calculations, the stoichiometric formulas correspond toNi0.82Al0.18(OH)2(NO3)0.18and Mg0.80Al0.20(OH)2(NO3)0.20respectively, formu-las that show great similarities with reported values on the available literature.Furthermore, the synthesized clays were also characterized by X-Ray Diffraction, FT-IR spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy; where the X-Raydiffraction patterns confirmed the formation of nanometric size HTs particles,with the HT-Mg clay showing better crystalline properties., Los hidróxidos dobles laminares (LDH, por sus siglas en inglés), también denominados como Hidrotalcitas (HTs), son una clase de materiales arcillosos bidimensionales conocidos por su estructura laminar única, composición versátil y propiedades de intercambio iónico. En este trabajo se reporta la determinación de la relación estequiométrica de arcillas tipo HTs sintetizadas en el laboratorio por el método de coprecipitación. El contenido de metales di y trivalente que conforman las estructuras de las arcillas fue cuantificado por espectroscopia de absorción atómica por llama. Se sintetizaron dos tipos de HTs,Ni (HT-Ni) y Mg (HT-Mg); donde de acuerdo con los cálculos realizados la fórmula estequiométrica para la primera arcilla es Ni0,82Al0,18(OH)2(NO3)0,18yMg0,80Al0,20(OH)2(NO3)0,20para la segunda, resultados que concuerdan perfectamente con la literatura. Las arcillas sintetizadas fueron caracterizadas por difracción de rayos X, espectroscopia FT-IR y microscopia electrónica de barrido. Los patrones de difracción de rayos X confirmaron la formación de HTs de tamaño de partícula nanométrico, donde la HT-Mg sintetizada posee mejo-res propiedades cristalinas.

We are on the cusp of a new era of connected autonomous vehicles with unprecedented user experiences, tremendously improved road safety and air quality, highly diverse transportation environments and use cases, as well as a plethora of advanced applications. Realizing this grand vision requires a significantly enhanced vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication network which should be extremely intelligent and capable of concurrently supporting hyper-fast, ultra-reliable, and low-latency massive information exchange. It is anticipated that the sixth-generation (6G) communication systems will fulfill these requirements of the next-generation V2X. In this article, we outline a series of key enabling technologies from a range of domains, such as new materials, algorithms, and system architectures. Aiming for truly intelligent transportation systems, we envision that machine learning will play an instrumental role for advanced vehicular communication and networking. To this end, we provide an overview on the recent advances of machine learning in 6G vehicular networks. To stimulate future research in this area, we discuss the strength, open challenges, maturity, and enhancing areas of these technologies.

Michael addition reactions of n-pentanal with ß-nitrostyrene in achiral and chiral ionic liquids catalyzed by l-proline were studied. Results indicate anion plays an important role as weak coordination properties in the reactivity and stereoselectivity towards Michael product. 1-Butyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide ([Bmim][NTf2]) ionic liquid was found to be the best solvent media with a high yield (up to 90%) and a high diastereomeric ratio (syn/anti: 91/9), with moderate enantioselectivity (38% ee) among ten ionic liquids tested. The ionic liquid has been reusable over five numbers of cycles.

The accuracy of geospatial information enables to study the spatial effects of economic variables on the trading activities countries of Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). Hence, this thesis describes the spatial panel models for the analysing the trading activities of COMESA countries. The selection between spatial random or fixed effects models is determined by Hausman Test. In this thesis, it found strong evidence that there is a spatial dependence on the export and import of COMESA. Spatial dependence is a case where results in a given country seem to depend on results or other the factors from another country. Results showed that the Spatial Durbin Model with fixed time effect specification should be considered and tested in most of the states in this thesis. Furthermore, the indirect and direct effects among COMESA countries were estimated, and the role of direct and indirect effects in measuring imports and exports were empirically explained. Concerning research significance and originality, and to the best of researcher’s knowledge, this is the first thesis that delivers a comprehensive picture of COMESA regional trade. This study also contributes to the theory by providing a methodological flowchart to help new researchers save their time by using clear steps to analysis of spatial panel models and choosing the best spatial model. All explanatory variables for intra-country imports are statistically significant that include GDP, population, GGFCE, import costs and exchange rate ( 0.377, -0.206, 0.448, 0.648 and 0.079 respectively). Moreover, the GDP for intra-countries exports and the cost to export are statistically significant (0.927, -0.722) respectively.

