The unexpected and fascinating emergence of hyperbolic Coxeter groups and Lorentzian Kac-Moody algebras in the investigation of gravitational theories in the vicinity of a cosmological singularity is briefly reviewed. Some open questions raised by this intriguing result, and some attempts to answer them, are outlined. Dedicated to Claudio Bunster on the occasion of his 60th birthday. To appear ...

Let X be the Dynkin diagram of a symmetrizable Kac-Moody algebra, and X0 a subgraph with all vertices of degree 1 or 2. Using the crystal structure on the components of quiver varieties for X , we show that if we expand X by extending X0, the branching multiplicities and tensor product multiplicities stabilize, provided the weights involved satisfy a condition which we call “depth” and are supp...

Moody’s KMV method is a popular commercial implementation of the structural credit risk model pioneered by Merton (1974). It is an algorithm for estimating the unobserved asset value and the unknown parameters required for implementing such a model. This estimation method has found its way to the recent academic literature, but it has not yet been formally analyzed to assess its statistical pro...

Compactification can control chaotic Mixmaster behavior in gravitational systems with p–form matter: we consider this in light of the connection between supergravity models and Kac–Moody algebras. We show that different compactifications define “mutations” of the algebras associated with the noncompact theories. We list the algebras obtained in this way, and find novel examples of wall systems ...

RATIONALE Bronchiectasis is a chronic debilitating disease with few evidence-based long-term treatments. OBJECTIVES A randomized controlled trial assessing the efficacy of nebulized gentamicin therapy over 1 year in patients with non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis. METHODS Sixty-five patients were randomized to either twice-daily nebulized gentamicin, 80 mg, or nebulized 0.9% saline, for 12...

OBJECTIVES To assess the effect of a tailored professional intervention, including academic detailing, on antibiotic prescribing for acute cough. METHODS In a cluster-randomized controlled before and after study 85 Flemish GPs included adult patients with acute cough consulting in the periods February-April 2000 and 2001. The intervention consisted of a clinical practice guideline for acute c...

To the Editor, The Indian Medical Gazette Sik,?In an Indian family, four children were suffering from whooping cough. Two were girls 9 and 3 years old and two were boys 5 and 2 years old. On account of getting fits of whooping cough at very short intervals, the conjunctivae of their eyes were congested and none of them could retain food or sometimes even water. The result of this malady was tha...

BACKGROUND Cough is a major symptom in some children with asthma. The relationship between cough and the severity of asthma is ill defined. A study was undertaken to test the hypotheses that, in children with asthma who cough as a major part of their asthma symptoms, cough receptor sensitivity (CRS) is heightened during an acute severe exacerbation of asthma but not in the non-acute phase and a...

We study the “fermionic billiards”, i.e. the chaotic dynamics of the gravitino, that arise in the near-spacelike-singularity limit of elevendimensional supergravity and of its dimensional truncations (notably fourdimensional simple supergravity). By exploiting the gravity-coset correspondence, we show that the billiard dynamics of the gravitino is described by a ‘spin extension’ of the E10 Weyl...

a letter from Dr. Cole, New-Zealand, suggesting the internal use of Carbolic Acid in whooping cough, and having two cases at the time under my care, I was induced to try the remedy which in both acted as a " specific." Case I.?A little girl jet. two years. The acid was administered in ? grain doses with Glycerine every two hours ; at the end of 24 hours the symptoms were much less severe, and t...