Present Searches for Higgs Signatures at the Tevatron

We present results for various searches for signatures of standard and non-standard model Higgs boson decays conducted at the collider detectors CDF and DO using ~ 100 pb^-1 of integrated luminosity each from the Tevatron Collider Run 1 (1992-96) at \sqrt{s} = 1.8 TeV. No evidence for a Higgs boson decay is found and various limits are set.Comment: 11 pages, 15 figure

Do Institutional Structures Matter? A Comparative Analysis of Urban Carbon Management Policies in the UK and Germany

The paper addresses the important question of how institutional structures matter to the delivery of climate change policy for urban transport. It examines the strategic goals, policy tools in operation and initial progress towards carbon emission reduction in seven cities across the UK and Germany where different institutional structures exist. The UK has the presence of a strong national carbon target and strong hierarchical national-local government relationships whilst Germany has a more integrated system of local transport provision in a context where local and regional government is stronger. Our findings show that the carbon agenda has made very little difference to what is happening on the ground in the cities. Across all sites, progress is being made but largely through technological improvements which are being almost completely offset by population growth. Even in the more integrated city environments there has not be an additional stimulus to manage the demand for travel. Contrary to previous research therefore, we cannot conclude that institutional structures are paramount in delivering effective carbon reduction policies. The institutional structures in the UK and in Germany are not perfectly aligned to carbon management but, given the cross policy impacts of most transport interventions, this is perhaps inevitable. We can clearly conclude however that “better” structures are not sufficient to achieve the implementation of more effective carbon policies. Whilst institutional structures must matter, it is the broader governance environment and the resources and politics involved in transport policy that seem to dominate the importance of the carbon agenda and implementation paths that emerge

Differentiation and treatment of anemia in HIV disease

Anemia is a frequent complication of HIV disease that contributes to decreased quality of life and increased morbidity and mortality. The three major categories of anemia in HIV disease are anemia due to impaired red blood cell production, anemia due to increased red blood cell destruction, and anemia due to increased red blood cell loss. Although anemia of chronic illness is the most common type of anemia in HIV disease, other classifications of anemia may be encountered. Understanding the pathophysiology of anemia and laboratory tests that are frequently used to establish the differential diagnosis of anemia helps to ensure that HIV-infected individuals will receive appropriate treatment

Development of the preterm infant gut microbiome: a research priority.

The very low birth weight (VLBW) infant is at great risk for marked dysbiosis of the gut microbiome due to multiple factors, including physiological immaturity and prenatal/postnatal influences that disrupt the development of a normal gut flora. However, little is known about the developmental succession of the microbiota in preterm infants as they grow and mature. This review provides a synthesis of our understanding of the normal development of the infant gut microbiome and contrasts this with dysbiotic development in the VLBW infant. The role of human milk in normal gut microbial development is emphasized, along with the role of the gut microbiome in immune development and gastroenteric health. Current research provides evidence that the gut microbiome interacts extensively with many physiological systems and metabolic processes in the developing infant. However, to the best of our knowledge, there are currently no studies prospectively mapping the gut microbiome of VLBW infants through early childhood. This knowledge gap must be filled to inform a healthcare system that can provide for the growth, health, and development of VLBW infants. The paper concludes with speculation about how the VLBW infants' gut microbiome might function through host-microbe interactions to contribute to the sequelae of preterm birth, including its influence on growth, development, and general health of the infant host

Dichotomous development of the gut microbiome in preterm infants.

BackgroundPreterm infants are at risk of developing intestinal dysbiosis with an increased proportion of Gammaproteobacteria. In this study, we sought the clinical determinants of the relative abundance of feces-associated Gammaproteobacteria in very low birth weight (VLBW) infants. Fecal microbiome was characterized at ≤ 2 weeks and during the 3rd and 4th weeks after birth, by 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. Maternal and infant clinical characteristics were extracted from electronic medical records. Data were analyzed by linear mixed modeling and linear regression.ResultsClinical data and fecal microbiome profiles of 45 VLBW infants (gestational age 27.9 ± 2.2 weeks; birth weight 1126 ± 208 g) were studied. Three stool samples were analyzed for each infant at mean postnatal ages of 9.9 ± 3, 20.7 ± 4.1, and 29.4 ± 4.9 days. The average relative abundance of Gammaproteobacteria was 42.5% (0-90%) at ≤ 2 weeks, 69.7% (29.9-86.9%) in the 3rd, and 75.5% (54.5-86%) in the 4th week (p < 0.001). Hierarchical and K-means clustering identified two distinct subgroups: cluster 1 started with comparatively low abundance that increased with time, whereas cluster 2 began with a greater abundance at ≤ 2 weeks (p < 0.001) that decreased over time. Both groups resembled each other by the 3rd week. Single variants of Klebsiella and Staphylococcus described variance in community structure between clusters and were shared between all infants, suggesting a common, hospital-derived source. Fecal Gammaproteobacteria was positively associated with vaginal delivery and antenatal steroids.ConclusionsWe detected a dichotomy in gut microbiome assembly in preterm infants: some preterm infants started with low relative gammaproteobacterial abundance in stool that increased as a function of postnatal age, whereas others began with and maintained high abundance. Vaginal birth and antenatal steroids were identified as predictors of Gammaproteobacteria abundance in the early (≤ 2 weeks) and later (3rd and 4th weeks) stool samples, respectively. These findings are important in understanding the development of the gut microbiome in premature infants

