Feasibility and Acceptability of an English-as-a-Second Language Curriculum on Hepatitis B for Older Chinese American Immigrants

Asian immigrants to the U.S. have an increased prevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection compared to native born individuals; an estimated 10 percent of Chinese immigrants are infected with HBV. Using qualitative data from focus groups, we developed an English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) curriculum that aimed to improve knowledge about key hepatitis B facts. The curriculum was pilot-tested among 56 students aged 50 and older from intermediate-level ESL classes at a community-based organization that serves Chinese immigrants. Post-curriculum data showed increases in knowledge that hepatitis B can cause liver cancer (73% at pre-test vs. 91% at post-test; p value = 0.01) and that individuals can be infected with hepatitis B for life (34% vs. 81%; p valu

Tailoring optical fields emitted by nanometric sources

Here we study a simple way of controlling the emitted fields of sub-wavelength nanometric sources. The system consists of arrays of nanoparticles (NPs) embedded in optical active media. The key concept is the careful tuning of NP's damping factors, which changes the eigenmode's decay rates of the whole array. This, at long time, leads to a locking of relative phases and frequencies of individual localized-surfaces-plasmons (LSPs) and, thus, controlls the emitted field. The amplitude of the LSP's oscillations can be kept constant by embedding the system in optical active media. In the case of full loss compensation, this implies that, not only the relative phases, but also the amplitudes of the LSPs remain fixed, leading us, additionally, to interpret the process as a new example of synchronization. The proposed approach can be used as a general way of controlling and designing the electromagnetic fields emitted by nanometric sources, which can find applications in optoelectronic, nanoscale lithography and probing microscopy

Pressure dependence of the Shubnikov-de Haas oscillation pectrum of beta''-(BEDT-TTF)4(NH4)[Cr(C2O4)3].DMF

The Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) oscillation spectra of the beta''-(BEDT-TTF)4(NH4)[Cr(C2O4)\_3].DMF organic metal have been studied in pulsed magnetic fields of up to either 36 T at ambient pressure or 50 T under hydrostatic pressures of up to 1 GPa. The ambient pressure SdH oscillation spectra can be accounted for by up to six fundamental frequencies which points to a rather complex Fermi surface (FS). A noticeable pressure-induced modification of the FS topology is evidenced since the number of frequencies observed in the spectra progressively decreases as the pressure increases. Above 0.8 GPa, only three compensated orbits are observed, as it is the case for several other isostructural salts of the same family at ambient pressure. Contrary to other organic metals, of which the FS can be regarded as a network of orbits, no frequency combinations are observed for the studied salt, likely due to high magnetic breakdown gap values or (and) high disorder level evidenced by Dingle temperatures as large as about 7 K.Comment: To be published in European Physical Journal

Estimating The Costs And Cost-effectiveness Of Promoting Mammography Screening Among US-based Latinas

Purpose: We characterize the costs and cost-effectiveness of a community health worker (CHW)-based intervention to promote screening mammography among US-based non-adherent Latinas. Methods: The parent study was a randomized controlled trial for 536 Latinas aged 42-74 years old who had sought care within a safety net health center in Western Washington. Participants were block-randomized within clinic to the control arm (usual care) or intervention arm (CHW-led motivational interviewing intervention). We used the perspective of the organization implementing promotional activities to characterize costs and cost-effectiveness. Cost data were categorized as program set-up and maintenance (initial training, booster/annual training) program implementation (administrative activities, intervention delivery); and, overhead/miscellaneous expenses. Cost-effectiveness was calculated as the incremental cost of screening for each additional woman screened between the intervention and control arms. Results: The respective costs per participant for standard care and the intervention arm were $69.96 and$300.99. There were no study arm differences in 1-year QALYs among women who completed a 12-month follow-up survey (intervention= 0.8827, standard care = 0.8841). Most costs pertained to program implementation and administrative activities specifically. The incremental cost per additional woman screened was $2,595.32. Conclusions: Our findings are within the ranges of costs and cost-effectiveness for other CHW programs to promote screening mammography among underserved populations. Our strong study design and focus on non-adherent women provides important strengths to this body of work, especially give implementation and dissemination science efforts regarding CHW-based health promotion for health disparity populations

Weak ferromagnetism with very large canting in a chiral lattice: (pyrimidine)2FeCl2

The transition metal coordination compound (pyrimidine)2FeCl2 crystallizes in a chiral lattice, space group I 4_1 2 2 (or I4_3 2 2). Combined magnetization, Mossbauer spectroscopy and powder neutron diffraction studies reveal that it is a canted antiferromagnet below T_N = 6.4 K with an unusually large canting of the magnetic moments of 14 deg. from their general antiferromagnetic alignment, one of the largest reported to date. This results in weak ferromagnetism with a ferromagnetic component of 1 mu_B. The large canting is due to the interplay between the antiferromagnetic exchange interaction and the local single-ion anisotropy in the chiral lattice. The magnetically ordered structure of (pyrimidine)2FeCl2, however, is not chiral. The implications of these findings for the search of molecule based materials exhibiting chiral magnetic ordering is discussed.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure