Identification of Species Composition in the Hong Kong Shark Fin Trade using Genetic Techniques and Trader Records

Trade in shark fins represents one of the most serious threats to shark populations worldwide. Previous studies have indicated that certain types of fins are more valued than others, but due to the largely unregulated and often covert nature of the trade, information on actual species composition has been anecdotal and unverified. In order to examine the potential impacts of the shark fin trade on the abundance of various shark species, a study of the species composition in the world’s largest shark fin trading center, Hong Kong, was initiated. Several approaches for distinguishing the species identity of dried fins were evaluated including visual differentiation (shape, color and morphometrics), denticle recognition, and DNA-based methods. This assessment found that genetic analyses were necessary to reliably determine species identity, and a technique involving application of polymerase chain reactions (PCR) with species-specific primers was selected. A sampling program was developed based on the requirements of the PCR technique, the practicalities of accessing samples, and the ability to draw statistically robust conclusions. Shark fins from twelve market categories were sampled and analyzed across a broad range of traders to investigate the concordance between trader names for fins and the associated species identity. Preliminary results indicating an initial matching of trade names and species identities will be presented. These data will subsequently be used in combination with daily shark fin auction records to estimate verified, speciesspecific proportions and quantities of shark fins in the trade

An experimental study of the rearrangements of valence protons and neutrons amongst single-particle orbits during double {\beta} decay in 100Mo

The rearrangements of protons and neutrons amongst the valence single-particle orbitals during double {\beta} decay of 100Mo have been determined by measuring cross sections in (d,p), (p,d), (3He,{\alpha}) and (3He,d) reactions on 98,100Mo and 100,102Ru targets. The deduced nucleon occupancies reveal significant discrepancies when compared with theoretical calculations; the same calculations have previously been used to determine the nuclear matrix element associated with the decay probability of double {\beta} decay of the 100Mo system.Comment: 18 pages, 13 figures, 37 pages of supplemental informatio

Altered hippocampal function in major depression despite intact structure and resting perfusion

Background: Hippocampal volume reductions in major depression have been frequently reported. However, evidence for functional abnormalities in the same region in depression has been less clear. We investigated hippocampal function in depression using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and neuropsychological tasks tapping spatial memory function, with complementing measures of hippocampal volume and resting blood flow to aid interpretation. Method: A total of 20 patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and a matched group of 20 healthy individuals participated. Participants underwent multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI): fMRI during a spatial memory task, and structural MRI and resting blood flow measurements of the hippocampal region using arterial spin labelling. An offline battery of neuropsychological tests, including several measures of spatial memory, was also completed. Results: The fMRI analysis showed significant group differences in bilateral anterior regions of the hippocampus. While control participants showed task-dependent differences in blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal, depressed patients did not. No group differences were detected with regard to hippocampal volume or resting blood flow. Patients showed reduced performance in several offline neuropsychological measures. All group differences were independent of differences in hippocampal volume and hippocampal blood flow. Conclusions: Functional abnormalities of the hippocampus can be observed in patients with MDD even when the volume and resting perfusion in the same region appear normal. This suggests that changes in hippocampal function can be observed independently of structural abnormalities of the hippocampus in depression

Accuracy of diabetes screening methods used for people with tuberculosis, Indonesia, Peru, Romania, South Africa

Objective To evaluate the performance of diagnostic tools for diabetes mellitus, including laboratory methods and clinical risk scores, in newly-diagnosed pulmonary tuberculosis patients from four middle-income countries. Methods In a multicentre, prospective study, we recruited 2185 patients with pulmonary tuberculosis from sites in Indonesia, Peru, Romania and South Africa from January 2014 to September 2016. Using laboratory-measured glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) as the gold standard, we measured the diagnostic accuracy of random plasma glucose, point-of-care HbA1c, fasting blood glucose, urine dipstick, published and newly derived diabetes mellitus risk scores and anthropometric measurements. We also analysed combinations of tests, including a two-step test using point-of-care HbA1cwhen initial random plasma glucose was ≥ 6.1 mmol/L. Findings The overall crude prevalence of diabetes mellitus among newly diagnosed tuberculosis patients was 283/2185 (13.0%; 95% confidence interval, CI: 11.6–14.4). The marker with the best diagnostic accuracy was point-of-care HbA1c (area under receiver operating characteristic curve: 0.81; 95% CI: 0.75–0.86). A risk score derived using age, point-of-care HbA1c and random plasma glucose had the best overall diagnostic accuracy (area under curve: 0.85; 95% CI: 0.81–0.90). There was substantial heterogeneity between sites for all markers, but the two-step combination test performed well in Indonesia and Peru. Conclusion Random plasma glucose followed by point-of-care HbA1c testing can accurately diagnose diabetes in tuberculosis patients, particularly those with substantial hyperglycaemia, while reducing the need for more expensive point-of-care HbA1c testing. Risk scores with or without biochemical data may be useful but require validation

