Thamnophis butleri

Number of Pages: 2Integrative BiologyEarth and Planetary Science

Window defect planar mapping technique

A method of planar mapping defects in a window having an edge surface and a planar surface. The method is comprised of steps for mounting the window on a support surface. Then a light sensitive paper is placed adjacent to the window surface. A light source is positioned adjacent to the window edge. The window is then illuminated with the source of light for a predetermined interval of time. Defects on the surface of the glass, as well as in the interior of the glass are detected by analyzing the developed light sensitive paper. The light source must be in the form of optical fibers or a light tube whose light transmitting ends are placed near the edge surface of the window

A comparison of cognitive function, sleep and activity levels in disease-free breast cancer patients with or without cancer-related fatigue syndrome.

Chronic fatigue is a feature in a subset of women successfully treated for breast cancer but is not well characterised. This study examines differences in objective cognitive function, activity levels and sleep in disease-free women who do and do not meet criteria for cancer-related fatigue syndrome (CRFS)

The suburbanisation of poverty in British cities, 2004-16: extent, processes and nature

This paper tracks changes in relative centralisation and relative concentration of poverty for the 25 largest British cities, analysing change for poor and non-poor groups separately, and examining parallel changes in spatial segregation. The paper confirms that poverty is suburbanising, at least in the larger cities, although poverty remains over-represented in inner locations. Suburbanisation is occurring through both the reduction in low income populations in inner locations and the growth non-poor groups in these places, consistent with a process of displacement. Relative centralisation of poverty has fallen more stronglythan relative concentration of poverty, as the outward shift of poorer groups leaves them still living in denser neighbourhoods on average. The paper also shows that spatial segregation (unevenness) declined at the same time although it remains to be seen whether this indicates a long-term shift to less segregated urban forms or a transitional outcome before new forms of segregation emerge around suburban poverty concentrations

A new mechanism for non-locality from string theory: UV-IR quantum entanglement and its imprints on the CMB

Puff field theories (PFT) arise as the decoupling limits of D3 branes in a Melvin universe and exhibit spatially non-local dynamics. Unlike other realizations of non-locality in string theory, PFTs have full SO(3) rotational symmetry. In this work, we analyze the strongly coupled regime of a PFT through gravitational holography. We find a novel mechanism at the heart of the phenomenon of non-locality: a quantum entanglement of UV and IR dynamics. In the holographic bulk, this translates to an apparent horizon splitting the space into two regions - with the UV completion of the PFT sitting at the horizon. We unravel this intricate UV-IR setting and devise a prescription for computing correlators that extends the original dictionary of holographic renormalization group. We then implement a cosmological scenario where PFT correlators set the initial conditions for primordial fluctuations. We compute the associated power spectrum of the CMB and find that the scenario allows for a distinct stringy signature.Comment: 40 pages, 15 figures; v2: citations added, minor figure corrections; v3: minor changes, revised section 3.

Visualising variation in mortality rates across the life course and by sex, USA and comparator states, 1933–2010

Background Previous research showed that younger adult males in the USA have, since the 1950s, died at a faster rate than females of the same age. In this paper, we quantify this difference, and explore possible explanations for the differences at different ages and in different years. Methods Using data from the Human Mortality Database (HMD), the number of additional male deaths per 10 000 female deaths was calculated for each year from 1933 to 2010, and for each year of age from 0 to 60 years, for the USA, and a number of other countries for comparison. The data were explored visually using shaded contour plots. Results Gender differences in excess mortality have increased. Coming of age (between the ages of 15 and 25 years of age) is especially perilous for men relative to women now compared with the past in the USA; the visualisations highlight this change as important. Conclusions Sex differences in mortality risks at various ages are not static. While women may today have an advantage when it comes to life expectancy, in the USA, this has greatly increased since the 1930s. Just as young adulthood for women has been made safer through safer antenatal and childbirth practices, changes in public policy can make the social environment safer for men

If Europe were a country...

If Europe were a country, what would its vital statistics show? Figure 1 show how crude mortality rates – the probability of being dead within the next twelve months – have varied with age and with time, for both males and females, within European nations from 1751 to 2011. The data are arranged to form a Lexis surface, a statistical canvas where one of the axes represents year and the other represents age (Lexis, 1875) At each combination of age and year is a value, mortality rate. Conceptually, the mortality rate is the ‘height’ of the Lexis surface at each of many tens of thousands of combinations of age and year, meaning the shaded contour plots here allow the visualisation of tens of thousands of values ‘at a glance’. (Vaupel et al., 1987, 1997) By investing a little more than a glance-worth of time to these visualisations it becomes possible to use them to identify a large number of complex features and patterns in the data.(Minton, 2013, 2014; Minton et al., 2013) All available data of European countries from the Human Mortality Database (HMD) were used. (Human Mortality Database, 2014) For almost three quarters of a century, from 1751 to 1815, this was just Sweden. From 1816 to 1850, six more countries’ records became available, then another three during the second half of the nineteenth century. Data for the latter half of the twentieth century were drawn from over twenty nations, a combined population size of almost half a billion citizens. The contour plots involved bolting together data from many different countries, and required relying on a few countries to tell the start of the story of modern Europe. Despite this, and despite being the main arena of two world wars and like the rest of the globe experiencing the deadliest infectious disease outbreak ever recorded, the contour plots seem to tell a single, cohesive, positive story, of vastly reduced infant mortality and the emergence of a childhood ever safer from harm, reduced risk of death during adulthood, and the pushing back of biological ageing to ever great chronological ages. Not quite ‘forever young’, but ‘younger, longer’

The Economic impact of Florida's recreational boating industry in 1985

The recreational boating industry is an important component of Florida's economy. Previous Florida Sea Grant College supported research has documented this economic importance to the state's economy in 1980 (see Milon and Riddle, 1983, and Milon et al. 1983). Since that initial research, the manufacturing, retailing, and service sectors comprising the industry have continued to grow and prosper as the state's resident and tourist populations increased. This report is an update on the economic significance of the recreational boating industry in Florida since 1980 based on economic indicators of change within the industry. (21pp.