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

Background Light in Potential Sites for the ANTARES Undersea Neutrino Telescope

The ANTARES collaboration has performed a series of {\em in situ} measurements to study the background light for a planned undersea neutrino telescope. Such background can be caused by $^{40}$K decays or by biological activity. We report on measurements at two sites in the Mediterranean Sea at depths of 2400~m and 2700~m, respectively. Three photomultiplier tubes were used to measure single counting rates and coincidence rates for pairs of tubes at various distances. The background rate is seen to consist of three components: a constant rate due to $^{40}$K decays, a continuum rate that varies on a time scale of several hours simultaneously over distances up to at least 40~m, and random bursts a few seconds long that are only correlated in time over distances of the order of a meter. A trigger requiring coincidences between nearby photomultiplier tubes should reduce the trigger rate for a neutrino telescope to a manageable level with only a small loss in efficiency.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physic

A Downstream CpG Island Controls Transcript Initiation and Elongation and the Methylation State of the Imprinted Airn Macro ncRNA Promoter

A CpG island (CGI) lies at the 5′ end of the Airn macro non-protein-coding (nc) RNA that represses the flanking Igf2r promoter in cis on paternally inherited chromosomes. In addition to being modified on maternally inherited chromosomes by a DNA methylation imprint, the Airn CGI shows two unusual organization features: its position immediately downstream of the Airn promoter and transcription start site and a series of tandem direct repeats (TDRs) occupying its second half. The physical separation of the Airn promoter from the CGI provides a model to investigate if the CGI plays distinct transcriptional and epigenetic roles. We used homologous recombination to generate embryonic stem cells carrying deletions at the endogenous locus of the entire CGI or just the TDRs. The deleted Airn alleles were analyzed by using an ES cell imprinting model that recapitulates the onset of Igf2r imprinted expression in embryonic development or by using knock-out mice. The results show that the CGI is required for efficient Airn initiation and to maintain the unmethylated state of the Airn promoter, which are both necessary for Igf2r repression on the paternal chromosome. The TDRs occupying the second half of the CGI play a minor role in Airn transcriptional elongation or processivity, but are essential for methylation on the maternal Airn promoter that is necessary for Igf2r to be expressed from this chromosome. Together the data indicate the existence of a class of regulatory CGIs in the mammalian genome that act downstream of the promoter and transcription start

The Benthic Boundary Layer: geochemical and oceanographic data from the GEOSTAR-2 Observatory RID H-3343-2011

Geochemical and oceanographic data, acquired throughout 6 months by the GEOSTAR-2 benthic observatory in Southern Tyrrhenian Sea, disclosed ocean-lithosphere interactions in the 1900-m deep Benthic Boundary Layer (BBL), distinguishing two water masses with different origin and, possibly, benthic residence time. Gas concentration, helium isotopic ratios, radioactivity, temperature, salinity and vertical component of the current converged towards the indication of a BBL characterised by a colder and fresher Western Water (WW), episodically displaced by the cascading of the warmer and saltier Eastern Overflow Water (EOW). The benthic WW has a higher concentration of geochemical tracers diffusing from the seafloor sediments. The data set shows the potential of long-term, continuous and multiparametric monitoring in providing unique information which cannot be acquired by traditional, short-term or single-sensor investigations

Medicaid Patients at High Risk for Frequent Hospital Admission: Real-Time Identification and Remediable Risks

Patients with frequent hospitalizations generate a disproportionate share of hospital visits and costs. Accurate determination of patients who might benefit from interventions is challenging: most patients with frequent admissions in 1 year would not continue to have them in the next. Our objective was to employ a validated regression algorithm to case-find Medicaid patients at high-risk for hospitalization in the next 12 months and identify intervention-amenable characteristics to reduce hospitalization risk. We obtained encounter data for 36,457 Medicaid patients with any visit to an urban public hospital from 2001 to 2006 and generated an algorithm-based score for hospitalization risk in the subsequent 12 months for each patient (0 = lowest, 100 = highest). To determine medical and social contributors to the current admission, we conducted in-depth interviews with high-risk hospitalized patients (scores >50) and analyzed associated Medicaid claims data. An algorithm-based risk score >50 was attained in 2,618 (7.2%) patients. The algorithm’s positive predictive value was equal to 0.67. During the study period, 139 high-risk patients were admitted: 60 met inclusion criteria and 50 were interviewed. Fifty-six percent cited the Emergency Department as their usual source of care or had none. Sixty-eight percent had >1 chronic medical conditions, and 42% were admitted for conditions related to substance use. Sixty percent were homeless or precariously housed. Mean Medicaid expenditures for the interviewed patients were $39,188 and$84,040 per patient for the years immediately prior to and following study participation, respectively. Findings including high rates of substance use, homelessness, social isolation, and lack of a medical home will inform the design of interventions to improve community-based care and reduce hospitalizations and associated costs

The ANTARES project

The ANTARES project is an international collaboration with the aim of building a deep-sea large area neutrino telescope within the next decade. The achievements and status of the project as at the time of the conference are briefly discussed, and short term steps as well as longer term plans are described