We provide numerical verification of a feed-forward, heterodyne-based phase noise reduction scheme using single-sideband modulation that obviates the need for optical filtering at the output. The main benefit of a feed-forward heterodyne linewidth reduction scheme is the simultaneous reduction of the linewidth of all modes of a mode-locked laser (MLL) to that of a narrow-linewidth single-wavelength laser. At the heart of our simulator is an MLL model of reduced complexity. Importantly, the main issue being treated is the jitter of MLLs and we show how to create numerical waveforms that mimic the random-walk nature of timing jitter of pulses from MLLs. Thus, the model does not need to solve stochastic differential equations that describe the MLL dynamics, and the model calculates self-consistently the line-broadening of the modes of the MLL and shows good agreement with both the optical linewidth and jitter. The linewidth broadening of the MLL modes are calculated after the phase noise reduction scheme and we confirm that the phase noise contribution from the timing jitter still remains. Finally, we use the MLL model and phase noise reduction simulator within an optical communications system simulator and show that the phase noise reduction technique could enable MLLs as optical carriers for higher-order modulation formats, such as 16-state and 64-state quadrature amplitude modulation.

The recent developments in self-interference (SI) cancellation techniques have led to the practical realization of full-duplex (FD) radios that can perform simultaneous transmission and reception. FD technology is attractive for various legacy communications standards. In this paper, after discussing the opportunities of FD technology at the network layer, we present a cross-layer aided routing protocol, termed as X-FDR, for multi-hop FD wireless networks. X-FDR exploits a Physical (PHY) layer model capturing imperfection of SI cancellation. At the medium access control (MAC) layer, X-FDR adopts an optimized MAC protocol which implements a power control mechanism without creating the hidden terminal problem. X-FDR exploits the unique characteristics of FD technology at the network layer to construct energy-efficient and low end-to-end latency routes in the network. Performance evaluation demonstrates the effectiveness of X-FDR in achieving the gains of FD at higher layers of the protocol stack., Comment: IEEE Wireless Communications - Accepted for Publication

The pervasive view of bacteria as strictly pathogenic has given way to an ppreciation of the widespread prevalence of beneficial microbes within the human body. Given this milieu, it is perhaps inevitable that some bacteria would evolve to preferentially grow in environments that harbor disease and thus provide a natural platform for the development of engineered therapies. Such therapies could benefit from bacteria that are programmed to limit bacterial growth while continually producing and releasing cytotoxic agents in situ. Here, we engineer a clinically relevant bacterium to lyse synchronously at a threshold population density and to release genetically encoded cargo. Following quorum lysis, a small number of surviving bacteria reseed the growing population, thus leading to pulsatile delivery cycles. We use microfluidic devices to characterize the engineered lysis strain and we demonstrate its potential as a drug deliver platform via co-culture with human cancer cells in vitro. As a proof of principle, we track the bacterial population dynamics in ectopic syngeneic colorectal tumors in mice. The lysis strain exhibits pulsatile population dynamics in vivo, with mean bacterial luminescence that remained two orders of magnitude lower than an unmodified strain. Finally, guided by previous findings that certain bacteria can enhance the efficacy of standard therapies, we orally administer the lysis strain, alone or in combination with a clinical chemotherapeutic, to a syngeneic transplantation model of hepatic colorectal metastases. We find that the combination of both circuit-engineered bacteria and chemotherapy leads to a notable reduction of tumor activity along with a marked survival benefit over either therapy alone. Our approach establishes a methodology for leveraging the tools of synthetic biology to exploit the natural propensity for certain bacteria to colonize disease sites., National Institute of General Medical Sciences (U.S.) (GM069811), San Diego Center for Systems Biology (P50 GM085764), National Cancer Institute (U.S.). Swanson Biotechnology Center (Koch Institute Support Grant (P30-CA14051)), National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (Core Center Grant (P30- ES002109)), National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (NIH Pathway to Independence Award NIH (K99 CA197649-01)), Misrock Postdoctoral fellowship, National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship

En el marco del estudio de la cuestión del conocimiento en la filosofía occidental, el artículo aborda la noción de «choque de ignorancias» que se está utilizando hoy en día en un gran número de debates académicos, religiosos y políticos para referirse a los choques o conflictos que surgen de la falta de comunicación y entendimiento intercultural. El artículo presenta algunos casos de normalización social de la ignorancia y propone, desde una perspectiva intercultural y post-colonial, algunas ideas que puedan ayudar a ir más allá de los choques que pueda causar la ignorancia normalizada socialmente en el ámbito interpersonal e intercultural., In the context of examining the question of knowledge in Western philosophy, the article discusses the notion of “clash of ignorance”, which is used today in a number of academic, religious and political debates to refer to clashes or conflicts arising from the lack of intercultural communication and understanding. It presents some cases of the social normalisation of ignorance and proposes, from an intercultural and post-colonial perspective, some ideas that could help overcome the clashes that the socially normalised ignorance may cause in the interpersonal and intercultural domain.

A class of ionic liquid supported (ILS) (S)-pyrrolidine sulfonamide organocatalyst (1c), which was developed earlier in our lab, has been applied to a wider range of Michael addition reaction, involving various aryl-substituted nitroolefins and a series of aldehydes. Catalyst 1c catalyzes Michael additions in which only 2 equivalents of aldehydes to each equivalent of nitroolefin are required. With 10 mol% of ILS catalyst 1c loading, moderate to excellent yields (51- 98%) with moderate enantioselectivities (28-83% ee) and high diastereoselectivities (syn/anti ratio up to 97/3) were obtained. Moreover, the catalyst 1c could be easily recycled and reused for at least 5 times with slightly reduced activities.

We have performed penetration testing on OPC, which is a central component in process control systems on oil installations. We have shown how a malicious user with different privileges - outside the network, access to the signalling path and physical access to the OPC server - can fairly easily compromise the integrity, availability and confidentiality of the system. Our tentative tests demonstrate that full-scale penetration testing of process control systems in offshore installations is necessary in order to sensitise the oil and gas industry to the evolving threats., QC 20141027

En la subestación experimental Paraguaicito de Cenicafé, ubicada en el municipio de Buenavista, departamento del Quindío, se realizó un ensayo con fertilizantes foliares, en café variedad Colombia de 24 meses de edad, con una distancia de siembra de 2 x 1 m. Las aplicaciones foliares se realizaron 58 ý 88 días después del pico de floración principal, con el fin de evaluar su efecto sobre la producción, el factor de conversión y el rendimiento en trilla. Los fertilizantes foliares utilizados fueron: Úrea, MAP, Nitrato de Calcio al 1%, KCl, Kelatex Calcio, Kelatex Magnesio al 0,25%, Borosol al 0,3%, Nitrato de potasio al 4%, Kelatex calcio (0,25%) + Borosol (0,3%) y Úrea (1%) + KCl (0,25%) + MAP (1%). Los resultados obtenidos no mostraron diferencias estadísticas sobre la producción de la primera cosecha de 2007, ya que la aplicación foliar de los fertilizantes no influyó sobre el factor de conversión, el cual presentó un valor promedio de 5,17, que se puede considerar aceptable con respecto al promedio nacional. El rendimiento en trilla no presentó diferencias significativas entre tratamientos, aunque presentó un factor promedio de 88,68kg (cps); valor por debajo de la línea de comercialización nacional que actualmente es de 92,8kg (cps).

Objective: To determine the proportion of ED staff who are susceptible to pertussis. There was evidence that some winter leave in southern Tasmania might be a reason of pertussis infection among unimmunized staff. This results in loss of individual earning and loss of availability of staff during the peak demand periods in the ED. There is evidence in the literature that underdiagnosis and undertreatment of pertussis occurs worldwide. Methods: All ED staff were approached to participate in this seroprevalence study. A self-completed questionnaire was used to record pervious immunization history for pertussis. Blood samples were collected and analysed to detect and quantify immunoglobulin G and immunoglobulin A titres for pertussis. All confidence intervals (CI) are at 95%. Settings: The Royal Hobart Hospital and the co-located Hobart Private Hospital. Results: Ninety-seven of 106 eligible staff took part in the present study, a participation rate of 92% (CI 84-96). Ninety-one of 97 subjects (94%, CI 87-98) believed that they had been immunized for pertussis in childhood; six subjects had either not been immunized or were unsure (6%, CI 2-13). Twenty-three subjects (24%, CI 16-33) had been immunized as adults. There was serologic evidence of recent infection for 21 participants (22%, CI 14-31). Thirty-one participants (32%, CI 23-42) were susceptible to pertussis on the basis of low immunoglobulin G titres. Conclusion: ED staff should routinely be offered booster immunization for pertussis.

Trypanosomiasis and leishmaniasis are two debilitating disease groups caused by parasites of Trypanosoma and Leishmania spp. and affecting millions of people worldwide. A brief outline of the potential targets for rational drug design against these diseases are presented, with an emphasis placed on the enzyme trypanothione reductase. Trypanothione reductase was identified as unique to parasites and proposed to be an effective target against trypanosomiasis and leishmaniasis. The biochemical basis of selecting this enzyme as a target, with reference to the simile and contrast to human analogous enzyme glutathione reductase, and the structural aspects of its active site are presented. The process of designing selective inhibitors for the enzyme trypanothione reductase has been discussed. An overview of the different chemical classes of inhibitors of trypanothione reductase with their inhibitory activities against the parasites and their prospects as future chemotherapeutic agents are briefly revealed., non disponibile

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1998., "June 1998.", Includes bibliographical references (p. 135-137)., This thesis discusses the design of a microfabricated rocket engine. Micro-rockets feature a thrust to weight ratio up to two orders of magnitude greater than conventional rocket motors at small thrust levels and hence are very attractive for satellite propulsion applications and micro-satellite development. All major rocket components have been characterized and evaluated for micro-scale opera­tion. These include a 300 atm pumping system, a 3000 K and 125 atm combustion chamber and a Mach 3.5 thrusting nozzle. Studies indicate that a turbopump system is feasible while further investigations on bearings are required to fully validate the concept. The viability of the combustion chamber is believed to be dependent on the mixing performance of an innovative injection scheme which features inter-digitated fuel/oxidizer jets impinging at a 180° angle. The nozzle is projected to perform satisfactorily, incurring a mere 2% loss in thrust according to 2D CFD calculations. Modeling of the system transients has indicated an acceleration time on the order of 0.1 sec. as well as notable sensitivities to the injector diameter and turbine blade turning angles. The analysis suggests that the micro-rocket engine concept is feasible and identifies the engineering challenges ahead., by Omar M. Al-Midani., S.M.

