Surfaces with prescribed Weingarten-Operator

We investigate pairs of surfaces in Euclidean 3-space with the same Weingarten operator in case that one surface is given as surface of revolution. Our local and global results complement global results on ovaloids of revolution from [S-V-W-W]

‘I Got it off my Chest’: An Examination of how Research Participation Improved the Mental Health of Women Engaging in Transactional Sex

Ecologic momentary assessment (EMA) is a form of close-ended diary writing. While it has been shown that participating in a study that incorporates EMA improves mental health of participants, no study to date has examined the pathways through which benefits may occur. For 4-weeks, twice-daily EMAs and weekly interviews captured mood, daily activities and HIV risk behavior of 25 women who engage in transactional sex. Qualitative analysis of exit interviews was performed to examine how participation impacted women's mental health. The majority of participants felt that EMAs heightened awareness of emotions and behavior. Most reported experiencing catharsis from the interviews; specifically, from having a non-judgmental, trusting listener. Participants felt responsible for completing tasks, a sense of accomplishment for completing the study, and altruism. This study demonstrates there are direct benefits associated with participation in an EMA and interview study

The Unanticipated Benefits of Behavioral Assessments and Interviews on Anxiety, Self-Esteem and Depression Among Women Engaging in Transactional Sex

Women engaging in transactional sex have disproportional mental health co-morbidity and face substantial barriers to accessing social services. We hypothesized that participation in a longitudinal research study, with no overt intervention, would lead to short-term mental health improvements. For 4-weeks, 24 women disclosed information about their lives via twice daily cell-phone diaries and weekly interviews. We used t tests to compare self-esteem, anxiety, and depression at baseline and exit. Tests were repeated for hypothesized effect modifiers (e.g., substance abuse severity; age of sex work debut). For particularly vulnerable women (e.g., less educated, histories of abuse, younger initiation of sex work) participation in research conferred unanticipated mental health benefits. Positive interactions with researchers, as well as discussing lived experiences, may explain these effects. Additional studies are needed to confirm findings and identify mechanisms of change. This work contributes to the growing body of literature documenting that study participation improves mental health

The Purdue Extension and Indiana CTSI's Community Health Partnerships collaboration: An innovative, generalizable, state-wide model to help communities build a culture of health

The Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute's Community Engagement Partners-Purdue Extension collaborative model demonstrates tremendous potential for creating state-wide programmatic efforts and improvements in both the health culture and status of Indiana residents across the state. It can serve as a prototype not only for others interested in pursuing wide geographic health improvements through Clinical and Translational Sciences Award-Cooperative Extension partnerships but also for broader collaborations among United States Department of Agriculture, National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, state and local health departments, and health foundation efforts to improve population health

Finite-size scaling of the quasiespecies model

We use finite-size scaling to investigate the critical behavior of the quasiespecies model of molecular evolution in the single-sharp-peak replication landscape. This model exhibits a sharp threshold phenomenon at Q=Q_c=1/a, where Q is the probability of exact replication of a molecule of length L and a is the selective advantage of the master string. We investigate the sharpness of the threshold and find that its characteristic persist across a range of Q of order L^(-1) about Q_c. Furthermore, using the data collapsing method we show that the normalized mean Hamming distance between the master string and the entire population, as well as the properly scaled fluctuations around this mean value, follow universal forms in the critical region.Comment: 8 pages,tex. Submitted to Physical Review

Structure and evolutionary history of a large family of NLR proteins in the zebrafish

Multicellular eukaryotes have evolved a range of mechanisms for immune recognition. A widespread family involved in innate immunity are the NACHT-domain and leucine-rich-repeat-containing (NLR) proteins. Mammals have small numbers of NLR proteins, whereas in some species, mostly those without adaptive immune systems, NLRs have expanded into very large families. We describe a family of nearly 400 NLR proteins encoded in the zebrafish genome. The proteins share a defining overall structure, which arose in fishes after a fusion of the core NLR domains with a B30.2 domain, but can be subdivided into four groups based on their NACHT domains. Gene conversion acting differentially on the NACHT and B30.2 domains has shaped the family and created the groups. Evidence of positive selection in the B30.2 domain indicates that this domain rather than the leucine-rich repeats acts as the pathogen recognition module. In an unusual chromosomal organization, the majority of the genes are located on one chromosome arm, interspersed with other large multigene families, including a new family encoding zinc-finger proteins. The NLR-B30.2 proteins represent a new family with diversity in the specific recognition module that is present in fishes in spite of the parallel existence of an adaptive immune system

Acceptance of HIV Testing for Children Ages 18 Months to 13 Years Identified Through Voluntary, Home-Based HIV Counseling and Testing in Western Kenya

Background Home-based, voluntary counseling and testing (HCT) presents a novel approach to early diagnosis. We sought to describe uptake of pediatric HIV testing, associated factors, and HIV prevalence among children offered HCT in Kenya. Methods The USAID-AMPATH Partnership conducted HCT in western Kenya in 2008. Children 18 months to 13 years were offered HCT if their mother was known to be dead, her living status was unknown, mother was HIV-infected or of unknown HIV status. This retrospective analysis describes the cohort of children encountered and tested. Results HCT was offered to 2,289 children and accepted for 1,294 (57%). Children were more likely to be tested if more information was available about a suspected or confirmed maternal HIV-infection (for HIV-infected, living mothers OR=3.20, 95% CI: 1.64–6.23), if parents were not in household (OR=1.50, 95% CI: 1.40–1.63), if they were grandchildren of head of household (OR=4.02, 95% CI: 3.06–5.28), or if their father was not in household (OR=1.41, 95% CI: 1.24–1.56). Of the eligible children tested, 60 (4.6%) were HIV-infected. Conclusions HCT provides an opportunity to identify HIV among high-risk children; however, acceptance of HCT for children was limited. Further investigation is needed to identify and overcome barriers to testing uptake

Nonlinear deterministic equations in biological evolution

We review models of biological evolution in which the population frequency changes deterministically with time. If the population is self-replicating, although the equations for simple prototypes can be linearised, nonlinear equations arise in many complex situations. For sexual populations, even in the simplest setting, the equations are necessarily nonlinear due to the mixing of the parental genetic material. The solutions of such nonlinear equations display interesting features such as multiple equilibria and phase transitions. We mainly discuss those models for which an analytical understanding of such nonlinear equations is available.Comment: Invited review for J. Nonlin. Math. Phy

Statistics of selectively neutral genetic variation

Random models of evolution are instrumental in extracting rates of microscopic evolutionary mechanisms from empirical observations on genetic variation in genome sequences. In this context it is necessary to know the statistical properties of empirical observables (such as the local homozygosity for instance). Previous work relies on numerical results or assumes Gaussian approximations for the corresponding distributions. In this paper we give an analytical derivation of the statistical properties of the local homozygosity and other empirical observables assuming selective neutrality. We find that such distributions can be very non-Gaussian.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure