Requirements Study for System Implementation of an Atmospheric Laser Propagation Experiment Program, Volume II

Program planning, ground support and airborne equipment for laser space communication syste

On the Flavor Structure of the Constituent Quark

We discuss the dressing of constituent quarks with a pseudoscalar meson cloud within the effective chiral quark model. SU(3) flavor symmetry breaking effects are included explicitly. Our results are compared with those of the traditional meson cloud approach in which pions are coupled to the nucleon. The pionic dressing of the constituent quarks explains the experimentally observed violation of the Gottfried Sum Rule and leads to an enhanced nonperturbative sea of quark-antiquark pairs in the constituent quark and consequently in the nucleon. We find 2.5 times more pions and 10-15 times more kaons in the nucleon than in the traditional picture.Comment: 7 pages, LaTeX, 4 Postscript figures, to appear in J. Phys.

Pharmacokinetic and safety profile of raltegravir and ribavirin, when dosed separately and together, in healthy volunteers

Results: No statistically significant differences in PK parameters were observed for raltegravir between phases 2 and 3. A statistically significant decrease in maximum plasma concentration (Cmax) and an increase in time to maximum plasma concentration (Tmax) were observed for ribavirin in phase 3 compared with phase 1 [GMR (95% confidence interval) 0.79 (0.62 –1.00) and 1.39 (1.08 –1.78), respectively], whereas no significant differences in other ribavirin PK parameters were observed between study phases. No clinically significant safety concerns were reported. Conclusions: The PK profile of ribavirin is altered when administered with raltegravir (reduced Cmax and increased Tmax), with no safety concerns identified. This is unlikely to be of clinical significance or have an impact on the antiviral effects of ribavirin in HIV-1- and HCV-co-infected subjects

Exchange Current Corrections to Neutrino--Nucleus Scattering

Relativistic exchange current corrections to neutrino--nucleus cross sections are presented assuming non--vanishing strange quark form factors for the constituent nucleons. For charged current processes the exchange current corrections can lower the impulse approximation results by 10\% while these corrections are found to be sensitive to both the nuclear density and the strange quark axial form factor of the nucleon for neutral current processes. Implications on the LSND experiment to determine this form factor are discussed.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, revtex 3.0, full postscript version of the file and figures available at http://www.nikhefk.nikhef.nl/projects/Theory/preprints/preprints.html To appear in Phys. Rev. Lett

Psychological distress and quality of life in lung cancer: The role of health-related stigma, illness appraisals and social constraints

Objective: Health-related stigma is associated with negative psychological and quality of life outcomes in lung cancer patients. This study describes the impact of stigma on lung cancer patients\u27 psychological distress and quality of life and explores the role of social constraints and illness appraisal as mediators of effect. Methods: A self-administered cross-sectional survey examined psychological distress and quality of life in 151 people (59% response rate) diagnosed with lung cancer from Queensland and New South Wales. Health-related stigma, social constraints and illness appraisals were assessed as predictors of adjustment outcomes. Results: Forty-nine percent of patients reported elevated anxiety; 41% were depressed; and 51% had high global distress. Health-related stigma was significantly related to global psychological distress and quality of life with greater stigma and shame related to poorer outcomes. These effects were mediated by illness appraisals and social constraints. Conclusions: Health-related stigma appears to contribute to poorer adjustment by constraining interpersonal discussions about cancer and heightening feelings of threat. There is a need for the development and evaluation of interventions to ameliorate the negative effects of health-related stigma among lung cancer patients

The clinical presentation of monkeypox: a retrospective case-control study of patients with possible or probable monkeypox in a West London cohort

Objectives: Since May 2022, cases of human monkeypox virus (hMPXV) with human-to-human cross-transmission have significantly increased in non-endemic countries. Our aim was to characterise diagnostic features of patients with confirmed and possible monkeypox to guide future risk stratification, and to describe a virtual care model. Methods: We performed a retrospective case-control study of 140 patients assessed and screened for suspected monkeypox; on hMPXV PCR testing, 70 were confirmed positive and 70 negative. Data were compared to generate odds ratios of demographic and clinical features. Results: Positive patients were predominantly cis-male (99%) and self-identified as gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM) (94%). Lymphadenopathy at presentation was associated with a higher likelihood of a positive result (OR 7.69 [95% CI 3.58, 16.51]). Positive patients were more likely to have a rash affecting the genital (OR 5.38 [95% CI 2.57, 11.23]) or buttocks/perianal region (OR 3.79 [1.70, 8.45]) compared with negative controls. 79% of patients engaged with virtual ward follow-up. Conclusions: These data can inform a risk-based approach to management of suspected monkeypox in GBMSM populations. Lymphadenopathy at presentation and the location of the rash were more associated with a positive hMPXV result. Health authorities can consider a virtual ward approach in the hMPXV outbreak

Tests of Lorentz violation in muon antineutrino to electron antineutrino oscillations

A recently developed Standard-Model Extension (SME) formalism for neutrino oscillations that includes Lorentz and CPT violation is used to analyze the sidereal time variation of the neutrino event excess measured by the Liquid Scintillator Neutrino Detector (LSND) experiment. The LSND experiment, performed at Los Alamos National Laboratory, observed an excess, consistent with neutrino oscillations, of ${\bar\nu}_e$ in a beam of ${\bar\nu}_\mu$. It is determined that the LSND oscillation signal is consistent with no sidereal variation. However, there are several combinations of SME coefficients that describe the LSND data; both with and without sidereal variations. The scale of Lorentz and CPT violation extracted from the LSND data is of order $10^{-19}$ GeV for the SME coefficients $a_L$ and $E \times c_L$. This solution for Lorentz and CPT violating neutrino oscillations may be tested by other short baseline neutrino oscillation experiments, such as the MiniBooNE experiment.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures, 2 tables, uses revtex4 replaced with version to be published in Physical Review D, 11 pages, 11 figures, 2 tables, uses revtex

Many-Body Currents and the Strange-Quark Content of 4he

Meson-exchange current (MEC) contributions to the parity-violating (PV) asymmetry for elastic scattering of polarized electrons from $^4$He are calculated over a range of momentum transfer using Monte Carlo methods and a variational $^4$He ground state wavefunction. The results indicate that MEC's generate a negligible contribution to the asymmetry at low-|\qv|, where a determination of the nucleon's mean square strangeness radius could be carried out at CEBAF. At larger values of momentum transfer -- beyond the first diffraction minimum -- two-body corrections from the $\rho$-$\pi$ \lq\lq strangeness charge" operator enter the asymmetry at a potentially observable level, even in the limit of vanishing strange-quark matrix elements of the nucleon. For purposes of constraining the nucleon's strangeness electric form factor, theoretical uncertainties associated with these MEC contributions do not appear to impose serious limitations.Comment: 32 TEX pages and 7 figures (not included, available from authors upon request), CEBAF Preprint #TH-94-1

Search for π0→νμνˉμ\pi^0 \to \nu_{\mu}\bar\nu_{\mu} Decay in LSND

We observe a net beam-excess of $8.7 \pm 6.3$ (stat) $\pm 2.4$ (syst) events, above 160 MeV, resulting from the charged-current reaction of $\nu_{\mu}$ and/or $\bar\nu_{\mu}$ on C and H in the LSND detector. No beam related muon background is expected in this energy regime. Within an analysis framework of $\pi^0 \to \nu_{\mu}\bar\nu_{\mu}$, we set a direct upper limit for this branching ratio of $\Gamma(\pi^0 \to \nu_\mu \bar\nu_\mu) / \Gamma(\pi^0 \to all) < 1.6 \times 10^{-6}$ at 90% confidence level.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure