The financial crisis means that Europe will need to look beyond the public sector to provide its healthcare needs

The financial crisis has led to public spending cuts across most European countries. Richard B Saltman and Zachary Cahn write that even if current levels of health spending are maintained, public healthcare systems will increasingly come under strain due to projected rises in healthcare costs. They argue that the only solution left for European governments is to increase the contribution made by other sources of care, such as those in the private and voluntary sectors

Metastable helium molecules as tracers in superfluid liquid 4^{4}He

Metastable helium molecules generated in a discharge near a sharp tungsten tip operated in either pulsed mode or continuous field-emission mode in superfluid liquid $^{4}$He are imaged using a laser-induced-fluorescence technique. By pulsing the tip, a small cloud of He$_{2}^{*}$ molecules is produced. At 2.0 K, the molecules in the liquid follow the motion of the normal fluid. We can determine the normal-fluid velocity in a heat-induced counterflow by tracing the position of a single molecule cloud. As we run the tip in continuous field-emission mode, a normal-fluid jet from the tip is generated and molecules are entrained in the jet. A focused 910 nm pump laser pulse is used to drive a small group of molecules to the vibrational $a(1)$ state. Subsequent imaging of the tagged $a(1)$ molecules with an expanded 925 nm probe laser pulse allows us to measure the velocity of the normal fluid. The techniques we developed demonstrate for the first time the ability to trace the normal-fluid component in superfluid helium using angstrom-sized particles.Comment: 4 pages, 7 figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Embryo Exchanges and Adoption Tax Credits

The “Option of Adoption Act,” a Georgia law that was introduced by a staunchly anti-abortion Georgia state representative, establishes procedures for genetic donors to relinquish their rights to embryos before birth and permits, but does not require, embryo recipients to petition a court for recognition that they are the legal parents of a child born to them as a result of an embryo transfer. This article clears up what seems to be widespread confusion about a fairly straightforward question of tax law related to such embryo “adoptions.” Notwithstanding various sources\u27 claims to the contrary, neither a Georgia adoption tax credit nor a federal adoption tax credit is available for “adopting” an embryo

A systematic phenomenological study of the cos⁡2ϕ\cos 2 \phi asymmetry in unpolarized semi--inclusive DIS

We study the $\cos 2 \phi$ azimuthal asymmetry in unpolarized semi-inclusive DIS, taking into account both the perturbative contribution (gluon emission and splitting) and the non perturbative effects arising from intrinsic transverse motion and transverse spin of quarks. In particular we explore the possibility to extract from some information about the Boer--Mulders function $h_1^{\perp}$, which represents a transverse--polarization asymmetry of quarks inside an unpolarized hadron. Predictions are presented for the HERMES, COMPASS and JLab kinematics, where is dominated by the kinematical higher--twist contribution, and turns to be of order of few percent. We show that a larger asymmetry in $\pi^-$ production, compared to $\pi^+$ production, would represent a signature of the Boer--Mulders effect.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figure

The W_L W_L scattering at the LHC: improving the selection criteria

We present a systematic study of the different mechanisms leading to WW pair production at the LHC, both in the same-sign and opposite-sign channels, and we emphasize that the former offers much better potential for investigating non-resonant W_L W_L scattering. We propose a new kinematic variable to isolate the W_L W_L scattering component in same-sign WW production at the LHC. Focusing on purely leptonic W decay channels, we show that it considerably improves the LHC capabilities to shed light on the electroweak symmetry breaking mechanism after collecting 100 fb^{-1} of data at sqrt{s} = 14 TeV. The new variable is less effective in the opposite-sign WW channel due to different background composition.Comment: 25 pages, 32 figure