Torsion points and the Lattes family

We give a dynamical proof of a result of Masser and Zannier [MZ2, MZ3] about torsion points on the Legendre family of elliptic curves. Our methods also treat points of small height. A key ingredient is the arithmetic equidistribution theorem on $\mathbb{P}^1$ of Baker-Rumely, Chambert-Loir, and Favre-Rivera-Letelier. Torsion points on the elliptic curve coincide with preperiodic points for the degree-4 Lattes family of rational functions. Our main new results concern properties of the bifurcation measures for this Lattes family associated to marked points.Comment: Theorem 1.3 now states the strongest form of the main theorem, the result of combining our methods with the conclusions of Masser-Zannier, for rational points with complex coefficients. To appear, American Journal of Mat

Beside and behind the wheel : factors that influence driving stress and driving behavior

A large percentage of traffic accidents are due to human errors. Driving behavior and driving stress influence the probability of making these mistakes. Both are influenced by multiple factors, among which might be elements such as age, gender, sleeping hours, or working hours. The objective of this paper is to study, in a real scenario and without forcing the driver?s state, the relationship between driving behavior, driving stress, and these elements. Furthermore, we aim to provide guidelines to improve driving assistants. In this study, we used 1050 driving samples obtained from 35 volunteers. The driving samples correspond to regular commutes from home to the workplace. ANOVA and ANCOVA tests were carried out to check if there are significant differences in the four factors analyzed. Although the results show that driving behavior and driving stress are affected by gender, age, and sleeping hours, the most critical variable is working hours. Drivers with long working days suffer significantly more driving stress compared to other drivers, with the corresponding effect on their driving style. These drivers were the worst at maintaining the safety distance.5311-8814-F0ED | Sara Maria da Cruz Maia de Oliveira PaivaN/

Evaluation of Linked Determinants Between Diabetes and Caries

Dental caries and diabetes mellitus, represent two chronic diseases of public health that present statistics of high prevalence worldwide. One of the main problems that affect these conditions is demography, since the least developed countries are those that have less access to public health services and are limited by the economic costs that represent the treatments. In this work is presented the univariate analysis, of a set of demographic determinants obtained from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES), in order to identify those that present the most significant information related to estimation of these diseases. According to the results, the age of the subjects is the main determinant describing the simultaneous presence of these diseases, obtaining an area under the curve (AUC) value ≥ 0.846, concluding that age can be used as tool for their preventive diagnosis

User preferences in the design of advanced driver assistance systems

The transport network and mobility aspects are constantly changing, and major changes are expected in the coming years in terms of safety and sustainability purposes. In this paper, we present the main conclusions and analysis of data collected from a survey of drivers in Spain and Portugal regarding user preferences, highlighting the main functionalities and behavior that an advanced driver assistance system must have in order to grant it special importance on the road to prevent accidents and also to enable drivers to have a pleasant journey. Based on the results obtained from the survey, we developed and present a working prototype for an advanced driver assistance system (ADAS), its architecture and rules systems that allowed us to create and test some scenarios in a real environment.5311-8814-F0ED | Sara Maria da Cruz Maia de Oliveira PaivaN/

Polyfunctional T cell responses in children in early stages of chronic Trypanosoma cruzi infection contrast with monofunctional responses of long-term infected adults

