Varro, Atticus and Annales

This paper explores the scholarly relationship between Varro and Atticus by focusing on the attribution of a Varronian fragment (Gell. 17.21.24). Taking into account Gellius's citation practices, it is argued that the fragment (concerning the execution of the tyrant Manlius) was mediated via Atticus, not taken directly from Varro. The evidence for Varro's and Atticus's friendship and scholarly cooperation undermines traditional attempts to identify any ultimate written source for this material, and prompts a re-evaluation of the relationship between the two friends’ antiquarian interests to outline the consequences of scholarly and social exchange. This investigation suggests that, like many apparent points of Attico-Varronian overlap (including Rome's foundation-date), the fragment's origins might owe more to personal acquaintance than secluded book-learning. Their antiquarian choices had the potential to be politically charged, and the version of Manlius's death endorsed by Varro may thus indicate his political stance towards Caesar

Bi-Marcus? The two Varrones of Augustine and Nonius Marcellus

No abstract available

Thyroxine treatment in patients with symptoms of hypothyroidism but thyroid function tests within the reference range: randomised double blind placebo controlled crossover trial

OBJECTIVES: To determine whether thyroxine treatment is effective in patients with symptoms of hypothyroidism but with thyroid function tests within the reference range, and to investigate the effect of thyroxine treatment on psychological and physical wellbeing in healthy participants. DESIGN: Randomised double blind placebo controlled crossover trial. SETTING: Outpatient clinic in a general hospital. Participants: 25 patients with symptoms of hypothyroidism who had thyroid function tests within the reference range, and 19 controls. Methods: Participants were given thyroxine 100 microgram or placebo to take once a day for 12 weeks. Washout period was six weeks. They were then given the other to take once a day for 12 weeks. All participants were assessed physiologically and psychologically at baseline and on completion of each phase. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Thyroid function tests, measures of cognitive function and of psychological and physical wellbeing. RESULTS: 22 patients and 19 healthy controls completed the study. At baseline, patients' scores on 9 out of 15 psychological measures were impaired when compared with controls. Patients showed a significantly greater response to placebo than controls in 3 out of 15 psychological measures. Healthy participants had significantly lower scores for vitality when taking thyroxine compared to placebo (mean (SD) 60 (17) v 73 (16), P<0.01). However, patients' scores from psychological tests when taking thyroxine were no different from those when taking placebo except for a poorer performance on one visual reproduction test when taking thyroxine. Serum concentrations of free thyroxine increased and those of thyroid stimulating hormone decreased in patients and controls while they were taking thyroxine, confirming compliance with treatment. Although serum concentrations of free triiodothyronine increased in patients and controls taking thyroxine, the difference between the response to placebo and to thyroxine was significant only in the controls. CONCLUSIONS: Thyroxine was no more effective than placebo in improving cognitive function and psychological wellbeing in patients with symptoms of hypothyroidism but thyroid function tests within the reference range. Thyroxine did not improve cognitive function and psychological wellbeing in healthy participants

Age-related differences in appetitive trace conditioning and novel object recognition procedures

Appetitive trace conditioning (TC) was examined over 6 months in younger-adult (2-8 months) and middle-aged (12-18 months) male Wistar RccHan rats to test for early age-related impairment in working memory. Novel object recognition (NOR) was included as a comparison task to provide a positive control in the event that the expected impairment in TC was not demonstrated. The results showed that TC improved at both ages at the 2s but not at the 10s trace interval. There was, however, evidence for reduced improvement from one day to the next in the middle-aged cohort tested with the 2s trace conditioned stimulus. Moreover, within the 10s trace, responding progressively distributed later in the trace interval, in the younger-adult but not the middle-aged cohort. Middle-aged rats showed NOR discriminative impairment at a 24h but not at a 10 min retention interval. Object exploration was overall reduced in middle-aged rats and further reduced longitudinally. At the end of the study, assessing neurochemistry by HPLC-ED showed reduced 5-HIAA/5-HT in the dorsal striatum of the middle-aged rats and some correlations between striatal 5-HIAA/5-HT and activity parameters. Overall the results suggest that, taken in isolation, age-related impairments may be overcome by experience. This recovery in performance was seen despite the drop in activity levels in older animals, which might be expected to contribute to cognitive decline. [219 words

Patient factors influencing the prescribing of lipid lowering drugs for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease in UK general practice: a national retrospective cohort study

