Harnessing the potential of open data for valuation transparency in the developing world

There are many responsibilities on many disciplines in addressing both current and future demands related to the growth of cities in the developing world. As they are to be home to over 90 percent of the world’s future children, addressing those demands is urgent. Valuation is at the base of all economic activity. Consequently, accurate and accountable valuations at a proportionate cost can assist in improving market efficiencies for the populations themselves to address their challenges. A major impediment is that property markets in such cities can be opaque, both accidentally and deliberately, so that the information costs of obtaining the reliable data that accurate and accountable valuations require can be much higher than in more developed markets (in contrast to the values, which could well be much lower). The use of open data can be a means of finding the cloth to provide the suit, the “suit” being the best market value reading possible in that market. Particularly when reliable government data is insufficient, by a process of triangulation a valuer can provide the best due diligence available in a market, and thereby contribute to a virtuous spiral in that market’s evolution. This paper explores how this might be done

Evaluation of the safety profile of rotavirus vaccines: a pharmacovigilance analysis on American and European data

Rotaviruses (RVs) are the most common cause of severe diarrheal disease. To date two rotavirus oral vaccines are licensed: Rotarix and Rotateq. Our aim was to contribute to the post-marketing evaluation of these vaccines safety profile. We collected all RV vaccines-related reports of Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFI) in US Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) and VigiBase between January 2007 and December 2017. A disproportionality analysis using Reporting Odds Ratio (ROR) was performed. A total of 17,750 reports in VAERS and 6,358 in VigiBase were retrieved. In VAERS, 86.2% of the reports concerned RotaTeq, whereas in VigiBase 67.7% of them involved Rotarix. Across the databases, diarrhea (1,672 events in VAERS, 1,961 in VigiBase) and vomiting (1,746 in VAERS, 1,508 in VigiBase) were the most reported AEFIs. Noteworthy, the RV vaccines-intussusception pair showed a ROR greater than 20 in both databases. Some new potential safety signals emerged such as fontanelle bulging, hypotonic-hyporesponsive episode, livedo reticularis, and opisthotonus. Overall, our data show that most of the reported AEFIs are listed in the Summary of Product Characteristics (SPCs). However, there remains the need to investigate the potential safety signals arose from this analysis, in order to complete the description of the AEFIs

Comment on “Faraday waves in a Hele–Shawcell” [Phys. Fluids 30, 042106 (2018)]

Comment on “Faraday waves in a Hele-Shaw cell” [Phys Fluids 30, 042106 (2018).We propose improved dimensionless variables and scaling law to describe the height ofFaraday waves in a vertically vibrating Hele-Shaw cell. In comparison with those suggestedby Li et al., the influence of the liquid depth d on the wave height H is disregarded, andthe critical acceleration Fc, at which the Faraday instability is triggered, is now taken intoaccount. We support our approach with results from an additional set of experimental data,that includes the measurement of Fc, and encompasses the parameter range studied by Liet al.Fil: Boschan, A.. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ingeniería. Departamento de Física. Grupo de Medios Porosos; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Noseda, M.. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ingeniería. Departamento de Física. Grupo de Medios Porosos; ArgentinaFil: Aguirre, Maria Alejandra. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ingeniería. Departamento de Física. Grupo de Medios Porosos; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Piva, M.. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ingeniería. Departamento de Física. Grupo de Medios Porosos; Argentin

Il mondo slavo e l'Europa. Contributi presentati al VI Congresso Italiano di Slavistica (Torino, 28-30 settembre 2016)

The Italian-Russian parallel corpus in the national Russian corpus: a project for its enlargement, applications and future development In this paper, we will introduce our project for enlarging the Italian-Russian parallel corpus of the NKRJA, presenting as well some current or possible and future applications. The enlargement, carried out since 2014, has allowed us to abandon the pilot phase and to reach about 4 million words. However, we expect to reach 20 million, which is the required size to have a reliable and balanced corpus, another essential qualitative feature of parallel corpora. Illustrating its possible applications, we will present some experimental uses for teaching translation at the University of Bologna and some research in the sphere of Russian-Italian Contrastive Linguistics (about the non-temporal value of Russian future tense and the expression of the relationship between clauses). Finally, we will briefly present a project based on the creation of a portal in order to constantly enlarge the parallel corpus and promote its use in linguistic and literary research, in Translation Studies and in the teaching of Russian as a second language

