We study a series of N−body simulations representing elliptical galaxies with central masses. Starting from two different systems with smooth centres, which have initially a triaxial configuration and are in equilibrium, we insert to them central masses of various values. Immediately after such an insertion a system presents a high fraction of particles moving in chaotic orbits, a fact causing ...

BACKGROUND The stepped wedge cluster randomised trial (SW-CRT) is increasingly being used to evaluate policy or service delivery interventions. However, there is a dearth of trials literature addressing analytical approaches to the SW-CRT. Perhaps as a result, a significant number of published trials have major methodological shortcomings, including failure to adjust for secular trends at the a...

abstract background: secular trends in stature, weight and mid upper arm circumference (muac) of 2397 school children (1268 boys and 1129 girls) of the same age (6.5-11.5 years) and sex in representative samples from primary schools of shiraz (southern iran) at an interval of 15 years (1988 vs 2003) are reported. methods: cross-sectional weight, height and mid upper arm circumference (muac) cur...

This study of secular trend in Portugal has shown that a positive increment in height occurred in Portuguese 18year-old males between 1904 and 2000, and a secular trend in the age at menarche, towards an earliest age, also took place. Mean height increased 8.93 cm, from 1904 to 2000, when reached 172,13 cm. Besides that, in 2000, statistically significant differences (p ≤ 0.001) among the distr...

Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) data have been analyzed by ourselves and other groups to provide e~imstes of the secular variations in the zonal harmonics of the geopotential field. While the SLR data available frum late-1992 onward me superior in satellite and temporal coverage (two station shifts in operation by the NASA Network), SLR alma extending back to the mid-1970s have been utilized by s...

Lucas Engelhardt 1 does not point out anything incorrect in my “Capital-Based Theory of Secular Growth” (2009). Rather, he implicates me in a violation of Occam’s razor. My discussion of nonrivalry, external effects, and intangible capital contains, but obscures, the fundamental ingredient for secular growth: nondepreciating capital. Engelhardt purports to demonstrate how nondepreciating capita...

BACKGROUND Secular trends in cardiovascular risk factors have been described, but few studies have examined simultaneously the effects of both ageing and secular trends within the same cohort. METHODS Development of cardiovascular risk factors over the past three decades was analysed using serial measurements from 10 308 participants aged from 35 to 80 years over 25 years of follow-up from fi...

Since the 19th century there have been clearly documented secular trends to increasing adult height in most European countries, with current rates of 10-30 mm/decade. Over the same period menarcheal age has also fallen steeply, but has now stabilized at approximately 13 years and may be rising again. Height trends tend to be greater in childhood than in adulthood due to the associated advance i...