Inflammatory and immune system correlates of rape

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of measuring stress hormones and immunity following rape. The long-term goal is to evaluate the predictive value of stress-immune-inflammatory responses to later health outcomes. Fifteen women reporting rape were compared with 16 control participants. Serum stress hormones, proinflammatory cytokines, acute phase proteins, functional assays, and lymphocyte subsets were measured in blood samples. Women reporting rape had higher cytotoxic cells, lower B lymphocyte counts, higher proinflammatory biomarkers, and decreased lymphocyte proliferation compared to the control group. This finding suggests that rape produces activation of the innate immunity and suppression of some aspects of adaptive immunity. If these immune changes persist, they may contribute to the pathophysiology of long-term health sequelae by provoking chronic inflammation and decreased cellular immunocompetence

INDDGO: Integrated Network Decomposition & Dynamic programming for Graph Optimization

It is well-known that dynamic programming algorithms can utilize tree decompositions to provide a way to solve some \emph{NP}-hard problems on graphs where the complexity is polynomial in the number of nodes and edges in the graph, but exponential in the width of the underlying tree decomposition. However, there has been relatively little computational work done to determine the practical utility of such dynamic programming algorithms. We have developed software to construct tree decompositions using various heuristics and have created a fast, memory-efficient dynamic programming implementation for solving maximum weighted independent set. We describe our software and the algorithms we have implemented, focusing on memory saving techniques for the dynamic programming. We compare the running time and memory usage of our implementation with other techniques for solving maximum weighted independent set, including a commercial integer programming solver and a semi-definite programming solver. Our results indicate that it is possible to solve some instances where the underlying decomposition has width much larger than suggested by the literature. For certain types of problems, our dynamic programming code runs several times faster than these other methods

Klimaschutzaktivitäten deutscher Städte im Verkehrssektor - Eine vergleichende Fallstudie zu lokalen Einflussfaktoren und Motivationen

Trotz des Wissens über die Einflüsse des Verkehrs auf das Erdklima und vor allem des Wissens um Wirkungen bestimmter Maßnahmen der Verkehrsplanung und -entwicklung kommen konkrete lokale Aktivitäten gegen den Klimawandel im Verkehrssektor nur langsam voran. Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es, den Einfluss spezifischer lokaler Faktoren auf den verkehrsbezogenen Klimaschutz im städtischen Kontext zu untersuchen und daraus Empfehlungen zur Verbesserung der Effektivität der Aktivitäten in diesem Bereich abzuleiten. Es wird davon ausgegangen, dass sich solche lokalen Faktoren in spezifischen Wissensbeständen manifestieren, die handlungsleitend für städtische Maßnahmen und Aktivitäten im Verkehrsbereich sind. In einer vergleichenden Fallstudie in den Städten Frankfurt a.M., Stuttgart und München werden städtische Dokumente analysiert, Interviews mit lokalen Akteuren sowie eine quantitative soziale Netzwerkanalyse durchgeführt. Die Ergebnisse der Untersuchung zeigen, dass vor allem die normative Dimension von Wissen, also ob und in welcher Intensität Maßnahmen als Reaktion auf eine Herausforderung wie den Klimaschutz angemessen sind, eine zentrale Rolle spielen. Es wird deutlich, dass Klimaschutz als alleinige oder maßgebliche Begründung keine ausreichende Motivation für die Umsetzung von Maßnahmen im lokalen Kontext darstellt. Städte betreiben zwar Klimaschutz im Verkehrsbereich, dieser geht aber kaum über den Status quo hinaus, welcher sich aus Maßnahmen zusammensetzt, die aus anderen Motivationen (z.B. Luftreinhaltung) heraus ergriffen werden. Dies gilt, obwohl weiter gehende Klimaschutzmaßnahmen bekannt und technisch umsetzbar sind und obwohl sich die Städte bewusst sind, dass selbst gesetzte Klimaschutzziele mit dem Status quo nicht erreicht werden. Eine wichtige Ursache für dieses Implementationsproblem liegt neben der Intangibilität des Phänomens Klimawandel und der (noch) fehlenden lokalen Betroffenheit (im Gegensatz zu Problemen wie Lärm oder Luftverschmutzung) in nicht vorhandenen Vorgaben (und ggf. auch damit verbundenen Sanktionen) zum Klimaschutz auf lokaler Ebene, wie es sie z.B. für die Luftqualität gibt. Gerade bei der Luftreinhaltung zeigt sich, dass entsprechende Vorgaben relativ schnell zum Aufbau von problembezogenem Wissen geführt haben, das auch handlungsleitend wirkt. So werden beispielsweise Maßnahmen zur Luftreinhaltung wie die Umweltzone in den untersuchten Städten z.T. auch mit dem globalen Klimaschutz in Verbindung gebracht, obwohl hier kaum Effekte zu erwarten sind. Voraussetzung für derartige Vorgaben wären funktionierende, maßnahmensensitive Monitoring- und Bilanzierungswerkzeuge für Treibhausgasemissionen, die aber bisher nicht in der erforderlichen Güte zur Verfügung stehen. Ferner sind Defizite in den Planungsprozessen bei der verkehrsträgerübergreifenden Zusammenarbeit sowie bei der Zusammenarbeit mit Umlandkommunen bzw. der Region festzustellen. Ein Lösungsansatz muss folglich Vorgaben für den rechtlichen Rahmen, für organisatorisch-institutionelle Strukturen sowie für planerisch-technische Werkzeuge und Prozesse integrieren und dabei die Wechselwirkungen zwischen diesen Bestandteilen berücksichtigen