Measuring asthma control in group studies: do we need airway calibre and rescue β2-agonist use?

AbstractCollection of airway calibre and β2-agonist data in large clinical trials and epidemiological surveys is sometimes difficult and may be an inefficient use of resources. The aim of this study was to determine whether the omission of the forced expiratory volume in 1 sec (FEV1) and β2-agonist questions from the seven-item Asthma Control Questionnaire (ACQ) alters its measurement properties and validity.In an observational study, 50 adults with symptomatic asthma attended the clinic at 0, 1, 5 and 9 weeks to complete the ACQ and other measures of asthma status.All patients completed the study and provided complete data sets. Omission of the FEV1andβ2 -agonist questions from the ACQ made minimal difference to the reliability, responsiveness, and both cross-sectional and longitudinal validity of the instrument. Omission of the FEV1question significantly lowered the summary score (P<0·0001) but omission of the β2-agonist question did not alter it (P>0·05).In group studies, both the FEV1and β2-agonist questions may be omitted from the ACQ without changing the validity or the measurement properties of the instrument. Lowering of the summary score by the omission of the FEV1question means that data from this abbreviated form cannot be combined with or compared to data collected using the full questionnaire

Chorda tympani proper nerve responses to intra-arterial and surface stimulation of the tongue in rhesus monkey and rat

The effect of intra-arterial injection of the proteins monellin, thaumatin and miraculin on the activity of the chorda tympani proper nerve were recorded in the rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatto) and the rat (Sprague-Dawley). The substances were injected into the blood stream to the lingual artery. It was found that monellin and thaumatin elicited a response only in the monkey and not in the rat. Acetylated thaumatin, a tasteless substance, gave no increase of the nerve activity. Miraculin had no effect in either species. NaCl, sucrose and citric acid injected intra-arterially gave a response in both species. It is concluded that the responses to intra-arterial injections were caused by stimulation of the taste buds and not nerve fibers. The results suggest there are taste receptors also on the parts of the taste cells not facing the oral cavity. The finding that there was no cross-adaptation between intra-arterial and oral application supports this conclusio

Filling historical data gaps to foster solutions in marine conservation

Ecological data sets rarely extend back more than a few decades, limiting our understanding of environmental change and its drivers. Marine historical ecology has played a critical role in filling these data gaps by illuminating the magnitude and rate of ongoing changes in marine ecosystems. Yet despite a growing body of knowledge, historical insights are rarely explicitly incorporated in mainstream conservation and management efforts. Failing to consider historical change can have major implications for conservation, such as the ratcheting down of expectations of ecosystem quality over time, leading to less ambitious targets for recovery or restoration. We discuss several unconventional sources used by historical ecologists to fill data gaps - including menus, newspaper articles, cookbooks, museum collections, artwork, benthic sediment cores - and novel techniques for their analysis. We specify opportunities for the integration of historical data into conservation and management, and highlight the important role that these data can play in filling conservation data gaps and motivating conservation actions. As historical marine ecology research continues to grow as a multidisciplinary enterprise, great opportunities remain to foster direct linkages to conservation and improve the outlook for marine ecosystems

SO(10) unified models and soft leptogenesis

Motivated by the fact that, in some realistic models combining SO(10) GUTs and flavour symmetries, it is not possible to achieve the required baryon asymmetry through the CP asymmetry generated in the decay of right-handed neutrinos, we take a fresh look on how deep this connection is in SO(10). The common characteristics of these models are that they use the see-saw with right-handed neutrinos, predict a normal hierarchy of masses for the neutrinos observed in oscillating experiments and in the basis where the right-handed Majorana mass is diagonal, the charged lepton mixings are tiny. In addition these models link the up-quark Yukawa matrix to the neutrino Yukawa matrix Y^\nu with the special feature of Y^\nu_{11}-> 0 Using this condition, we find that the required baryon asymmetry of the Universe can be explained by the soft leptogenesis using the soft B parameter of the second lightest right-handed neutrino whose mass turns out to be around 10^8 GeV. It is pointed out that a natural way to do so is to use no-scale supergravity where the value of B ~1 GeV is set through gauge-loop corrections.Comment: 26 pages, 2 figures. Added references, new appendix of a relevant fit and improved comment

Intra-molecular coupling as a mechanism for a liquid-liquid phase transition

We study a model for water with a tunable intra-molecular interaction $J_\sigma$, using mean field theory and off-lattice Monte Carlo simulations. For all $J_\sigma\geq 0$, the model displays a temperature of maximum density.For a finite intra-molecular interaction $J_\sigma > 0$,our calculations support the presence of a liquid-liquid phase transition with a possible liquid-liquid critical point for water, likely pre-empted by inevitable freezing. For J=0 the liquid-liquid critical point disappears at T=0.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

A Measurement of Time-Averaged Aerosol Optical Depth using Air-Showers Observed in Stereo by HiRes

Air fluorescence measurements of cosmic ray energy must be corrected for attenuation of the atmosphere. In this paper we show that the air-showers themselves can yield a measurement of the aerosol attenuation in terms of optical depth, time-averaged over extended periods. Although the technique lacks statistical power to make the critical hourly measurements that only specialized active instruments can achieve, we note the technique does not depend on absolute calibration of the detector hardware, and requires no additional equipment beyond the fluorescence detectors that observe the air showers. This paper describes the technique, and presents results based on analysis of 1258 air-showers observed in stereo by the High Resolution Fly's Eye over a four year span.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication by Astroparticle Physics Journa

Self-optimization, community stability, and fluctuations in two individual-based models of biological coevolution

We compare and contrast the long-time dynamical properties of two individual-based models of biological coevolution. Selection occurs via multispecies, stochastic population dynamics with reproduction probabilities that depend nonlinearly on the population densities of all species resident in the community. New species are introduced through mutation. Both models are amenable to exact linear stability analysis, and we compare the analytic results with large-scale kinetic Monte Carlo simulations, obtaining the population size as a function of an average interspecies interaction strength. Over time, the models self-optimize through mutation and selection to approximately maximize a community fitness function, subject only to constraints internal to the particular model. If the interspecies interactions are randomly distributed on an interval including positive values, the system evolves toward self-sustaining, mutualistic communities. In contrast, for the predator-prey case the matrix of interactions is antisymmetric, and a nonzero population size must be sustained by an external resource. Time series of the diversity and population size for both models show approximate 1/f noise and power-law distributions for the lifetimes of communities and species. For the mutualistic model, these two lifetime distributions have the same exponent, while their exponents are different for the predator-prey model. The difference is probably due to greater resilience toward mass extinctions in the food-web like communities produced by the predator-prey model.Comment: 26 pages, 12 figures. Discussion of early-time dynamics added. J. Math. Biol., in pres

Do graduate entry nursing student’s experience ‘Imposter Phenomenon’?: an issue for debate

The recruitment of Graduates into the nursing profession is seen as advantageous in the academic literature. Conversely educated nurses are often portrayed in the media as “too posh to wash”. We would argue these conflicting discourses have a negative effect on graduate entry nurse education. Graduate nursing students may be particularly susceptible to “Imposter Phenomenon” a concept that describes an "internal experience of intellectual phoniness" exhibited by individuals who appear successful to others, but internally feel incompetent. We would like to encourage debate through the presentation of a small set of pilot data that established that 74% of the participants had frequent to intense experiences of Imposter Phenomenon. Students experienced feelings of failure despite consistent high achievement. Our findings and the prevalent negative rhetoric surrounding highly educated student nurses raise concerns regarding the impact of the anti-intellectualism on the Graduate entry student’s perception of self. Others may argue that this could simply be a 'natural' or expected level of anxiety in a time of transition that has no lasting impact. We debate this issue in relation to the existing literature to encourage critical dialogue

Search for Global Dipole Enhancements in the HiRes-I Monocular Data above 10^{18.5} eV

Several proposed source models for Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs) consist of dipole distributions oriented towards major astrophysical landmarks such as the galactic center, M87, or Centaurus A. We use a comparison between real data and simulated data to show that the HiRes-I monocular data for energies above 10^{18.5} eV is, in fact, consistent with an isotropic source model. We then explore methods to quantify our sensitivity to dipole source models oriented towards the Galactic Center, M87, and Centaurus A.Comment: 17 pages, 31 figure

Hierarchical Neutrino Mass Matrices, CP violation and Leptogenesis

In this work we study examples of hierarchical neutrino mass matrices inspired by family symmetries, compatible with experiments on neutrino oscillations, and for which there is a connection among the low energy CP violation phase associated to neutrino oscillations, the phases appearing in the amplitude of neutrinoless double beta decay, and the phases relevant for leptogenesis. In particular, we determine the predictions from a texture based on an underlying SU(3) family symmetry together with a GUT symmetry, and a strong hierarchy for the masses of the heavy right handed Majorana masses. We also give some examples of inverted hierarchies of neutrino masses, which may be motivated in the context of U(1) family symmetries.Comment: 34 pages. Replaced with published version -typos, corrections and references adde