Persimmon

Short publication covering culture, management, and harvest of persimmon in Hawaii

Nanoscale surface domain formation on the +z face of lithium niobate by pulsed UV laser illumination

Single-crystal congruent lithium niobate samples have been illuminated on the +z crystal face by pulsed ultraviolet laser wavelengths below (248 nm) and around (298-329 nm) the absorption edge. Following exposure, etching with hydrofluoric acid reveals highly regular precise domain-like features of widths ~150-300 nm, exhibiting distinct three-fold symmetry. Examination of illuminated unetched areas by scanning force microscopy shows a corresponding contrast in piezoelectric response. These observations indicate the formation of nanoscale ferroelectric surface domains, whose depth has been measured via focused ion beam milling to be ~2 micron. We envisage this direct optical poling technique as a viable route to precision domain-engineered structures for waveguide and other surface applications

Movement profile influences systemic stress and biomechanical resilience to high training load exposure

Objectives: Determine the influence of movement profile on systemic stress and mechanical loading before and after high training load exposure. Design: Cross-sectional cohort study. Methods: 43 physically active, college-aged field or court sport female athletes participated in this study. Participants were assigned to a “excellent” (n = 22; age = 20.5 ± 1.9 yrs, height = 1.67 ± 0.67 m, mass = 64.5 ± 7.8 kg) or “poor” (n = 21; age = 20.4 ± 1.3 yrs, height = 1.69 ± 0.67 m, mass = 60.9 ± 6.1 kg) movement group defined by The Landing Error Scoring System. Participants completed five cycles of high training load exercise of 5-min treadmill-running at a speed coincident with 100–120% ventilatory threshold and 10 jump-landings from a 30-cm box. Jump-landing vertical ground reaction force and serum cortisol were evaluated prior to and following exercise. Vertical ground reaction force ensemble averages and 95% confidence interval waveforms were generated for pre-exercise, post-exercise, and pre-post exercise changes. A two-way mixed model ANOVA was used to evaluate the effect of movement profile on systemic stress before and after exercise. Results: There was no significant difference in changes in serum cortisol between the poor and excellent groups (p = 0.69) in response to exercise. Overall, individuals in the poor group exhibited a higher serum cortisol level (p < 0.05, d = 0.85 [0.19,1.48]). The poor group exhibited higher magnitude vertical ground reaction force prior to (d = 1.02–1.26) and after exercise (d = 1.15) during a majority of the stance phase. Conclusions: Individuals with poor movement profiles experience greater mechanical loads compared to individuals with excellent movement profiles. A poor movement profile is associated with greater overall concentrations of circulating cortisol, representative of greater systemic stress

Biological anthropology in the Indo-Pacific Region: New approaches to age-old questions

Biological anthropological research, the study of both modern and past humans, is a burgeoning field in the Indo-Pacific region. It is becoming increasingly apparent that the unique environments of the Indo-Pacific have resulted in an archaeological record that does not necessarily align with those in the northern hemisphere. New, regionally-specific archaeological models are being developed, and biological anthropological research has an important role to play in establishing past human experience within these models. In the Indo-Pacific, research using ancient and modern human tissues is adding insight into global processes of prehistoric settlement and migrations, subsistence change and human biosocial adaptation. This review synthesises current themes in biological anthropology in this region. It highlights the diverse methods and approaches used by biological anthropologists to address globally-relevant archaeological questions. In recent decades a collaborative approach between archaeologists, biological anthropologists and local communities has become the norm in the region. The many positive outcomes of this multi-disciplinary approach are highlighted here through the use of regionally-specific case studies. This review ultimately aims to stimulate further collaborations between archaeologists, biological anthropologists and the communities in the region, and demonstrate how the evidence from Indo-Pacific research may be relevant to global archaeological models

Women, men and coronary heart disease: a review of the qualitative literature

Aim. This paper presents a review of the qualitative literature which examines the experiences of patients with coronary heart disease. The paper also assesses whether the experiences of both female and male patients are reflected in the literature and summarizes key themes. Background. Understanding patients' experiences of their illness is important for coronary heart disease prevention and education. Qualitative methods are particularly suited to eliciting patients' detailed understandings and perceptions of illness. As much previous research has been 'gender neutral', this review pays particular attention to gender. Methods. Published papers from 60 qualitative studies were identified for the review through searches in MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PREMEDLINE, PsychINFO, Social Sciences Citation Index and Web of Science using keywords related to coronary heart disease. Findings. Early qualitative studies of patients with coronary heart disease were conducted almost exclusively with men, and tended to generalize from 'male' experience to 'human' experience. By the late 1990s this pattern had changed, with the majority of studies including women and many being conducted with solely female samples. However, many studies that include both male and female coronary heart disease patients still do not have a specific gender focus. Key themes in the literature include interpreting symptoms and seeking help, belief about coronary 'candidates' and relationships with health professionals. The influence of social roles is important: many female patients have difficulties reconciling family responsibilities and medical advice, while male patients worry about being absent from work. Conclusions. There is a need for studies that compare the experiences of men and women. There is also an urgent need for work that takes masculinity and gender roles into account when exploring the experiences of men with coronary heart disease

