A model for orientation effects in electron‐transfer reactions

A method for solving the single‐particle Schrödinger equation with an oblate spheroidal potential of finite depth is presented. The wave functions are then used to calculate the matrix element T_BA which appears in theories of nonadiabatic electron transfer. The results illustrate the effects of mutual orientation and separation of the two centers on TBA. Trends in these results are discussed in terms of geometrical and nodal structure effects. Analytical expressions related to T_BA for states of spherical wells are presented and used to analyze the nodal structure effects for T_BA for the spheroidal wells

The influence of defined ante-mortem stressors on the early post-mortem biochemical processes in the abdominal muscle of the Norway lobster, Nephrops norvegicus (Linnaeus, 1758)

The effects of four different ante-mortem stressors (exercise, emersion, starvation and a patent infection with the parasite Hematodinium sp.) on post-mortem processes have been investigated in the abdominal muscle of Norway lobster Nephrops norvegicus by measuring changes in the pH, the levels of glycogen, l-lactate, arginine phosphate, ATP, ADP, AMP, IMP, HxR, Hx and the adenylate energy charge (AEC) over a time course of 24 h with samples being taken at 0, 3, 6, 12 and 24 h. The acute stresses of intense exercise and 2 h emersion resulted in a premature onset of anaerobic glycolysis, leading both to an enhanced glycogen depletion rate and an early accumulation of l-lactate. The chronic stressors, starvation and parasite infection, resulted in a complete ante-mortem depletion of muscle glycogen and consequently the failure of post-mortem glycolytic fermentation. Post-mortem pH and ATP inter-conversion were significantly altered in chronically stressed animals. Ante-mortem, a rapid, almost complete depletion of arginine phosphate was observed in all stress groups. The AEC was altered significantly by all stresses, indicating a strong energy demand. The findings suggest that ante-mortem stressors strongly influence the post-mortem biochemical processes. The laboratory-based results are compared to 'field' data and effects on post-harvest product quality are discussed

Coupled coarse graining and Markov Chain Monte Carlo for lattice systems

We propose an efficient Markov Chain Monte Carlo method for sampling equilibrium distributions for stochastic lattice models, capable of handling correctly long and short-range particle interactions. The proposed method is a Metropolis-type algorithm with the proposal probability transition matrix based on the coarse-grained approximating measures introduced in a series of works of M. Katsoulakis, A. Majda, D. Vlachos and P. Plechac, L. Rey-Bellet and D.Tsagkarogiannis,. We prove that the proposed algorithm reduces the computational cost due to energy differences and has comparable mixing properties with the classical microscopic Metropolis algorithm, controlled by the level of coarsening and reconstruction procedure. The properties and effectiveness of the algorithm are demonstrated with an exactly solvable example of a one dimensional Ising-type model, comparing efficiency of the single spin-flip Metropolis dynamics and the proposed coupled Metropolis algorithm.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figure

A Prospective Longitudinal Study of the Clinical Outcomes from Cryptococcal Meningitis following Treatment Induction with 800 mg Oral Fluconazole in Blantyre, Malawi

Introduction: Cryptococcal meningitis is the most common neurological infection in HIV infected patients in Sub Saharan Africa, where gold standard treatment with intravenous amphotericin B and 5 flucytosine is often unavailable or difficult to administer. Fluconazole monotherapy is frequently recommended in national guidelines but is a fungistatic drug compromised by uncertainty over optimal dosing and a paucity of clinical end-point outcome data. Methods: From July 2010 until March 2011, HIV infected adults with a first episode of cryptococcal meningitis were recruited at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, Blantyre, Malawi. Patients were treated with oral fluconazole monotherapy 800 mg daily, as per national guidelines. ART was started at 4 weeks. Outcomes and factors associated with treatment failure were assessed 4, 10 and 52 weeks after fluconazole initiation. Results: Sixty patients were recruited. 26/60 (43%) died by 4 weeks. 35/60 (58.0%) and 43/56 (77%) died or failed treatment by 10 or 52 weeks respectively. Reduced consciousness (Glasgow Coma Score ,14 of 15), moderate/severe neurological disability (modified Rankin Score .3 of 5) and confusion (Abbreviated Mental Test Score ,8 of 10) were all common at baseline and associated with death or treatment failure. ART prior to recruitment was not associated with better outcomes. Conclusions: Mortality and treatment failure from cryptococcal meningitis following initiation of treatment with 800 mg oral fluconazole is unacceptably high. To improve outcomes, there is an urgent need for better therapeutic strategies and point-of-care diagnostics, allowing earlier diagnosis before development of neurological deficit

Jet-veto in bottom-quark induced Higgs production at next-to-next-to-leading order

We present results for associated Higgs+n-jet production in bottom quark annihilation, for n=0 and n>=1 at NNLO and NLO accuracy, respectively. We consider both the cases with and without b-tagging. Numerical results are presented for parameters relevant for experiments at the LHC.Comment: 27 pages, 13 figures, 8 table

Binding of Transcription Factor GabR to DNA Requires Recognition of DNA Shape at a Location Distinct from its Cognate Binding Site

Mechanisms for transcription factor recognition of specific DNA base sequences are well characterized and recent studies demonstrate that the shape of these cognate binding sites is also important. Here, we uncover a new mechanism where the transcription factor GabR simultaneously recognizes two cognate binding sites and the shape of a 29 bp DNA sequence that bridges these sites. Small-angle X-ray scattering and multi-angle laser light scattering are consistent with a model where the DNA undergoes a conformational change to bend around GabR during binding. In silico predictions suggest that the bridging DNA sequence is likely to be bendable in one direction and kinetic analysis of mutant DNA sequences with biolayer interferometry, allowed the independent quantification of the relative contribution of DNA base and shape recognition in the GabR–DNA interaction. These indicate that the two cognate binding sites as well as the bendability of the DNA sequence in between these sites are required to form a stable complex. The mechanism of GabR–DNA interaction provides an example where the correct shape of DNA, at a clearly distinct location from the cognate binding site, is required for transcription factor binding and has implications for bioinformatics searches for novel binding sites

Epidemiological Interactions between Urogenital and Intestinal Human Schistosomiasis in the Context of Praziquantel Treatment across Three West African Countries

© 2015 Knowles et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The attached file is the published version of the article

The Law of Society: Governance Through Contract

This paper focuses on contract law as a central field in contemporary regulatory practice. In recent years, governance by contract has emerged as the central concept in the context of domestic privatization, domestic and transnational commercial relations and law-and-development projects. Meanwhile, as a result of the neo-formalist attack on contract law, governance of contract through contract adjudication, consumer protection law and judicial intervention into private law relations has come under severe pressure. Building on early historical critique of the formalist foundations of an allegedly private law of the market, the paper assesses the current justifications for contractual governance and posits that only an expanded legal realist perspective can adequately explain the complex nature of contractual agreements in contemporary practice. The paper argues for an understanding of contracts as complex societal arrangements that visibilize and negotiate conflicting rationalities and interests. Institutionally, contractual governance has been unfolding in a complex, historically grown and ideologically continually contested regulatory field. Governance through contract, then, denotes a wide field of conflicting concepts, ideas and symbols, that are themselves deeply entrenched in theories of society, market and the state. From this perspective, we are well advised to study contracts in their socio-economic, historical and cultural context. A careful reading of scholars such as Henry Sumner Maine, Morris Cohen, Robert Hale, Karl Llewellyn, Stewart Macaulay and Ian Macneil offers a deeper understanding of the institutional and normative dimensions of contractual governance. Their analysis is particularly helpful in assessing currently ongoing shifts away from a welfare state based regulation (governance) of contractual relations. Such shifts are occurring on two levels. First, they take place against the backdrop of a neo-liberal critique of government interference into allegedly private relations. Secondly, the increasingly influential return to formalism in contract law, which privileges a functionalist, purportedly technical and autonomous design and execution of contractual agreements over the view of regulated contracts, is linked to a particular concept of sovereignty. The ensuing revival of freedom of contract occurs in remarkable neglect of the experiences of welfare state adjudication of private law adjudication and a continuing contestation of the political in private relationships. The paper takes up the Legal Realists\u27 search for the \u27basis of contract\u27, but seeks to redirect the focus from the traditional perspective on state vs. market to a disembedded understanding of contractual governance as delineating multipolar and multirational regulatory regimes. Where Globalization has led to a fragmentation, disembeddedness and transnationalization of contexts and, thus, has been challenging traditional understanding of embeddedness, the task should no longer be to try applying a largely nation-state oriented Legal Realist perspective and critique to the sphere of contemporary contractual governance, but - rather - to translate its aims into a more reflexive set of instruments of legal critique. Even if Globalization has led to a dramatic denationalization of many regulatory fields and functions, it is still not clear, whether and how Globalization replaces, complements or aggravates transformations of societal governance, with and through contract

Cyclic game dynamics driven by iterated reasoning

Recent theories from complexity science argue that complex dynamics are ubiquitous in social and economic systems. These claims emerge from the analysis of individually simple agents whose collective behavior is surprisingly complicated. However, economists have argued that iterated reasoning--what you think I think you think--will suppress complex dynamics by stabilizing or accelerating convergence to Nash equilibrium. We report stable and efficient periodic behavior in human groups playing the Mod Game, a multi-player game similar to Rock-Paper-Scissors. The game rewards subjects for thinking exactly one step ahead of others in their group. Groups that play this game exhibit cycles that are inconsistent with any fixed-point solution concept. These cycles are driven by a "hopping" behavior that is consistent with other accounts of iterated reasoning: agents are constrained to about two steps of iterated reasoning and learn an additional one-half step with each session. If higher-order reasoning can be complicit in complex emergent dynamics, then cyclic and chaotic patterns may be endogenous features of real-world social and economic systems.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, and supplementary informatio