Cognitive and attitudinal impacts of a university AIDS course: interdisciplinary education as a public health intervention.

This paper describes an interdisciplinary, variable credit-bearing university course on acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) that enrolled 429 students. Pre- and post-course questionnaries were used to assess knowledge and attitudes relative to AIDS and these were compared to National Health Interview Survey findings. Considerable cognitive and attitudinal changes occurred over the course period. University courses, taught annually, were found to be an efficient mechanism for educating large numbers of future community leaders and professionals about AID

Preliminary neurocognitive finding from a multi-site study investing long-term neurological impact of COVID-19 using ultra-high field 7 Tesla MRI-based neuroimaging

Background: Globally, over six hundred million cases of SARS-CoV-2 have been confirmed. As the number of individuals in recovery rises, examining long-term neurological effects, including cognitive impairment and cerebral microstructural and microvascular changes, has become paramount., We present preliminary cognitive findings from an ongoing multi-site study investigating the long-term neurological impacts of COVID-19 using 7 Tesla MRI-based neuroimaging. Methods: Across 3 US and 1 UK sites, we identified adult (\u3e=18) COVID-19 survivors (CS) and healthy controls (HC) without significant pre-existing medical, neurological, or psychiatric illness. Using the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center (NACC) Uniform Data Set (UDS-3) battery and Norms Calculator, 12 cognitive scores were adjusted for age, sex, and education and classified as either unimpaired or mild (\u3c9th percentile), moderate (\u3c2nd percentile), or severely impaired (\u3c1st percentile). The observed frequency of impairment across the two groups is reported along with proportional differences (PD) and confidence intervals (CI). Illness severity and time since infection were evaluated as potential associates of cognitive impairment. Results: Over a period of 11 months, we enrolled 108 participants. At the time of reporting, 80 (46.3% female; mean age: 60.3 ± 8.6; 61 CS, 19 HC) had completed cognitive assessments. Of the participants for whom we ascertained time since symptom onset and illness severity (n=51 and 43, respectively), 31.4% had their index COVID-19 infection within the past year, and 60.5% had a severe to critical infection (Table 1). Table 2 reports observed frequency of impairment for each metric. Aggregating all 12 cognitive metrics, we found 45 (73.8%) of CS had at least one impairment [vs HC: 10 (52.6%)]. A significantly greater proportion of CS had at least one moderate to severe or severe impairment (Figure 1). CS also had significantly higher frequencies of presenting with two or more mild to severe impairments [PD 0.33 (0.13, 0.54)]. Illness severity and time since infection were not significantly associated with cognitive impairment. Conclusion: Our preliminary results are consistent with potentially sustained COVID-associated cognitive impairment in a subset of participants. Enrollment in the multi-site cohort is ongoing, and updated results will be presented along with ultra-high field MRI-based neuroimaging correlates

The porin and the permeating antibiotic: A selective diffusion barrier in gram-negative bacteria

Gram-negative bacteria are responsible for a large proportion of antibiotic resistant bacterial diseases. These bacteria have a complex cell envelope that comprises an outer membrane and an inner membrane that delimit the periplasm. The outer membrane contains various protein channels, called porins, which are involved in the influx of various compounds, including several classes of antibiotics. Bacterial adaptation to reduce influx through porins is an increasing problem worldwide that contributes, together with efflux systems, to the emergence and dissemination of antibiotic resistance. An exciting challenge is to decipher the genetic and molecular basis of membrane impermeability as a bacterial resistance mechanism. This Review outlines the bacterial response towards antibiotic stress on altered membrane permeability and discusses recent advances in molecular approaches that are improving our knowledge of the physico-chemical parameters that govern the translocation of antibiotics through porin channel

Status of understanding of the saturated-zone ground-water flow system at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, as of 1995

