High prevalence of porcine Hokovirus in German wild boar populations

Porcine Hokovirus (PHoV) was recently discovered in Hong Kong. This new Parvovirus of pigs is closely related to the human Parvoviruses 4 and 5 (PARV4/5) and bovine Hokovirus (BHoV). So far, nothing is known about the presence and prevalence of PHoV in regions of the world other than Hong Kong. A study was initiated to investigate PHoV in German wild boars from five different geographical regions, using a newly established quantitative real-time PCR assay. Analysis of collected liver and serum samples revealed high overall prevalence (32.7%; 51/156) of PHoV in wild boars. The prevalence differed between the regions and increased with age. Two near full-length genomes and a large fragment for three additional isolates from different regions were sequenced and used for phylogenetic analysis. The German PHoV sequences from wild boars showed a close relationship with sequences of isolates from Hong Kong

The Imprint of Galaxy Formation on X-ray Clusters

It is widely believed that structure in the Universe evolves hierarchically, as primordial density fluctuations, amplified by gravity, collapse and merge to form progressively larger systems. The structure and evolution of X-ray clusters, however, seems at odds with this hierarchical scenario for structure formation. Poor clusters and groups, as well as most distant clusters detected to date, are substantially fainter than expected from the tight relations between luminosity, temperature and redshift predicted by these models. Here we show that these discrepancies arise because, near the centre, the entropy of the hot, diffuse intracluster medium (ICM) is higher tha$achievable through gravitational collapse, indicating substantial non-gravitational heating of the ICM. We estimate this excess entropy for the first time, and argue that it represents a relic of the energetic winds through which forming galaxies polluted the ICM with metals. Energetically, this is onl$ possible if the ICM is heated at modest redshift (z \ltsim 2) but prior to cluster collapse, indicating that the formation of galaxies precedes that of clusters and that most clusters have been assembled very recently.Comment: 5 pages, plus 2 postscript figures (one in colour), accepted for publication in Natur

Introduction to Chiral Perturbation Theory

A brief introduction to chiral perturbation theory, the effective field theory of quantum chromodynamics at low energies, is given.Comment: 26 pages, 11 figures. Lectures given at the summer school ISSSMB 2006 in Akyaka, Turkey, September 200

Utility of Parental Mediation Model on Youth’s Problematic Online Gaming

The Parental Mediation Model PMM) was initially designed to regulate children’s attitudes towards the traditional media. In the present era, because of prevalent online media there is a need for similar regulative measures. Spending long hours on social media and playing online games increase the risks of exposure to the negative outcomes of online gaming. This paper initially applied the PMM developed by European Kids Online to (i) test the reliability and validity of this model and (ii) identify the effectiveness of this model in controlling problematic online gaming (POG). The data were collected from 592 participants comprising 296 parents and 296 students of four foreign universities, aged 16 to 22 years in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia). The study found that the modified model of the five-factor PMM (Technical mediation, Monitoring mediation, Restrictive mediation, Active Mediation of Internet Safety, and Active mediation of Internet Use) functions as a predictor for mitigating POG. The findings suggest the existence of a positive relation between ‘monitoring’ and ‘restrictive’ mediation strategies and exposure to POG while Active Mediation of Internet Safety and Active mediation of Internet use were insignificant predictors. Results showed a higher utility of ‘technical’ strategies by the parents led to less POG. The findings of this study do not support the literature suggesting active mediation is more effective for reducing youth’s risky behaviour. Instead, parents need to apply more technical mediations with their children and adolescents’ Internet use to minimize the negative effects of online gaming

Computational study of reservoir sand production mechanisms

A numerical model is developed to simulate fluid flow conditions around a wellbore and to evaluate mechanisms governing fluid flow, pressure gradients, rock failure and the ensuing sand production. The rock material behaviour matches sandstone described by the Drucker–Prager material failure model. Conditions for erosion are governed through two criteria: a material failure criterion described by the Drucker–Prager model and a sanding criterion expressed by an eroded solid mass generation model. The interplay between controlling operating and reservoir conditions is assessed. In addition, contributions of the following key factors to interstitial fluid velocity, plastic strain, pore pressure variation and sand production are appraised: drawdown, wellbore perforation depth, mud pressure and erosion criteria. Despite a decrease in pore fluid velocity at the vicinity of the wellbore at increasing depth, sand production increases with wellbore/perforation depth. Likewise, at constant drawdown, sand production is aggravated as wellbore/perforation depth increases. The rate of increase in the plastic zone following the onset of sand production is inconstant. Furthermore, mud pressure is demonstrated as an effective tool for attenuating sand production. An understanding of interactions between key parameters governing reservoir responses and the effect on sanding during oil/gas production is imperative if extraction operations are to be optimised.Published onlin

