An RGS-Containing Sorting Nexin Controls Drosophila Lifespan

The pursuit of eternal youth has existed for centuries and recent data indicate that fat-storing tissues control lifespan. In a D. melanogaster fat body insertional mutagenic enhancer trap screen designed to isolate genes that control longevity, we identified a regulator of G protein signaling (RGS) domain containing sorting nexin, termed snazarus (sorting nexin lazarus, snz). Flies with insertions into the 5′ UTR of snz live up to twice as long as controls. Transgenic expression of UAS-Snz from the snz Gal4 enhancer trap insertion, active in fat metabolic tissues, rescued lifespan extension. Further, the lifespan extension of snz mutants was independent of endosymbiont, e.g., Wolbachia, effects. Notably, old snz mutant flies remain active and fertile indicating that snz mutants have prolonged youthfulness, a goal of aging research. Since mammals have snz-related genes, it is possible that the functions of the snz family may be conserved to humans

End-user informed demographic projections for Hamilton up to 2041

This report provides a set of projections of the population of Hamilton City and the larger Hamilton Zone. The projections have been calculated by means of the cohort component model. The projections can be considered alongside official Statistics New Zealand projections, but differ from the latter in terms of assumptions made about net migration. These assumptions constitute a number of scenarios that were informed by the Hamilton City Council and local consultations. These scenarios are linked to the potential impact of a number of economic development activities. The report also contains projections of the number of households, the labour force and two ethnic groups: Māori and New Zealand Europeans. In addition, a dwellings-based methodology is used to produce small area (Census Area Unit) projections. Across the scenarios, Hamilton City’s projected population growth over the next two decades ranges from 13.8 percent to 36.0 percent. This is between 1.5 to 12.2 percentage points higher than the corresponding projected national growth

A stochastic sub-national population projection methodology with an application to the Waikato region of New Zealand

In this paper we use a stochastic population projection methodology at the sub-national level as an alternative to the conventional deterministic cohort-component method. We briefly evaluate the accuracy of previous deterministic projections and find that there is a tendency for these to be conservative: under-projecting fast growing populations and over-projecting slow growing ones. We generate probabilistic population projections for five demographically distinct administrative areas within the Waikato region of New Zealand, namely Hamilton City, Franklin District, Thames-Coromandel District, Otorohanga District and South Waikato District. Although spatial interaction between the areas is not taken into account in the current version of the methodology, a consistent set of cross-regional assumptions is used. The results are compared to official sub-national deterministic projections. The accuracy of sub-national population projections is in New Zealand strongly affected by the instability of migration as a component of population change. Unlike the standard cohort-component methodology, in which net migration levels are projected, the key parameters of our stochastic methodology are age-gender-area specific net migration rates. The projected range of rates of population growth is wider for smaller regions and/or regions more strongly affected by net migration. Generally, the identified and modelled uncertainty makes the traditional ‘mid range’ scenario of sub-national population projections of limited use for policy analysis or planning beyond a relatively short projection horizon. Directions for further development of a stochastic sub-national projection methodology are suggested

Dynamic Social Balance and Convergent Appraisals via Homophily and Influence Mechanisms

Social balance theory describes allowable and forbidden configurations of the topologies of signed directed social appraisal networks. In this paper, we propose two discrete-time dynamical systems that explain how an appraisal network \textcolor{blue}{converges to} social balance from an initially unbalanced configuration. These two models are based on two different socio-psychological mechanisms respectively: the homophily mechanism and the influence mechanism. Our main theoretical contribution is a comprehensive analysis for both models in three steps. First, we establish the well-posedness and bounded evolution of the interpersonal appraisals. Second, we fully characterize the set of equilibrium points; for both models, each equilibrium network is composed by an arbitrary number of complete subgraphs satisfying structural balance. Third, we establish the equivalence among three distinct properties: non-vanishing appraisals, convergence to all-to-all appraisal networks, and finite-time achievement of social balance. In addition to theoretical analysis, Monte Carlo validations illustrates how the non-vanishing appraisal condition holds for generic initial conditions in both models. Moreover, numerical comparison between the two models indicate that the homophily-based model might be a more universal explanation for the formation of social balance. Finally, adopting the homophily-based model, we present numerical results on the mediation and globalization of local conflicts, the competition for allies, and the asymptotic formation of a single versus two factions

