Beat Cepheids as Probes of Stellar and Galactic Metallicity

The mere location of a Beat Cepheid model in a Period Ratio vs. Period diagram (Petersen diagram) puts very tight constraints on its metallicity Z. The Beat Cepheid Peterson diagrams are revisited with linear nonadiabatic turbulent convective models, and their accuracy as a probe for stellar metallicity is evaluated. They are shown to be largely independent of the helium content Y, and they are also only weakly dependent on the mass-luminosity relation that is used in their construction. However, they are found to show sensitivity to the relative abundances of the elements that are lumped into the metallicity parameter Z. Rotation is estimated to have but a small effect on the 'pulsation metallicities'. A composite Petersen diagram is presented that allows one to read off upper and lower limits on the metallicity Z from the measured period P0 and period ratio P1/P0.Comment: 9 pages, 12 color figures (black and white version available from 1st author's website). With minor revisions. to appear in Ap

HAT-P-49b: A 1.7 M_J Planet Transiting a Bright 1.5 M_S F-Star

We report the discovery of the transiting extrasolar planet HAT-P-49b. The planet transits the bright (V = 10.3) slightly evolved F-star HD 340099 with a mass of 1.54M_S and a radius of 1.83 R_S. HAT-P-49b is orbiting one of the 25 brightest stars to host a transiting planet which makes this a favorable candidate for detailed follow-up. This system is an especially strong target for Rossiter- McLaughlin follow-up due to the fast rotation of the host star, 16 km/s. The planetary companion has a period of 2.6915 d, mass of 1.73 M_J and radius of 1.41 R_J. The planetary characteristics are consistent with that of a classical hot Jupiter but we note that this is the fourth most massive star to host a transiting planet with both M_p and R_p well determined.Comment: Accepted to the Astronomical Journa

Sociodemographic factors and patient perceptions are associated with attitudes to kidney transplantation among haemodialysis patients

Background. Treatment decisions made by patients with chronic kidney disease are crucial in the renal transplantation process. These decisions are influenced, amongst other factors, by attitudes towards different treatment options, which are modulated by knowledge and perceptions about the disease and its treatment and many other subjective factors. Here we study the attitude of dialysis patients to renal transplantation and the association of sociodemographic characteristics, patient perceptions and experiences with this attitude. Methods. In a cross-sectional study, all patients from eight dialysis units in Budapest, Hungary, who were on haemodialysis for at least 3 months were approached to complete a self-administered questionnaire. Data collected from 459 patients younger than 70 years were analysed in this manuscript. Results. Mean age of the study population was 53 +/- 12 years, 54% were male and the prevalence of diabetes was 22%. Patients with positive attitude to renal transplantation were younger (51 +/- 11 versus 58 +/- 11 years), better educated, more likely to be employed (11% versus 4%) and had prior transplantation (15% versus 7%)(P < 0.05 for all). In a multivariate model, negative patient perceptions about transplantation, negative expectations about health outcomes after transplantation and the presence of fears about the transplant surgery were associated, in addition to incre- asing age, with unwillingness to consider transplantation. Conclusions. Negative attitudes to renal transplantation are associated with potentially modifiable factors. Based on this we suggest that it would be necessary to develop standardized, comprehensible patient information systems and personalized decision support to facilitate modality selection and to enable patients to make fully informed treatment decisions

The role of rs2237781 within GRM8 in eating behavior

Introduction: The glutamate receptor, metabotropic 8 gene (GRM8) encodes a G-protein-coupled glutamate receptor and has been associated with smoking behavior and liability to alcoholism implying a role in addiction vulnerability. Data from animal studies suggest that GRM8 may be involved in the regulation of the neuropeptide Y and melanocortin pathways and might influence food intake and metabolism. This study aimed to investigate the effects of the genetic variant rs2237781 within GRM8 on human eating behavior. Methods: The initial analysis included 548 Sorbs from Germany who have been extensively phenotyped for metabolic traits and who completed the German version of the three-factor eating questionnaire. In addition, we analyzed two independent sample sets comprising 293 subjects from another German cohort and 430 Old Order Amish individuals. Genetic associations with restraint, disinhibition, and hunger were assessed in an additive linear regression model. Results: Among the Sorbs the major G allele of rs2237781 was significantly associated with increased restraint scores in eating behavior (P = 1.9 9 10?4; b =+1.936). The German cohort and the Old Order Amish population revealed a trend in the same direction for restraint (P = 0.242; b =+0.874; P = 0.908; b =+0.096; respectively). A meta-analysis resulted in a combined P = 3.1 9 10?3 (Z-score 2.948). Conclusion: Our data suggest that rs2237781 within GRM8 may influence human eating behavior factors probably via pathways involved in addictive behavior

