Calibration of thickness-dependent k-factors for germanium X-ray lines to improve energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy of SiGe layers in analytical transmission electron microscopy

We show that the accuracy of energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy can be improved by analysing and comparing multiple lines from the same element. For each line, an effective k-factor can be defined that varies as a function of the intensity ratio of multiple lines (e.g. K/L) from the same element. This basically performs an internal self-consistency check in the quantification using differently absorbed X-ray lines, which is in principle equivalent to an absorption correction as a function of specimen thickness but has the practical advantage that the specimen thickness itself does not actually need to be measured

Optimization of culture conditions for gamma-aminobutyric acid production by newly identified Pediococcus pentosaceus MN12 isolated from 'mam nem', a fermented fish sauce

This study was aimed to identify and optimize the culture conditions for gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) production by a lactic acid bacterium strain isolated from mam nem, a fermented fish sauce. Among the six isolates obtained from mam nem, the MN12 had the most potent GABA-producing capability. The strain was then identified to be Pedioccocus pentosaceus by employing MALDI-TOF-MS and phenylalanyl-tRNA synthase sequencing methods. The initial cell density of 5.10(6) CFU/mL, monosodium glutamate concentration of 60 mM, initial pH of 7, temperature of 45 degrees C and cultivation time of 72 h were found to be the optimal culture conditions for highest production of GABA, reaching 27.9 +/- 0.42 mM, by this strain. The cultivation conditions for GABA production by P. pentosaceus MN12 have been successfully optimized, providing a foundation for the development of fermented foods enriched with GABA

Cardiovascular risk factors among Chamorros

BACKGROUND: Little is known regarding the cardiovascular disease risk factors among Chamorros residing in the United States. METHODS: The Chamorro Directory International and the CDC's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Questionnaire (BRFSS) were used to assess the health related practices and needs of a random sample of 228 Chamorros. RESULTS: Inactivity, hypertension, elevated cholesterol and diabetes mellitus were more prevalent in this Chamorro sample compared to the US average. Participants who were 50-and-older or unemployed were more likely to report hypertension, diabetes and inactivity, but they were also more likely to consume more fruits and vegetables than their younger and employed counterparts. Women were more likely to report hypertension and diabetes, whereas men were more likely to have elevated BMI and to have never had their blood cholesterol checked. CONCLUSION: The study provides data that will help healthcare providers, public health workers and community leaders identify where to focus their health improvement efforts for Chamorros and create culturally competent programs to promote health in this community

Prostate Cancer Disparities in Risk Group at Presentation and Access to Treatment for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders: A Study With Disaggregated Ethnic Groups

PURPOSE: We identified (1) differences in localized prostate cancer (PCa) risk group at presentation and (2) disparities in access to initial treatment for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) men with PCa after controlling for sociodemographic factors. METHODS: We assessed all patients in the National Cancer Database with localized PCa with low-, intermediate-, and high-risk disease who identified as Thai, White, Asian Indian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, Filipino, Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, Laotian, Pakistani, Kampuchean, and Hmong. Multivariable logistic regression defined adjusted odds ratios (AORs) with 95% CI of (1) presenting at progressively higher risk group and (2) receiving treatment or active surveillance with intermediate- or high-risk disease, adjusting for sociodemographic and clinical factors. RESULTS: Among 980,889 men (median age 66 years), all AANHPI subgroups with the exception of Thai (AOR = 0.84 [95% CI, 0.58 to 1.21], P > .05), Asian Indian (AOR = 1.12 [95% CI, 1.00 to 1.25], P > .05), and Pakistani (AOR = 1.34 [95% CI, 0.98 to 1.83], P > .05) men had greater odds of presenting at a progressively higher PCa risk group compared with White patients (Chinese AOR = 1.18 [95% CI, 1.11 to 1.25], P < .001; Japanese AOR = 1.36 [95% CI, 1.26 to 1.47], P < .001; Filipino AOR = 1.37 [95% CI, 1.29 to 1.46], P < .001; Korean AOR = 1.32 [95% CI, 1.18 to 1.48], P < .001; Vietnamese AOR = 1.20 [95% CI, 1.07 to 1.35], P = .002; Laotian AOR = 1.60 [95% CI, 1.08 to 2.36], P = .018; Hmong AOR = 4.07 [95% CI, 1.54 to 10.81], P = .005; Kampuchean AOR = 1.55 [95% CI, 1.03 to 2.34], P = .036; Asian Indian or Pakistani AOR = 1.15 [95% CI, 1.07 to 1.24], P < .001; Native Hawaiians AOR = 1.58 [95% CI, 1.38 to 1.80], P < .001; and Pacific Islanders AOR = 1.58 [95% CI, 1.37 to 1.82], P < .001). Additionally, Japanese Americans (AOR = 1.46 [95% CI, 1.09 to 1.97], P = .013) were more likely to receive treatment compared with White patients. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that there are differences in PCa risk group at presentation by race or ethnicity among Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander subgroups and that there exist disparities in treatment patterns. Although AANHPI are often studied as a homogenous group, heterogeneity upon subgroup disaggregation underscores the importance of further study to assess and address barriers to PCa care

