1,967 research outputs found
A cold cathode ion source mass spectrometer employing ion counting techniques
Design and construction of mass spectrometer using cold cathode source of ions, quadrupole mass analyzer, and ion counting detector
Reaction rates for Neutron Capture Reactions to C-, N- and O-isotopes to the neutron rich side of stability
The reaction rates of neutron capture reactions on light nuclei are important
for reliably simulating nucleosynthesis in a variety of stellar scenarios.
Neutron capture reaction rates on neutron-rich C-, N-, and O-isotopes are
calculated in the framework of a hybrid compound and direct capture model. The
results are tabulated and compared with the results of previous calculations as
well as with experimental results.Comment: 33 pages (uses revtex) and 9 postscript figures, accepted for
publication in Phys. Rev.
Daptomycin as a possible new treatment option for surgical management of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus sternal wound infection after cardiac surgery
We present a case of a 77-year old female who had undergone a coronary artery bypass grafting with an aortic valve replacement and developed three month later a Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) sternal wound infection which was successful treated with Daptomycin combined with vacuum-assisted closure (VAC)
Quantum tunneling across spin domains in a Bose-Einstein condensate
Quantum tunneling was observed in the decay of metastable spin domains in
gaseous Bose-Einstein condensates. A mean-field description of the tunneling
was developed and compared with measurement. The tunneling rates are a
sensitive probe of the boundary between spin domains, and indicate a spin
structure in the boundary between spin domains which is prohibited in the bulk
fluid. These experiments were performed with optically trapped F=1 spinor
Bose-Einstein condensates of sodium.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
What are the experimentally observable effects of vertex corrections in superconductors?
We calculate the effects of vertex corrections, of non-constant density of
states and of a (self-consistently determined) phonon self-energy for the
Holstein model on a 3D cubic lattice. We replace vertex corrections with a
Coulomb pseudopotential, mu*, adjusted to give the same Tc, and repeat the
calculations, to see which effects are a distinct feature of vertex
corrections. This allows us to determine directly observable effects ofvertex
corrections on a variety of thermodynamic properties of superconductors. To
this end, we employ conserving approximations (in the local approximation) to
calculate the superconducting critical temperatures, isotope coefficients,
superconducting gaps, free-energy differences and thermodynamic critical fields
for a range of parameters. We find that the dressed value of lambda is
significantly larger than the bare value. While vertex corrections can cause
significant changes in all the above quantities (even whenthe bare
electron-phonon coupling is small), the changes can usually be well-modeled by
an appropriate Coulomb pseudopotential. The isotope coefficient proves to be
the quantity that most clearly shows effects of vertex corrections that can not
be mimicked by a mu*.Comment: 28 pages, 12 figure
Staphylococcus aureus infections following knee and hip prosthesis insertion procedures
BackgroundStaphylococcus aureus is the most common and most important pathogen following knee and hip arthroplasty procedures. Understanding the epidemiology of invasive S. aureus infections is important to quantify this serious complication.MethodsThis nested retrospective cohort analysis included adult patients who had undergone insertion of knee or hip prostheses with clean or clean-contaminated wound class at 11 hospitals between 2003–2006. Invasive S. aureus infections, non-superficial incisional surgical site infections (SSIs) and blood stream infections (BSIs), were prospectively identified following each procedure. Prevalence rates, per 100 procedures, were estimated.Results13,719 prosthetic knee (62%) and hip (38%) insertion procedures were performed. Of 92 invasive S. aureus infections identified, SSIs were more common (80%) than SSI and BSI (10%) or BSI alone (10%). The rate of invasive S. aureus infection/100 procedures was 0.57 [95% CI: 0.43-0.73] for knee insertion and 0.83 [95% CI: 0.61-1.08] for hip insertion. More than half (53%) were methicillin-resistant. Median time-to-onset of infection was 34 and 26 days for knee and hip insertion, respectively. Infection was associated with higher National Healthcare Safety Network risk index (p ≤ 0.0001).ConclusionsPost-operative invasive S. aureus infections were rare, but difficult-to-treat methicillin-resistant infections were relatively common. Optimizing preventative efforts may greatly reduce the healthcare burden associated with S. aureus infections
