A model for Hopfions on the space-time S^3 x R

We construct static and time dependent exact soliton solutions for a theory of scalar fields taking values on a wide class of two dimensional target spaces, and defined on the four dimensional space-time S^3 x R. The construction is based on an ansatz built out of special coordinates on S^3. The requirement for finite energy introduces boundary conditions that determine an infinite discrete spectrum of frequencies for the oscillating solutions. For the case where the target space is the sphere S^2, we obtain static soliton solutions with non-trivial Hopf topological charges. In addition, such hopfions can oscillate in time, preserving their topological Hopf charge, with any of the frequencies belonging to that infinite discrete spectrum.Comment: Enlarged version with the time-dependent solutions explicitly given. One reference and two eps figures added. 14 pages, late

Increasing Performances of TCP Data Transfers Through Multiple Parallel Connections

Although Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is a widely deployed and successful protocol, it shows some limitations in present-day environments. In particular, it is unable to exploit multiple (physical or logical) paths between two hosts. This paper presents PATTHEL, a session-layer solution designed for parallelizing stream data transfers. Parallelization is achieved by striping the data flow among multiple TCP channels. This solution does not require invasive changes to the networking stack and can be implemented entirely in user space. Moreover, it is flexible enough to suit several scenarios - e.g. it can be used to split a data transfer among multiple relays within a peer-to-peer overlay networ

Implicit attitude toward caregiving: The moderating role of adult attachment styles

Attachment and caregiving are separate motivational systems that share the common evolutionary purpose of favoring child security. In the goal of studying the processes underlying the transmission of attachment styles, this study focused on the role of adult attachment styles in shaping preferences toward particular styles of caregiving. We hypothesized a correspondence between attachment and caregiving styles: we expect an individual to show a preference for a caregiving behavior coherent with his/her own attachment style, in order to increase the chance of passing it on to offspring. We activated different representations of specific caregiving modalities in females, by using three videos in which mothers with different Adult Attachment states of mind played with their infants. Participants' facial expressions while watching were recorded and analyzed with FaceReader software. After each video, participants' attitudes toward the category "mother" were measured, both explicitly (semantic differential) and implicitly (single target-implicit association task, ST-IAT). Participants' adult attachment styles (experiences in close relationships revised) predicted attitudes scores, but only when measured implicitly. Participants scored higher on the ST-IAT after watching a video coherent with their attachment style. No effect was found on the facial expressions of disgust. These findings suggest a role of adult attachment styles in shaping implicit attitudes related to the caregiving system

The Relationship Between Health Literacy and Self-Management

Health literacy is an evolving concept, impacting all areas of health care. There is a need for improved understanding of the concept and its relationship with self-management especially in the United States (US) where health literacy has been limited to functional health literacy consisting of basic reading and writing. Health literacy is defined as the “ability to obtain, understand, and apply health information for healthcare decisions” (Nielsen, 2004, p. 32) and has been expanded into three sub-concepts of functional, communicative, and critical health literacy. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore and better understand the relationship between health literacy and self-management using a health literacy tool modified and evaluated in the US. The specific aims in this study were 1) to evaluate the validity and reliability of the Functional, Communicative, and Critical Health Literacy (FCCHL) tool in a Midwestern, socioeconomically vulnerable or unstable adult population, 2) to determine the efficacy of the FCCHL compared to the Newest Vital Sign (NVS) or Short Form of the Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (s-TOFHLA) in relation to self-management, and 3) to determine the relationship between the FCCHL components of functional, communicative and critical health literacy and the self-management components of patient activation, self-regulation, and self-efficacy. The study included a cross-sectional, convenience sample from both urban and rural US locations including a rural health clinic, an urban Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC), and an urban workplace clinic supporting under-insured employees. A total of 276 participants were recruited for a fully powered study. The FCCHL tool was evaluated using construct, criterion, and concurrent validity, internal consistency and external reliability. The tool was found to be valid and reliable when tested in this population. Additionally, it was determined by correlations that the FCCHL tool measured more than functional health literacy and was different than educational levels suggesting that more than literacy was measured. The relationship between the FCCHL and self-management showed statistically significant and higher correlations for all three self-management components as compared to the relationship between the NVS to self-management and s-TOFHLA to self-management. The relationship between the components of the FCCHL tool and self-management components were all moderately, positively correlated. Additionally, the multiple linear regression showed statistically significant relationships between FCCHL tool components with patient activation, self-efficacy, and self-regulation when adjusting for various demographic variables. These results support the use of the FCCHL tool to measure all three sub-concepts of health literacy and supports the positive relationship between health literacy and self-management. These findings support the use of the FCCHL tool to help determine a patient’s total health literacy. Future studies should include the language and cultural adaptation of this tool to assess limited English proficient communities, describing the relationship of health literacy with health outcomes, testing FCCHL tool with a self-management intervention, and interventions determined by health literacy as measured by the FCCHL tool

