Refusing to Endorse. A must Explanation for Pejoratives.

In her analysis of pejoratives, Eva Picardi rejects a too sharp separation between descriptive and expressive content. I reconstruct some of her arguments, endorsing Eva’s criticism of Williamson’s analysis of Dummett and developing a suggestion by Manuel Garcia Carpintero on a speech act analysis of pejoratives. Eva’s main concern is accounting for our instinctive refusal to endorse an assertion containing pejoratives because it suggests a picture of reality we do not share. Her stance might be further developed claiming that uses of pejoratives not only suggest, but also promote a wrong picture of reality. Our refusal to endorse implies rejecting not only a wrong picture of reality but also a call for participation to what that picture promotes

Space-time variation of malaria incidence in Yunnan province, China

BACKGROUND Understanding spatio-temporal variation in malaria incidence provides a basis for effective disease control planning and monitoring. METHODS Monthly surveillance data between 1991 and 2006 for Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium falciparum malaria across 128 counties were assembled for Yunnan, a province of China with one of the highest burdens of malaria. County-level Bayesian Poisson regression models of incidence were constructed, with effects for rainfall, maximum temperature and temporal trend. The model also allowed for spatial variation in county-level incidence and temporal trend, and dependence between incidence in June-September and the preceding January-February. RESULTS Models revealed strong associations between malaria incidence and both rainfall and maximum temperature. There was a significant association between incidence in June-September and the preceding January-February. Raw standardised morbidity ratios showed a high incidence in some counties bordering Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam, and counties in the Red River valley. Clusters of counties in south-western and northern Yunnan were identified that had high incidence not explained by climate. The overall trend in incidence decreased, but there was significant variation between counties. CONCLUSION Dependence between incidence in summer and the preceding January-February suggests a role of intrinsic host-pathogen dynamics. Incidence during the summer peak might be predictable based on incidence in January-February, facilitating malaria control planning, scaled months in advance to the magnitude of the summer malaria burden. Heterogeneities in county-level temporal trends suggest that reductions in the burden of malaria have been unevenly distributed throughout the province.This project was supported by a University of Queensland New Research Scientist Start-Up Fund grant. RWS is a Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow (#079080) and receives additional support from the Wellcome Trust for the Malaria Atlas Project (MAP, http://www.map.ox.ac.uk)

The development of low temperature curing adhesives

An approach for the development of a practical low temperature (293 K-311 K/68 F-100 F) curing adhesive system based on a family of amide/ester resins was studied and demonstrated. The work was conducted on resin optimization and adhesive compounding studies. An improved preparative method was demonstrated which involved the reaction of an amine-alcohol precursor, in a DMF solution with acid chloride. Experimental studies indicated that an adhesive formulation containing aluminum powder provided the best performance when used in conjunction with a commercial primer

Clinical profile and drug utilization pattern in an intensive care unit of a teaching hospital in western Nepal

To analyze the clinical profile of patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) of Manipal Teaching Hospital (MTH) at Pokhara, Nepal, identify the commonly prescribed drugs, drug categories, dosage forms, antimicrobials, sensitivity pattern of antimicrobials and the treatment outcomes. A cross sectional, descriptive study in which he case records of all the patients admitted in the ICU during 1st August to 30th September, 2007 were collected and the details were entered in the patient profile form. The filled patient profile forms were retrospectively analyzed as per the study objectives. Altogether, 201 patients [males 101 (50.25%)] were admitted. Most common diagnosis was 'Myocardial Infarction /Ischemic heart disease' [13.96 % (n=62)]. The median (interquartile range) of the ICU stay was 3 (2-4) days. Cardiovascular drugs [31.7% (n=761) were the most commonly prescribed. Among the antimicrobials, metronidazole was most commonly prescribed followed by ceftriaxone. The morality rate in the ICU was 17.41 % and the major causes of mortality were cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Antimicrobials was the most common drug category used in the ICU and 'pantoprazole' was the most commonly prescribed individual drug. Cardiovascular and respiratory diseases were major causes of death in the ICU

Molecular mechanism of MLL PHD3 and RNA recognition by the Cyp33 RRM domain

The nuclear protein cyclophilin 33 (Cyp33) is a peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase that catalyzes cis-trans isomerization of the peptide bond preceding a proline and promotes folding and conformational changes in folded and unfolded proteins. The N-terminal RNA-recognition motif (RRM) domain of Cyp33 has been found to associate with the third plant homeodomain (PHD3) finger of the mixed lineage leukemia (MLL) proto-oncoprotein and a poly(A) RNA sequence. Here, we report a 1.9 A resolution crystal structure of the RRM domain of Cyp33 and describe the molecular mechanism of PHD3 and RNA recognition. The Cyp33 RRM domain folds into a five-stranded antiparallel beta-sheet and two alpha-helices. The RRM domain, but not the catalytic module of Cyp33, binds strongly to PHD3, exhibiting a 2 muM affinity as measured by isothermal titration calorimetry. NMR chemical shift perturbation (CSP) analysis and dynamics data reveal that the beta strands and the beta2-beta3 loop of the RRM domain are involved in the interaction with PHD3. Mutations in the PHD3-binding site or deletions in the beta2-beta3 loop lead to a significantly reduced affinity or abrogation of the interaction. The RNA-binding pocket of the Cyp33 RRM domain, mapped on the basis of NMR CSP and mutagenesis, partially overlaps with the PHD3-binding site, and RNA association is abolished in the presence of MLL PHD3. Full-length Cyp33 acts as a negative regulator of MLL-induced transcription and reduces the expression levels of MLL target genes MEIS1 and HOXA9. Together, these in vitro and in vivo data provide insight into the multiple functions of Cyp33 RRM and suggest a Cyp33-dependent mechanism for regulating the transcriptional activity of MLL