Phase diagram of the one-dimensional extended attractive Hubbard model for large nearest-neighbor repulsion
We consider the extended Hubbard model with attractive on-site interaction U
and nearest-neighbor repulsions V. We construct an effective Hamiltonian
H_{eff} for hopping t<<V and arbitrary U<0. Retaining the most important terms,
H_{eff} can be mapped onto two XXZ models, solved by the Bethe ansatz. The
quantum phase diagram shows two Luttinger liquid phases and a region of phase
separation between them. For density n<0.422 and U<-4, singlet superconducting
correlations dominate at large distances. For some parameters, the results are
in qualitative agreement with experiments in BaKBiO.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
An addressable quantum dot qubit with fault-tolerant control fidelity
Exciting progress towards spin-based quantum computing has recently been made
with qubits realized using nitrogen-vacancy (N-V) centers in diamond and
phosphorus atoms in silicon, including the demonstration of long coherence
times made possible by the presence of spin-free isotopes of carbon and
silicon. However, despite promising single-atom nanotechnologies, there remain
substantial challenges in coupling such qubits and addressing them
individually. Conversely, lithographically defined quantum dots have an
exchange coupling that can be precisely engineered, but strong coupling to
noise has severely limited their dephasing times and control fidelities. Here
we combine the best aspects of both spin qubit schemes and demonstrate a
gate-addressable quantum dot qubit in isotopically engineered silicon with a
control fidelity of 99.6%, obtained via Clifford based randomized benchmarking
and consistent with that required for fault-tolerant quantum computing. This
qubit has orders of magnitude improved coherence times compared with other
quantum dot qubits, with T_2* = 120 mus and T_2 = 28 ms. By gate-voltage tuning
of the electron g*-factor, we can Stark shift the electron spin resonance (ESR)
frequency by more than 3000 times the 2.4 kHz ESR linewidth, providing a direct
path to large-scale arrays of addressable high-fidelity qubits that are
compatible with existing manufacturing technologies
Eosinophilic pneumonia associated with daptomycin: a case report and a review of the literature
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Although several studies did not demonstrate that daptomycin may cause significantly higher rates of pulmonary adverse effects when compared with vancomycin or penicillinase-resistant penicillins, there have been a few case reports of severe pulmonary complications associated with daptomycin administration.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>A rare case of eosinophilic pneumonia occurring 10 days after daptomycin administration in a 78-year-old Caucasian man with possible infectious endocarditis is described. He developed new onset fever, up to 38.5°C, with bilateral pulmonary crackles on physical examination and with no signs of severe respiratory failure. A chest computed tomography-scan showed bilateral nodular consolidations with air bronchograms and pleural effusions. Immediate discontinuation of daptomycin was followed by vigorous improvement of clinical signs and symptoms with progressive resolution of pulmonary consolidations a month later.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Physicians should be aware of this rare but serious complication during daptomycin treatment, and prompt discontinuation of the offending agent, with or without additional supportive treatment, must occur immediately.</p
Quantum-Classical Transition of the Escape Rate of a Uniaxial Spin System in an Arbitrarily Directed Field
The escape rate \Gamma of the large-spin model described by the Hamiltonian H
= -DS_z^2 - H_zS_z - H_xS_x is investigated with the help of the mapping onto a
particle moving in a double-well potential U(x). The transition-state method
yields in the moderate-damping case as a Boltzmann average of the
quantum transition probabilities. We have shown that the transition from the
classical to quantum regimes with lowering temperature is of the first order
(d\Gamma/dT discontinuous at the transition temperature T_0) for h_x below the
phase boundary line h_x=h_{xc}(h_z), where h_{x,z}\equiv H_{x,z}/(2SD), and of
the second order above this line. In the unbiased case (H_z=0) the result is
h_{xc}(0)=1/4, i.e., one fourth of the metastability boundary h_{xm}=1, at
which the barrier disappears. In the strongly biased limit \delta\equiv 1-h_z
<< 1, one has h_{xc} \cong (2/3)^{3/4}(\sqrt{3}-\sqrt{2})\delta^{3/2}\cong
0.2345 \delta^{3/2}, which is about one half of the boundary value h_{xm} \cong
(2\delta/3)^{3/2} \cong 0.5443 \delta^{3/2}.The latter case is relevant for
experiments on small magnetic particles, where the barrier should be lowered to
achieve measurable quantum escape rates.Comment: 17 PR pages, 16 figures; published versio
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