Automobile Fuel Economy: What is it Worth?

The marginal value of increased automobile fuel economy is estimated using a hedonic model of 2001 model year automobiles sold in the United States. This value is then compared to the average expected lifetime fuel savings attributable to increased fuel economy. Results indicate that automobile buyers fully internalize fuel cost savings attributable to improved fuel economy at low discount rates, and may partially internalize other perceived benefits of improved fuel economy such as reduction in global warming or fossil fuel dependence.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

HTTP RESTFUL API DESIGN USING FREEFORM URL TO INTERACT WITH HIERARCHICAL JSON DATA STORES

Techniques are presented herein that support a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) Representational State Transfer (RESTful) Application Programming Interface (API) employing a freeform Uniform Resource Locator (URL) to interact with a hierarchical JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) data store. Additionally, aspects of the techniques presented herein incorporate a smart caching strategy to, for example, optimize cache size, support reads and writes to an underlying database, and reduce cache misses

Interactive effects of cocaine on HIV infection: implication in HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder and neuroAIDS.

Substantial epidemiological studies suggest that not only, being one of the reasons for the transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), but drug abuse also serves its role in determining the disease progression and severity among the HIV infected population. This article focuses on the drug cocaine, and its role in facilitating entry of HIV into the CNS and mechanisms of development of neurologic complications in infected individuals. Cocaine is a powerfully addictive central nervous system stimulating drug, which increases the level of neurotransmitter dopamine (DA) in the brain, by blocking the dopamine transporters (DAT) which is critical for DA homeostasis and neurocognitive function. Tat protein of HIV acts as an allosteric modulator of DAT, where as cocaine acts as reuptake inhibitor. When macrophages in the CNS are exposed to DA, their number increases. These macrophages release inflammatory mediators and neurotoxins, causing chronic neuroinflammation. Cocaine abuse during HIV infection enhances the production of platelet monocyte complexes (PMCs), which may cross transendothelial barrier, and result in HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder (HAND). HAND is characterized by neuroinflammation, including astrogliosis, multinucleated giant cells, and neuronal apoptosis that is linked to progressive virus infection and immune deterioration. Cocaine and viral proteins are capable of eliciting signaling transduction pathways in neurons, involving in mitochondrial membrane potential loss, oxidative stress, activation of JNK, p38, and ERK/MAPK pathways, and results in downstream activation of NF-κB that leads to HAND. Tat-induced inflammation provokes permeability of the blood brain barrier (BBB) in the platelet dependent manner, which can potentially be the reason for progression to HAND during HIV infection. A better understanding on the role of cocaine in HIV infection can give a clue in developing novel therapeutic strategies against HIV-1 infection in cocaine using HIV infected population

Constraints on the timing and conditions of high-grade metamorphism, charnockite formation and fluid-rock interaction in the Trivandrum Block, southern India

Incipient charnockites have been widely used as evidence for the infiltration of CO2-rich fluids driving dehydration of the lower crust. Rocks exposed at Kakkod quarry in the Trivandrum Block of southern India allow for a thorough investigation of the metamorphic evolution by preserving not only orthopyroxene-bearing charnockite patches in a host garnet-biotite felsic gneiss, but also layers of garnet-sillimanite metapelite gneiss. Thermodynamic phase equilibria modelling of all three bulk compositions indicates consistent peak-metamorphic conditions of 830-925 °C and 6-9 kbar with retrograde evolution involving suprasolidus decompression at high temperature. These models suggest that orthopyroxene was most likely stabilized close to the metamorphic peak as a result of small compositional heterogeneities in the host garnet-biotite gneiss. There is insufficient evidence to determine whether the heterogeneities were inherited from the protolith or introduced during syn-metamorphic fluid flow. U-Pb geochronology of monazite and zircon from all three rock types constrains the peak of metamorphism and orthopyroxene growth to have occurred between the onset of high-grade metamorphism at c. 590 Ma and the onset of melt crystallization at c. 540 Ma. The majority of metamorphic zircon growth occurred during protracted melt crystallization between c. 540 and 510 Ma. Melt crystallization was followed by the influx of aqueous, alkali-rich fluids likely derived from melts crystallizing at depth. This late fluid flow led to retrogression of orthopyroxene, the observed outcrop pattern and to the textural and isotopic modification of monazite grains at c. 525-490 Ma