Validation of a 5-Year Mortality Prediction Model among U.S. Medicare Beneficiaries

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: A claims-based model predicting 5-year mortality (Lund-Lewis) was developed in a 2008 cohort of North Carolina (NC) Medicare beneficiaries and included indicators of comorbid conditions, frailty, disability, and functional impairment. The objective of this study was to validate the Lund-Lewis model externally within a nationwide sample of Medicare beneficiaries. DESIGN: Retrospective validation study. SETTING: U.S. Medicare population. PARTICIPANTS: From a random sample of Medicare beneficiaries, we created four annual cohorts from 2008 to 2011 of individuals aged 66 and older with an office visit in that year. The annual cohorts ranged from 1.13 to 1.18 million beneficiaries. MEASUREMENTS: The outcome was 5-year all-cause mortality. We assessed clinical indicators in the 12 months before the qualifying office visit and estimated predicted 5-year mortality for each beneficiary in the nationwide sample by applying estimates derived in the original NC cohort. Model performance was assessed by quantifying discrimination, calibration, and reclassification metrics compared with a model fit on a comorbidity score. RESULTS: Across the annual cohorts, 5-year mortality ranged from 24.4% to 25.5%. The model had strong discrimination (C-statistics ranged across cohorts from.823 to.826). Reclassification measures showed improvement over a comorbidity score model for beneficiaries who died but reduced performance among beneficiaries who survived. The calibration slope ranged from.83 to.86; the model generally predicted a higher risk than observed. CONCLUSION: The Lund-Lewis model showed strong and consistent discrimination in a national U.S. Medicare sample, although calibration indicated slight overfitting. Future work should investigate methods for improving model calibration and evaluating performance within specific disease settings

MTBVAC vaccination protects rhesus macaques against aerosol challenge with M. tuberculosis and induces immune signatures analogous to those observed in clinical studies

A single intradermal vaccination with MTBVAC given to adult rhesus macaques was well tolerated and conferred a significant improvement in outcome following aerosol exposure to M. tuberculosis compared to that provided by a single BCG vaccination. Vaccination with MTBVAC resulted in a significant reduction in M. tuberculosis infection-induced disease pathology measured using in vivo medical imaging, in gross pathology lesion counts and pathology scores recorded at necropsy, the frequency and severity of pulmonary granulomas and the frequency of recovery of viable M. tuberculosis from extrapulmonary tissues following challenge. The immune profiles induced following immunisation with MTBVAC reflect those identified in human clinical trials of MTBVAC. Evaluation of MTBVAC- and TB peptide-pool-specific T-cell cytokine production revealed a predominantly Th1 response from poly- (IFN-¿+TNF-a+IL2+) and multi-(IFN-¿+TNF-a+) functional CD4 T cells, while only low levels of Th22, Th17 and cytokine-producing CD8 T-cell populations were detected together with low-level, but significant, increases in CFP10-specific IFN-¿ secreting cells. In this report, we describe concordance between immune profiles measured in clinical trials and a macaque pre-clinical study demonstrating significantly improved outcome after M. tuberculosis challenge as evidence to support the continued development of MTBVAC as an effective prophylactic vaccine for TB vaccination campaigns

Quasiparticle Interactions in Fractional Quantum Hall Systems: Justification of Different Hierarchy Schemes

The pseudopotentials describing the interactions of quasiparticles in fractional quantum Hall (FQH) states are studied. Rules for the identification of incompressible quantum fluid ground states are found, based upon the form of the pseudopotentials. States belonging to the Jain sequence nu=n/(1+2pn), where n and p are integers, appear to be the only incompressible states in the thermodynamic limit, although other FQH hierarchy states occur for finite size systems. This explains the success of the composite Fermion picture.Comment: RevTeX, 10 pages, 7 EPS figures, submitted fo Phys.Rev.

Green functions for generalized point interactions in 1D: A scattering approach

Recently, general point interactions in one dimension has been used to model a large number of different phenomena in quantum mechanics. Such potentials, however, requires some sort of regularization to lead to meaningful results. The usual ways to do so rely on technicalities which may hide important physical aspects of the problem. In this work we present a new method to calculate the exact Green functions for general point interactions in 1D. Our approach differs from previous ones because it is based only on physical quantities, namely, the scattering coefficients, $R$ and $T$, to construct $G$. Renormalization or particular mathematical prescriptions are not invoked. The simple formulation of the method makes it easy to extend to more general contexts, such as for lattices of $N$ general point interactions; on a line; on a half-line; under periodic boundary conditions; and confined in a box.Comment: Revtex, 9 pages, 3 EPS figures. To be published in PR