204 research outputs found
Assessing Barriers to Mental Health Treatment
It has been well established that individuals with mental illness and substance use disorders face numerous barriers to accessing adequate health care treatment including inability to pay, lack of insurance coverage, lack of provider availability, and stigma. The 2016 Community Health Needs Assessment for Washington County, Vermont identified substance use and mental health as priority health needs for the county. The purpose of this project was to evaluate the specific barriers individuals with mental health and substance use disorders are experiencing in Waterbury, Vermont. A survey was distributed to patients being seen at Waterbury Family Practice with behavioral health or substance use disorder diagnoses. The results demonstrated that approximately half of respondents felt they experienced barriers to treatment. The most commonly sited barriers were financial difficulty and lack of provider availability.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/fmclerk/1445/thumbnail.jp
Effect of Extrusion Parameters on Properties of Powder Coatings Determined by Infrared Spectroscopy
In polymer extrusion, compounding is a continuous mixing process that is also used to produce highly reactive powder coatings. A premixed batch of powder coating is added to the feeding section and extruded, preferably by a co-rotating twin-screw extruder. One essential parameter in the processing of highly reactive materials is the melt temperature: If it is too high, pre-reactions occur during the extrusion process, which may cause high rejection rates. We studied the melt temperature of an epoxy/carboxyl-based powder coating using a retractable thermocouple at 3 different axial positions along the barrel of a ZSK34 co-rotating twin-screw extruder. The influence of different processing conditions on the reactivity of a highly reactive powder coating was examined by infrared spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry. Furthermore, the specific energy input and the color change in the finished powder coating at different processing points were investigated. Multivariate data analysis was used to correlate mid-infrared spectra, melt temperatures, specific energy inputs, enthalpies of reaction and changes in color
Fluctuation properties of strength functions associated with giant resonances
We performed fluctuation analysis by means of the local scaling dimension for
the strength function of the isoscalar (IS) and the isovector (IV) giant
quadrupole resonances (GQR) in Ca, where the strength functions are
obtained by the shell model calculation within up to the 2p2h configurations.
It is found that at small energy scale, fluctuation of the strength function
almost obeys the Gaussian orthogonal ensemble (GOE) random matrix theory limit.
On the other hand, we found a deviation from the GOE limit at the intermediate
energy scale about 1.7MeV for the IS and at 0.9MeV for the IV. The results
imply that different types of fluctuations coexist at different energy scales.
Detailed analysis strongly suggests that GOE fluctuation at small energy scale
is due to the complicated nature of 2p2h states and that fluctuation at the
intermediate energy scale is associated with the spreading width of the
Tamm-Dancoff 1p1h states.Comment: 14 pages including 13figure
Measurement of the Intrinsic Radiopurity of Cs-137/U-235/U-238/Th-232 in CsI(Tl) Crystal Scintillators
The inorganic crystal scintillator CsI(Tl) has been used for low energy
neutrino and Dark Matter experiments, where the intrinsic radiopurity is an
issue of major importance. Low-background data were taken with a CsI(Tl)
crystal array at the Kuo-Sheng Reactor Neutrino Laboratory. The pulse shape
discrimination capabilities of the crystal, as well as the temporal and spatial
correlations of the events, provide powerful means of measuring the intrinsic
radiopurity of Cs-137 as well as the U-235, U-238 and Th-232 series. The event
selection algorithms are described, with which the decay half-lives of Po-218,
Po-214, Rn-220, Po-216 and Po-212 were derived. The measurements of the
contamination levels, their concentration gradients with the crystal growth
axis, and the uniformity among different crystal samples, are reported. The
radiopurity in the U-238 and Th-232 series are comparable to those of the best
reported in other crystal scintillators. Significant improvements in
measurement sensitivities were achieved, similar to those from dedicated
massive liquid scintillator detector. This analysis also provides in situ
measurements of the detector performance parameters, such as spatial
resolution, quenching factors, and data acquisition dead time.Comment: 28 pages, 12 figure
Scaling Analysis of Fluctuating Strength Function
We propose a new method to analyze fluctuations in the strength function
phenomena in highly excited nuclei. Extending the method of multifractal
analysis to the cases where the strength fluctuations do not obey power scaling
laws, we introduce a new measure of fluctuation, called the local scaling
dimension, which characterizes scaling behavior of the strength fluctuation as
a function of energy bin width subdividing the strength function. We discuss
properties of the new measure by applying it to a model system which simulates
the doorway damping mechanism of giant resonances. It is found that the local
scaling dimension characterizes well fluctuations and their energy scales of
fine structures in the strength function associated with the damped collective
motions.Comment: 22 pages with 9 figures; submitted to Phys. Rev.