Spin and Statistics and First Principles

It was shown in the early Seventies that, in Local Quantum Theory (that is the most general formulation of Quantum Field Theory, if we leave out only the unknown scenario of Quantum Gravity) the notion of Statistics can be grounded solely on the local observable quantities (without assuming neither the commutation relations nor even the existence of unobservable charged field operators); one finds that only the well known (para)statistics of Bose/Fermi type are allowed by the key principle of local commutativity of observables. In this frame it was possible to formulate and prove the Spin and Statistics Theorem purely on the basis of First Principles. In a subsequent stage it has been possible to prove the existence of a unique, canonical algebra of local field operators obeying ordinary Bose/Fermi commutation relations at spacelike separations. In this general guise the Spin - Statistics Theorem applies to Theories (on the four dimensional Minkowski space) where only massive particles with finite mass degeneracy can occur. Here we describe the underlying simple basic ideas, and briefly mention the subsequent generalisations; eventually we comment on the possible validity of the Spin - Statistics Theorem in presence of massless particles, or of violations of locality as expected in Quantum Gravity.Comment: Survey based on a talk given at the Meeting on "Theoretical and experimental aspects of the spin - statistics connection and related symmetries", Trieste, Italy - October 21-25, 200

From error bounds to the complexity of first-order descent methods for convex functions

This paper shows that error bounds can be used as effective tools for deriving complexity results for first-order descent methods in convex minimization. In a first stage, this objective led us to revisit the interplay between error bounds and the Kurdyka-\L ojasiewicz (KL) inequality. One can show the equivalence between the two concepts for convex functions having a moderately flat profile near the set of minimizers (as those of functions with H\"olderian growth). A counterexample shows that the equivalence is no longer true for extremely flat functions. This fact reveals the relevance of an approach based on KL inequality. In a second stage, we show how KL inequalities can in turn be employed to compute new complexity bounds for a wealth of descent methods for convex problems. Our approach is completely original and makes use of a one-dimensional worst-case proximal sequence in the spirit of the famous majorant method of Kantorovich. Our result applies to a very simple abstract scheme that covers a wide class of descent methods. As a byproduct of our study, we also provide new results for the globalization of KL inequalities in the convex framework. Our main results inaugurate a simple methodology: derive an error bound, compute the desingularizing function whenever possible, identify essential constants in the descent method and finally compute the complexity using the one-dimensional worst case proximal sequence. Our method is illustrated through projection methods for feasibility problems, and through the famous iterative shrinkage thresholding algorithm (ISTA), for which we show that the complexity bound is of the form $O(q^{k})$ where the constituents of the bound only depend on error bound constants obtained for an arbitrary least squares objective with $\ell^1$ regularization

