Missing an osteoporotic vertebral fracture

This case illustrates an 80-year-old lady who presented with acute low back pain and finally succumbed from complications of osteoporotic vertebral fracture. Among the contributing factors are delayed diagnosis and a lack of continuity of care. It reminds the practitioners of the importance to look out for red flag symptoms and to have a high index of suspicion for vertebral fracture in high risk patients presenting with low back pain. ©Academy of Family Physicians of Malaysia

Magnetization of Charge-ordered la(2-x)sr(x)nio(4+delta)

We report magnetization measurements on La(2-x)Sr(x)NiO(4+ delta) single crystals, with 0 < x < 0.5. Glassy behaviour associated with the formation of spin-charge stripes, and a separate spin-glass phase at low temperatures were observed. We have also found a `memory effect' in the magnetic field -- temperature history, which is found to be suppressed in the low temperature spin state of the x = 0.33 crystal.Comment: 2 pages, 2 figures. Presented at ICM2003 to appear in J. Magn. Magn. Mat

The Third National Health and Morbidity Survey: Prevalence of obesity, and abdominal obesity among the Malaysian elderly population

Obesity is an emerging public health threat in the elderly population in developing countries. Hence, the Third National Health and Morbidity Survey has assessed 4746 individuals aged 60 years and older recruited through a household survey to determine the prevalence of adiposity using body mass index and waist circumference. The national's prevalence of overweight and obesity in men was 29.2% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 27.2-31.3) and 7.4% (95% CI = 6.4-8.6), respectively. However, the prevalence decreased with age. The figures in women were 30.3% (95% CI = 28.5-32.1) and 13.8% (95% CI = 12.5-15.2), respectively. The prevalence of abdominal obesity was 21.4% (95%CI = 20.2-22.6), with 7.7% (95% CI = 6.7-9.0) in men and 33.4% (95% CI = 31.4-35.3) in women. Predictors of adiposity include the following: Malay and Indian ethnicity, higher education level, higher household income, from urban area, and being married. In conclusion, adiposity affects about one third of the Malaysian elderly population, especially those of the younger age group, women, and those with higher socioeconomic status

Effect of a magnetic field on the spin- and charge-density wave order in La1.45Nd0.4Sr0.15CuO4

The spin-density wave (SDW) and charge-density wave (CDW) order in superconducting La1.45Nd0.4Sr0.15CuO4 were studied under an applied magnetic field using neutron and X-ray diffraction techniques. In zero field, incommensurate (IC) SDW order appears below ~ 40 K, which is characterized by neutron diffraction peaks at (1/2 +/- 0.134, 1/2 +/- 0.134, 0). The intensity of these IC peaks increases rapidly below T_Nd ~ 8 K due to an ordering of the Nd^3+ spins. The application of a 1 T magnetic field parallel to the c-axis markedly diminishes the intensity below T_Nd, while only a slight decrease in intensity is observed at higher temperatures for fields up to 7 T. Our interpretation is that the c-axis field suppresses the parasitic Nd^3+ spin order at the incommensurate wave vector without disturbing the stripe order of Cu^2+ spins. Consistent with this picture, the CDW order, which appears below 60 K, shows no change for magnetic fields up to 4 T. These results stand in contrast to the significant field-induced enhancement of the SDW order observed in superconducting La2-xSrxCuO4 with x ~ 0.12 and stage-4 La2CuO4+y. The differences can be understood in terms of the relative volume fraction exhibiting stripe order in zero field, and the collective results are consistent with the idea that suppression of superconductivity by vortices nucleates local patches of stripe order.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Magnetotransport in the Normal State of La1.85Sr0.15Cu(1-y)Zn(y)O4 Films

We have studied the magnetotransport properties in the normal state for a series of La1.85Sr0.15Cu(1-y)Zn(y)O4 films with values of y, between 0 and 0.12. A variable degree of compressive or tensile strain results from the lattice mismatch between the substrate and the film, and affects the transport properties differently from the influence of the zinc impurities. In particular, the orbital magnetoresistance (OMR) varies with y but is strain-independent. The relations for the resistivity and the Hall angle and the proportionality between the OMR and tan^2 theta are followed about 70 K. We have been able to separate the strain and impurity effects by rewriting the above relations, where each term is strain-independent and depends on y only. We also find that changes in the lattice constants give rise to closely the same fractional changes in other terms of the equation.The OMR is more strongly supressed by the addition of impurities than tan^2 theta. We conclude that the relaxation ratethat governs Hall effect is not the same as for the magnetoresistance. We also suggest a correspondence between the transport properties and the opening of the pseudogap at a temperature which changes when the La-sr ratio changes, but does not change with the addition of the zinc impurities

