Unequal relationships in high and low power distance societies: a comparative study of tutor - student role relations in Britain and China

This study investigated people's conceptions of an unequal role relationship in two different types of society: a high power distance society and a low power distance society. The study focuses on the role relationship of tutor and student. British and Chinese tutors and postgraduate students completed a questionnaire that probed their conceptions of degrees of power differential and social distance/closeness in this role relationship. ANOVA results yielded a significant nationality effect for both aspects. Chinese respondents judged the relationship to be closer and to have a greater power differential than did British respondents. Written comments on the questionnaire and interviews with 9 Chinese academics who had experienced both British and Chinese academic environments supported the statistical findings and indicated that there are fundamental ideological differences associated with the differing conceptions. The results are discussed in relation to Western and Asian concepts of leadership and differing perspectives on the compatibility/incompatibility of power and distance/closeness

On the Origins of Starburst and Post-Starburst Galaxies in Nearby Clusters

HST WFPC2 images in B (F450W) and I (F814W) have been obtained for three starburst (SB) and two post-starburst (PSB) galaxies in the Coma cluster, and for three such galaxies in the cluster DC2048-52. V (F555W) and I images for an additional PSB galaxy in Coma have been extracted from the archive. Seven of these galaxies were previously classified as E/S0 on the basis of ground-based images, one as Sa, and the other as an irregular. The HST images reveal these SB/PSB galaxies to be heterogeneous in morphology. Nevertheless a common theme is that many of them, especially the SB galaxies, tend to have centralized spiral structure that appears simply as a bright ``bulge''on ground-based images. In addition, while some PSB galaxies exhibit distinct spiral structure, on the whole they have smoother morphologies than the SB galaxies. The morphologies and luminosity profiles are generally consistent with substantial starbursts in the form of centralized spiral structure (the SB galaxies) which fade into smoother morphologies (the PSB galaxies), with lingering spectroscopic evidence for past central starbursts. An important point is that the PSB galaxies retain disks, i.e, they have not evolved into spheroidal systems.Comment: 32 pages, 10 figures including 3 jpg images. To appear in the January 1999 Astronomical Journa

Income or education, which has a stronger association with dental implant use in elderly people in Japan?

OBJECTIVES Although inequalities in dental implant use based on educational level have been reported, no study has used income as a proxy for the socioeconomic status. We examined: (i) income inequalities in implant use; and (ii) whether income or education has a stronger association with implant use in elder Japanese. METHODS In 2016, a self‐reported questionnaire was mailed to participants aged 65 years or older living across Japan as part of the ongoing Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study. We used data from 84,718 respondents having 19 or fewer teeth. After multiple imputation, multi‐level logistic regression estimated the association of dental implant use with equivalised income level and years of formal education. Confounders were age, sex, and density of dental clinics in the residential area. RESULTS 3.1% of respondents had dental implants. Percentages of dental implant use among the lowest (≤ 9 years) and highest (≥ 13 years) educational groups were 1.8 and 5.1, respectively, and among the lowest (0 < 12.2 ‘1,000 USD/year’) and highest (≥ 59.4 ‘1,000 USD/year’) income groups were 1.7 and 10.4, respectively. A fully adjusted model revealed that both income and education were independently associated with dental implant use. Odds ratios for implant use in the highest education and income groups were 2.13 [95% CI = 1.94–2.35] and 4.85 [95% CI = 3.78–6.22] compared with the lowest education and income groups, respectively. From a model with standardised variables, income showed slightly stronger association than education. CONCLUSION This study reveals a public health problem that even those with the highest education but low income might have limited accessibility to dental implant services

QCD factorization for forward hadron scattering at high energies

We consider the QCD factorization of DIS structure functions at small x and amplitudes of 2->2 -hadronic forward scattering at high energy. We show that both collinear and k_T-factorization for these processes can be obtained approximately as reductions of a more general (totally unintegrated) form of the factorization. The requirement of ultraviolet and infrared stability of the factorization convolutions allows us to obtain restrictions on the fits for the parton distributions in k_T- and collinear factorization.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures In the present version misprints found in the prevcious version are corrected and some more details are explaine

kt - factorization and CCFM - the solution for describing the hadronic final states - everywhere ?

The basic ideas of kt-factorization and CCFM parton evolution is discussed. The unintegrated gluon densities, obtained from CCFM fits to the proton structure function data at HERA are used to predict hadronic final state cross sections like jet production at HERA, but also comparisons with recent measurements of heavy quark production at the Tevatron are presented. Finally, the kt-factorization approach is applied to Higgs production at high energy hadron hadron colliders and the transverse momentum spectrum of Higgs production at the LHC is calculated.Comment: to be published in MPLA, replaced with new reference

A cardiovascular disease policy model:part 2-preparing for economic evaluation and to assess health inequalities

Objectives This is the second of two papers introducing a cardiovascular disease (CVD) policy model. The first paper described the structure and statistical underpinning of the state transition model, demonstrating how life expectancy estimates are generated for individuals defined by ASSIGN risk factors. This second paper describes how the model is prepared to undertake economic evaluation. Design To generate quality adjusted life expectancy (QALE), the Scottish Health Survey was used to estimate background morbidity (health utilities) and the impact of CVD events (utility decrements). The SF-6D algorithm generated utilities and decrements were modelled using ordinary least squares (OLS). To generate lifetime hospital costs the Scottish Heart Health Extended Cohort (SHHEC) was linked to the Scottish morbidity and death records (SMR) to cost each Continuous Inpatient Stay (CIS). OLS and restricted cubic splines estimated annual costs before and after each of the first four events. A Kaplan Meier Sample Average (KMSA) estimator was then used to weight expected health related quality of life and costs by the probability of survival. Results The policy model predicts the change in QALE and lifetime hospital costs as a result of an intervention(s) modifying risk factors. Cost effectiveness analysis and a full uncertainty analysis can be undertaken, including probabilistic sensitivity analysis. Notably, the impacts according to socioeconomic deprivation status can be made. Conclusions The policy model can conduct cost effectiveness analysis and decision analysis to inform approaches to primary prevention, including individually targeted and population interventions, and to assess impacts on health inequalities. </p

