Analysis of Spatial Variation in Flood Risk Perception

We use hedonic property models to estimate the spatial variation in flood risk in the city of Albany, GA. In addition to knowing whether a property is in the floodplain, we have a unique dataset with actual inundation maps from tropical storm Alberto that hit Albany in 1994. In the absence of information on the structural damages caused by a flood, having information on the actual inundated area can be useful to tease out information effect of a new flood from potential reconstruction cost. We find that the discount in actually inundated properties is larger which supports our hypothesis that homeowners respond better to what they have visualized (“seeing is believing”) and also the potential reconstruction cost in addition to information effect is capitalized in property prices.Flood Risk, Inundation, Spatial, Discount, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use, Q, R,

The functional significance of human connexin40 mutations on atrial physiology and propensity to atrial arrhythmia

Objective: To characterise the phenotype of the human connexin40 mutations P88S, G38A, and A96S in rat hearts and primary cardiomyocyte cultures. Background: Patch clamping of transfected non-cardiomyocytes revealed that P88S, G38A, and A96S, identified in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF), impair gap junction conductance. Methods: Left atria of adult Sprague-Dawley rats were transduced in vivo (lentivirus) with wtCx40, P88S, G38A, A96S, or eGFP (n=6 per group). Electrophysiology studies (EPS) were performed prior to and 7 days after transduction. Atria were assessed for connexin expression, mRNA levels, inflammation and fibrosis. Primary cardiomyocyte cultures were also transduced (n=6 per transgene); conduction velocities (CV) and protein expression were assessed at 96hrs. Results: Day7 P wave and induced AF durations were longer in mutant groups compared to wtCx40 controls (p<0.05). Inflammation, fibrosis and heart/body weight ratios were similar. A96S culture CV’s were slower compared to wtCx40. P88S and wtCx40 CV’s were similar but slower compared to eGFP (p<0.01). G38A cultures fibrillated spontaneously and were non-capturable. Immunofluorescence revealed that P88S and G38A reduced native connexin43 myocyte coupling. A96S and wtCx40 appeared to co-localise with membranous conneixn43. Connexin43 mRNA levels were similar between groups. Conclusion: A96S, G38A, and P88S slow conduction and increase propensity for AF

Trends and Patterns of Violence against Women in Bangladesh

Women throughout the world face different forms of violence in their day to day life from domestic sphere to public sphere ranging from psychological abuse to physical torture and even death Domestic violence is the most common form of VAW in Bangladesh the recent trend of which shows that battering type violence followed a slacken slope while dowry related violence is on increase yet pushed by psychological violence In public sphere though Acid and Fatwa and Illegal Arbitration related violence are on decrease sexual violence and harassment are on increase kindling by trafficking and negative use of various media The most heinous situation is on commute to work and workplace where women workers often become the victim of differential violence including rape with no record The paper recommends accurate maintenance of violence data with awareness program and proper implementation of existed laws for the emancipation of wome

Feature Level Fusion of Face and Fingerprint Biometrics

The aim of this paper is to study the fusion at feature extraction level for face and fingerprint biometrics. The proposed approach is based on the fusion of the two traits by extracting independent feature pointsets from the two modalities, and making the two pointsets compatible for concatenation. Moreover, to handle the problem of curse of dimensionality, the feature pointsets are properly reduced in dimension. Different feature reduction techniques are implemented, prior and after the feature pointsets fusion, and the results are duly recorded. The fused feature pointset for the database and the query face and fingerprint images are matched using techniques based on either the point pattern matching, or the Delaunay triangulation. Comparative experiments are conducted on chimeric and real databases, to assess the actual advantage of the fusion performed at the feature extraction level, in comparison to the matching score level.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, conferenc

Exploring Malignity in U. R. Ananthamurthy’s Samskara: A Critical Insight

R. Ananthamurthy was esteemed and regarded by country's most elevated honor, the Jnanpith Award in 1995 for his contribution to Indian literature. He brought popularity to the Kannada writing. He wrote so many novels and stories in Kannad language. Samsakra was also initially written and published in the Kannada language in 1965. It is a wonderful piece of fiction which shows U. R. Ananthamurthy’s concern to the deprived class of our society. In India for a long period of time the untouchables have been going through discriminate reception from the upper caste people. There are so many literary books in which we find such representation of the people who are living under adverse situations. The untouchables have yet been moving around outskirts and need to live proudly, however, their privileges are denied because of just the unapproachability. It is really smear on humanism. The paper analyzes the status of lower classes and addresses their agonies through the novel, Samskara. It investigates the battle between dharma and incineration of lower standing Naranappa. It also reveals the embarrassment of perished assortment of Naranappa and other lower-class people in adjoining towns of Agarahara and the practices of the upper caste people. A. K. Ramanujan was a unique figure in Indian writing in English. He meticulously made a translation of Samskara into English. It was initially written in Kannada by U. R. Ananthamuthy and it was a magnificent novel of sixties

A Paradigmatic Critique of Harold Pinter’s The Caretaker

Harold Pinter lived and wrote his plays after the World War period. In this period scholars were associated with the portrayal of unrefined and crude factors of warfare which were, directly and indirectly, related to the people of that time. They also depicted how governments were exploiting common people in the name of safety and warfare.&nbsp; Despite the fact that Pinter's plays are not actually about warfare or the circumstance of Wars, his plays have the impressions of warfare in various shades. His plays display various levels of human existence. There is an exploration of mental, social, financial, human relationship, and the existential methodology of existence with ludicrousness in his plays. Pinter’s relationship is with the real elements of human existence and activities. He denies the idea of realism in his plays and says that “If you press me for a definition. I would say that what goes on in my plays is realistic, but what I’m doing is not realism” (The Essential Pinter,&nbsp;11). He always tried to depict concrete and particular idea in his plays through concrete characters. He never wrote his plays for any kind of abstract idea. He is associated with realism in the matter of approach of depiction to the crude and drastic realities of the time. He has represented the post-war British socio-political issues, sensibilities and psychological as well as mental states of the human mind

Residual negative symptoms differentiate cognitive performance in clinically stable patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder

Cognitive deficits in various domains have been shown in patients with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. The purpose of the present study was to examine if residual psychopathology explained the difference in cognitive function between clinically stable patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. We compared the performance on tests of attention, visual and verbal memory and executive function of 25 patients with schizophrenia in remission and 25 euthymic bipolar disorder patients with that of 25 healthy controls. Mediation analysis was used to see if residual psychopathology could explain the difference in cognitive function between the patient groups. Both patient groups performed significantly worse than healthy controls on most cognitive tests. Patients with bipolar disorder displayed cognitive deficits that were milder but qualitatively similar to those of patients with schizophrenia. Residual negative symptoms mediated the difference in performance on cognitive tests between the two groups. Neither residual general psychotic symptoms nor greater antipsychotic doses explained this relationship. The shared variance explained by the residual negative and cognitive deficits that the difference between patient groups may be explained by greater frontal cortical neurophysiological deficits in patients with schizophrenia, compared to bipolar disorder. Further longitudinal work may provide insight into pathophysiological mechanisms that underlie these deficits