742 research outputs found
Sources of dietary iodines bread, cows' milk, and infant formula in the Boston area
Dietary iodine is essential for thyroid hormone production. Although U.S. dietary iodine is generally adequate, some groups, especially women of childbearing age, are at risk for mild iodine deficiency. Children's average urinary iodine is higher than that of adults. U.S. dietary iodine sources have not been assessed recently. A survey of iodine content in 20 brands of bread, 18 brands of cows' milk, and eight infant formulae was performed between 2001 and 2002. Three bread varieties contained more than 300 μg iodine per slice. Iodine content in other brands was far lower (mean ± SD, 10.1 ± 13.2 μg iodine/ slice). All cows' milk samples had at least 88 μg iodine/250 ml, ranging from 88-168 μg (116.0 ± 22.1 μg/250 ml). Infant formulae values ranged from 16.2 to 56.8 μg iodine/5 oz (23.5 ± 13.78 μg/5 oz). The public should be aware of the need for adequate dietary iodine intake and should be aware that ingredient lists do not reflect the iodine content of foods
Breast milk iodine and perchlorate concentrations in lactating Boston-area women
Context: Breastfed infants rely on adequate maternal dietary iodine intake. Objective: Our objective was to measure breast milk iodine and perchlorate, an inhibitor of iodide transport into the thyroid and potentially into breast milk, in Boston-area women. Participants: The study included 57 lactating healthy volunteers in the Boston area. Measurements: Breast milk iodine and perchlorate concentrations and urine iodine, perchlorate, and cotinine concentrations were measured. For comparison, iodine and perchlorate levels in infant formulae were also measured. Results: Median breast milk iodine content in 57 samples was 155 μg/liter (range, 2.7-1968 μg/liter). Median urine iodine was 114 μg/liter (range, 25-920 μg/liter). Perchlorate was detectable in all 49 breast milk samples (range, 1.3-411 μg/liter), all 56 urine samples (range, 0.37-127 μg/liter), and all 17 infant formula samples (range, 0.22-4.1 μg/liter) measured. Breast milk iodine content was significantly correlated with urinary iodine per gram creatinine and urinary cotinine but was not significantly correlated with breast milk or urinary perchlorate. Conclusions: Perchlorate exposure was not significantly correlated with breast milk iodine concentrations. Perchlorate was detectable in infant formula but at lower levels than in breast milk. Forty-seven percent of women sampled may have been providing breast milk with insufficient iodine to meet infants' requirements. Copyright © 2007 by The Endocrine Society
Near Threshold Enhancement of p pbar System and p pbar Elastic Scattering
The observed enhancement of -production near the threshold in
radiative decays of and -annihilations can be explained with
final state interactions among the produced system, where the
enhancement is essentially determined by elastic scattering
amplitudes. We propose to use an effective theory for interactions in a system near its threshold. The effective theory is similar to the well-known
one for interactions in a system but with distinctions. It is interesting
to note that in the effective theory some corrections to scattering amplitudes
at tree-level can systematically be summed into a simple form. These
corrections are from rescattering processes. With these corrected amplitudes we
are able to describe the enhancement near the threshold in radiative decays of
and -annihilations, and the elastic scattering near
the threshold.Comment: Discussions and References added, Fig.2 redrawn. Published version in
Phys. Lett.
HyperCP: A high-rate spectrometer for the study of charged hyperon and kaon decays
The HyperCP experiment (Fermilab E871) was designed to search for rare
phenomena in the decays of charged strange particles, in particular CP
violation in and hyperon decays with a sensitivity of
. Intense charged secondary beams were produced by 800 GeV/c protons
and momentum-selected by a magnetic channel. Decay products were detected in a
large-acceptance, high-rate magnetic spectrometer using multiwire proportional
chambers, trigger hodoscopes, a hadronic calorimeter, and a muon-detection
system. Nearly identical acceptances and efficiencies for hyperons and
antihyperons decaying within an evacuated volume were achieved by reversing the
polarities of the channel and spectrometer magnets. A high-rate
data-acquisition system enabled 231 billion events to be recorded in twelve
months of data-taking.Comment: 107 pages, 45 Postscript figures, 14 tables, Elsevier LaTeX,
submitted to Nucl. Instrum. Meth.