Background: Adults with chronic Trypanosoma cruzi exhibit a poorly functional T cell compartment, characterized by monofunctional (IFN-γ-only secreting) parasite-specific T cells and increased levels of terminally differentiated T cells. It is possible that persistent infection and/or sustained exposure to parasites antigens may lead to a progressive loss of function of the immune T cells. Methodology/Principal Findings: To test this hypothesis, the quality and magnitude of T. cruzi-specific T cell responses were evaluated in T. cruzi-infected children and compared with long-term T. cruzi-infected adults with no evidence of heart failure. The phenotype of CD4+ T cells was also assessed in T. cruzi-infected children and uninfected controls. Simultaneous secretion of IFN-γ and IL-2 measured by ELISPOT assays in response to T. cruzi antigens was prevalent among T. cruzi-infected children. Flow cytometric analysis of co-expression profiles of CD4+ T cells with the ability to produce IFN-γ, TNF-α, or to express the co-stimulatory molecule CD154 in response to T. cruzi showed polyfunctional T cell responses in most T. cruzi-infected children. Monofunctional T cell responses and an absence of CD4+TNF-α+-secreting T cells were observed in T. cruzi-infected adults. A relatively high degree of activation and differentiation of CD4+ T cells was evident in T. cruzi-infected children. Conclusions/Significance: Our observations are compatible with our initial hypothesis that persistent T. cruzi infection promotes eventual exhaustion of immune system, which might contribute to disease progression in long-term infected subjects.Fil: Albareda, María Cecilia. Dirección Nacional de Instituto de Investigación. Administración Nacional de Laboratorio e Instituto de Salud. Instituto Nacional de Parasitología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Ministerio de Salud. Hospital Interzonal de Agudos "Eva Perón"; ArgentinaFil: de Rissio, Ana María. Dirección Nacional de Instituto de Investigación. Administración Nacional de Laboratorio e Instituto de Salud. Instituto Nacional de Parasitología; ArgentinaFil: Tomas, Gonzalo. Dirección Nacional de Instituto de Investigación. Administración Nacional de Laboratorio e Instituto de Salud. Instituto Nacional de Parasitología; ArgentinaFil: Serjan, Alicia. Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. Hospital General de Agudos "Juan A. Fernández"; ArgentinaFil: Alvarez, María Gabriela. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Ministerio de Salud. Hospital Interzonal de Agudos "Eva Perón"; ArgentinaFil: Viotti, Rodolfo Jorge. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Ministerio de Salud. Hospital Interzonal de Agudos "Eva Perón"; ArgentinaFil: Fichera, Laura Edith. Dirección Nacional de Instituto de Investigación. Administración Nacional de Laboratorio e Instituto de Salud. Instituto Nacional de Parasitología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Esteva, Mónica Inés. Dirección Nacional de Instituto de Investigación. Administración Nacional de Laboratorio e Instituto de Salud. Instituto Nacional de Parasitología; ArgentinaFil: Potente, Daniel Fernando. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Ministerio de Salud. Hospital Interzonal de Agudos "Eva Perón"; ArgentinaFil: Armenti, Alejandro. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Ministerio de Salud. Hospital Interzonal de Agudos "Eva Perón"; ArgentinaFil: Tarleton, Rick L.. University of Georgia; Estados UnidosFil: Laucella, Susana Adriana. Dirección Nacional de Instituto de Investigación. Administración Nacional de Laboratorio e Instituto de Salud. Instituto Nacional de Parasitología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Comparison of different pain scoring systems in critically ill patients in a general ICU

Background: Pain in critically ill patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) is common. However, pain assessment in critically ill patients often is complicated because these patients are unable to communicate effectively. Therefore, we designed a study (a) to determine the inter-rater reliability of the Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) and the Behavioral Pain Scale (BPS), (b) to compare pain scores of different observers and the patient, and (c) to compare NRS, BPS, and the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) for measuring pain in patients in the ICU. Methods: We performed a prospective observational study in 113 non-paralyzed critically ill patients. The attending nurses, two researchers, and the patient (when possible) obtained 371 independent observation series of NRS, BPS, and VAS. Data analyses were performed on the sample size of patients (n = 113). Results: Inter-rater reliability of the NRS and BPS proved to be adequate (kappa = 0.71 and 0.67, respectively). The level of agreement within one scale point between NRS rated by the patient and NRS scored by attending nurses was 73%. However, high patient scores (NRS ≥4) were underestimated by nurses (patients 33% versus nurses 18%). In responsive patients, a high correlation between NRS and VAS was found (rs= 0.84, P < 0.001). In ventilated patients, a moderate positive correlation was found between the NRS and the BPS (rs= 0.55, P < 0.001). However, whereas 6% of the observations were NRS of greater than or equal to 4, BPS scores were all very low (median 3.0, range 3.0 to 5.0). Conclusion: The different scales show a high reliability, but observer-based evaluation often underestimates the pain, particularly in the case of high NRS values (≥4) rated by the patient. Therefore, whenever this is possible, ICU patients should rate their pain. In unresponsive patients, primarily the attending nurse involved in daily care should score the patient's pain. In ventilated patients, the BPS should be used only in conjunction with the NRS nurse to measure pain levels in the absence of painful stimuli

Dual Loop Line-Focusing Solar Power Plants with Supercritical Brayton Power cycles

