Evaluation of Target Date Funds

Target date funds are an emerging class of investment products, designed for retirement savings. The project considered methodologies for ranking such funds

The role of forest genetic resources in responding to biotic and abiotic factors in the context of anthropogenic climate change

The current distribution of forest genetic resources on Earth is the result of a combination of natural processes and human actions. Over time, tree populations have become adapted to their habitats including the local ecological disturbances they face. As the planet enters a phase of human-induced climate change of unprecedented speed and magnitude, however, previously locally-adapted populations are rendered less suitable for new conditions, and ‘natural’ biotic and abiotic disturbances are taken outside their historic distribution, frequency and intensity ranges. Tree populations rely on phenotypic plasticity to survive in extant locations, on genetic adaptation to modify their local phenotypic optimum or on migration to new suitable environmental conditions. The rate of required change, however, may outpace the ability to respond, and tree species and populations may become locally extinct after specific, but as yet unknown and unquantified, tipping points are reached. Here, we review the importance of forest genetic resources as a source of evolutionary potential for adaptation to changes in climate and other ecological factors. We particularly consider climate-related responses in the context of linkages to disturbances such as pests, diseases and fire, and associated feedback loops. The importance of management strategies to conserve evolutionary potential is emphasised and recommendations for policy-makers are provided

HPV-Reactive T-Cell Receptor Expand in Combination Therapy

https://openworks.mdanderson.org/sumexp22/1001/thumbnail.jp

Flavor-changing top quark rare decays in the Bestest Little Higgs Model

This paper investigates the effects of parameters in the Bestest Little Higgs Model (BLHM) on rare flavor-changing decays of the top quark. As a result, flavor-changing phenomena are introduced in the BLHM for the first time. In this study, we incorporate new flavor mixing terms between the light quarks of the Standard Model (SM) and the fermions and bosons of the BLHM. We compute the one-loop contributions from the heavy quark $(B)$ and the heavy bosons $(W^{\prime\pm}, \phi^{\pm}, \eta^{\pm},H^{\pm})$. Our findings demonstrate that the branching ratios of decays $t\to qV$ and $t\to qh^0$, where $q=u,c$ and $V=Z, \gamma, g$, exhibit improvements compared to their counterparts in the SM, except for the gluon case. Moreover, we observe that the processes with higher sensitivity are $Br(t\to cZ)\sim 10^{-5}$, $Br(t\to c\gamma)\sim 10^{-6}$ and $Br(t \to ch^0) \sim 10^{-8}$ within the appropriate parameter space.Comment: 13 pages and 10 figure

Formic Acid Ionization and Fragmentation by Multiphoton Absorption

Multiphoton absorption is an intensity dependent nonlinear effect related to the excitation of virtual intermediate states. In the present work, multiphoton ionization and dissociation of the formic acid molecule (HCOOH) by the interaction with photons from 532 Nd: YAG laser at different intensities are discussed, using different carrier gases. The induced fragmentation-ionization patterns show up to 17 fragments and dissociation channels are proposed. Some evidence of small clusters formation and conformational memory from the ratio of the detected products, CO+ and CO2+, on the light of the available results, it is possible to conclude that they arise from trans and cis formic acid. Our results are compared with those obtained in other laboratories under different experimental conditions, some of them show only partial agreement and differences are discussed. Following the Keldysh description it is possible, from our experimental parameters, characterize our results, in the multiphoton absorption regime

A prospective randomized trial comparing sequential ganciclovir-high dose acyclovir to high dose acyclovir for prevention of cytomegalovirus disease in adult liver transplant recipients

Cytomegalovirus disease is an important cause of morbidity following liver transplantation. To date there has not been an effective prophylaxis for CMV disease after liver transplantation. One hundred forty-three patients were randomized to receive either high dose oral acyclovir (800 mg 4 times a day) alone for 3 months after transplantation (acyclovir group) or intravenous ganciclovir (5 mg/kg twice a day) for 14 days followed by high dose oral acyclovir to complete a 3-month regimen (ganciclovir group). Of 139 patients available for evaluation, 43 of 71 (61%) patients from the acyclovir group developed CMV infection compared with 16 of 68 (24%) from the ganciclovir group (relative risk, 3.69; 95% confidence interval, 2.07-6.56; PcO.OOOOl). Of those randomized, CMV disease was seen in 20 (28%) of the acyclovir group compared with 6 (9%) of the ganciclovir group (relative risk, 5.11; 95% confidence interval, 2.05-12.75; P=0.0001). The median time to onset of CMV infection was 45 days in the acyclovir group compared with 78 days in the ganciclovir group (P=0.004). The median time to onset of CMV disease was 40 days in the acyclovir group compared with 78 days in the ganciclovir patients (P=0.02). With respect to primary CMV infection, there was no difference in the rates in the 2 groups, but tissue invasive disease and recurrent CMV disease were less frequent in the ganciclovir group. It is concluded that a course of 2 weeks of ganciclovir immediately after transplantation followed by high dose oral acyclovir for 10 weeks is superior to a 12-week course of high dose oral acyclovir alone for prevention of both CMV infection and CMV disease after liver transplantation. However, the lack of significant effect in seronegative recipients who received grafts from seropositive donors suggests that other strategies are needed to prevent CMV infection in this high risk population. © 1994 by Williams & Wilkins