Relationship status and quality of the partner relationship in parents of long-term childhood cancer survivors: The Swiss Childhood Cancer Survivor Study-Parents

Objective The intensive and long‐lasting experience of childhood cancer is a tremendous stressor for the parental relationship. We aimed to (1) compare civil status and partner relationship of parents of long‐term childhood cancer survivors with population‐based comparisons, (2) identify cancer‐related characteristics associated with not being married, and (3) evaluate the quality of the partner relationship. Methods We sent questionnaires to parents of survivors aged ≤16 years at diagnosis and ≥20 years at study. Population‐based comparisons were derived from a random sample of the general population (≥1 child aged ≥20 years) and standardized by sociodemographic characteristics of survivor parents. We used logistic regression to identify cancer‐related characteristics associated with not being married. The quality of the partner relationship was evaluated using the relationship‐specific attachment scale for adults assessing the dimensions security (secure‐fearful) and dependency (dependent‐independent). Results A total of 784 parents (58.9% mothers) of 512 survivors (response rate: 44.0%) and 471 comparison parents completed the questionnaire. Parents of survivors were less often divorced/separated (9.0% vs 17.5%, P < 0.001) and more often in a partner relationship (89.9% vs 85.0%, P = 0.010) than comparisons. Not being married was not associated with cancer‐related characteristics. Parents of survivors reported similar security (P = 0.444) but higher dependency (P = 0.032) within the partner relationship than comparisons. In both populations, fathers indicated higher security and dependency than mothers. Conclusions Long after the diagnosis of cancer in their child, parents' relationship appears similar as in parents of the general population. The increased dependency reported by parents of survivors suggests that they managed their child's disease as a team

Microsecond dye regeneration kinetics in efficient solid state dye-sensitized solar cells using a photoelectrochemically deposited PEDOT hole conductor

Microsecond dye-regeneration kinetics was observed in efficient solid state dye-sensitized solar cells using photoelectrochemically deposited poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene (PEDOT) hole conductors using transient absorption spectroscopy. The dye-regeneration rate is orders of magnitude slower than the case using the I-/I3- redox couple or commonly used small molecule hole conductor and is attributed to the low dye to PEDOT ratio within the films

Synthesis of Chiral Polyaniline Films via Chemical Vapor Phase Polymerization

Electrically and optically active polyaniline films doped with (1R)-(-)-10-camphorsulfonic acid were successfully deposited on nonconductive substrates via chemical vapor phase polymerization. The above polyaniline∕R-camphorsulfonate films were characterized by electrochemical and physical methods, such as cyclic voltammetry (CV), UV-vis spectroscopy, four-point probe conductivity measurement, Raman spectroscopy, circular dichroism spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. The poly aniline films grown by this method not only showed high electrochemical activity, supported by CV and Raman spectrum, but also exhibited optical activity corresponding to the polymer chains as observed by circular dichroism spectra

Variation of Accumulation Rates Over the Last Eight Centuries on the East Antarctic Plateau Derived from Volcanic Signals in Ice Cores

Volcanic signatures in ice-core records provide an excellent means to date the cores and obtain information about accumulation rates. From several ice cores it is thus possible to extract a spatio-temporal accumulation pattern. We show records of electrical conductivity and sulfur from firn cores from the Norwegian-USA scientific traverse during the International Polar Year 2007-2009 (IPY) through East Antarctica. Major volcanic eruptions are identified and used to assess century-scale accumulation changes. The largest changes seem to occur in the most recent decades with accumulation over the period 1963- 2007/08 being up to 25 % different from the long-term record. There is no clear overall trend, some sites show an increase in accumulation over the period 1963 to present while others show a decrease. Almost all of the sites above 3200 m above sea level (asl) suggest a decrease. These sites also show a significantly lower accumulation value than large-scale assessments both for the period 1963 to present and for the long-term mean at the respective drill sites. The spatial accumulation distribution is influenced mainly by elevation and distance to the ocean (continentality), as expected. Ground-penetrating radar data around the drill sites show a spatial variability within 10-20 % over several tens of kilometers, indicating that our drill sites are well representative for the area around them. Our results are important for large-scale assessments of Antarctic mass balance and model validation

