Spatial Epidemiology of Birth Defects in the United States and the State of Utah Using Geographic Information Systems and Spatial Statistics

Oral clefts are the most common form of birth defects in the United States (US) and the State of Utah has among the highest prevalence of oral clefts in the nation. The overall objective of this dissertation was to examine the spatial distribution of oral clefts and their linkage with a broad range of demographic, behavioral, social, economic, and environmental risk factors through the application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and spatial statistics. Using innovative linked micromaps plots, we investigated the geographic patterns of oral clefts occurrence from 1998 to 2002 and their relationships with maternal smoking rates and proportion of American Indians and Alaskan Natives (AIAN) at large scales across the US. The findings indicated higher oral clefts occurrence in the southwest and the midwest and lower occurrence in the east. Furthermore, these spatial patterns were significantly related to the smoking rates and AIAN. Then at the small area level, hierarchical Bayesian models were built to examine the spatial variation in oral clefts risk in the State of Utah from 1995 to 2004 and to assess association with mothers using tobacco, mothers consuming alcohol during pregnancy, and the proportion of mothers with no high school diploma. Next, multi-scalar spatial clustering and cluster techniques were used to test the hypothesis whether there was spatial clustering of oral clefts anywhere in the State of Utah and whether there were statistically significant local clusters with elevated oral cleft cases. Results generally revealed modest spatial variation in oral clefts risk in the State of Utah, with no pronounced spatial clustering, indicating environmental exposures are unlikely plausible cause of oral clefts. However, a few notable areas within Tri-County Local Health District, Provo/Brigham Young University, and North Orem had a tendency toward elevated oral clefts cases. Investigation of the maternal characteristics of these potential clusters supports the hypotheses that maternal smoking, lower education level, and family history are possible causes of oral clefts. Throughout this dissertation, we demonstrated how birth defects data collected by state and local surveillance systems coupled with GIS and spatial statistics methods can be useful in exploratory etiologic research of birth defects

Excited ionic and neutral fragments produced by dissociation of the N2(+)* H band

N I and N II fluorescent radiation was observed when N2 was irradiated by undispersed synchrotron radiation with an upper energy limit of approximately 200 eV. The excited fragments originate from dissociation of a band of excited ionic states of N2 lying between 34.7 and 44 eV

Sistem Informasi Rental Di Venus Rental YOGYAKARTA

Cd Rental is a service business related to the entertainment world, as a promising business rentals cd then it should use a system / program in every transaction. Rental Venus CD (VCD and DVD rental) is one of the rental with a number of CDs and a lot of customers. Data from each CD are written into a book that certainly requires a lot of time and accuracy when employees need the data to customers or to the report. While experiencing a CD every month stock additions and deductions, so that should be checked periodically if there is data to be renewed. The combination of Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 with MySQL, it is very helpful in the process of making lending transaction and return the application cd as well as searching the data, thus increasing the effectiveness of the work which had previously been an obstacle. The report generated a level of accuracy even when compared with the manual system previously use

Morphometric features and proximate body composition of rocky freshwater prawn (Caridina africana, Kingsley 1882) at Erin-Ijesa waterfalls, Osun State Nigeria

An investigation was conducted on the morphometric features and proximate body composition of rocky freshwater prawn, Caridina africana occurring at Erin-Ijesa Waterfalls in Osun State, Nigeria. The adult prawns were collected at the first layer of the Waterfalls using scoop nets and locally fabricated sieves because of the shallow nature of the water body and tiny size of the species. Morphometric features were measured using measuring board and Vernier calipers while the proximate analysis was determined by atomic absorption spectrophotometry in the laboratory. The morphometric variables placed the species correctly into the Infra order Caridea and family Atyidae because the first and second chelipeds were shorter than the remaining three pairs of walking legs. Male prawns were significantly bigger (p<0.05). than the females as revealed in the morphometric features. The proximate analysis showed that C. africana is composed of 58.79% protein, 5.42% lipid, 11.56% carbohydrate, 14.7% ash and 0.21 % crude fibre. The micro-nutrient composition included iron, zinc, copper, nickel and cadmium. The values for these nutrients make the study to suggest that C. africana could be a nutritive food bio-material for humans and other livestock nutrition especially the fin-fish aquaculture programme

