Shrink-fit gas valve Patent

Shrink-fit vacuum system gas valv

Cross-correlations between volume change and price change

In finance, one usually deals not with prices but with growth rates $R$, defined as the difference in logarithm between two consecutive prices. Here we consider not the trading volume, but rather the volume growth rate $\tilde R$, the difference in logarithm between two consecutive values of trading volume. To this end, we use several methods to analyze the properties of volume changes $|\tilde R|$, and their relationship to price changes $|R|$. We analyze $14,981$ daily recordings of the S\&P 500 index over the 59-year period 1950--2009, and find power-law {\it cross-correlations\/} between $|R|$ and $|\tilde R|$ using detrended cross-correlation analysis (DCCA). We introduce a joint stochastic process that models these cross-correlations. Motivated by the relationship between $| R|$ and $|\tilde R|$, we estimate the tail exponent ${\tilde\alpha}$ of the probability density function $P(|\tilde R|) \sim |\tilde R|^{-1 -\tilde\alpha}$ for both the S\&P 500 index as well as the collection of 1819 constituents of the New York Stock Exchange Composite index on 17 July 2009. As a new method to estimate $\tilde\alpha$, we calculate the time intervals $\tau_q$ between events where $\tilde R>q$. We demonstrate that $\bar\tau_q$, the average of $\tau_q$, obeys $\bar \tau_q \sim q^{\tilde\alpha}$. We find $\tilde \alpha \approx 3$. Furthermore, by aggregating all $\tau_q$ values of 28 global financial indices, we also observe an approximate inverse cubic law.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Optimization Of Detergent-Mediated Reconstitution Of Influenza A M2 Protein Into Proteoliposomes

We report the optimization of detergent-mediated reconstitution of an integral membrane-bound protein, full-length influenza M2 protein, by direct insertion into detergent-saturated liposomes. Detergent-mediated reconstitution is an important method for preparing proteoliposomes for studying membrane proteins, and must be optimized for each combination of protein and membrane constituents used. The purpose of the reconstitution was to prepare samples for site-directed spin-labeling electron paramagnetic resonance (SDSL-EPR) studies. Our goals in optimizing the protocol were to minimize the amount of detergent used, reduce overall proteoliposome preparation time, and confirm the removal of all detergent. The liposomes were comprised of (1-palmitoyl-2-oleyl-sn-glycero-phosphocholine (POPC) and 1-palmitoyl-2-oleyl-sn-glycero-3-[phospho-rac-(1-glycerol)] (POPG), and the detergent octylglucoside (OG) was used for reconstitution. Rigorous physical characterization was applied to optimize each step of the reconstitution process. We used dynamic light scattering (DLS) to determine the amount of OG needed to saturate the preformed liposomes. During detergent removal by absorption with Bio-Beads, we quantified the detergent concentration by means of a colorimetric assay, thereby determining the number of Bio-Bead additions needed to remove all detergent from the final proteoliposomes. We found that the overnight Bio-Bead incubation used in previously published protocols can be omitted, reducing the time needed for reconstitution. We also monitored the size distribution of the proteoliposomes with DLS, confirming that the size distribution remains essentially constant throughout the reconstitution process

The New Political Economy of EU State Aid Policy

Despite its importance and singularity, the EU’s state aid policy has attracted less scholarly attention than other elements of EU competition policy. Introducing the themes addressed by the special issue, this article briefly reviews the development of EU policy and highlights why the control of state aid matters. The Commission’s response to the current economic crisis notably in banking and the car industry is a key concern, but the interests of the special issue go far beyond. They include: the role of the European Commission in the development of EU policy, the politics of state aid, and a clash between models of capitalism. The special issue also examines the impact of EU policy. It investigates how EU state aid decisions affect not only industrial policy at the national level (and therefore at the EU level), but the welfare state and territorial relations within federal member states, the external implications of EU action and the strategies pursued by the Commission to limit any potential disadvantage to European firms, and the conflict between the EU’s expanding legal order and national

Evolution of Preprofessional Pharmacy Curricula

Objectives. To examine changes in preprofessional pharmacy curricular requirements and trends, and determine rationales for and implications of modifications. Methods. Prerequisite curricular requirements compiled between 2006 and 2011 from all doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) programs approved by the Accreditation Council of Pharmacy Education were reviewed to ascertain trends over the past 5 years. An online survey was conducted of 20 programs that required either 3 years of prerequisite courses or a bachelor’s degree, and a random sample of 20 programs that required 2 years of prerequisites. Standardized telephone interviews were then conducted with representatives of 9 programs. Results. In 2006, 4 programs required 3 years of prerequisite courses and none required a bachelor’s degree; by 2011, these increased to 18 programs and 7 programs, respectively. Of 40 programs surveyed, responses were received from 28 (70%), 9 (32%) of which reported having increased the number of prerequisite courses since 2006. Reasons given for changes included desire to raise the level of academic achievement of students entering the PharmD program, desire to increase incoming student maturity, and desire to add clinical sciences and experiential coursework to the pharmacy curriculum. Some colleges and schools experienced a temporary decrease in applicants. Conclusions. The preprofessional curriculum continues to evolve, with many programs increasing the number of course prerequisites. The implications of increasing prerequisites were variable and included a perceived increase in maturity and quality of applicants and, for some schools, a temporary decrease in the number of applicants

