Relationship between group sunspot number and Wolf sunspot number

Continuous wavelet transform and cross-wavelet transform have been used to investigate the phase periodicity and synchrony of the monthly mean Wolf ($R_{z}$) and group ($R_{g}$) sunspot numbers during the period of June 1795 to December 1995. The Schwabe cycle is the only one common period in Rg and Rz, but it is not well-defined in case of cycles 5-7 of Rg and in case of cycles 5 and 6 of $R_{z}$. In fact, the Schwabe period is slightly different in $R_{g}$ and $R_{z}$ before cycle 12, but from cycle 12 onwards it is almost the same for the two time series. Asynchrony of the two time series is more obviously seen in cycles 5 and 6 than in the following cycles, and usually more obviously seen around the maximum time of a cycle than during the rest of the cycle. $R_{g}$ is found to fit $R_{z}$ better in both amplitudes and peak epoch during the minimum time time of a solar cycle than during the maximum time of the cycle, which should be caused by their different definition, and around the maximum time of a cycle, $R_{g}$ is usually less than $R_{z}$. Asynchrony of $R_{g}$ and $R_{z}$ should somewhat agree with different sunspot cycle characteristics exhibited by themselves

Regular Kac-Moody superalgebras and integrable highest weight modules

We define regular Kac-Moody superalgebras and classify them using integrable modules. We give conditions for irreducible highest weight modules of regular Kac-Moody superalgebras to be integrable. This paper is a major part of the proof for the classification of finite-growth contragredient Lie superalgebras.Comment: added reference; corrected typo

Is the Press Anti-Labor Or Just Out of Touch...

[Excerpt] At 12:01 a.m., November 1, All Saints\u27 Day 1983, the Chrysler Corporation\u27s stamping plant in Twinsburg, Ohio, suddenly fell silent. Members of United Auto Workers Local 122 shut down their machines for a strike. As the door panels, floor pans, and other parts they produce stopped flowing across the country from Twinsburg, the only source of supply for these parts, half a dozen Chrysler assembly plants fell silent too. In New York that night, on NBC Nightly News, Tom Brokaw called it a wildcat strike -—an unauthorized walkout. On the other coast, a Los Angeles Times editor changed the first paragraphs of the Detroit bureau\u27s story, making it Robert Weissman\u27s strike, a walkout almost singlehandedly engineered by Weissman, the president of the Twinsburg local union. The alterations made the story conform more closely with other coverage around the country, which implied that a pack of militants in Twinsburg was knocking Chrysler down just as the company was getting up off its knees. That was Chrysler\u27s line on the strike, but it was just one way of looking at it. Weissman, a man who does not regard the title of militant as a smear, has few fans among the top leaders of the UAW. But authorization for his local\u27s strike had been carefully cleared through the union\u27s regional director, its Chrysler director, and its new president, Owen Bieber, following fifteen fruitless months of local bargaining. As often happens in labor stories, a lot of good questions went unasked in Twinsburg. For example, what was the strike about

Optimism as a Mediating Factor in the Relationship between Anxiety and News Media Exposure in College Students

Recently, media research has focused on young people to determine what effect violent media images may have on aggressive behavior, but little research has investigated the kind of psychological distress similar images may cause. What emotional impact does increased exposure to negative and even violent news coverage have on young adults? In this study, the relationship between such news media and anxiety levels is examined, as well as the possible mediating role that an optimistic life orientation may play in that relationship. It is hypothesized that the degree to which these individuals follow news media will positively correlate with their state anxiety levels, but when accounting for an optimistic worldview, this effect will be minimized or eliminated. A survey was administered to a sample of 278 undergraduate students attending Bryant University that measured their anxiety levels, life orientation in terms of optimism, and news media viewing habits. The results showed no significant correlation between news media viewing and state anxiety, and therefore also could not support any mediating role of optimism either. Limitations and mitigating factors regarding this study as well as possible avenues for future research are discussed

Effect of malnutrition on tuberculosis microbiologic severity in India

The relationship between malnutrition and tuberculosis disease (TB) severity is understudied. This study analyzed data collected by a large cohort study to investigate the effect malnutrition, measured by BMI, had on TB mycobacterial burden. A study population of 538 subjects was utilized for this secondary data analysis. Multivariate negative binomial regression was used to evaluate relationships between body mass index (BMI) categories and mycobacterial growth indicator tube (MGIT) days to positive. Of the 538 subjects, 79% were male and 21% were female. The median age was 45 years of age. One subject was HIV seropositive and was excluded from the final analysis. There were incomplete outcome data for 63 subjects, who were excluded from the final analysis. BMI was categorized as severe malnutrition (BMI<16.5 kg/m2), malnutrition (16.5≤BMI<18.5), normal (18.5≤BMI<25), and overweight/obese (BMI≥25), with 27%, 32%, 36%, and 5% of the population comprising these categories, respectively. The median MGIT days to positive was 8 days. After adjusting for confounders, individuals who had severe malnutrition or malnutrition had an adjusted RR of 1.05 (95% CI, 0.90–1.23) and 1.08 (95% CI, 0.94, 1.24), neither measure was significant for the association between TB disease burden and MGIT. Overweight/obese individuals had an 8% decreased risk (RR=0.92, 95% CI, 0.79–1.19) of shorter time to result compared to those with normal BMI, after adjusting for confounders. The results of this study indicate that there is no significant association between BMI and MGIT in an adjusted model. However, there are several limitations to this result including, lack of cavitation data and failure to account for collinearity in the final model

Inhibitory Effects of Ethanol on the NLRP3 Inflammasome

Immunosuppression is a major complication of alcoholism and contributes to increased rates of opportunistic infections and sepsis associated with the addiction. The NLRP3 inflammasome is a central intracellular pattern recognition receptor within the innate immune system, which leads to the cleavage and secretion of the pro-inflammatory cytokines interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-18. Ethanol has been reported to inhibit IL-1β secretion, and here we verify that the alcohol can specifically inhibit activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome resulting in attenuated IL-1β and caspase-1 cleavage and secretion, as well as ASC secretion in response to several agonists. These results were found to be independent of the activation of GABAA receptors or the inhibition of NMDA receptors. Ethanol was only partially able to prevent IL-1β secretion subsequent to NLRC4 activation and was incapable of preventing NLRP1b dependent IL-1β secretion, which are both largely independent of the adapter protein ASC, and ethanol was shown to prevent the formation of ASC specks. Treatment of cells with ethanol resulted in markedly decreased global tyrosine phosphorylation, while administration of the tyrosine phosphatase inhibitor sodium orthovanadate prior to ethanol restored IL-1β secretion. Multiple alcohol containing organic compounds exerted inhibitory effects on the NLRP3 inflammasome parallel to ethanol; however, isoamyl alcohol’s non-alcohol analog, 2-methylbutane, did not. Together, these results show that ethanol antagonizes the NLRP3 inflammasome at an apical event in its activation potentially through the stimulation of protein tyrosine phosphatases. As other short chain alcohols retain this ability, this effect could be dependent on the hydroxyl group of these compounds