Insight Report: Online public involvement session on proposed cardiovascular research programmes

A group of researchers across Imperial College London (some of whom are also part of the Imperial Biomedical Research Centre (BRC)) are applying for £5 million funding over 5 years from the British Heart Foundation (BHF) to fund a BHF Centre for Research Excellence at Imperial to support research on various aspects of cardiovascular medicine. The four research themes the funding proposal will cover are as follows: 1. Societal and Environmental Factors 2. Learning from Heart Patients 3. Vascular Ageing (Blood vessels) 4. Remote (at home) personal monitorin

Co-culture of microalgae, cyanobacteria, and macromycetes for exopolysaccharides production: process preliminary optimization and partial characterization.

In this study, the biomass and exopolysaccharides (EPS) production in co-cultures of microalgae/cyanobacteria and macromycetes was evaluated as a technology for producing new polysaccharides for medical and/or industrial application. Based on biomass and EPS productivity of monocultures, two algae and two fungi were selected and cultured in different co-culture arrangements. The hydrosoluble EPS fractions from mono- and cocultures were characterized by ¹³C NMR spectroscopy and gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry and compared. It was found that co-cultures resulted in the production of an EPS different from those produced by monocultures, showing fungal predominance with microalgal/cyanobacterial traces. Co-cultures conditions were screened (temperature, agitation speed, fungal and microalgae inoculation rate, initial pH, illumination rate, and glucose concentration) in order to achieve maximum biomass and EPS production, resulting in an increase of 33 and 61% in exopolysaccharides and biomass productions, respectively (patent pending)

DDIT4/REDD1/RTP801 is a novel negative regulator of schwann cell myelination

Signals that promote myelination must be tightly modulated to adjust myelin thickness to the axonal diameter. In the peripheral nervous system, axonal neuregulin 1 type III promotes myelination by activating erbB2/B3 receptors and the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway in Schwann cells. Conversely, PTEN (phosphatase and tensin homolog on chromosome 10) dephosphorylates PtdIns(3,4,5)P3and negatively regulates the AKT pathway and myelination. Recently, the DLG1/SAP97 scaffolding protein was described to interact with PTEN to enhance PIP3dephosphorylation. Here we now report that nerves from mice with conditional inactivation of Dlg1 in Schwann cells display only a transient increase in myelin thickness during development, suggesting that DLG1 is a transient negative regulator of myelination. Instead, we identified DDIT4/RTP801/REDD1 as a sustained negative modulator of myelination. We show that DDIT4 is expressed in Schwann cells and its maximum expression level precedes the peak of AKT activation and of DLG1 activity in peripheral nerves. Moreover, loss of DDIT4 expression both in vitro and in vivo in Ddit4-null mice provokes sustained hypermyelination and enhanced mTORC1 activation, thus suggesting that this molecule is a novel negative regulator of PNS myelination

Underweight and overweight men have greater exercise-induced dyspnoea than normal weight men.

INTRODUCTION: Persons with high or low body mass index (BMI), involved in clinical or mechanistic trials involving exercise testing, might estimate dyspnoea differently from persons with a normal BMI. AIMS: Our objective was to investigate the relationship between BMI and dyspnoea during exercise in normal subjects with varying BMI. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 37 subjects undertook progressive exercise testing. Subjects were divided into three groups: underweight (UW), normal weight (NW), and overweight (OW). Dyspnoea was estimated using the visual analogue scale (VAS). Spirometry, maximum voluntary ventilation (MVV), and respiratory muscle strength (RMS) were measured. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: The intercept of the VAS/ventilation relationship was significantly higher in NW subjects compared to UW (P = 0.029) and OW subjects (P = 0.040). Relative to the OW group, FVC (P = 0.020), FEV(1) (P = 0.024), MVV (P = 0.019), and RMS (P = 0.003) were significantly decreased in the UW group. The greater levels of dyspnoea in UW subjects could possibly be due to decreased RMS. Healthy persons should aim to achieve an optimum BMI range to have the lowest exercise-induced dyspnoea