4,140 research outputs found
Women Refugees: Forgotten No Longer?
This Article consists of three parts: The author\u27s observations about the historical neglect of the special problems facing women refugees in obtaining political asylum; an extract for the Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Haiti, issued by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States in February, 1995, a report made in response to calls for action by this author and others; and the Memorandum on Consideration For Asylum Officers Adjudicating Asylum Claims From Women, issued by the Immigration and Naturalization Service in May, 1995, again in response to the efforts of this author and other involved with the Women Refugees Project, a joint project of Harvard Law School\u27s Immigration and Refugee Clinic and Cambridge and Somerville Legal Serivices
Magnetization switching in nanoscale ferromagnetic grains: simulations with heterogeneous nucleation
We present results obtained with various types of heterogeneous nucleation in
a kinetic Ising model of magnetization switching in single-domain ferromagnetic
nanoparticles. We investigate the effect of the presence of the system boundary
and make comparison with simulations on periodic lattices. We also study
systems with bulk disorder and compare how two different types of disorder
influence the switching behavior.Comment: 3 pages, 4 Postscript figure
Nonlinear Self-Trapping of Matter Waves in Periodic Potentials
We report the first experimental observation of nonlinear self-trapping of
Bose-condensed 87Rb atoms in a one dimensional waveguide with a superimposed
deep periodic potential . The trapping effect is confirmed directly by imaging
the atomic spatial distribution. Increasing the nonlinearity we move the system
from the diffusive regime, characterized by an expansion of the condensate, to
the nonlinearity dominated self-trapping regime, where the initial expansion
stops and the width remains finite. The data are in quantitative agreement with
the solutions of the corresponding discrete nonlinear equation. Our results
reveal that the effect of nonlinear self-trapping is of local nature, and is
closely related to the macroscopic self-trapping phenomenon already predicted
for double-well systems.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Key Components for Antibiotic Dose Optimization of Sepsis in Neonates and Infants.
Sepsis in neonates and infants remains a major cause of death despite a decline in child mortality and morbidity over the last decades. A key factor in further reducing poor clinical outcomes is the optimal use of antibiotics in sepsis management. Developmental changes such as maturation of organ function and capacity of drug metabolizing enzymes can affect the pharmacokinetic profile and therefore the antibiotic exposure and response in neonates and infants. Optimal antibiotic treatment of sepsis in neonates and young infants is dependent on several key components such as the determination of treatment phase, the administered dose and the resulted drug exposure and microbiological response. During the initial phase of suspected sepsis, the primary focus of empirical treatment is to assure efficacy. Once bacterial infection as the cause of sepsis is confirmed the focus shifts toward a targeted treatment, ensuring an optimal balance between efficacy and safety. Interpretation of antibiotic exposure and microbiological response in neonates and infants is multifaceted. The response or treatment effect can be determined by the microbiological parameters (MIC) together with the characteristics of the pathogen (time- or concentration dependent). The antibiotic response is influenced by the properties of the causative pathogen and the unique characteristics of the vulnerable patient population such as reduced humoral response or reduced skin barrier function. Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) of antibiotics may be used to increase effectiveness while maximizing safety and minimizing the toxicity, but requires expertise in different fields and requires collaborations between physicians, lab technicians, and quantitative clinical pharmacologists. Understanding these clinical, pharmacological, and microbiological components and their underlying relationship can provide a scientific basic for proper antibiotic use and reduction of antibiotic resistance in neonates and infants. This highlights the necessity of a close multidisciplinary collaboration between physicians, pharmacists, clinical pharmacologists and microbiologist to assure the optimal utilization of antibiotics in neonates and young infants
Solitons on H-bonds in proteins
A model for soliton dynamics on a hydrogen-bond network in helical proteins
is proposed. It employs in three dimensions the formalism of fully integrable
Toda lattices which admits phonons as well as solitons along the hydrogen-bonds
of the helices. A simulation of the three dimensional Toda lattice system shows
that the solitons are spontaneously created and are stable and moving along the
helix axis. A perturbation on one of the three H-bond lines forms solitons on
the other H-bonds as well. The robust solitary wave may explain very long-lived
modes in the frequency range of 100 cm which are found in recent X-ray
laser experiments. The dynamics parameters of the Toda lattice are in
accordance with the usual Lennard-Jones parameters used for realistic H-bond
potentials in proteins.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figure
Description of a new species of <i>Alpheopsis</i> from the Azores, with remarks on <i>A. africana</i> Holthuis, 1952 and other species of the <i>A. trispinosa</i> (Stimpson, 1860) group (Crustacea, Decapoda, Caridea, Alpheidae)
Symptom profiles of psychiatric disorders based on graded disease classes: an illustration using data from the WHO International Pilot Study of Schizophrenia
The Grade of Membership (GoM) model is a classification procedure which allows a person to be a member of more than one diagnostic class. It simultaneously quantifies the degrees of membership in classes while generating the discrete symptom profiles or âpure types' describing classes. The model was applied to the symptomatology, history, and follow-up of 1065 cases in the WHO International Pilot Study of Schizophrenia. The model produced an eight diagnostic class or âpure type' solution, of which five were related to the diagnostic concepts of schizophrenia and paranoid disorder, two types were affective disorders, and one asymptomatic type. A subtype of paranoid schizophreniform disorder found primarily in developing countries was identified. There was a strong association between pure types and the original clinical and computer generated (CATEGO) diagnoses. A GoM based psychiatric classification might more clearly identify core disease processes than conventional classification models by filtering the confounding effects of individual heterogeneity from pure type definition
Endotracheal instillation of prostacyclin in preterm infants with persistent pulmonary hypertension
Does endotracheal instilled prostacyclin (epoprostenol) improve
oxygenation in preterm infants with persistent pulmonary hypertension?
Four preterm infants were studied. Prostacyclin (50 ng x kg(-1)) was
injected as an endotracheal bolus. In two patients the prostacyclin bolus
was repeated and in one patient prostacyclin was administered
continuously. Oxygenation was evaluated through the oxygenation index and
the ratio of arterial oxygen tension to the fraction of inspired oxygen.
The mean arterial blood pressure was used to evaluate systemic
circulation. The oxygenation index (+/-SD) decreased significantly from 39
(+/-13.3) to 7 (+/-2.5) and the ratio of arterial oxygen tension to the
fraction of inspired oxygen (+/-SD) increased significantly from 47
(+/-13) to 218 (+/-67), most likely related to a reduction of the
pulmonary vascular resistance with a reversal of the extrapulmonary
shunting at the ductus arteriosus and atrial level. The blood pressure did
not change. All effects were reversed on drug withdrawal. Repeated or
continuous endotracheal administration of prostacyclin in three children
demonstrated a sustained response without tachyphylaxis, and without overt
side-effects. Endotracheal instillation of prostacyclin resulted in an
improved oxygenation without systemic vascular repercussions in four
preterm infants with persistent pulmonary hypertension. Repeated or
continuous administration showed a sustained response and no overt
side-effects were noticed
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