Maximum power, ecological function and efficiency of an irreversible Carnot cycle. A cost and effectiveness optimization

In this work we include, for the Carnot cycle, irreversibilities of linear finite rate of heat transferences between the heat engine and its reservoirs, heat leak between the reservoirs and internal dissipations of the working fluid. A first optimization of the power output, the efficiency and ecological function of an irreversible Carnot cycle, with respect to: internal temperature ratio, time ratio for the heat exchange and the allocation ratio of the heat exchangers; is performed. For the second and third optimizations, the optimum values for the time ratio and internal temperature ratio are substituted into the equation of power and, then, the optimizations with respect to the cost and effectiveness ratio of the heat exchangers are performed. Finally, a criterion of partial optimization for the class of irreversible Carnot engines is herein presented.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to Energy Convers. Manag

A Parenting Program to Reduce Disruptive Behavior in Hispanic Children with Acquired Brain Injury: A Randomized Controlled Trial Conducted in Mexico

Children with acquired brain injury (ABI) are at risk of impairments in self-regulation and disruptive behavior. We aimed to investigate the effectiveness of the Signposts program to reduce disruptive behavior and improve self-regulation in Hispanic children with ABI, and reduce parental stress and improve parenting practices. Using a randomized controlled trial design, we assigned children (n = 71) and their parents to Signposts or generic telephone support. Blinded assessors conducted assessments at pre-intervention, immediately post-intervention, and at 3 months post-intervention. Signposts was effective in reducing dysfunctional parenting practices. Further, when analyzing participants at risk of behavioral disturbance (n = 46), Signposts was effective in reducing child disruptive behavior in the home environment and emotional self-regulation. No differences were found for parental stress, parent sense of competence, child disruptive behaviors at school, and child cognitive and behavioral selfregulation. The reduction in disruptive behavior was associated with the implementation of authoritative parenting practices (external regulation), and not as

Parenting and the dysregulation profile predict executive functioning in children with acquired brain injury

Background: Children with acquired brain injury (ABI) present with high rates of psychological disorders commonly accompanied by deficits in hot and cold executive functions (EFs). Impairments in EFs have been reported to precede mental health problems. Moreover, children who are vulnerable to developing mental health problems in adulthood frequently present with a dysregulation profile in childhood, characterized by impairments in cognitive, behavioral and emotional regulation. Objective: To identify profiles of behaviors associated with impairment in hot and cold EFs and compare injury factors, envi

The extended tails of Palomar 5: A ten degree arc of globular cluster tidal debris

Using wide-field photometric data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) we recently showed that the Galactic globular cluster Palomar 5 is in the process of being tidally disrupted. Its tidal tails were initially detected in a 2.5 degree wide band along the celestial equator. A new analysis of SDSS data for a larger field now reveals that the tails of Pal 5 have a much larger spatial extent and can be traced over an arc of 10 deg across the sky, corresponding to a projected length of 4 kpc at the distance of the cluster. The number of former cluster stars found in the tails adds up to about 1.2 times the number of stars in the cluster. The radial profile of stellar surface density in the tails follows approximately a power law r^gamma with -1.5 < gamma < -1.2. The stream of debris from Pal 5 is significantly curved, which demonstrates its acceleration by the Galactic potential. The cluster is presently near the apocenter but has repeatedly undergone disk crossings in the inner part of the Galaxy leading to strong tidal shocks. Our results suggest that the observed debris originates mostly from mass loss within the last 2 Gyrs. The cluster is likely to be destroyed after the next disk crossing, which will happen in about 100 Myr. (abridged)Comment: 44 pages, including 14 figures (Figs.1,3 & 14 with decreased resolution), accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journa

Does Forced Voting Result in Political Polarization?

This paper estimates the effects of the compulsory voting laws on individuals´ political orientations though a regression discontinuity framework. The identification comes from Brazil´s dual voting system – voluntary and compulsory – whose exposure is determined based on citizens’ dates of birth. Using self-collected data, we find that compulsory voting has sizable effects on individuals´ political preferences, making them more likely to identify with a political party and to become oriented towards ideological extremes

Fibrosis Severity as a Determinant of Cause-Specific Mortality in Patients With Advanced Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: A Multi-National Cohort Study

Background & Aims Little is known about the natural course of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) with advanced fibrosis. We describe long-term outcomes and evaluate the effects of clinical and histologic parameters on disease progression in patients with advanced NAFLD. Methods We conducted a multi-national study of 458 patients with biopsy-confirmed NAFLD with bridging fibrosis (F3, n = 159) or compensated cirrhosis (222 patients with Child-Turcotte-Pugh scores of A5 and 77 patients with scores of A6), evaluated from April 1995 through November 2013 and followed until December 2016, death, or liver transplantation at hepatology centers in Spain, Australia, Hong Kong, and Cuba. Biopsies were re-evaluated and scored; demographic, clinical, laboratory, and pathology data for each patient were collected from the time of liver biopsy collection. Cox proportional and competing risk models were used to estimate rates of transplantation-free survival and major clinical events and to identify factors associated with outcomes. Results During a mean follow-up time of 5.5 years (range, 2.7–8.2 years), 37 patients died, 37 received liver transplants, 88 had initial hepatic decompensation events, 41 developed hepatocellular carcinoma, 14 had vascular events, and 30 developed nonhepatic cancers. A higher proportion of patients with F3 fibrosis survived transplantation-free for 10 years (94%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 86%–99%) than of patients with cirrhosis and Child-Turcotte-Pugh A5 (74%; 95% CI, 61%–89%) or Child-Turcotte-Pugh A6 (17%; 95% CI, 6%–29%). Patients with cirrhosis were more likely than patients with F3 fibrosis to have hepatic decompensation (44%; 95% CI, 32%–60% vs 6%, 95% CI, 2%–13%) or hepatocellular carcinoma (17%; 95% CI, 8%–31% vs 2.3%, 95% CI, 1%–12%). The cumulative incidence of vascular events was higher in patients with F3 fibrosis (7%; 95% CI, 3%–18%) than cirrhosis (2%; 95% CI, 0%–6%). The cumulative incidence of nonhepatic malignancies was higher in patients with F3 fibrosis (14%; 95% CI, 7%–23%) than cirrhosis (6%; 95% CI, 2%–15%). Death or transplantation, decompensation, and hepatocellular carcinoma were independently associated with baseline cirrhosis and mild (<33%) steatosis, whereas moderate alcohol consumption was associated with these outcomes only in patients with cirrhosis. Conclusions Patients with NAFLD cirrhosis have predominantly liver-related events, whereas those with bridging fibrosis have predominantly nonhepatic cancers and vascular events

