864 research outputs found
The incidence of clinical malaria detected by active case detection in children in Ifakara, southern Tanzania
Between July 2000 and June 2001, we used weekly active case detection (ACD) of clinical malaria episodes in 618 children aged <5 years to describe the epidemiology of malaria in Ifakara, southern Tanzania. Plasmodium falciparum-positive blood slides prepared from children with axillary temperature ⩾ 37.5°C were used to define clinical malaria and a rolling cross-sectional survey documented the prevalences of parasitaemia and anaemia. A random subsample of children was visited daily for 1 month at the end of the study to assess the effect of more frequent visits on estimated incidence rates. Only 50 (8%) children had 1 or more episodes of clinical malaria during the year, an overall incidence of 0.275 episodes/100 child-weeks-at-risk, with no age dependence. The maximum parasite prevalence of 25% was reached in children aged 4 years. The incidence of illness was significantly lower in children visited daily than in those visited weekly., suggesting a marked effect of frequent visits on estimated incidence rates. We conclude that the age pattern of malaria detected through ACD is a more robust epidemiological indicator than absolute incidence rate estimates and that, in contrast to the surrounding area, Ifakara town is subject to only moderate perennial malaria transmissio
Density Functional Study of Cubic to Rhombohedral Transition in -AlF
Under heating, -AlF undergoes a structural phase transition from
rhombohedral to cubic at temperature around 730 K. The density functional
method is used to examine the =0 energy surface in the structural parameter
space, and finds the minimum in good agreement with the observed rhombohedral
structure. The energy surface and electronic wave-functions at the minimum are
then used to calculate properties including density of states, -point
phonon modes, and the dielectric function. The dipole formed at each fluorine
ion in the low temperature phase is also calculated, and is used in a classical
electrostatic picture to examine possible antiferroelectric aspects of this
phase transition.Comment: A 6-page manuscript with 4 figures and 4 table
Comparative study of density functional theories of the exchange-correlation hole and energy in silicon
We present a detailed study of the exchange-correlation hole and
exchange-correlation energy per particle in the Si crystal as calculated by the
Variational Monte Carlo method and predicted by various density functional
models. Nonlocal density averaging methods prove to be successful in correcting
severe errors in the local density approximation (LDA) at low densities where
the density changes dramatically over the correlation length of the LDA hole,
but fail to provide systematic improvements at higher densities where the
effects of density inhomogeneity are more subtle. Exchange and correlation
considered separately show a sensitivity to the nonlocal semiconductor crystal
environment, particularly within the Si bond, which is not predicted by the
nonlocal approaches based on density averaging. The exchange hole is well
described by a bonding orbital picture, while the correlation hole has a
significant component due to the polarization of the nearby bonds, which
partially screens out the anisotropy in the exchange hole.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, RevTeX, added conten
Spin Resolution of the Electron-Gas Correlation Energy: Positive same-spin contribution
The negative correlation energy per particle of a uniform electron gas of
density parameter and spin polarization is well known, but its
spin resolution into up-down, up-up, and down-down contributions is not.
Widely-used estimates are incorrect, and hamper the development of reliable
density functionals and pair distribution functions. For the spin resolution,
we present interpolations between high- and low-density limits that agree with
available Quantum Monte Carlo data. In the low-density limit for ,
we find that the same-spin correlation energy is unexpectedly positive, and we
explain why. We also estimate the up and down contributions to the kinetic
energy of correlation.Comment: new version, to appear in PRB Rapid Communicatio
Uniform hopping approach to the FM Kondo Model at finite temperature
We study the ferromagnetic Kondo model with classical corespins via unbiased
Monte-Carlo simulations and derive a simplified model for the treatment of the
corespins at any temperature. Our simplified model captures the main aspects of
the Kondo model and can easily be evaluated both numerically and analytically.
It provides a better qualitative understanding of the physical features of the
Kondo model and rationalizes the Monte-Carlo results, including the spectral
density A_k(omega) of a 1D chain with nearest neighbor Coulomb repulsion. By
calculating the specific heat and the susceptibility of systems up to size
16^3, we determine the Curie temperature of the 3D one-orbital double-exchange
model, which agrees with experimental values.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, RevTex4, additional references cite
Tensor-scalar gravity and binary-pulsar experiments
Some recently discovered nonperturbative strong-field effects in
tensor-scalar theories of gravitation are interpreted as a scalar analog of
ferromagnetism: "spontaneous scalarization". This phenomenon leads to very
significant deviations from general relativity in conditions involving strong
gravitational fields, notably binary-pulsar experiments. Contrary to
solar-system experiments, these deviations do not necessarily vanish when the
weak-field scalar coupling tends to zero. We compute the scalar "form factors"
measuring these deviations, and notably a parameter entering the pulsar timing
observable gamma through scalar-field-induced variations of the inertia moment
of the pulsar. An exploratory investigation of the confrontation between
tensor-scalar theories and binary-pulsar experiments shows that nonperturbative
scalar field effects are already very tightly constrained by published data on
three binary-pulsar systems. We contrast the probing power of pulsar
experiments with that of solar-system ones by plotting the regions they exclude
in a generic two-dimensional plane of tensor-scalar theories.Comment: 35 pages, REVTeX 3.0, uses epsf.tex to include 9 Postscript figure
Stroke Incidence and Survival in American Indians, Blacks, and Whites: The Strong Heart Study and Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study
Background: American Indians (AIs) have high stroke morbidity and mortality. We compared stroke incidence and mortality in AIs, blacks, and whites. Methods and Results: Pooled data from 2 cardiovascular disease cohort studies included 3182 AIs from the SHS (Strong Heart Study), aged 45 to 74 years at baseline (1988–1990) and 3765 blacks and 10 413 whites from the ARIC (Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities) Study, aged 45 to 64 years at baseline (1987–1989). Stroke surveillance was based on self-report, hospital records, and death certificates. We estimated hazard ratios for incident stroke (ischemic and hemorrhagic combined) through 2008, stratified by sex and birth-year tertile, and relative risk for poststroke mortality. Incident strokes numbered 282 for AIs, 416 for blacks, and 613 for whites. For women and men, stroke incidence among AIs was similar to or lower than blacks and higher than whites. Covariate adjustment resulted in lower hazard ratios for most comparisons, but results for these models were not always statistically significant. After covariate adjustment, AI women and men had higher 30-day poststroke mortality than blacks (relative risk=2.1 [95% CI=1.0, 3.2] and 2.2 [95% CI=1.3, 3.1], respectively), and whites (relative risk=1.6 [95% CI=0.8, 2.5] and 1.7 [95% CI=1.1, 2.4]), and higher 1-year mortality (relative risk range=1.3–1.5 for all comparisons). Conclusions: Stroke incidence in AIs was lower than for blacks and higher than for whites; differences were larger for blacks and smaller for whites after covariate adjustment. Poststroke mortality was higher in AIs than blacks and whites
Density functional theories and self-energy approaches
A purpose-designed microarray platform (Stressgenes, Phase 1) was utilised to investigate the changes in gene expression within the liver of rainbow trout during exposure to a prolonged period of confinement. Tissue and blood samples were collected from trout at intervals up to 648 h after transfer to a standardised confinement stressor, together with matched samples from undisturbed control fish. Plasma ACTH, cortisol, glucose and lactate were analysed to confirm that the neuroendocrine response to confinement was consistent with previous findings and to provide a phenotypic context to assist interpretation of gene expression data. Liver samples for suppression subtractive hybridisation (SSH) library construction were selected from within the experimental groups comprising “early” stress (2–48 h) and “late” stress (96–504 h). In order to reduce redundancy within the four SSH libraries and yield a higher number of unique clones an additional subtraction was carried out. After printing of the arrays a series of 55 hybridisations were executed to cover 6 time points. At 2 h, 6 h, 24 h, 168 h and 504 h 5 individual confined fish and 5 individual control fish were used with control fish only at 0 h. A preliminary list of 314 clones considered differentially regulated over the complete time course was generated by a combination of data analysis approaches and the most significant gene expression changes were found to occur during the 24 h to 168 h time period with a general approach to control levels by 504 h. Few changes in expression were apparent over the first 6 h. The list of genes whose expression was significantly altered comprised predominantly genes belonging to the biological process category (response to stimulus) and one cellular component category (extracellular region) and were dominated by so-called acute phase proteins. Analysis of the gene expression profile in liver tissue during confinement revealed a number of significant clusters. The major patterns comprised genes that were up-regulated at 24 h and beyond, the primary examples being haptoglobin, β-fibrinogen and EST10729. Two representative genes from each of the six k-means clusters were validated by qPCR. Correlations between microarray and qPCR expression patterns were significant for most of the genes tested. qPCR analysis revealed that haptoglobin expression was up-regulated approximately 8-fold at 24 h and over 13-fold by 168 h.This project was part funded by the European Commission (Q5RS-2001-02211), Enterprise Ireland and the Natural Environment Research Council of the United Kingdom
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