The Current State of Climate Change Perceptions and Policies in Myanmar: 2014 Report

This report was constructed to assess the current perceptions and policies regarding climate change in Myanmar. It is comprised of a country report outlining current policies relating to climate change, as well as results from two stakeholder perception surveys conducted at the local and national level in Myanmar. The stakeholder perception survey was administered to 33 local stakeholders and 12 national stakeholders from government organizations, farmers’ groups, universities, and research institutes. Results indicate that the primary concern regarding climate change is mostly concentrated on rainfall trends, such as drought and flooding. In addition, local stakeholders have concerns over heat stress, whereas national stakeholders are less concerned with the issue. Only 11 local stakeholders report that their institution currently has a division or staff member working on climate change issues. Seven of 12 national stakeholders reported that their institutions did have a division or staff member working on climate change issues

The Gemini Planet Imager Exoplanet Survey: Giant Planet and Brown Dwarf Demographics From 10-100 AU

We present a statistical analysis of the first 300 stars observed by the Gemini Planet Imager Exoplanet Survey (GPIES). This subsample includes six detected planets and three brown dwarfs; from these detections and our contrast curves we infer the underlying distributions of substellar companions with respect to their mass, semi-major axis, and host stellar mass. We uncover a strong correlation between planet occurrence rate and host star mass, with stars M $>$ 1.5 $M_\odot$ more likely to host planets with masses between 2-13 M$_{\rm Jup}$ and semi-major axes of 3-100 au at 99.92% confidence. We fit a double power-law model in planet mass (m) and semi-major axis (a) for planet populations around high-mass stars (M $>$ 1.5M$_\odot$) of the form $\frac{d^2 N}{dm da} \propto m^\alpha a^\beta$, finding $\alpha$ = -2.4 $\pm$ 0.8 and $\beta$ = -2.0 $\pm$ 0.5, and an integrated occurrence rate of $9^{+5}_{-4}$% between 5-13 M$_{\rm Jup}$ and 10-100 au. A significantly lower occurrence rate is obtained for brown dwarfs around all stars, with 0.8$^{+0.8}_{-0.5}$% of stars hosting a brown dwarf companion between 13-80 M$_{\rm Jup}$ and 10-100 au. Brown dwarfs also appear to be distributed differently in mass and semi-major axis compared to giant planets; whereas giant planets follow a bottom-heavy mass distribution and favor smaller semi-major axes, brown dwarfs exhibit just the opposite behaviors. Comparing to studies of short-period giant planets from the RV method, our results are consistent with a peak in occurrence of giant planets between ~1-10 au. We discuss how these trends, including the preference of giant planets for high-mass host stars, point to formation of giant planets by core/pebble accretion, and formation of brown dwarfs by gravitational instability.Comment: 52 pages, 18 figures. AJ in pres

Where is the jet quenching in Pb+Pb collisions at 158 AGeV?

Because of the rapidly falling particle spectrum at large $p_T$ from jet fragmentation at the CERN SPS energy, the high-$p_T$ hadron distribution should be highly sensitive to parton energy loss inside a dense medium as predicted by recent perturbative QCD (pQCD) studies. A careful analysis of recent data from CERN SPS experiments via pQCD calculation shows little evidence of energy loss. This implies that either the life-time of the dense partonic matter is very short or one has to re-think about the problem of parton energy loss in dense matter. The hadronic matter does not seem to cause jet quenching in $Pb+Pb$ collisions at the CERN SPS. High-$p_T$ two particle correlation in the azimuthal angle is proposed to further clarify this issue.Comment: 4 pages with 2 ps figures. Minors changes are made in the text with updated references. Revised version to appear in Phys. Rev. Letter

Systematic Study of High p_T Hadron Spectra in pp, pA and AA Collisions from SPS to RHIC Energies

High-$p_T$ particle spectra in $p+p$ ($\bar p + p$), $p+A$ and $A+B$ collisions are calculated within a QCD parton model in which intrinsic transverse momentum, its broadening due to initial multiple parton scattering, and jet quenching due to parton energy loss inside a dense medium are included phenomenologically. The intrinsic $k_T$ and its broadening in $p+A$ and $A+B$ collisions due to initial multiple parton scattering are found to be very important at low energies ($\sqrt{s}<50$ GeV). Comparisons with $S+S$, $S+Au$ and $Pb+Pb$ data with different centrality cuts show that the differential cross sections of large transverse momentum pion production ($p_T>1$ GeV/$c$) in $A+B$ collisions scale very well with the number of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions (modulo effects of multiple initial scattering). This indicates that semi-hard parton scattering is the dominant particle production mechanism underlying the hadron spectra at moderate $p_T \stackrel{>}{\sim} 1$ GeV/$c$. However, there is no evidence of jet quenching or parton energy loss. Within the parton model, one can exclude an effective parton energy loss $dE_q/dx>0.01$ GeV/fm and a mean free path $\lambda_q< 7$ fm from the experimental data of $A+B$ collisions at the SPS energies. Predictions for high $p_T$ particle spectra in $p+A$ and $A+A$ collisions with and without jet quenching at the RHIC energy are also given. Uncertainties due to initial multiple scattering and nuclear shadowing of parton distributions are also discussed.Comment: 13 pages in RevTex with 14 figures, the final published version (with some typos corrected