Reduction of critical temperatures in pure and thoriated UBe13 by columnar defects

We investigate the influence of columnar defects on the superconducting transition temperatures of pure and thoriated UBe13. The defects cause all the transitions to widen and to drop slightly in temperature. Quantitatively, the single UBe13 transition resembles the lower transition in a sample with 3% thorium more closely than the upper thoriated transition.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure. To be presented at M2S-HTSC-V

A Robust and Universal Metaproteomics Workflow for Research Studies and Routine Diagnostics Within 24 h Using Phenol Extraction, FASP Digest, and the MetaProteomeAnalyzer

The investigation of microbial proteins by mass spectrometry (metaproteomics) is a key technology for simultaneously assessing the taxonomic composition and the functionality of microbial communities in medical, environmental, and biotechnological applications. We present an improved metaproteomics workflow using an updated sample preparation and a new version of the MetaProteomeAnalyzer software for data analysis. High resolution by multidimensional separation (GeLC, MudPIT) was sacrificed to aim at fast analysis of a broad range of different samples in less than 24 h. The improved workflow generated at least two times as many protein identifications than our previous workflow, and a drastic increase of taxonomic and functional annotations. Improvements of all aspects of the workflow, particularly the speed, are first steps toward potential routine clinical diagnostics (i.e., fecal samples) and analysis of technical and environmental samples. The MetaProteomeAnalyzer is provided to the scientific community as a central remote server solution at www.mpa.ovgu.de.Peer Reviewe

A Call to Action to Public Health Institutions and Teaching to Incorporate Mass Incarceration as a Sociostructural Determinant of Health

Mass incarceration refers to the system of social and racial control in the United States that arrests, convicts, incarcerates, and supervises racial and ethnic minority populations through probation and parole. Mass incarceration is referred to as “mass” because the current size of this system in the United States is historically and internationally unparalleled. Mass incarceration affects those who are incarcerated and under community supervision, as well as the families and communities where it is concentrated. Mass incarceration is a pervasive cause of health inequities in the United States

Testing of vacuum pumps for the Accelerator Production of Tritium/Low Energy Demonstration Accelerator radio frequency quadrupole

Two vacuum systems were designed and built for the RFQ (Radio Frequency Quadrupole) cavity in the APT/LEDA (Low Energy Demonstration Accelerator) linac. The gas load from the proton beam required very high hydrogen pump speed and capacity. The gas load from the high power RF windows also required very high hydrogen pump speed for the RF window vacuum system. Cryopumps were chosen for the RFQ vacuum system and ST185 sintered non-evaporable getter (NEG) cartridges were chosen for the RF window vacuum system. Hydrogen pump speed and capacity measurements were carried out for a commercial cryopump and a NEG pump. This paper will discuss the test procedures and the results of the measurements

Policy and public communication methods among U.S. state prisons during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic

Background: Throughout the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, our research team monitored and documented policy changes in United States (U.S.) prison systems. Data sources included prison websites and official prison social media accounts. Over 2500 data sources relevant to the COVID-19 pandemic in U.S. prisons were located and summarized in to five different categories: 1) prevention, 2) case identification and intervention, 3) movement, 4) social communication and connection, and 5) programming, recreation, and privileges. Results: All state prison systems reportedly enacted multiple policies intended to limit the spread of COVID-19 during the pandemic. Document analysis revealed that the most commonly released policies were restrictions on social contacts and privileges, basic preventive measures (e.g., distribution of masks), and basic case identification measures (e.g., verbal screening and temperature checks). Utilization of social media for policy communication varied significantly across states, though relevant data was more often released on Facebook than Twitter. Conclusions: Together, our work provides foundational knowledge on the wide breadth of policies that were reportedly enacted in the first year of the pandemic that may be used as a base for quantitative work on policy effectiveness and examinations of implementation

Giant pyogenic granuloma of the thigh: a case report

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licens