2-index chiral gauge theories

We undertake a systematic study of the $4$-dimensional $SU(N)$ $2$-index chiral gauge theories and investigate their faithful global symmetries and dynamics. These are a finite set of theories with fermions in the $2$-index symmetric and anti-symmetric representations, with no fundamentals, and they do not admit a large-$N$ limit. We employ a combination of perturbative and nonperturbative methods, enabling us to constrain their infrared (IR) phases. Specifically, we leverage the 't Hooft anomalies associated with continuous and discrete groups to eliminate a few scenarios. In some cases, the anomalies rule out the possibility of fermion composites. In other cases, the interplay between the continuous and discrete anomalies leads to multiple higher-order condensates, which inevitably form to match the anomalies. Further, we pinpoint the most probable symmetry-breaking patterns by searching for condensates that match the full set of anomalies resulting in the smallest number of IR degrees of freedom. Higher-loop $\beta$-function analysis suggests that a few theories may flow to a conformal fixed point.Comment: 40 pages + appendice

2-index chiral gauge theories

We undertake a systematic study of the 4-dimensional SU(N) 2-index chiral gauge theories and investigate their faithful global symmetries and dynamics. These are a finite set of theories with fermions in the 2-index symmetric and anti-symmetric representations, with no fundamentals, and they do not admit a large-N limit. We employ a combination of perturbative and nonperturbative methods, enabling us to constrain their infrared (IR) phases. Specifically, we leverage the ’t Hooft anomalies associated with continuous and discrete groups to eliminate a few scenarios. In some cases, the anomalies rule out the possibility of fermion composites. In other cases, the interplay between the continuous and discrete anomalies leads to multiple higher-order condensates, which inevitably form to match the anomalies. Further, we pinpoint the most probable symmetry-breaking patterns by searching for condensates that match the full set of anomalies resulting in the smallest number of IR degrees of freedom. Higher-loop β-function analysis suggests that a few theories may flow to a conformal fixed point

Noninvertible symmetries and anomalies from gauging 11-form electric centers

We devise a general method for obtaining $0$-form noninvertible discrete chiral symmetries in $4$-dimensional $SU(N)/\mathbb Z_p$ and $SU(N)\times U(1)/\mathbb Z_p$ gauge theories with matter in arbitrary representations, where $\mathbb Z_p$ is a subgroup of the electric $1$-form center symmetry. Our approach involves placing the theory on a three-torus and utilizing the Hamiltonian formalism to construct noninvertible operators by introducing twists compatible with the gauging of $\mathbb Z_p$. These theories exhibit electric $1$-form and magnetic $1$-form global symmetries, and their generators play a crucial role in constructing the corresponding Hilbert space. The noninvertible operators are demonstrated to project onto specific Hilbert space sectors characterized by particular magnetic fluxes. Furthermore, when subjected to twists by the electric $1$-form global symmetry, these surviving sectors reveal an anomaly between the noninvertible and the $1$-form symmetries. We argue that an anomaly implies that certain sectors, characterized by the eigenvalues of the electric symmetry generators, exhibit multi-fold degeneracies. When we couple these theories to axions, infrared axionic noninvertible operators inherit the ultraviolet structure of the theory, including the projective nature of the operators and their anomalies. We discuss various examples of vector and chiral gauge theories that showcase the versatility of our approach.Comment: 42 page

Auger Resonance Decay Process in Ar 2p Shell Excitation and Ionization

The production and subsequent autoionization of the Ar+ (1D2)6d1 satellite state that is formed either by shake-up or recapture during the Auger decay of a 2p vacancy in Ar has been studied by photoelectron spectroscopy in the energy region from 243 to 256 eV. The creation of near zero energy electrons below and immediately above the Ar 2p ionization threshold is discussed. Some ambiguous points in previous studies are clarified

Aspects of Postcollision Interactions (PCI) Near the Ar L-shell

In the present work we are interested in near-threshold photoionization experiments involving postcollision effects related to the Auger decay of a vacancy in the Ar L shell. In particular, we have measured the photoelectron energy spectrum resulting from the above postcollision interaction effects and have observed electrons produced by the process of electron capture and reemission

Tunable refraction in a two dimensional quantum metamaterial

In this paper we consider a two-dimensional metamaterial comprising an array of qubits (two level quantum objects). Here we show that a two-dimensional quantum metamaterial may be controlled, e.g. via the application of a magnetic flux, so as to provide controllable refraction of an input signal. Our results are consistent with a material that could be quantum birefringent (beam splitter) or not dependent on the application of this control parameter. We note that quantum metamaterials as proposed here may be fabricated from a variety of current candidate technologies from superconducting qubits to quantum dots. Thus the ideas proposed in this work would be readily testable in existing state of the art laboratories.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure