Quantification of multi-lumen blood vessel pathology in chronic traumatic encephalopathy

BACKGROUND: Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative disorder that had been largely ignored for decades since its initial characterization in 1928 by Dr. H. Martland. Within the last several years, a dramatic increase of attention in the media has been given to the subject and is now a household term. As a consequence of repetitive concussive and subconcussive events, CTE has been clearly distinguished form other neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s Disease and Parkinson’s. Its prominence in military personnel and professional athletes has established the importance for its characterization in order to develop preventative approaches and regulations. Recently, characterization and staging of CTE has been achieved and interventional approaches are already being implemented in response to this increased understanding. However, not everything is known about the pathology and its underlying mechanisms. No known studies have been done to quantify the connection between MLV pathology and CTE. OBJECTIVE: To determine if MLV pathology observed in CTE may serve as a potential biomarker. METHODS: The white and grey matter of brains from subjects with CTE and control subjects without CTE were analyzed for the presence and characteristics of multilumen vessels (MLVs) in the dorsolateral frontal cortex (DLFC). A total of 123 slides were analyzed, 88 from CTE cases and 35 from Non-CTE cases. The quantification of overrepresented MLVs and their features was the primary endpoint of the study. Associations were then made between the characteristics of multilumen vessels and controlling factors such as age at death and years of exposure to repetitive head injuries (RHIs). Finally, regression analysis was used to test for the predictive qualities of the density and average number of lumen for stage of CTE while controlling for age at death and years of exposure. RESULTS: It was found that MLVs are overrepresented in the CTE cohort in comparison to the Non-CTE cohort. There is also a possible connection between the presence of MLVs with their pathologic observable features to the progressive nature of CTE. In addition, the MLVs found in CTE have observable characteristics that are dissociable from MLVs in Non-CTE. Furthermore, for increased confidence of the findings, results remain significant even with the application of stricter parameters for defining MLVs. Finally, there was evidence of a connection between the development of MLVs to the progression of CTE. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest there is a strong relationship between age of death and the frequency of MLVs. Furthermore, the development of MLVs is likely positively impacted by the progression of CTE

Different Roads to Liberalisation: Scenarios for a Moroccan Case Study of the Euro-Mediterranean Association Agreements. CEPS ENARPRI Working Papers No. 9, 1 October 2004

Although the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP) in spirit aims at fostering economic growth and stability at the southern periphery of the EU, the contents of the trade agreements reflect the more narrow economic interests of specific, southern EU member states (dell’Aquila & Kuiper, 2003). Key characteristics of the Euro-Mediterranean Association Agreements (EMAAs) are an asymmetric focus on liberalising trade in the manufactured goods of the MPCs, while maintaining trade barriers on agricultural products. Several studies have quantified the expected impact of the proposed Mediterranean free trade area. A review of recent studies indicated that several characteristic features of the MPCs and the EMAAs are missing in existing analyses (Kuiper, 2004). This paper therefore focuses on identifying scenarios for further research that reflect key policy and research issues identified in an earlier study (dell’Aquila and Kuiper, 2003), while accounting for the gaps in existing analyses as identified in Kuiper (2004). Although limited to analysing the specific case of Morocco, the scenarios defined in this paper refer to issues that are relevant for all Mediterranean partner countries

Determining the CP parity of Higgs bosons at the LHC in the τ\tau to 1-prong decay channels

We propose a method for determining the CP nature of a neutral Higgs boson or spin-zero resonance $\phi$ at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in its $\phi\to\tau^{-}\tau^{+}$ decay channel. The method can be applied to any 1-prong $\tau$-decay mode, which comprise the majority of the $\tau$-lepton decays. The proposed observables allow to discriminate between pure scalar and pseudoscalar Higgs-boson states and/or between a CP-conserving and CP-violating Higgs sector. We show for the decays $\tau\to\pi\nu_{\tau}$ that the method maintains its discriminating power when measurement uncertainties are taken into account. The method will be applicable also at a future linear $e^{+}e^{-}$ collider.Comment: Latex, 15 pages, 6 figure

EURO-MEDITERRANEAN PARTNERSHIP; STATE OF AFFAIRS AND KEY POLICY AND RESEARCH ISSUES

This study draws on a body of existing literature to take stock of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP), which focuses on establishing a Mediterranean Free Trade Area. Despite considerable scope for reducing barriers on Mediterranean trade, current agreements are limited to a quasi-unilateral reduction of trade barriers for manufactured products by the Mediterranean Partner Countries. Next to the limited scope of the current liberalisation achieved by the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, structural features of the MPCs limit the impact of the trade liberalisation on their economic growth. To promote stability and economic growth at the Southern borders of the EU, coherence of EU trade and foreign policy is called for.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Extremes and Robustness: A Contradiction?

Stochastic models play an important role in the analysis of data in many different fields, including finance and insurance. Many models are estimated by procedures that lose their good statistical properties when the underlying model slightly deviates from the assumed one. Robust statistical methods can improve the data analysis process of the skilled analyst and provide him with useful additional information. For this anniversary issue, we discuss some aspects related to robust estimation in the context of extreme value theory (EVT). Using real data and simulations, we show how robust methods can improve the quality of EVT data analysis by providing information on influential observations, deviating substructures and possible mis-specification of a model while guaranteeing good statistical properties over a whole set of underlying distributions around the assumed on