1,445 research outputs found
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
Reabilitação auditiva na criança: adesão ao tratamento e ao uso do aparelho de amplificação sonora individual
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
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 into
itself. When this occurs, we argue that naturally defines a star algebra
projector which describes a surface of string connecting the boundary conformal
field theories of the classical solutions related by . 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<sup>st </sup>genetically 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<sup>-/-</sup>) 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<sup>-/- </sup>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<sup>-/- </sup>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
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