1,995 research outputs found
Brief of Amici Curiae in Support of Appellant, James Townsend v. Midland Funding, LLC
The Consumer Protection Clinic of the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, filed a Motion to Participate and an Amicus Brief in the case of Townsend v. Midland Funding, LLC. The case presents the question of whether documents created by third party predecessors in interest—usually a bank—may be admitted into evidence when a debt buyer plaintiff does not demonstrate personal knowledge regarding any of the foundational elements which would be required to admit the documents under the business records exception to the hearsay rule. Amici urge the Court to overturn the lower court, and hold that a debt buyer’s documents may not be admitted into evidence without the debt buyer first laying the proper foundation for the business records exception to the hearsay rule. The Clinic was joined by AARP, the National Consumer Law Center, the National Association of Consumer Advocates, and by the Maryland Legal Aid Bureau and Maryland\u27s Public Justice Center. The Brief deals with the problems of data integrity and the lack of competent, reliable evidence in lawsuits filed purchasers of charged off credit card debt, known as debt buyers. The Consumer Protection Clinic and other amici examine due process and professionalism concerns which arise when our courts (primarily Maryland\u27s District Court) do not strictly apply the special evidentiary and procedural rules which exist for small claims actions
Self-consistent field predictions for quenched spherical biocompatible triblock copolymer micelles
We have used the Scheutjens-Fleer self-consistent field (SF-SCF) method to
predict the self-assembly of triblock copolymers with a solvophilic middle
block and sufficiently long solvophobic outer blocks. We model copolymers
consisting of polyethylene oxide (PEO) as solvophilic block and
poly(lactic-co-glycolic) acid (PLGA) or poly({\ko}-caprolactone) (PCL) as
solvophobic block. These copolymers form structurally quenched spherical
micelles provided the solvophilic block is long enough. Predictions are
calibrated on experimental data for micelles composed of PCL-PEO-PCL and
PLGA-PEO-PLGA triblock copolymers prepared via the nanoprecipitation method. We
establish effective interaction parameters that enable us to predict various
micelle properties such as the hydrodynamic size, the aggregation number and
the loading capacity of the micelles for hydrophobic species that are
consistent with experimental finding.Comment: accepted for publication in Soft Matte
Controlled Nanoparticle Formation by Diffusion Limited Coalescence
Polymeric nanoparticles (NPs) have a great application potential in science
and technology. Their functionality strongly depends on their size. We present
a theory for the size of NPs formed by precipitation of polymers into a bad
solvent in the presence of a stabilizing surfactant. The analytical theory is
based upon diffusion-limited coalescence kinetics of the polymers.
Two relevant time scales, a mixing and a coalescence time, are identified and
their ratio is shown to determine the final NP diameter. The size is found to
scale in a universal manner and is predominantly sensitive to the mixing time
and the polymer concentration if the surfactant concentration is sufficiently
high. The model predictions are in good agreement with experimental data. Hence
the theory provides a solid framework for tailoring nanoparticles with a priori
determined size.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Trigger sequence can influence final morphology in the self-assembly of asymmetric telechelic polymers
We report on a numerical study of polymer network formation of asymmetric biomimetic telechelic polymers with two reactive ends based on a self-assembling collagen, elastin or silk-like polypeptide sequence. The two reactive ends of the polymer can be activated independently using physicochemical triggers such as temperature and pH. We show, using a simple coarse grained model that the order in which this triggering occurs influences the final morphology. For both of collagen-silk and elastin-silk topologies we find that for relatively short connector chains the morphology of the assembly is greatly influenced by the order of the trigger, whereas for longer chains the equilibrium situation is more easily achieved. Moreover, self-assembly is greatly enhanced at moderate collagen interaction strength, due to facilitated binding and unbinding of the peptides. This finding indicates that both the trigger sequence and strength can be used to steer self-assembly in these biomimetic polymer systems.</p
Sparse Deterministic Approximation of Bayesian Inverse Problems
We present a parametric deterministic formulation of Bayesian inverse
problems with input parameter from infinite dimensional, separable Banach
spaces. In this formulation, the forward problems are parametric, deterministic
elliptic partial differential equations, and the inverse problem is to
determine the unknown, parametric deterministic coefficients from noisy
observations comprising linear functionals of the solution.
