3^3He Structure and Mechanisms of p3p^3He Backward Elastic Scattering

The mechanism of $p^3$He backward elastic scattering is studied. It is found that the triangle diagrams with the subprocesses $pd\to ^3$He$\pi^0$, $pd^*\to ^3$He$\pi^0$ and $p(pp)\to^3$He$\pi^+$, where $d^*$ and $pp$ denote the singlet deuteron and diproton pair in the $^1S_0$ state, respectively, dominate in the cross section at 0.3-0.8 GeV, and their contribution is comparable with that for a sequential transfer of a $np$ pair at 1-1.5 GeV. The contribution of the $d^*+pp$, estimated on the basis of the spectator mechanism of the $p(NN)\to ^3$He$\pi$ reaction, increases the $p^3$He$\to ^3$He$p$ cross section by one order of magnitude as compared to the contribution of the deuteron alone. Effects of the initial and final states interaction are taken into account.Comment: 17 pages, Latex, 4 postscript figures, expanded version, accepted by Physical Review

International nosocomial infection control consortium (INICC) report, data summary of 36 countries, for 2004-2009

The results of a surveillance study conducted by the International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) from January 2004 through December 2009 in 422 intensive care units (ICUs) of 36 countries in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe are reported. During the 6-year study period, using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN; formerly the National Nosocomial Infection Surveillance system [NNIS]) definitions for device-associated health care-associated infections, we gathered prospective data from 313,008 patients hospitalized in the consortium's ICUs for an aggregate of 2,194,897 ICU bed-days. Despite the fact that the use of devices in the developing countries' ICUs was remarkably similar to that reported in US ICUs in the CDC's NHSN, rates of device-associated nosocomial infection were significantly higher in the ICUs of the INICC hospitals; the pooled rate of central line-associated bloodstream infection in the INICC ICUs of 6.8 per 1,000 central line-days was more than 3-fold higher than the 2.0 per 1,000 central line-days reported in comparable US ICUs. The overall rate of ventilator-associated pneumonia also was far higher (15.8 vs 3.3 per 1,000 ventilator-days), as was the rate of catheter-associated urinary tract infection (6.3 vs. 3.3 per 1,000 catheter-days). Notably, the frequencies of resistance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates to imipenem (47.2% vs 23.0%), Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates to ceftazidime (76.3% vs 27.1%), Escherichia coli isolates to ceftazidime (66.7% vs 8.1%), Staphylococcus aureus isolates to methicillin (84.4% vs 56.8%), were also higher in the consortium's ICUs, and the crude unadjusted excess mortalities of device-related infections ranged from 7.3% (for catheter-associated urinary tract infection) to 15.2% (for ventilator-associated pneumonia). Copyright © 2012 by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Biomass, size structure and trophic compartments of the metazooplankton in the Sontecomapan lagoon (Veracruz, Mexico)

International audienceIn this chapter, based on re-analysis of previous published data, we study the biomass, trophic component and size structure of the zooplankton in the Sontecomapan Lagoon, in order to better evaluate its trophic status and assess its possible incidence on food transfers, eutrophication and terminal productivity in this lagoon. Our results show very low values of zooplankton/phytoplankton ratio, compared to literature data, revealing an overall low food-transfer at the basis of the food chain. The size-structure is in average dominated by small organisms which suggests a predation impact from fish on larger organisms (calanoid copepods). This impact was particularly important during the north wind season perhaps in relation with the breeding cycles of important fish species such as Cathorops aguadulce. However, tidal inputs of large-sized coastal marine organisms (e.g. Paracalanus aculeatus, Temora turbinata and Centropages velificatus) seems to compensate this "erosion" of large zooplankton in the region close to the communication channel. Our data analyses confirm the top-down effect on zooplankton, but also show that bottom-up forces affect phytoplankton (NH4 limitation) and zooplankton (phytoplankton limitation), meanwhile the top-down control by herbivorous zooplankton on phytoplankton is very low (inf. 10% of the phytoplankton stock day)

Engineering Spatial Analysis in Real Estate Applications

This paper considers the urban processes that real estate (RE) experts use in assessing the value of a certain property, based on characteristics of that property and its environment. The main objective is to illustrate the confluence of RE decisional processes and spatial analysis and to show how these techniques can be put to work together. This paper describes a software package specifically designed for supporting spatial analysis of urban data collections. This software can serve as a reference architecture for developing applications that support decisional processes in real estate. Based on geographical features, the computational environment supports appraisal of a wide range of real estate types and can also create analytical maps for use in developing plans and strategies. A case study demonstrates how the computational environment can improve the quality of the diagnosis of urban real estate in a region that has been selected for a prototype implementation