Stimulation of Beta Decay due to a Bose-Einstein Condensate

Nuclear processes can be stimulated by the presence of a macroscopic number of bosons in one of the final states. We describe the conditions necessary to observe the atom-stimulation of a beta decay process. The stimulation may be observable if it becomes possible to produce a Bose-Einstein condensate with the order of $10^{14}$ atoms in a trap.Comment: 7 pages, LaTeX, uses elsart.cls, home page at http://online.anu.edu.au/Physics/Welcome.htm

The linewidth of a non-Markovian atom laser

We present a fully quantum mechanical treatment of a single mode atom laser including pumping and output coupling. By ignoring atom-atom interactions, we have solved this model without making the Born-Markov approximation. We find substantially less gain narrowing than is predicted under that approximation.Comment: 4 pages, 1 encapsulated postscript figur

Non-destructive, dynamic detectors for Bose-Einstein condensates

We propose and analyze a series of non-destructive, dynamic detectors for Bose-Einstein condensates based on photo-detectors operating at the shot noise limit. These detectors are compatible with real time feedback to the condensate. The signal to noise ratio of different detection schemes are compared subject to the constraint of minimal heating due to photon absorption and spontaneous emission. This constraint leads to different optimal operating points for interference-based schemes. We find the somewhat counter-intuitive result that without the presence of a cavity, interferometry causes as much destruction as absorption for optically thin clouds. For optically thick clouds, cavity-free interferometry is superior to absorption, but it still cannot be made arbitrarily non-destructive . We propose a cavity-based measurement of atomic density which can in principle be made arbitrarily non-destructive for a given signal to noise ratio

Optimization of blood handling and peripheral blood mononuclear cell cryopreservation of low cell number samples

Background: Rural/remote blood collection can cause delays in processing, reducing PBMC number, viability, cell composition and function. To mitigate these impacts, blood was stored at 4 °C prior to processing. Viable cell number, viability, immune phenotype, and Interferon-γ (IFN-γ) release were measured. Furthermore, the lowest protective volume of cryopreservation media and cell concentration was investigated. Methods: Blood from 10 individuals was stored for up to 10 days. Flow cytometry and IFN-γ ELISPOT were used to measure immune phenotype and function on thawed PBMC. Additionally, PBMC were cryopreserved in volumes ranging from 500 µL to 25 µL and concentration from 10 × 10⁶ cells/mL to 1.67 × 10⁶ cells/mL. Results: PBMC viability and viable cell number significantly reduced over time compared with samples processed immediately, except when stored for 24 h at RT. Monocytes and NK cells significantly reduced over time regardless of storage temperature. Samples with >24 h of RT storage had an increased proportion in Low-Density Neutrophils and T cells compared with samples stored at 4 °C. IFN-γ release was reduced after 24 h of storage, however not in samples stored at 4 °C for >24 h. The lowest protective volume identified was 150 µL with the lowest density of 6.67 × 10⁶ cells/mL. Conclusion: A sample delay of 24 h at RT does not impact the viability and total viable cell numbers. When long-term delays exist (>4 d) total viable cell number and cell viability losses are reduced in samples stored at 4 °C. Immune phenotype and function are slightly altered after 24 h of storage, further impacts of storage are reduced in samples stored at 4 °C.Christopher M. Hope, Dao Huynh, Ying Ying Wong, Helena Oakey, Griffith Boord Perkins, Trung Nguyen, Sabrina Binkowski, Minh Bui, Ace Y.L. Choo, Emily Gibson, Dexing Huang, Ki Wook Kim, Katrina Ngui, William D. Rawlinson, Timothy Sadlon, Jennifer J. Couper, Megan A.S. Penno, Simon C. Barry, and on behalf of the ENDIA Study Grou

Models of peer support to remediate post-intensive care syndrome: A report developed by the SCCM Thrive International Peer Support Collaborative

Objective: Patients and caregivers can experience a range of physical, psychological, and cognitive problems following critical care discharge. The use of peer support has been proposed as an innovative support mechanism. Design: We sought to identify technical, safety and procedural aspects of existing operational models of peer support, among the Society of Critical Care Medicine Thrive Peer Support Collaborative. We also sought to categorize key distinctions between these models and elucidate barriers and facilitators to implementation. Subjects: 17 Thrive sites from the USA, UK, and Australia were represented by a range of healthcare professionals. Interventions: Via an iterative process of in-person and email/conference calls, members of the Collaborative, defined the key areas on which peer support models could be defined and compared; collected detailed self-reports from all sites; reviewed the information and identified clusters of models. Barriers and challenges to implementation of peer support models were also documented. Results: Within the Thrive Collaborative, six general models of peer support were identified: Community based, Psychologist-led outpatient, Models based within ICU follow-up clinics, Online, Groups based within ICU and Peer mentor models. The most common barriers to implementation were: recruitment to groups, personnel input and training: sustainability and funding, risk management and measuring success. Conclusion: A number of different models of peer support are currently being developed to help patients and families recover and grow in the post-critical care setting

