27 research outputs found
Sex‐Associated Disparities in Industry Payments to US Authors in High‐Impact Rheumatology Journals: Correlation with Author Impact
No full textObjective The aim of this study was to assess sex‐associated disparities in the frequency and magnitude of industry payments to US physician authors in high‐impact rheumatology journals and their correlation with author impact. Methods US authors of publications in four high‐impact rheumatology journals were vetted on Open Payments Database (OPD) for industry payments. The h‐index (an accepted metric of author impact), physician type, and dollar amounts for each OPD category were recorded. Differences in the percentages of male versus female US authors with or without OPD entries, differences in research‐associated and non–research‐associated payments, and differences in h‐indexes were determined. Two hematology, two surgery, and two obstetrics/gynecology high‐impact journals were similarly vetted. Results The h‐indexes of, and industry payments to, US male physician authors were greater than those of and to US female physician authors across all four vetted journal disciplines, with the male‐to‐female ratio of median dollar payments being greatest for rheumatology. Whereas payments to male US physician authors tended to be larger than those to female US physician authors at low h‐indexes, payments to female US physician authors, especially for rheumatology, tended to match and surpass those to male US physician authors as the h‐indexes rose. Conclusion Significant differences exist in industry payments and h‐indexes between male and female US physician authors of publications in high‐impact journals, especially high‐impact rheumatology journals. Sex‐associated differences in industry payments can be attributed, at least in part, to sex‐associated differences in author impact
Variability of Persisting MHV RNA Sequences Constituting Immune and Replication-Relevant Domains
No full textAbstractSurvivors of acute infection with the neurotropic JHM strain of mouse hepatitis virus develop a persistent infection of the central nervous system associated with chronic ongoing demyelination. Persistence is characterized by viral RNA in the absence of infectious virus. To associate persistence with possible immune evasion and/or replication defects, viral RNA from brains of acutely and persistently infected mice was examined for mutations by reverse transcriptase–PCR. Sequences analyzed included the encapsidation sequence (ECS), the transmembrane domains of the matrix (M) protein, and a cytotoxic T cell (CTL) epitope within the nucleocapsid (N) protein. The ECS, present only on genomic RNA, revealed minimal variability and was detected out to 120 days postinfection, suggesting low levels of replication. The M gene sequence also remained stable during persistence despite random mutations during the acute phase. Although the N gene sequence exhibited the greatest diversity, mutations were random and not selected for during persistence. A single exception was detected comprising a prominent Pro to Ser substitution in a region of N not associated with any known regulatory or immune function. Of the N gene mutations found within the CTL epitope in responder mice (H-2d), one resulted in reduced CTL recognition with no evidence of antagonist activity. However, this mutation was also detected in nonresponder mice (H-2b), suggesting that escape variants arising from CTL pressure play no role in establishing persistence in immunocompetent hosts infected as adults
Музично-критичні публікації Дениса Січинського на сторінках часопису „,Діло”: Музично-критичні публікації Дениса Січинського на сторінках часопису „,Діло”
No full textThe study provides coverage of the journalistic practices of the Ukrainian professional composer Denys Sichynskyi. In the period from 1895 to 1909, his publications appeared in the pages of periodical „Dilo” [,,Діло”]. His writings include more than ten articles, which covered the meaningful pages of the cultural life of Eastern Galicia. When signing his press materials, the author used his real name Denys Sichynsky and the cryptonym D. S. The creative achievements of the cultural and educational figures of the region were reflected in the musical and critical reviews of the Galician composer.
