Toward the next generation of research into small area effects on health : a synthesis of multilevel investigations published since July 1998.

To map out area effects on health research, this study had the following aims: (1) to inventory multilevel investigations of area effects on self rated health, cardiovascular diseases and risk factors, and mortality among adults; (2) to describe and critically discuss methodological approaches employed and results observed; and (3) to formulate selected recommendations for advancing the study of area effects on health. Overall, 86 studies were inventoried. Although several innovative methodological approaches and analytical designs were found, small areas are most often operationalised using administrative and statistical spatial units. Most studies used indicators of area socioeconomic status derived from censuses, and few provided information on the validity and reliability of measures of exposures. A consistent finding was that a significant portion of the variation in health is associated with area context independently of individual characteristics. Area effects on health, although significant in most studies, often depend on the health outcome studied, the measure of area exposure used, and the spatial scale at which associations are examined

[CII] 158μ\mum and [NII] 205μ\mum emission from IC 342 - Disentangling the emission from ionized and photo-dissociated regions

Aims: We investigate how much of the [CII] emission in the nucleus of the nearby spiral galaxy IC 342 is contributed by PDRs and by the ionized gas. We examine the spatial variations of starburst/PDR activity and study the correlation of the [CII] line with the [NII] 205{\textmu}m emission line coming exclusively from the HII regions. Methods: We present small maps of [CII] and [NII] lines recently observed with the GREAT receiver on board SOFIA. In particular we present a super-resolution method to derive how unresolved, kinematically correlated structures in the beam contribute to the observed line shapes. Results: We find that the emission coming from the ionized gas shows a kinematic component in addition to the general Doppler signature of the molecular gas. We interpret this as the signature of two bi-polar lobes of ionized gas expanding out of the galactic plane. We then show how this requires an adaptation of our understanding of the geometrical structure of the nucleus of IC~342. Examining the starburst activity we find ratios $I([CII])/I(^{12}\mathrm{CO} (1-0))$ between 400 and 1800 in energy units. Applying predictions from numerical models of HII and PDR regions to derive the contribution from the ionized phase to the total [CII] emission we find that 35-90% of the observed [CII] intensity stems from the ionized gas if both phases contribute. Averaged over the central few hundred parsec we find for the [CII] contribution a HII-to-PDR ratio of 70:30. Conclusions: The ionized gas in the center of IC 342 contributes more strongly to the overall [CII] emission than is commonly observed on larger scales and than is predicted. Kinematic analysis shows that the majority of the [CII] emission is related to the strong but embedded star formation in the nuclear molecular ring and only marginally emitted from the expanding bi-polar lobes of ionized gas.Comment: 20 pages spectra available online: http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/ submitted to and accepted by A&

PPL quick reference guide (NMOS)

Journal ArticleThis work was supported in part by Defense Research Projects Agency under Contract Number DAAK1184K0017. All opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this document are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of DARPA

Tiler user's guide

Journal ArticleTiler is a special interactive editor used for designing VLSI circuits using the Path Programmable Logic (PPL) methodology. PPL cells are inserted into a rectangular grid by typing characters that represent the cells. Each available cell will have a character that represents it, but some characters might not have a cell "defined". When a character is typed that has no PPL cell defined for it, an appropriate error message will be displayed. All ordinary printable characters are assumed to be associated with PPL cells. The exact cell that is associated with each character will depend on which TECHNOLOGY has been specified. When tiler is first started, the user is prompted for the technology to be used for designing a PPL circuit. When a technology name is given by the user, a technology file is loaded into tiler. This file contains information about the process used to define the PPL cells (NMOS, CMOS, GaAs, etc.), the number of row and column wires in each PPL cell, the spacing of cells on the PPL grid, and information about each of the cells that are defined for the given technology

Involutive Categories and Monoids, with a GNS-correspondence

This paper develops the basics of the theory of involutive categories and shows that such categories provide the natural setting in which to describe involutive monoids. It is shown how categories of Eilenberg-Moore algebras of involutive monads are involutive, with conjugation for modules and vector spaces as special case. The core of the so-called Gelfand-Naimark-Segal (GNS) construction is identified as a bijective correspondence between states on involutive monoids and inner products. This correspondence exists in arbritrary involutive categories

