IFN-gamma is associated with risk of Schistosoma japonicum infection in China.

Before the start of the schistosomiasis transmission season, 129 villagers resident on a Schistosoma japonicum-endemic island in Poyang Lake, Jiangxi Province, 64 of whom were stool-positive for S. japonicum eggs by the Kato method and 65 negative, were treated with praziquantel. Forty-five days later the 93 subjects who presented for follow-up were all stool-negative. Blood samples were collected from all 93 individuals. S. japonicum soluble worm antigen (SWAP) and soluble egg antigen (SEA) stimulated IL-4, IL-5 and IFN-gamma production in whole-blood cultures were measured by ELISA. All the subjects were interviewed nine times during the subsequent transmission season to estimate the intensity of their contact with potentially infective snail habitats, and the subjects were all re-screened for S. japonicum by the Kato method at the end of the transmission season. Fourteen subjects were found to be infected at that time. There was some indication that the risk of infection might be associated with gender (with females being at higher risk) and with the intensity of water contact, and there was evidence that levels of SEA-induced IFN-gamma production were associated with reduced risk of infection

Technical principles of computed tomography in patients with congenital heart disease

Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging and echocardiography are often the primary imaging techniques for many patients with congenital heart disease (CHD). However, with modern generations of CT systems and recent advances in temporal and spatial resolution, cardiac CT has been gaining an increasing reputation in the field of cardiac imaging and in the evaluation of patients with congenital heart disease. The CT imaging protocol depends on the suspected cardiac defect, the type of previous surgical repair, and the patient’s age and level of cooperation. Various strategies are available for reducing radiation exposure, which is of utmost importance particularly in paediatric patients. A sequential segmental analysis is a commonly used approach to analysing congenital heart defects. Familiarity of the performing radiologist with dedicated CT protocols, the complex anatomy, morphology and terminology of CHD, as well as with the surgical procedures used to correct congenital abnormalities is a prerequisite for correct diagnosis

Strangeness in the nucleon and the ratio of proton-to-neutron neutrino-induced quasi-elastic yield

The electroweak form factors of the nucleon as obtained within a three flavor pseudoscalar vector meson soliton model are employed to predict the ratio of the proton and neutron yields from $^{12}C$, which are induced by quasi-elastic neutrino reactions. These predictions are found to vary only moderately in the parameter space allowed by the model. The antineutrino flux of the up-coming experiment determining this ratio was previously overestimated. The corresponding correction is shown to have only a small effect on the predicted ratio. However, it is found that the experimental result for the ratio crucially depends on an accurate measurement of the energy of the knocked out nucleon.Comment: 17 pages, LaTeX, 2 tables, 4 figures, Discussion on shape of strange form factors added, Z. Phys. A, to be publishe

Crossover from mesoscopic to universal phase for electron transmission in quantum dots

Measuring phase in coherent electron systems (mesoscopic systems) provides ample information not easily revealed by conductance measurements. Phase measurements in relatively large quantum dots (QDs) recently demonstrated a universal like phase evolution independent of dot size, shape, and occupancy. Explicitly, in Coulomb blockaded QDs the transmission phase increased monotonically by pi throughout each conductance peak, thereafter, in the conductance valleys the phase returned sharply to its base value. Expected mesoscopic features in the phase, related to spin degeneracy or to exchange effects, were never observed. Presently, there is no satisfactory full explanation for the observed phase universality. Unfortunately, the phase in a few-electron QDs, where it can be better understood was never measured. Here we report on such measurements on a small QD that occupy only 1-20 electrons. Such dot was embedded in one arm of a two path electron interferometer, with an electron counter near the dot. Unlike the repetitive behavior found in larger dots we found now mesoscopic features for dot occupation of less than some 10 electrons. An unexpected feature in this regime is a clear observation of the occupation of two different orbital states by the first two electrons - contrary to the recent publications. As the occupation increased the phase evolved and turned universal like for some 14 electrons and higher. The present measurements allowed us to determine level occupancy and parity. More importantly, they suggest that QDs go through a phase transition, from mesoscopic to universal like behavior, as the occupancy increases. These measurements help in singling out potential few theoretical models among the many proposed.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure

