Improved Enzymatic Method for Determining Mannitol and its Application to Dog Serum after Mannitol Infusion

Peer Reviewe

The beta-delayed neutron emission in 78Ni region

A systematic study of the total $\beta$-decay half-lives and $\beta$-delayed neutron emission probabilities is performed. The $\beta$-strength function is treated within the self-consistent density-functional + continuum-QRPA framework including the Gamow-Teller and first-forbidden transitions. The experimental total $\beta$-decay half-lives for the Ni isotopes with $A\leq$76 are described satisfactorily. The half-lives predicted from $A$=70 up to $A$=86 reveal fairly regular $A$-behaviour which results from simultaneous account for the Gamow-Teller and first-forbidden transitions. For $Z\approx$ 28 nuclei, a suppression of the delayed neutron emission probability is found when the $N$=50 neutron closed shell is crossed. The effect originates from the high-energy first-forbidden transitions to the states outside the $Q_{\beta} - S_n$-window in the daughter nuclei. PACS numbers: 23.40.Bw,21.60.Jz,25.30.Pt,26.30.+kComment: LaTeX, 13 pages, 5 figure

The Acceptability and Feasibility of Implementing a Bio-Behavioral Enhanced Surveillance Tool for Sexually Transmitted Infections in England: Mixed-Methods Study.

BACKGROUND: Sexually transmitted infection (STI) surveillance is vital for tracking the scale and pattern of epidemics; however, it often lacks data on the underlying drivers of STIs. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to assess the acceptability and feasibility of implementing a bio-behavioral enhanced surveillance tool, comprising a self-administered Web-based survey among sexual health clinic attendees, as well as linking this to their electronic health records (EHR) held in England's national STI surveillance system. METHODS: Staff from 19 purposively selected sexual health clinics across England and men who have sex with men and black Caribbeans, because of high STI burden among these groups, were interviewed to assess the acceptability of the proposed bio-behavioral enhanced surveillance tool. Subsequently, sexual health clinic staff invited all attendees to complete a Web-based survey on drivers of STI risk using a study tablet or participants' own digital device. They recorded the number of attendees invited and participants' clinic numbers, which were used to link survey data to the EHR. Participants' online consent was obtained, separately for survey participation and linkage. In postimplementation phase, sexual health clinic staff were reinterviewed to assess the feasibility of implementing the bio-behavioral enhanced surveillance tool. Acceptability and feasibility of implementing the bio-behavioral enhanced surveillance tool were assessed by analyzing these qualitative and quantitative data. RESULTS: Prior to implementation of the bio-behavioral enhanced surveillance tool, sexual health clinic staff and attendees emphasized the importance of free internet/Wi-Fi access, confidentiality, and anonymity for increasing the acceptability of the bio-behavioral enhanced surveillance tool among attendees. Implementation of the bio-behavioral enhanced surveillance tool across sexual health clinics varied considerably and was influenced by sexual health clinics' culture of prioritization of research and innovation and availability of resources for implementing the surveys. Of the 7367 attendees invited, 85.28% (6283) agreed to participate. Of these, 72.97% (4585/6283) consented to participate in the survey, and 70.62% (4437/6283) were eligible and completed it. Of these, 91.19% (4046/4437) consented to EHR linkage, which did not differ by age or gender but was higher among gay/bisexual men than heterosexual men (95.50%, 722/756 vs 88.31%, 1073/1215; P<.003) and lower among black Caribbeans than white participants (87.25%, 568/651 vs 93.89%, 2181/2323; P<.002). Linkage was achieved for 88.88% (3596/4046) of consenting participants. CONCLUSIONS: Implementing a bio-behavioral enhanced surveillance tool in sexual health clinics was feasible and acceptable to staff and groups at STI risk; however, ensuring participants' confidentiality and anonymity and availability of resources is vital. Bio-behavioral enhanced surveillance tools could enable timely collection of detailed behavioral data for effective commissioning of sexual health services

Time-resolved dynamics of electron wave packets in chaotic and regular quantum billiards with leads

We perform numerical studies of the wave packet propagation through open quantum billiards whose classical counterparts exhibit regular and chaotic dynamics. We show that for t less or similar to tau (tau being the Heisenberg time), the features in the transmitted and reflected currents are directly related to specific classical trajectories connecting the billiard leads. In contrast, the long-time asymptotics of the wave packet dynamics is qualitatively different for classical and quantum billiards. In particularly, the decay of the quantum system obeys a power law that depends on the number of decay channels, and is not sensitive to the nature of classical dynamics (chaotic or regular).Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Age estimation of Calliphora (Diptera: Calliphoridae) larvae using cuticular hydrocarbon analysis and Artificial Neural Networks