Newspaper materials of a journalist belong to the informational (announcement, newspaper report) and analytical (review, critique) varieties of musical criticism. His works throw light on the performances of outstanding vocalists likeS. Krushelnytska, O. Myshuga, M. Levytsky, J. Szymański, flutist:O. Drezhepolsky, pianist:K. F. Stohl and the “Lvivskyi Boian” choir. The repertoire level of the concert programs and the release of new music publications perform both cognitive and educational functions. The journalistic style of D. Sichynsky is characterized by actuality, informativeness and professionalism. The critical work of D. Sichynsky reflects the development of artistic and educational processes on the way of progress in the formation of Ukrainian culture
Future Foreign Language Teachers’ Intercultural Competence
No full textThere is a lack of research regarding the implications for foreign language study and intercultural competence. Scholars suggest that foreign language proficiency plays a role in cultivating intercultural competence, but agree that there is a lack of empirical evidence supporting this notion. Research also shows that foreign language teachers are ethnocentric. Many educators and foreign language programs use a framework developed by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language (ACTFL) to promote language learning. This framework also possesses key elements in promoting intercultural competence. This study addressed whether a pre-service, ACTFL-guided teaching component of the curriculum had an influence on the intercultural competence of seven student teachers from a master’s large institution in the Midwestern U.S. The intercultural competence was scored using the Cross Cultural Adaptability Inventory as an assessment tool. The findings revealed no significant differences in their levels, but did find differences in how the correlations within intercultural competence’s different dimensions interconnected. The conclusions indicate connections to student development theory and recommendations for further study
Oceanic and terrestrial sources of continental precipitation
No full textAuthor Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2012. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Reviews of Geophysics 50 (2012): RG4003, doi:10.1029/2012RG000389.The most important sources of atmospheric moisture at the global scale are herein identified, both oceanic and terrestrial, and a characterization is made of how continental regions are influenced by water from different moisture source regions. The methods used to establish source-sink relationships of atmospheric water vapor are reviewed, and the advantages and caveats associated with each technique are discussed. The methods described include analytical and box models, numerical water vapor tracers, and physical water vapor tracers (isotopes). In particular, consideration is given to the wide range of recently developed Lagrangian techniques suitable both for evaluating the origin of water that falls during extreme precipitation events and for establishing climatologies of moisture source-sink relationships. As far as oceanic sources are concerned, the important role of the subtropical northern Atlantic Ocean provides moisture for precipitation to the largest continental area, extending from Mexico to parts of Eurasia, and even to the South American continent during the Northern Hemisphere winter. In contrast, the influence of the southern Indian Ocean and North Pacific Ocean sources extends only over smaller continental areas. The South Pacific and the Indian Ocean represent the principal source of moisture for both Australia and Indonesia. Some landmasses only receive moisture from the evaporation that occurs in the same hemisphere (e.g., northern Europe and eastern North America), while others receive moisture from both hemispheres with large seasonal variations (e.g., northern South America). The monsoonal regimes in India, tropical Africa, and North America are provided with moisture from a large number of regions, highlighting the complexities of the global patterns of precipitation. Some very important contributions are also seen from relatively small areas of ocean, such as the Mediterranean Basin (important for Europe and North Africa) and the Red Sea, which provides water for a large area between the Gulf of Guinea and Indochina (summer) and between the African Great Lakes and Asia (winter). The geographical regions of Eurasia, North and South America, and Africa, and also the internationally important basins of the Mississippi, Amazon, Congo, and Yangtze Rivers, are also considered, as is the importance of terrestrial sources in monsoonal regimes. The role of atmospheric rivers, and particularly their relationship with extreme events, is discussed. Droughts can be caused by the reduced supply of water vapor from oceanic moisture source regions. Some of the implications of climate change for the hydrological cycle are also reviewed, including changes in water vapor concentrations, precipitation, soil moisture, and aridity. It is important to achieve a combined diagnosis of moisture sources using all available information, including stable water isotope measurements. A summary is given of the major research questions that remain unanswered, including (1) the lack of a full understanding of how moisture sources influence precipitation isotopes; (2) the stationarity of moisture sources over long periods; (3) the way in which possible changes in intensity (where evaporation exceeds precipitation to a greater of lesser degree), and the locations of the sources, (could) affect the distribution of continental precipitation in a changing climate; and (4) the role played by the main modes of climate variability, such as the North Atlantic Oscillation or the El Niño–Southern Oscillation, in the variability of the moisture source regions, as well as a full evaluation of the moisture transported by low-level jets and atmospheric rivers.Luis Gimeno would like to thank the
Spanish Ministry of Science and FEDER for their partial funding
of this research through the project MSM. A. Stohl was supported
by the Norwegian Research Council within the framework of the
WATER‐SIP project. The work of Ricardo Trigo was partially
supported by the FCT (Portugal) through the ENAC project
(PTDC/AAC-CLI/103567/2008).2013-05-0
Hydrochlorofluorocarbon and hydrofluorocarbon emissions in East Asia determined by inverse modeling
No full textThe emissions of three hydrochlorofluorocarbons, HCFC-22 (CHClF<sub>2</sub>), HCFC-141b (CH<sub>3</sub>CCl<sub>2</sub>F) and HCFC-142b (CH<sub>3</sub>CClF<sub>2</sub>) and three hydrofluorocarbons, HFC-23 (CHF<sub>3</sub>), HFC-134a (CH<sub>2</sub>FCF<sub>3</sub>) and HFC-152a (CH<sub>3</sub>CHF<sub>2</sub>) from four East Asian countries and the Taiwan region for the year 2008 are determined by inverse modeling. The inverse modeling is based on in-situ measurements of these halocarbons at the Japanese stations Cape Ochi-ishi and Hateruma, the Chinese station Shangdianzi and the South Korean station Gosan. For every station and every 3 h, 20-day backward calculations were made with the Lagrangian particle dispersion model FLEXPART. The model output, the measurement data, bottom-up emission information and corresponding uncertainties were fed into an inversion algorithm to determine the regional emission fluxes. The model captures the observed variation of halocarbon mixing ratios very well for the two Japanese stations but has difficulties explaining the large observed variability at Shangdianzi, which is partly caused by small-scale transport from Beijing that is not adequately captured by the model. Based on HFC-23 measurements, the inversion algorithm could successfully identify the locations of factories known to produce HCFC-22 and emit HFC-23 as an unintentional byproduct. This lends substantial credibility to the inversion method. We report national emissions for China, North Korea, South Korea and Japan, as well as emissions for the Taiwan region. Halocarbon emissions in China are much larger than the emissions in the other countries together and contribute a substantial fraction to the global emissions. Our estimates of Chinese emissions for the year 2008 are 65.3&plusmn;6.6 kt/yr for HCFC-22 (17% of global emissions extrapolated from Montzka et al., 2009), 12.1&plusmn;1.6 kt/yr for HCFC-141b (22%), 7.3&plusmn;0.7 kt/yr for HCFC-142b (17%), 6.2&plusmn;0.7 kt/yr for HFC-23 (>50%), 12.9&plusmn;1.7 kt/yr for HFC-134a (9% of global emissions estimated from Velders et al., 2009) and 3.4&plusmn;0.5 kt/yr for HFC-152a (7%)
Estimates of European emissions of methyl chloroform using a Bayesian inversion method
No full textMethyl chloroform (MCF) is a man-made chlorinated solvent contributing to
the destruction of stratospheric ozone and is controlled under the "Montreal
Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer" and its amendments, which called for its phase-out in 1996 in developed countries and 2015 in
developing countries. Long-term, high-frequency observations of MCF carried
out at three European sites show a constant decline in the background mixing
ratios of MCF. However, we observe persistent non-negligible mixing ratio
enhancements of MCF in pollution episodes, suggesting unexpectedly high
ongoing emissions in Europe. In order to identify the source regions and to
give an estimate of the magnitude of such emissions, we have used a Bayesian
inversion method and a point source analysis, based on high-frequency
long-term observations at the three European sites.
The inversion identified southeastern France (SEF) as a region with
enhanced MCF emissions. This estimate was confirmed by the point source
analysis. We performed this analysis using an 11-year data set, from
January 2002 to December 2012. Overall, emissions estimated for the European
study domain decreased nearly exponentially from 1.1 Gg yr−1 in 2002 to
0.32 Gg yr−1 in 2012, of which the estimated emissions from the SEF
region accounted for 0.49 Gg yr−1 in 2002 and 0.20 Gg yr−1 in
2012. The European estimates are a significant fraction of the total
semi-hemisphere (30–90° N) emissions, contributing a minimum of 9.8% in
2004 and a maximum of 33.7% in 2011, of which on average 50% are from
the SEF region. On the global scale, the SEF region is thus responsible for
a minimum of 2.6% (in 2003) and a maximum of 10.3% (in 2009) of the
global MCF emissions
NEW ESTIMATES OF WELFARE AND CONSUMER LOSSES IN U.S. FOOD MANUFACTURING
No full textIn the past 15 years, industrial-organization economists have significantly expanded the range of algorithms for calculating welfare losses due to imperfect competition. We compare eleven empirical estimates of economic losses due to market power in 47 U.S. food manufacturing industries, almost all of them previously unpublished. Each of the studies incorporate different theoretical assumptions about demand conditions, supply conditions, or industry pricing behavior; or they utilize various data sources, time periods, and assumptions about the proper competitive benchmark. The estimates of average allocative losses due imperfect competition range from 0.2 percent to an impossibly high 289 percent of industry output; consumer losses range from 6.0 percent to 816 percent. However, there is a high degree of congruence in the rankings of economic losses due to market power. Hence, from the perspective of antitrust enforcement, the choice of industry targets has not been greatly altered by advances in estimation techniques.Agribusiness,
Top-down estimates of benzene and toluene emissions in the Pearl River Delta and Hong Kong, China.
No full textBenzene (C[subscript 6]H[subscript 6]) and toluene (C[subscript 7]H[subscript 8]) are toxic to humans and the environment. They are also important precursors of ground-level ozone and secondary organic aerosols and contribute substantially to severe air pollution in urban areas in China. Discrepancies exist between different bottom-up inventories for benzene and toluene emissions in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) and Hong Kong (HK), which are emission hot spots in China. This study provides top-down estimates of benzene and toluene emissions in the PRD and HK using atmospheric measurement data from a rural site in the area, Heshan, an atmospheric transport model, and an inverse modeling method. The model simulations captured the measured mixing ratios during most pollution episodes. For the PRD and HK, the benzene emissions estimated in this study for 2010 were 44 (12–75) and 5 (2–7) Gg yr[superscript −1] for the PRD and HK, respectively, and the toluene emissions were 131 (44–218) and 6 (2–9) Gg yr[superscript −1], respectively. Temporal and spatial differences between the inversion estimate and four different bottom-up emission estimates are discussed, and it is proposed that more observations at different sites are urgently needed to better constrain benzene and toluene (and other air pollutant) emissions in the PRD and HK in the future.National Natural Science Foundation (China) (Outstanding Young Scholars Grant 41125018)Key Project (Grant 41330635)United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Grant NNX11AF17G
