Preterm birth a long distance from home and its significant social and financial stress

The present paper reports a retrospective cohort of preterm infants admitted to our hospital who delivered outside the normal geographical catchment area of the mother's local level three neonatal nursery. Nineteen mothers had 21 preterm infants (23.1-34.9 weeks, 500-2330 g born) where 14 infants required ventilation (median 57 h, range 3-428). Eighteen survivors had a median length of stay of 41 days (range 3-91). Twelve of 19 mothers were interviewed: all described isolation, loneliness, poor social support and significant financial hardship related to getting their infants back to a local hospital or home. To avoid these problems, we recommend confining travel to within a short distance from home or local maternity unit after 22 weeks

Gastroschisis: Ward Reduction Compared With Traditional Reduction Under General Anesthesia

Background/Purpose In gastroschisis it is proposed that gut reduction may be achieved without intubation or general anesthesia (GA) through ward reduction. The authors aimed to determine if ward reduction decreased morbidity and duration of treatment. Methods Infants born from January 1, 1995, to December 31, 2001, with gastroschisis were managed with either reduction under GA in the operating theatre (OT group) - up to September 1999, or ward reduction (when eligible) in the neonatal unit without GA/ventilation (ward reduction [WR] group) - from September 1999. Results Of the 37 infants, 31 were eligible for ward reduction—15 from the OT group, 16 from the WR group. All infants in the OT group had at least 1 episode of ventilation and 1 GA: 62% of infants in the WR group avoided ventilation (P = .0002) and 81% avoided GA (P < .0001). Infants who had ward reduction had significantly shorter durations of ventilation and oxygen therapy. Septicemia occurred in 31% of the WR group and 7% of the OT group (P = .17). Infants who had ward reduction left intensive care 16 days earlier (P = .02) and tended to reach full enteral feeds 8 days sooner (P = .06) and be discharged from hospital 15 days earlier (P = .05). Conclusions Infants who had ward reduction do better in terms of avoiding GA/ventilation, establishing feeds, and going home earlier. A randomized, controlled trial comparing the 2 approaches is feasible, safe, and worthwhile

In the Pursuit of Regolithic Howardites

The HED (Howardite, Eucrite and Diogenite) meteorite clan likely originate from the asteroid 4-Vesta [1]. Howardites (polymict breccias of eucritic and diogenitic material) are believed to originate from the vestan surface, and many contain regolith-like features (impact and/or melt clasts, fragmental breccia clasts, carbonaceous chondrite fragments), which may relate to regolith-formation processes. Noble gas analysis can help determine true regolithic nature, as Solar Wind (SW) is im-planted into grains at the upper-surfaces of solar system bodies lacking an atmosphere or magnetic field. Howardites from Ves-ta s true regolith would thus show evidence for SW components. Thus far, we have identified 5 regolithic howardites: LEW 85313; MET 00423; PRA 04401; SCO 06040 and EET 87513; based on our noble gas analyses, with the latter 3 showing some evidence for a planetary(+SW) component, likely related to CM-like material present in the assemblage [2-5]. However, we did not find a good correlation between SW content and other petro-logic regolithic features. Nor did we find an obvious correlation between SW and high siderophile element contents (Ni greater than 300 micrograms/gram), or an Al2O3 range of 8-9 wt% and eucrite/diogenite (E/D) ratio of 2:1 as suggested by [6] to be further regolith indicators. Here, we report our latest noble gas data for two howardites GRO 95535, GRO 95602 and a polymict eucrite EET 87518 in continuing research aimed at better understanding the vestan regolith. Results: Noble gas analysis was performed on an MAP 215-50 noble gas mass spectrometer using furnace step-heating. Our results, shown in Table 1, are compared with SW- (LEW 85313) and planetary-dominated (PRA 04401 ~60% CM) howardites [2]. EET 87518 is dominated by cosmogenic components. By comparison, both howardites show strong evidence for SW, with total Ne-20/Ne-22 ~8.7-8.8 (SW: Ne-20/Ne-22 13.78 [7]), and identical release patterns to our other CM-poor SW-rich samples. This suggests that these samples are from the vestan regolith. As they have lower Ni contents than suggested by [6], this further illustrates that these parameters may show some bias [2]

Composition and Petrology of HED Polymict Breccias: The Regolith of (4) Vesta

The polymict breccias of the howardite, eucrite and diogenite (HED) clan of meteorites preserve records of regolith processes that occur on Vesta, their putative home world. These breccias -- howardites, polymict eucrites and polymict diogenites -- are impact-engendered mixtures of diogenites and eucrites. The compositions of polymict breccias can be used to constrain the lithologic diversity of the vestan crust and the excavation depths of these materials. We have done petrological and compositional studies of multiple samples of 5 polymict eucrites and 28 howardites to investigate these issues. Older analyses were done on samples of approx 0.5 gram mass by INAA; newer analyses on samples of approx 5 gram mass by XRF and ICP-MS. We estimate the percentage of eucritic material (POEM) of polymict breccias by comparing their Al and/or Ca contents to those of average basaltic eucrite and diogenite. Our samples have POEM ranging from 28 to 98; adding two polymict diogenites from extends the range to POEM 10. One hypothesis is that ancient, well-mixed vestan regolith has POEM approx 67 and has a higher content of admixed impactor material. Several of our howardites have POEM of 59-74 (Al and/or Ca contents +/- 10% of POEM 67); about a third have Ni contents >300 micro g/g suggesting they contain >2% chondritic material (CM and/or CR). These may be regolithic howardites. Only one (LEW 85313) contains Ne dominated by a solar wind (SW) component. PCA 02066 is dominated by impact-melt material of polymict parentage and petrologically appears to be a mature regolith breccia, yet it does not contain SW-Ne. GRO 95602 falls within the POEM window, contains SW-Ne], yet has a Ni content of 193 micro g/g. Its petrologic characteristics suggest it was formed from immature regolith (no polymict breccia clasts; no glass). Trace element characteristics of the polymict breccias demonstrate the dominance of main-group eucrites as the basaltic component. Mixing diagrams of Zr, Nb, Ba, Hf and Ta with Al show no evidence for a significant contribution from Stannern-trend eucrites. An exception is polymict eucrite LEW 86001 (POEM 92), which is dominated by Stannern-trend basaltic debris. Howardite LAP 04838 (POEM 84) has higher incompatible trace concentrations than other polymict breccias (excluding LEW 86001), and either contains a Stannern-trend basaltic component, or has a significant contributions from evolved eucrites like Nuevo Laredo