Potato R1 resistance gene confers resistance against Phytophthora infestans in transgenic tomato plants

Tomato is challenged by several pathogens which cause loss of production. One such pathogen is the oomycete Phytophthora infestans which is able to attack all the aerial parts of the plant. Although a wide range of resistance sources are available, genetic control of this disease is not yet successful. Pyramiding R-genes through genetic transformation could be a straightforward way to produce tomato and potato lines carrying durable resistance to P. infestans. In this work the R1 potato gene was transferred into tomato lines. The tomato transgenic lines were analyzed by using q-RT-PCR and progeny segregation to determine the gene copy number. To test the hypothesis that R1 represents a specifically regulated R-gene, transgenic tomato plants were inoculated with P. infestans isolate 88133 and IPO. All the plants containing the R1 gene were resistant to the late blight isolate IPO-0 and susceptible to isolate 88133. These results provide evidence for specific activation of the R1 gene during pathogen challenge. Furthermore, evidence for enhancement of PR-1 gene expression during P. infestans resistance response was obtained

La rappresentazione del rapporto tra utenti e sistema sanitario: I modelli culturali dei medici di medicina generale - The representation of the relationship between users and healthcare system: Cultural models of general practitioners

The present research study explores the emotional and symbolic representation of the Italian healthcare system and specifically of general medical services reported by a group of Italian general practitioners. General medicine is recently affected by a structural change which could be sustained also by a cultural revolution, however this revolution seems to be oriented to expected values without a clear methodology which promotes and accompanies this cultural change. The present study deals with the lack of practices due to these unrealized expected values and assumes that for intervening it is necessary knowing the existing culture before thinking to change it. Interviews to 36 general practitioners were analyzed by Emotional Text Analysis (AET). Results highlight a factorial space characterized by five clusters. According to respondents’ perspective, healthcare problems refer to two large issues characterized by powerlessness of general practitioners to intervene. On the one hand, there is health emergency, dealt with by first aid and emergency medicine. On the other hand, there is chronicity, especially affecting the elderly, which is dealt with by other workers (nurses, private family assistants, social workers) who care patients at home and replace physicians. The general practitioners’ work is difficult because of many different reasons; but the central theme is the lack of absolute power – based on morality and consciousness – which leads to the perception of catastrophic consequences for medical profession and the physician-patient relationship. Often, general practitioners are in their offices and are not able to go to patients’ home, therefore they cannot create care relationships based on trust and dependence which allow useful and trustworthy interventions. In sum, the core theme emerging from data refers to the general practitioners’ perceived lack of personal and trust-based relationships with patients

La relazione che organizza il contesto sanitario: domanda dell’utenza e risposta dei servizi sanitari, nel territorio e nell’ospedale - The relationship which organizes the healthcare context: users’ demand and response of healthcare services, in the territory and the hospital

