13,268 research outputs found
Media Coverage of EPA\u27s Draft Dioxin Reassessment Report
Using content analysis, the authors examine the utility of news media in democratic decision making
Injury in Ireland
Injury mortality is the fourth commonest cause of death in Ireland. The treatment of injuries has a major impact on our hospitals and on our budget for health. Long term disability following accidents is a serious problem. The aim of this report is to examine the impact of accidents and
injuries on the Irish population by analysing routine mortality and morbidity data, and to identify in turn those areas where preventive measures could have an impact.
In Section One the literature review details the advantages and disadvantages of each type of routine data source used in this report. The interpretation of data should take account of the constraints of the available data collected. The usefulness of routine data collection is highlighted,
while identifying areas for improvement.
In Section Two the methodology employed in the study is detailed. In Section Three data on hospital admissions over a five-year period 1993-1997 are presented. An overview of injury admissions is presented, followed by further analysis of injury data by both cause and by age
group. In Section Four data on all accident-related deaths over a 17-year period, 1980-1996, are presented, with overall mortality data and mortality data by age group and by major causes of injury death detailed.
In Section Five comparisons are made between the eight health board regions for rates of admissions and deaths due to injury.
In presenting the data we use a matrix format devised and recommended by the International Collaborative Effort on Injury Statistics to display injury simultaneously by cause and intent. The use of a common format will also facilitate regional and international comparisons.
In Section Six the priority recommendations for injury prevention are outlined. The key findings are then discussed and further recommendations are presented with the aim of injury prevention, reduction of disability and improvement in injury surveillance
Can we evaluate population screening strategies in UK general practice? A pilot randomised controlled trial comparing postal and opportunistic screening for genital chlamydial infection
STUDY OBJECTIVE: To assess whether opportunistic and postal screening strategies for Chlamydia trachomatis can be compared with usual care in a randomised trial in general practice
DESIGN: Feasibility study for a randomised controlled trial.
SETTING: Three West of Scotland general medical practices: one rural, one urban/deprived and one urban/affluent.
PARTICIPANTS: 600 women aged 16-30 years, 200 from each of three participating practices selected at random from a sample of West of Scotland practices that had expressed interest in the study. The women could opt out of the study. Those who did not were randomly assigned to one of three groups: postal screening, opportunistic screening or usual care.
MAIN RESULTS: 38% (85/221) of the approached practices expressed interest in the study. Data were collected successfully from the 3 participating practices, although intensive support was required. There were considerable workload implications for staff, both in relation to implementing the screening strategies and managing the research process.
124 of the 600 women opted out of the study. During the four-month study period, 55% (81/146) of the control group attended their practice but none was offered screening. 59% (80/136) women in the opportunistic group attended their practice of whom 55% (44/80) were offered screening. Of those, 64% (28/44) accepted, representing 21% of the opportunistic group. 48% (59/124) of the postal group returned samples.
CONCLUSION: A randomised controlled trial comparing postal and opportunistic screening for chlamydial infection in general practice is feasible, though resource intensive. There may be problems with generalising from screening trials in which patients may opt out from the offer of screening
Observation of a dissipative phase transition in a one-dimensional circuit QED lattice
Condensed matter physics has been driven forward by significant experimental
and theoretical progress in the study and understanding of equilibrium phase
transitions based on symmetry and topology. However, nonequilibrium phase
transitions have remained a challenge, in part due to their complexity in
theoretical descriptions and the additional experimental difficulties in
systematically controlling systems out of equilibrium. Here, we study a
one-dimensional chain of 72 microwave cavities, each coupled to a
superconducting qubit, and coherently drive the system into a nonequilibrium
steady state. We find experimental evidence for a dissipative phase transition
in the system in which the steady state changes dramatically as the mean photon
number is increased. Near the boundary between the two observed phases, the
system demonstrates bistability, with characteristic switching times as long as
60 ms -- far longer than any of the intrinsic rates known for the system. This
experiment demonstrates the power of circuit QED systems for studying
nonequilibrium condensed matter physics and paves the way for future
experiments exploring nonequilbrium physics with many-body quantum optics
Lessons from crossing symmetry at large N
20 pages, v2: Assumptions stated more clearly, version published in JHEPWe consider the four-point correlator of the stress tensor multiplet in N=4 SYM. We construct all solutions consistent with crossing symmetry in the limit of large central charge c ~ N^2 and large g^2 N. While we find an infinite tower of solutions, we argue most of them are suppressed by an extra scale \Delta_{gap} and are consistent with the upper bounds for the scaling dimension of unprotected operators observed in the numerical superconformal bootstrap at large central charge. These solutions organize as a double expansion in 1/c and 1/\Delta_{gap}. Our solutions are valid to leading order in 1/c and to all orders in 1/\Delta_{gap} and reproduce, in particular, instanton corrections previously found. Furthermore, we find a connection between such upper bounds and positivity constraints arising from causality in flat space. Finally, we show that certain relations derived from causality constraints for scattering in AdS follow from crossing symmetry.Peer reviewe
IVOA Recommendation: SAMP - Simple Application Messaging Protocol Version 1.3
SAMP is a messaging protocol that enables astronomy software tools to
interoperate and communicate.
