Management of febrile neutropenia in the United Kingdom: time for a national trial?

Recent advances in febrile neutropenia (FN) have highlighted the value of risk stratification and the evolving role of oral antibiotics with early hospital discharge in low-risk patients. The aim of this study was to survey whether these advances have been translated into routine clinical practice in the UK. Questionnaires were sent to cancer clinicians across the UK to determine clinicians' routine management of FN, including use of risk stratification, antibiotic regimen and criteria for hospital discharge. In all, 128 clinicians responded, representing 50 cancer departments (83%). Only 38% of respondents stratify patients according to risk and with substantial variation in the criteria defining ‘low-risk'. Furthermore, only 22% of clinicians use oral antibiotics as first-line treatment in any patients with FN, but this was significantly greater among clinicians who do compared to those who do not stratify patients by risk, 51 vs 4% (P<0.0001). These findings suggest a slow and/or cautious introduction of newer strategies for the management of low-risk FN in the UK. However, 84% of respondents confirmed their willingness to participate in a trial of oral antibiotics combined with early discharge in low-risk FN

Next-to-leading order QCD predictions for W+W+jj production at the LHC

Because the LHC is a proton-proton collider, sizable production of two positively charged W-bosons in association with two jets is possible. This process leads to a distinct signature of same sign high-pt leptons, missing energy and jets. We compute the NLO QCD corrections to the QCD-mediated part of pp -> W+W+jj. These corrections reduce the dependence of the production cross-section on the renormalization and factorization scale to about +- 10 percent. We find that a large number of W+W+jj events contain a relatively hard third jet. The presence of this jet should help to either pick up the W+W+jj signal or to reject it as an unwanted background.Comment: 15 pages, 5 (lovely) figures, v3 accepted for publication in JHEP, corrects tables in appendi

QCD and strongly coupled gauge theories : challenges and perspectives

We highlight the progress, current status, and open challenges of QCD-driven physics, in theory and in experiment. We discuss how the strong interaction is intimately connected to a broad sweep of physical problems, in settings ranging from astrophysics and cosmology to strongly coupled, complex systems in particle and condensed-matter physics, as well as to searches for physics beyond the Standard Model. We also discuss how success in describing the strong interaction impacts other fields, and, in turn, how such subjects can impact studies of the strong interaction. In the course of the work we offer a perspective on the many research streams which flow into and out of QCD, as well as a vision for future developments.Peer reviewe

Incipient class II mixed valency in a plutonium solid-state compound

bibtex: ISI:000408323300008 bibtex\location:'MACMILLAN BUILDING, 4 CRINAN ST, LONDON N1 9XW, ENGLAND',publisher:'NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP',type:'Article',affiliation:'Albrecht-Schmitt, TE (Reprint Author), Florida State Univ, Dept Chem & Biochem, 95 Chieftan Way, Tallahassee, FL 32306 USA. Albrecht-Schmitt, TE (Reprint Author), Natl High Magnet Field Lab, 1800 East Paul Dirac Dr, Tallahassee, FL 32310 USA. Maron, L (Reprint Author), Inst Natl Sci Appl, Lab Phys & Chim Nanoobjets, F-31077 Toulouse 4, France. Cary, Samantha K.; Galley, Shane S.; Marsh, Matthew L.; Hobart, David L.; Cross, Justin N.; Stritzinger, Jared T.; Polinski, Matthew J.; Albrecht-Schmitt, Thomas E., Florida State Univ, Dept Chem & Biochem, 95 Chieftan Way, Tallahassee, FL 32306 USA. Baumbach, Ryan E.; Albrecht-Schmitt, Thomas E., Natl High Magnet Field Lab, 1800 East Paul Dirac Dr, Tallahassee, FL 32310 USA. Maron, Laurent, Inst Natl Sci Appl, Lab Phys & Chim Nanoobjets, F-31077 Toulouse 4, France.','author-email':'[email protected] [email protected]',da:'2018-12-05','doc-delivery-number':'FE6MJ',eissn:'1755-4349','funding-acknowledgement':'US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Heavy Elements Chemistry Program [DE-FG02-13ER16414]; National Science Foundation [DMR-1157490]; State of Florida; US Department of Energy','funding-text':'This material is based upon work supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Heavy Elements Chemistry Program under award number DE-FG02-13ER16414. We are especially grateful for the assistance and supervision by the Office of Environmental Health and Safety at Florida State University, specifically J. A. Johnson and A. L. Gray of the Office of Radiation Safety for their facilitation of these studies. Magnetization measurements using the VSM SQUID MPMS were performed at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, which is supported by National Science Foundation Cooperative agreement number DMR-1157490, the State of Florida, and the US Department of Energy. We are grateful for helpful discussions with N. M. Edelstein, M. P. Jensen and G. Liu.','journal-iso':'Nat. Chem.','keywords-plus':'MOLECULAR-ORBITAL METHODS; BASIS-SETS; COMPLEXES; ACTINIDE; EUROPIUM; ENERGY; PSEUDOPOTENTIALS; ELEMENT; CALIFORNIUM; CHLORIDES','number-of-cited-references':'42','research-areas':'Chemistry','times-cited':'5','unique-id':'ISI:000408323300008','usage-count-last-180-days':'12','usage-count-since-2013':'21','web-of-science-categories':'Chemistry, Multidisciplinary'\Electron transfer in mixed-valent transition-metal complexes, clusters and materials is ubiquitous in both natural and synthetic systems. The degree to which intervalence charge transfer (IVCT) occurs, dependent on the degree of delocalization, places these within class II or III of the Robin-Day system. In contrast to the d-block, compounds of f-block elements typically exhibit class I behaviour (no IVCT) because of localization of the valence electrons and poor spatial overlap between metal and ligand orbitals. Here, we report experimental and computational evidence for delocalization of 5f electrons in the mixed-valent Pu-III/Pu-IV solid-state compound, Pu-3(DPA)(5)(H2O)(2) (DPA = 2,6-pyridinedicarboxylate). The properties of this compound are benchmarked by the pure Pu-III and Pu-IV dipicolinate complexes, [Pu-III(DPA)(H2O)(4)] Br and Pu-IV(DPA)(2)(H2O)(3)center dot 3H(2)O, as well as by a second mixed-valent compound, Pu-III[Pu-IV(DPA)(3)H-0.5](2), that falls into class I instead. Metal-to-ligand charge transfer is involved in both the formation of Pu-3(DPA)(5)(H2O)(2) and in the IVCT