Limiting conditional distributions for birth-death processes

In a recent paper one of us identified all of the quasi-stationary distributions for a non-explosive, evanescent birth-death process for which absorption is certain, and established conditions for the existence of the corresponding limiting conditional distributions. Our purpose is to extend these results in a number of directions. We shall consider separately two cases depending on whether or not the process is evanescent. In the former case we shall relax the condition that absorption is certain. Furthermore, we shall allow for the possibility that the minimal process might be explosive, so that the transition rates alone will not necessarily determine the birth-death process uniquely. Although we shall be concerned mainly with the minimal process, our most general results hold for any birth-death process whose transition probabilities satisfy both the backward and the forward Kolmogorov differential equations

Chitinase and Fizz family members are a generalized feature of nematode infection with selective Upregulation of Ym1 and F10.1 by antigen-presenting cells

Ym1 and Fizz1 are secreted proteins that have been identified in a variety of Th2-mediated inflammatory settings. We originally found Ym1 and Fizz1 as highly expressed macrophage genes in a Brugia malayi infection model. Here, we show that their expression is a generalized feature of nematode infection and that they are induced at the site of infection with both the tissue nematode Litomosoides sigmodontis and the gastrointestinal nematode Nippostrongylus brasiliensis. At the sites of infection with N. brasiliensis, we also observed induction of other chitinase and Fizz family members (ChaFFs): acidic mammalian chitinase (AMCase) and Fizz2. The high expression of both Ym1 and AMCase in the lungs of infected mice suggests that abundant chitinase production is an important feature of Th2 immune responses in the lung. In addition to expression of ChaFFs in the tissues, Ym1 and Fizz1 expression was observed in the lymph nodes. Expression both in vitro and in vivo was restricted to antigen-presenting cells, with the highest expression in B cells and macrophages. ChaFFs may therefore be important effector or wound-repair molecules at the site of nematode infection, with potential regulatory roles for Ym1 and Fizz1 in the draining lymph nodes

Hidden Symmetries and Integrable Hierarchy of the N=4 Supersymmetric Yang-Mills Equations

We describe an infinite-dimensional algebra of hidden symmetries of N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills (SYM) theory. Our derivation is based on a generalization of the supertwistor correspondence. Using the latter, we construct an infinite sequence of flows on the solution space of the N=4 SYM equations. The dependence of the SYM fields on the parameters along the flows can be recovered by solving the equations of the hierarchy. We embed the N=4 SYM equations in the infinite system of the hierarchy equations and show that this SYM hierarchy is associated with an infinite set of graded symmetries recursively generated from supertranslations. Presumably, the existence of such nonlocal symmetries underlies the observed integrable structures in quantum N=4 SYM theory.Comment: 24 page

Testing spatial noncommutativiy via the Aharonov-Bohm effect

The possibility of detecting noncommutative space relics is analyzed using the Aharonov-Bohm effect. We show that, if space is noncommutative, the holonomy receives non-trivial kinematical corrections that will produce a diffraction pattern even when the magnetic flux is quantized. The scattering problem is also formulated, and the differential cross section is calculated. Our results can be extrapolated to high energy physics and the bound $\theta \sim [ 10 {TeV}]^{-2}$ is found. If this bound holds, then noncommutative effects could be explored in scattering experiments measuring differential cross sections for small angles. The bound state Aharonov- Bohm effect is also discussed.Comment: 16 pp, Revtex 4, 2 fig, new references added. To appear in PR

An Integrated TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource to Drive High-Quality Survival Outcome Analytics

For a decade, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) program collected clinicopathologic annotation data along with multi-platform molecular profiles of more than 11,000 human tumors across 33 different cancer types. TCGA clinical data contain key features representing the democratized nature of the data collection process. To ensure proper use of this large clinical dataset associated with genomic features, we developed a standardized dataset named the TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource (TCGA-CDR), which includes four major clinical outcome endpoints. In addition to detailing major challenges and statistical limitations encountered during the effort of integrating the acquired clinical data, we present a summary that includes endpoint usage recommendations for each cancer type. These TCGA-CDR findings appear to be consistent with cancer genomics studies independent of the TCGA effort and provide opportunities for investigating cancer biology using clinical correlates at an unprecedented scale. Analysis of clinicopathologic annotations for over 11,000 cancer patients in the TCGA program leads to the generation of TCGA Clinical Data Resource, which provides recommendations of clinical outcome endpoint usage for 33 cancer types

An appeal to the global health community for a tripartite innovation: an ‘‘Essential Diagnostics List,’’ ‘‘Health in All Policies,’’ and ‘‘See-Through 21st Century Science and Ethics"

Diagnostics spanning a wide range of new biotechnologies, including proteomics, metabolomics, and nanotechnology, are emerging as companion tests to innovative medicines. In this Opinion, we present the rationale for promulgating an ‘‘Essential Diagnostics List.’’ Additionally, we explain the ways in which adopting a vision for ‘‘Health in All Policies’’ could link essential diagnostics with robust and timely societal outcomes such as sustainable development, human rights, gender parity, and alleviation of poverty. We do so in three ways. First, we propose the need for a new, ‘‘see through’’ taxonomy for knowledge-based innovation as we transition from the material industries (e.g., textiles, plastic, cement, glass) dominant in the 20th century to the anticipated knowledge industry of the 21st century. If knowledge is the currency of the present century, then it is sensible to adopt an approach that thoroughly examines scientific knowledge, starting with the production aims, methods, quality, distribution, access, and the ends it purports to serve. Second, we explain that this knowledge trajectory focus on innovation is crucial and applicable across all sectors, including public, private, or public–private partnerships, as it underscores the fact that scientific knowledge is a co-product of technology, human values, and social systems. By making the value systems embedded in scientific design and knowledge co-production transparent, we all stand to benefit from sustainable and transparent science. Third, we appeal to the global health community to consider the necessary qualities of good governance for 21st century organizations that will embark on developing essential diagnostics. These have importance not only for science and knowledge based innovation, but also for the ways in which we can build open, healthy, and peaceful civil societies today and for future generations

For reproductive justice in an era of Gates and Modi – the violence of India’s population policies

This article addresses India’s contemporary population control policies and practices as a form of gendered violence perpetrated by the state and transnational actors, arguing that the targeting of poor, Adivasi and Dalit women for coercive mass sterilizations and unsafe injectable and implantable contraceptives is made possible by the long-term construction of particular women’s lives as devalued and disposable, and of their bodies as excessively fertile and therefore inimical to development and progress. It further considers how population policy is currently embedded in the neoliberal framework of development being pursued by the Indian state. In particular, it argues that the violence of population policies is being deepened as a result of three central and interrelated aspects of this framework: corporate dispossession and displacement, the intensification and extension of women’s labour for global capital, and the discourses and embodied practices of Hindu supremacism. At the same time, India’s population policies cannot be understood in isolation from the global population control establishment, which is increasingly corporate led, and from broader structures of racialised global capital accumulation. The gendered violence of India’s contemporary population policies and the practices they produce operates at several different scales, all of which involve the construction of certain bodies as ‘unfit’ to reproduce and requiring intervention and control