We prove a generalized polynomial chaos representation of the posterior
density with respect to the prior measure, given noisy observational data. We
analyze the sparsity of the posterior density in terms of the summability of
the input data's coefficient sequence. To this end, we estimate the
fluctuations in the prior. We exhibit sufficient conditions on the prior model
in order for approximations of the posterior density to converge at a given
algebraic rate, in terms of the number of unknowns appearing in the
parameteric representation of the prior measure. Similar sparsity and
approximation results are also exhibited for the solution and covariance of the
elliptic partial differential equation under the posterior. These results then
form the basis for efficient uncertainty quantification, in the presence of
data with noise
Wearable activity technology and action-planning (WATAAP) to promote physical activity in cancer survivors: Randomised controlled trial protocol
Background/Objective: Colorectal and gynecologic cancer survivors are at cardiovascular risk due to comorbidities and sedentary behaviour, warranting a feasible intervention to increase physical activity. The Health Action Process Approach (HAPA) is a promising theoretical frame-work for health behaviour change, and wearable physical activity trackers offer a novel means of self-monitoring physical activity for cancer survivors.
Method: Sixty-eight survivors of colorectal and gynecologic cancer will be randomised into 12- week intervention and control groups. Intervention group participants will receive: a Fitbit AltaTM to monitor physical activity, HAPA-based group sessions, booklet, and support phone-call. Participants in the control group will only receive the HAPA-based booklet. Physical activity (using accelerometers), blood pressure, BMI, and HAPA constructs will be assessed at baseline, 12-weeks (post-intervention) and 24-weeks (follow-up). Data analysis will use the Group x Time interaction from a General Linear Mixed Model analysis.
Conclusions: Physical activity interventions that are acceptable and have robust theoretical underpinnings show promise for improving the health of cancer survivors
Neutrinos in 5D SO(10) Unification
We study neutrino physics in a 5D supersymmetric SO(10) GUT. We analyze
several different choices for realizing the See-Saw mechanism. We find that the
"natural" scale for the Majorana mass of right-handed neutrinos depends
critically on whether the right-handed neutrinos are located in the bulk or
localized on a brane. In the former case, the effective Majorana mass is
"naturally" of order the compactification scale, about 10^{14} GeV. Note, this
is the value necessary for obtaining a light tau neutrino mass approximately
10^{-2} eV which, within the context of hierarchical neutrino masses, is the
right order of magnitude to explain atmospheric neutrino oscillations. On the
other-hand when the right-handed neutrino is localized on the brane, the
effective Majorana mass is typically larger than the compactification scale.
Nevertheless with small parameters of order 1/10 - 1/30, an effective Majorana
mass of order 10^{14} GeV can be accommodated. We also discuss the constraints
on model building resulting from the different scenarios for locating the
right-handed neutrinos.Comment: 24 page
Dutch patients, retail chicken meat and poultry share the same ESBL genes, plasmids and strains
Intestinal carriage of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) -producing bacteria in food-producing animals and contamination of retail meat may contribute to increased incidences of infections with ESBL-producing bacteria in humans. Therefore, distribution of ESBL genes, plasmids and strain genotypes in Escherichia coli obtained from poultry and retail chicken meat in the Netherlands was determined and defined as ‘poultry-associated’ (PA). Subsequently, the proportion of E. coli isolates with PA ESBL genes, plasmids and strains was quantified in a representative sample of clinical isolates. The E. coli were derived from 98 retail chicken meat samples, a prevalence survey among poultry, and 516 human clinical samples from 31 laboratories collected during a 3-month period in 2009. Isolates were analysed using an ESBL-specific microarray, sequencing of ESBL genes, PCR-based replicon typing of plasmids, plasmid multi-locus sequence typing (pMLST) and strain genotyping (MLST). Six ESBL genes were defined as PA (blaCTX-M-1, blaCTX-M-2, blaSHV-2, blaSHV-12, blaTEM-20, blaTEM-52): 35% of the human isolates contained PA ESBL genes and 19% contained PA ESBL genes located on IncI1 plasmids that were genetically indistinguishable from those obtained from poultry (meat). Of these ESBL genes, 86% were blaCTX-M-1 and blaTEM-52 genes, which were also the predominant genes in poultry (78%) and retail chicken meat (75%). Of the retail meat samples, 94% contained ESBL-producing isolates of which 39% belonged to E. coli genotypes also present in human samples. These findings are suggestive for transmission of ESBL genes, plasmids and E. coli isolates from poultry to humans, most likely through the food chain
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