Heterogeneity in susceptibility dictates the order of epidemiological models

The fundamental models of epidemiology describe the progression of an infectious disease through a population using compartmentalized differential equations, but do not incorporate population-level heterogeneity in infection susceptibility. We show that variation strongly influences the rate of infection, while the infection process simultaneously sculpts the susceptibility distribution. These joint dynamics influence the force of infection and are, in turn, influenced by the shape of the initial variability. Intriguingly, we find that certain susceptibility distributions (the exponential and the gamma) are unchanged through the course of the outbreak, and lead naturally to power-law behavior in the force of infection; other distributions often tend towards these "eigen-distributions" through the process of contagion. The power-law behavior fundamentally alters predictions of the long-term infection rate, and suggests that first-order epidemic models that are parameterized in the exponential-like phase may systematically and significantly over-estimate the final severity of the outbreak

Women's experiences of more than one termination of pregnancy within two years:A mixed-methods study

Objective: To examine the experiences of women seeking more than one termination of pregnancy (TOP) within two years. Design: Mixed methods study. Setting: Six TOP services across Scotland. Sample: Women presenting for TOP between July and December 2015. Methods: Descriptive and inferential analysis of quantitative survey data, thematic analysis of qualitative interview data and integrative analysis. In quantitative analysis, multinomial logistic regression was used to compare three groups: previous TOP within two years, beyond two years and no previous TOP. Main outcome measures: Characteristics and experiences of women seeking TOP. Results: Of 1662 questionnaire respondents, 14.6% (n=242) and 19.8% (n=329) reported previous TOP within and beyond two years, respectively. Previous TOP within two years group was significantly less likely to own their accommodation than no previous TOP group [aOR=0.34, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.18-0.62] and previous TOP beyond two years group [aOR=0.44, 95% CI 0.23-0.85]; and more likely to report inconsistent [aOR=1.63, 95% CI 1.04-2.57; aOR=1.95, 95% CI 1.16-3.28] and consistent [aOR=2.13, 95% CI 1.39-3.26; aOR=1.71, 95% CI 1.07-2.76] contraceptive use than no previous TOP and previous TOP within two years groups, respectively. Twenty-three women from previous TOP within two years group were interviewed. Qualitative and integrative analyses highlight issues relating to contraceptive challenges, intimate partner violence, life aspirations and socioeconomic disadvantage. Conclusions: Women undergoing more than one TOP within two years may experience particular challenges and vulnerabilities. Service provision should recognise this and move away from stigmatising discourses of ‘repeat abortion’

Festival and the City: Performativity of Sexual acts in public spheres

In this paper, we address the perception of sexual activities in public spaces and how they become aesthetic, social and cultural intervention once expressed through and embodied within performative events (theatre, street performance, carnival, festival, rave etc). A substantial amount of research has been done on the relation between sexuality and gender about public spaces, and influence of civic and urban identity on public expression of sexuality and gender. We will look at the invented rituals establishing sexuality within a context of performativity through relationships with public spaces. As the case studies, we will use the works of theatre companies La Fura dels Baus and Teatro Oficina. To set up the set of relationships between inside and outside, we will borrow a useful concept on ‘spheres' from the German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk to look at the public space as a system of spheres where a different set of rules apply enabling actions to take place. These performances in urban contexts, as well as some festivals and particularly carnivals, become a way of the staging of sexual acts in public space, in opposition to the dominant narrative of private – domestic space. We will look at how collectiveness and civic spaces become essential elements of this phenomenon and its relevance in our contemporary reality as an element of subversion of social structures. We will also examine performative events where sexual acts as a language of human relationship in public spaces bringing intimacy

Testing the Equivalence Principle by Lamb shift Energies

The Einstein Equivalence Principle has as one of its implications that the non-gravitational laws of physics are those of special relativity in any local freely-falling frame. We consider possible tests of this hypothesis for systems whose energies are due to radiative corrections, i.e. which arise purely as a consequence of quantum field theoretic loop effects. Specifically, we evaluate the Lamb shift transition (as given by the energy splitting between the $2S_{1/2}$ and $2P_{1/2}$ atomic states) within the context of violations of local position invariance and local Lorentz invariance, as described by the $T H \epsilon\mu$ formalism. We compute the associated red shift and time dilation parameters, and discuss how (high-precision) measurements of these quantities could provide new information on the validity of the equivalence principle.Comment: 40 pages, latex, epsf, 1 figure, final version which appears in Physical Review

Deweyan tools for inquiry and the epistemological context of critical pedagogy

This article develops the notion of resistance as articulated in the literature of critical pedagogy as being both culturally sponsored and cognitively manifested. To do so, the authors draw upon John Dewey\u27s conception of tools for inquiry. Dewey provides a way to conceptualize student resistance not as a form of willful disputation, but instead as a function of socialization into cultural models of thought that actively truncate inquiry. In other words, resistance can be construed as the cognitive and emotive dimensions of the ongoing failure of institutions to provide ideas that help individuals both recognize social problems and imagine possible solutions. Focusing on Dewey\u27s epistemological framework, specifically tools for inquiry, provides a way to grasp this problem. It also affords some innovative solutions; for instance, it helps conceive of possible links between the regular curriculum and the study of specific social justice issues, a relationship that is often under-examined. The aims of critical pedagogy depend upon students developing dexterity with the conceptual tools they use to make meaning of the evidence they confront; these are background skills that the regular curriculum can be made to serve even outside social justice-focused curricula. Furthermore, the article concludes that because such inquiry involves the exploration and potential revision of students\u27 world-ordering beliefs, developing flexibility in how one thinks may be better achieved within academic subjects and topics that are not so intimately connected to students\u27 current social lives, especially where students may be directly implicated

Hadron Polarizabilities and Form Factors

This is the summary of the working group on Hadron Polarizabilities and Form Factors of the Chiral Dynamics Workshop in Mainz, September 1-5, 1997.Comment: 21 pages LaTeX2e, uses epsf, 9 fig

Vital Rates from the Action of Mutation Accumulation

New models for evolutionary processes of mutation accumulation allow hypotheses about the age-specificity of mutational effects to be translated into predictions of heterogeneous population hazard functions. We apply these models to questions in the biodemography of longevity, including proposed explanations of Gompertz hazards and mortality plateaus

Effects of Heparin and Enoxaparin on APP Processing and Aβ Production in Primary Cortical Neurons from Tg2576 Mice

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is caused by accumulation of Aβ, which is produced through sequential cleavage of β-amyloid precursor protein (APP) by the β-site APP cleaving enzyme (BACE1) and γ-secretase. Enoxaparin, a low molecular weight form of the glycosaminoglycan (GAG) heparin, has been reported to lower Aβ plaque deposition and improve cognitive function in AD transgenic mice