The deuteron: structure and form factors

A brief review of the history of the discovery of the deuteron in provided. The current status of both experiment and theory for the elastic electron scattering is then presented.Comment: 80 pages, 33 figures, submited to Advances in Nuclear Physic

Can environment or allergy explain international variation in prevalence of wheeze in childhood?

Asthma prevalence in children varies substantially around the world, but the contribution of known risk factors to this international variation is uncertain. The International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) Phase Two studied 8–12 year old children in 30 centres worldwide with parent-completed symptom and risk factor questionnaires and aeroallergen skin prick testing. We used multilevel logistic regression modelling to investigate the effect of adjustment for individual and ecological risk factors on the between-centre variation in prevalence of recent wheeze. Adjustment for single individual-level risk factors changed the centre-level variation from a reduction of up to 8.4% (and 8.5% for atopy) to an increase of up to 6.8%. Modelling the 11 most influential environmental factors among all children simultaneously, the centre-level variation changed little overall (2.4% increase). Modelling only factors that decreased the variance, the 6 most influential factors (synthetic and feather quilt, mother’s smoking, heating stoves, dampness and foam pillows) in combination resulted in a 21% reduction in variance. Ecological (centre-level) risk factors generally explained higher proportions of the variation than did individual risk factors. Single environmental factors and aeroallergen sensitisation measured at the individual (child) level did not explain much of the between-centre variation in wheeze prevalence

Impact of Self-Assembly Composition on the Alternate Interfacial Electron Transfer for Electrostatically Immobilized Cytochrome C

We report on the effects of self-assembled monolayer (SAM) dilution and thickness on the electron transfer (ET) event for cytochrome c (CytC) electrostatically immobilized on carboxyl terminated groups. We observed biphasic kinetic behavior for a logarithmic dependence of the rate constant on the SAM carbon number (ET distance) within the series of mixed SAMs of C5COOH/ C2OH, C10COOH/C6OH, and C15COOH/C11OH that is in overall similar to that found earlier for the undiluted SAM assemblies. However, in the case of C15COOH/C11OH and C10COOH/C6OH mixed SAMs a notable increase of the ET standard rate constant was observed, in comparison with the corresponding unicomponent (x–COOH) SAMs. In the case of the C5COOH/C2OH composite SAM a decrease of the rate constant versus the unicomponent analogue was observed. The value of the reorganization free energy deduced through the Marcuslike data analysis did not change throughout the series;this fact along with the other observations indicates uncomplicated rate-determining unimolecular ET in all cases. Our results are consistent with a model that considers a changeover between the alternate, tunneling and adiabatic intrinsic ET mechanisms. The physical mechanism behind the observed fine kinetic effects in terms of the protein-rigidifying x–COOH/CytC interactions arising in the case of mixed SAMs are also discussed

An integrated approach for the surgical treatment of patients with primary hyperparathyroidism

This paper presents the treatment results of 75 patients with primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) caused by a solitary parathyroid adenoma (SPA). Patients in Group 1 had PHPT with concomitant diseases of the thy roid gland (TG). Group 2 consisted of patients with PHPT without thyroid disease. Group 3 included patients with PHPT and concurrent diseases of the parathyroid glands (PG) and thyroid gland, which were operated on without the use of the proposed integrated approach. Patients in groups 1 and 2 were operated on using the following techniques. Patients in group 1 underwent surgery usinga traditional incision with photodynamic visualization (PV) of the PG and exposure of the recur rent and superior laryngeal nerves (LN) (in some cases with the use of magnifying devices and neuromyog raphy). Patients in group 2 underwent surgery with minimally invasive access, utilizingendoscopic video devices and the universal retractor “Multifiks1”. During the intervention,PVof the PG and electrophysiolog ical monitoring (EM)of the recurrent LN were carried out. In groups 1 and 2, adequacy of the operationwas determined by the change in the level of intraoperative parathyroid hormone (PTH) and ionized calcium before and after the removal of the PG. Our proposed integrated method for the treatment of patients with PHPT allowed for a significant reduction in the risk of postoperative complications and consequently an improvement in quality of life