One of the continuing challenges in abstract interpretation is the creation of abstractions that yield analyses that are both tractable and precise enough to prove interesting properties about real-world programs. One source of difficulty is the need to handle programs with different behaviors along different execution paths. Disjunctive (powerset) abstractions capture such distinctions in a na...

We estimate the extent of upper tropospheric aerosol layers (UT ALs) surrounding mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) and explore the relationships between UT AL extent and the morphology, location, and developmental stage of collocated MCSs in the tropics. Our analysis is based on satellite data collected over equatorial Africa, South Asia, and the Amazon basin between June 2006 and June 2008. ...

Buildings account for nearly 50% of all greenhouse gases globally. While this has been widely recognized, the GHG mitigation strategies have traditionally concentrated on reducing the use phase emissions, as over 90% of the emissions are generated during the use phase according to several studies. However, two current developments increase the importance of the construction phase emissions and ...

The 2-point correlation form factor, K 2 (τ), for small values of τ is computed analytically for typical examples of pseudo-integrable systems. This is done by explicit calculation of periodic orbit contributions in the diagonal approximation. The following cases are considered: (i) plane billiards in the form of right triangles with one angle π/n and (ii) rectangular billiards with the Aharono...

Polymer-cement composites (PCCs) are materials in which the polymer and mineral binder create an interpenetrating network and co-operate, significantly improving the performance of the material. On the other hand, the need for the utilization of waste materials is a demand of sustainable construction. Various mineral powders, such as fly ash or blast-furnace slag, are successfully used for the ...

We present a novel approach to solve quantified boolean formulas with one quantifier alternation (2QBF). The algorithm incrementally adds new constraints to the formula until the constraints describe a unique Skolem function or until the absence of a Skolem function is detected. Backtracking is required if the absence of Skolem functions depends on the newly introduced constraints. We present t...

BACKGROUND The Nextera protocol, which utilises a transposome based approach to create libraries for Illumina sequencing, requires pure DNA template, an accurate assessment of input concentration and a column clean-up that limits its applicability for high-throughput sample preparation. We addressed the identified limitations to develop a robust workflow that supports both rapid and high-throug...

Air pollution by nitrogen oxides represents a serious environmental problem in urban areas where numerous sources of these pollutants are concentrated. One approach to reduce the concentration of these air pollutants is their light-induced oxidation in the presence of molecular oxygen and a photocatalytically active building material which uses titanium dioxide as the photocatalyst. Herein, res...

Reducing the settlements of soft foundation effectively is a critical problem of high-speed railway construction in China. The new CFG pile-slab structure composite foundation is a ground treatment technique which is applied on CFG pile foundation and pile-slab structure composite foundation. Based on the experience of constructing Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway in China, the settlement-co...

In the previous paper 1 , the second and the third authors introduced a simple construction of a Siegel cusp form of degree 2. This construction has an advantage because the Fourier coefficients are explicitly computable. After this work was completed, Kikuta and Mizuno proved that the p-adic limit of a sequence of the aforementioned cusp forms becomes a Siegel cusp form of degree 2 with level ...