BACKGROUND: Guidelines indicate eligibility for lipid lowering drugs, but it is not known to what extent GPs' follow guidelines in routine clinical practice or whether additional clinical factors systematically influence their prescribing decisions. METHODS: A retrospective cohort analysis was undertaken using electronic primary care records from 421 UK general practices. At baseline (May 2008) patients were aged 30 to 74 years, free from cardiovascular disease and not taking lipid lowering drugs. The outcome was prescription of a lipid lowering drug within the next two years. The proportions of eligible and ineligible patients prescribed lipid lowering drugs were reported and multivariable logistic regression models were used to investigate associations between age, sex, cardiovascular risk factors and prescribing. RESULTS: Of 365,718 patients with complete data, 13.8% (50,558) were prescribed lipid lowering drugs: 28.5% (21,101/74,137) of those eligible and 10.1% (29,457/291,581) of those ineligible. Only 41.7% (21,101/50,558) of those prescribed lipid lowering drugs were eligible. In multivariable analysis prescribing was most strongly associated with increasing age (OR for age ≥65 years 4.21; 95% CI 4.05–4.39); diabetes (OR 4.49; 95% CI 4.35–4.64); total cholesterol level ≥7 mmol/L (OR 2.20; 95% CI 2.12–2.29); and ≥4 blood pressure measurements in the past year (OR 4.24; 95% CI 4.06–4.42). The predictors were similar in eligible and ineligible patients. CONCLUSIONS: Most lipid lowering drugs for primary prevention are prescribed to ineligible patients. There is underuse of lipid lowering drugs in eligible patients

Infusions of scopolamine in dorsal hippocampus reduce anticipatory responding in an appetitive trace conditioning procedure

Trace conditioning is impaired by lesions to dorsal hippocampus, as well as by treatment with the muscarinic acetylcholine antagonist scopolamine. However, the role of muscarinic receptors within hippocampus has received little attention. The present study examined the effects of intra-hippocampal infusion of scopolamine (30μg/side) in an appetitive trace conditioning procedure using sucrose pellets as the unconditioned stimulus (US). This treatment resulted in reduced responding to a trace conditioned stimulus (CS), an effect most clearly seen when the US was presented at a 2s trace (inter-stimulus-interval, ISI). Intra-hippocampal scopolamine similarly depressed responding within the ISI (at both 2 and 10s trace intervals), but there was no such effect in the inter-trial-interval (ITI). There was also some overall reduction in responding when the US was delivered; significant at the 10s but not at the 2s trace interval. A similar pattern of results to that seen in response to the CS during acquisition was shown drug-free (in the 5s post-CS) in the extinction tests of conditioned responding. Moreover, in a different apparatus, locomotor activity was increased under scopolamine. Thus the results suggest that non-specific changes in activity or motivation to respond for the US cannot explain the reduction in trace conditioning as measured by reduced CS responding and in the ISI. Rather the findings of the present study point to the importance of associative aspects of the task in determining its sensitivity to the effects of scopolamine, suggesting that muscarinic receptors in the hippocampus are important modulators of short-term working memory

Partitioned trace distances

New quantum distance is introduced as a half-sum of several singular values of difference between two density operators. This is, up to factor, the metric induced by so-called Ky Fan norm. The partitioned trace distances enjoy similar properties to the standard trace distance, including the unitary invariance, the strong convexity and the close relations to the classical distances. The partitioned distances cannot increase under quantum operations of certain kind including bistochastic maps. All the basic properties are re-formulated as majorization relations. Possible applications to quantum information processing are briefly discussed.Comment: 8 pages, no figures. Significant changes are made. New section on majorization is added. Theorem 4.1 is extended. The bibliography is enlarged

Representation of The Internet Life in Petra Sihombing's Album "Semenjak Internet"

Music Album is a collection of songs or music that has a consistent arrangement/order in a recording. While songs or music are a means to express the anxiety felt by the songwriter. The album titled "Semenjak Internet" is an art by musician called Petra Sihombing which was released on October 23, 2020. The purpose of this research is to find out how the songs on the album "Semenjak Internet" represent internet life in our society. The songs on the album “Semenjak Internet” describe how our behavior has changed after the development of technology and the internet and cyberspace. There are several positive and negative impacts arising from the development of technology and the internet that affect the way we live our lives today. This study uses qualitative research combined with Roland Barthes' semiotic analysis technique, which includes three sign systems: denotation, connotation, and myth. The results of this study indicate that advances in technology and the internet have both positive and negative impacts on our society. The negative impact shown is how we are too complacent with advances in technology and the internet so that we are too dependent on the internet and forget about activities and socializing in real life. But if we can take full advantage of technology and according to our measure we can use the internet to support and help our daily activities

On possibility of measurement of the electron beam energy using absorption of radiation by electrons in a magnetic field

The possibility of the precise measurement of the electron beam energy using absorption of radiation by electrons in a static and homogeneous magnetic field in a range up to a few hundred GeV energies, was considered in [1]. With the purpose of experimental checking of this method in a range of several tens MeV energies, the possibility of measurement of absolute energy of the electron beam energy with relative accuracy up to 10^{-4} is examined in details.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figure

Probability distributions consistent with a mixed state

A density matrix $\rho$ may be represented in many different ways as a mixture of pure states, \rho = \sum_i p_i |\psi_i\ra \la \psi_i|. This paper characterizes the class of probability distributions $(p_i)$ that may appear in such a decomposition, for a fixed density matrix $\rho$. Several illustrative applications of this result to quantum mechanics and quantum information theory are given.Comment: 6 pages, submitted to Physical Review