1,233 research outputs found
Two manuscripts on competition
The two manuscripts here reproduced belong to the two extremes of Marshall's scientific career. They support similar views, and show that the general drift of the two notes proceeds from the same assumption: that competition is a multifaceted force, which, all things considered, does more good than harm. The introduction also shows how deeply rooted and persistent was Marshall's preference for a broad non-technical conception of competition. Competition is an evolutionary force with its failures and the need to work out well-conceived remedies
Headache and pregnancy. a systematic review
This systematic review summarizes the existing data on headache and pregnancy with a scope on clinical headache phenotypes, treatment of headaches in pregnancy and effects of headache medications on the child during pregnancy and breastfeeding, headache related complications, and diagnostics of headache in pregnancy. Headache during pregnancy can be both primary and secondary, and in the last case can be a symptom of a life-threatening condition. The most common secondary headaches are stroke, cerebral venous thrombosis, subarachnoid hemorrhage, pituitary tumor, choriocarcinoma, eclampsia, preeclampsia, idiopathic intracranial hypertension, and reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome. Migraine is a risk factor for pregnancy complications, particularly vascular events. Data regarding other primary headache conditions are still scarce. Early diagnostics of the disease manifested by headache is important for mother and fetus life. It is especially important to identify "red flag symptoms" suggesting that headache is a symptom of a serious disease. In order to exclude a secondary headache additional studies can be necessary: electroencephalography, ultrasound of the vessels of the head and neck, brain MRI and MR angiography with contrast ophthalmoscopy and lumbar puncture. During pregnancy and breastfeeding the preferred therapeutic strategy for the treatment of primary headaches should always be a non-pharmacological one. Treatment should not be postponed as an undermanaged headache can lead to stress, sleep deprivation, depression and poor nutritional intake that in turn can have negative consequences for both mother and baby. Therefore, if non-pharmacological interventions seem inadequate, a well-considered choice should be made concerning the use of medication, taking into account all the benefits and possible risks
Impact of biodiversity-climate futures on primary production and metabolism in a model benthic estuarine system
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Understanding the effects of anthropogenically-driven changes in global temperature, atmospheric carbon dioxide and biodiversity on the functionality of marine ecosystems is crucial for predicting and managing the associated impacts. Coastal ecosystems are important sources of carbon (primary production) to shelf waters and play a vital role in global nutrient cycling. These systems are especially vulnerable to the effects of human activities and will be the first areas impacted by rising sea levels. Within these coastal ecosystems, microalgal assemblages (microphytobenthos: MPB) are vital for autochthonous carbon fixation. The level of <it>in situ </it>production by MPB mediates the net carbon cycling of transitional ecosystems between net heterotrophic or autotrophic metabolism. In this study, we examine the interactive effects of elevated atmospheric CO<sub>2 </sub>concentrations (370, 600, and 1000 ppmv), temperature (6°C, 12°C, and 18°C) and invertebrate biodiversity on MPB biomass in experimental systems. We assembled communities of three common grazing invertebrates (<it>Hydrobia ulvae, Corophium volutator </it>and <it>Hediste diversicolor) </it>in monoculture and in all possible multispecies combinations. This experimental design specifically addresses interactions between the selected climate change variables and any ecological consequences caused by changes in species composition or richness.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The effects of elevated CO<sub>2 </sub>concentration, temperature and invertebrate diversity were not additive, rather they interacted to determine MPB biomass, and overall this effect was negative. Diversity effects were underpinned by strong species composition effects, illustrating the importance of individual species identity.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Overall, our findings suggest that in natural systems, the complex interactions between changing environmental conditions and any associated changes in invertebrate assemblage structure are likely to reduce MPB biomass. Furthermore, these effects would be sufficient to affect the net metabolic balance of the coastal ecosystem, with important implications for system ecology and sustainable exploitation.</p
How Do Brazilian Street Youth Experience ‘The Street’?: Analysis Of A Sentence Completion Task
This study investigated how homeless Brazilian youth experience the street and examined factors linked to positive and negative feelings about the street. An opportunity sample of 35 boys and 34 girls aged 10–18 completed a structured interview and sentence completion task aimed at eliciting open-ended responses in a standardized manner. Analyses revealed great diversity in youths’ views of the street; moreover, in analyses controlling for age and gender, youth reporting feeling positive on the street differed from those who felt negative in reasons for leaving home, family situation and daily survival. The findings support the value of the sentence completion task in exploring the subjective experiences of street youth
Cabergoline, prolactin and heart
Summary Introduction and aim: Dopamine agonists have been reported to increase the risk of cardiac valve regurgitation in patients with Parkinson's disease. However, it is unknown whether these drugs might be harmful for patients with hyperprolactinaemia (HyperPRL). The aim of the study was to evaluate whether HyperPRL patients treated with dopamine agonists had a higher prevalence of cardiac valves regurgitation than that of general population. Methods and patients: One hundred consecutive patients (79 women, 21 men, mean age 41 ± 13 years) with HyperPRL during treatment with cabergoline were enrolled in an observational case–control study and compared with 100 matched normal subjects (controls). Valve regurgitation was assessed by echocardiography according to the American Society of Echocardiography recommendations. Results: Seven HyperPRL patients (7%) and six controls (6%) had moderate (grade 3) regurgitation in any valve (p = 0.980). All were asymptomatic and had no signs of cardiac disease. Mean duration of cabergoline treatment was 67 ± 39 months (range: 3–199 months). Mean cumulative dose of cabergoline was 279 ± 301 mg (range: 15–1327 mg). Moderate valve regurgitation was not associated with the duration of treatment (p = 0.359), with cumulative dose of cabergoline (p = 0.173), with age (p = 0.281), with previous treatment with bromocriptine (p = 0.673) or previous adenomectomy (p = 0.497) in patients with HyperPRL. Discussion: In conclusion, treatment with cabergoline was not associated with increased prevalence of cardiac valves regurgitation in patients with HyperPRL. Mean cumulative dose of cabergoline was lower in patients with HyperPRL than that reported to be deleterious for patients with Parkinson's disease: hence, longer follow-up is necessary, particularly in patients receiving weekly doses > 3 mg
