Causal relations in the semantics of the French adverb "alors"

International audienceIn this work, we investigate the causal relations possibly conveyed by the French adverb alors (then, at that time, so) in Natural Language texts. This work is part of a broader project to provide a systematic analysis of French temporal connectives within Asher's formal framework of Segmented Discourse Representation Theory

Income diversification and poverty in the Northern Uplands of Vietnam:

Poverty, income diversification,

A molecular superfluid: non-classical rotations in doped para-hydrogen clusters

Clusters of para-hydrogen (pH2) have been predicted to exhibit superfluid behavior, but direct observation of this phenomenon has been elusive. Combining experiments and theoretical simulations, we have determined the size evolution of the superfluid response of pH2 clusters doped with carbon dioxide (CO2). Reduction of the effective inertia is observed when the dopant is surrounded by the pH2 solvent. This marks the onset of molecular superfluidity in pH2. The fractional occupation of solvation rings around CO2 correlates with enhanced superfluid response for certain cluster sizes

Are Attitudes Towards Economic Risk Heritable? Analyses Using the Australian Twin Study of Gambling

This study employs multiple regression models based on DeFries and Fulker (1985), and a large sample of twins, to assess heritability in attitudes towards economic risk, and the extent to which this heritability differs between males and females. Consistent with Cesarini, Dawes, Johannesson, Lichtenstein and Wallace (2009), it is found that attitudes towards risk are moderately heritable, with about 20 percent of the variation in these attitudes across individuals being linked to genetic differences. This value is less than one-half the estimates reported by Zyphur, Narayanan, Arvey and Alexander (2009) and Zhong, Chew, Set, Zhang, Xue, Sham, Ebstein and Israel (2009). While females are more risk averse than males, there is no evidence that heritability in attitudes towards risk differs between males and females. Even though heritability is shown to be important to economic risk taking, the analyses suggest that multivariate studies of the determinants of attitudes towards risk which to not take heritability into consideration still provide reliable estimates of the partial effects of other key variables, such as gender and educational attainment.risk, heritability, gender

Radiotherapy planning for glioblastoma based on a tumor growth model: Improving target volume delineation

Glioblastoma are known to infiltrate the brain parenchyma instead of forming a solid tumor mass with a defined boundary. Only the part of the tumor with high tumor cell density can be localized through imaging directly. In contrast, brain tissue infiltrated by tumor cells at low density appears normal on current imaging modalities. In clinical practice, a uniform margin is applied to account for microscopic spread of disease. The current treatment planning procedure can potentially be improved by accounting for the anisotropy of tumor growth: Anatomical barriers such as the falx cerebri represent boundaries for migrating tumor cells. In addition, tumor cells primarily spread in white matter and infiltrate gray matter at lower rate. We investigate the use of a phenomenological tumor growth model for treatment planning. The model is based on the Fisher-Kolmogorov equation, which formalizes these growth characteristics and estimates the spatial distribution of tumor cells in normal appearing regions of the brain. The target volume for radiotherapy planning can be defined as an isoline of the simulated tumor cell density. A retrospective study involving 10 glioblastoma patients has been performed. To illustrate the main findings of the study, a detailed case study is presented for a glioblastoma located close to the falx. In this situation, the falx represents a boundary for migrating tumor cells, whereas the corpus callosum provides a route for the tumor to spread to the contralateral hemisphere. We further discuss the sensitivity of the model with respect to the input parameters. Correct segmentation of the brain appears to be the most crucial model input. We conclude that the tumor growth model provides a method to account for anisotropic growth patterns of glioblastoma, and may therefore provide a tool to make target delineation more objective and automated

A Far-infrared Characterization of 24 μm Selected Galaxies at 0 < z < 2.5 using Stacking at 70 μm and 160 μm in the COSMOS Field

We present a study of the average properties of luminous infrared galaxies detected directly at 24 μm in the COSMOS field using a median stacking analysis at 70 μm and 160 μm. Over 35,000 sources spanning 0 ≤ z ≤ 3 and 0.06 mJy ≤ S_(24) ≤ 3.0 mJy are stacked, divided into bins of both photometric redshift and 24 μm flux. We find no correlation of S_(70)/S_(24) flux density ratio with S_(24), but find that galaxies with higher S_(24) have a lower S_(160)/S_(24) flux density ratio. These observed ratios suggest that 24 μm selected galaxies have warmer spectral energy distributions (SEDs) at higher mid-IR fluxes, and therefore have a possible higher fraction of active galactic nuclei. Comparisons of the average S_(70)/S_(24) and S_(160)/S_(24) colors with various empirical templates and theoretical models show that the galaxies detected at 24 μm are consistent with "normal" star-forming galaxies and warm mid-IR galaxies such as Mrk 231, but inconsistent with heavily obscured galaxies such as Arp 220. We perform a χ^2 analysis to determine best-fit galactic model SEDs and total IR luminosities for each of our bins. We compare our results to previous methods of estimating L IR and find that previous methods show considerable agreement over the full redshift range, except for the brightest S_(24) sources, where they overpredict the bolometric IR luminosity at high redshift, most likely due to their warmer dust SED. We present a table that can be used as a more accurate and robust method for estimating bolometric infrared luminosity from 24 μm flux densities

Chromosomal DNA deletion confers phage resistance to Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Bacteria develop a broad range of phage resistance mechanisms, such as prevention of phage adsorption and CRISPR/Cas system, to survive phage predation. In this study, Pseudomonas aeruginosa PA1 strain was infected with lytic phage PaP1, and phage-resistant mutants were selected. A high percentage (~30%) of these mutants displayed red pigmentation phenotype (Red mutant). Through comparative genomic analysis, one Red mutant PA1r was found to have a 219.6 kb genomic fragment deletion, which contains two key genes hmgA and galU related to the observed phenotypes. Deletion of hmgA resulted in the accumulation of a red compound homogentisic acid; while A galU mutant is devoid of O-antigen, which is required for phage adsorption. Intriguingly, while the loss of galU conferred phage resistance, it significantly attenuated PA1r in a mouse infection experiment. Our study revealed a novel phage resistance mechanism via chromosomal DNA deletion in P. aeruginosa