A Homogeneous Model of Spinfoam Cosmology

We examine spinfoam cosmology by use of a simple graph adapted to homogeneous cosmological models. We calculate dynamics in the isotropic limit, and provide the framework for the aniostropic case. The dynamical behaviour is calculating transition amplitudes between holomorphic coherent states on a single node graph. The resultant dynamics is peaked on solutions which have no support on the zero volume state, indicating that big bang type singularities are avoided within such models.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figure

The impact of fluency on the subjective assessment of interpreting quality

Prosodic features such as fluency are key components of natural speech and, thus, also of simultaneous interpreting. Disfluencies, such as hesitations, vowel lengthening and repairs, are particularly significant in the output of simultaneous interpreters, which presents a pattern of pausing and disfluencies that differs from other forms of spontaneous speech. This paper provides an overview of aspects of fluency and a brief introduction to previous research in the area of fluency and user perceptions, and describes a study conducted by the author at the University of Vienna. The results of this experiment indicate that there may be a link between perceived fluency of an interpretation and users’ assessment of the interpreter’s accuracy. There also appears to be a link between self-assessed comprehension and assessment of the interpreter’s performance

Subarachnoid Hemorrhage from Posterior Cerebral Artery Aneurysm during Puerperium – Case Report and Review of Literature

Subarachnoid hemorrhages (SAH) due to true aneurysms of the Posterior Cerebral Artery (PCA) during puerperium in young and healthy females are extremely rare. We present the case of a 31-year old, healthy woman that experienced a spontaneous SAH due to a PCA aneurysm, arising from the P3 segment, 9 days post-delivery. The aneurysm was successfully treated via an endovascular approach and the patient recovered well. After 21 days she was discharged from hospital without neurological deficits. The clinical course is described in detail and illustrated with a computed tomography scan (CT) and digital subtraction angiography (DSA) pre – and post-embolization. The literature is reviewed and possible etiologies of the formation and rupture of the aneurysm are discussed

Visual Input in Simultaneous Interpreting

This article looks at the interaction of the visual and the verbal in simultaneous interpreting, describing the significance of different elements of visual nonverbal communication with focus on those that facilitate understanding or need to be rendered in some way in the interpretation. While studies show that this visual information is often redundant, it can nevertheless aid the processing of verbal information. Visual contact can certainly be of importance when the verbal message refers to something visible to the audience or when the nonverbal adds information not present in the verbal message. A small experiment was conducted at the University of Vienna in order to determine whether there were any appreciable differences in interpreting with and without visual contact. The descriptive analysis sought to identify types of visual nonverbal communication that were particularly important for understanding the message.Le présent article traite de l’interaction entre le visuel et le verbal lors de l’interprétation simultanée. La signification des différentes composantes de la communication non verbale visuelle est étudiée, avec un accent particulier sur les éléments qui facilitent la bonne compréhension ou qui doivent être pris en compte dans l’interprétation. Ces informations d’ordre visuel, dont certaines études semblent prouver le caractère redondant, peuvent pourtant aider à bien assimiler l’information verbalisée. Le contact visuel est sans doute important lorsque le message verbal porte sur quelque chose qui est visible pour l’audience ou lorsque la composante non verbale apporte une information supplémentaire non explicitée dans l’énoncé. Une expérience à petite échelle a été conduite à l’Université de Vienne pour faire apparaître les éventuelles différences entre l’interprétation effectuée avec ou sans contact visuel. L’analyse descriptive qui en est donnée se propose d’identifier les modes de communication non verbale visuelle qui importent tout particulièrement pour la bonne compréhension du message

Sex-biased gene expression in the developing brain: implications for autism spectrum disorders.

RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are.Autism spectrum disorders affect significantly more males than females. Understanding sex differences in normal human brain development may provide insight into the mechanism(s) underlying this disparity; however, studies of sex differences in brain development at the genomic level are lacking. Here, we report a re-analysis of sex-specific gene expression from a recent large transcriptomic study of normal human brain development, to determine whether sex-biased genes relate to specific mechanistic processes. We discovered that male-biased genes are enriched for the processes of extracellular matrix formation/glycoproteins, immune response, chromatin, and cell cytoskeleton. We highlight that these pathways have been repeatedly implicated in autism and demonstrate that autism candidate genes are also enriched for these pathways. We propose that the overlap of these male-specific brain transcriptional modules with the same pathways in autism spectrum disorders may partially explain the increased incidence of autism in males

Decomposing data sets into skewness modes

We derive the nonlinear equations satisfied by the coefficients of linear combinations that maximize their skewness when their variance is constrained to take a specific value. In order to numerically solve these nonlinear equations we develop a gradient-type flow that preserves the constraint. In combination with the Karhunen-Lo\`eve decomposition this leads to a set of orthogonal modes with maximal skewness. For illustration purposes we apply these techniques to atmospheric data; in this case the maximal-skewness modes correspond to strongly localized atmospheric flows. We show how these ideas can be extended, for example to maximal-flatness modes.Comment: Submitted for publication, 12 pages, 4 figure

Requirement for the NF-kappa B family member Re1A in the development of secondary lymphoid organs

The transcription factor nuclear factor (NF)-kappaB has been suggested to be a key mediator of the development of lymph nodes and Peyer's patches. However, targeted deletion of NF-kappaB/ Rel family members has not yet corroborated such a function. Here we report that when mice lacking the RelA subunit of NF-kappaB are brought to term by breeding onto a tumor necrosis factor receptor (TNFR)1-deficient background, the trice that are born lack lymph nodes, foyer's patches, and an organized splenic microarchitecture, and have a profound defect in T cell-dependent antigen responses. Analyses of TNFR1/1RelA-deficient embryonic tissues and of radiation chimeras suggest that the dependence on RelA is manifest not in hematopoietic cells but rather in radioresistant stromal cells needed for the development of secondary lymphoid organs

A human macrophage – hepatocyte co-culture model for comparative studies of infection and replication of Francisella tularensis LVS strain and subspecies holarctica and mediasiatica

Detection of intracellular LPS in macrophage / hepatocyte co-cultures infected with LVS (open bars), spp. holarctica (grey filled bars) or spp. mediasiatica (black filled bars) and untreated control (hatched bars). A) Different amounts of macrophages in the co-culture were tested (6, 12 and 22 % of macrophages on total cell count). Flow cytometric detection of intracellular LPS in macrophages (MFI mean fluorescence intensity); B-D) percentage of remaining detectable macrophages after infection of the co-cultures with B) 6 % macrophages/94 % hepatocytes, C) 12 % macrophages/ 88 % hepatocytes and D) 22 % macrophages/ 88 % hepatocytes 72 h post infection. (TIF 32735 kb

Polymorphisms in alcohol metabolism genes ADH1B and ALDH2, alcohol consumption and colorectal cancer

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Epidemiological risk factors for CRC included alcohol intake, which is mainly metabolized to acetaldehyde by alcohol dehydrogenase and further oxidized to acetate by aldehyde dehydrogenase; consequently, the role of genes in the alcohol metabolism pathways is of particular interest. The aim of this study is to analyze the association between SNPs in ADH1B and ALDH2 genes and CRC risk, and also the main effect of alcohol consumption on CRC risk in the study population. Methodology/Principal Findings: SNPs from ADH1B and ALDH2 genes, included in alcohol metabolism pathway, were genotyped in 1694 CRC cases and 1851 matched controls from the Molecular Epidemiology of Colorectal Cancer study. Information on clinicopathological characteristics, lifestyle and dietary habits were also obtained. Logistic regression and association analysis were conducted. A positive association between alcohol consumption and CRC risk was observed in male participants from the Molecular Epidemiology of Colorectal Cancer study (MECC) study (OR = 1.47; 95%CI = 1.18-1.81). Moreover, the SNPs rs1229984 in ADH1B gene was found to be associated with CRC risk: under the recessive model, the OR was 1.75 for A/A genotype (95%CI = 1.21-2.52; p-value = 0.0025). A path analysis based on structural equation modeling showed a direct effect of ADH1B gene polymorphisms on colorectal carcinogenesis and also an indirect effect mediated through alcohol consumption. Conclusions/Significance: Genetic polymorphisms in the alcohol metabolism pathways have a potential role in colorectal carcinogenesis, probably due to the differences in the ethanol metabolism and acetaldehyde oxidation of these enzyme variants