Observations of High-Redshift X-Ray Selected Clusters with the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Array

We report measurements of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect in three high-redshift (0.89 ≤ z ≤ 1.03), X-ray selected galaxy clusters. The observations were obtained at 30 GHz during the commissioning period of a new, eight-element interferometer—the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Array (SZA)—built for dedicated SZ effect observations. The SZA observations are sensitive to angular scales larger than those subtended by the virial radii of the clusters. Assuming isothermality and hydrostatic equilibrium for the intracluster medium and gas-mass fractions consistent with those for clusters at moderate redshift, we calculate electron temperatures, gas masses, and total cluster masses from the SZ data. The SZ-derived masses, integrated approximately to the virial radii, are 1.9^(+0.5)_(-0.4) × 10^(14) M_☉ for Cl J1415.1+3612, 3.4^(+0.6)_(-0.5) × 10^(14) M_☉ for Cl J1429.0+4241, and 7.2^(+1.3)_(-0.9) × 10^(14) M_☉ for Cl J1226.9+3332. The SZ-derived quantities are in good agreement with the cluster properties derived from X-ray measurements

The distribution of extremal points of Gaussian scalar fields

We consider the signed density of the extremal points of (two-dimensional) scalar fields with a Gaussian distribution. We assign a positive unit charge to the maxima and minima of the function and a negative one to its saddles. At first, we compute the average density for a field in half-space with Dirichlet boundary conditions. Then we calculate the charge-charge correlation function (without boundary). We apply the general results to random waves and random surfaces. Furthermore, we find a generating functional for the two-point function. Its Legendre transform is the integral over the scalar curvature of a 4-dimensional Riemannian manifold.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figures, corrected published versio

Adjuvant Pluronic F68 is Compatible With a Plant Root-Colonizing Probiotic, \u3ci\u3ePseudomonas chlororaphis\u3c/i\u3e O6

Plant probiotic bacteria are being increasingly used to maximize both the productivity and quality of field crops. Pseudomonas chlororaphis O6 (PcO6) is a plant root colonizer with probiotic activities. This bacterium produces an array of metabolites, including a group of phenazines that are functional in plant protection. The paper reports responses of PcO6 to a nonionic triblock copolymer surfactant, Pluronic F68. This Pluronic exhibits membrane healing activity and improves cryopreservation recovery in eukaryotic cells. The product is FDA-approved and is applied as an adjuvant in formulations used in agriculture, medicine, and biotechnology. Growth of PcO6 on lysogeny broth at 25 °C was unhindered by 0.1 and 1.0 g/L F68, reduced at 10 g/L, and with significant inhibition at 100 g/L F68; micelle formation could account for inhibited growth at higher doses. Phenazine production was not changed by F68, whereas the surfactant activity of F68 induced the spread of bacterial colonization on 0.5% agar. Exposure of cells to fluorescein-labeled F68 resulted in intense fluorescence, stable to washing, showing a direct association of the Pluronic with the bacterium. However, neither protection nor harm was found for PcO6 cells suspended in either 0.1% or 1% F68 after three freeze (–20 °C)/thaw cycles. These findings suggest that F68 could be compatible for use in agricultural formulations with little effect on probiotics such as PcO6

Search for CP Violation in the Decay Z -> b (b bar) g

About three million hadronic decays of the Z collected by ALEPH in the years 1991-1994 are used to search for anomalous CP violation beyond the Standard Model in the decay Z -> b \bar{b} g. The study is performed by analyzing angular correlations between the two quarks and the gluon in three-jet events and by measuring the differential two-jet rate. No signal of CP violation is found. For the combinations of anomalous CP violating couplings, ${\hat{h}}_b = {\hat{h}}_{Ab}g_{Vb}-{\hat{h}}_{Vb}g_{Ab}$ and $h^{\ast}_b = \sqrt{\hat{h}_{Vb}^{2}+\hat{h}_{Ab}^{2}}$, limits of \hat{h}_b < 0.59$and$h^{\ast}_{b} < 3.02$ are given at 95\% CL.Comment: 8 pages, 1 postscript figure, uses here.sty, epsfig.st

Radio Astronomy

Contains table of contents for Section 4 and reports on seven research projects.National Science Foundation Grant AST 92-24191MIT Class of 1948/Career Development ChairNational Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator AwardDavid and Lucile Packard FellowshipMIT Lincoln Laboratory Agreement BX-4975National Aeronautics and Space Administration/Goddard Space Flight Center Grant NAS5-31276National Aeronautics and Space Administration/Goddard Space Flight Center Grant NAG5-10MIT Leaders for Manufacturing Progra