Trading Goods versus Sharing Money - An Experiment Testing Wether Fairness and Efficiency are Frame Dependent

Systematic experiments with distribution games (for a survey, see Roth, 1995) have shown that participants are strongly motivated by fairness and efficiency considerations. This evidence, however, results mainly from experimental designs asking directly for sharing monetary rewards. But even when not just one kind of monetary tokens is distributed efficiency and fairness are less influential. We investigate and confirm this frame dependency more systematically by comparing net-trade-proposals and payoff-proposals for the same exchange economy with two traders, two commodities and multi-period-negotiations.

Effects of a 10 week yoga intervention on balance, mobility, spasticity and quality of life in people with multiple sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis is a disease of the central nervous system (CNS) that results in many symptoms including balance deficits, mobility limitations, spasticity and reduced quality of life (Joy & Johnston, 2001). However, little research exists on improving balance, mobility and spasticity through physical activity interventions in people with MS. The purpose of the present study was to determine the effects of a yoga intervention on postural control, spasticity, mobility, and quality of life in people with MS. A sample o f 12 people aged 30 to 76 (mean age o f 52 yrs.) with varying types of MS participated in a twice weekly 70 minute yoga intervention for 10 weeks. Participants completed a spasticity questionnaire, the Adapted Timed Get Up and Go (ATGUG), the Rivermead Mobility Index (RMI), a postural control assessment, and the Multiple Sclerosis Quality o f Life Inventory (MS-QLI) at 3 assessments; pre, post, and 12 weeks after the intervention. After the 10-week program a social validation questionnaire was also completed. One way repeated measures ANOVAs or Friedman ANOVAs by ranks indicated significant changes on the fatigue and vision scales of the MS-QLI MFIS and IVIS between pre and post assessments. Changes in ATGUG and RMI suggest that yoga may be a valuable alternative to traditional exercise programs for people with MS. Many of the changes began to return to pre intervention values over the second 12-week period. Future studies should employ a control group, larger sample sizes, and screen more carefully for initial functional status stratifications

Representations of J-central J-Potapov functions in both nondegenerate and degenerate cases

AbstractLet J be an m×m signature matrix (i.e. J∗=J and J2=Im) and let D:={z∈C:|z|<1}. Denote PJ(D) the class of all J-Potapov functions in D, i.e. the set of all meromorphic m×m matrix-valued functions f in D with J-contractive values at all points of D at which f is holomorphic. Further, denote PJ,0(D) the subclass of all f∈PJ(D) which are holomorphic at the origin. Let f∈PJ,0(D), and let f(w)=∑j=0∞Ajwj be the Taylor series representation of f in some neighborhood of 0. Then it was proved in [B. Fritzsche, B. Kirstein, U. Raabe, On the structure of J-Potapov sequences, Linear Algebra Appl., in press] that for each n∈N the matrix An can be described by its position in a matrix ball depending on the sequence (Aj)j=0n-1. The J-Potapov function f is called J-central if there exists some k∈N such that for each integer j⩾k the matrix Aj coincides with the center of the corresponding matrix ball.In this paper, we derive left and right quotient representations of matrix polynomials for J-central J-Potapov functions in D. Moreover, we obtain recurrent formulas for the matrix polynomials involved in these quotient representations

Investigating the persistence of tick-borne pathogens via the R0 model

In the epidemiology of infectious diseases, the basic reproduction number,R0, has a number of important applications, most notably it can be used to predict whether a pathogen is likely to become established, or persist, in a given area. We used the R0 model to investigate the persistence of 3 tick-borne pathogens; Babesia microti, Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato in an Apodemus sylvaticus-Ixodes ricinus system. The persistence of these pathogens was also determined empirically by screening questing ticks and wood mice by PCR. All 3 pathogens behaved differently in response to changes in the proportion of transmission hosts on which I. ricinus fed, the efficiency of transmission between the host and ticks and the abundance of larval and nymphal ticks found on small mammals. Empirical data supported theoretical predictions of the R0 model. The transmission pathway employed and the duration of systemic infection were also identified as important factors responsible for establishment or persistence of tick-borne pathogens in a given tick-host system. The current study demonstrates how the R0 model can be put to practical use to investigate factors affecting tick-borne pathogen persistence, which has important implications for animal and human health worldwide

The Novel Phosphatidylinositol-3-Kinase (PI3K) Inhibitor Alpelisib Effectively Inhibits Growth of PTEN-Haploinsufficient Lipoma Cells

Germline mutations in the tumor suppressor gene PTEN cause PTEN Hamartoma Tumor Syndrome (PHTS). Pediatric patients with PHTS frequently develop lipomas. Treatment attempts with the mTORC1 inhibitor rapamycin were unable to reverse lipoma growth. Recently, lipomas associated with PIK3CA-related overgrowth syndrome were successfully treated with the novel PI3K inhibitor alpelisib. Here, we tested whether alpelisib has growth-restrictive effects and induces cell death in lipoma cells. We used PTEN-haploinsufficient lipoma cells from three patients and treated them with alpelisib alone or in combination with rapamycin. We tested the effect of alpelisib on viability, proliferation, cell death, induction of senescence, adipocyte differentiation, and signaling at 1-100 \ub5M alpelisib. Alpelisib alone or in combination with rapamycin reduced proliferation in a concentration- and time-dependent manner. No cell death but an induction of senescence was detected after alpelisib incubation for 72 h. Alpelisib treatment led to a reduced phosphorylation of AKT, mTOR, and ribosomal protein S6. Rapamycin treatment alone led to increased AKT phosphorylation. This effect could be reversed by combining rapamycin with alpelisib. Alpelisib reduced the size of lipoma spheroids by attenuating adipocyte differentiation. Since alpelisib was well tolerated in first clinical trials, this drug alone or in combination with rapamycin is a potential new treatment option for PHTS-related adipose tissue overgrowth

Effect of quantum group invariance on trapped Fermi gases

We study the properties of a thermodynamic system having the symmetry of a quantum group and interacting with a harmonic potential. We calculate the dependence of the chemical potential, heat capacity and spatial distribution of the gas on the quantum group parameter $q$ and the number of spatial dimensions $D$. In addition, we consider a fourth-order interaction in the quantum group fields $\Psi$, and calculate the ground state energy up to first order.Comment: LaTeX file, 20 pages, four figures, uses epsf.sty, packaged as a single tar.gz uuencoded fil