Super Picard-Fuchs Equation and Monodromies for Supermanifolds

Following [1] and [2], we discuss the Picard-Fuchs equation for the super Landau-Ginsburg mirror to the super-Calabi-Yau in WCP^(3|2)[1,1,1,3|1,5], (using techniques of [3,4]) Meijer basis of solutions and monodromies (at 0,1 and \infty) in the large and small complex structure limits, as well as obtain the mirror hypersurface, which in the large Kaehler limit, turns out to be either a bidegree-(6,6) hypersurface in WCP^(3|1)[1,1,1,2] x WCP^(1|1)[1,1|6] or a (Z_2-singular) bidegree-(6,12) hypersurface in WCP^(3|1)[1,1,2,6|6] x WCP^(1|1)[1,1|6].Comment: 15 pages, LaTeX; v3: Journal version, to appear in JM

The culture of employment: a study of immigrant women's attitudes about working in Malmö, Sweden

Sweden has long been recognized as an egalitarian Nordic welfare state, which promotes generous labor and citizenship rights for its residents, including women and immigrants. In cultural discourse and academic studies, high labor force participation signifies social equality for women, as well as successful integration for immigrants. This paper uses the experiences and attitudes of immigrant women in Sweden as a platform to study the links between Sweden’s progressive gender norms, employment culture, and immigration policies. I examine pre-immigration and post-immigration factors that may affect women’s attitudes about working after they move to Sweden. I categorize this research as a study of “cultural employment integration” to signify that it combines notions of cultural and economic immigrant integration. I designed the study to take into account the diverse cultural factors in immigrant women’s lives in order to question common notions about whether and why immigrant women would like to be employed. The empirical foundation for this paper is 22 interviews I conducted with 23 immigrant women living in the “multicultural” city of Malmö, Sweden, in 2012. I asked interviewees about their family backgrounds, immigration histories, work experiences, and beliefs about familial responsibilities, both before and after moving to Sweden. Five common trends emerged as important to women’s attitudes about work: mothering, family experiences, educational experiences and attitudes, Swedish language skill, and participants’ perceptions of gender norms in their home countries and in Sweden. These five facets are central to the gender equality discourse in Sweden. The discussion expands previous studies of immigration by considering the effects of gender, ethnicity, previous experiences, and citizenship on women’s post-immigration attitudes. The results may be useful to consider when designing cultural and employment integration programs for immigrant women

Alien Registration- Kaura, Charles (Waldoboro, Lincoln County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/12909/thumbnail.jp

Mechanisms underlying the phenotypic diversity in RYR1-associated Malignant Hyperthermia

Malignant hyperthermia (MH) is a potential fatal hereditary skeletal muscle disorder that occurs upon exposure to certain anaesthetic agents. Susceptibility is predominantly conferred by variants in the RYR1 gene encoding the type 1 ryanodine receptor (RYR1). A common feature observed in MH susceptible patients and in animal models, is a RYR1-leak dependent elevation in the intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) in the non-triggered state. However, it is not fully understood whether extracellular Ca2+ entry plays an important role in maintaining this elevated resting [Ca2+]i. It is also becoming increasingly evident that RYR1 variants can produce different MH phenotypes, for example the variant p.G2434R (c.7300G>A) is the major MH variant found globally, but has a weaker clinical phenotype relative to rarer variants such as p.R2454H (c.7361G>A). Live-cell calcium imaging was used to examine different aspects of the molecular mechanisms underlying RYR1-associated MH. The first was to use HEK293 cells to explore the caffeine sensitivity of novel potentially pathogenic RYR1 variants. Next skeletal muscle myotubes derived from MH patients with p.G2434R or p.R2454H, were found to have an enhanced sensitivity to caffeine, and a TRPC3/6 mediated increased sarcolemmal cationic influx relative to non-susceptible controls. There was no significant difference between the two MH associated RYR1 variants. Myotubes from a novel MH mouse model containing the equivalent variant to human p.G2434R, were also found to have an elevated sensitivity to RYR1 agonists. This model has further confirmed that the TRPC3/6 mediated enhanced cationic entry is conserved between the two species, and this entry can be reduced to control levels by blocking the RYR1-dependent leak. Taken together, the data presented in this thesis furthers our understanding of the molecular mechanisms that underlie the perturbed Ca2+ handling observed in MH tissue, and provides new avenues of research into MH and related RYR1 disorders as well as a potential target for novel therapies

