Semi-parametric estimation of covariate effects using the positive stable frailty model

Many biological and medical studies have as a response of interest the time to occurrence of some event, such as the occurrence of a particular symptom or disease, remission, relapse, death due to some specific disease, or simply death. In this paper we study the problem of assessing the effect of potential risk factors on the outcome event of interest through a parametric or semi-parametric frailty model where the lifetimes have a reason to be considered dependent. This dependence may arise because of multiple endpoints within the same individual or because, when studying a single endpoint, there are natural groupings between study subjects. The objective of this paper is to extend both parametric and semi-parametric approaches to regression analysis in which the lifetimes of individuals in a group are effected by the same random frailty which follows a positive stable distribution. Some comparisons of the properties of this frailty distribution with other frailty distributions are made and an example which assesses the effect of a treatment in a litter-matched tumorigenesis study is presented.     

High Resolution Study of Deuterated Hydrogen Sulfide in the Region 2400-3000 cm

High resolution Fourier transform spectra of deuterated hydrogen sulfide have been recorded in the region 2400-3000 cm⁻¹. Rotational structures of the ν₁ + ν₂, ν₂ + ν₃ bands of D₂³²S, of the ν₃ and ν₁ + ν₂ bands of HD³²S, and of the ν₁ + ν₂ band of HD³⁴S were analyzed. Band centers and rotational, centrifugal distortion, and resonance parameters were obtained, which reproduce the initial values of the upper energy levels within a mean accuracy of 1.39 × 10⁻⁴ cm⁻¹ for the states (110) and (011) of D₂³²S, 1.61 × 10⁻⁴ cm⁻¹ and 1.82 × 10⁻⁴ cm⁻¹ for the states (001) and (110) of HD³²S, and 2.09 × 10⁻⁴ cm⁻¹ for the state (110) of HD³⁴S, respectively.     

Benzoylacetone isonicotinoyl hydrazone complexes of divalent transition metals

Summary Benzoylacetone isonicotinoyl hydrazone has been prepared in two forms: yellow (BzH₂) and white (BzH₂·H₂O). Analytical, t.g.a., i.r. and n.m.r. results showed the yellow form to be a mixture of keto-enol tautomers, whereas the white form is a mixture of cis-trans enol tautomers. Complexes MBz (M = Ni, Cu, Zn and Pd), CoBz·H₂O and Cd(BzH)₂ have been isolated and characterized by physicochemical techniques.     

A common motif in G-protein-coupled seven transmembrane helix receptors

Summary G-protein-coupled receptors all share the seven transmembrane helix motif similar to bacteriorhodopsin. This similarity was exploited to build models for these receptors. From an analysis of a multi-sequence alignment of 225 G-protein-coupled receptors belonging to the rhodopsin-like superfamily, conclusions could be drawn about functional residues. Seven residues in the transmembrane regions are conserved throughout all aligned receptors. These residues cluster at the cytosolic side of the transmembrane helices and are for all rhodopsin-like G-protein-coupled receptors implied in signal transduction. An analysis of correlated mutations reveals a number of residues, both in the helices and in the cytosolic loops, that might be important in the signal transduction pathway in subfamilies of this receptor family.     

Observation of ionic thermocurrents in zirconia-based solid electrolytes

In ionic conductors, long range-migrating charges are a main cause of polarization processes. This has complicated, up to date, the study of ionic thermocurrents (ITC) in solid electrolytes. However, the method is appealing, as it probes directly charge-formation phenomena that are important both from a scientific point of view and for applications. This work reports on the observation of ITC in solid electrolytes. Under appropriate experimental conditions, the ITC response of a zirconia sample electroded with platinum is a reproducible one, thus opening the way to a new characterization method that may complement other well established methods, such as Impedance Spectroscopy and a number of electrochemical techniques. The general trends of the response, which is composed of two well resolved ITC peaks, is discussed. One of them, taking place at higher temperatures, conforms to the standard shape of a first order kinetics depolarization process. Paper presented at the 2nd Euroconference on Solid State Ionics, Funchal, Madeira, Portugal, Sept. 10–16, 1995     

Inclusive production of neutral vector mesons in hadronic Z decays

A data sample of about 3.0 million hadronicZ decays collected by the ALEPH experiment at LEP in the years 1991 through 1994 is used to make an inclusive selection of B hadron events. In this event sample 4227±140±252B* mesons in the decayB*→Bγ and 1944±108±161B** _u,d mesons decaying into a B meson and a charged pion are reconstructed. Here and in the followingB** _u,d denotes the eightL=1(bū) and (bd) states and their charge conjugate. For the well establishedB* meson the following quantities are obtained:ΔM=M _B*−M_B=(45.30±0.35±0.87) MeV/c² andN _B*/(N _B+N _B*)=(77.1±2.6±7.0)%. The angular distribution of the photons in theB* rest frame is used to measure the relative contribution of longitudinalB* polarization states to beσ _L/(σ _L+σ _T)=(33±6±5)%.