The Paroxetine 352 Bipolar Study Revisited: Deconstruction of Corporate and Academic Misconduct

Medical ghostwriting is the practice in which pharmaceutical companies engage an outside writer to draft a manuscript submitted for publication in the names of “honorary authors,” typically academic key opinion leaders. Using newly-posted documents from paroxetine litigation, we show how the use of ghostwriters and key opinion leaders contributed to the publication of a medical journal article containing manipulated outcome data to favor the proprietary medication. The article was ghostwritten and managed by SmithKline Beecham, now GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Scientific Therapeutics Information, Inc. without acknowledging their contribution in the published article. The named authors with financial ties to GSK, had little or no direct involvement in the paroxetine 352 bipolar trial results and most had not reviewed any of the manuscript drafts. The manuscript was originally rejected by peer review; however, its ultimate acceptance to the American Journal of Psychiatry was facilitated by the journal editor who also had financial ties to GSK. Thus, GSK was able to take an under-powered and non-informative trial with negative results and present it as a positive marketing vehicle for off-label promotion of paroxetine for bipolar depression. In addition to the commercial spin of paroxetine efficacy, important protocol-designated safety data were unreported that may have shown paroxetine to produce potentially harmful adverse events

Fungal Biopesticide for cattle tick and buffalo fly control

Cattle ticks and buffalo flies impose significant economic burdens on the Northern Australian cattle and dairy industries. With the increased temperatures expected under climate change the range of parasites such as these is likely to extend. Current control options for these ectoparasites are limited by problems associated with chemical resistance and residues. Fungal biopesticides offer a sustainable and promising alternative method of control. Laboratory and animal studies have established the potential for the fungus Metarhizium in tick control and provided data that suggests a secondary effect of buffalo fly control is possible. Small field trials are required to obtain a proof of concept for the control of ticks and buffalo flies on animals

Quantum oscillator on complex projective space (Lobachewski space) in constant magnetic field and the issue of generic boundary conditions

We perform a 1-parameter family of self-adjoint extensions characterized by the parameter $\omega_0$. This allows us to get generic boundary conditions for the quantum oscillator on $N$ dimensional complex projective space($\mathbb{C}P^N$) and on its non-compact version i.e., Lobachewski space($\mathcal L_N$) in presence of constant magnetic field. As a result, we get a family of energy spectrums for the oscillator. In our formulation the already known result of this oscillator is also belong to the family. We have also obtained energy spectrum which preserve all the symmetry (full hidden symmetry and rotational symmetry) of the oscillator. The method of self-adjoint extensions have been discussed for conic oscillator in presence of constant magnetic field also.Comment: Accepted in Journal of Physics

Η εφαρμογή των συζεύξευων σε ακραία υδρομετεωρολογικά φαινόμενα

Flies are important arthropod pests in intensive animal facilities such as cattle feedlots, with the potential to cause production loss, transmit disease and cause nuisance to surrounding communities. In the present study, seasonal population dynamics of three important nuisance flies, namely house flies (Musca domestica L.), bush flies (M. vetustissima Walker) and stable flies (Stomoxys calcitrans L.) (Diptera: Muscidae), were monitored on cattle feedlots in south-eastern Queensland, Australia, over 7 years. Musca domestica was by far the dominant species, comprising 67% of the total flies trapped. Models were developed to assess the relationship between weather parameters and fly abundance and to determine whether population trends could be predicted to improve the timing of control measures. For all three species, there were two main effects, namely time-of-year (mainly reflected by minimum temperatures and solar radiation) and rainfall. The abundance of all three species increased with increasing temperature and rainfall, reaching a peak in summer, before decreasing again. Rainfall events resulted in significantly elevated numbers of M. domestica for up to 5 weeks, and for 1 week for M. vetustissima. Peak fly numbers were predicted by the model to occur in spring and summer, following 85-90-mm weekly rainfall. The population dynamics of S. calcitrans were least influenced by rainfall and it was concluded that weather variables were of limited use for forecasting stable fly numbers in this environment and production system. The models provide a useful tool for optimising the timing of fly-control measures, such as insecticide or biopesticide applications, adding to the efficiency of integrated control programs

