Use and abuse of statistics in tobacco industry-funded research on standardised packaging

In this commentary we consider the validity of tobacco industry-funded research on the effects of standardised packaging in Australia. As the first country to introduce standardised packs, Australia is closely watched, and Philip Morris International has recently funded two studies into the impact of the measure on smoking prevalence. Both of these papers are flawed in conception as well as design but have nonetheless been widely publicised as cautionary tales against standardised pack legislation. Specifically, we focus on the low statistical significance of the analytical methods used and the assumption that standardised packaging should have an immediate large impact on smoking prevalence

The associations of adipokines with selected markers of the renin-angiotensinogen-aldosterone system: the multi-ethnic study of atherosclerosis.

Among obese individuals, increased sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity results in increased renin and aldosterone production, as well as renal tubular sodium reabsorption. This study determined the associations between adipokines and selected measures of the renin-angiotensinogen-aldosterone system (RAAS). The sample consisted of 1970 men and women from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis who were free of clinical cardiovascular disease at baseline and had blood assayed for adiponectin, leptin, plasma renin activity (PRA) and aldosterone. The mean age was 64.7 years and 50% were female. The mean (s.d.) PRA and aldosterone were 1.45 (0.56) ng ml(-1) and 150.1 (130.5) pg ml(-1), respectively. After multivariable adjustment, a 1-s.d. increment of leptin was associated with a 0.55 ng ml(-1) higher PRA and 8.4 pg ml(-1) higher aldosterone (P<0.01 for both). Although adiponectin was not significantly associated with PRA levels, the same increment in this adipokine was associated with lower aldosterone levels (-5.5 pg ml(-1), P=0.01). Notably, the associations between aldosterone and both leptin and adiponectin were not materially changed with additional adjustment for PRA. Exclusion of those taking antihypertensive medications modestly attenuated the associations. The associations between leptin and both PRA and aldosterone were not different by gender but were significantly stronger among non-Hispanic Whites and Chinese Americans than African and Hispanic Americans (P<0.01). The findings suggest that both adiponectin and leptin may be relevant to blood pressure regulation via the RAAS, in that the associations appear to be robust to antihypertension medication use and that the associations are likely different by ethnicity

Entropic lattice Boltzmann methods

We present a general methodology for constructing lattice Boltzmann models of hydrodynamics with certain desired features of statistical physics and kinetic theory. We show how a methodology of linear programming theory, known as Fourier-Motzkin elimination, provides an important tool for visualizing the state space of lattice Boltzmann algorithms that conserve a given set of moments of the distribution function. We show how such models can be endowed with a Lyapunov functional, analogous to Boltzmann's H, resulting in unconditional numerical stability. Using the Chapman-Enskog analysis and numerical simulation, we demonstrate that such entropically stabilized lattice Boltzmann algorithms, while fully explicit and perfectly conservative, may achieve remarkably low values for transport coefficients, such as viscosity. Indeed, the lowest such attainable values are limited only by considerations of accuracy, rather than stability. The method thus holds promise for high-Reynolds number simulations of the Navier-Stokes equations.Comment: 54 pages, 16 figures. Proc. R. Soc. London A (in press

Mengartikulasikan “Trial By The Press” dalam Kemasan Pemberitaan Media yang Berorientasi Kemaslahatan

Pasal 3 ayat (1) UU No. 40 Tahun 1999 menyatakan salah satu fungsi pers nasional adalah kontrol sosial. Namun fungsi kontrol pers dinilai masih kurang. Artikel ini bermaksud mengetahui pemberitaan seperti apakah yang berorientasi kemaslahatan penegakan hukum dapat dipahami bukan sebagai pelanggaran prinsip jurnalistik trial by the press dan daya dorong untuk menciptakan atmosfer anti-KKN seperti apakah yang bisa diformulasikan dalam kemasan artikulatif kontribusi media. Kesimpulannya pemberitaan yang berorientasi kemaslahatan penegakan hukum adalah pemberitaan yang menekankan pada covers all sides dengan memperhatikan asas dan prinsip-prinsip jurnalisme. Daya dorong untuk menciptakan atmosfer anti-KKN berupa pemberdayaan langkah progresif dengan kepatuhan terhadap asas trial by the press dan disiplin verifikasi

Cytotoxicity, Total Phenolic Contents and Antioxidant Activity of the Leaves Extract of Annona Muricata

The leaves of Annona muricata were extracted using ethanol and the extracts were evaluated for cytotoxicity using Brine Shrimp Lethality Assay, total phenolic content (TPC) and antioxidant activity using DPPH radical scavenging assay. The crude extract showed 73.33 % mortality at 1000 μg/mL concentration and its LC50-value was 1.59 μg/mL against brine shrimp larvae. The crude extract exhibited a significant toxicity in comparison with the positive control, the potassium dichromate (K2Cr2O7) with LC50-value 0.57 μg/mL. The TPC assay of the extracts was expressed as mg of tannic acid equivalent per gram of sample and mg of gallic acid equivalent per gram of sample, the result showed the content of phenolic compounds as 266.86 ± 2.21 mg·TAE/g and 278.60 ± 4.21 mg·GAE/g respectively. The DPPH radical scavenging activity of the ethanol extracts displayed a signigicant free radical scavenging capacity with the IC50 value of 2.58 μg/ml compared with the standard drugs, the ascorbic acid (IC50 0.563 μg/mL) and the butylated hydroxytoluene (IC50 0.570 μg/mL). The result suggested that the antioxidant property exhibited by the ethanol extract could be associated with its high total phenolic contents.Keywords: Annona muricata, Antioxidants, Cytotoxicity, Total Phenolic Content

Interactions of B = 4 Skyrmions

It is known that the interactions of single Skyrmions are asymptotically described by a Yukawa dipole potential. Less is known about the interactions of solutions of the Skyrme model with higher baryon number. In this paper, it is shown that Yukawa multipole theory can be more generally applied to Skyrmion interactions, and in particular to the long-range dominant interactions of the B = 4 solution of the Skyrme model, which models the alpha-particle. A method that gives the quadrupole nature of the interaction a more intuitive meaning in the pion field colour picture is demonstrated. Numerical methods are employed to find the precise strength of quadrupole and octupole interactions. The results are applied to the B = 8 and B = 12 solutions and to the Skyrme crystal.Comment: 21 pages, 11 figure

First-Fit is Linear on Posets Excluding Two Long Incomparable Chains

A poset is (r + s)-free if it does not contain two incomparable chains of size r and s, respectively. We prove that when r and s are at least 2, the First-Fit algorithm partitions every (r + s)-free poset P into at most 8(r-1)(s-1)w chains, where w is the width of P. This solves an open problem of Bosek, Krawczyk, and Szczypka (SIAM J. Discrete Math., 23(4):1992--1999, 2010).Comment: v3: fixed some typo

Short communication: NKG2C+ NK cells contribute to increases in CD16+CD56- cells in HIV type 1+ individuals with high plasma viral load.

Chronic HIV-1 infection results in the expansion of both NKG2C+ and CD16+CD56- human natural killer cells. NKG2C+ cells proliferate in response to human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) and expansion of the dysfunctional CD56-CD16+ natural killer (NK) cells is associated with HIV-1 viremia. Here we report an association between increased proportions of CD56-CD16+ NK cells in viremic HIV-1+ individuals and an increased contribution of NKG2C+ cells to this subset. These data, in addition to anti-HCMV IgG serology, indicate a potential contribution of both HCMV and HIV-1 to NK cell dysfunction in HIV-1-infected individuals