Economics of neuraminidase inhibitor stock piling for pandemic influenza, Singapore.

We compared strategies for stock piling neuraminidase inhibitors to treat and prevent influenza in Singapore. Cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analyses, with Monte Carlo simulations, were used to determine economic outcomes. A pandemic in a population of 4.2 million would result in an estimated 525-1,775 deaths, 10,700-38,600 hospitalization days, and economic costs of 0.7 dollars to 2.2 billion Singapore dollars. The treatment-only strategy had optimal economic benefits: stock piles of antiviral agents for 40% of the population would save an estimated 418 lives and 414 million dollars, at a cost of 52.6 million dollars per shelf-life cycle of the stock pile. Prophylaxis was economically beneficial in high-risk subpopulations, which account for 78% of deaths, and in pandemics in which the death rate was >0.6%. Prophylaxis for pandemics with a 5% case-fatality rate would save 50,000 lives and 81 billion dollars. These models can help policymakers weigh the options for pandemic planning

Hyperons in Two Flavor Chiral Perturbation Theory

We use two-flavor chiral perturbation theory to describe hyperons. We focus on the strangeness conserving sector, and, as an example, calculate hyperon masses. Convergence of this two-flavor chiral expansion for observables is improved over the three-flavor theory. The cost, however, is a larger number of low-energy constants that must be ultimately determined from lattice QCD data. A formula for the mass of the omega baryon is derived to sixth order in this expansion, and will aid lattice practitioners in scale setting or tuning the strange quark mass.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figs, version published in PL

Gyrations: The Missing Link Between Classical Mechanics with its Underlying Euclidean Geometry and Relativistic Mechanics with its Underlying Hyperbolic Geometry

Being neither commutative nor associative, Einstein velocity addition of relativistically admissible velocities gives rise to gyrations. Gyrations, in turn, measure the extent to which Einstein addition deviates from commutativity and from associativity. Gyrations are geometric automorphisms abstracted from the relativistic mechanical effect known as Thomas precession

A practical group blind signature scheme for privacy protection in smart grid

The leakage of privacy is one of the key factors to restrict the development of smart grid. Currently, research works of protecting privacy in smart grid mainly focused on two aspects: (1) data aggregation based on the mathematical model and algorithm and (2) user anonymous authentication. However, data aggregation is at cost of obtaining fine-grained electricity consumption information to protect privacy. Anonymous authentication cannot identify the malicious user in previous studies. Hence, in this work, we propose a group blind signature scheme in smart grid to accomplish conditional anonymity. Furthermore, the integrity of consumption data can be verified by homomorphic encryption (HE) which can decrease the communication overhead between control center and smart meter remarkably. From the security analysis and experiment simulation, the results show that our scheme is safe and efficient

Microbiomes of Velloziaceae from phosphorus-impoverished soils of the campos rupestres, a biodiversity hotspot.

The rocky, seasonally-dry and nutrient-impoverished soils of the Brazilian campos rupestres impose severe growth-limiting conditions on plants. Species of a dominant plant family, Velloziaceae, are highly specialized to low-nutrient conditions and seasonal water availability of this environment, where phosphorus (P) is the key limiting nutrient. Despite plant-microbe associations playing critical roles in stressful ecosystems, the contribution of these interactions in the campos rupestres remains poorly studied. Here we present the first microbiome data of Velloziaceae spp. thriving in contrasting substrates of campos rupestres. We assessed the microbiomes of Vellozia epidendroides, which occupies shallow patches of soil, and Barbacenia macrantha, growing on exposed rocks. The prokaryotic and fungal profiles were assessed by rRNA barcode sequencing of epiphytic and endophytic compartments of roots, stems, leaves and surrounding soil/rocks. We also generated root and substrate (rock/soil)-associated metagenomes of each plant species. We foresee that these data will contribute to decipher how the microbiome contributes to plant functioning in the campos rupestres, and to unravel new strategies for improved crop productivity in stressful environments.Article number: 140