Identification of common genetic risk variants for autism spectrum disorder

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a highly heritable and heterogeneous group of neurodevelopmental phenotypes diagnosed in more than 1% of children. Common genetic variants contribute substantially to ASD susceptibility, but to date no individual variants have been robustly associated with ASD. With a marked sample-size increase from a unique Danish population resource, we report a genome-wide association meta-analysis of 18,381 individuals with ASD and 27,969 controls that identified five genome-wide-significant loci. Leveraging GWAS results from three phenotypes with significantly overlapping genetic architectures (schizophrenia, major depression, and educational attainment), we identified seven additional loci shared with other traits at equally strict significance levels. Dissecting the polygenic architecture, we found both quantitative and qualitative polygenic heterogeneity across ASD subtypes. These results highlight biological insights, particularly relating to neuronal function and corticogenesis, and establish that GWAS performed at scale will be much more productive in the near term in ASD.Peer reviewe

A risk prediction model for head and neck cancers incorporating lifestyle factors, HPV serology and genetic markers

Head and neck cancer is often diagnosed late and prognosis for most head and neck cancer patients remains poor. To aid early detection, we developed a risk prediction model based on demographic and lifestyle risk factors, human papillomavirus (HPV) serological markers and genetic markers. A total of 10 126 head and neck cancer cases and 5254 controls from five North American and European studies were included. HPV serostatus was determined by antibodies for HPV16 early oncoproteins (E6, E7) and regulatory early proteins (E1, E2, E4). The data were split into a training set (70%) for model development and a hold-out testing set (30%) for model performance evaluation, including discriminative ability and calibration. The risk models including demographic, lifestyle risk factors and polygenic risk score showed a reasonable predictive accuracy for head and neck cancer overall. A risk model that also included HPV serology showed substantially improved predictive accuracy for oropharyngeal cancer (AUC = 0.94, 95% CI = 0.92-0.95 in men and AUC = 0.92, 95% CI = 0.88-0.95 in women). The 5-year absolute risk estimates showed distinct trajectories by risk factor profiles. Based on the UK Biobank cohort, the risks of developing oropharyngeal cancer among 60 years old and HPV16 seropositive in the next 5 years ranged from 5.8% to 14.9% with an average of 8.1% for men, 1.3% to 4.4% with an average of 2.2% for women. Absolute risk was generally higher among individuals with heavy smoking, heavy drinking, HPV seropositivity and those with higher polygenic risk score. These risk models may be helpful for identifying people at high risk of developing head and neck cancer

A Universal Power-law Prescription for Variability from Synthetic Images of Black Hole Accretion Flows

We present a framework for characterizing the spatiotemporal power spectrum of the variability expected from the horizon-scale emission structure around supermassive black holes, and we apply this framework to a library of general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) simulations and associated general relativistic ray-traced images relevant for Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) observations of Sgr A*. We find that the variability power spectrum is generically a red-noise process in both the temporal and spatial dimensions, with the peak in power occurring on the longest timescales and largest spatial scales. When both the time-averaged source structure and the spatially integrated light-curve variability are removed, the residual power spectrum exhibits a universal broken power-law behavior. On small spatial frequencies, the residual power spectrum rises as the square of the spatial frequency and is proportional to the variance in the centroid of emission. Beyond some peak in variability power, the residual power spectrum falls as that of the time-averaged source structure, which is similar across simulations; this behavior can be naturally explained if the variability arises from a multiplicative random field that has a steeper high-frequency power-law index than that of the time-averaged source structure. We briefly explore the ability of power spectral variability studies to constrain physical parameters relevant for the GRMHD simulations, which can be scaled to provide predictions for black holes in a range of systems in the optically thin regime. We present specific expectations for the behavior of the M87* and Sgr A* accretion flows as observed by the EHT

Track A Basic Science

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138319/1/jia218438.pd

International consensus statement on nomenclature and classification of the congenital bicuspid aortic valve and its aortopathy, for clinical, surgical, interventional and research purposes

This International Consensus Classification and Nomenclature for the congenital bicuspid aortic valve condition recognizes 3 types of bicuspid valves: 1. The fused type (right-left cusp fusion, right-non-coronary cusp fusion and left-non-coronary cusp fusion phenotypes); 2. The 2-sinus type (latero-lateral and antero-posterior phenotypes); and 3. The partial-fusion (forme fruste) type. The presence of raphe and the symmetry of the fused type phenotypes are critical aspects to describe. The International Consensus also recognizes 3 types of bicuspid valve-associated aortopathy: 1. The ascending phenotype; 2. The root phenotype; and 3. Extended phenotypes.Cardiolog