Object Serialization and Deserialization Using XML

Interoperability of potentially heterogeneous databases has been an ongoing research issue for a number of years in the database community. With the trend towards globalization of data location and data access and the consequent requirement for the coexistence of new data stores with legacy systems, the cooperation and data interchange between data repositories has become increasingly important. The emergence of the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) as a database independent representation for data offers a suitable mechanism for transporting data between repositories. This paper describes a research activity within a group at CERN (called CMS) towards identifying and implementing database serialization and deserialization methods that can be used to replicate or migrate objects across the network between CERN and worldwide centres using XML to serialize the contents of multiple objects resident in object-oriented databases.Comment: 14 pages 7 figure

The Slavic NBN founder mutation: a role for reproductive fitness?

The vast majority of patients with Nijmegen Breakage Syndrome (NBS) are of Slavic origin and carry a deleterious deletion (c.657del5; rs587776650) in the NBN gene on chromosome 8q21. This mutation is essentially confined to Slavic populations and may thus be considered a Slavic founder mutation. Notably, not a single parenthood of a homozygous c.657del5 carrier has been reported to date, while heterozygous carriers do reproduce but have an increased cancer risk. These observations seem to conflict with the considerable carrier frequency of c.657del5 of 0.5% to 1% as observed in different Slavic populations because deleterious mutations would be eliminated quite rapidly by purifying selection. Therefore, we propose that heterozygous c.657del5 carriers have increased reproductive success, i.e., that the mutation confers heterozygote advantage. In fact, in our cohort study of the reproductive history of 24 NBS pedigrees from the Czech Republic, we observed that female carriers gave birth to more children on average than female non-carriers, while no such reproductive differences were observed for males. We also estimate that c.657del5 likely occurred less than 300 generations ago, thus supporting the view that the original mutation predated the historic split and subsequent spread of the 'Slavic people'. We surmise that the higher fertility of female c.657del5 carriers reflects a lower miscarriage rate in these women, thereby reflecting the role of the NBN gene product, nibrin, in the repair of DNA double strand breaks and their processing in immune gene rearrangements, telomere maintenance, and meiotic recombination, akin to the previously described role of the DNA repair genes BRCA1 and BRCA2

Study protocol of cost-effectiveness and cost-utility of a biopsychosocial multidisciplinary intervention in the evolution of non-specific sub-acute low back pain in the working population: cluster randomised trial.

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 cited.Background: Low back pain (LBP), with high incidence and prevalence rate, is one of the most common reasons to consult the health system and is responsible for a significant amount of sick leave, leading to high health and social costs. The objective of the study is to assess the cost-effectiveness and cost-utility analysis of a multidisciplinary biopsychosocial educational group intervention (MBEGI) of non-specific sub-acute LBP in comparison with the usual care in the working population recruited in primary healthcare centres. Methods/design: The study design is a cost-effectiveness and cost-utility analysis of a MBEGI in comparison with the usual care of non-specific sub-acute LBP.Measures on effectiveness and costs of both interventions will be obtained from a cluster randomised controlled clinical trial carried out in 38 Catalan primary health care centres, enrolling 932 patients between 18 and 65 years old with a diagnosis of non-specific sub-acute LBP. Effectiveness measures are: pharmaceutical treatments, work sick leave (% and duration in days), Roland Morris disability, McGill pain intensity, Fear Avoidance Beliefs (FAB) and Golberg Questionnaires. Utility measures will be calculated from the SF-12. The analysis will be performed from a social perspective. The temporal horizon is at 3 months (change to chronic LBP) and 12 months (evaluate the outcomes at long term. Assessment of outcomes will be blinded and will follow the intention-to-treat principle. Discussion: We hope to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness and cost-utility of MBEGI, see an improvement in the patients' quality of life, achieve a reduction in the duration of episodes and the chronicity of non-specific low back pain, and be able to report a decrease in the social costs. If the intervention is cost-effectiveness and cost-utility, it could be applied to Primary Health Care Centres. Trial registration: ISRCTN: ISRCTN5871969

