Summertime, and the livin is easy: Winter and summer pseudoseasonal life expectancy in the United States

In temperate climates, mortality is seasonal with a winter-dominant pattern, due in part to pneumonia and influenza. Cardiac causes, which are the leading cause of death in the United States, are also winter-seasonal although it is not clear why. Interactions between circulating respiratory viruses (f.e., influenza) and cardiac conditions have been suggested as a cause of winter-dominant mortality patterns. We propose and implement a way to estimate an upper bound on mortality attributable to winter-dominant viruses like influenza. We calculate 'pseudo-seasonal' life expectancy, dividing the year into two six-month spans, one encompassing winter the other summer. During the summer when the circulation of respiratory viruses is drastically reduced, life expectancy is about one year longer. We also quantify the seasonal mortality difference in terms of seasonal "equivalent ages" (defined herein) and proportional hazards. We suggest that even if viruses cause excess winter cardiac mortality, the population-level mortality reduction of a perfect influenza vaccine would be much more modest than is often recognized

Model-based controller design for a plastic film extrusion process

This paper reports the development and implementation of a model-based cross-directional controller for plastic film extrusion and other web-forming processes. The controller design has a similar structure to that of internal model control (IMC) with the addition of an observer whose gain is designed to minimise process and model mis-match. The observer gain is obtained by solving a multi-objective optimisation through the application of a genetic algorithm and simulation results are presented in this paper demonstrating improvements that can be achieved by the proposed controller over two existing CD controllers

Hard X-ray Emission and the Ionizing Source in LINERs

We report X-ray fluxes in the 2--10 keV band from LINERs (low-ionization nuclear emission-line regions) and low-luminosity Seyfert galaxies obtained with the ASCA satellite. Observed X-ray luminosities are in the range between 4e39 and 5e41 ergs/s, which are significantly smaller than that of the ``classical'' low-luminosity Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 4051. We found that X-ray luminosities in 2--10 keV of LINERs with broad Halpha emission in their optical spectra (LINER 1s) are proportional to their Halpha luminosities. This correlation strongly supports the hypothesis that the dominant ionizing source in LINER 1s is photoionization by hard photons from low-luminosity AGNs. On the other hand, the X-ray luminosities of most LINERs without broad Halpha emission (LINER 2s) in our sample are lower than LINER 1s at a given Halpha luminosity. The observed X-ray luminosities in these objects are insufficient to power their Halpha luminosities, suggesting that their primary ionizing source is other than an AGN, or that an AGN, if present, is obscured even at energies above 2 keV.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, To appear in the Astrophyscal Jouna

A control and monitoring oriented model of a film manufacturing process

This paper describes the development of a control and monitoring oriented model of a plastic film manufacturing process. The model is mainly derived from first-principles and has been implemented in the Matlab/Simulink dynamic simulation environment. The development of the model forms the first phase of a project that aims to develop a nonlinear sub-space based monitoring, fault detection and trouble shooting system for the film manufacturing process

Stressful Situations: Investigating Cell Death Pathways in Protozoal Parasite Crithidia fasciculata

Protozoa of the Class Kinetoplastida include clinically-relevant pathogens such as Leishmania and Trypanosoma. Although specific mechanisms or biological significance of programmed cell death (PCD) have yet to be established in these organisms, morphological and biochemical characteristics similar to mammalian PCD have been observed when triggered by various stressors. Crithidia fasciculata is a trypanosomatid that does not infect humans and is a model for studying cell death pathways. This study identifies orthologous proteins potentially involved in PCD in C. fasciculata and clinically-relevant species. Oxidative stress, thermal stress, rotenone, and starvation were used to induce PCD-like processes. Morphological and nuclear features were assessed by fluorescent microscopy with annexin-V, Hoechst, and propidium iodide. Oncosis-like and apoptosis-like features emerged following cellular stress. Additionally, monodansylcadaverine staining of vacuoles suggests autophagic processes occur. The results establish that cell death pathways in C. fasciculata share features with but are distinct from mammalian PCD

Malmquist Indices of Pre and Post-Deregulation Productivity, Efficiency and Technological Change in the Singaporean Banking Sector

By the end of the 1990s, the Singaporean government had recognised the need to open up its banking sector so as to remain competitive in the global economy. The Monetary Authority of Singapore thus began deregulation of the banking sector in 1999 to strengthening the competitiveness of local banks relative to their foreign competition through mergers. This paper employs a nonparametric Malmquist productivity index to provide measure of productivity, technological change and efficiency gains over the period 1995-2005. The findings reveal some total factor productivity growth associated with deregulation and scale efficiency improvement largely from mergers amongst the local banks.Efficiency, productivity; deregulation; Malmquist indices; banking

A graphical programming interface for a children's constructionist learning environment

Thesis (M.Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1998.Includes bibliographical references (p. 41).by Andrew C. Cheng.M.Eng

Genetic Suppression of Basement Membrane Defects in Caenorhabditis elegans by Gain of Function in Extracellular Matrix and Cell-Matrix Attachment Genes.

Basement membranes are extracellular matrices essential for embryonic development in animals. Peroxidasins are extracellular peroxidases implicated in the unique sulfilimine cross-links between type IV basement membrane collagens. Loss of function in the Caenorhabditis elegans peroxidasin PXN-2 results in fully penetrant embryonic or larval lethality. Using genetic suppressor screening, we find that the requirement for PXN-2 in development can be bypassed by gain of function in multiple genes encoding other basement membrane components, or proteins implicated in cell-matrix attachment. We identify multiple alleles of let-805, encoding the transmembrane protein myotactin, which suppress phenotypes of pxn-2 null mutants and of other basement membrane mutants such as F-spondin/spon-1 These let-805 suppressor alleles cause missense alterations in two pairs of FNIII repeats in the extracellular domain; they act dominantly and have no detectable phenotypes alone, suggesting they cause gain of function. We also identify suppressor missense mutations affecting basement membrane components type IV collagen (emb-9, let-2) and perlecan (unc-52), as well as a mutation affecting spectraplakin (vab-10), a component of the epidermal cytoskeleton. These suppressor alleles do not bypass the developmental requirement for core structural proteins of the basement membrane such as laminin or type IV collagen. In conclusion, putative gain-of-function alterations in matrix proteins or in cell-matrix receptors can overcome the requirement for certain basement membrane proteins in embryonic development, revealing previously unknown plasticity in the genetic requirements for the extracellular matrix