Two greenhouse experiments and one field trial were conducted to provide information on the possibility of exploiting the beneficial effects of vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in Malaysian agriculture. In the first study, winged bean (Psophocarpus tetragonolobus) was grown in steam-sterilized Serdang soils and the development of the endophytes evaluated fortnightly. The second experiment was conducted in unsterilized Serdang and Munchong soils respectively with three levels ofP and/or inoculated with Acaulospora laevis, Glomus macrocarpum, Glomus mosseae, a mixture of Glomus species and Scutellospora calospora. All inocula, except for S. calospora, significantly enhanced growth throughout the course of the experiments and increased N, P and K concentrations in the plant tissues. G. mosseae was superior to the rest. In the field trial, Acaulospora laevis, Scutellospora calospora and Glomus mosseae were inoculated into winged bean grown in unsterilized field soil, with or without phosphate fertilizer. Inoculation of winged bean with G. mosseae significantly (P < 0.05) increased inflorescence formation (4.5/plant) , particularly at an intermediate level (60 kg ha-1 ) of P fertilizer.

1.1. Lipid metabolism in the ruminants and significance of hydrolysis and hydrogenation in the rumen. The digestion pattern of ruminants differs from other mammals in that the food of ruminants is subjected to a microbial fermentation in the rumen before passing into the true stomach. Carbohydrates, proteins, organic acids and many other food constituents are attacked by the micro organisms in the rumen and as a result short-chain fatty acids (VFA), CO2 , CH4 , NH3 etc. are produced as the end product of microbial metabolism. This ruminal fermentation has a considerable effect on the metabolic processes of the animal and moreover the functions of the rumen microorganisms are intimately associated with certain metabolic disorders of the ruminant (Bryant, 1959) e.g. Ketosis, bloat etc. It is now generally believed that the organisms of functional significance in the rumen are protozoa and bacteria which are capable of growth under the anaerobic conditions prevailing. The rumen provides an ideal anaerobic environment for a large and diverse microbial population at a temperature of 39°-40°C. The pH of the ingesta is slightly acid and the bacteria are adapted to live between pH 5.5 and 7.0 (Hungate, 1966). It is apparent from earlier studies that the lipids of ruminants differ in several respects from those of non-ruminant herbivorous animals in particular. Occurrence of unusually high proportions of stearic acid and the presence of trans acids and isomeric forms of oleic, linoleic and linolenic acid in depot fats and tissue lipids are peculiar to ruminants. [From Introduction]

The role of plant lipases in the hydrolysis of dietary lipids in the rumen of pasture-fed ruminants has been investigated by means of in vitro and in vivo experiments with rumen contents. Lipases present in the leaves of numerous pasture plants remained highly active for at least 5h in the presence of actively metabolising rumen microorganisms, leading to the hydrolysis of triglyceride. Parallel experiments showed that the lipase activity of actively metabolising rumen microorganisms in rumen fluid was very low. A slight increase in lipase activity attributable to microorganisms occurred after about a 4h incubation with autoclaved plant extract at which stage the metabolic activity of the microbial population had passed its peak. In vivo experiments showed that the lipolytic activity of rumen fluid obtained 0.5h to 5.0h after feeding fresh grass was about twice that of rumen fluid obtained after overnight fasting. Lipase activity was present in clarified rumen fluid. Pairedfeeding experiments with monozygotic twin cows demonstrated that the lipase activity of clarified rumen fluid prepared from the twin 0.5h after feeding fresh pasture was much higher than that of clarified rumen fluid from the 20h-fasted twin. Further paired-feeding experiments showed that lipase activity was higher in protozoa-free rumen fluid from the pasture-fed than from the hay-fed cow. In both treatments the highest levels of lipolytic activity were observed in the rumen samples removed 0.5h after feeding and there was a steady decline in activity over the sampling periods. Nevertheless, there was appreciable activity in the rumen samples obtained from the hay-fed animal which is consistent with the presence of lipase activity in the extracts of dried grass. Multiple forms of plant esterases and phosphatases were present in the soluble fraction of rumen fluid several hours after feeding. It is concluded that the rapid release of fatty acids which follows the ingestion of pasture is due mainly