Catalog of fundamental mode RR Lyrae stars in the Galactic bulge from the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment

We present a catalog of 1888 fundamental-mode RR Lyrae stars detected in the Galactic bulge fields of the second phase of the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE). The catalog includes basic parameters of the light curves, identifications of Blazhko frequencies, V-I colors at minimum light (for most stars), and other information for each star. We detect a high rate of incidence of the Blazhko phenomenon (at least 27.6%), including unprecedentedly many frequency triplets, which we attribute to our sensitive search method. We find that the minimum light V-I color (useful as a reddening indicator) grows slowly redder with increasing period and exhibits a star-to-star scatter of approximately 0.07 mag. We use this color to evaluate the zero-point accuracy of the reddening map of the Galactic bulge derived from OGLE data, and find that in addition to low-level random errors or resolution effects (responsible for much of the scatter), the map may systematically over-represent E(V-I) by approximately 0.05 mag in most fields. We present reasonably robust evidence that the RR Lyrae-to-red clump color separation is larger by 0.05--0.08 mag in the bulge than locally, which argues for caution in the use of these stars for reddening determinations. We consider the RR Lyrae constraint on the Galactocentric distance, but uncertainty about the absolute magnitude calibration leaves significant flexibility in the result. In contrast to previous results, we robustly detect the signature of the Galactic bar in the RR Lyrae population within the inner plus/minus 3 degrees of longitude, and we highlight the apparent differences between the structures traced by the red clump giants and the more metal-poor RR Lyrae stars. (abridged)Comment: Submitted to ApJ, 34 pages aastex including 8 figures, full tables to appear electronically (temporarily available at http://www.astro.princeton.edu/~collinge/RR/

Scaling and confinement aspects of tadpole improved SU(2) lattice gauge theory and its abelian projection

Using a tadpole improved SU(2) gluodynamics action, the nonabelian potential and the abelian potential after the abelian projection are computed. Rotational invariance is found restored at coarse lattices both in the nonabelian theory and in the effective abelian theory resulting from maximal abelian projection. Asymptotic scaling is tested for the SU(2) string tension. Deviation of the order of $6$ is found, for lattice spacings between 0.27 and 0.06 fm. Evidence for asymptotic scaling and scaling of the monopole density in maximal abelian projection is also seen, but not at coarse lattices. The scaling behavior is compared with analyses of Wilson action results, using bare and renormalized coupling schemes. Using extended monopoles, evidence is found that the gauge dependence of the abelian projection reflects short distance fluctuations, and may thus disappear at large scales.Comment: 28 pages, RevTeX, 12 figures using epsfig (included); accepted for publication in Physical Revie

Progress in the development of early diagnosis and a drug with unique pharmacology to improve cancer therapy

Cancer continues to be one of the major health and socio-economic problems worldwide, despite considerable efforts to improve its early diagnosis and treatment. The identification of new constituents as biomarkers for early diagnosis of neoplastic cells and the discovery of new type of drugs with their mechanistic actions are crucial to improve cancer therapy. New drugs have entered the market, thanks to industrial and legislative efforts ensuring continuity of pharmaceutical development. New targets have been identified, but cancer therapy and the anti-cancer drug market still partly depend on anti-mitotic agents. The objective of this paper is to show the effects of KAR-2, a potent anti-mitotic compound, and TPPP/p25, a new unstructured protein, on the structural and functional characteristics of the microtubule system. Understanding the actions of these two potential effectors on the microtubule system could be the clue for early diagnosis and improvement of cancer therapy