Body Size, Activity, Employment and Wages in Europe: A First Approach

In this article we present the first empirical analysis on the associations between body size, activity, employment and wages for several European countries. The main advantage of the present work with respect to the previous literature is offered by the comparability of the data and its large geographical coverage. According to our results, for Spanish women, being obese is associated with both a 9% lower wage and probability of being employed, while for Swedish and Danish, obesity is associated with a 12% lower probability of being employed, and a 10% lower wage respectively. In Belgium, obesity is associated with a 19% lower probability of being employed for men. These robust estimates are strongly informative and may be used as a simple statistical rule of thumb to decide the countries in which lab and field experiments should be run.

Body size, activity, employment and wages in Europe: A first approach

This paper examines the associations between obesity, employment status and wages for several European countries. Our results provide weak evidence that obese workers are more likely to be unemployed or tend to be more segregated in self-employment jobs than their non-obese counterparts. We also find difficult to detect statistically significant relationships between obesity and wages. As previously reported in the literature, the association between obesity, unemployment and wages seems to be different for men and women. Moreover, heterogeneity is also found across countries. Such heterogeneity can be somewhat explained by some labor market institutions, such as the collective bargaining coverage and the employer-provided health insurance.

First-principles periodic calculation of four-body spin terms in high-Tc cuprate superconductors

A general mapping between the energy of pertinent magnetic solutions and the diagonal terms of the spin Hamiltonian in a local representation provides the first general framework to extract accurate values for the many body terms of extended spin Hamiltonians from periodic first-principle calculations. Estimates of these terms for La2CuO4, the paradigm of high-Tc superconductor parent compounds, and for the SrCu2O3 ladder compound are reported. For La2CuO4, present results support experimental evidence by Toader et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 197202 (2005)]. For SrCu2O3 even larger four-body spin amplitudes are found together with Jl/Jr=1 and non-negligible ferromagnetic interladder exchange.

First-principles periodic calculation of four-body spin terms in high-Tc Cuprate superconductors

A general mapping between the energy of pertinent magnetic solutions and the diagonal terms of the spin Hamiltonian in a local representation provides the first general framework to extract accurate values for the many body terms of extended spin Hamiltonians from periodic first-principle calculations. Estimates of these terms for La2CuO4, the paradigm of high-Tc superconductor parent compounds, and for the SrCu2O3 ladder compound are reported. For La2CuO4, present results support experimental evidence by Toader et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 197202 (2005)]. For SrCu2O3 even larger four-body spin amplitudes are found together with Jl/Jr=1 and non-negligible ferromagnetic interladder exchange.

First evidence for the two-body charmless baryonic decay

The results of a search for the rare two-body charmless baryonic decays TeX and TeX are reported. The analysis uses a data sample, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 0.9 fb−1, of pp collision data collected by the LHCb experiment at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV. An excess of TeX candidates with respect to background expectations is seen with a statistical significance of 3.3 standard deviations. This is the first evidence for a two-body charmless baryonic B 0 decay. No significant TeX signal is observed, leading to an improvement of three orders of magnitude over previous bounds. If the excess events are interpreted as signal, the 68.3% confidence level intervals on the branching fractions are $ TeX $ where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic.

First person experience of body transfer in virtual reality

Altering the normal association between touch and its visual correlate can result in the illusory perception of a fake limb as part of our own body. Thus, when touch is seen to be applied to a rubber hand while felt synchronously on the corresponding hidden real hand, an illusion of ownership of the rubber hand usually occurs. The illusion has also been demonstrated using visuomotor correlation between the movements of the hidden real hand and the seen fake hand. This type of paradigm has been used with respect to the whole body generating out-of-the-body and body substitution illusions. However, such studies have only ever manipulated a single factor and although they used a form of virtual reality have not exploited the power of immersive virtual reality (IVR) to produce radical transformations in body ownership.

Automatic Extraction of Polar Adjectives for the Creation of Polarity Lexicons

Automatic creation of polarity lexicons is a crucial issue to be solved in order to reduce time andefforts in the first steps of Sentiment Analysis. In this paper we present a methodology based onlinguistic cues that allows us to automatically discover, extract and label subjective adjectivesthat should be collected in a domain-based polarity lexicon. For this purpose, we designed abootstrapping algorithm that, from a small set of seed polar adjectives, is capable to iterativelyidentify, extract and annotate positive and negative adjectives. Additionally, the methodautomatically creates lists of highly subjective elements that change their prior polarity evenwithin the same domain. The algorithm proposed reached a precision of 97.5% for positiveadjectives and 71.4% for negative ones in the semantic orientation identification task.

Dynamic and Regulated Association of Caveolin with Lipid Bodies: Modulation of Lipid Body Motility and Function by a Dominant Negative Mutant

Caveolins are a crucial component of caveolae but have also been localized to the Golgi complex, and, under some experimental conditions, to lipid bodies (LBs). The physiological relevance and dynamics of LB association remain unclear. We now show that endogenous caveolin-1 and caveolin-2 redistribute to LBs in lipid loaded A431 and FRT cells. Association with LBs is regulated and reversible; removal of fatty acids causes caveolin to rapidly leave the lipid body. We also show by subcellular fractionation, light and electron microscopy that during the first hours of liver regeneration, caveolins show a dramatic redistribution from the cell surface to the newly formed LBs. At later stages of the regeneration process (when LBs are still abundant), the levels of caveolins in LBs decrease dramatically. As a model system to study association of caveolins with LBs we have used brefeldin A (BFA). BFA causes rapid redistribution of endogenous caveolins to LBs and this association was reversed upon BFA washout. Finally, we have used a dominant negative LB-associated caveolin mutant (cavDGV) to study LB formation and to examine its effect on LB function. We now show that the cavDGV mutant inhibits microtubule-dependent LB motility and blocks the reversal of lipid accumulation in LBs.

Liquid-gas phase transition in nuclear matter from realistic many-body approaches

The existence of a liquid-gas phase transition for hot nuclear systems at subsaturation densities is a well-established prediction of finite-temperature nuclear many-body theory. In this paper, we discuss for the first time the properties of such a phase transition for homogeneous nuclear matter within the self-consistent Green's function approach. We find a substantial decrease of the critical temperature with respect to the Brueckner-Hartree-Fock approximation. Even within the same approximation, the use of two different realistic nucleon-nucleon interactions gives rise to large differences in the properties of the critical point.

The number of planar central configurations for the 4-body problem is finite when 3 mass positions are fixed

In the n{body problem a central con guration is formed when the position vector of each particle with respect to the center of mass is a common scalar multiple of its acceleration vector. Lindstrom showed for n = 3 and for n > 4 that if n ? 1 masses are located at xed points in the plane, then there are only a nite number of ways to position the remaining nth mass in such a way that they de ne a central con guration. Lindstrom leaves open the case n = 4. In this paper we prove the case n = 4 using as variables the mutual distances between the particles.

Families of periodic orbits for the spatial isosceles 3-body problem

We study the families of periodic orbits of the spatial isosceles 3-body problem (for small enough values of the mass lying on the symmetry axis) coming via the analytic continuation method from periodic orbits of the circular Sitnikov problem. Using the first integral of the angular momentum, we reduce the dimension of the phase space of the problem by two units. Since periodic orbits of the reduced isosceles problem generate invariant two-dimensional tori of the nonreduced problem, the analytic continuation of periodic orbits of the (reduced) circular Sitnikov problem at this level becomes the continuation of invariant two-dimensional tori from the circular Sitnikov problem to the nonreduced isosceles problem, each one filled with periodic or quasi-periodic orbits. These tori are not KAM tori but just isotropic, since we are dealing with a three-degrees-of-freedom system. The continuation of periodic orbits is done in two different ways, the first going directly from the reduced circular Sitnikov problem to the reduced isosceles problem, and the second one using two steps: first we continue the periodic orbits from the reduced circular Sitnikov problem to the reduced elliptic Sitnikov problem, and then we continue those periodic orbits of the reduced elliptic Sitnikov problem to the reduced isosceles problem. The continuation in one or two steps produces different results. This work is merely analytic and uses the variational equations in order to apply Poincar´e’s continuation method.

Schemata as a framework for full body and physical design interfaces

Digital art interfaces presents cognitiveparadigms that deals with the recognition of the symbols and representations through interaction.What is presented in this paper is anapproximation of the bodily experience in that particular scenario and a new proposal which has the aim to contribute more ideas and criteria in the analysis of the learning process of aparticipant discovering an interactive space or interface. For that I propose a first new approach where metaphorically I tried to extrapolate the stages of the psychology of development stated byJean Piaget in the interface design domain.

The relationship between virtual body ownership and temperature sensitivity.

In the rubber hand illusion tactile stimulation seen on a rubber hand, that is synchronous with tactile stimulation felt on the hidden real hand, can lead to an illusion of ownership over the rubber hand. This illusion has been shown to produce a temperature decrease in the hidden hand, suggesting that such illusory ownership produces disownership of the real hand. Here we apply immersive virtual reality (VR) to experimentally investigate this with respect to sensitivity to temperature change. Forty participants experienced immersion in a VR with a virtual body (VB) seen from a first person perspective. For half the participants the VB was consistent in posture and movement with their own body, and in the other half there was inconsistency. Temperature sensitivity on the palm of the hand was measured before and during the virtual experience. The results show that temperature sensitivity decreased in the consistent compared to the inconsistent condition. Moreover, the change in sensitivity was significantly correlated with the subjective illusion of virtual arm ownership but modulated by the illusion of ownership over the full virtual body. This suggests that a full body ownership illusion results in a unification of the virtual and real bodies into one overall entity - with proprioception and tactile sensations on the real body integrated with the visual presence of the virtual body. The results are interpreted in the framework of a"body matrix" recently introduced into the literature.

Comparison of quality of life after stereotactic body radiotherapy and surgery for early-stage prostate cancer

Background: As the long-term efficacy of stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) becomes established and other prostate cancer treatment approaches are refined and improved, examination of quality of life (QOL) following prostate cancer treatment is critical in driving both patient and clinical treatment decisions. We present the first study to compare QOL after SBRT and radical prostatectomy, with QOL assessed at approximately the same times pre- and post-treatment and using the same validated QOL instrument. Methods: Patients with clinically localized prostate cancer were treated with either radical prostatectomy (n = 123 Spanish patients) or SBRT (n = 216 American patients). QOL was assessed using the Expanded Prostate Cancer Index Composite (EPIC) grouped into urinary, sexual, and bowel domains. For comparison purposes, SBRT EPIC data at baseline, 3 weeks, 5, 11, 24, and 36 months were compared to surgery data at baseline, 1, 6, 12, 24,and 36 months. Differences in patient characteristics between the two groups were assessed using Chi-squared tests for categorical variables and t-tests for continuous variables. Generalized estimating equation (GEE) models were constructed for each EPIC scale to account for correlation among repeated measures and used to assess the effect of treatment on QOL. Results: The largest differences in QOL occurred in the first 16 months after treatment, with larger declines following surgery in urinary and sexual QOL as compared to SBRT, and a larger decline in bowel QOL following SBRT as compared to surgery. Long-term urinary and sexual QOL declines remained clinically significantly lower for surgery patients but not for SBRT patients. Conclusions: Overall, these results may have implications for patient and physician clinical decision making which are often influenced by QOL. These differences in sexual, urinary and bowel QOL should be closely considered in selecting the right treatment, especially in evaluating the value of non-invasive treatments, such as SBRT.

The building blocks of the full body ownership illusion

Previous work has reported that it is not difficult to give people the illusion of ownership over an artificial body, providing a powerful tool for the investigation of the neural and cognitive mechanisms underlying body perception and self consciousness. We present an experimental study that uses immersive virtual reality (IVR) focused on identifying the perceptual building blocks of this illusion. We systematically manipulated visuotactile and visual sensorimotor contingencies, visual perspective, and the appearance of the virtual body in order to assess their relative role and mutual interaction. Consistent results from subjective reports and physiological measures showed that a first person perspective over a fake humanoid body is essential for eliciting a body ownership illusion. We found that the illusion of ownership can be generated when the virtual body has a realistic skin tone and spatially substitutes the real body seen from a first person perspective. In this case there is no need for an additional contribution of congruent visuotactile or sensorimotor cues. Additionally, we found that the processing of incongruent perceptual cues can be modulated by the level of the illusion: when the illusion is strong, incongruent cues are not experienced as incorrect. Participants exposed to asynchronous visuotactile stimulation can experience the ownership illusion and perceive touch as originating from an object seen to contact the virtual body. Analogously, when the level of realism of the virtual body is not high enough and/or when there is no spatial overlap between the two bodies, then the contribution of congruent multisensory and/or sensorimotor cues is required for evoking the illusion. On the basis of these results and inspired by findings from neurophysiological recordings in the monkey, we propose a model that accounts for many of the results reported in the literature.