GRADIENT ESTIMATES FOR MEAN CURVATURE FLOW WITH NEUMANN BOUNDARY CONDITIONS

We study the mean curvature ow of graphs both with Neumann boundary conditions and transport terms. We derive boundary gradient estimates for the mean curvature ow. As an application, the existence of the mean curvature ow of graphs is presented. A key argument is a boundary monotonicity formula of a Huisken type derived using re ected backward heat kernels. Furthermore, we provide regularity conditions for the transport terms

Trispectrum estimation in various models of equilateral type non-Gaussianity

We calculate the shape correlations between trispectra in various equilateral non-Gaussian models, including DBI inflation, ghost inflation and Lifshitz scalars, using the full trispectrum as well as the reduced trispectum. We find that most theoretical models are distinguishable from the shapes of primordial trispectra except for several exceptions where it is difficult to discriminate between the models, such as single field DBI inflation and a Lifshitz scalar model. We introduce an estimator for the amplitude of the trispectrum, $g_{\rm NL} ^{equil}$ and relate it to model parameters in various models. Using constraints on $g_{\rm NL} ^{equil}$ from WMAP5, we give constraints on the model parameters.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures; (v2) minor revisions, reference added; (v3) typos in Tables correcte

Ethnic Diversity, Democracy, and Health: Theory and Evidence

This paper examines the relationship between ethnic composition, political regimes, and the quality of public policy. Specifically, based on the citizen-candidate model, we assume individuals who have heterogeneous policy preferences and investigate how ethnic diversity affects selection of a politician and the resulting policy choices in democratic and dictatorial regimes. In the theoretical analysis, our model derives (1) a negative relationship between ethnic diversity and the quality of public policy, both in a democracy with a dominant group and in a dictatorship, and (2) a non-monotonic relationship in a democracy without a dominant group. In the empirical examination, using health outcomes as the proxy for the quality of public policy, our theoretical results are supported by evidence from the data of 154 countries.Citizen-candidate model; Ethnic fractionalization; Infant mortality.

Discordant Immune Marker Expression Between Preoperatively Biopsied and Matched Surgically Resected Specimens in Patients With Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression and tumor-associated immune cell (TAIC) density can be the biomarkers of survival outcome and for predicting the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), but whether single biopsy accurately reflects the values of these parameters in resected specimens is unclear. To clarify this, we evaluated the concordance of immune marker expression (PD-L1, PD-1, CD3, CD4, CD8, and CD68) between 39 paired biopsied and surgically resected specimens obtained from patients with OSCC at Kobe City Medical Center General Hospital between July 2011 and January 2016. Immune marker expression was assessed using immunohistochemistry. PD-L1 expression was consistent between the biopsied and surgically resected specimens in only 76.9% of cases. TAIC density was significantly lower in biopsied than in surgically resected specimens. There was considerable discordance in immune marker expression between biopsied and surgically resected specimens. We should take into consideration that PD-L1 positivity and TAIC density would be underestimated by single small biopsies compared to the estimations by surgically resected specimens

Spectra of pulsating aurora emissions observed by an optical spectrograph at Tromso, Norway

The Tenth Symposium on Polar Science/Ordinary sessions: [OS] Space and upper atmospheric sciences, Wed. 4 Dec. /Entrance Hall (1st floor) at National Institute of Polar Research (NIPR