Acculturation and risk of traffic crashes in young Asian-born Australian drivers

The study examines changes over time in crash risk differences between young Australian drivers born in Asia and those born in Australia. Data from the 2003 baseline survey of the DRIVE cohort of 20 806 young drivers aged 17-24 years were linked to police, hospital and death data up until 2016. The association between country of birth and crash was investigated using flexible parametric survival models adjusted for confounders. Six months after baseline, the crash risk in Asian-born drivers was less than half that of their Australian-born counterparts (mean HR, MHR 0.41; 95% CI 0.29 to 0.57), only to increase steadily over time to resemble that of Australian-born drivers 13 years later (MHR 0.94; 95% CI 0.66 to 1.36). This is likely to be associated with acculturation and the adoption by young Asian-born Australian drivers of driving behaviour patterns akin to those born locally. This needs to be considered in future road safety campaigns

Spirometry reference equations for central European populations from school age to old age.

Spirometry reference values are important for the interpretation of spirometry results. Reference values should be updated regularly, derived from a population as similar to the population for which they are to be used and span across all ages. Such spirometry reference equations are currently lacking for central European populations. To develop spirometry reference equations for central European populations between 8 and 90 years of age. We used data collected between January 1993 and December 2010 from a central European population. The data was modelled using "Generalized Additive Models for Location, Scale and Shape" (GAMLSS). The spirometry reference equations were derived from 118'891 individuals consisting of 60'624 (51%) females and 58'267 (49%) males. Altogether, there were 18'211 (15.3%) children under the age of 18 years. We developed spirometry reference equations for a central European population between 8 and 90 years of age that can be implemented in a wide range of clinical settings

Relevant Deformations in Open String Field Theory: a Simple Solution for Lumps

We propose a remarkably simple solution of cubic open string field theory which describes inhomogeneous tachyon condensation. The solution is in one-to-one correspondence with the IR fixed point of the RG-flow generated in the two--dimensional world-sheet theory by integrating a relevant operator with mild enough OPE on the boundary. It is shown how the closed string overlap correctly captures the shift in the closed string one point function between the UV and the IR limits of the flow. Examples of lumps in non-compact and compact transverse directions are given.Comment: 45 pages. v2: typos and minor improvements. v3: submitted to jhe

Solutions from boundary condition changing operators in open string field theory

We construct analytic solutions of open string field theory using boundary condition changing (bcc) operators. We focus on bcc operators with vanishing conformal weight such as those for regular marginal deformations of the background. For any Fock space state phi, the component string field of the solution Psi exhibits a remarkable factorization property: it is given by the matter three-point function of phi with a pair of bcc operators, multiplied by a universal function that only depends on the conformal weight of phi. This universal function is given by a simple integral expression that can be computed once and for all. The three-point functions with bcc operators are thus the only needed physical input of the particular open string background described by the solution. We illustrate our solution with the example of the rolling tachyon profile, for which we prove convergence analytically. The form of our solution, which involves bcc operators instead of explicit insertions of the marginal operator, can be a natural starting point for the construction of analytic solutions for arbitrary backgrounds.Comment: 21 pages, 1 figure, LaTeX2e; v2: minor changes, version published in JHE

Comments on Lumps from RG flows

In this note we investigate the proposal of Ellwood and one of the authors et al. to construct a string field theory solution describing the endpoint of an RG flow from a reference BCFT to a target BCFT*. We show that the proposed class of solutions suffers from an anomaly in the equations of motion. Nevertheless, the gauge invariant action exactly reproduces the expected shift in energy.Comment: 30 pages, 1 eps figure. V2: 40 pages 3 figures, presentation expanded, energy and closed string tadpole computations extended to more general class of solution

Connecting Solutions in Open String Field Theory with Singular Gauge Transformations

We show that any pair of classical solutions of open string field theory can be related by a formal gauge transformation defined by a gauge parameter $U$ without an inverse. We investigate how this observation can be used to construct new solutions. We find that a choice of gauge parameter consistently generates a new solution only if the BRST charge maps the image of $U$ into itself. When this occurs, we argue that $U$ naturally defines a star algebra projector which describes a surface of string connecting the boundary conformal field theories of the classical solutions related by $U$. We also note that singular gauge transformations give the solution space of open string field theory the structure of a category, and we comment on the physical interpretation of this observation.Comment: V2: minor improvements, added citation

Level truncation analysis of regularized identity based solutions

We evaluate the vacuum energy of regularized identity based solutions through level truncation computations in open bosonic string field theory. We show that the level truncated solutions bring a value of the vacuum energy expected for the tachyon vacuum in agreement with Sen's first conjecture.Comment: 22 pages, comments added, one table adde

Podocyte specific knock out of selenoproteins does not enhance nephropathy in streptozotocin diabetic C57BL/6 mice

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Selenoproteins contain selenocysteine (Sec), commonly considered the 21^stgenetically encoded amino acid. Many selenoproteins, such as the glutathione peroxidases and thioredoxin reductases, protect cells against oxidative stress by functioning as antioxidants and/or through their roles in the maintenance of intracellular redox balance. Since oxidative stress has been implicated in the pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy, we hypothesized that selenoproteins protect against this complication of diabetes.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>C57BL/6 mice that have a podocyte-specific inability to incorporate Sec into proteins (denoted in this paper as PodoTrsp^-/-) and control mice were made diabetic by intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin, or were injected with vehicle. Blood glucose, body weight, microalbuminuria, glomerular mesangial matrix expansion, and immunohistochemical markers of oxidative stress were assessed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>After 3 and 6 months of diabetes, control and PodoTrsp^-/-mice had similar levels of blood glucose. There were no differences in urinary albumin/creatinine ratios. Periodic acid-Schiff staining to examine mesangial matrix expansion also demonstrated no difference between control and PodoTrsp^-/-mice after 6 months of diabetes, and there were no differences in immunohistochemical stainings for nitrotyrosine or NAD(P)H dehydrogenase, quinone 1.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Loss of podocyte selenoproteins in streptozotocin diabetic C57BL/6 mice does not lead to increased oxidative stress as assessed by nitrotyrosine and NAD(P)H dehydrogenase, quinone 1 immunostaining, nor does it lead to worsening nephropathy.</p