The Relationship Between Economic Freedom And Income Equality In The United States

While considerable research in the past has focused on the socioeconomic impact of economic freedom on economic growth among nations, less emphasis has been devoted to the relationship between economic sovereignty and income equality. This is particularly true when the area of focus has been restricted to comparisons among states within the United States. Furthermore, what work has been offered comparing US states has proven to be contradictory. Certain studies reviewed in this paper suggest that higher measures of economic freedom are associated with greater income inequality. On the other hand, evidence exists that less inequality is found in areas with greater economic autonomy. This study uses the Gini Index as measures of income distribution. The Fraser Institute in Vancouver, Canada offers well-respected measures of economic freedom among the US states and the provinces of Canada. These data are used to further examine relationships between state levels of economic freedom and income distribution with the intent to offer some general consensus regarding this all-important association

Using the LANDSAT data collection system for field geophysics: Operations in the British Virgin Islands

This particular application was to vertical geodesy by tide gauge and tiltmeter on a small desert island in the British Virgin Islands. The performance of the LANDSAT system under potentially marginal circumstances was found to be excellent

Dose assessment of melatonin in sepsis (DAMSEL2) study : Pharmacokinetics of two doses of oral melatonin in patients with sepsis

Open Access via the Wiley OA Agreement Funding The work was funded by the Scottish Government under the Experimental and Translational Medicine funding scheme of the Chief Scientist Office of Scotland, UK, reference number ETM/538Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Non-functional immunoglobulin G transcripts in a case of hyper-immunoglobulin M syndrome similar to type 4

86% of immunoglobulin G (IgG) heavy-chain gene transcripts were found to be non-functional in the peripheral blood B cells of a patient initially diagnosed with common variable immunodeficiency, who later developed raised IgM, whereas no non-functionally rearranged transcripts were found in the cells of seven healthy control subjects. All the patient's IgM heavy-chain and κ light-chain transcripts were functional, suggesting that either non-functional rearrangements were being selectively class-switched to IgG, or that receptor editing was rendering genes non-functional after class-switching. The functional γ-chain sequences showed a normal rate of somatic hypermutation while non-functional sequences contained few somatic mutations, suggesting that most came from cells that had no functional gene and therefore were not receiving signals for hypermutation. However, apoptosis of peripheral blood lymphocytes was not impaired. No defects have been found in any of the genes currently known to be responsible for hyper-IgM syndrome but the phenotype fits best to type 4

Silicates in D-type symbiotic stars: an ISO overview

We investigate the IR spectral features of a sample of D-type symbiotic stars. Analyzing unexploited ISO-SWS data, deriving the basic observational parameters of dust bands and comparing them with respect to those observed in other astronomical sources, we try to highlight the effect of environment on grain chemistry and physic. We find strong amorphous silicate emission bands at 10 micron and 18 micron in a large fraction of the sample. The analysis of the 10 micron band, along with a direct comparison with several astronomical sources, reveals that silicate dust in symbiotic stars shows features between the characteristic circumstellar environments and the interstellar medium. This indicates an increasing reprocessing of grains in relation to specific symbiotic behavior of the objects. A correlation between the central wavelength of the 10 and 18 micron dust bands is found. By the modeling of IR spectral lines we investigate also dust grains conditions within the shocked nebulae. Both the unusual depletion values and the high sputtering efficiency might be explained by the formation of SiO moleculae, which are known to be a very reliable shock tracer. We conclude that the signature of dust chemical disturbance due to symbiotic activity should be looked for in the outer, circumbinary, expanding shells where the environmental conditions for grain processing might be achieved. Symbiotic stars are thus attractive targets for new mid-infrared and mm observations.Comment: 24 pages, 6 figures, 5 tables - to be published in A

Constraints on CDM cosmology from galaxy power spectrum, CMB and SNIa evolution

We examine the constraints that can be obtained on standard cold dark matter models from the most currently used data set: CMB anisotropies, type Ia supernovae and the SDSS luminous red galaxies. We also examine how these constraints are widened when the equation of state parameter $w$ and the curvature parameter $\Omega_k$ are left as free parameters. For the $\Lambda$CDM model, our 'vanilla' model, cosmological parameters are tightly constrained and consistent with current estimates from various methods. When the dark energy parameter $w$ is free we find that the constraints remain mostly unchanged, i.e. changes are smaller than the 1 sigma uncertainties. Similarly, relaxing the assumption of a flat universe leads to nearly identical constraints on the dark energy density parameter of the universe $\Omega_\Lambda$, baryon density of the universe $\Omega_b$, the optical depth $\tau$, the index of the power spectrum of primordial fluctuations $n_S$, with most one sigma uncertainties better than 5%. More significant changes appear on other parameters: while preferred values are almost unchanged, uncertainties for the physical dark matter density $\Omega_ch^2$, Hubble constant $H_0$ and $\sigma_8$ are typically twice as large. We found that different methodological approaches on large scale structure estimates lead to appreciable differences in preferred values and uncertainty widths. We also found that possible evolution in SNIa intrinsic luminosity does not alter these constraints by much, except for $w$, for which the uncertainty is twice as large. At the same time, this possible evolution is severely constrained. We conclude that systematic uncertainties for some estimated quantities are similar or larger than statistical ones.Comment: Revised version, 9 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Dust Emission Features in NGC 7023 between 0.35 and 2.5 micron: Extended Red Emission (0.7 micron) and Two New Emission Features (1.15 and 1.5 micron)

