The mathematics of ageing:

Age is a crucial variable in social sciences and particularly in population dynamics. In this paper, we link methods from formal demography and Operations Research to investigate age-structured models to study the greying of academia. As scientific productivity is usually found to decrease at advanced ages, there was a vivid discussion on the ageing among tenured professors and faculty staff of universities. We investigate population ageing in academia from two perspectives. First, we propose a two-state optimal control model to explain the substantial variations of scientific production over the life cycle of researchers. We identify conditions under which typical hump-shaped age-specific patterns of scientific production turn out to be optimal for individual researchers. The second part of the paper deals with the dynamics of the age structure of scientific institutions. Similar to the university professors, many European learned societies experienced a rapid ageing of their member population, where they face the dilemma that keeping young, i.e. electing young entrants, has the drawback of reducing the replacement rate of members. It turns out that electing a mix of young and old members delivers the optimal solution of the problem, i.e. guaranteeing a young age structure, while ensuring a high recruitment rate

Inflammation in the brain during heart failure

Heart failure is a major cardiovascular disease state and an increasing burdon on our society and health care budget. Following a myocardial infarction there is an increase in inflammatory cytokine levels in the brain. This occurs within 30 minutes of a myocardial infarction. The increase in cytokines may result from (i) peripherally produces cytokinds being transported across the blood brain barrier, and (ii) local production, as mRNA levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines are elevated. This local production could involve the immune cells of the brain. Microglia are the primary immune cells in the brain and when activated they secrete cytokines thereby potentially contributing to the local elevation in pro-inflamatory cytokines. A recent study showed that 2-5 weeks following a myocardial infarction, microglia become activated within the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN). It is not known whether microalgia are activated earlier. Furthermore, it is not known whether activation of microglia is limited to the PVN, or if inhibiting the microglial activation influences local neuronal function and cardiac function. The first study in the work aimed to investigate the time course of activated microglia following and myocardial infarction. To investigate the time course of activated microglia, Sprague-Dawley rats were sacrificed at 25 hours, 1, 4, 8, 12 or 16 weeks following a myocardial infarction. The hypothalamus was cut and processed immunohistochemically to detect the microglial marker CD11b (clone OX-42_. The presence of this marker together with morphological changes of the microglia was used to identify activated microglia. Compared to control rates, there was a significant increase in microglia in the PVN at 4, 8, 12 and 16 weeks after the MI. No significant difference from control rats was observed at 25 hours or 1 weeks post MI. There was no correlation found between the echocardiography measures of heart function and the proportion of activated micoglia. The second study used rats 12 weeks post myocardial infarction. In order to determine what effect miroglia were having following myocardial infarction, rats were infused with either minocycline or saline into the lateral ventricle. The brains were collected and processed immunohistochemically to detect the microglial marker CD11b (clone OX-42) as well as a marker of neuronal activaltioin, Fos related antigen (FRA). At 12 weeks following a myocardial infarction there was a significant increase in microglial activation within the paraventricular neucleus (PVN), periaquaducal grey (PAG), rostro ventral lateral medulla (RVLM), nucleus tract solitarus (NTS) and area postrema (AP). Minocycline treatment was able to reduce the microglial activation in these areas by 10-50%. At 12 weeks following myocardial infarction there was a significant increase in neuronal activation within the PVN, PAG, RVLM and NTS, which minocycline treatment was able to drastically reduce. However no improvement in cardical function was observed. In conclusion following MI, microglia are activated within the PVN, RVLM and NTS. This may contribute to the increase in neuronal activation as decreasing microglial activation reduced neuronal activation. However a reduction in microglial activation did not improve cardiac function, suggesting inflammation in those cardiocascular areas of the brain are not playing a key role in cardiac function. This does not preclude these areas from influencing other cardiovascular functions which needs to be further investigated

Etiology of ‘sinus headache’. Moving the focus from rhinology to neurology. A systematic review

‘Sinus headache and/or facial pain’ (SH) is a common complaint encountered by otorhi-nolaryngologists, neurologists and general practitioners. However, several studies suggested that the majority of those cases may be attributed to primary headaches (i.e., migraine and tension-type headache (TTH). The purpose of this review is to evaluate the etiology of SH. The first part in-cludes cross-sectional studies analyzing the prevalence of respective diagnoses in subjects with SH. The majority of these publications indicate that migraine and TTH are the most prevalent causes of SH, although most of these studies were conducted in a clinical setting. The second part of this review included treatment trials in subjects with SH. The findings from this part of the review show that SH without rhinosinusitis responds well to pharmacotherapy targeted at primary headaches. This observation further supports a neurologic etiology of the majority of SH cases

LOADS ACTING ON THE LOCOMOTIVE SYSTEM OF PROFESSIONAL FEMALEVOLLEYBALL PLAYERS DURING THE LANDING PHASE OF SPIKES AND BLOCKS

The purpose of this study was to identify force and time characteristics of ground reaction forces produced during the landing phase of volleyball technical elements: blocks and spikes. Applying piezoelectric dynamometry and video recording, a series of tests were carried out with the participation of four female volleyball players of the first team of AZS AWF sports club competing in the Female Volleyball League. The recorded force vs time line graphs of ground reaction Rx(t), Ry(t) and Rz(t) were used to calculate the values of kinematic-dynamic parameters that describe the level of dynamic loads. Results show that the majority of loads in these movement tasks is significant and may be traumatogenic