Ezrin-Radixin-Moesin Binding Phosphoprotein 50:A Potential Novel Biomarker in Human Papilloma Virus-Associated Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinomas

High-risk human papilloma virus (HR-HPV) has increasingly been associated with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), in particular oropharyngeal cancers. Ezrin-Radixin-Moesin Binding Phosphoprotein 50 (EBP50), a putative tumour suppressor, localises to the plasma membrane in suprabasal epithelium and to the cytoplasm in proliferative basal layers, and is a target for degradation by the HR-HPV E6 oncoprotein. The aim of this study was to investigate EBP50 protein expression patterns in HNSCC in a large Scottish cohort to determine if there was a correlation with HPV status and clinical outcomes. EBP50 expression patterns were assessed in 156 HNSCC including oropharyngeal (37.8%), laryngeal (24%), oral (19%) and other sites (18.5%), which were genotyped for presence of HR-HPV. HNSCC were generally negative for membranous EBP50. EBP50 expression was either cytoplasmic/absent, being 'predominantly cytoplasmic' in 76 (49%), 'weak/negligible cytoplasmic' in 44 (28%), 'strongly cytoplasmic' in 5 (3%), 'heterogeneous' in 26 (17%) and 'other' in 5 (3%) samples. Forty tumours (25%) were positive for HPV DNA, predominantly HR-HPV 16, and 44 (28%) were p16 positive. The majority of tumours (71%) with 'weak/negligible cytoplasmic' EBP50 expression originated in the oropharynx were more likely to have positive neck nodes, overexpression of p16 and positive tumour HR-HPV status (P &lt; 0.001). Differences in EBP50 levels between oropharyngeal and non-oropharyngeal tumours may be linked to degradation of EBP50 by HR-HPV, and loss of EBP50 may therefore be a surrogate biomarker for HR-HPV infection in oropharyngeal tumours.</p

Tourism discretionary spending choice behaviour

Studies of tourism demand are numerous. But studies of how consumers apportion discretionary resources to tourism and across other competing categories of discretionary expenditure are non-existent. Therefore, how individuals and households make trade-offs between, or assess the respective utilities of, the various categories of discretionary expenditure and allocate discretionary financial resources, appears to be unknown. This study seeks to address this need by examining discretionary expenditure through choice experiments. The data provide insights into how each type of discretionary expenditure is valued and how each type competes for a share of the discretionary expenditure ‘pie’. We discuss the results with an emphasis on the implications for tourism marketing

Resolving the Azimuthal Ambiguity in Vector Magnetogram Data with the Divergence-Free Condition: Application to Discrete Data

We investigate how the divergence-free property of magnetic fields can be exploited to resolve the azimuthal ambiguity present in solar vector magnetogram data, by using line-of-sight and horizontal heliographic derivative information as approximated from discrete measurements. Using synthetic data we test several methods that each make different assumptions about how the divergence-free property can be used to resolve the ambiguity. We find that the most robust algorithm involves the minimisation of the absolute value of the divergence summed over the entire field of view. Away from disk centre this method requires the sign and magnitude of the line-of-sight derivatives of all three components of the magnetic field vector.Comment: Solar Physics, in press, 20 pages, 11 figure

A variational problem on Stiefel manifolds

In their paper on discrete analogues of some classical systems such as the rigid body and the geodesic flow on an ellipsoid, Moser and Veselov introduced their analysis in the general context of flows on Stiefel manifolds. We consider here a general class of continuous time, quadratic cost, optimal control problems on Stiefel manifolds, which in the extreme dimensions again yield these classical physical geodesic flows. We have already shown that this optimal control setting gives a new symmetric representation of the rigid body flow and in this paper we extend this representation to the geodesic flow on the ellipsoid and the more general Stiefel manifold case. The metric we choose on the Stiefel manifolds is the same as that used in the symmetric representation of the rigid body flow and that used by Moser and Veselov. In the extreme cases of the ellipsoid and the rigid body, the geodesic flows are known to be integrable. We obtain the extremal flows using both variational and optimal control approaches and elucidate the structure of the flows on general Stiefel manifolds.Comment: 30 page