A Tale of Three Signatures: practical attack of ECDSA with wNAF

One way of attacking ECDSA with wNAF implementation for the scalar multiplication is to perform a side-channel analysis to collect information, then use a lattice based method to recover the secret key. In this paper, we reinvestigate the construction of the lattice used in one of these methods, the Extended Hidden Number Problem (EHNP). We find the secret key with only 3 signatures, thus reaching the theoretical bound given by Fan, Wang and Cheng, whereas best previous methods required at least 4 signatures in practice. Our attack is more efficient than previous attacks, in particular compared to times reported by Fan et al. at CCS 2016 and for most cases, has better probability of success. To obtain such results, we perform a detailed analysis of the parameters used in the attack and introduce a preprocessing method which reduces by a factor up to 7 the overall time to recover the secret key for some parameters. We perform an error resilience analysis which has never been done before in the setup of EHNP. Our construction is still able to find the secret key with a small amount of erroneous traces, up to 2% of false digits, and 4% with a specific type of error. We also investigate Coppersmith's methods as a potential alternative to EHNP and explain why, to the best of our knowledge, EHNP goes beyond the limitations of Coppersmith's methods

How acceptable are antiretrovirals for the prevention of sexually transmitted HIV? A review of research on the acceptability of oral pre-exposure prophylaxis and treatment as prevention

Recent research has demonstrated how antiretrovirals (ARVs) could be effective in the prevention of sexually transmitted HIV. We review research on the acceptability of oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and treatment as prevention (TasP) for HIV prevention amongst potential users. We consider with whom, where and in what context this research has been conducted, how acceptability has been approached, and what research gaps remain. Findings from 33 studies show a lack of TasP research, PrEP studies which have focused largely on men who have sex with men (MSM) in a US context, and varied measures of acceptability. In order to identify when, where and for whom PrEP and TasP would be most appropriate and effective, research is needed in five areas: acceptability of TasP to people living with HIV; motivation for PrEP use and adherence; current perceptions and management of risk; the impact of broader social and structural factors; and consistent definition and operationalisation of acceptability which moves beyond adherence

Bone turnover in elderly men: relationships to change in bone mineral density

BACKGROUND: It is not clear whether bone turnover markers can be used to make inference regarding changes in bone mineral density (BMD) in untreated healthy elderly men. The present study was designed to address three specific questions: (i) is there a relationship between bone turnover markers and femoral neck BMD within an individual; (ii) is there a relationship between baseline measurements of bone turnover markers and subsequent change in BMD; and (iii) is there a relationship between changes in bone turnover markers and changes in femoral neck BMD? METHODS: The present study was part of the on-going Dubbo Osteoporosis Epidemiology Study, which was designed as a prospective investigation. Men who had had at least 3 sequential visits with serum samples available during follow-up were selected from the study population. Serum C-terminal telopeptide of type I collagen (sICTP), N-terminal propeptide of type I collagen (sPINP) and femoral neck BMD were measured by competitive radioimmunoassays. Femoral neck bone mineral density (BMD) was measured by a densitometer (GE Lunar Corp, Madison, WI). Various mixed-effects models were used to assess the association between the markers and changes in BMD. RESULTS: One hundred and one men aged 70 ± 4.1 years (mean ± SD) met the criteria of selection for analysis. On average, sPINP decreased by 0.7% per year (p = 0.026), sICTP increased by 1.7% per year (p = 0.0002), and femoral neck BMD decreased by 0.4% per year (p < 0.01). Within-subject analysis indicated that changes in BMD were significantly associated with changes in sPINP (p = 0.022), but not with changes in sICTP (p = 0.84). However, neither baseline sPINP (p = 0.50) nor baseline sICTP (p = 0.63) was associated with subsequent changes in BMD. Moreover, changes in BMD were not significantly associated with previous changes in sPINP (p = 0.13) or sICTP (p = 0.95). CONCLUSION: These results suggest that in elderly men of Caucasian background, changes in sPINP were inversely related to changes in BMD within an individual. However, neither sPINP nor sICTP was sufficiently sensitive to predict the rate of change in BMD for a group of individuals or for an individual