VW LMi: tightest quadruple system known. Light-time effect and possible secular changes of orbits

Tightest known quadruple systems VW LMi consists of contact eclipsing binary with P_12 = 0.477551 days and detached binary with P_34 = 7.93063 days revolving in rather tight, 355.0-days orbit. This paper presents new photometric and spectroscopic observations yielding 69 times of minima and 36 disentangled radial velocities for the component stars. All available radial velocities and minima times are combined to better characterize the orbits and to derive absolute parameters of components. The total mass of the quadruple system was estimated at 4.56 M_sun. The detached, non-eclipsing binary with orbital period P = 7.93 days is found to show apsidal motion with U approximately 80 years. Precession period in this binary, caused by the gravitational perturbation of the contact binary, is estimated to be about 120 years. The wide mutual orbit and orbit of the non-eclipsing pair are found to be close to coplanarity, preventing any changes of the inclination angle of the non-eclipsing orbit and excluding occurrence of the second system of eclipses in future. Possibilities of astrometric solution and direct resolving of the wide, mutual orbit are discussed. Nearby star, HD95606, was found to form loose binary with quadruple system VW LMi.Comment: 4 figures. accepted to MNRAS on July 31, 200

Measuring the Public Account- ability of New Modes of Governance

We present an encompassing research endeavour on the public accountability of new modes of governance in Europe. The aim of this project is to measure the salience, tonality and framing of regulatory bodies and public interest organisations in newspaper coverage and parliamentary debates over the last 15 years. In order to achieve this, we use language technology which is still underused in political science text analyses. Institutionally, the project has emerged from a collaboration between a computational linguistics and a political science department

Electrical Quality Assurance of the Superconducting Circuits during LHC Machine Assembly

Based on the LHC powering reference database, all-together 1750 superconducting circuits were connected in the various cryogenic transfer lines of the LHC machine. Testing the continuity, magnet polarity, and the quality of the electrical insulation were the main tasks of the Electrical Quality Assurance (ELQA) activities during the LHC machine assembly. With the assembly of the LHC now complete, the paper reviews the work flow, resources, and the qualification results including the different types of electrical non-conformities

Radial Velocity Studies of Close Binary Stars. XV

Radial-velocity measurements and sine-curve fits to the orbital radial velocity variations are presented for the last eight close binary systems analyzed the same way as in the previous papers of this series: QX And, DY Cet, MR Del, HI Dra, DD Mon, V868 Mon, ER Ori, and Y Sex. For another seven systems (TT Cet, AA Cet, CW Lyn, V563 Lyr, CW Sge, LV Vir and MW Vir) phase coverage is insufficient to provide reliable orbits but radial velocities of individual components were measured. Observations of a few complicated systems observed throughout the DDO close-binary program are also presented; among them an especially interesting is the multiple system V857 Her which - in addition to the contact binary - very probably contains one or more sub-dwarf components of much earlier spectral type. All suspected binaries which were found to be most probably pulsating stars are briefly discussed in terms of mean radial velocities and projected rotation velocities (v sin i) as well as spectral type estimates. In two of them, CU CVn and V752 Mon, the broadening functions show a clear presence of non-radial pulsations. The previously missing spectral types for the DDO I paper are given here in addition to such estimates for most of the program stars of this paper.Comment: submitted to A

Four-colour photometry of eclipsing binaries. XLI uvby light curves for AD Bootis, HW Canis Majoris, SW Canis Majoris, V636 Centauri, VZ Hydrae, and WZ Ophiuchi

CONTEXT: Accurate mass, radius, and abundance determinations from binaries provide important information on stellar evolution, fundamental to central fields in modern astrophysics and cosmology. AIMS: Within the long-term Copenhagen Binary Project, we aim to obtain high-quality light curves and standard photometry for double-lined detached eclipsing binaries with late A, F, and G type main-sequence components, needed for the determination of accurate absolute dimensions and abundances, and for detailed comparisons with results from recent stellar evolutionary models. METHODS: Between March 1985 and July 2007, we carried out photometric observations of AD Boo, HW CMA, SW CMa, V636 Cen, VZ Hya, and WZ Oph at the Str"omgren Automatic Telescope at ESO, La Silla. RESULTS: We obtained complete uvby light curves, ephemerides, and standard uvby\beta indices for all six systems.For V636 Cen and HW CMa, we present the first modern light curves, whereas for AD Boo, SW CMa, VZ Hya, and WZ Oph, they are both more accurate and more complete than earlier data. Due to a high orbital eccentricity (e = 0.50), combined with a low orbital inclination (i = 84.7), only one eclipse, close to periastron, occurs for HW CMa. For the two other eccentric systems, V636 Cen (e = 0.134) and SW CMa (e = 0.316), apsidal motion has been detected with periods of 5270 +/- 335 and 14900 +/- 3600 years, respectively.Comment: Only change is: Bottom lines (hopefully) not truncated anymore. Accepted for publication in Astonomy & Astrophysic