Financing Telecommunications Projects in Asia: A Promising Regulatory Perspective

Asia\u27s telecommunications market has long been viewed as lucrative and fast growing. As the benefits of a competitive telecommunications market become apparent, many Asian governments recognize that global corporations require, and in fact demand, state-of-the-art telecommunications infrastructure. After several years of strong growth, however, the severe economic crisis that affected all industry segments in Asia caused investors to pause and reevaluate the risks involved in financing infrastructure projects. Despite the recent Asian economic crisis, the overall picture for Asian telecommunications infrastructure projects remains promising. Asian governments continue to liberalize their regulatory schemes, thus reducing regulatory and political risks to investors. This Article focuses on the regulatory risk involved in financing any telecommunications project. It provides country-specific analyses of countries with more developed, investor friendly regulatory schemes and countries with less developed, but potentially favorable regulatory schemes based on the regulatory principles previously identified

Parental Choices of Flotation Devices for Children and Teen Swimmers and Waders: A Survey at Beaches in Washington State

Drowning at open-water areas is the second leading cause of unintentional death among Washington State children. Providing written and visual safety instructions and loaned life jackets at swim sites (“loaner boards”) may reduce the risk of drowning. This study sought to understand parental perceptions regarding loaner boards and behaviors related to bringing flotation devices for children to use while swimming. Of the 102 surveys administered to parents on the beach at 10 different open-water sites, 29 were collected from sites with loaner boards. Parents provided information about ages of family members present, flotation devices brought and perceptions surrounding loaner boards. The majority (85%) of families with young children (under six years old), brought some type of flotation device and 59% of them brought life jackets compared to 57% and 8% of families with only children six or older, respectively. Results provide evidence that parents of children younger than 6 years old more often plan for children to use life jackets while swimming; this may partially explain low rates of life jacket use among older children. Findings can guide efforts to increase the efficacy of loaner board programs and develop strategies to promote parental encouragement of life jacket use for older children

Animal Models of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the third leading cause of death in the USA and currently there are minimal therapies specific for the treatment of COPD. To advance our knowledge on COPD pathogenesis and develop new therapeutics, animal models are needed that represent key clinical and pathologic features of the human disease. The primary animal models utilized to study COPD rely on several factors associated with disease progression, i.e. genetic and epigenetic changes, environmental exposures and the microbial flora of the lungs. Here, a systematic approach was taken to summarize and evaluate the current animal models employed to study COPD pathogenesis, comorbidities and exacerbations. The strengths and limitations of these disease models are also delineated. The rodent COPD models have been extensively utilized but several studies have highlighted the potential of larger animals as an additional approach. Due to the inherent heterogeneity of COPD, the usefulness of certain animal models may be limiting but still represent helpful means to explore gene functional studies, testing new therapeutics and the exploring the significance of microbial floral changes. Therefore, interpreting the findings from animal models for the study of COPD represents a critical approach in deciding possible future human therapeutics

High pressure evolution of Fe2_{2}O3_{3} electronic structure revealed by X-ray absorption

We report the first high pressure measurement of the Fe K-edge in hematite (Fe$_2$O$_3$) by X-ray absorption spectroscopy in partial fluorescence yield geometry. The pressure-induced evolution of the electronic structure as Fe$_2$O$_3$ transforms from a high-spin insulator to a low-spin metal is reflected in the x-ray absorption pre-edge. The crystal field splitting energy was found to increase monotonically with pressure up to 48 GPa, above which a series of phase transitions occur. Atomic multiplet, cluster diagonalization, and density-functional calculations were performed to simulate the pre-edge absorption spectra, showing good qualitative agreement with the measurements. The mechanism for the pressure-induced phase transitions of Fe$_2$O$_3$ is discussed and it is shown that ligand hybridization significantly reduces the critical high-spin/low-spin pressure.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures and 1 tabl

Chicken and duck myotubes are highly susceptible and permissive to influenza virus infection

Skeletal muscle, at 30 to 40% of body mass, is the most abundant soft tissue in the body. Besides its primary function in movement and posture, skeletal muscle is a significant innate immune organ with the capacity to produce cytokines and chemokines and respond to proinflammatory cytokines. Little is known about the role of skeletal muscle during systemic influenza A virus infection in any host and particularly avian species. Here we used primary chicken and duck multinucleated myotubes to examine their susceptibility and innate immune response to influenza virus infections. Both chicken and duck myotubes expressed avian and human sialic acid receptors and were readily susceptible to low-pathogenicity (H2N3 A/mallard duck/England/7277/06) and high-pathogenicity (H5N1 A/turkey/England/50-92/91 and H5N1 A/turkey/Turkey/1/05) avian and human H1N1 (A/USSR/77) influenza viruses. Both avian host species produced comparable levels of progeny H5N1 A/turkey/Turkey/1/05 virus.Notably, the rapid accumulation of viral nucleoprotein and matrix (M) gene RNA in chicken and duck myotubes was accompanied by extensive cytopathic damage with marked myotube apoptosis (widespread microscopic blebs, caspase 3/7 activation, and annexin V binding at the plasma membrane). Infected chicken myotubes produced significantly higher levels of proinflammatory cytokines than did the corresponding duck cells. Additionally, in chicken myotubes infected with H5N1 viruses, the induction of interferon beta (IFN-beta) and IFN-inducible genes, including the melanoma differentiation-associated protein 5 (MDA-5) gene, was relatively weak compared to infection with the corresponding H2N3 virus. Our findings highlight that avian skeletal muscle fibers are capable of productive influenza virus replication and are a potential tissue source of infection

