Digital Eyewear in Cardiology-Looking Forward

Non peer reviewedPublisher PD

Reed Canarygrass in Alaska

North American strains of reed canarygrass (Phalaris arundinacea L.) frequently sustain severe winter injury or total winterkill in southcentral Alaska. Objectives of this study were to compare reed canarygrass strains adapted to extreme northern latitudes in Europe with North American cultivars for winter-hardiness and forage production in Alaska

Futures Basis for Cotton: Impact of Globalization and Structural Change

A model of commodity futures contract basis was developed based on Working’s theory of the price of storage. An error-correction model was estimated for the basis for the InterContinental Exchange (ICE) #2 cotton contract maturing in December during 2000-08. The model was also extended to incorporate the impact of changes in market activity that evolved as financial markets and commodity price behavior underwent significant changes after 2005. The model captured the inversion of basis following the collapse of China’s crop in 2003, but the shock realized during 2008 may have been in part driven by one-time events not included in the model. Estimates from the error-correction model suggest an extended period for the return of basis to equilibrium, spanning from about 1 ½ to 2 months.Basis, futures markets, cotton, error-correction model, Agribusiness, Demand and Price Analysis, Marketing,

Three-dimensional coating and rimming flow : a ring of fluid on a rotating horizontal cylinder

The steady three-dimensional flow of a thin, slowly varying ring of Newtonian fluid on either the outside or the inside of a uniformly rotating large horizontal cylinder is investigated. Specifically, we study “full-ring” solutions, corresponding to a ring of continuous, finite and non-zero thickness that extends all the way around the cylinder. In particular, it is found that there is a critical solution corresponding to either a critical load above which no full-ring solution exists (if the rotation speed is prescribed) or a critical rotation speed below which no full-ring solution exists (if the load is prescribed). We describe the behaviour of the critical solution and, in particular, show that the critical flux, the critical load, the critical semi-width and the critical ring profile are all increasing functions of the rotation speed. In the limit of small rotation speed, the critical flux is small and the critical ring is narrow and thin, leading to a small critical load. In the limit of large rotation speed, the critical flux is large and the critical ring is wide on the upper half of the cylinder and thick on the lower half of the cylinder, leading to a large critical load. We also describe the behaviour of the non-critical full-ring solution, and, in particular, show that the semi-width and the ring profile are increasing functions of the load but, in general, non-monotonic functions of the rotation speed. In the limit of large rotation speed, the ring approaches a limiting non-uniform shape, whereas in the limit of small load, the ring is narrow and thin with a uniform parabolic profile. Finally, we show that, while for most values of the rotation speed and the load the azimuthal velocity is in the same direction as the rotation of the cylinder, there is a region of parameter space close to the critical solution for sufficiently small rotation speed in which backflow occurs in a small region on the upward-moving side of the cylinder

Catholic and charismatic : a study in personality theory within Catholic congregations

This study set out to conceptualise and measure Charismatic orientation (openness to charismatic experience) and traditional Catholic orientation (Catholic identity) among a sample of 670 Catholic churchgoers in order to test whether attachment to Catholic Charismatic Renewal strengthened or weakened the sense of traditional Catholic identity among churchgoing Catholics. This research question was set within the broader consideration of the location of Charismatic orientation and Catholic orientation within Eysenck's three dimensional model of personality. The data revealed a strong positive association between Charismatic experience and Catholic identity. Higher scores on the index of Charismatic orientation were associated with higher extraversion scores, with higher neuroticism scores, and with higher levels of mass attendance and personal prayer. Higher scores on the index of Catholic orientation were associated with being female, being older, higher neuroticism scores, and higher levels of mass attendance and personal prayer

Clinical and Genetic Risk Factors Associated with Psoriatic Arthritis among Patients with Psoriasis.

IntroductionPsoriatic arthritis (PsA) is a chronic, inflammatory arthritis that affects an estimated 30% of patients with psoriasis. PsA is underdiagnosed in primary care and dermatology clinics due to a variety of reasons, including failure of healthcare providers to ask about symptoms, overlap of symptoms and signs with other rheumatologic conditions, and lack of a specific diagnostic test. A delay in PsA diagnosis and treatment, even as short as 6 months, can lead to decreased quality of life, increased joint damage, and worse long-term physical function. In this study, we sought to identify the clinical and genetic factors that help discriminate patients with PsA from those with cutaneous psoriasis only.MethodsWe analyzed a cohort of 974 psoriasis patients at an academic medical center, of whom 175 had confirmed PsA, and performed univariate, multivariate, and predictive modeling to determine factors associated with PsA.ResultsThe univariate analysis revealed significant positive associations of PsA with age, nail involvement, scalp involvement, skin fold involvement, elbow/knee involvement, psoriasis severity, plaque subtype, erythrodermic subtype, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and coronary artery disease, and a significant negative association of PsA with the human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-C*06:02 allele. In the multivariate analysis, nail involvement, type 2 diabetes, and pustular psoriasis remained significantly associated with PsA, while HLA-C*06:02 positivity remained protective. There was a trend towards an association of PsA with older age, younger age of psoriasis onset, and skin fold involvement, while there was protective trend for smoking. A predictive model including both clinical and genetic factors showed reasonable discriminative ability between psoriasis and PsA, with an area under the curve of 0.87 for a receiver operating characteristic curve.ConclusionThis study identified a number of clinical and genetic features that could help stratify patients who are at higher risk for having PsA and for whom rheumatology referral may be beneficial

PERSPECTIVES ON COTTON GLOBAL TRADE REFORMS

World cotton prices fell to nearly unprecedented levels during the 2001/02 marketing year, causing distress to cotton producers and exporters worldwide. In a number of developing countries highly dependent on cotton for export earnings or where cotton is the primary cash crop, this distress was particularly acute. Global trade barriers to cotton are widespread, leading to some concern about the relationship between these trade barriers and global welfare. In particular, with the Doha Development Agenda's negotiations underway, discussion about the impact of trade barriers on the cotton sectors of developing countries has become more intense. A static computable general equilibrium (CGE) model finds that removing cotton tariffs and other trade barriers to cotton by all countries increases global welfare but only slightly. Global welfare improves with liberalization, and the welfare of developing countries in aggregate also improves. However, while some developing countries demonstrably benefit, not all developing countries see welfare gains. In addition to welfare, removing all global cotton trade barriers increases world trade in cotton.International Relations/Trade,

Indirect effects of primary prey population dynamics on alternative prey

We develop a theory of generalist predation showing how alternative prey species are affected by changes in both mean abundance and variability (coefficient of variation) of their predator's primary prey. The theory is motivated by the indirect effects of cyclic rodent populations on ground-breeding birds, and developed through progressive analytic simplifications of an empirically-based model. It applies nonetheless to many other systems where primary prey have fast life-histories and can become locally superabundant, which facilitates impact on alternative prey species. In contrast to classic apparent competition theory based on symmetric interactions, our results suggest that predator effects on alternative prey should generally decrease with mean primary prey abundance, and increase with primary prey variability (low to high CV) - unless predators have strong aggregative responses, in which case these results can be reversed. Approximations of models including predator dynamics (general numerical response with possible delays) confirm these results but further suggest that negative temporal correlation between predator and primary prey is harmful to alternative prey. We find in general that predator numerical responses are crucial to predict the response of ecosystems to changes in key prey species exhibiting outbreaks, and extend the apparent competition/mutualism theory to asymmetric interactions

Enzymatic evaluation of protein quality in feed and foodstuffs

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1969 G7Master of Scienc