DC Josephson Effect in a Tomonaga-Luttinger Liquid

The dc Josephson effect in a one-dimensional Tomonaga-Luttinger (TL) liquid is studied on the basis of two bosonized models. We first consider a TL liquid sandwiched between two superconductors with a strong barrier at each interface. Both the interfaces are assumed to be perfect if the barrier potential is absent. We next consider a TL liquid with open boundaries, weakly coupled with two superconductors. Without putting strong barriers, we instead assume that the coupling at each interface is described by a tunnel junction. We calculate the Josephson current in each model, and find that the two models yield same results. The Josephson current is suppressed by repulsive electron-electron interactions. It is shown that the suppression is characterized by only the correlation exponent for the charge degrees of freedom. This result is inconsistent with a previously reported result, where the spin degrees of freedom also affects the suppression. The reason of this inconsistency is discussed.Comment: 18 page

Evaluation of efficacy and safety of Bacillus coagulans SNZ 1969 supplementation for irritable bowel syndrome: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study

Background: Probiotic potential (efficacy and safety) of Bacillus coagulans SNZ 1969 has been studied in patients with constipation-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS-C) and-diarrhea predominant IBS (IBS-D).Methods: This randomized, double-blind, two-arm, placebo-controlled parallel study randomized 92 patients (1:1) to receive either 500 million CFU of Bacillus coagulans SNZ 1969 (treatment group) or placebo (placebo group) twice daily for 60 days under two subtypes of IBS, IBS-D (n=46) and IBS-C (n=46). Primary outcomes were changes in IBS symptom severity noted using the gastrointestinal symptom rating scale-IBS version (GSRS-IBS) on days 30, 60, and 75, and the number of treatment responders defined by subject’s global assessment (SGA) of relief ≤3 and ≤2 at days 30 and 60, respectively. We also assessed patient’s quality of life.Results: The GSRS-IBS scores reduced from day 30 through 75 in both IBS groups treated with Bacillus coagulans SNZ1969 compared to placebo (p<0.05). Higher GSRS-IBS score was noted in patients with IBS-C in the treatment group (22.45±2.7) than the placebo group (3.55±3.02; p<0.0001), and this trend was similar in IBS-D patients (p<0.0001). Most patients (90%) with IBS-C and all with IBS-D responded to Bacillus coagulans SNZ 1969 compared to no responders with placebo (p<0.0001). The SF-8 scores significantly reduced in patients receiving Bacillus coagulans SNZ 1969 than placebo for both IBS subtypes. One adverse event unrelated to the study treatments was reported in IBS-D group.Conclusions: Bacillus coagulans SNZ 1969 is safe, effective in alleviating IBS-associated clinical symptoms, and improves quality of life

Simplified PBEE to Estimate Economic Seismic Risk for Buildings

A seismic risk assessment is often performed on behalf of a buyer of large commercial buildings in seismically active regions. One outcome of the assessment is that a probable maximum loss (PML) is computed. PML is of limited use to real-estate investors as it has no place in a standard financial analysis and reflects too long a planning period for what-if scenarios. We introduce an alternative to PML called probable frequent loss (PFL), defined as the mean loss resulting from an economic-basis earthquake such as shaking with 10% exceedance probability in 5 years. PFL is approximately related to expected annualized loss (EAL) through a site economic hazard coefficient (H) introduced here. PFL and EAL offer three advantages over PML: (1) meaningful planning period; (2) applicability in financial analysis (making seismic risk a potential market force); and (3) can be estimated by a rigorous but simplified PBEE method that relies on a single linear structural analysis. We illustrate using 15 example buildings, including a 7-story nonductile reinforced-concrete moment-frame building in Van Nuys, CA and 14 buildings from the CUREE-Caltech Woodframe Project

Simplified Estimation of Economic Seismic Risk for Buildings

A seismic risk assessment is often performed on behalf of a buyer of commercial buildings in seismically active regions. One outcome of the assessment is that a probable maximum loss (PML) is computed. PML is of limited use to real-estate investors as it has no place in a standard financial analysis and reflects too long a planning period. We introduce an alternative to PML called probable frequent loss (PFL), defined as the mean loss resulting from shaking with 10% exceedance probability in 5 years. PFL is approximately related to expected annualized loss (EAL) through a site economic hazard coefficient (H) introduced here. PFL and EAL offer three advantages over PML: (1) meaningful planning period; (2) applicability in financial analysis (making seismic risk a potential market force); and (3) can be estimated using a single linear structural analysis, via a simplified method called linear assembly-based vulnerability (LABV) that is presented in this work. We also present a simple decision-analysis framework for real-estate investments in seismic regions, accounting for risk aversion. We show that market risk overwhelms uncertainty in seismic risk, allowing one to consider only expected consequences in seismic risk. We illustrate using 15 buildings, including a 7-story nonductile reinforced-concrete moment-frame building in Van Nuys, California, and 14 buildings from the CUREE-Caltech Woodframe Project