Comparing Brane Inflation to WMAP

We compare the simplest realistic brane inflationary model to recent cosmological data, including WMAP 3-year cosmic microwave background (CMB) results, Sloan Digital Sky Survey luminous red galaxies (SDSS LRG) power spectrum data and Supernovae Legacy Survey (SNLS) Type 1a supernovae distance measures. Here, the inflaton is simply the position of a $D3$-brane which is moving towards a $\bar{D}3$-brane sitting at the bottom of a throat (a warped, deformed conifold) in the flux compactified bulk in Type IIB string theory. The analysis includes both the usual slow-roll scenario and the Dirac-Born-Infeld scenario of slow but relativistic rolling. Requiring that the throat is inside the bulk greatly restricts the allowed parameter space. We discuss possible scenarios in which large tensor mode and/or non-Gaussianity may emerge. Here, the properties of a large tensor mode deviate from that in the usual slow-roll scenario, providing a possible stringy signature. Overall, within the brane inflationary scenario, the cosmological data is providing information about the properties of the compactification of the extra dimensions.Comment: 45 pages 11 figure

An Inflaton Mass Problem in String Inflation from Threshold Corrections to Volume Stabilization

Inflationary models whose vacuum energy arises from a D-term are believed not to suffer from the supergravity eta problem of F-term inflation. That is, D-term models have the desirable property that the inflaton mass can naturally remain much smaller than the Hubble scale. We observe that this advantage is lost in models based on string compactifications whose volume is stabilized by a nonperturbative superpotential: the F-term energy associated with volume stabilization causes the eta problem to reappear. Moreover, any shift symmetries introduced to protect the inflaton mass will typically be lifted by threshold corrections to the volume-stabilizing superpotential. Using threshold corrections computed by Berg, Haack, and Kors, we illustrate this point in the example of the D3-D7 inflationary model, and conclude that inflation is possible, but only for fine-tuned values of the stabilized moduli. More generally, we conclude that inflationary models in stable string compactifications, even D-term models with shift symmetries, will require a certain amount of fine-tuning to avoid this new contribution to the eta problem.Comment: 25 page

Only the best? Exploring cross-border investor preferences in US gateway cities

Despite heady growth in cross-border investment into commercial real estate over recent decades, there are few studies that examine differences in investment preferences between domestic and cross-border investors at a micro level. We address the gap by examining the characteristics of assets acquired by cross border investors in six major US metro areas, comparing them with the purchases made by US investors in those same areas. Our study uses data on more than 67 500 transactions recorded by Real Capital Analytics (RCA) over the period from Q1 2003 to Q3 2016. As well as examining cross-border investors in aggregate, we isolate and examine purchases by investors from each of the four principal source nations for cross-border real estate investment in these cities. This is important since treating cross-border investors as a single group may obscure important differences between them. We employ multilevel logit techniques and we find across a number of specifications that cross-border investors prefer larger assets, newer assets and CBD locations regardless of nationality. However, temporal and sectoral patterns of investment, as well as evidence for return chasing behavior, vary with the nationality of investor being studied

Bouncing Brane Cosmologies from Warped String Compactifications

We study the cosmology induced on a brane probing a warped throat region in a Calabi-Yau compactification of type IIB string theory. For the case of a BPS D3-brane probing the Klebanov-Strassler warped deformed conifold, the cosmology described by a suitable brane observer is a bouncing, spatially flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe with time-varying Newton's constant, which passes smoothly from a contracting to an expanding phase. In the Klebanov-Tseytlin approximation to the Klebanov-Strassler solution the cosmology would end with a big crunch singularity. In this sense, the warped deformed conifold provides a string theory resolution of a spacelike singularity in the brane cosmology. The four-dimensional effective action appropriate for a brane observer is a simple scalar-tensor theory of gravity. In this description of the physics, a bounce is possible because the relevant energy-momentum tensor can classically violate the null energy condition.Comment: 20 pages, 2 figures; v2, references added and minor correction