6,374 research outputs found
Climatic and eustatic controls on the development of a Late Triassic source rock in the Jameson Land Basin, East Greenland
This work was undertaken as part of the continuing work of CASP in East Greenland. The sponsoring companies are thanked for their continued support of this work. Help in the field by T. Kinnaird and useful discussions with A. Whitham are gratefully acknowledged. The reviews of L. Clemmensen and an anonymous reviewer, and the input from S. Jones led to improvements to the original paper.Peer reviewedPostprin
Demographics and Disaster Risk Reduction and Management of Government Hospital Nurses in Zambales, Philippines
During times of disaster, hospitals play an integral role within the healthcare system by providing essential medical care to their communities. Any incident that causes loss of infrastructure or patient surge, such as a natural disaster, terrorist act, or chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or explosive hazard, often requires a competent response and recovery effort of nurses. This descriptive study aimed to assess the disaster risk reduction and management of government hospital nurses on the components of disaster prevention and mitigation, disaster preparedness, disaster response, and disaster rehabilitation and recovery. The one hundred respondents were randomly selected from the five government hospitals in the province of Zambales, Philippines. The researchers employed various data gathering procedures such as interview and the use of questionnaire. Data were statistically treated using frequency, weighted mean, percentage and ANOVA. The researchers found out that the disaster risk reduction and management by government hospital nurses was frequently practiced. Moreover, it revealed that disaster risk reduction and management has a significant difference on the respondent’s education, training and work experiences. Healthcare systems need to ensure that all healthcare staff including nurses are ready for disaster occurrences. Regardless of the variation of demographic profiles, nurses should know the scope of their responsibility and role in responding to, managing and recovering from disasters impacts
LaserTank is NP-complete
We show that the classical game LaserTank is -complete, even
when the tank movement is restricted to a single column and the only blocks
appearing on the board are mirrors and solid blocks. We show this by reducing
-SAT instances to LaserTank puzzles.Comment: 5 page
Mixing Times in Quantum Walks on Two-Dimensional Grids
Mixing properties of discrete-time quantum walks on two-dimensional grids
with torus-like boundary conditions are analyzed, focusing on their connection
to the complexity of the corresponding abstract search algorithm. In
particular, an exact expression for the stationary distribution of the coherent
walk over odd-sided lattices is obtained after solving the eigenproblem for the
evolution operator for this particular graph. The limiting distribution and
mixing time of a quantum walk with a coin operator modified as in the abstract
search algorithm are obtained numerically. On the basis of these results, the
relation between the mixing time of the modified walk and the running time of
the corresponding abstract search algorithm is discussed.Comment: 11 page
Electron spin relaxation of N@C60 in CS2
We examine the temperature dependence of the relaxation times of the
molecules N@C60 and N@C70 (which comprise atomic nitrogen trapped within a
carbon cage) in liquid CS2 solution. The results are inconsistent with the
fluctuating zero field splitting (ZFS) mechanism, which is commonly invoked to
explain electron spin relaxation for S > 1/2 spins in liquid solution, and is
the mechanism postulated in the literature for these systems. Instead, we find
a clear Arrhenius temperature dependence for N@C60, indicating the spin
relaxation is driven primarily by an Orbach process. For the asymmetric N@C70
molecule, which has a permanent non-zero ZFS, we resolve an additional
relaxation mechanism caused by the rapid reorientation of its ZFS. We also
report the longest coherence time (T2) ever observed for a molecular electron
spin, being 0.25 ms at 170K.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures V2: Updated to published versio
Light scattering and phase behavior of Lysozyme-PEG mixtures
Measurements of liquid-liquid phase transition temperatures (cloud points) of
mixtures of a protein (lysozyme) and a polymer, poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)
show that the addition of low molecular weight PEG stabilizes the mixture
whereas high molecular weight PEG was destabilizing. We demonstrate that this
behavior is inconsistent with an entropic depletion interaction between
lysozyme and PEG and suggest that an energetic attraction between lysozyme and
PEG is responsible. In order to independently characterize the lysozyme/PEG
interactions, light scattering experiments on the same mixtures were performed
to measure second and third virial coefficients. These measurements indicate
that PEG induces repulsion between lysozyme molecules, contrary to the
depletion prediction. Furthermore, it is shown that third virial terms must be
included in the mixture's free energy in order to qualitatively capture our
cloud point and light scattering data. The light scattering results were
consistent with the cloud point measurements and indicate that attractions do
exist between lysozyme and PEG.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, 1 tabl
Opicapone, a Novel Catechol-O-methyl Transferase Inhibitor, for Treatment of Parkinson\u27s Disease Off Episodes
Parkinson\u27s Disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disorder and the leading cause of disability. It causes significant morbidity and disability through a plethora of symptoms, including movement disorders, sleep disturbances, and cognitive and psychiatric symptoms. The traditional pathogenesis theory of PD involves the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra (SN). Classically, treatment is pursued with an assortment of medications that are directed at overcoming this deficiency with levodopa being central to most treatment plans. Patients taking levodopa tend to experience off episodes with decreasing medication levels, causing large fluctuations in their symptoms. These off episodes are disturbing and a source of morbidity for these patients. Opicapone is a novel, peripherally acting Catechol-O-methyl transferase (COMT) inhibitor that is used as adjunctive therapy to carbidopa/levodopa for treatment and prevention of off episodes. It has been approved for use as an adjunct to levodopa since 2016 in Europe and has recently (April 2020) gained FDA approval for use in the USA. By inhibiting COMT, opicapone slows levodopa metabolism and increases its availability. Several clinical studies demonstrated significant improvement in treatment efficacy and reduction in duration of off episodes. The main side effect demonstrated was dyskinesia, mostly with the 100mg dose, which is higher than the approved, effective dose of 50mg. Post-marketing surveillance and analysis are required to further elucidate its safety profile and contribute to patient selection. This paper reviews the seminal and latest evidence in the treatment of PD off episodes with the novel drug Opicapone, including efficacy, safety, and clinical indications
Approximating Fractional Time Quantum Evolution
An algorithm is presented for approximating arbitrary powers of a black box
unitary operation, , where is a real number, and
is a black box implementing an unknown unitary. The complexity of
this algorithm is calculated in terms of the number of calls to the black box,
the errors in the approximation, and a certain `gap' parameter. For general
and large , one should apply a total of times followed by our procedure for approximating the fractional
power . An example is also given where for
large integers this method is more efficient than direct application of
copies of . Further applications and related algorithms are also
discussed.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figure
Projected shell model study of odd-odd f-p-g shell proton-rich nuclei
A systematic study of 2-quasiparticle bands of the proton-rich odd-odd nuclei
in the mass A ~ 70-80 region is performed using the projected shell model
approach. The study includes Br-, Rb-, and Y-isotopes with N = Z+2, and Z+4. We
describe the energy spectra and electromagnetic transition strengths in terms
of the configuration mixing of the angular-momentum projected
multi-quasiparticle states. Signature splitting and signature inversion in the
rotational bands are discussed and are shown to be well described. A
preliminary study of the odd-odd N = Z nucleus, 74Rb using the concept of
spontaneous symmetry breaking is also presented.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, final version accepted by Phys. Rev.
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