International Law Association Panel Discussion On The Holocaust As Catalyst For International Justice

I first wish to thank Prof. Nunes, Director of the Institute on the Holocaust and the Law and Moderator of this panel, for the opportunity to serve on this distinguished panel

Employee benefits: Beyond the fringe?

Illustrations not included in Web versio

Electron-vibration interaction in single-molecule junctions: from contact to tunneling regime

Point contact spectroscopy on a H2O molecule bridging Pt electrodes reveals a clear crossover between enhancement and reduction of the conductance due to electron-vibration interaction. As single channel models predict such a crossover at transmission probability of t=0.5, we used shot noise measurements to analyze the transmission and observed at least two channels across the junction where the dominant channel has t=0.51+/-0.01 transmission probability at the crossover conductance, which is consistent with the predictions for single-channel models.Comment: 4 pages, 1 table, 4 figure

Nondispersive solutions to the L2-critical half-wave equation

We consider the focusing $L^2$-critical half-wave equation in one space dimension $$i \partial_t u = D u - |u|^2 u,$$ where $D$ denotes the first-order fractional derivative. Standard arguments show that there is a critical threshold $M_* > 0$ such that all $H^{1/2}$ solutions with $\| u \|_{L^2} < M_*$ extend globally in time, while solutions with $\| u \|_{L^2} \geq M_*$ may develop singularities in finite time. In this paper, we first prove the existence of a family of traveling waves with subcritical arbitrarily small mass. We then give a second example of nondispersive dynamics and show the existence of finite-time blowup solutions with minimal mass $\| u_0 \|_{L^2} = M_*$. More precisely, we construct a family of minimal mass blowup solutions that are parametrized by the energy $E_0 >0$ and the linear momentum $P_0 \in \R$. In particular, our main result (and its proof) can be seen as a model scenario of minimal mass blowup for $L^2$-critical nonlinear PDE with nonlocal dispersion.Comment: 51 page

Theory of Coherent Time-dependent Transport in One-dimensional Multiband Semiconductor Superlattices

We present an analytical study of one-dimensional semiconductor superlattices in external electric fields, which may be time-dependent. A number of general results for the (quasi)energies and eigenstates are derived. An equation of motion for the density matrix is obtained for a two-band model, and the properties of the solutions are analyzed. An expression for the current is obtained. Finally, Zener-tunneling in a two-band tight-binding model is considered. The present work gives the background and an extension of the theoretical framework underlying our recent Letter [J. Rotvig {\it et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 74}, 1831 (1995)], where a set of numerical simulations were presented.Comment: 15 pages, Revtex 3.0, uses epsf, 2 ps figures attache

The effects of socioeconomic status and indices of physical environment on reduced birth weight and preterm births in Eastern Massachusetts

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Background: Air pollution and social characteristics have been shown to affect indicators of health. While use of spatial methods to estimate exposure to air pollution has increased the power to detect effects, questions have been raised about potential for confounding by social factors.Methods: A study of singleton births in Eastern Massachusetts was conducted between 1996 and 2002 to examine the association between indicators of traffic, land use, individual and area-based socioeconomic measures (SEM), and birth outcomes ( birth weight, small for gestational age and preterm births), in a two-level hierarchical model.Results: We found effects of both individual ( education, race, prenatal care index) and area-based ( median household income) SEM with all birth outcomes. The associations for traffic and land use variables were mainly seen with birth weight, with an exception for an effect of cumulative traffic density on small for gestational age. Race/ethnicity of mother was an important predictor of birth outcomes and a strong confounder for both area-based SEM and indices of physical environment. The effects of traffic and land use differed by level of education and median household income.Conclusion: Overall, the findings of the study suggested greater likelihood of reduced birth weight and preterm births among the more socially disadvantaged, and a greater risk of reduced birth weight associated with traffic exposures. Results revealed the importance of controlling simultaneously for SEM and environmental exposures as the way to better understand determinants of health.This work is supported by the Harvard Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Center, Grants R827353 and R-832416, and National Institute for Environmental Health Science (NIEHS) ES-0002

Cibenzoline for treatment of ventricular arrhythmias: A double-blind placebo-controlled study

Cibenzoline, a new class I antiarrhythmic drug, was administered to 24 patients with frequent (> 30/h) premature ventricular complexes. Three patients discontinued the medication because of epigastric distress before repeat ambulatory electrocardiography. Of the remaining 21 patients, 13 responded to 130 mg twice daily by more than 75% suppression of premature ventricular complex frequency and 6 additional patients responded to 160 mg twice daily during an open-label titration phase. Events of ventricular tachycardia (≥3 beats) were totally suppressed in 9 of 10 patients and markedly diminished in the 1 remaining patient. During a doubleblind placebo-controlled crossover phase in 16 patients (21 patients minus 2 nonresponders and 3 who developed side effects), cibenzoline suppressed the number of premature ventricular complexes per 24 hours (4,075 ± 868 to 1,758 ± 1,089, p = 0.02), the number of events of ventricular tachycardia (31 ± 30 to 2 ± 0, p = 0.01) and the number of premature ventricular complex pairs (61 ± 28 to 25 ± 21, p = 0.01). Cibenzoline plasma concentration was 59 to 421 ng/ml in responders and higher (387,758 and 852 ng/ml, respectively) in the three subjects with side effects (right bundle branch block in one, hypotension in one, gastrointestinal upset and central nervous system complaints in one). Cibenzoline plasma concentration correlated with PR interval (r = 0.55, p = 0.0106) and corrected QT interval (r = 0.58, p = 0.0054). Further clinical investigation of this new antiarrhythmic agent is needed