Action-angle variables for dihedral systems on the circle

A nonrelativistic particle on a circle and subject to a cos^{-2}(k phi) potential is related to the two-dimensional (dihedral) Coxeter system I_2(k), for k in N. For such `dihedral systems' we construct the action-angle variables and establish a local equivalence with a free particle on the circle. We perform the quantization of these systems in the action-angle variables and discuss the supersymmetric extension of this procedure. By allowing radial motion one obtains related two-dimensional systems, including A_2, BC_2 and G_2 three-particle rational Calogero models on R, which we also analyze.Comment: 8 pages; v2: references added, typos fixed, version for PL

Increased attractiveness of honeybee hive product volatiles to adult small hive beetle, Aethina tumida, resulting from small hive beetle larval infestation

The small hive beetle, Aethina tumida Murray (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae), is a recent but significant pest of honeybee Apis mellifera L. (Hymenoptera: Apidae) hives in various regions throughout the world, including Eastern Australia. The larval stage of this beetle damages hives when they feed on brood, pollen, and honeycomb, leaving behind fermented wastes. In cases of extreme damage, hives collapse and are turned to an odorous mass of larvae in fermenting hive products. The yeast Kodamaea ohmeri (Etchells & Bell) Yamada et al. (Ascomycota) has been consistently isolated from the fermenting material as well as each life stage of this beetle. Various studies have noted that the small hive beetle is attracted to volatiles from hive products and those of the yeast K. ohmeri, although earlier studies have not used naturally occurring hive products as their source of fermentation. This study investigated changes through time in the attractiveness of natural honeybee hive products to the small hive beetle as the hive products were altered by the action of beetle larvae and fermentation by K. ohmeri. We used gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and choice-test behavioural assays to investigate these changes using products sampled from three apiaries. Attractiveness of the fermenting hive products (‘slime’) increased as fermentation progressed, and volatile profiles became more complex. Fermenting hive products remained extremely attractive for more than 30 days, significantly longer than previous reports. These results have strong implications for the development of an external attractant trap to assist in the management of this invasive pest

Klauder's coherent states for the radial Coulomb problem in a uniformly curved space and their flat-space limits

First a set of coherent states a la Klauder is formally constructed for the Coulomb problem in a curved space of constant curvature. Then the flat-space limit is taken to reduce the set for the radial Coulomb problem to a set of hydrogen atom coherent states corresponding to both the discrete and the continuous portions of the spectrum for a fixed \ell sector.Comment: 10 pages, no figure

Effects of accelerated and outdoor ageing on leachability and properties of compreg-laminated sesenduk wood

This study evaluated the effects of accelerated and outdoor ageing on compreg-laminated sesenduk (Endospermum diadenum) wood and correlations between these two ageing methods were established. For outdoor ageing, samples were exposed to tropical weather for 1, 3 and 6 months. For accelerated ageing, cyclic boil-dry treatment involving 1, 2, 5 and 10 cycles were employed. Results revealed that density and weight loss were observed after the ageing treatments. After 6 months of outdoor ageing, water absorption of aged phenol formaldehyde and phenol formaldehyde urea-treated samples increased from 3.0 to 13.3% and from 4.1 to 26.6% respectively. Similar behaviour was also observed for samples which underwent 10 cycles of accelerated ageing. Samples subjected to outdoor ageing had thickness swelling higher than that of accelerated ageing (4.3-4.5% vs 2.4-3.7%). Most of the samples lost 8.3 to 22.4% of initial modulus of rupture after 1 month of outdoor ageing. Treated samples retained 61.7 to 77.1% of its initial modulus of elasticity after 10 cycles of accelerated ageing while the untreated samples retained only 48.7%. Emission of formaldehyde decreased with increased exposure times and cyclic boil-dry cycles. As confirmed by Pearson's correlation test, there were good correlations (r = 0.71-0.99) for properties of samples between accelerated ageing and outdoor ageing

Universal integrals for superintegrable systems on N-dimensional spaces of constant curvature

An infinite family of classical superintegrable Hamiltonians defined on the N-dimensional spherical, Euclidean and hyperbolic spaces are shown to have a common set of (2N-3) functionally independent constants of the motion. Among them, two different subsets of N integrals in involution (including the Hamiltonian) can always be explicitly identified. As particular cases, we recover in a straightforward way most of the superintegrability properties of the Smorodinsky-Winternitz and generalized Kepler-Coulomb systems on spaces of constant curvature and we introduce as well new classes of (quasi-maximally) superintegrable potentials on these spaces. Results here presented are a consequence of the sl(2) Poisson coalgebra symmetry of all the Hamiltonians, together with an appropriate use of the phase spaces associated to Poincare and Beltrami coordinates.Comment: 12 page