Breakup of 17^{17}F on 208^{208}Pb near the Coulomb barrier

Angular distributions of oxygen produced in the breakup of $^{17}$F incident on a $^{208}$Pb target have been measured around the grazing angle at beam energies of 98 and 120 MeV. The data are dominated by the proton stripping mechanism and are well reproduced by dynamical calculations. The measured breakup cross section is approximately a factor of 3 less than that of fusion at 98 MeV. The influence of breakup on fusion is discussed.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figure

Nonlinear Enhancement of the Multiphonon Coulomb Excitation in Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions

We propose a soluble model to incorporate the nonlinear effects in the transition probabilities of the multiphonon Giant Dipole Resonances based on the SU(1,1) algebra. Analytical expressions for the multi-phonon transition probabilities are derived. Enhancement of the Double Giant Resonance excitation probabilities in relativistic ion collisions scales as $(2 k +1)(2k)^{-1}$ for the degree of nonlinearity $(2k)^{-1}$ and is able to reach values $1.5-2$ compatible with experimental data. The enhancement factor is found to decrease with increasing bombarding energy. [KEYWORDS: Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions,Double Giant Resonance]Comment: 12 pages, 2 figure

Region of hadron-quark mixed phase in hybrid stars

Hadron--quark mixed phase is expected in a wide region of the inner structure of hybrid stars. However, we show that the hadron--quark mixed phase should be restricted to a narrower region to because of the charge screening effect. The narrow region of the mixed phase seems to explain physical phenomena of neutron stars such as the strong magnetic field and glitch phenomena, and it would give a new cooling curve for the neutron star.Comment: to be published in Physical Review

Role of the Nuclear and Electromagnetic Interactions in the Coherent Dissociation of the Relativistic 7^7Li Nucleus into the 3^3H + 4^4He Channel

The differential cross section in the transverse momentum $Q$ and a total cross section of $(31\pm4)$ mb for the coherent dissociation of a 3-A-GeV/$c$ $^7$Li nucleus through the $^3$H$+^4$He channel have been measured on emulsion nuclei. The observed $Q$ dependence of the cross section is explained by the predominant supposition of the nuclear diffraction patterns on light (C, N, O) and heavy (Br, Ag) emulsion nuclei. The contributions to the cross section from nuclear diffraction ($Q\le400$ MeV/$c$) and Coulomb $(Q\le50$ MeV/$c$) dissociations are calculated to be 40.7 and 4 mb, respectively.Comment: ISSN 0021-3640, Pleiades Publishing, Ltd., 200

Theory of Multiphonon Excitation in Heavy-Ion Collisions

We study the effects of channel coupling in the excitation dynamics of giant resonances in relativistic heavy ions collisions. For this purpose, we use a semiclassical approximation to the Coupled-Channels problem and separate the Coulomb and the nuclear parts of the coupling into their main multipole components. In order to assess the importance of multi-step processes, we neglect the resonance widths and solve the set of coupled equations exactly. Finite widths are then considered. In this case, we handle the coupling of the ground state with the dominant Giant Dipole Resonance exactly and study the excitation of the remaining resonances within the Coupled-Channels Born Approximation. A comparison with recent experimental data is made.Comment: 29 pages, 7 Postscript figures available upon reques

A Piglet Model for Detection of Hypoxic-Ischemic Brain Injury with Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Munkeby BH, de Lange C, Emblem KE, Bjørnerud A, Kro GAB, Andresen J, Winther-Larssen EH, Løberg EM, Hald JK. A piglet model for detection of hypoxic-ischemic brain injury with magnetic resonance imaging. Acta Radiol 2008;49:1049–1057