Bounding the dimensions of rational cohomology groups

Let $k$ be an algebraically closed field of characteristic $p > 0$, and let $G$ be a simple simply-connected algebraic group over $k$ that is defined and split over the prime field $\mathbb{F}_p$. In this paper we investigate situations where the dimension of a rational cohomology group for $G$ can be bounded by a constant times the dimension of the coefficient module. We then demonstrate how our results can be applied to obtain effective bounds on the first cohomology of the symmetric group. We also show how, for finite Chevalley groups, our methods permit significant improvements over previous estimates for the dimensions of second cohomology groups.Comment: 13 page

Pharmacologic Targeting of Bacterial -Glucuronidase Alleviates Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug-Induced Enteropathy in Mice

Small intestinal mucosal injury is a frequent adverse effect caused by nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). The underlying mechanisms are not completely understood, but topical (luminal) effects have been implicated. Many carboxylic acid-containing NSAIDs, including diclofenac (DCF), are metabolized to acyl glucuronides (AGs), and/or ether glucuronides after ring hydroxylation, and exported into the biliary tree. In the gut, these conjugates are cleaved by bacterial β-glucuronidase, releasing the potentially harmful aglycone. We first confirmed that DCF-AG was an excellent substrate for purified Escherichia coli β-d-glucuronidase. Using a previously characterized novel bacteria-specific β-glucuronidase inhibitor (Inhibitor-1), we then found that the enzymatic hydrolysis of DCF-AG in vitro was inhibited concentration dependently (IC50 ∼164 nM). We next hypothesized that pharmacologic inhibition of bacterial β-glucuronidase would reduce exposure of enterocytes to the aglycone and, as a result, alleviate enteropathy. C57BL/6J mice were administered an ulcerogenic dose of DCF (60 mg/kg i.p.) with or without oral pretreatment with Inhibitor-1 (10 μg per mouse, b.i.d.). Whereas DCF alone caused the formation of numerous large ulcers in the distal parts of the small intestine and increased (2-fold) the intestinal permeability to fluorescein isothiocyanate-dextran, Inhibitor-1 cotreatment significantly alleviated mucosal injury and reduced all parameters of enteropathy. Pharmacokinetic profiling of DCF plasma levels in mice revealed that Inhibitor-1 coadministration did not significantly alter the Cmax, half-life, or area under the plasma concentration versus time curve of DCF. Thus, highly selective pharmacologic targeting of luminal bacterial β-d-glucuronidase by a novel class of small-molecule inhibitors protects against DCF-induced enteropathy without altering systemic drug exposure

Neurofilament light compared to neuron-specific enolase as a predictor of unfavourable outcome after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest

Aim: We compared the prognostic abilities of neurofilament light (NfL) and neuron-specific enolase (NSE) in patients resuscitated from out-ofhospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) of various aetiologies. Methods: We analysed frozen blood samples obtained at 24 and 48 hours from OHCA patients treated in 21 Finnish intensive care units in 2010 and 2011. We defined unfavourable outcome as Cerebral Performance Category (CPC) 3-5 at 12 months after OHCA. We evaluated the prognostic ability of the biomarkers by calculating the area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUROCs [95% confidence intervals]) and compared these with a bootstrap method. Results: Out of 248 adult patients, 12-month outcome was unfavourable in 120 (48.4%). The median (interquartile range) NfL concentrations for patients with unfavourable and those with favourable outcome, respectively, were 689 (146-1804) pg/mL vs. 31 (17-61) pg/mL at 24 h and 1162 (147-4360) pg/mL vs. 36 (21-87) pg/mL at 48 h, p < 0.001 for both. The corresponding NSE concentrations were 13.3 (7.2-27.3) mg/L vs. 8.5 (5.8- 13.2) mg/L at 24 h and 20.4 (8.1-56.6) mg/L vs. 8.2 (5.9-12.1) mg/L at 48 h, p < 0.001 for both. The AUROCs to predict an unfavourable outcome were 0.90 (0.86-0.94) for NfL vs. 0.65 (0.58-0.72) for NSE at 24 h, p < 0.001 and 0.88 (0.83-0.93) for NfL and 0.73 (0.66-0.81) for NSE at 48 h, p < 0.001. Conclusion: Compared to NSE, NfL demonstrated superior accuracy in predicting long-term unfavourable outcome after OHCA.Peer reviewe

Building better Sex Robots: Lessons from Feminist Pornography

How should we react to the development of sexbot technology? Taking their cue from anti-porn feminism, several academic critics lament the development of sexbot technology, arguing that it objectifies and subordinates women, is likely to promote misogynistic attitudes toward sex, and may need to be banned or restricted. In this chapter I argue for an alternative response. Taking my cue from the sex positive ‘feminist porn’ movement, I argue that the best response to the development of ‘bad’ sexbots is to make better ones. This will require changes to the content, process and context of sexbot development. Doing so will acknowledge the valuable role that technology can play in human sexuality, and allow us to challenge gendered norms and assumptions about male and female sexual desire. This will not be a panacea to the social problems that could arise from sexbot development, but it offers a more realistic and hopeful vision for the future of this technology in a pluralistic and progressive society

Costs, outcome and cost-effectiveness of neurocritical care: a multi-center observational study