Shoc2/Sur8 protein regulates neurite outgrowth

This is an openaccess article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.-- et al.The Shoc2 protein has been implicated in the positive regulation of the Ras-ERK pathway by increasing the functional binding interaction between Ras and Raf, leading to increased ERK activity. Here we found that Shoc2 overexpression induced sustained ERK phosphorylation, notably in the case of EGF stimulation, and Shoc2 knockdown inhibited ERK activation. We demonstrate that ectopic overexpression of human Shoc2 in PC12 cells significantly promotes neurite extension in the presence of EGF, a stimulus that induces proliferation rather than differentiation in these cells. Finally, Shoc2 depletion reduces both NGF-induced neurite outgrowth and ERK activation in PC12 cells. Our data indicate that Shoc2 is essential to modulate the Ras-ERK signaling outcome in cell differentiation processes involved in neurite outgrowth.GL, TG and LMD were recipients of fellowships from the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (MEC) (to GL, TG), and Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias (FIS) (to LMD). LSR held a postdoctoral research contract from CIBERNED. This work was supported by FIS grant (PI10/00815) to JLO; CIBERNED to MC; SAF2008-01951, Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid (CAM) SSAL-0202-2006-01 and Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red sobre Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas (CIBERNED) to TI; FIS grant PI12/00775 and ISCIII-RETIC (Red Temática de Investigación Cooperativa en Cáncer) RD12/0036/0027 from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III to PSG; and FIS grants (PI09/0562 and PI13/00703), ISCIIIRETIC (RD06/0020/0003 and RD12/0036/0021), and the Spanish Association Against Cancer (AECC) to JMR.Peer Reviewe

Effective theory of the Delta(1232) in Compton scattering off the nucleon

We formulate a new power-counting scheme for a chiral effective field theory of nucleons, pions, and Deltas. This extends chiral perturbation theory into the Delta-resonance region. We calculate nucleon Compton scattering up to next-to-leading order in this theory. The resultant description of existing $\gamma$p cross section data is very good for photon energies up to about 300 MeV. We also find reasonable numbers for the spin-independent polarizabilities $\alpha_p$ and $\beta_p$.Comment: 29 pp, 9 figs. Minor revisions. To be published in PR

Type 2 Diabetes and Metformin Use Associate With Outcomes of Patients With Non-alcoholic Steatohepatitis-related, Child-Pugh A Cirrhosis

Background & Aims Factors that affect outcomes of patients with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) related cirrhosis are unclear. We studied associations of type 2 diabetes, levels of hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), and use antidiabetic medications with survival and liver-related events in patients with NASH and compensated cirrhosis. Methods We collected data from 299 patients with biopsy-proven NASH with Child-Pugh A cirrhosis from tertiary hospitals in Spain, Australia, Hong Kong, and Cuba, from April 1995 through December 2016. We obtained information on presence of type 2 diabetes, level of HbA1c, and use of antidiabetic medications. Cox proportional and competing risk models were used to estimate and compare rates of transplant-free survival, hepatic decompensation, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Results Two-hundred and twelve patients had type 2 diabetes at baseline and 8/87 patients developed diabetes during a median follow-up time of 5.1 y (range, 0.5–10.0 y). A lower proportion of patients with diabetes survived the entire follow-up period (38%) than of patients with no diabetes (81%) (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 4.23; 95% CI, 1.93–9.29). Higher proportions of patients with diabetes also had hepatic decompensation (51% vs 26% of patients with no diabetes; aHR, 2.03; 95% CI 1.005–4.11) and HCC (25% vs 7% of patients with no diabetes; aHR, 5.42; 95% CI 1.74–16.80). Averaged annual HbA1c levels over time were not associated with outcomes. Metformin use over time was associated with a significant reduction in risk of death or liver transplantation (aHR, 0.41; 95% CI, 0.26–0.45), hepatic decompensation (aHR, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.74–0.97), and HCC (aHR, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.69–0.96). Metformin significantly reduced risk of hepatic decompensation and HCC only in subjects with HbA1c levels above 7.0% (aHR, 0.97; 95% CI, 0.95–0.99 and aHR, 0.67; 95% CI, 0.43–0.94, respectively). Conclusions In an international cohort of patients with biopsy-proven NASH and Child-Pugh A cirrhosis, type 2 diabetes increased risk of death and liver-related outcomes, including HCC. Patients who took metformin had higher rates of survival and lower rates of decompensation and HCC