Distribution of Salmonella serovars in various pig production categories and risk factors for shedding in ten farrow-to-finish swine farms in western Canada.

In this study, Salmonella prevalence, serovar distribution and risk factors for shedding were investigated in breeding, nursery, and grow-finish pigs on 10 farms in western Canada, purposely selected based on their anticipated Salmonella-status. Overall, 40711143 (36%) of samples were Salmonella positive; within-farm prevalence ranged from 1% to 79%. Sows, nursery and grow-finish pigs accounted for 43%, 29% and 28% of positive samples, respectively. More Salmonella were detected in pooled pen than individual pig samples (P\u3c0.001). The most common serovars were S. Derby, S. Typhimurium, var. Copenhagen, S. Pullen, S. Infantis, and S. Mbandaka. Sows shed more Salmonella than nursery or grow-finisher pigs (OR 2.9, P\u3c0.001). Pelleted feed (OR 8.2, P\u3c0.001) and nose-to-nose pig contact through pens (OR 2.2, P=0.005) were associated with increased Salmonella prevalence. Significant differences in serovar distribution were detected among production phases

Comparison of bacterial culture, PCR and a mix-ELISA for the detection of Salmonella status in nursery and grow-to-finish pigs in Western Canada using a Bayesian approach

Bayesian and traditional statistical methods were used to estimate accuracy of bacterial culture, broth-enriched real-time-PCR for feces and a mix-ELISA (Svanovir®) for serum to detect Salmonella in nursery and grow-finish pigs on 10 fanns in western Canada. In nursery pigs, one pooled pen fecal sample and one blood sample were taken from each of 30 randomly selected pens. In grow-finish pigs, samples were similarly collected; an individual fecal sample was also taken from each pig bled. Only 8/247 ELISA-positive nursery pigs were detected; 80/247 pens were culture positive. Since there was no agreement between pen culture and ELISA results in the nursery pigs, further evaluation of test accuracy was not possible at this level. Among grow-to-finish pigs, agreement between culture and ELISA was fair (K=0.26-0.38). Agreement between culture and the RT-PCR was nearly perfect ( K=0.92-0.97)

Cardiac Substructure Radiation Dose and Risk of Late Cardiac Disease in Survivors of Childhood Cancer: A Report From the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study

PURPOSE: Radiation-associated cardiac disease is a major cause of morbidity/mortality among childhood cancer survivors. Radiation dose-response relationships for cardiac substructures and cardiac diseases remain unestablished. METHODS: Using the 25,481 5-year survivors of childhood cancer treated from 1970 to 1999 in the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study, we evaluated coronary artery disease (CAD), heart failure (HF), valvular disease (VD), and arrhythmia. We reconstructed radiation doses for each survivor to the coronary arteries, chambers, valves, and whole heart. Excess relative rate (ERR) models and piecewise exponential models evaluated dose-response relationships. RESULTS: The cumulative incidence 35 years from diagnosis was 3.9% (95% CI, 3.4 to 4.3) for CAD, 3.8% (95% CI, 3.4 to 4.2) for HF, 1.2% (95% CI, 1.0 to 1.5) for VD, and 1.4% (95% CI, 1.1 to 1.6) for arrhythmia. A total of 12,288 survivors (48.2%) were exposed to radiotherapy. Quadratic ERR models improved fit compared with linear ERR models for the dose-response relationship between mean whole heart and CAD, HF, and arrhythmia, suggesting a potential threshold dose; however, such departure from linearity was not observed for most cardiac substructure end point dose-response relationships. Mean doses of 5-9.9 Gy to the whole heart did not increase the risk of any cardiac diseases. Mean doses of 5-9.9 Gy to the right coronary artery (rate ratio [RR], 2.6 [95% CI, 1.6 to 4.1]) and left ventricle (RR, 2.2 [95% CI, 1.3 to 3.7]) increased risk of CAD, and to the tricuspid valve (RR, 5.5 [95% CI, 2.0 to 15.1]) and right ventricle (RR, 8.4 [95% CI, 3.7 to 19.0]) increased risk of VD. CONCLUSION: Among children with cancer, there may be no threshold dose below which radiation to the cardiac substructures does not increase the risk of cardiac diseases. This emphasizes their importance in modern treatment planning