Most of the deployed commercial line-focusing solar power plants with Parabolic Troughs (PTC) or Linear Fresnel (LF) solar collectors and Rankine power cycles use a Single Loop Solar Field (SF), Configuration 1 illustrated in Fig. 2, with synthetic oil as Heat Transfer Fluid (HTF) [1, 2]. However, thermal oils maximum operating temperature should be below ~400ºC for assuring no oil degradation, hence limiting the power cycle gross efficiency up to ~38%. For overcoming this limitation Molten Salts (MS) as HTF in linear solar collectors (PTC and LF) were recently experimented in pilot facilities [3, 4]. Direct MS main drawbacks are the equipments and components material corrosion and the salts freezing temperature, requiring heat tracing to avoid any sald solidification, hence increasing the Solar Field (SF) capital investment cost and parasitic energy looses. Concentrated Solar Power plants (CSP) with Dual Loop SF are being studied since 2012 [5] for gaining the synergies between thermal oils and MS properties. In the Dual Loop SF the HTF in the primary loop is thermal oil (Dowtherm A) [6] for heating the Balance Of Plant (BOP) working fluid from ~300ºC up to ~400ºC, and a secondary loop with Solar Salt (60% NaNO3, 40% KNO3) as HTF, for boosting the working fluid temperature from ~400ºC up to 550ºC [7, 8, 9]. The CSP Dual Loop state of the art technology includes Rankine power cycles, the main innovation of this paper is the integration between Dual Loop SF and the supercritical Carbon Dioxide (s-CO2) Brayton power cycles [10], see Configurations 2 and 3 illustrated in Fig. 3a, Fig 3b. A secondary innovation studied in this paper is the integration between thermal oil HTF (Dowtherm A) in linear solar collectors, a widely validated and mature technology, with the s-CO2 Brayton power cycles. This technical solution is very cost competitive with carbon steel receiver pipes, low SF operating pressure, and no requiring any heat tracing. Two main conclusions are deducted from this researching study. Firstly we demonstrated the higher gross plant efficiency ~44.4%, with 550ºC Turbine Inlet Temperature (TIT), provided by the Dual Loop with the Simple recuperated s-CO2 Brayton cycle with reheating, in comparison with 41.8% obtained from the Dual Loop SF and subcritical water Rankine power cycle. And finally the second conclusion obtained is the selection of the most cost competitive plant configuration with a Single loop SF with Dowtherma A and a s-CO2 Brayton power cycle due to the receiver material low cost and no heat tracing for the thermal oil

Multidimensional sexual perfectionism and female sexual function: A longitudinal investigation

Research on multidimensional sexual perfectionism differentiates four forms of sexual perfectionism: self-oriented, partner-oriented, partner-prescribed, and socially prescribed. Self-oriented sexual perfectionism reflects perfectionistic standards people apply to themselves as sexual partners; partner-oriented sexual perfectionism reflects perfectionistic standards people apply to their sexual partner; partner-prescribed sexual perfectionism reflects people’s beliefs that their sexual partner imposes perfectionistic standards on them; and socially prescribed sexual perfectionism reflects people’s beliefs that society imposes such standards on them. Previous studies found partner-prescribed and socially prescribed sexual perfectionism to be maladaptive forms of sexual perfectionism associated with a negative sexual self-concept and problematic sexual behaviors, but only examined cross-sectional relationships. The present article presents the first longitudinal study examining whether multidimensional sexual perfectionism predicts changes in sexual self-concept and sexual function over time. A total of 366 women aged 17-69 years completed measures of multidimensional sexual perfectionism, sexual esteem, sexual anxiety, sexual problem self-blame, and female sexual function (cross-sectional data). Three to six months later, 164 of the women completed the same measures again (longitudinal data). Across analyses, partner-prescribed sexual perfectionism emerged as the most maladaptive form of sexual perfectionism. In the cross-sectional data, partner-prescribed sexual perfectionism showed positive relationships with sexual anxiety, sexual problem self-blame, and intercourse pain and negative relationships with sexual esteem, desire, arousal, lubrication, and orgasmic function. In the longitudinal data, partner-prescribed sexual perfectionism predicted increases in sexual anxiety and decreases in sexual esteem, arousal, and lubrication over time. The findings suggest that partner-prescribed sexual perfectionism contributes to women’s negative sexual self-concept and female sexual dysfunction

Trading people versus trading time: What is the difference?

BACKGROUND: Person trade-off (PTO) elicitations yield different values than standard utility measures, such as time trade-off (TTO) elicitations. Some people believe this difference arises because the PTO captures the importance of distributive principles other than maximizing treatment benefits. We conducted a qualitative study to determine whether people mention considerations related to distributive principles other than QALY-maximization more often in PTO elicitations than in TTO elicitations and whether this could account for the empirical differences. METHODS: 64 members of the general public were randomized to one of three different face-to-face interviews, thinking aloud as they responded to TTO and PTO elicitations. Participants responded to a TTO followed by a PTO elicitation within contexts that compared either: 1) two life-saving treatments; 2) two cure treatments; or 3) a life-saving treatment versus a cure treatment. RESULTS: When people were asked to choose between life-saving treatments, non-maximizing principles were more common with the PTO than the TTO task. Only 5% of participants considered non-maximizing principles as they responded to the TTO elicitation compared to 68% of participants who did so when responding to the PTO elicitation. Non-maximizing principles that emerged included importance of equality of life and a desire to avoid discrimination. However, these principles were less common in the other two contexts. Regardless of context, though, participants were significantly more likely to respond from a societal perspective with the PTO compared to the TTO elicitation. CONCLUSION: When lives are at stake, within the context of a PTO elicitation, people are more likely to consider non-maximizing principles, including the importance of equal access to a life-saving treatment, avoiding prejudice or discrimination, and in rare cases giving treatment priority based purely on the position of being worse-off