Background: Neurocritical illness is a growing healthcare problem with profound socioeconomic effects. We assessed differences in healthcare costs and long-term outcome for different forms of neurocritical illnesses treated in the intensive care unit (ICU).Methods: We used the prospective Finnish Intensive Care Consortium database to identify all adult patients treated for traumatic brain injury (TBI), intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) and acute ischemic stroke (AIS) at university hospital ICUs in Finland during 2003-2013. Outcome variables were one-year mortality and permanent disability. Total healthcare costs included the index university hospital costs, rehabilitation hospital costs and social security costs up to one year. All costs were converted to euros based on the 2013 currency rate.Results: In total 7044 patients were included (44% with TBI, 13% with ICH, 27% with SAH, 16% with AIS). In comparison to TBI, ICH was associated with the highest risk of death and permanent disability (OR 2.6, 95% CI 2.1-3.2 and OR 1.7, 95% CI 1.4-2.1), followed by AIS (OR 1.9, 95% CI 15-23 and OR 1.5, 95% CI 1.3-1.8) and SAH (OR 1.8, 95% CI 1.5-2.1 and OR 0. 8, 95% CI 0.6-0.9), after adjusting for severity of illness. SAH was associated with the highest mean total costs ((sic)51,906) followed by ICH ((sic)47,661), TBI ((sic)43,916) and AIS ((sic)39222). Cost per independent survivor was lower for TBI ((sic)58,497) and SAH ((sic)96,369) compared to AIS ((sic)104,374) and ICH ((sic)178,071).Conclusion: Neurocritical illnesses are costly and resource-demanding diseases associated with poor outcomes. Intensive care of patients with TBI or SAH more commonly result in independent survivors and is associated with lower total treatments costs compared to ICH and AIS

Inhibition of breathing after surfactant depletion is achieved at a higher arterial PCO(2 )during ventilation with liquid than with gas

BACKGROUND: Inhibition of phrenic nerve activity (PNA) can be achieved when alveolar ventilation is adequate and when stretching of lung tissue stimulates mechanoreceptors to inhibit inspiratory activity. During mechanical ventilation under different lung conditions, inhibition of PNA can provide a physiological setting at which ventilatory parameters can be compared and related to arterial blood gases and pH. OBJECTIVE: To study lung mechanics and gas exchange at inhibition of PNA during controlled gas ventilation (GV) and during partial liquid ventilation (PLV) before and after lung lavage. METHODS: Nine anaesthetised, mechanically ventilated young cats (age 3.8 ± 0.5 months, weight 2.3 ± 0.1 kg) (mean ± SD) were studied with stepwise increases in peak inspiratory pressure (PIP) until total inhibition of PNA was attained before lavage (with GV) and after lavage (GV and PLV). Tidal volume (V(t)), PIP, oesophageal pressure and arterial blood gases were measured at inhibition of PNA. One way repeated measures analysis of variance and Student Newman Keuls-tests were used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: During GV, inhibition of PNA occurred at lower PIP, transpulmonary pressure (Ptp) and Vt before than after lung lavage. After lavage, inhibition of inspiratory activity was achieved at the same PIP, Ptp and Vt during GV and PLV, but occurred at a higher PaCO(2 )during PLV. After lavage compliance at inhibition was almost the same during GV and PLV and resistance was lower during GV than during PLV. CONCLUSION: Inhibition of inspiratory activity occurs at a higher PaCO(2 )during PLV than during GV in cats with surfactant-depleted lungs. This could indicate that PLV induces better recruitment of mechanoreceptors than GV

Single hadron response measurement and calorimeter jet energy scale uncertainty with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

The uncertainty on the calorimeter energy response to jets of particles is derived for the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). First, the calorimeter response to single isolated charged hadrons is measured and compared to the Monte Carlo simulation using proton-proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of sqrt(s) = 900 GeV and 7 TeV collected during 2009 and 2010. Then, using the decay of K_s and Lambda particles, the calorimeter response to specific types of particles (positively and negatively charged pions, protons, and anti-protons) is measured and compared to the Monte Carlo predictions. Finally, the jet energy scale uncertainty is determined by propagating the response uncertainty for single charged and neutral particles to jets. The response uncertainty is 2-5% for central isolated hadrons and 1-3% for the final calorimeter jet energy scale.Comment: 24 pages plus author list (36 pages total), 23 figures, 1 table, submitted to European Physical Journal

Standalone vertex finding in the ATLAS muon spectrometer

A dedicated reconstruction algorithm to find decay vertices in the ATLAS muon spectrometer is presented. The algorithm searches the region just upstream of or inside the muon spectrometer volume for multi-particle vertices that originate from the decay of particles with long decay paths. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using both a sample of simulated Higgs boson events, in which the Higgs boson decays to long-lived neutral particles that in turn decay to bbar b final states, and pp collision data at √s = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC during 2011

Measurements of Higgs boson production and couplings in diboson final states with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements are presented of production properties and couplings of the recently discovered Higgs boson using the decays into boson pairs, H →γ γ, H → Z Z∗ →4l and H →W W∗ →lνlν. The results are based on the complete pp collision data sample recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at centre-of-mass energies of √s = 7 TeV and √s = 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 25 fb−1. Evidence for Higgs boson production through vector-boson fusion is reported. Results of combined fits probing Higgs boson couplings to fermions and bosons, as well as anomalous contributions to loop-induced production and decay modes, are presented. All measurements are consistent with expectations for the Standard Model Higgs boson

Measurement of the top quark pair cross section with ATLAS in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV using final states with an electron or a muon and a hadronically decaying τ lepton

A measurement of the cross section of top quark pair production in proton-proton collisions recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV is reported. The data sample used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 2.05 fb -1. Events with an isolated electron or muon and a τ lepton decaying hadronically are used. In addition, a large missing transverse momentum and two or more energetic jets are required. At least one of the jets must be identified as originating from a b quark. The measured cross section, σtt-=186±13(stat.)±20(syst.)±7(lumi.) pb, is in good agreement with the Standard Model prediction