Health outcomes of children born to mothers with chronic kidney disease: a pilot study

This study aimed to study the health of children born to mothers with chronic kidney disease. Twenty-four children born to mothers with chronic kidney disease were compared with 39 matched control children born to healthy mothers without kidney disease. The well-being of each child was individually assessed in terms of physical health, neurodevelopment and psychological health. Families participating with renal disease were more likely to be from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Significantly fewer vaginal deliveries were reported for mothers with renal disease and their infants were more likely to experience neonatal morbidity. Study and control children were comparable for growth parameters and neurodevelopment as assessed by the Griffiths scales. There was no evidence of more stress amongst mothers with renal disease or of impaired bonding between mother and child when compared to controls. However, there was evidence of greater externalizing behavioral problems in the group of children born to mothers with renal disease. Engaging families in such studies is challenging. Nonetheless, families who participated appreciated being asked. The children were apparently healthy but there was evidence in this small study of significant antenatal and perinatal morbidity compared to controls. Future larger multi-center studies are required to confirm these early findings

The Vampire and the FOOL

This paper presents new features recently implemented in the theorem prover Vampire, namely support for first-order logic with a first class boolean sort (FOOL) and polymorphic arrays. In addition to having a first class boolean sort, FOOL also contains if-then-else and let-in expressions. We argue that presented extensions facilitate reasoning-based program analysis, both by increasing the expressivity of first-order reasoners and by gains in efficiency

Partial duplication of the APBA2 gene in chromosome 15q13 corresponds to duplicon structures.

BackgroundChromosomal abnormalities affecting human chromosome 15q11-q13 underlie multiple genomic disorders caused by deletion, duplication and triplication of intervals in this region. These events are mediated by highly homologous segments of DNA, or duplicons, that facilitate mispairing and unequal cross-over in meiosis. The gene encoding an amyloid precursor protein-binding protein (APBA2) was previously mapped to the distal portion of the interval commonly deleted in Prader-Willi and Angelman syndromes and duplicated in cases of autism.ResultsWe show that this gene actually maps to a more telomeric location and is partially duplicated within the broader region. Two highly homologous copies of an interval containing a large 5' exon and downstream sequence are located approximately 5 Mb distal to the intact locus. The duplicated copies, containing the first coding exon of APBA2, can be distinguished by single nucleotide sequence differences and are transcriptionally inactive. Adjacent to APBA2 maps a gene termed KIAA0574. The protein encoded by this gene is weakly homologous to a protein termed X123 that in turn maps adjacent to APBA1 on 9q21.12; APBA1 is highly homologous to APBA2 in the C-terminal region and is distinguished from APBA2 by the N-terminal region encoded by this duplicated exon.ConclusionThe duplication of APBA2 sequences in this region adds to a complex picture of different low copy repeats present across this region and elsewhere on the chromosome

Hyperbolic monopoles, JNR data and spectral curves

A large class of explicit hyperbolic monopole solutions can be obtained from JNR instanton data, if the curvature of hyperbolic space is suitably tuned. Here we provide explicit formulae for both the monopole spectral curve and its rational map in terms of JNR data. Examples with platonic symmetry are presented, together with some one-parameter families with cyclic and dihedral symmetries. These families include hyperbolic analogues of geodesics that describe symmetric monopole scatterings in Euclidean space and we illustrate the results with energy density isosurfaces. There is a metric on the moduli space of hyperbolic monopoles, defined using the Abelian connection on the boundary of hyperbolic space, and we provide a simple integral formula for this metric on the space of JNR data

Numerical Investigation of Monopole Chains

We present numerical results for chains of SU(2) BPS monopoles constructed from Nahm data. The long chain limit reveals an asymmetric behavior transverse to the periodic direction, with the asymmetry becoming more pronounced at shorter separations. This analysis is motivated by a search for semiclassical finite temperature instantons in the 3D SU(2) Georgi-Glashow model, but it appears that in the periodic limit the instanton chains either have logarithmically divergent action or wash themselves out.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures; v2 minor changes, published versio

Study of industrial titania synthesis using a hybrid particle-number and detailed particle model

We apply a hybrid particle model to study synthesis of particulate titania under representative industrial conditions. The hybrid particle model employs a particle-number description for small particles, and resolves complicated particle morphology where required using a detailed particle model. This enables resolution of particle property distributions under fast process dynamics. Robustness is demonstrated in a network of reactors used to simulate the industrial process. The detailed particle model resolves properties of the particles that determine end product quality and post-processing efficiency, including primary particle size and degree of aggregate cohesion. Sensitivity of these properties to process design choices is quantified, showing that higher temperature injections produce more sintered particles; more frequent injections narrow the geometric standard deviation of primary particle diameter; and chlorine dilution reduces particle size and size variance. Structures of a typical industrial particle are compared visually with simulated particles, illustrating similar aggregate features with slightly larger primary particles

Soliton Lattice and Single Soliton Solutions of the Associated Lam\'e and Lam\'e Potentials

We obtain the exact nontopological soliton lattice solutions of the Associated Lam\'e equation in different parameter regimes and compute the corresponding energy for each of these solutions. We show that in specific limits these solutions give rise to nontopological (pulse-like) single solitons, as well as to different types of topological (kink-like) single soliton solutions of the Associated Lam\'e equation. Following Manton, we also compute, as an illustration, the asymptotic interaction energy between these soliton solutions in one particular case. Finally, in specific limits, we deduce the soliton lattices, as well as the topological single soliton solutions of the Lam\'e equation, and also the sine-Gordon soliton solution.Comment: 23 pages, 5 figures. Submitted to J. Math. Phy

Inversion symmetric 3-monopoles and the Atiyah-Hitchin manifold

We consider 3-monopoles symmetric under inversion symmetry. We show that the moduli space of these monopoles is an Atiyah-Hitchin submanifold of the 3-monopole moduli space. This allows what is known about 2-monopole dynamics to be translated into results about the dynamics of 3-monopoles. Using a numerical ADHMN construction we compute the monopole energy density at various points on two interesting geodesics. The first is a geodesic over the two-dimensional rounded cone submanifold corresponding to right angle scattering and the second is a closed geodesic for three orbiting monopoles.Comment: latex, 22 pages, 2 figures. To appear in Nonlinearit