Vedanta:Journey Towards Mettle for Metal

Vedanta Resources plc was listed in London in December 2003. Vedanta is a diversified and integrated FTSE 250 metals and mining group with annual sales of $1.9 bn. Vedanta principal operations are located in India, where Vedanta has a major market share in each of our main metals: Aluminum, Copper, Zinc and Lead. This is due to the underlying opportunities prevailing in India and its move towards Fast Emerging Resource Destination. Vedanta has a strong track record in managing operations and improving costs and output. Vedanta's Indian zinc and copper operations rank in the top quartile of global cost efficiency. In addition to the existing operations, Veda-nta has an exceptional range of expansion projects across each of metals. This will see investment spending of over$2bn, which is already more than half completed

Big data analytics in cardiovascular sciences

Introduction It has been challenging for researchers to access granular electronic health record (EHR) data at scale in England. The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Informatics Collaborative (HIC) enables the sharing of routine EHR data across NHS hospitals for research. One emerging prospect is to use big data to traverse the translational spectrum. As an example of an early discovery phase study, I assessed the effect of invasive versus non-invasive management on the survival of patients aged 80 years or older with non-ST elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) (SENIOR-NSTEMI Study). As an example of a later implementation phase study, I determined the relationship between the full spectrum of troponin level and mortality in patients in whom troponin testing was performed for clinical purposes (TROP-RISK Study). Methods Five NHS Trusts contributed data: Imperial, University College London, Oxford, King’s and Guy’s and St Thomas’. Microsoft SQL was used to develop a dataset of 257,948 consecutive patients who had a troponin measured between 2010 and 2017. Phenotypically detailed data were extracted, including patient demographics, blood tests, procedural data, and survival status. All studies conducted were retrospective cohort studies. For the SENIOR-NSTEMI Study, eligible patients were 80 years or older who were diagnosed with NSTEMI. Mortality hazard ratios were estimated comparing invasive with non-invasive management. For the TROP-RISK Study, the relation between peak troponin level and all-cause mortality was modelled using multivariable adjusted restricted cubic spline Cox regression analyses. Results For the SENIOR-NSTEMI Study, 2672 patients with NSTEMI were included who had a median age of 85 (interquartile range (IQR) 82-89) years of whom 59.8% received non-invasive management. During a median follow-up of 2.7 (IQR 1.0-4.5) years, the adjusted cumulative five-year mortality was 40% in the invasive and 63% in the non-invasive group (hazard ratio 0.52, 95% confidence interval 0.43-0.62). For the TROP-RISK Study, during a median follow-up of 1198 days (IQR 514-1866 days), 55,850 (21.7%) deaths occurred. There was an unexpected inverted U-shaped relation between troponin level and mortality in acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients (n=120,049). The paradoxical decline in mortality at very high troponin levels may be driven in part by the changing case mix as troponin levels increase; a higher proportion of patients with very high troponin levels received invasive management. Conclusion Routinely collected EHR data can be aggregated across multiple sites to create highly granular datasets for research which can be used to answer research questions that cross the translational spectrum. The SENIOR-NSTEMI Study demonstrates a survival advantage of invasive compared with non-invasive management of NSTEMI patients aged 80 years or older, who were underrepresented in previous trials. In the TROP-RISK Study, the inverted U-shaped relationship between troponin level and mortality in ACS patients demonstrates that assembling sufficiently large datasets can cast light on patterns of disease that are impossible to adequately define in single centre studies.Open Acces

OPTIMISATION OF THICKNESS OF FIBRE REINFORCED POLYMER SHEETS FOR STRENGTHENING REINFORCED CONCRETE BEAMS WITH FLEXURAL DEFICIENCY

