Comparing population health in the United States and Canada

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The objective of the paper is to compare population health in the United States (US) and Canada. Although the two countries are very similar in many ways, there are potentially important differences in the levels of social and economic inequality and the organization and financing of and access to health care in the two countries.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Data are from the Joint Canada/United States Survey of Health 2002/03. The Health Utilities Index Mark 3 (HUI3) was used to measure overall health-related quality of life (HRQL). Mean HUI3 scores were compared, adjusting for major determinants of health, including body mass index, smoking, education, gender, race, and income. In addition, estimates of life expectancy were compared. Finally, mean HUI3 scores by age and gender and Canadian and US life tables were used to estimate health-adjusted life expectancy (HALE).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Life expectancy in Canada is higher than in the US. For those < 40 years, there were no differences in HRQL between the US and Canada. For the 40+ group, HRQL appears to be higher in Canada. The results comparing the white-only population in both countries were very similar. For a 19-year-old, HALE was 52.0 years in Canada and 49.3 in the US.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The population of Canada appears to be substantially healthier than the US population with respect to life expectancy, HRQL, and HALE. Factors that account for the difference may include access to health care over the full life span (universal health insurance) and lower levels of social and economic inequality, especially among the elderly.</p

Cortisol responses to immobilization with Telazol or ketamine in baboons (Papio cynocephalus/anubis) and rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta)

Little is known about the influence of Telazol on cortisol or of anesthetic agents on immunological measures, and reports of ketamine's effect on cortisol are inconsistent. We measured effects of Telazol, ketamine and blood sampling on cortisol in male rhesus macaques and male savannah baboons. We also obtained leukocyte counts in the macaques. In macaques, Telazol reduced cortisol in the morning but not in the afternoon; ketamine had no effect on cortisol in these animals. In baboons, cortisol changed little post-Telazol but increased post-ketamine. In macaques, lymphocyte numbers decreased following afternoon injection of Telazol, ketamine or saline. The injection and blood sampling process increased cortisol levels in monkeys not trained to extend an arm but exerted no effect on cortisol in trained macaques. Thus, the animals' physiological responses to blood sampling and immobilization are influenced by such variables as anesthetic agent, species, time of day, and familiarity with the blood sampling process

Proposal for a multi-use test beam in the SLAC B-line

With the impending construction of the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) [1] at SLAC, displacing the well-used Final Focus Test Beam (FFTB) area, there is growing interest in developing a new test beam facility which makes use of the remaining 2/3 of the SLAC linac, and is available during LCLS operations. The success of the Sub-Picosecond Pulse Source (SPPS) [2] and the desire to preserve this capacity suggest a new beamline with similar or improved electron beam quality, including bunch length compression to 10 μm. Beam availability during LCLS operations requires a new 1-km bypass beamline connecting the 2/3-point of the linac with, for example, the existing B-Line tunnel at the end of the linac. A second operating mode, with LCLS not running, is then available using the existing connection directly from the end of the linac to the B-line. This path would provide the highest beam quality at 30 GeV and also allow a third operational mode by deflecting a few of the very high-brightness 120-Hz, 14-GeV LCLS bunches at low rate (1-10 Hz) into the B-line. Additionally, linear collider research might also be carried out in a short final focus system at the end of the B-Line, capable of producing a 70-nm rms transverse beam size. We describe a design for these systems. © 2005 IEEE

Diffusion MRI in patients with transient ischemic attacks.

Diffusion MRI has established value in patients with ischemic stroke but has not been systematically investigated in patients with transient ischemic attack (TIA).Clinical, conventional MRI, and diffusion MRI data were collected on 42 consecutive patients with symptoms of cerebral TIA. TIA imaging data were compared with those from a contemporaneous group of 23 completed stroke patients.Twenty of the 42 TIA patients (48\%) demonstrated neuroanatomically relevant focal abnormalities on diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) imaging. When present, DWI/ADC signal changes in TIA patients were less pronounced and smaller in volume than those in completed stroke patients. TIA symptom duration was significantly longer for DWI-positive than for DWI-negative patients, 7.3 versus 3.2 hours. Diffusion MRI information changed the suspected anatomic and vascular TIA localization and the suspected etiologic mechanism in over one third of patients with diffusion MRI abnormalities. Of the 20 TIA patients with identifiable lesions on diffusion MRI, 9 had follow-up imaging studies; of these, 4 did not show a relevant infarct on follow-up imaging.Diffusion MRI demonstrates ischemic abnormalities in nearly half of clinically defined TIA patients. The percentage of patients with a DWI lesion increases with increasing total symptom duration. In nearly half, the diffusion MRI changes may be fully reversible, while in the remainder the diffusion MRI findings herald the development of a parenchymal infarct despite transient clinical symptoms. Finally, diffusion imaging results have significant clinical utility, frequently changing the presumed localization and etiologic mechanism

Inverse Free Electron Laser Heater for the LCLS

The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) free electron laser employs an RF photocathode gun that yields a 1nC bunch a few picoseconds long, which must be further compressed to yield the high current required for Self Amplified Spontaneous Emission (SASE) gain. The electron beam from the RF photocathode gun is quite sensitive to microbunching instabilities such as coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR) in the compressor chicanes and longitudinal space charge (LSC) in the linac. These effects can be Landau damped by adding energy spread to the electron bunch prior to compression. They propose to do this by co-propagating an infrared laser beam with the electron bunch in an undulator in the LCLS injector beamline. The undulator is placed in a four bend magnet chicane to allow the Ir laser beam to propagate colinearly with the e-beam while it oscillates in the undulator. The IR laser beam is derived from the photocathode gun drive laser, so the two beams are synchronized. Simulations presented elsewhere in these proceedings show that the laser interaction damps the microbunching instabilities to a very great extent. This paper is a description of the design of the laser heater