Slow dynamics at the smeared phase transition of randomly layered magnets

We investigate a model for randomly layered magnets, viz. a three-dimensional Ising model with planar defects. The magnetic phase transition in this system is smeared because static long-range order can develop on isolated rare spatial regions. Here, we report large-scale kinetic Monte Carlo simulations of the dynamical behavior close to the smeared phase transition which we characterize by the spin (time) autocorrelation function. In the paramagnetic phase, its behavior is dominated by Griffiths effects similar to those in magnets with point defects. In the tail region of the smeared transition the dynamics is even slower: the autocorrelation function decays like a stretched exponential at intermediate times before approaching the exponentially small asymptotic value following a power law at late times. Our Monte-Carlo results are in good agreement with recent theoretical predictions based on optimal fluctuation theory.Comment: 7 pages, 6 eps figures, final version as publishe

Resolving Medical Malpractice Claims in the Medicare Program: Can It Be Done?

There is increasing interest in an integrated approach to patient safety and medical liability among policymakers. We have proposed Medicareled malpractice reform that would provide Medicare beneficiaries with better safety, improved communication in the event of error, preservation of therapeutic relationships, timely settlement, and fair compensation at a lower administrative cost. Disputes in the reformed system would be adjudicated by Medicare\u27s existing administrative appeals system that would work together with Medicare\u27s quality improvement regulation and payment policy to reduce errors and compensate injured patients. Despite the laudable rationale for Medicare-led malpractice reform, important issues attend the constitutional and statutory authority for such reform. The first issue, assuming legal authority exists, is the feasibility of Medicare-led malpractice reform. Quite simply, does the Medicare program, with the primary purpose of providing acute care services to the elderly, severely disabled, and people with end stage renal disease, have the requisite infrastructure to launch such reform without compromising its central functions? Second, does the federal Congress and/or the Executive Branch, in our constitutional scheme, have the requisite authority to establish Medicare-led malpractice reform especially when states have and always have had the authority to adjudicate medical malpractice in the common law tort system? This article explores these critical issues for Medicare-led malpractice reform. First, this article explores the infrastructure of the Medicare program and how it could accommodate Medicare-led malpractice reform without compromising its central mission. Second, the article briefly describes the elements of a Medicare malpractice adjudication and compensation system for Medicare beneficiaries. Third, the article explores the legal authority for a federal benefits program to supplant a function performed by state common law of torts in the civil judiciary and generally with jury trials. Finally, the article concludes with an assessment of the legal and practical feasibility of Medicare-led malpractice reform

Dances With Elephants: Administrative Resolution of Medical Injury Claims by Medicare Beneficiaries

In our judgment, Hoffmann and Rowthorn\u27s research clearly demonstrates that the QIO-based complaint review process does not provide genuine relief to beneficiaries. People who complain typically want an explanation of their bad experience, compensation for harm they may have suffered, and assurance that future experiences will be better for themselves and for others. Medicare beneficiaries, however, receive minimal information about the resolution of their complaints and no substantive relief whatsoever. As Hoffmann and Rowthorn point out, several reform proposals are now before Congress, including moving the beneficiary complaint function from QIOs to new Medicare Provider Review Organizations. It is not clear from the authors\u27 analysis what is motivating bipartisan interest in reform, but it seems to involve potentially conflicting concerns about lack of consumer responsiveness, on one hand, and wasteful bureaucracy, on the other

Starbursts and Star Clusters in the Ultraviolet

Hubble Space Telescope ultraviolet (UV) images of nine starburst galaxies reveal them to be highly irregular, even after excluding compact sources (clusters and resolved stars). Most (7/9) are found to have a similar intrinsic effective surface brightnesses, suggesting that a negative feedback mechanism is setting an upper limit to the star formation rate per unit area. All starbursts in our sample contain UV bright star clusters indicating that cluster formation is an important mode of star formation in starbursts. On average about 20% of the UV luminosity comes from these clusters. The brightest clusters, or super star clusters (SSC), are preferentially found at the very heart of starbursts. The size of the nearest SSCs are consistent with those of Galactic globular clusters. The luminosity function of SSCs is well represented by a power law with a slope alpha ~ -2. There is a strong correlation between the far infrared excess and the UV spectral slope. The correlation is well modeled by a geometry where much of their dust is in a foreground screen near to the starburst, but not by a geometry of well mixed stars and dust.Comment: 47 pages, text only, LaTeX with aaspp.sty (version 3.0), compressed postscript figures available at ftp://eta.pha.jhu.edu/RecentPublications/meurer

Leadership of the Consortium for Health Policy, Law and Bioethics

poster abstractThe Consortium for Health Policy, Law, and Bioethics completed another successful year of educational programs, public outreach, and collaborative research. Educational highlights include (1) offering for the second time, an innovative graduate course co-taught by the three Consortium-directors (Wright, Kinney, Meslin) that is open to students in law, public health, philosophy; (2) The addition of a new “concentration in international research ethics” (offered in the Philosophy Department that is now eligible for joint-degree status with the JD; and (3) approval of a new JD/MSW. Research highlights include (1) twenty publications (2) several grants awarded to Consortium co-directors; $4,958,909.75 and (3) the establishment of year-long a multidisciplinary study group focusing on ethical, legal, social, and policy issues involving comparative effectiveness research. Outreach highlights include nine presentations to community groups, professional associations, and academic institutions

Numerical solutions of the three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic alpha-model

We present direct numerical simulations and alpha-model simulations of four familiar three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence effects: selective decay, dynamic alignment, inverse cascade of magnetic helicity, and the helical dynamo effect. The MHD alpha-model is shown to capture the long-wavelength spectra in all these problems, allowing for a significant reduction of computer time and memory at the same kinetic and magnetic Reynolds numbers. In the helical dynamo, not only does the alpha-model correctly reproduce the growth rate of magnetic energy during the kinematic regime, but it also captures the nonlinear saturation level and the late generation of a large scale magnetic field by the helical turbulence.Comment: 12 pages, 19 figure

Effects of circadian rhythm phase alteration on physiological and psychological variables: Implications to pilot performance (including a partially annotated bibliography)

The effects of environmental synchronizers upon circadian rhythmic stability in man and the deleterious alterations in performance and which result from changes in this stability are points of interest in a review of selected literature published between 1972 and 1980. A total of 2,084 references relevant to pilot performance and circadian phase alteration are cited and arranged in the following categories: (1) human performance, with focus on the effects of sleep loss or disturbance and fatigue; (2) phase shift in which ground based light/dark alteration and transmeridian flight studies are discussed; (3) shiftwork; (4)internal desynchronization which includes the effect of evironmental factors on rhythmic stability, and of rhythm disturbances on sleep and psychopathology; (5) chronotherapy, the application of methods to ameliorate desynchronization symptomatology; and (6) biorythm theory, in which the birthdate based biorythm method for predicting aircraft accident susceptability is critically analyzed. Annotations are provided for most citations