Three-Body Halo States in Effective Field Theory: Renormalization and Three-Body Interactions in the Helium-6 System

In this paper we study the renormalization of Halo effective field theory applied to the Helium-6 halo nucleus seen as an alpha-neutron-neutron three-body state. We include the 0(+) dineutron channel together with both the 3/2(-) and 1/2(-) neutron-alpha channels into the field theory and study all of the six lowest-order three-body interactions that are present. Furthermore, we discuss three different prescriptions to handle the unphysical poles in the P-wave two-body sector. In the simpler field theory without the 1/2(-) channel present we find that the bound-state spectrum of the field theory is renormalized by the inclusion of a single three-body interaction. However, in the field theory with both the 3/2(-) and 1/2(-) included, the system can not be renormalized by only one three-body operator

Comparing the hierarchy of keywords in on-line news portals

The tagging of on-line content with informative keywords is a widespread phenomenon from scientific article repositories through blogs to on-line news portals. In most of the cases, the tags on a given item are free words chosen by the authors independently. Therefore, relations among keywords in a collection of news items is unknown. However, in most cases the topics and concepts described by these keywords are forming a latent hierarchy, with the more general topics and categories at the top, and more specialised ones at the bottom. Here we apply a recent, cooccurrence-based tag hierarchy extraction method to sets of keywords obtained from four different on-line news portals. The resulting hierarchies show substantial differences not just in the topics rendered as important (being at the top of the hierarchy) or of less interest (categorised low in the hierarchy), but also in the underlying network structure. This reveals discrepancies between the plausible keyword association frameworks in the studied news portals

Hedgehog Spin-texture and Berry's Phase tuning in a Magnetic Topological Insulator

Understanding and control of spin degrees of freedom on the surfaces of topological materials are key to future applications as well as for realizing novel physics such as the axion electrodynamics associated with time-reversal (TR) symmetry breaking on the surface. We experimentally demonstrate magnetically induced spin reorientation phenomena simultaneous with a Dirac-metal to gapped-insulator transition on the surfaces of manganese-doped Bi2Se3 thin films. The resulting electronic groundstate exhibits unique hedgehog-like spin textures at low energies, which directly demonstrate the mechanics of TR symmetry breaking on the surface. We further show that an insulating gap induced by quantum tunnelling between surfaces exhibits spin texture modulation at low energies but respects TR invariance. These spin phenomena and the control of their Fermi surface geometrical phase first demonstrated in our experiments pave the way for the future realization of many predicted exotic magnetic phenomena of topological origin.Comment: 38 pages, 18 Figures, Includes new text, additional datasets and interpretation beyond arXiv:1206.2090, for the final published version see Nature Physics (2012

User needs elicitation via analytic hierarchy process (AHP). A case study on a Computed Tomography (CT) scanner

Background: The rigorous elicitation of user needs is a crucial step for both medical device design and purchasing. However, user needs elicitation is often based on qualitative methods whose findings can be difficult to integrate into medical decision-making. This paper describes the application of AHP to elicit user needs for a new CT scanner for use in a public hospital. Methods: AHP was used to design a hierarchy of 12 needs for a new CT scanner, grouped into 4 homogenous categories, and to prepare a paper questionnaire to investigate the relative priorities of these. The questionnaire was completed by 5 senior clinicians working in a variety of clinical specialisations and departments in the same Italian public hospital. Results: Although safety and performance were considered the most important issues, user needs changed according to clinical scenario. For elective surgery, the five most important needs were: spatial resolution, processing software, radiation dose, patient monitoring, and contrast medium. For emergency, the top five most important needs were: patient monitoring, radiation dose, contrast medium control, speed run, spatial resolution. Conclusions: AHP effectively supported user need elicitation, helping to develop an analytic and intelligible framework of decision-making. User needs varied according to working scenario (elective versus emergency medicine) more than clinical specialization. This method should be considered by practitioners involved in decisions about new medical technology, whether that be during device design or before deciding whether to allocate budgets for new medical devices according to clinical functions or according to hospital department