Beam Dynamics of Qi Storage Rings

This research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation Grant NSF PHY-931478

Theory-based behavioral change interventions to improve periodontal health

Periodontal disease is a significant global health burden affecting half of the world's population. Given that plaque and inflammation control are essential to the attainment of periodontal health, recent trends in preventive dentistry have focused on the use of behavioral models to understand patient psychology and promote self-care and treatment compliance. In addition to their uses in classifying, explaining and predicting oral hygiene practices, behavioral models have been adopted in the design of oral hygiene interventions from individual to population levels. Despite the growing focus on behavioral modification in dentistry, the currently available evidence in the field of periodontology is scarce, and interventions have primarily measured changes in patient beliefs or performance in oral hygiene behaviors. Few studies have measured their impact on clinical outcomes, such as plaque levels, gingival bleeding and periodontal pocket reduction, which serve as indicators of the patient's disease status and quality of oral self-care. The present narrative review aims to summarize selected literature on the use of behavioral models to improve periodontal outcomes. A search was performed on existing behavioral models used to guide dental interventions to identify their use in interventions measuring periodontal parameters. The main models were identified and subsequently grouped by their underlying theoretical area of focus: patient beliefs (health belief model and cognitive behavioral principles); stages of readiness to change (precaution adoption process model and transtheoretical model); planning behavioral change (health action process approach model, theory of planned behavior and client self-care commitment model); and self-monitoring (self-regulation theory). Key constructs of each model and the findings of associated interventions were described. The COM-B model, a newer behavioral change system that has been increasingly used to guide interventions and policy changes, is discussed with reference to its use in oral health settings. Within the limitations of the available evidence, interventions addressing patient beliefs, motivation, intention and self-regulation could lead to improved outcomes in periodontal health. Direct comparisons between interventions could not be made due to differences in protocol design, research populations and follow-up periods. The conclusions of this review assist clinicians with implementing psychological interventions for oral hygiene promotion and highlight the need for additional studies on the clinical effects of behavioral model-based interventions

Viral Loads in Clinical Specimens and SARS Manifestations

The number of anatomical sites with detectable viral loads by RT-qPCR appeared to correlate with death risk

Danggui Buxue Tang – A Chinese herbal decoction activates the phosphorylations of extracellular signal-regulated kinase and estrogen receptor α in cultured MCF-7 cells

AbstractDanggui Buxue Tang (DBT), a Chinese herbal decoction used to treat ailments in women, contains Radix Astragali (Huangqi; RA) and Radix Angelicae Sinensis (Danggui; RAS). The weight ratio of RA to RAS used in DBT must be 5:1 as stipulated as early as AD 1247; however, DBT’s mechanism of action has never been described. Here, the estrogenic effects of DBT were investigated by determining the phosphorylations of estrogen receptor α (ERα) and extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (Erk1/2) in cultured MCF-7 cells. The application of DBT triggered the phosphorylation of ERα and Erk1/2 in a time-dependent manner. In contrast to the effect of estrogen, DBT triggered ERα phosphorylation at both S118 and S167. This DBT-specific phosphorylation was not triggered by an extract of one of the individual herbs, or by mixing the extracts of RA and RAS. DBT-induced downstream signals are described here. These signals suggest the uniqueness of this Chinese herbal decoction that requires a well-defined formulation

Measurement of Cosmic-ray Muon-induced Spallation Neutrons in the Aberdeen Tunnel Underground Laboratory

AbstractMuon-induced neutrons are one of the major backgrounds to various underground experiments, such as dark matter searches, low-energy neutrino oscillation experiments and neutrino-less double beta-decay experiments. Previous experiments on the underground production rate of muon-induced neutrons were mostly carried out either at shallow sites or at very deep sites. The Aberdeen Tunnel experiment aims to measure the neutron production rate at a moderate depth of 611 meters water equivalent. Our apparatus comprises of six layers of plastic-scintillator hodoscopes for tracking the incident cosmic-ray muons, and 760 L of gadolinium-doped liquid-scintillator for both neutron production and detection targets. In this paper, we describe the design and the performance of the apparatus. The preliminary result on the measurement of neutron production rate is also presented

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