IVOA members have recognised that building a monolithic tool that attempts to
fulfil all the requirements of all users is impractical, and it is a better use
of our limited resources to enable individual tools to work together better.
One element of this is defining common file formats for the exchange of data
between different applications. Another important component is a messaging
system that enables the applications to share data and take advantage of each
other's functionality. SAMP builds on the success of a prior messaging
protocol, PLASTIC, which has been in use since 2006 in over a dozen astronomy
applications and has proven popular with users and developers. It is also
intended to form a framework for more general messaging requirements
Implications of CoGeNT and DAMA for Light WIMP Dark Matter
In this paper, we study the recent excess of low energy events observed by
the CoGeNT collaboration, and discuss the possibility that these events
originate from the elastic scattering of a light (m_DM ~ 5-10 GeV) dark matter
particle. We find that such a dark matter candidate may also be capable of
generating the annual modulation reported by DAMA, as well as the small excess
recently reported by CDMS, without conflicting with the null results from other
experiments, such as XENON10. A dark matter interpretation of the CoGeNT and
DAMA observations favors a region of parameter space that is especially
attractive within the context of Asymmetric Dark Matter models. In such models,
the cosmological dark matter density arises from the baryon asymmetry of the
universe, naturally leading to the expectation that m_DM ~ 1-10 GeV. We also
discuss neutralino dark matter from extended supersymmetric frameworks, such as
the NMSSM. Lastly, we explore the implications of such a dark matter candidate
for indirect searches, and find that the prospects for detecting the neutrino
and gamma ray annihilation products of such a particle to be very encouraging.Comment: 16 pages, 14 figures. v2: references added, fig 4 and surrounding
discussion modified
Dark moments and the DAMA-CoGeNT puzzle
We consider the velocity dependence arising from scattering through dark multipole moments, and its effects on the consistency of the signals observed by DAMA and CoGeNT with the dark matter hypothesis. We focus on the effects of the experimental uncertainties on the fits, and show that the two experiments combined favor dark matter scattering with a velocity-dependent cross section over standard velocity and spin-independent scattering. When appropriate uncertainties are taken into account, we show that agreement of the two signals with each other and with the results of null experiments can be obtained
Antilocalization of Coulomb Blockade in a Ge-Si Nanowire
The distribution of Coulomb blockade peak heights as a function of magnetic
field is investigated experimentally in a Ge-Si nanowire quantum dot. Strong
spin-orbit coupling in this hole-gas system leads to antilocalization of
Coulomb blockade peaks, consistent with theory. In particular, the peak height
distribution has its maximum away from zero at zero magnetic field, with an
average that decreases with increasing field. Magnetoconductance in the
open-wire regime places a bound on the spin-orbit length ( < 20 nm),
consistent with values extracted in the Coulomb blockade regime ( < 25
nm).Comment: Supplementary Information available at http://bit.ly/19pMpd
Investigating the Relationship between Topology and Evolution in a Dynamic Nematode Odor Genetic Network
The relationship between biological network architectures and evolution is unclear. Within the phylum nematoda olfaction represents a critical survival tool. For nematodes, olfaction contributes to multiple processes including the finding of food, hosts, and reproductive partners, making developmental decisions, and evading predators. Here we examine a dynamic nematode odor genetic network to investigate how divergence, diversity, and contribution are shaped by network topology. Our findings describe connectivity frameworks and characteristics that correlate with molecular evolution and contribution across the olfactory network. Our data helps guide the development of a robust evolutionary description of the nematode odor network that may eventually aid in the prediction of interactive and functional qualities of novel nodes
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