Quantitative pharmacologic MRI: Mapping the cerebral blood volume response to cocaine in dopamine transporter knockout mice

The use of pharmacologic MRI (phMRI) in mouse models of brain disorders allows noninvasive in vivo assessment of drug-modulated local cerebral blood volume changes (ΔCBV) as one correlate of neuronal and neurovascular activities. In this report, we employed CBV-weighted phMRI to compare cocaine-modulated neuronal activity in dopamine transporter (DAT) knockout (KO) and wild-typemice. Cocaine acts to block the dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin transporters (DAT, NET, and SERT) that clear their respective neurotransmitters from the synapses, helping to terminate cognate neurotransmission. Cocaine consistently reduced CBV, with a similar pattern of regional ΔCBV in brain structures involved inmediating reward in both DAT genotypes. The largest effects (−20% to −30% ΔCBV) were seen in the nucleus accumbens and several cortical regions. Decreasing response amplitudes to cocaine were noted in more posterior components of the cortico-mesolimbic circuit. DAT KO mice had significantly attenuated ΔCBV amplitudes, shortened times to peak response, and reduced response duration in most regions. This study demonstrates that DAT knockout does not abolish the phMRI responses to cocaine, suggesting that adaptations to loss of DAT and/or retained cocaine activity in other monoamine neurotransmitter systems underlie these responses in DAT KO mice

Affective iconic words benefit from additional sound–meaning integration in the left amygdala

Recent studies have shown that a similarity between sound and meaning of a word (i.e., iconicity) can help more readily access the meaning of that word, but the neural mechanisms underlying this beneficial role of iconicity in semantic processing remain largely unknown. In an fMRI study, we focused on the affective domain and examined whether affective iconic words (e.g., high arousal in both sound and meaning) activate additional brain regions that integrate emotional information from different domains (i.e., sound and meaning). In line with our hypothesis, affective iconic words, compared to their non‐iconic counterparts, elicited additional BOLD responses in the left amygdala known for its role in multimodal representation of emotions. Functional connectivity analyses revealed that the observed amygdalar activity was modulated by an interaction of iconic condition and activations in two hubs representative for processing sound (left superior temporal gyrus) and meaning (left inferior frontal gyrus) of words. These results provide a neural explanation for the facilitative role of iconicity in language processing and indicate that language users are sensitive to the interaction between sound and meaning aspect of words, suggesting the existence of iconicity as a general property of human language

Single shot parameter estimation via continuous quantum measurement

We present filtering equations for single shot parameter estimation using continuous quantum measurement. By embedding parameter estimation in the standard quantum filtering formalism, we derive the optimal Bayesian filter for cases when the parameter takes on a finite range of values. Leveraging recent convergence results [van Handel, arXiv:0709.2216 (2008)], we give a condition which determines the asymptotic convergence of the estimator. For cases when the parameter is continuous valued, we develop quantum particle filters as a practical computational method for quantum parameter estimation.Comment: 9 pages, 5 image

Statics and dynamics of domain patterns in hexagonal-orthorhombic ferroelastics

We study the statics and the dynamics of domain patterns in proper hexagonal-orthorhombic ferroelastics; these patterns are of particular interest because they provide a rare physical realization of disclinations in crystals. Both our static and dynamical theories are based entirely on classical, nonlinear elasticity theory; we use the minimal theory consistent with stability, symmetry and ability to explain qualitatively the observed patterns. After scaling, the only parameters of the static theory are a temperature variable and a stiffness variable. For moderate to large stiffness, our static results show nested stars, unnested stars, fans and other nodes, triangular and trapezoidal regions of trapped hexagonal phase, etc observed in electron microscopy of Ta4N and Mg-Cd alloys, and also in lead orthovanadate (which is trigonal-monoclinic); we even find imperfections in some nodes, like those observed. For small stiffness, we find patterns like those observed in the mineral Mg-cordierite. Our dynamical studies of growth and relaxation show the formation of these static patterns, and also transitory structures such as 12-armed bursts, streamers and striations which are also seen experimentally. The major aspects of the growth-relaxation process are quite unlike those in systems with conventional order parameters, for it is inherently nonlocal; for example, the changes from one snapshot to the next are not predictable by inspection.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures (1 b&w, 2 colour); animations may be viewed at http://huron.physics.utoronto.ca/~curnoe/sim.htm