Sapphirine granulites from Panasapattu, Eastern Ghats belt, India : Ultrahigh-temperature metamorphism in a Proterozoic convergent plate margin

AbstractWe report equilibrium sapphirine + quartz assemblage in biotite–orthopyroxene–garnet granulites from a new locality in Panasapattu of Paderu region in the Eastern Ghats granulite belt, which provide new evidence for ultrahigh-temperature (UHT) metamorphism at 1030–1050 °C and 10 kbar in this region. The development of migmatitic texture, stabilization of the garnet–orthopyroxene–plagioclase–K-feldspar association, prograde biotite inclusions within garnet and sapphirine as well as sapphirine and cordierite inclusions within garnet in these granulites indicate that the observed peak assemblages probably formed during prograde dehydration melting of a Bt–Sill–Qtz assemblage, and constrain the prograde stage of the p–T path. The core domains of orthopyroxene porphyroblasts have up to w(Al2O3) 9.6%, which suggest that the temperatures reached up to 1150 °C suggesting extreme crustal metamorphism. These conditions were also confirmed by the garnet–orthopyroxene thermobarometery, which yields a p–T range of 1012–960 °C and 9.4 kbar. The p–T phase topologies computed using isochemical sections calculated in the model system Na2O–CaO–K2O–FeO–MgO–Al2O3–SiO2–H2O (NCKFMASH) for metapelites, garnet-free sapphirine granulites and garnet-bearing sapphirine granulites match the melt-bearing assemblages observed in these rocks. Isochemical sections constructed in the NCKFMASH system for an average sub-aluminous metapelite bulk composition, and contoured for modal proportions of melt and garnet, as well as for the compositional isopleths of garnet, predict phase and reaction relations that are consistent with those observed in the rocks. Garnet and orthopyroxene contain Ti-rich phlogopite inclusions, suggesting formation by prograde melting reactions at the expense of phlogopite during ultrahigh-temperature conditions. These p–T results underestimate 'peak' conditions, in part as a result of the modification of garnet compositions in the domains where some melt was retained. The post-peak evolution is constrained by a succession of melt-present reactions that occur at p < 10 kbar, inferred from micro-structural relations among various minerals. After high-temperature decompression from the metamorphic peak, the p–T path followed a near isobaric cooling stage to T < 900 °C. The UHT rocks investigated in this study occur within a continental collision suture which witnessed prolonged subduction–accretion history prior to the final collision. We correlate the extreme metamorphism and the stabilization of UHT mineral assemblages to heat and volatile input from an upwelled asthenosphere during subduction–collision tectonics in a Proterozoic convergent plate margin

Institutional delivery in public and private sectors in South Asia: A comparative analysis of prospective data from four demographic surveillance sites

__Background:__ Maternity care in South Asia is available in both public and private sectors. Using data from demographic surveillance sites in Bangladesh, Nepal and rural and urban India, we aimed to compare institutional delivery rates and public-private share. __Methods:__ We used records of maternity care collected in socio-economically disadvantaged communities between 2005 and 2011. Institutional delivery was summarized by four potential determinants: household asset index, maternal schooling, maternal age, and parity. We developed logistic regression models for private sector institutional delivery with these as independent covariates. __Results:__ The data described 52 750 deliveries. Institutional delivery proportion varied and there were differences in public-private split. In Bangladesh and urban India, the proportion of deliveries in the private sector increased with wealth, maternal education, and age. The opposite was observed in rural India and Nepal. __Conclusions:__ The proportion of institutional delivery increased with economic status and education. The choice of sector is more complex and provision and perceived quality of public sector services is likely to play a role. Choices for safe maternity are influenced by accessibility, quantity and perceived quality of care. Along with data linkage between privat

5. 慢性円板状エリテマトーデスに続発せる棘細胞癌の1例について(第434(B)回千葉医学会例会 第15回千葉皮膚科臨床談話会)

Additional file 3: Table S3. Details of proteins identified in the study with reports on whether or not reported in PPD and gene ontology-based classification

Effect of participatory women's groups facilitated by Accredited Social Health Activists on birth outcomes in rural eastern India: A cluster-randomised controlled trial

Background: A quarter of the world's neonatal deaths and 15% of maternal deaths happen in India. Few community-based strategies to improve maternal and newborn health have been tested through the country's government-approved Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs). We aimed to test the effect of participatory women's groups facilitated by ASHAs on birth outcomes, including neonatal mortality. Methods: In this cluster-randomised controlled trial of a community interve