Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders and their transmission through genetic and epigenetic mechanisms

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) are a group of related conditions that arise from prenatal exposure to maternal consumption of the teratogen, ethanol. It has been estimated that roughly 1% of children in the US suffer from FASD (Sampson et al., 1997), though in some world populations, such as inhabitants of some poorer regions of South Africa, the rate can climb to as high as 20% (May et al., 2013). FASD are the largest cause of mental retardation in U.S. neonates, and ironically, are entirely preventable. FASD has been linked to major changes in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, resulting in lifelong impairments through mental disorders, retardation, sensitivity to stress, and an impaired immune system with the related outcomes of elevated risk of cancer and other diseases. FASD arises from a complex interplay of genetic and epigenetic factors. Here, we review current literature on the topic to tease apart what is known in these areas particularly emphasizing the HPA axis dysfunction and how they tie into new studies of transgenerational inheritance in FASD

Instruments of RT-2 Experiment onboard CORONAS-PHOTON and their test and evaluation IV: Background Simulations using GEANT-4 Toolkit

Hard X-ray detectors in space are prone to background signals due to the ubiquitous cosmic rays and cosmic diffuse background radiation that continuously bombards the satellites which carry the detectors. In general, the background intensity depends on the space environment as well as the material surrounding the detectors. Understanding the behavior of the background noise in the detector is very important to extract the precise source information from the detector data. In this paper, we carry out Monte Carlo simulations using the GEANT-4 toolkit to estimate the prompt background noise measured with the detectors of the RT-2 Experiment onboard the CORONAS-PHOTON satellite.Comment: 21 pages, 10 figures, Accepted for publication in Experimental Astronomy (in press

Employment Elasticity in Organized Manufacturing in India

This paper unravels a cyclical pattern in the value of employment elasticity in organized manufacturing in India over the period 1976-2002. Four periods are distinguished: the ‘benign’ growth period of the late seventies; the period of ‘jobless growth’ of the first half of the eighties; the ‘reform period extending from the mid-eighties to the mid-nineties; and finally the post-reform period. The paper uses an integrated framework which quantifies the relative importance of the key factors determining of employment elasticity and its variations over the four periods. These are: (i) the relative movement of the indices of producer prices and consumer prices (sometimes called the DRER, the domestic real exchange rate); (ii) the share of wages in value added or alternatively by the parameter α used in this paper (defined as the elasticity of wages with respect to value added); and (iii) the trade-off between employment growth and wage growth. Section III provides an analysis of some key disaggregated groups within the sector. While the secular decline in the DRER rate is found to be important, two labor market variables (ii) and (iii) are instrumental in explaining the cyclical pattern.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/55756/4/IPC-working-paper-042-MazumdarSarkar.pd

Mnogofraktalnost i tvorba sporih čestica u sudarima 24Mg–AgBr na energiji 4.5 AGeV

We investigated the multifractality of target fragments of 24Mg-AgBr interaction at low energy (4.5 AGeV) in emission angle phase space, using a new method as proposed by Takagi. The analysis involves the step of measuring the generalised dimension Dq, which in turn deducts the multifractal behaviour of target fragments. We also determine the multifractal specific heat.Istražujemo mnogofraktalnost izlaznih sporih čestica u sudarima 24Mg–AgBr na niskoj energiji (4.5 AGeV) u faznom prostoru kuta emisije, primjenom nove metode koju je predložio Takagi. U analizi se određuje poopćena dimenzija Dq iz koje se izvode mnogofraktalna svojstva izlaznih čestica. Također izvodimo mnogofraktalnu specifičnu toplinu

Mnogofraktalnost i tvorba sporih čestica u sudarima 24Mg–AgBr na energiji 4.5 AGeV

We investigated the multifractality of target fragments of 24Mg-AgBr interaction at low energy (4.5 AGeV) in emission angle phase space, using a new method as proposed by Takagi. The analysis involves the step of measuring the generalised dimension Dq, which in turn deducts the multifractal behaviour of target fragments. We also determine the multifractal specific heat.Istražujemo mnogofraktalnost izlaznih sporih čestica u sudarima 24Mg–AgBr na niskoj energiji (4.5 AGeV) u faznom prostoru kuta emisije, primjenom nove metode koju je predložio Takagi. U analizi se određuje poopćena dimenzija Dq iz koje se izvode mnogofraktalna svojstva izlaznih čestica. Također izvodimo mnogofraktalnu specifičnu toplinu