5,746 research outputs found
"No One Asked Me": Latinos' Experiences With Massachusetts Health Care Reform
Presents lessons from low-income Latinos' experience of the 2006 Massachusetts healthcare reform, with a focus on their understanding of the individual mandate, the role of community groups in the enrollment process, and the affordability of coverage
Coulomb interactions of massless Dirac fermions in graphene; pair-distribution functions and exchange-driven spin-polarized phases
The quasi-2D electrons in graphene behave as massless fermions obeying a
Dirac-Weyl equation in the low-energy regime near the two Fermi points. The
stability of spin-polarized phases (SPP) in graphene is considered. The
exchange energy is evaluated from the analytic pair-distribution functions, and
the correlation energies are estimated via a closely similar four-component 2D
electron fluid which has been investigated previously. SPPs appear for
sufficiently high doping, when the exchange energy alone is considered.
However, the inclusion of correlations is found to {\it suppress} the
spin-phase transition in ideal graphene.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, Revte
Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown aetiology (CKDu) and multiple-ion interactions in drinking water
Recent experimental work on the nephrotoxicity of contaminants in drinking
water using laboratory mice, motivated by the need to understand the origin of
chronic kidney disease of unknown aetiology is examined within our
understanding of the hydration of ions and proteins. Qualitative considerations
based on Hofmeister-type action of these ions, as well as quantitative
electrochemical models for the Gibbs free-energy change for ion-pair formation
are used to explain why Cd in the presence of F and water hardness
due to Mg ions (but not Ca) can be expected to be more
nephrotoxic, while AsO in the presence of F and hardness may be
expected to be less nephrotoxic. The analysis is applied to a variety of ionic
species typically found in water to predict their likely combined
electro-chemical action. These results clarify the origins of chronic kidney
disease in the north-central province of Sri Lanka. The conclusion is further
strengthened by a study of the dietary load of Cd and As, where the dietary
loads are found to be safe, especially when the mitigating effects of
micronutrient ionic forms of Zn and Se, as well as corrections for
bio-availability are taken in to account. The resulting aetiological picture
supports the views that F, Cd (to a lesser extent), and Mg
ions found in stagnant household well water act together with enhanced
toxicity, becoming the most likely causative factor of the disease. Similar
incidence of CKDu found in other tropical climates may have similar geological
origins.Comment: 14 pages, one figur
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