Note on Moufang-Noether currents

The derivative Noether currents generated by continuous Moufang tranformations are constructed and their equal-time commutators are found. The corresponding charge algebra turns out to be a birepresentation of the tangent Mal'ltsev algebra of an analytic Moufang loop.Comment: LaTeX2e, 6 pages, no figures, presented on "The XVth International Colloquium on Integrable Systems and Quantum Symmetries, Prague, 15-17 June, 2006

Using verbal autopsy to assess the prevalence of HIV infection among deaths in the ART period in rural Uganda: a prospective cohort study, 2006-2008

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Verbal autopsy is important for detecting causes of death including HIV in areas with inadequate vital registration systems. Before antiretroviral therapy (ART) introduction, a verbal autopsy study in rural Uganda found that half of adult deaths assessed were in HIV-positive individuals. We used verbal autopsy to compare the proportion of HIV-positive adult deaths in the periods before and after ART introduction.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Between 2006 and 2008, all adult (≥ 13 years) deaths in a prospective population-based cohort study were identified by monthly death registration, and HIV serostatus was determined through annual serosurveys. A clinical officer interviewed a relative of the deceased using a verbal autopsy questionnaire. Two clinicians independently reviewed the questionnaires and classified the deaths as HIV-positive or not. A third clinician was the tie-breaker in case of nonagreement. The performance of the verbal autopsy tool was assessed using HIV serostatus as the gold standard of comparison. We compared the proportions of HIV-positive deaths as assessed by verbal autopsy in the early 1990s and the 2006-2008 periods.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Of 333 deaths among 12,641 adults of known HIV serostatus, 264 (79.3%) were assessed by verbal autopsy, of whom 59 (22.3%) were HIV-seropositive and 68 (25.8%) were classified as HIV-positive by verbal autopsy. Verbal autopsy had a specificity of 90.2% and positive predictive value of 70.6% for identifying deaths among HIV-infected individuals, with substantial interobserver agreement (80.3%; kappa statistic = 0.69). The HIV-attributable mortality fraction estimated by verbal autopsy decreased from 47.0% (pre-ART period) to 25.8% (ART period), p < 0.001.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In resource-limited settings, verbal autopsy can provide a good estimate of the prevalence of HIV infection among adult deaths. In this rural population, the proportion of deaths identified by verbal autopsy as HIV-positive declined between the early 1990s and the 2006-2008 period. Verbal autopsy findings can inform policy on HIV health care needs.</p

Measurements of rates of cooling of a manikin insulated with different mountain rescue casualty bags

Background: Accidental hypothermia is common in those who sustain injuries in remote environments. This is unpleasant and associated with adverse effects on subsequent patient outcomes. To minimise further heat loss, a range of insulating systems are available to mountain rescue teams although the most effective and cost-efficient have yet to be determined. Methods: Under ambient, still, dry, air conditions, a thermal manikin was filled with water at a temperature of 42 °C and then placed into a given insulation system. Water temperature was then continuously observed via an in-dwelling temperature sensor linked to a PROPAQ 100 series monitor and recorded every 10 min for 130 min. This method was repeated for each insulating package. Results: The vacuum mattress/Pertex©/fibrepile blanket system, either on its own or coupled with the Wiggy bag, was the most efficient with water temperatures only decreasing by 3.2 °C over 130 min. This was followed by the heavy-weight casualty bags without the vacuum mattress/Pertex©/fibrepile blanket system, decreasing by 4.2–4.3 °C. With the Blizzard bag, a decline in water temperature of 5.4 °C was seen over the study duration while a decrease of 9.5 °C was noted when the plastic survival bag was employed. Conclusions: Under the still-air conditions of the study, the vacuum mattress/Pertex©/fibrepile blanket was seen to offer comparable insulation effectiveness compared to be both heavy-weight casualty bags. In turn, these three systems appeared more efficient at insulating the manikin than the Blizzard bag or plastic survival bag

Comparison of the predictive performance of the BIG, TRISS, and PS09 score in an adult trauma population derived from multiple international trauma registries

