The HIV Anticaptory Saving Motive: An Empirical Analysis in South Africa

This paper studies the effect of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on saving behaviour. Two important characteristics of HIV result in opposing forces on savings: mortality increases, which reduces savings, and long-term illness risk increases, which enhances savings. We use a two period life-cycle model with uncertain lifetime including perceived HIV contamination risk to illustrate both the opposing effects of the HIV epidemic on individual savings and test the predictions of our model with data obtained from an economic experiment with real monetary incentives performed in South Africa. The empirical results show that increased mortality decreases the amount of savings and that having a high perception of HIV contamination risk increases savings. The latter effect confirms the HIV anticipatory saving hypothesis.HIV/AIDS;saving behavior;illness risk;mortality;life-cycle model;time preferences

Additions to the Vascular Plant Type Collection of the Ohio State University Herbarium

Author Institution: Department of Botany, The Ohio State UniversityFifty-three type specimens of vascular plants are reported as additions to the type collection of The Ohio State University Herbarium, bringing the total number to 276. These include both recent acquisitions and newly recognized type material already in the collection. For each specimen, the name of the taxon, collection data, kind of type specimen, and source are provided

Applicability of Zipper Merge Versus Early Merge in Kentucky Work Zones

In an effort to improve work zone safety and streamline traffic flows, a number of state transportation agencies (STAs) have experimented with the zipper merge. The zipper merge differs from a conventional, or early, merge in that vehicles do not merge into the lane that remains open immediately after being notified of a lane closure. Rather, vehicles continue to occupy all lanes until they reach the taper, at which point — and directed by signage — vehicles take turns merging into the open lane, creating a zipper pattern. At the request of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC), Kentucky Transportation Center (KTC) researchers reviewed the performance of the zipper merge as documented in case studies from other states and analyzed two instances of the zipper merge being implemented in Kentucky. Previous studies found zipper merges are optimal on roadways with heavy traffic, whereas the conventional merge is preferable for uncongested and low-volume roadways. The case studies used a blend of quantitative and qualitative, observational data; researchers investigated the performance of zipper merges installed on Interstate 275’s Carroll Copper Bridge and KY 9’s Taylor Southgate Bridge. For the I-275 bridge, KTC researchers were able to compare the early merge configuration to the zipper merge. Here, the zipper merge brought about minor, although statistically insignificant, improvements in traffic flow and roadway safety. Analysis of the zipper merge on the Taylor Southgate Bridge relied more heavily on qualitative data, as the zipper merge was installed from the outset of the study and no comparison to an early merge could be made. The zipper merge appeared to improve traffic flow, reduce backups, and minimize the area impacted by construction. While neither case study offers definitive evidence that the zipper merge is significantly more effective than the early merge, they offer limited support for its use. On this basis, researchers suggest its continued implementation on other KYTC projects. Implementing the zipper merge elsewhere in Kentucky will enable further data collection and potentially identify locations and situations for which the zipper merge is the most appropriate merging method

High frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation over the motor cortex: No diagnostic value for narcolepsy/cataplexy

Contains fulltext : 53462.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access

Enhancer Priming Enables Fast and Sustained Transcriptional Responses to Notch Signaling.

Information from developmental signaling pathways must be accurately decoded to generate transcriptional outcomes. In the case of Notch, the intracellular domain (NICD) transduces the signal directly to the nucleus. How enhancers decipher NICD in the real time of developmental decisions is not known. Using the MS2-MCP system to visualize nascent transcripts in single cells in Drosophila embryos, we reveal how two target enhancers read Notch activity to produce synchronized and sustained profiles of transcription. By manipulating the levels of NICD and altering specific motifs within the enhancers, we uncover two key principles. First, increased NICD levels alter transcription by increasing duration rather than frequency of transcriptional bursts. Second, priming of enhancers by tissue-specific transcription factors is required for NICD to confer synchronized and sustained activity; in their absence, transcription is stochastic and bursty. The dynamic response of an individual enhancer to NICD thus differs depending on the cellular context.Wellcome Trus

Gaia Data Processing Architecture

Gaia is ESA's ambitious space astrometry mission the main objective of which is to astrometrically and spectro-photometrically map 1000 Million celestial objects (mostly in our galaxy) with unprecedented accuracy. The announcement of opportunity for the data processing will be issued by ESA late in 2006. The Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC) has been formed recently and is preparing an answer. The satellite will downlink close to 100 TB of raw telemetry data over 5 years. To achieve its required accuracy of a few 10s of Microarcsecond astrometry, a highly involved processing of this data is required. In addition to the main astrometric instrument Gaia will host a Radial Velocity instrument, two low-resolution dispersers for multi-color photometry and two Star Mappers. Gaia is a flying Giga Pixel camera. The various instruments each require relatively complex processing while at the same time being interdependent. We describe the overall composition of the DPAC and the envisaged overall architecture of the Gaia data processing system. We shall delve further into the core processing - one of the nine, so-called, coordination units comprising the Gaia processing system.Comment: 10 Pages, 2 figures. To appear in ADASS XVI Proceeding

Газификация промышленных отходов непрерывным лазерным излучением

Liposome-encapsulated corticosteroids have shown to exert strong beneficial effects in inflammatory diseases, such as arthritis and cancer. To extend the clinical applicability of these potent nanomedicines, the therapeutic effect of dexamethasone phosphate loaded long-circulating liposomes (LCL-DXP) was evaluated in animal models of multiple sclerosis (MS) and Crohn's disease (CD). In mice with experimental autoimmune encephalitis (EAE), a model for MS, treatment with LCL-DXP, but not free DXP, resulted in a decrease in disease activity when compared to PBS treated mice. In contrast, in mice with chronic DSS-induced colitis, a model for CD, treatment with LCL-DXP did not induce an improvement, but in fact worsened the fecal blood loss after treatment, indicating an aggravation of the disease. It is hypothesized that modulation of macrophage polarization towards a M2 phenotype underlies the efficacy of corticosteroid-based drug delivery systems, which is supported by the presented data. On the one hand, M1 polarized macrophages are part of the pathogenesis of MS; the modulation to M2-polarization by LCL-DXP is therefore beneficial. On the other hand, M1-polarized intestinal macrophages fulfill a protective and inflammation-suppressing role in intestinal homeostasis; changing their phenotype to M2 causes reduced protection to invading microorganisms, leading to a more severe intestinal inflammation. These findings therefore indicate that the interplay between the specific phenotype of macrophages and the specific inflammatory context of the inflammatory disease in question may be an important determining factor in the therapeutic applicability of liposomal corticosteroids in inflammatory disease

Correcting for non-periodic behaviour in perturbative experiments: application to heat pulse propagation and modulated gas-puff experiments

This paper introduces a recent innovation in dealing with non-periodic behavior often referred to as transients. These transients can be the result from unforced response due to the initial condition and other drifts which are a source of error when performing and interpreting Fourier analysis on measurement data. Fourier analysis is particularly relevant in system identification used to build feedback controllers and the analysis of various pulsed experiments such as heat pulse propagation studies. The basic idea behind the methodology is that transients are continuous complex-valued smooth functions in the Fourier domain which can be estimated from the Fourier data. Then, these smooth functions can be approximately subtracted from the data such that only periodic components are retained. The merit of the approach is shown in two experimental examples, i.e., heat pulse propagation (core transport analysis) and radiation front movement due to gas puffing. The examples show that the quality of the data is significantly improved such that it allows new interpretation of the results even for non-ideal measurements.</p