We present 0.35 to 2.5 micron spectra of the south and northwest filaments in the reflection nebula NGC 7023. These spectra were used to test the theory of Seahra & Duley that carbon nanoparticles are responsible for Extended Red Emission (ERE). Our spectra fail to show their predicted second emission band at 1.0 micron even though both filaments exhibit strong emission in the familiar 0.7 micron ERE band. The northwest filament spectrum does show one, and possibly two, new dust emission features in the near-infrared. We clearly detect a strong emission band at 1.5 micron which we tentatively attribute to beta-FeSi_2 grains. We tentatively detect a weaker emission band at 1.15 micron which coincides with the location expected for transitions from the conduction band to mid-gap defect states of silicon nanoparticles. This is added evidence that silicon nanoparticles are responsible for ERE as they already can explain the observed behavior of the main visible ERE band.Comment: 9 pages, color figures, accepted to the ApJ, color and b/w versions available at http://dirty.as.arizona.edu/~kgordon/papers/ere_1um.htm

Application of a recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) assay and pilot field testing for Giardia duodenalis at Lake Albert, Uganda.

BACKGROUND: Giardia duodenalis is a gastrointestinal protozoan causing 184 million cases of giardiasis worldwide annually. Detection is by microscopy or coproantigen assays, although sensitivity is often compromised by intermittent shedding of cysts or trophozoites, or operator expertise. Therefore, for enhanced surveillance field-applicable, point-of-care (POC), molecular assays are needed. Our aims were to: (i) optimise the recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) assay for the isothermal amplification of the G. duodenalis β-giardin gene from trophozoites and cysts, using published primer and probes; and (ii) perform a pilot field validation of RPA at a field station in a resource-poor setting, on DNA extracted from stool samples from schoolchildren in villages around Lake Albert, Uganda. Results were compared to an established laboratory small subunit ribosomal RNA (SSU rDNA) qPCR assay with additional testing using a qPCR targeting the triose phosphate isomerase (tpi) DNA regions that can distinguish G. duodenalis of two different assemblages (A and B), which are human-specific. RESULTS: Initial optimisation resulted in the successful amplification of predicted RPA products from G. duodenalis-purified gDNA, producing a double-labelled amplicon detected using lateral flow strips. In the field setting, of 129 stool samples, 49 (37.9%) were positive using the Giardia/Cryptosporidium QuikChek coproantigen test; however, the RPA assay when conducted in the field was positive for a single stool sample. Subsequent molecular screening in the laboratory on a subset (n = 73) of the samples demonstrated better results with 21 (28.8%) RPA positive. The SSU rDNA qPCR assay resulted in 30/129 (23.3%) positive samples; 18 out of 73 (24.7%) were assemblage typed (9 assemblage A; 5 assemblage B; and 4 mixed A+B). Compared with the SSU rDNA qPCR, QuikChek was more sensitive than RPA (85.7 vs 61.9%), but with similar specificities (80.8 vs 84.6%). In comparison to QuikChek, RPA had 46.4% sensitivity and 82.2% specificity. CONCLUSIONS: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first in-field and comparative laboratory validation of RPA for giardiasis in low resource settings. Further refinement and technology transfer, specifically in relation to stool sample preparation, will be needed to implement this assay in the field, which could assist better detection of asymptomatic Giardia infections

Synchronous seasonality in the gut microbiota of wild mouse populations

The gut microbiome performs many important functions in mammalian hosts, with community composition shaping its functional role. However, the factors that drive individual microbiota variation in wild animals and to what extent these are predictable or idiosyncratic across populations remains poorly understood. Here, we use a multi-population dataset from a common rodent species (the wood mouse, Apodemus sylvaticus), to test whether a consistent “core” gut microbiota is identifiable in this species, and to what extent the predictors of microbiota variation are consistent across populations. Between 2014 and 2018 we used capture-mark-recapture and 16S rRNA profiling to intensively monitor two wild wood mouse populations and their gut microbiota, as well as characterising the microbiota from a laboratory-housed colony of the same species. Although the microbiota was broadly similar at high taxonomic levels, the two wild populations did not share a single bacterial amplicon sequence variant (ASV), despite being only 50km apart. Meanwhile, the laboratory-housed colony shared many ASVs with one of the wild populations from which it is thought to have been founded decades ago. Despite not sharing any ASVs, the two wild populations shared a phylogenetically more similar microbiota than either did with the colony, and the factors predicting compositional variation in each wild population were remarkably similar. We identified a strong and consistent pattern of seasonal microbiota restructuring that occurred at both sites, in all years, and within individual mice. While the microbiota was highly individualised, some seasonal convergence occurred in late winter/early spring. These findings reveal highly repeatable seasonal gut microbiota dynamics in multiple populations of this species, despite different taxa being involved. This provides a platform for future work to understand the drivers and functional implications of such predictable seasonal microbiome restructuring, including whether it might provide the host with adaptive seasonal phenotypic plasticity