Although everyone perceives approximate numerosities, some people make more accurate estimates than others. The accuracy of this estimation is called approximate number system (ANS) acuity. Recently, several studies have reported that individual differences in young children's ANS acuity are correlated with their knowledge of exact numbers such as the word 'six' (Mussolin et al., 2012, Trends N...

Let P be a set of n points in general and convex position in the plane. Let Dn be the graph whose vertex set is the set of all line segments with endpoints in P , where disjoint segments are adjacent. The chromatic number of this graph was first studied by Araujo et al. [CGTA, 2005]. The previous best bounds are 3n 4 ≤ χ(Dn) < n − √ n 2 (ignoring lower order terms). In this paper we improve the...

TO THE EDITORS: With great interest, we read the recent article by Mazzoccoli et al. (3), an association study between epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) thickness and cognitive impairment in the elderly, in the American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulatory Physiology. The authors very clearly discussed the relationship between EAT thickness and cognitive impairment in the elderly. They foc...

OBJECTIVES: A “dip” in the stable nitrogen isotope ratios (dN) of subadults in the late weaning/early post-weaning phase of growth and development has been observed. Speculatively, this is the mechanism of positive nitrogen balance operating among rapidly growing subadults. An alternate hypothesis for dN dips is that during weaning, subadults eat lower-N foods than adults. METHODS: This study e...

For every n ∈ N, there is a straight-line drawing Dn of a planar graph on n vertices such that in any crossing-free straight-line drawing of the graph, at most O(n) vertices lie at the same position as in Dn. This improves on an earlier bound of O( √ n) by Goaoc et al. [6].

The prevalence of type 2 diabetes is rising rapidly in Asian populations due to lifestyle changes and increased life expectancy. With the rapidly increasing number of patients with diabetes worldwide, diabetic nephropathy (DN) is becoming one of the most common causes of renal disease. Indeed, approximately 20–40% of diabetic patients develop DN [1]. The diagnosis of DN is based primarily on cl...

Piazza et al. reported a strong correlation between education and approximate number sense (ANS) acuity in a remote Amazonian population, suggesting that symbolic and nonsymbolic numerical thinking mutually enhance one another over in mathematics instruction. But Piazza et al. ran their task using a computer display, which may have exaggerated the connection between the two tasks, because parti...

Let an count the number of 2-dimensional rook paths Rn,n from (0, 0) to (2n, 0). Rook pathsRm,n are the lattice paths from (0, 0) to (m+n,m−n) with allowed steps (x, x) and (y,−y) where x, y ∈ N+. In answer to the open question proposed by M. Erickson et al. (2010), we shall present a combinatorial proof for the recurrence of an, i.e., (n + 1)an+1 + 9(n − 1)an−1 = 2(5n + 2)an with initial condi...

Nitrogen stable isotope ratios (dN) have successfully been applied in the study of trophic linkages, as well as of human impacts in aquatic ecosystems. Anthropogenic wastewater input typically elevates dN values in dissolved inorganic nitrogen and this N enrichment subsequently propagates throughout the food chain. Bivalve mollusks are of interest for studies of this human influence since they ...

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) contributes to nearly 50% of chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal disease cases in the United States (1). Despite clinical trials that have affirmed the importance of glycemic control and the provision of inhibitors of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system for slowing progression of DN, the burden of disease continues to increase (2). Therefore further mechani...