Studies of Prototype CsI(Tl) Crystal Scintillators for Low-Energy Neutrino Experiments
Crystal scintillators provide potential merits for the pursuit of low-energy
low-background experiments. A CsI(Tl) scintillating crystal detector is being
constructed to study low-energy neutrino physics at a nuclear reactor, while
projects are underway to adopt this technique for dark matter searches. The
choice of the geometrical parameters of the crystal modules, as well as the
optimization of the read-out scheme, are the results of an R&D program.
Crystals with 40 cm in length were developed. The detector requirements and the
achieved performance of the prototypes are presented. Future prospects for this
technique are discussed.Comment: 32 pages, 14 figure
Dielectronic Recombination of Ground-State and Metastable Li+ Ions
Dielectronic recombination has been investigated for Delta-n = 1 resonances
of ground-state Li+(1s^2) and for Delta-n = 0 resonances of metastable Li+(1s2s
^3S). The ground-state spectrum shows three prominent transitions between 53
and 64 eV, while the metastable spectrum exhibits many transitions with
energies < 3.2 eV. Reasonably good agreement of R-matrix, LS coupling
calculations with the measured recombination rate coefficient is obtained. The
time dependence of the recombination rate yields a radiative lifetime of 52.2
+- 5.0 s for the 2 ^3S level of Li+.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. A; REVTeX, 4 pages, 3 figure
T-Cell Memory Responses Elicited by Yellow Fever Vaccine are Targeted to Overlapping Epitopes Containing Multiple HLA-I and -II Binding Motifs
The yellow fever vaccines (YF-17D-204 and 17DD) are considered to be among the safest vaccines and the presence of neutralizing antibodies is correlated with protection, although other immune effector mechanisms are known to be involved. T-cell responses are known to play an important role modulating antibody production and the killing of infected cells. However, little is known about the repertoire of T-cell responses elicited by the YF-17DD vaccine in humans. In this report, a library of 653 partially overlapping 15-mer peptides covering the envelope (Env) and nonstructural (NS) proteins 1 to 5 of the vaccine was utilized to perform a comprehensive analysis of the virus-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell responses. The T-cell responses were screened ex-vivo by IFN-γ ELISPOT assays using blood samples from 220 YF-17DD vaccinees collected two months to four years after immunization. Each peptide was tested in 75 to 208 separate individuals of the cohort. The screening identified sixteen immunodominant antigens that elicited activation of circulating memory T-cells in 10% to 33% of the individuals. Biochemical in-vitro binding assays and immunogenetic and immunogenicity studies indicated that each of the sixteen immunogenic 15-mer peptides contained two or more partially overlapping epitopes that could bind with high affinity to molecules of different HLAs. The prevalence of the immunogenicity of a peptide in the cohort was correlated with the diversity of HLA-II alleles that they could bind. These findings suggest that overlapping of HLA binding motifs within a peptide enhances its T-cell immunogenicity and the prevalence of the response in the population. In summary, the results suggests that in addition to factors of the innate immunity, "promiscuous" T-cell antigens might contribute to the high efficacy of the yellow fever vaccines. © 2013 de Melo et al
Prospects of Scintillating Crystal Detector in Low-Energy Low-Background Experiments
Scintillating crystal detector offers potential advantages in low-energy
(keV-MeV range) low-background experiments for particle physics and
astrophysics. The merits are discussed using CsI(Tl) crystal as illustrations.
The various physics topics which can be pursued with this detector technology
are summarized. A conceptual design for a generic detector is presented.Comment: 20 pages, 1 tables, 7 figures, submitted to Astroparticle Physic
Multiscale fluctuations in nuclear response
The nuclear collective response is investigated in the framework of a doorway
picture in which the spreading width of the collective motion is described as a
coupling to more and more complex configurations. It is shown that this
coupling induces fluctuations of the observed strength. In the case of a
hierarchy of overlapping decay channels, we observe Ericson fluctuations at
different scales. Methods for extracting these scales and the related lifetimes
are discussed. Finally, we show that the coupling of different states at one
level of complexity to some common decay channels at the next level, may
produce interference-like patterns in the nuclear response. This quantum effect
leads to a new type of fluctuations with a typical width related to the level
spacing.Comment: 34 Latex pages including 6 figures (submitted to Phys. Rev. C
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