The BIG score (Admission base deficit (B), International normalized ratio (I), and Glasgow Coma Scale (G)) has been shown to predict mortality on admission in pediatric trauma patients. The objective of this study was to assess its performance in predicting mortality in an adult trauma population, and to compare it with the existing Trauma and Injury Severity Score (TRISS) and probability of survival (PS09) score. A retrospective analysis using data collected between 2005 and 2010 from seven trauma centers and registries in Europe and the United States of America was performed. We compared the BIG score with TRISS and PS09 scores in a population of blunt and penetrating trauma patients. We then assessed the discrimination ability of all scores via receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and compared the expected mortality rate (precision) of all scores with the observed mortality rate. In total, 12,206 datasets were retrieved to validate the BIG score. The mean ISS was 15 ± 11, and the mean 30-day mortality rate was 4.8%. With an AUROC of 0.892 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.879 to 0.906), the BIG score performed well in an adult population. TRISS had an area under ROC (AUROC) of 0.922 (0.913 to 0.932) and the PS09 score of 0.825 (0.915 to 0.934). On a penetrating-trauma population, the BIG score had an AUROC result of 0.920 (0.898 to 0.942) compared with the PS09 score (AUROC of 0.921; 0.902 to 0.939) and TRISS (0.929; 0.912 to 0.947). The BIG score is a good predictor of mortality in the adult trauma population. It performed well compared with TRISS and the PS09 score, although it has significantly less discriminative ability. In a penetrating-trauma population, the BIG score performed better than in a population with blunt trauma. The BIG score has the advantage of being available shortly after admission and may be used to predict clinical prognosis or as a research tool to risk stratify trauma patients into clinical trial

Creation of a Compact Topologically Nontrivial Inflationary Universe

If inflation can occur only at the energy density V much smaller than the Planck density, which is the case for many inflationary models based on string theory, then the probability of quantum creation of a closed or an infinitely large open inflationary universe is exponentially suppressed for all known choices of the wave function of the universe. Meanwhile under certain conditions there is no exponential suppression for creation of topologically nontrivial compact flat or open inflationary universes. This suggests, contrary to the standard textbook lore, that compact flat or open universes with nontrivial topology should be considered a rule rather than an exception.Comment: 9 pages 2 figures, new materials and references adde

Cloud height measurement by a network of all-sky-imagers

Cloud base height (CBH) is an important parameter for many applications such as aviation, climatology or solarirradiance nowcasting (forecasting for the next seconds to hours ahead). The latter application is of increasing importance tooperate distribution grids as well as photovoltaic power plants, energy storage systems and flexible consumers.To nowcast solar irradiance, systems based on all-sky-imagers (ASIs), cameras monitoring the entire sky dome above theirpoint of installation, have been demonstrated. Accurate knowledge of CBH is required to nowcast the spatial distribution of5solar irradiance around the ASI’s location at a resolution down to5 m. Two ASIs located at a distance of usually less than6 kmcan be combined into an ASI-pair to measure CBH. However, the accuracy of such systems is limited. We present and validatea method to measure CBH using a network of ASIs to enhance accuracy. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first methodto measure CBH by a network of ASIs which is demonstrated experimentally.In this study, the deviations of 42 ASI-pairs are studied in comparison to a ceilometer and characterized by camera distance.10The ASI-pairs are formed from seven ASIs and feature camera distances of0.8...5.7 km. Each of the 21 ASI-tuples formedfrom seven ASIs yields two independent ASI-pairs as the ASI used as main and auxiliary camera respectively is swapped.Deviations found are compiled into conditional probabilities telling how probable it is to receive a certain reading of CBHfrom an ASI-pair given that true CBH takes on some specific value. Based on such statistical knowledge, in the inference thelikeliest actual CBH is estimated from the readings of all 42 ASI-pairs.15Based on the validation results, ASI-pairs with small camera distance (especially if<1.2 km) are accurate for low clouds(CBH<4 km). In contrast, ASI-pairs with camera distance of more than3 kmprovide smaller deviations for greater CBH.No ASI-pair provides most accurate measurements under all conditions. The presented network of ASIs at different distancesproves that, under all cloud conditions, the measurements of CBH are more accurate than using a single ASI-pair

