Rat-to-Human Transmission of Cowpox Infection

We isolated Cowpox virus (CPXV) from the ulcerative eyelid lesions of a 14-year-old girl, who had cared for a clinically ill wild rat that later died. CPXV isolated from the rat (Rattus norvegicus) showed complete homology with the girl’s virus. Our case is the first proven rat-to-human transmission of cowpox

Precision Measurement of PArity Violation in Polarized Cold Neutron Capture on the Proton: the NPDGamma Experiment

The NPDGamma experiment at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) is dedicated to measure with high precision the parity violating asymmetry in the $\gamma$ emission after capture of spin polarized cold neutrons in para-hydrogen. The measurement will determine unambiguously the weak pion-nucleon-nucleon ($\pi NN$) coupling constant {\it f$^1_{\pi}$}Comment: Proceedings of the PANIC'05 Conference, Santa Fe, NM, USA, October 24-28, 2005, 3 pages, 2 figure

Proton Elastic and Inelastic Scattering at Intermediate Energies from Isotopes of Oxygen and 9-Be as Part of a Unified Study of these Nuclei

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation Grants NSF PHY 78-22774 A03, NSF PHY 81-14339, and by Indiana Universit

Proton Elastic and Inelastic Scattering at Intermediate Energies from Isotopes of Oxygen and 9-Be as Part of a Unified Study of These Nuclei

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation Grant NSF PHY 78-22774 A02 & A03 and by Indiana Universit

Proton Elastic and Inelastic Scattering at Intermediate Energies from Isotopes of Oxygen and 9-Be as Part of a Unified Study of These Nuclei

Supported by the National Science Foundation and Indiana Universit

Possible experiment for determination of the role of microscopic vortex rings in the \lambda-transition in He-II

It is suggested that microscopic vortex rings (MVR) play an important role in the \lambda-transition in helium-II and substantially determine the value of T_{\lambda}. For very thin films of He-II, with thickness d less than the size of the smallest MVR, the rings do not fit in and, therefore, do not exist in such films. Consequently, for superfluid films of He-II, a peculiarity in the form of a smoothed-out jump should be observed in the curve T_{m}(d) at the values of thickness approximately equal to the size of the smallest MVR, d= 3 - 9 A (T_{m} is the temperature of the maximum of the broad peak on the curve of the dependence of the specific heat on temperature). The absence of a similar peculiarity will be an evidence that MVR do not influence the values of T_{\lambda} and T_{m}, and do not play any key role in the \lambda-transition. The currently available experimental data are insufficient for revealing the predicted peculiarity.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure

Thermal Density Functional Theory in Context

This chapter introduces thermal density functional theory, starting from the ground-state theory and assuming a background in quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics. We review the foundations of density functional theory (DFT) by illustrating some of its key reformulations. The basics of DFT for thermal ensembles are explained in this context, as are tools useful for analysis and development of approximations. We close by discussing some key ideas relating thermal DFT and the ground state. This review emphasizes thermal DFT's strengths as a consistent and general framework.Comment: Submitted to Spring Verlag as chapter in "Computational Challenges in Warm Dense Matter", F. Graziani et al. ed

Added value of co-morbidity in predicting health-related quality of life in COPD patients

AbstractThe extent to which a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patient is impaired in health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is only to a small extent reflected in clinical and demographical measures. As the influence of co-morbidity on HRQoL is less clear, we investigated the added value of 23 common diseases in predicting HRQoL in COPD patients with mild to severe airways obstruction.COPD patients from general practice who appeared to have an forced expiratory volume in 1 sec/inspiratory vital capacity (FEV1/IVC) < predicted −1·64 SD, FEV1<80% predicted, FEV1reversibility <12% and a smoking history, were included (n=163). HRQoL was assessed with the short-form-36 (SF-36) and the presence of co-morbidity was determined by a questionnaire, which asked for 23 common diseases.All domains of the SF-36 were best predicted by the presence of three or more co-morbid diseases. FEV1% predicted, dyspnoea and the presence of one or two diseases were second-best predictors. Co-morbidity explained an additional part of the variance in HRQoL, particularly for emotional functioning (ΔR2=0·11). When individual diseases were investigated, only insomnia appeared to be related to HRQoL.As HRQoL is still only partly explained, co-morbidity and other patient characteristics do not clearly distinguish between COPD patients with severe impairments in HRQoL and COPD patients with minor or no impairments in HRQoL. Therefore, it remains important to ask for problems in daily functioning and well-being, rather than to rely on patient characteristics alone