Our intent is to present citizens’ demand of health care services in Italy through a research structured in three studies. We used the Emotional Text Analysis (ETA) to lead the three s tudies: the first study regarded the citizens’expectations of the healthcare services, the second study regarded the point of view of the hospital personnel (medical doctors and nurses), the third regarded the point of view of the General Practitioners onthe health care services. These three studies are briefly presented. Data and outcome of an Assumed Similarity Test applied to all experimental subjects of the three studies in order to make a comparison among them, are also presented. The findings of the Emotional Text Analysis show that citizens, potential users of health services, center their requests on their individual subjectivity, and seek answers both to their suffering and to the feeling of alienation that characterizes the being sick feeling that makes them go to a medical doctor. For their part, general practitioners and hospital doctors immediately transform this subjective feeling in an objective medical diagnosis. Here a first gap emerges between patient’s demand and medical response, leavingthe possibility of an alliance on the diagnosis in order to jointly fight the disease. It has long been in place though a change that has expelled the patient also from sharing the diagnostic process, increasingly taken from self-centered dynamics within the healthcare system. This widens the gap between the request of the citizens and the response of the health services, that contributes to that conflictual growth to which defensive medicine gives a dysfunctional answer. The Assumed Similarity Test contributes to the interpretation of the health care dynamic identified in the Emotional Text Analysis; particularly in regard to the unfolding conflict, given by the hypothesis emerging from the data analysis, that a feeling of closeness for the hospital personnel goes along with an emotional stance of overpowering the othe

Like grandparents, like parents: Empirical evidence and psychoanalytic thinking on the transmission of parenting styles

The authors discuss the issue of intergenerational transmission of parenting from an empirical and psychoanalytic perspective. After presenting a framework to explain their conception of parenting, they describe intergenerational transmission of parenting as a key to interpreting and eventually changing parenting behaviors. Then they present (1) the empirical approach aimed at determining if there is actually a stability across generations that contributes to harsh parenting and eventually maltreatment and (2) the psyphoanalytic thinking that seeks to explain the continuity in terms of representations and clinical phenomena. The authors also discuss the relationship between the attachment and the caregiving systems and hypothesize a common base for the two systems in childhood experience. Finally, they propose the psychoanalytic perspective as a fruitful theoretical framework to integrate the evidence for the neurophysiological mediators and moderators of intergenerational transmission. Psychoanalytically informed research can provide clinically relevant insights and hypotheses to be tested

A Comparative Study of Profile and Scraping Methods for Emittance Measurements in the PS Booster

It is important to have a clear understanding of the transverse emittance in a circular accelerator in order to achieve optimum brilliance. Experience with comparing emittance data from different instruments has shown that systematic errors can be important. In an attempt to detect such errors in the PS Booster, the emittance measurements are made according to two different principles: measurement of density distribution and measurement of amplitude distribution. In this paper we i) discuss these two principles and the theory behind them; ii) show how the data can be compared; iii) describe the instrumentation used for these measurements; and iv) present results for the typical PS Booster beams

Efektifitas Pembalikan Beban Pembuktian dalam Tindak Pidana Gratifikasi

The criminal act gratuity provided for in article 12 paragraph B (1) letter a reversal of the burden of proof be the basis, but in the formulation of the core offense listed in full implications of mandatory prosecution to prove the offense formulation. This study aims to determine whether the reversal of the burden of proof is the obligation or right of the receiving gratuities. In addition, research was done in order to determine the effectiveness of the application of Article gratification of article 12 paragraph B (1) letter a of Law Number 20 Year 2001 regarding Amendment to Law Number 31 Year 1999 on Eradication of Corruption Criminal Acts. The method I use in this study is to perform normative and empirical legal research. Where the nature of this paper is descriptive. The author uses primary data, secondary data and tertiary data to complement those of the authors. Then from the existing data in the end the authors analyzed the data qualitatively. The conclusions of this study is the first reversal of the burden of proof is the right of receiving gratification as the core offenses in the formulation of article 12 paragraph B (1) of Law 20/2001 included the element "associated with the position and contrary to the obligation or duty". Given these elements it is the duty of prosecutors to prove the elements, but as stipulated in article 37 paragraph (1) Act 20/2001 defendant has the right to prove that he is not committing corruption. second, Article 12 B (1) letter a of Law 20/2001 was never used by prosecutors in the prosecution because the formulation of the Article imprecise and vague that the prosecutor demanded the matter of gratification to use other passive bribery article because gratuities included type of passive bribery is accepted bribe