Ratio of strange to non-strange quark condensates in QCD

Laplace transform QCD sum rules for two-point functions related to the strangeness-changing scalar and pseudoscalar Green's functions $\psi(Q^2)$ and $\psi_5(Q^2)$, are used to determine the subtraction constants $\psi(0)$ and $\psi_5(0)$, which fix the ratio $R_{su}\equiv \frac{}{}$. Our results are $\psi(0)= - (1.06 \pm 0.21) \times 10^{-3} {GeV}^4$, $\psi_5(0)= (3.35 \pm 0.25) \times 10^{-3} {GeV}^4$, and $R_{su}\equiv \frac{}{} = 0.5 \pm 0.1$. This implies corrections to kaon-PCAC at the level of 50%, which although large, are not inconsistent with the size of the corrections to Goldberger-Treiman relations in $SU(3)\otimes SU(3)$.Comment: Latex file, 14 pages including 3 figure

Postclosure Safety Assessment

Ontario Power Generation (OPG) is proposing to build a Deep Geologic Repository (DGR) for Low and Intermediate Level Waste (L&ILW) near the existing Western Waste Management Facility at the Bruce nuclear site in the Municipality of Kincardine, Ontario. The Nuclear Waste Management Organization, on behalf of OPG, is preparing the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and Preliminary Safety Report (PSR) for the proposed repository. The postclosure safety assessment evaluates the long-term safety of the proposed facility and provides supporting information for the EIS and PSR. Other aspects of the DGR work program (e.g., operational safety, inventory, facility design, site characterization and geosynthesis) are considered in separate technical reports. The PSR provides an integrated collection of arguments and evidence gathered from all these technical reports to demonstrate the safety of the DGR system. This report provides a technical summary of the work undertaken and results obtained for the assessment of the postclosure radiological and non-radiological safety of the DGR. In particular, it provides an overview of the system assessed, and presents the scenarios evaluated and the key results from their detailed analyses. It identifies the main uncertainties and how they have been addressed

National Institute for Health Research Health Informatics Collaborative: development of a pipeline to collate electronic clinical data for viral hepatitis research

Objective The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Informatics Collaborative (HIC) is a programme of infrastructure development across NIHR Biomedical Research Centres. The aim of the NIHR HIC is to improve the quality and availability of routinely collected data for collaborative, cross-centre research. This is demonstrated through research collaborations in selected therapeutic areas, one of which is viral hepatitis. Design The collaboration in viral hepatitis identified a rich set of datapoints, including information on clinical assessment, antiviral treatment, laboratory test results and health outcomes. Clinical data from different centres were standardised and combined to produce a research-ready dataset; this was used to generate insights regarding disease prevalence and treatment response. Results A comprehensive database has been developed for potential viral hepatitis research interests, with a corresponding data dictionary for researchers across the centres. An initial cohort of 960 patients with chronic hepatitis B infections and 1404 patients with chronic hepatitis C infections has been collected. Conclusion For the first time, large prospective cohorts are being formed within National Health Service (NHS) secondary care services that will allow research questions to be rapidly addressed using real-world data. Interactions with industry partners will help to shape future research and will inform patient-stratified clinical practice. An emphasis on NHS-wide systems interoperability, and the increased utilisation of structured data solutions for electronic patient records, is improving access to data for research, service improvement and the reduction of clinical data gaps

National Institute for Health Research Health Informatics Collaborative:development of a pipeline to collate electronic clinical data for viral hepatitis research

Objective The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Informatics Collaborative (HIC) is a programme of infrastructure development across NIHR Biomedical Research Centres. The aim of the NIHR HIC is to improve the quality and availability of routinely collected data for collaborative, cross-centre research. This is demonstrated through research collaborations in selected therapeutic areas, one of which is viral hepatitis. Design The collaboration in viral hepatitis identified a rich set of datapoints, including information on clinical assessment, antiviral treatment, laboratory test results and health outcomes. Clinical data from different centres were standardised and combined to produce a research-ready dataset; this was used to generate insights regarding disease prevalence and treatment response. Results A comprehensive database has been developed for potential viral hepatitis research interests, with a corresponding data dictionary for researchers across the centres. An initial cohort of 960 patients with chronic hepatitis B infections and 1404 patients with chronic hepatitis C infections has been collected. Conclusion For the first time, large prospective cohorts are being formed within National Health Service (NHS) secondary care services that will allow research questions to be rapidly addressed using real-world data. Interactions with industry partners will help to shape future research and will inform patient-stratified clinical practice. An emphasis on NHS-wide systems interoperability, and the increased utilisation of structured data solutions for electronic patient records, is improving access to data for research, service improvement and the reduction of clinical data gaps