Genetic influences on the difference in variability of height, weight and body mass index between Caucasian and East Asian adolescent twins.
Objective: Twin studies are useful for investigating the causes of trait variation between as well as within a population. The goals of the present study were two-fold: First, we aimed to compare the total phenotypic, genetic and environmental variances of height, weight and BMI between Caucasians and East Asians using twins. Secondly, we intended to estimate the extent to which genetic and environmental factors contribute to differences in variability of height, weight and BMI between Caucasians and East Asians. Design: Height and weight data from 3735 Caucasian and 1584 East Asian twin pairs (age: 13-15 years) from Australia, China, Finland, Japan, the Netherlands, South Korea, Taiwan and the United States were used for analyses. Maximum likelihood twin correlations and variance components model-fitting analyses were conducted to fulfill the goals of the present study. Results: The absolute genetic variances for height, weight and BMI were consistently greater in Caucasians than in East Asians with corresponding differences in total variances for all three body measures. In all 80 to 100% of the differences in total variances of height, weight and BMI between the two population groups were associated with genetic differences. Conclusion: Height, weight and BMI were more variable in Caucasian than in East Asian adolescents. Genetic variances for these three body measures were also larger in Caucasians than in East Asians. Variance components model-fitting analyses indicated that genetic factors contributed to the difference in variability of height, weight and BMI between the two population groups. Association studies for these body measures should take account of our findings of differences in genetic variances between the two population groups. © 2008 Macmillan Publishers Limited All rights reserved.link_to_subscribed_fulltex
The energy spectrum of all-particle cosmic rays around the knee region observed with the Tibet-III air-shower array
We have already reported the first result on the all-particle spectrum around
the knee region based on data from 2000 November to 2001 October observed by
the Tibet-III air-shower array. In this paper, we present an updated result
using data set collected in the period from 2000 November through 2004 October
in a wide range over 3 decades between eV and eV, in which
the position of the knee is clearly seen at around 4 PeV. The spectral index is
-2.68 0.02(stat.) below 1PeV, while it is -3.12 0.01(stat.) above 4
PeV in the case of QGSJET+HD model, and various systematic errors are under
study now.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, accepted by Advances in space researc
Targeted Heating of Mitochondria Greatly Augments Nanoparticle-Mediated Cancer Chemotherapy
Cancer is the second leading cause of mortality globally. Various nanoparticles have been developed to improve the efficacy and safety of chemotherapy, photothermal therapy, and their combination for treating cancer. However, most of the existing nanoparticles are low in both subcellular precision and drug loading content (80% at an ultrahigh feeding ratio of 1:1. In combination with near infrared (NIR, 808 nm) laser irradiation, the tumor weight in the Py@Si-TH-DOX treatment group is 8.5 times less than that in the Py@Si-H-DOX (i.e., DOX-laden nanoparticles without mitochondrial targeting) group, suggesting targeted heating of mitochondria is a valuable strategy for enhancing chemotherapy to combat cancer
Moon Shadow by Cosmic Rays under the Influence of Geomagnetic Field and Search for Antiprotons at Multi-TeV Energies
We have observed the shadowing of galactic cosmic ray flux in the direction
of the moon, the so-called moon shadow, using the Tibet-III air shower array
operating at Yangbajing (4300 m a.s.l.) in Tibet since 1999. Almost all cosmic
rays are positively charged; for that reason, they are bent by the geomagnetic
field, thereby shifting the moon shadow westward. The cosmic rays will also
produce an additional shadow in the eastward direction of the moon if cosmic
rays contain negatively charged particles, such as antiprotons, with some
fraction. We selected 1.5 x10^{10} air shower events with energy beyond about 3
TeV from the dataset observed by the Tibet-III air shower array and detected
the moon shadow at level. The center of the moon was detected
in the direction away from the apparent center of the moon by 0.23 to
the west. Based on these data and a full Monte Carlo simulation, we searched
for the existence of the shadow produced by antiprotons at the multi-TeV energy
region. No evidence of the existence of antiprotons was found in this energy
region. We obtained the 90% confidence level upper limit of the flux ratio of
antiprotons to protons as 7% at multi-TeV energies.Comment: 13pages,4figures; Accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physic
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