The inevitable youthfulness of known high-redshift radio galaxies

Radio galaxies can be seen out to very high redshifts, where in principle they can serve as probes of the early evolution of the Universe. Here we show that for any model of radio-galaxy evolution in which the luminosity decreases with time after an initial rapid increase (that is, essentially all reasonable models), all observable high-redshift radio-galaxies must be seen when the lobes are less than 10^7 years old. This means that high-redshift radio galaxies can be used as a high-time-resolution probe of evolution in the early Universe. Moreover, this result helps to explain many observed trends of radio-galaxy properties with redshift [(i) the `alignment effect' of optical emission along radio-jet axes, (ii) the increased distortion in radio structure, (iii) the decrease in physical sizes, (iv) the increase in radio depolarisation, and (v) the increase in dust emission] without needing to invoke explanations based on cosmology or strong evolution of the surrounding intergalactic medium with cosmic time, thereby avoiding conflict with current theories of structure formation.Comment: To appear in Nature. 4 pages, 2 colour figures available on request. Also available at http://www-astro.physics.ox.ac.uk/~km

A 5 item version of the Compliance Questionnaire for Rheumatology (CQR5) successfully identifies low adherence to DMARDs

© 2013 Hughes et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly citedTaking DMARDs as prescribed is an essential part of self-management for patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis. To date, the Compliance Questionnaire for Rheumatology (CQR) is the only self-report adherence measure created specifically for and validated in rheumatic diseases. However, the factor structure of the CQR has not been reported and it can be considered lengthy at 19 items. The aim of this study was to test the factor structure of the CQR and reduce the number of items whilst retaining robust explanation of non-adherence to DMARDs. Such a reduction would increase the clinical utility of the scale, to identify patients with sub-optimal adherence to DMARDs in the clinic as well as for research purposes.Peer reviewe

Interpersonal and affective dimensions of psychopathic traits in adolescents : development and validation of a self-report instrument

We report the development and psychometric evaluations of a self-report instrument designed to screen for psychopathic traits among mainstream community adolescents. Tests of item functioning were initially conducted with 26 adolescents. In a second study the new instrument was administered to 150 high school adolescents, 73 of who had school records of suspension for antisocial behavior. Exploratory factor analysis yielded a 4-factor structure (Impulsivity α = .73, Self-Centredness α = .70, Callous-Unemotional α = .69, and Manipulativeness α = .83). In a third study involving 328 high school adolescents, 130 with records of suspension for antisocial behaviour, competing measurement models were evaluated using confirmatory factor analysis. The superiority of a first-order model represented by four correlated factors that was invariant across gender and age was confirmed. The findings provide researchers and clinicians with a psychometrically strong, self-report instrument and a greater understanding of psychopathic traits in mainstream adolescents

Contextual Query Using Bell Tests

Tests are essential in Information Retrieval and Data Mining in order to evaluate the effectiveness of a query. An automatic measure tool intended to exhibit the meaning of words in context has been developed and linked with Quantum Theory, particularly entanglement. "Quantum like" experiments were undertaken on semantic space based on the Hyperspace Analogue Language (HAL) method. A quantum HAL model was implemented using state vectors issued from the HAL matrix and query observables, testing a wide range of windows sizes. The Bell parameter S, associating measures on two words in a document, was derived showing peaks for specific window sizes. The peaks show maximum quantum violation of the Bell inequalities and are document dependent. This new correlation measure inspired by Quantum Theory could be promising for measuring query relevance.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure

Insidious procedures: diversity awards legitimize unfair organizational practices

This is the author's version of an article subsequently published in Social Justice Research in final format. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11211-015-0240-zDoes the presence (versus absence) of an organizational diversity award increase the perceived fairness of biased personnel procedures? Participants examined fair or unfair personnel procedures at a company that had received a diversity award or an award unrelated to diversity. When the company had received a diversity award (versus a control award), participants perceived the unfair personnel procedure as fairer for minorities, and White participants were more supportive of enacting the biased procedure. These findings suggest that organizations perceived as successfully supporting diversity might be afforded particular legitimacy to enact policies and procedures that disadvantage the very groups they are perceived as valuing.National Science Foundatio