LANDSAT-5 orbit adjust maneuver report

The orbit adjust maneuvers performed to raise the LANDSAT 5 spacecraft to mission altitude, synchronize it with the required groundtrack, and properly phase the spacecraft with LANDSAT-4 to provide an 8 day full Earth coverage cycle are described. Maneuver planning and evaluation procedures, data and analysis results for all maneuvers performed to date, the frozen orbit concept, and the phasing requirement between LANDSAT-4 and LANDSAT-5 are also examined

Log Fano varieties over function fields of curves

Consider a smooth log Fano variety over the function field of a curve. Suppose that the boundary has positive normal bundle. Choose an integral model over the curve. Then integral points are Zariski dense, after removing an explicit finite set of points on the base curve.Comment: 18 page

Psychological Resilience, Affective Mechanisms and Symptom Burden in a Tertiary‐care Sample of Patients with Fibromyalgia

Research demonstrates that patients with fibromyalgia who have higher positive and lower negative affect have lower symptom burden. Affect has been shown to be associated with resilience. This study examined the relationship between affect, resilience and fibromyalgia symptom burden in a clinical sample of patients with fibromyalgia. We hypothesized that (a) positive and negative affect would be associated with fibromyalgia symptom burden; (b) resilience would be associated with positive and negative affect; (c) resilience would be associated with fibromyalgia symptom burden; and (d) the connection between resilience and fibromyalgia symptom burden would be mediated by both positive and negative affect. A sample of 858 patients with fibromyalgia completed questionnaires. Mediation modelling revealed statistically significant direct effects of resilience on fibromyalgia symptom burden (β = −0.10, P < 0.001) and statistically significant indirect effects of resilience on fibromyalgia symptom burden through affect (β = −0.36, P < 0.001), suggesting that both resilience and affect influence fibromyalgia symptom burden. Our results suggest that improving affect through resiliency training could be studied as a modality for improving fibromyalgia symptom burden. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/115964/1/smi2555.pd

Singular del Pezzo surfaces that are equivariant compactifications

We determine which singular del Pezzo surfaces are equivariant compactifications of G_a^2, to assist with proofs of Manin's conjecture for such surfaces. Additionally, we give an example of a singular quartic del Pezzo surface that is an equivariant compactification of a semidirect product of G_a and G_m.Comment: 14 pages, main result extended to non-closed ground field

Campana points of bounded height on vector group compactifications

We initiate a systematic quantitative study of subsets of rational points that are integral with respect to a weighted boundary divisor on Fano orbifolds. We call the points in these sets Campana points. Earlier work of Campana and subsequently Abramovich shows that there are several reasonable competing definitions for Campana points. We use a version that delineates well different types of behaviour of points as the weights on the boundary divisor vary. This prompts a Manin-type conjecture on Fano orbifolds for sets of Campana points that satisfy a klt (Kawamata log terminal) condition. By importing work of Chambert-Loir and Tschinkel to our set-up, we prove a log version of Manin's conjecture for klt Campana points on equivariant compactifications of vector groups.Comment: 52 pages; minor revision, changes in the definition of Campana point

Association of microsomal epoxide hydrolase polymorphisms and lung cancer risk

lung cancer ris

Exploring how parents make sense of change in parent-child psychotherapy

Background: Understanding how change occurs in psychotherapy is imperative in informing clinical practice. Increasing attention has been given to the role that qualitative research could play in enhancing our understanding of therapeutic change. Although quantitative research suggests that parent-child psychotherapy is effective in facilitating change, no research to date has focused on how parents make sense of their change experience. Methods: Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to analyse semi-structured interviews of eight parents who had completed parent-child psychotherapy about their understanding of change. Results: Five master themes emerged which encapsulated participant’s understanding of change. These included constructing a survivor narrative, the experience of being understood enabling further understanding, adjusting expectations and practising acceptance and feeling empowered to relinquish control. The final theme summarised how despite psychotherapy being conceptualised as a ‘precious’ resource, there was a sense that its limitations could negatively impact participant’s wellbeing. Conclusions: Meaningful elements of change were identified from the parents’ experience. Findings were discussed in relation to previous research and limitations were examined. Implications for future research included using other qualitative methods to explore client experience. Implications for practice were noted, including enriched understanding of client change experience enabling therapists to provide a more attuned therapy

Pilot study on developing a decision support tool for guiding re-administration of chemotherapeutic agent after a serious adverse drug reaction

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Currently, there are no standard guidelines for recommending re-administration of a chemotherapeutic drug to a patient after a serious adverse drug reaction (ADR) incident. The decision on whether to rechallenge the patient is based on the experience of the clinician and is highly subjective. Thus the aim of this study is to develop a decision support tool to assist clinicians in this decision making process.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The inclusion criteria for patients in this study are: (1) had chemotherapy at National Cancer Centre Singapore between 2004 to 2009, (2) suffered from serious ADRs, and (3) were rechallenged. A total of 46 patients fulfilled the inclusion criteria. A genetic algorithm attribute selection method was used to identify clinical predictors for patients' rechallenge status. A Naïve Bayes model was then developed using 35 patients and externally validated using 11 patients.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Eight patient attributes (age, chemotherapeutic drug, albumin level, red blood cell level, platelet level, abnormal white blood cell level, abnormal alkaline phosphatase level and abnormal alanine aminotransferase level) were identified as clinical predictors for rechallenge status of patients. The Naïve Bayes model had an AUC of 0.767 and was found to be useful for assisting clinical decision making after clinicians had identified a group of patients for rechallenge. A platform independent version and an online version of the model is available to facilitate independent validation of the model.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Due to the limited size of the validation set, a more extensive validation of the model is necessary before it can be adopted for routine clinical use. Once validated, the model can be used to assist clinicians in deciding whether to rechallenge patients by determining if their initial assessment of rechallenge status of patients is accurate.</p

Structural and functional characterization of Pseudomonas aeruginosa CupB chaperones

Pseudomonas aeruginosa, an important human pathogen, is estimated to be responsible for,10% of nosocomial infections worldwide. The pathogenesis of P. aeruginosa starts from its colonization in the damaged tissue or medical devices (e. g. catheters, prothesis and implanted heart valve etc.) facilitated by several extracellular adhesive factors including fimbrial pili. Several clusters containing fimbrial genes have been previously identified on the P. aeruginosa chromosome and named cup [1]. The assembly of the CupB pili is thought to be coordinated by two chaperones, CupB2 and CupB4. However, due to the lack of structural and biochemical data, their chaperone activities remain speculative. In this study, we report the 2.5 A crystal structure of P. aeruginosa CupB2. Based on the structure, we further tested the binding specificity of CupB2 and CupB4 towards CupB1 (the presumed major pilus subunit) and CupB6 (the putative adhesin) using limited trypsin digestion and strep-tactin pull-down assay. The structural and biochemical data suggest that CupB2 and CupB4 might play different, but not redundant, roles in CupB secretion. CupB2 is likely to be the chaperone of CupB1, and CupB4 could be the chaperone of CupB4:CupB5:CupB6, in which the interaction of CupB4 and CupB6 might be mediated via CupB5