The use of Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) is becoming a widely accepted solution for repairing and strengthening of deteriorated reinforced concrete members, to restore their load carrying capacities. One of the major concerns in the use of FRP is its cost. This therefore calls for the use of efficient and cost effective design approach. Design efficiency in terms of cost can be achieved through optimisation. In the present paper, Generalized Reduced Gradient (GRG) optimisation technique was employed to optimize the strengthening cost of a simply supported reinforced concrete beam strengthened with Fibre Reinforced Polymer (FRP). Optimum design charts for the considered problem were presented. The results showed that considerable savings in thickness can be achieved using FRP of high modulus of elasticity. For example at very high capacity reduction say 70% (kc = 0.3), the required FRP thicknesses for FRP with elastic moduli of 25GPa, 50GPa, 75GPa, 100GPa, 125GPa and 150GPa are respectively equal to 2.5mm, 1.75mm, 0.75mm, 0.6mm, 0.5mm and 0.4mm.  http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/njt.v36i1.

The EU-China search for common language for green bonds : a realistic and influential path?

EU-China search for common understanding on what activities should be considered “green” and eligible for financing by green bonds started recently. Common understanding could, according to negotiation parties, facilitate greater cross-border flow of green finance. As China and EU together lead the global green bond market, a common understanding could even enhance much sought after harmonization of green bond rules at global level. This study examines how realistic and influential the search mission for common EU-China green bond language is, filling gap in research on green bonds in the EU-China context. Analysis is based on multimethod approach combining qualitative standard comparison, interviews and media analysis. The work is carried out applying a liberal two level game approach (Putnam, 1988), from the field of International Political Economy, which has proved useful when analysing domestic-international dynamics present in international negotiations on e.g. energy, climate and environmental policy. Based on the analysis, where China balances with fear of slowing economy, growing energy demand and urgency to fight pollution, the EU can already afford to focus on the climate change combat. This difference is reflected, based on the analysis, in the regulations the two regions have recently developed for green bonds. With preferences not aligning, it may prove difficult to find aligning views on the types of projects eligible for green bond financing. This means that the domestic win sets (Putnam, 1988) of the two regions don´t currently overlap implying that a common EU-China agreement on green bond rules may at the moment be impossible. However, even with a fully aligning views on green bond definitions and rules, the cross-border green finance between the EU and China would likely not increase significantly as there are other market barriers that hinder the flow at present. Nevertheless, having the EU-China dialogue was still viewed to enhance climate change cooperation and raise awareness

The effects of hydrogen sulfide on HEK-293 cells and human primary bronchial fibroblasts

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is a key biologically relevant signalling molecule and has been recognised as the third endogenous gasotransmitter. H2S modulates various biological functions through complex mechanisms which may involve Transient Receptor Potential (TRP) channels such as TRPA1. TRPA1 is postulated to play a prominent role in pulmonary inflammation and airway hypersensitivity. H2S has been found to also modulate cell growth and survival, with high concentrations leading to reactive airway disease, acute respiratory failure and pulmonary fibrosis. N-Acetylcysteine (NAC) is a thiol precursor of L-Cysteine which elicits antioxidant effects and has been implicated in preventing the progression of pulmonary fibrosis. The aim of the study was to examine the effects of H2S on TRPA1 and human primary bronchial fibroblasts (HPBF).Initial experiments sought to examine the effects of NaHS on HEK293 cells transfected with TRPA1 (HEK-TRPA1) using fluorometric calcium assays. These assays were hampered by a direct reaction between the H2S donor NaHS and the fluorescent dye. However this has led to the identification of a putative new H2S sensor.Next, untransfected HPBF and HEK-TRPA1 were treated with NaHS or with NAC, and the effects assessed using a five-day growth assay. Chronic NaHS exposure induced a significant reduction in the growth of HEK-TRPA1 cells. Furthermore an acute 30 minute treatment with NaHS significantly reduced the growth of both HEK-TRPA1 cells and HPBFs, whereas NAC only inhibited growth of the latter.The NAC mediated inhibition in HPBF growth provides in vitro evidence for the potential anti-fibrotic actions of NAC in the lung. The inhibitory effects on growth at day five following a brief 30 minute NaHS exposure is a novel finding that requires further investigation to elucidate the mechanism of action. This could potentially provide a better understanding of the effects of H2S in modulating the progression from inflammation to fibrosis