Cuticular hydrocarbons were extracted daily from the larvae of two closely related blowflies Calliphora vicina and Calliphora vomitoria (Diptera: Calliphoridae). The hydrocarbons were then analysed using Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry (GC–MS), with the aim of observing changes within their chemical profiles in order to determine the larval age. The hydrocarbons were examined daily for each species from 1 day old larvae until pupariation. The results show significant chemical changes occurring from the younger larvae to the post-feeding larvae. With the aid of a multivariate statistical method (Principal Component Analysis and Artificial Neural Networks), samples were clustered and classified, allowing for the larval age to be established. Results from this study allowed larvae to be aged to the day with at worst, 87% accuracy, which suggests there is great potential for the use of cuticular hydrocarbons present on larvae to give an indication of their age and hence potentially a valuable tool for minimum PMI estimations

Modeling of Thermal and Hydrodynamic Aspects of Molten Jet/Water Interactions

In order to predict the effect of a fuel-coolant interaction after a hypothetical core-melt-down accident, a phenomenological model has been developed to describe the thermal and hydrodynamic behavior of a high-temperature molten jet when it interacts with saturated or subcooled water in a film boiling regime. The mechanisms of jet-material erosion were analyzed by Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities on the coherent column and by boundary layer stripping on the leading edge. The heat transfer coefficient, vapor-film thickness, and net steam generation, all of which strongly affect the jet-breakup behavior, were solved analytically. It was found that the jet breakup (or erosion) depends strongly on the steam generation from the jet/water interaction. The jet-breakup length (i.e., penetration distance) was found to be sensitive to the initial jet temperature, water subcooling, and the physical state of the ambient water. The jet-breakup length and leading-edge velocity of the Wood's metal/water experiments are predicted well by the current model for the cases where a continuous vapor film exists. 14 refs., 13 figs

Interfacial Instabilities Leading to Bubble Departure During Film Boiling on Vertical Surface

Bubble departure from a vapor/liquid interface has been estimated from prediction for the wave length and frequency of the most unstable disturbance along the wavy interface. The Orr-Sommerfeld equation was solved for two extreme cases of the vapor momentum equations, i.e., viscous force dominated and inertia force dominated. The most unstable wave length, which determines the axial location where bubbles depart from the interface, and the wave growth rate, which determines the flow rate of the bubble departure were found to be very sensitive to the vapor-film velocity and thickness. A similar analysis also was applied to an inviscid parallel flow of high-temperature melt and water separated by a thin plane sheet of steam that could occur during a molten-jet/water interaction. The vapor velocity and the vapor film thickness were solved by taking into account the effects of the entrained water droplet and the dispersed jet material in the vapor film. A similar character of the interfacial instabilities was found to exist at the melt/vapor and vapor/liquid interfaces. 12 refs., 12 figs

Precautionary Regulation in Europe and the United States: A Quantitative Comparison

Much attention has been addressed to the question of whether Europe or the United States adopts a more precautionary stance to the regulation of potential environmental, health, and safety risks. Some commentators suggest that Europe is more risk-averse and precautionary, whereas the US is seen as more risk-taking and optimistic about the prospects for new technology. Others suggest that the US is more precautionary because its regulatory process is more legalistic and adversarial, while Europe is more lax and corporatist in its regulations. The flip-flop hypothesis claims that the US was more precautionary than Europe in the 1970s and early 1980s, and that Europe has become more precautionary since then. We examine the levels and trends in regulation of environmental, health, and safety risks since 1970. Unlike previous research, which has studied only a small set of prominent cases selected non-randomly, we develop a comprehensive list of almost 3,000 risks and code the relative stringency of regulation in Europe and the US for each of 100 risks randomly selected from that list for each year from 1970 through 2004. Our results suggest that: (a) averaging over risks, there is no significant difference in relative precaution over the period, (b) weakly consistent with the flip-flop hypothesis, there is some evidence of a modest shift toward greater relative precaution of European regulation since about 1990, although (c) there is a diversity of trends across risks, of which the most common is no change in relative precaution (including cases where Europe and the US are equally precautionary and where Europe or the US has been consistently more precautionary). The overall finding is of a mixed and diverse pattern of relative transatlantic precaution over the period