Racetrack Inflation

We develop a model of eternal topological inflation using a racetrack potential within the context of type IIB string theory with KKLT volume stabilization. The inflaton field is the imaginary part of the K\"ahler structure modulus, which is an axion-like field in the 4D effective field theory. This model does not require moving branes, and in this sense it is simpler than other models of string theory inflation. Contrary to single-exponential models, the structure of the potential in this example allows for the existence of saddle points between two degenerate local minima for which the slow-roll conditions can be satisfied in a particular range of parameter space. We conjecture that this type of inflation should be present in more general realizations of the modular landscape. We also consider `irrational' models having a dense set of minima, and discuss their possible relevance for the cosmological constant problem.Comment: 23 pages 7 figures. The final version with minor modifications, to appear in JHE

Cloud height measurement by a network of all-sky imagers

Cloud base height (CBH) is important, e.g., to forecast solar irradiance and, with it, photovoltaic production. All-sky imagers (ASIs), cameras monitoring the sky above their point of installation, can provide such forecasts and also measure CBH. We present a network of ASIs to measure CBH. The network provides numerous readings of CBH simultaneously. We combine these with a statistical procedure. Validation attests to significantly higher accuracy of the combination compared to two ASIs alone

Molecular Clusters in Mesoporous Materials as Precursors to Nanoparticles of a New Lacunar Ternary Compound PdxMoyP

Bimetallic clusters of composition Pd2Mo2(g5-C5H5)2(l3-CO)2(l2-CO)4 (PR3)2 (R = ethyl or phenyl) were incorporated by impregnation from solution into two different silica matrices, amorphous xerogels and ordered SBA-15, and a study of their thermal decomposition under a reducing atmosphere is reported. With both matrices, a suitable thermal treatment afforded nanoparticles of a new bimetallic phosphide. Although nanoparticles of composition PdxMoyP, isostructural with Mo3P, were formed in both matrices, they were more uniformly distributed in the SBA-15 framework and showed a narrower size distribution. The samples have been characterized by powder XRD, chemical analysis, FT-IR spectroscopy, TEM and electron tomography (3D TEM)

High sensitivity assays for docetaxel and paclitaxel in plasma using solid-phase extraction and high-performance liquid chromatography with UV detection

BACKGROUND: The taxanes paclitaxel and docetaxel have traditionally been used in high doses every third week in the treatment of cancer. Lately there has been a trend towards giving weekly low doses to improve the therapeutic index. This article describes the development of high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) methods suitable for monitoring taxane levels in patients, focusing on patients receiving low-dose therapy. METHODS: Paclitaxel and docetaxel were extracted from human plasma by solid phase extraction, and detected by absorbance at 227 nm after separation by reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography. The methods were validated and their performance were tested using samples from patients receiving paclitaxel or docetaxel. RESULTS: The limits of quantitation were 1 nM for docetaxel and 1.2 nM for paclitaxel. For both compounds linearity was confirmed from the limit of quantitation up to 1000 nM in plasma. The recoveries ranged between 92% and 118% for docetaxel and between 76% and 104% for paclitaxel. Accuracy and precision were within international acceptance criteria, that is within ± 15%, except at the limit of quantitation where values within ± 20% are acceptable. Low-dose patients included in an on going clinical trial had a median docetaxel concentration of 2.8 nM at 72 hours post infusion. Patients receiving 100 mg/m(2 )of paclitaxel had a mean paclitaxel concentration of 21 nM 48 hours after the end of infusion. CONCLUSION: We have developed an HPLC method using UV detection capable of quantifying 1 nM of docetaxel in plasma samples. The method should be useful for pharmacokinetic determinations at all relevant doses of docetaxel. Using a similar methodology paclitaxel can be quantified down to a concentration of 1.2 nM in plasma with acceptable accuracy and precision. We further demonstrate that the previously reported negative influence of Cremophor EL on assay performance may be overcome by degradation of the detergent by incubation with lipase