4f-spin dynamics in La(2-x-y)Sr(x)Nd(y)CuO(4)

We have performed inelastic magnetic neutron scattering experiments on La(2-x-y)Sr(x)Nd(y)CuO(4) in order to study the Nd 4f-spin dynamics at low energies. In all samples we find at high temperatures a quasielastic line (Lorentzian) with a line width which decreases on lowering the temperature. The temperature dependence of the quasielastic line width Gamma/2(T) can be explained with an Orbach-process, i.e. a relaxation via the coupling between crystal field excitations and phonons. At low temperatures the Nd-4f magnetic response S(Q,omega) correlates with the electronic properties of the CuO(2)-layers. In the insulator La(2-y)Nd(y)CuO(4) the quasielastic line vanishes below 80 K and an inelastic excitation occurs. This directly indicates the splitting of the Nd3+ ground state Kramers doublet due to the static antiferromagnetic order of the Cu moments. In La(1.7-x)Sr(x)Nd(0.3)CuO(4) with x = 0.12, 0.15 and La(1.4-x)Sr(x)Nd(0.6)CuO(4) with x = 0.1, 0.12, 0.15, 0.18 superconductivity is strongly suppressed. In these compounds we observe a temperature independent broad quasielastic line of Gaussian shape below T about 30 K. This suggests a distribution of various internal fields on different Nd sites and is interpreted in the frame of the stripe model. In La(1.8-y)Sr(0.2)Nd(y)CuO(4) (y = 0.3, 0.6) such a quasielastic broadening is not observed even at lowest temperature.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures included, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Search for displaced vertices arising from decays of new heavy particles in 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

We present the results of a search for new, heavy particles that decay at a significant distance from their production point into a final state containing charged hadrons in association with a high-momentum muon. The search is conducted in a pp-collision data sample with a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 33 pb^-1 collected in 2010 by the ATLAS detector operating at the Large Hadron Collider. Production of such particles is expected in various scenarios of physics beyond the standard model. We observe no signal and place limits on the production cross-section of supersymmetric particles in an R-parity-violating scenario as a function of the neutralino lifetime. Limits are presented for different squark and neutralino masses, enabling extension of the limits to a variety of other models.Comment: 8 pages plus author list (20 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version to appear in Physics Letters

Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw > 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour, are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017 +/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio

Observation of a new chi_b state in radiative transitions to Upsilon(1S) and Upsilon(2S) at ATLAS

The chi_b(nP) quarkonium states are produced in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector. Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.4 fb^-1, these states are reconstructed through their radiative decays to Upsilon(1S,2S) with Upsilon->mu+mu-. In addition to the mass peaks corresponding to the decay modes chi_b(1P,2P)->Upsilon(1S)gamma, a new structure centered at a mass of 10.530+/-0.005 (stat.)+/-0.009 (syst.) GeV is also observed, in both the Upsilon(1S)gamma and Upsilon(2S)gamma decay modes. This is interpreted as the chi_b(3P) system.Comment: 5 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 1 table, corrected author list, matches final version in Physical Review Letter

Measurement of the inclusive isolated prompt photon cross-section in pp collisions at sqrt(s)= 7 TeV using 35 pb-1 of ATLAS data

A measurement of the differential cross-section for the inclusive production of isolated prompt photons in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy sqrt(s) = 7 TeV is presented. The measurement covers the pseudorapidity ranges |eta|<1.37 and 1.52<=|eta|<2.37 in the transverse energy range 45<=E_T<400GeV. The results are based on an integrated luminosity of 35 pb-1, collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The yields of the signal photons are measured using a data-driven technique, based on the observed distribution of the hadronic energy in a narrow cone around the photon candidate and the photon selection criteria. The results are compared with next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations and found to be in good agreement over four orders of magnitude in cross-section.Comment: 7 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 4 tables, final version published in Physics Letters