The prognostic value of systemic inflammation in patients undergoing surgery for colon cancer: comparison of composite ratios and cumulative scores

Introduction: The systemic inflammatory response has been proven to have a prognostic value. There are two methods of assessing the systemic inflammatory response composite ratios (R) and cumulative scores (S). The aim of this study was to compare the prognostic value of ratios and scores in patients undergoing surgery for colon cancer. Methods: Patients were identified prospectively in a single surgical unit. Preoperative neutrophil (N), lymphocyte (L), monocyte (M) and platelet (P) counts, CRP (C) and albumin (A) levels were recorded. The relationship between composite ratios neutrophil–lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet–lymphocyte ratio (PLR), lymphocyte–monocyte ratio (LMR), C-reactive protein albumin ratio (CAR) and the cumulative scores neutrophil– lymphocyte score (NLS), platelet–lymphocyte score (PLS), lymphocyte–monocyte score (LMS), neutrophil– platelet score (NPS), modified Glasgow prognostic score (mGPS) and clinicopathological characteristics, cancer-specific survival (CSS) and overall survival (OS), were examined. Results: A total of 801 patients were examined. When adjusted for tumour node metastasis (TNM) stage, NLR &gt;5 (p &lt; 0.001), NLS (p &lt; 0.01), PLS (p &lt; 0.001), LMR &lt;2.4 (p &lt; 0.001), LMS (p &lt; 0.001), NPS (p &lt; 0.001), CAR &gt;0.22 (p &lt; 0.001) and mGPS (p &lt; 0.001) were significantly associated with CSS. In patients undergoing elective surgery (n = 689), the majority of the composite ratios/scores correlated with age (p &lt; 0.01), BMI (p &lt; 0.01), T stage (p &lt; 0.01), venous invasion (p &lt; 0.01) and peritoneal involvement (p &lt; 0.01). When NPS (myeloid) and mGPS (liver) were directly compared, their relationship with CSS and OS was similar. Conclusions: Both composite ratios and cumulative scores had prognostic value, independent of TNM stage, in patients with colon cancer. However, cumulative scores, based on normal reference ranges, are simpler and more consistent for clinical use

Inclusive top-pair production phenomenology with TOPIXS

We discuss various aspects of inclusive top-quark pair production based on TOPIXS, a new, flexible program that computes the production cross section at the Tevatron and LHC at next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy in soft and Coulomb resummation, including bound-state effects and the complete next-to-next-to-leading order result in the q-qbar channel, which has recently become available. We present the calculation of the top-pair cross section in pp collisions at 8 TeV centre-of-mass energy, as well as the cross sections for hypothetical heavy quarks in extensions of the standard model. The dependence on the parton distribution input is studied. Further we investigate the impact of LHC top cross section measurements at sqrt(s)=7 TeV on global fits of the gluon distribution using the NNPDF re-weighting method.Comment: 27 pages, 5 figures; v2: corrected typos in Eqs. (2.8) and (6.2) and the text, added footnote on page 4, matches published versio

Performance of 4096 pixel photon counting chip

A 4096 pixel Photon Counting Chip (PCC) has been developed and tested. It is aimed primarily at medical imaging although it can be used for other applications involving particle counting. The readout chip consists of a matrix of 64 x 64 identical square pixels, whose side measures 170 mm and is bump-bonded to a similar matrix of GaAs or Si pixel diodes covering a sensitive area of 1.18 cm . The electronics in each cell comprises a preamplifier, a discriminator with variable threshold and a 3-bit threshold tune as well as 15-bit counter. Each pixel can be individually addressed for electrical test or masked during acquisition. A shutter allows for switching between the counting and the readout modes and the use of a static logic in the counter enables long data taking periods. Electrical tests of the chip have shown a maximum counting rate of up to 2 MHz in each pixel. The minimum reachable threshold is 1400 e with a variation of 350 e rms that can be reduced to 80 e rms after tuning with the 3-bit adjustment. Electical noise at the input is 170 e rms. Several read-out chips have been bump-bonded to 200 mm thick GaAs detectors. Tests with g-rays and b sources have been carried out. A number of objects have been imaged and 260 mm thick aluminium foil which represents a contrast to the surrounding aire of only 1.9% has been correctly imaged

Solution of the Kwiecinski evolution equations for unintegrated parton distributions using the Mellin transform

The Kwiecinski equations for the QCD evolution of the unintegrated parton distributions in the transverse-coordinate space (b) are analyzed with the help of the Mellin-transform method. The equations are solved numerically in the general case, as well as in a small-b expansion which converges fast for b Lambda_QCD sufficiently small. We also discuss the asymptotic limit of large bQ and show that the distributions generated by the evolution decrease with b according to a power law. Numerical results are presented for the pion distributions with a simple valence-like initial condition at the low scale, following from chiral large-N_c quark models. We use two models: the Spectral Quark Model and the Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model. Formal aspects of the equations, such as the analytic form of the b-dependent anomalous dimensions, their analytic structure, as well as the limits of unintegrated parton densities at x -> 0, x -> 1, and at large b, are discussed in detail. The effect of spreading of the transverse momentum with the increasing scale is confirmed, with growing asymptotically as Q^2 alpha(Q^2). Approximate formulas for for each parton species is given, which may be used in practical applications.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures, RevTe