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Amino acids play fundamental roles in the cell both as the building blocks of new proteins and as metabolic precursors. To adapt to their limitation during periods of protein starvation, multiple adaptive mechanisms have evolved, including a rapid cessation of new protein synthesis, an increase in amino acid biosynthesis and transport, and autophagy. Here, we discuss what we currently know about how amino acid limitation is sensed, and how this sensing might be transmitted to mTORC1 to regulate protein synthesis and autophagy.

As emergency physicians with a subspecialty in aviation medicine, we agree with Dr. Rieb’s response[1][1] to an analysis article by Kodama and colleagues[2][2] that having naloxone on board is a necessary tool to treat the increasingly common medical emergency of opioid intoxication. Some airlines

Diffusion over a network refers to the phenomenon of a change of state of a cross-sectional unit in one period leading to a change of state of its neighbors in the network in the next period. One may estimate or test for diffusion by estimating a cross-sectionally aggregated correlation between neighbors over time from data. However, the estimated diffusion can be misleading if the diffusion is confounded by omitted covariates. This paper focuses on the measure of diffusion proposed by He and Song (2022, Preprint, arXiv:1812.04195v4 [stat.ME]), provides a method of decomposition analysis to measure the role of the covariates on the estimated diffusion, and develops an asymptotic inference procedure for the decomposition analysis in such a situation. This paper also presents results from a Monte Carlo study on the small sample performance of the inference procedure.

A benzoylthiourea-pyrrolidine catalyst was developed for the asymmetric Michael addition of ketones to chalcones. The corresponding products were obtained in high yields with high level of diastereoselectivities (up to 99:1 dr) and high level of enantioselectivities (up to 94% ee) under mild conditions.

The implications of increased understanding of the genetic contribution to schizophrenia for patients and their families remain unclear. We carried out a study of Chinese patients’ (n = 118) and relatives’ (n = 78) views of illness severity, attribution of cause, concern about developing illness, and effect of schizophrenia on family planning. A comparison sample of English-survey respondents was also obtained, using the same series of questions (n = 42 patients, n = 127 relatives). Fewer Chinese patients and family members rated schizophrenia as very severe (33%) than did the predominantly North American respondents (67%, p < 0.0001). The pattern of attribution of cause differed between samples (p < 0.0001), favouring environmental alone in the Chinese sample (52%), with a low frequency of genetics alone (9%). Although comparatively fewer Chinese respondents were very concerned about developing schizophrenia themselves or about the risk of illness in their families (21%), this high level of concern was more common in family members (28%). Finally, Chinese respondents were somewhat less likley to indicate that schizophrenia impacted on family planning decisions (31%) than were English-survey respondents (45%, p = 0.02). The descriptive findings contribute to understanding schizophrenia in China. The comparative findings must be regarded as preliminary, since differences in demographics could influence results. The present findings suggest that understanding patients’ and families’ attributions of cause of schizophrenia may be important for developing a shared model of illness in order to decrease stigmatization, and improve therapeutic alliances.

We show that if an Alexandrov space $X$ has an Alexandrov subspace $\bar \Omega$ of the same dimension disjoint from the boundary of $X$, then the topological boundary of $\bar \Omega$ coincides with its Alexandrov boundary. Similarly, if a noncollapsed RCD(K,N) space $X$ has a noncollapsed RCD(K,N) subspace $\bar \Omega$ disjoint from boundary of $X$ and with mild boundary condition, then the topological boundary of $\bar \Omega$ coincides with its De Philippis-Gigli boundary. We then discuss some consequences about convexity of such type of equivalence. Comment: 19 pages

This paper analyzes subsidy schemes that are widely used in reducing waiting times for public healthcare service. We assume that public healthcare service has no user fee but an observable delay, while private healthcare service has a fee but no delay. Patients in the public system are given a subsidy s to use private service if their waiting times exceed a pre-determined threshold t. We call these subsidy schemes (s, t) policies. As two extreme cases, the (s, t) policy is called an unconditional subsidy scheme if t = 0, and a full subsidy scheme if s is equal to the private service fee. There is a fixed budget constraint so that a scheme with larger s has a larger t. We assess policies using two criteria: total patient cost and serviceability (i.e. the probability of meeting a waiting time target for public service). We prove analytically that, if patients are equally sensitive to delay, a scheme with a smaller subsidy outperforms one with a larger subsidy on both criteria. Thus, the unconditional scheme dominates all other policies. Using empirically derived parameter values from the Hong Kong Cataract Surgery Program, we then compare policies numerically when patients differ in delay sensitivity. Total patient cost is now unimodal in subsidy amount: the unconditional scheme still yields the lowest total patient cost, but the full subsidy scheme can outperform some intermediate policies. Serviceability is unimodal too, and the full subsidy scheme can outperform the unconditional scheme in serviceability when the waiting time target is long. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Large-scale integration of wind generation changes the power swing characteristics of a power system and may result in the misoperation of legacy power swing protection schemes. This paper presents a qualitative study on the impact of wind generation on power swing protection. The objective is to provide an understanding of the problem through case studies and present possible solutions and adjustments in protection schemes to ensure the efficiency of protection under large-scale integration of wind generation. The misoperation of power swing protection functions, namely power swing blocking and out-of-step tripping (OST), as a result of increased wind generation levels, are shown through case studies. It is also shown that the electrical center of a power system may move due to wind generation. In this case, it would be necessary to revise the optimal location of the OST protection. Finally, the impact of various factors, such as wind generator type, control scheme and fault-ride-through function, and wind generation level and capacity are investigated to determine the key features that need to be accounted for in practical protection studies.

AbstractBackgroundOver the last decade, there have been a number of changes in the Canadian landscape - the deconstruction of alcohol policy in some provinces, the legalization of cannabis, increased availability of gambling options, and the increase in opioid use and its associated problems. Have there been concomitant changes in societal images of addictions?MethodsA general population survey on societal images of addictions was conducted in multiple countries in 2008 - Finland, Sweden, Canada (Canadian sample size:N = 864; 40% response rate), and part of Russia (St Petersburg). We repeated the same survey in 2018 in Canada (N = 813; response rate = 23%). The survey assessed perceptions of the seriousness of different issues to society - including items about alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, gambling, misuse of medical drugs, and drugs like amphetamine, cocaine, or heroin - among other items (e.g., pollution, violent crime, prostitution).ResultsThere were increases in perceptions of the seriousness of misuse of medical drugs (p = .001), of illicit drugs (p = .005), ratings of the seriousness of cannabis use (p = .02), and a decrease in ratings of gambling as a social problem (p = .04). Ratings of the seriousness of alcohol and tobacco as social problems did not display significant changes over time (p > .05).ConclusionsThere has been some variation in societal perceptions of the seriousness of different addictions. Increases in perceptions of the seriousness of misusing medical drugs and the use of illicit drugs may reflect increases in societal concerns about opioid use and its associated problems. Despite substantial changes in alcohol control policies, the legalization of cannabis, and the increased availability of options for gambling, there appears to be very little associated change in societal perceptions regarding these addictive behaviours.