Turnover, account value and diversification of real traders: evidence of collective portfolio optimizing behavior
Despite the availability of very detailed data on financial market,
agent-based modeling is hindered by the lack of information about real trader
behavior. This makes it impossible to validate agent-based models, which are
thus reverse-engineering attempts. This work is a contribution to the building
of a set of stylized facts about the traders themselves. Using the client
database of Swissquote Bank SA, the largest on-line Swiss broker, we find
empirical relationships between turnover, account values and the number of
assets in which a trader is invested. A theory based on simple mean-variance
portfolio optimization that crucially includes variable transaction costs is
able to reproduce faithfully the observed behaviors. We finally argue that our
results bring into light the collective ability of a population to construct a
mean-variance portfolio that takes into account the structure of transaction
costsComment: 26 pages, 9 figures, Fig. 8 fixe
Design, status and perspective of the Mu2e crystal calorimeter
The Mu2e experiment at Fermilab will search for the charged lepton flavor
violating process of neutrino-less coherent conversion in the field
of an aluminum nucleus. Mu2e will reach a single event sensitivity of about
that corresponds to four orders of magnitude improvements
with respect to the current best limit. The detector system consists of a straw
tube tracker and a crystal calorimeter made of undoped CsI coupled with Silicon
Photomultipliers. The calorimeter was designed to be operable in a harsh
environment where about 10 krad/year will be delivered in the hottest region
and work in presence of 1 T magnetic field. The calorimeter role is to perform
/e separation to suppress cosmic muons mimiking the signal, while
providing a high level trigger and a seeding the track search in the tracker.
In this paper we present the calorimeter design and the latest RD results.Comment: 4 pages, conference proceeding for a presentation held at TIPP'2017.
To be published on Springer Proceedings in Physic
Quality Assurance on a custom SiPMs array for the Mu2e experiment
The Mu2e experiment at Fermilab will search for the coherent
conversion on aluminum atoms. The detector system consists of a straw tube
tracker and a crystal calorimeter. A pre-production of 150 Silicon
Photomultiplier arrays for the Mu2e calorimeter has been procured. A detailed
quality assur- ance has been carried out on each SiPM for the determination of
its own operation voltage, gain, dark current and PDE. The measurement of the
mean-time-to-failure for a small random sample of the pro-production group has
been also completed as well as the determination of the dark current increase
as a function of the ioninizing and non-ioninizing dose.Comment: 4 pages, 10 figures, conference proceeding for NSS-MIC 201
The Mu2e undoped CsI crystal calorimeter
The Mu2e experiment at Fermilab will search for Charged Lepton Flavor
Violating conversion of a muon to an electron in an atomic field. The Mu2e
detector is composed of a tracker, an electromagnetic calorimeter and an
external system, surrounding the solenoid, to veto cosmic rays. The calorimeter
plays an important role to provide: a) excellent particle identification
capabilities; b) a fast trigger filter; c) an easier tracker track
reconstruction. Two disks, located downstream of the tracker, contain 674 pure
CsI crystals each. Each crystal is read out by two arrays of UV-extended SiPMs.
The choice of the crystals and SiPMs has been finalized after a thorough test
campaign. A first small scale prototype consisting of 51 crystals and 102 SiPM
arrays has been exposed to an electron beam at the BTF (Beam Test Facility) in
Frascati. Although the readout electronics were not the final, results show
that the current design is able to meet the timing and energy resolution
required by the Mu2e experiment.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figures, proceedings of the "Calorimetry for the high
energy frontier (CHEF17)" conference, 2-6 October 2017, Lyon, Franc
MEG Upgrade Proposal
We propose the continuation of the MEG experiment to search for the charged
lepton flavour violating decay (cLFV) \mu \to e \gamma, based on an upgrade of
the experiment, which aims for a sensitivity enhancement of one order of
magnitude compared to the final MEG result, down to the
level. The key features of this new MEG upgrade are an increased rate
capability of all detectors to enable running at the intensity frontier and
improved energy, angular and timing resolutions, for both the positron and
photon arms of the detector. On the positron-side a new low-mass, single
volume, high granularity tracker is envisaged, in combination with a new highly
segmented, fast timing counter array, to track positron from a thinner stopping
target. The photon-arm, with the largest liquid xenon (LXe) detector in the
world, totalling 900 l, will also be improved by increasing the granularity at
the incident face, by replacing the current photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) with a
larger number of smaller photosensors and optimizing the photosensor layout
also on the lateral faces. A new DAQ scheme involving the implementation of a
new combined readout board capable of integrating the diverse functions of
digitization, trigger capability and splitter functionality into one condensed
unit, is also under development. We describe here the status of the MEG
experiment, the scientific merits of the upgrade and the experimental methods
we plan to use.Comment: A. M. Baldini and T. Mori Spokespersons. Research proposal submitted
to the Paul Scherrer Institute Research Committee for Particle Physics at the
Ring Cyclotron. 131 Page
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