Yucca Mountain, which is being studied extensively because it is a potential site for a high-level radioactive-waste repository, consists of a thick sequence of volcanic rocks of Tertiary age that are underlain, at least to the southeast, by carbonate rocks of Paleozoic age. Stratigraphic units important to the hydrology of the area include the alluvium, pyroclastic rocks of Miocene age (the Timber Mountain Group; the Paintbrush Group; the Calico Hills Formation; the Crater Flat Group; the Lithic Ridge Tuff; and older tuffs, flows, and lavas beneath the Lithic Ridge Tuff), and sedimentary rocks of Paleozoic age. The saturated zone generally occurs in the Calico Hills Formation and stratigraphically lower units. The saturated zone is divided into three aquifers and two confining units. The flow system at Yucca Mountain is part of the Alkali Flat-Furnace Creek subbasin of the Death Valley groundwater basin. Variations in the gradients of the potentiometric surface provided the basis for subdividing the Yucca Mountain area into zones of: (1) large hydraulic gradient where potentiometric levels change at least 300 meters in a few kilometers; (2) moderate hydraulic gradient where potentiometric levels change about 45 meters in a few kilometers; and (3) small hydraulic gradient where potentiometric levels change only about 2 meters in several kilometers. Vertical hydraulic gradients were measured in only a few boreholes around Yucca Mountain; most boreholes had little change in potentiometric levels with depth. Limited hydraulic testing of boreholes in the Yucca Mountain area indicated that the range in transmissivity was more than 2 to 3 orders of magnitude in a particular hydrogeologic unit, and that the average values for the individual hydrogeologic units generally differed by about 1 order of magnitude. The upper volcanic aquifer seems to be the most permeable hydrogeologic unit, but this conclusion was based on exceedingly limited data

A Search for Dark Higgs Bosons

Recent astrophysical and terrestrial experiments have motivated the proposal of a dark sector with GeV-scale gauge boson force carriers and new Higgs bosons. We present a search for a dark Higgs boson using 516 fb-1 of data collected with the BABAR detector. We do not observe a significant signal and we set 90% confidence level upper limits on the product of the Standard Model-dark sector mixing angle and the dark sector coupling constant.Comment: 7 pages, 5 postscript figures, published version with improved plots for b/w printin

Radiation hardness qualification of PbWO4 scintillation crystals for the CMS Electromagnetic Calorimeter

This is the Pre-print version of the Article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2010 IOPEnsuring the radiation hardness of PbWO4 crystals was one of the main priorities during the construction of the electromagnetic calorimeter of the CMS experiment at CERN. The production on an industrial scale of radiation hard crystals and their certification over a period of several years represented a difficult challenge both for CMS and for the crystal suppliers. The present article reviews the related scientific and technological problems encountered

Search for the standard model Higgs boson in the H to ZZ to 2l 2nu channel in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

A search for the standard model Higgs boson in the H to ZZ to 2l 2nu decay channel, where l = e or mu, in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV is presented. The data were collected at the LHC, with the CMS detector, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 inverse femtobarns. No significant excess is observed above the background expectation, and upper limits are set on the Higgs boson production cross section. The presence of the standard model Higgs boson with a mass in the 270-440 GeV range is excluded at 95% confidence level.Comment: Submitted to JHE

Isotopic Composition of Light Nuclei in Cosmic Rays: Results from AMS-01

The variety of isotopes in cosmic rays allows us to study different aspects of the processes that cosmic rays undergo between the time they are produced and the time of their arrival in the heliosphere. In this paper we present measurements of the isotopic ratios 2H/4He, 3He/4He, 6Li/7Li, 7Be/(9Be+10Be) and 10B/11B in the range 0.2-1.4 GeV of kinetic energy per nucleon. The measurements are based on the data collected by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, AMS-01, during the STS-91 flight in 1998 June.Comment: To appear in ApJ. 12 pages, 11 figures, 6 table

Measurement of the t t-bar production cross section in the dilepton channel in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The t t-bar production cross section (sigma[t t-bar]) is measured in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV in data collected by the CMS experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2.3 inverse femtobarns. The measurement is performed in events with two leptons (electrons or muons) in the final state, at least two jets identified as jets originating from b quarks, and the presence of an imbalance in transverse momentum. The measured value of sigma[t t-bar] for a top-quark mass of 172.5 GeV is 161.9 +/- 2.5 (stat.) +5.1/-5.0 (syst.) +/- 3.6(lumi.) pb, consistent with the prediction of the standard model.Comment: Replaced with published version. Included journal reference and DO