Scattering by a toroidal coil

In this paper we consider the Schr\"odinger operator in ${\mathbb R}^3$ with a long-range magnetic potential associated to a magnetic field supported inside a torus ${\mathbb{T}}$. Using the scheme of smooth perturbations we construct stationary modified wave operators and the corresponding scattering matrix $S(\lambda)$. We prove that the essential spectrum of $S(\lambda)$ is an interval of the unit circle depending only on the magnetic flux $\phi$ across the section of $\mathbb{T}$. Additionally we show that, in contrast to the Aharonov-Bohm potential in ${\mathbb{R}}^2$, the total scattering cross-section is always finite. We also conjecture that the case treated here is a typical example in dimension 3.Comment: LaTeX2e 17 pages, 1 figur

Women's employment status and mortality: the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study

Background: As women's labor force participation in the United States has increased over the past decades, there has been an interest in the potential health effects of employment. To date, however, research findings have been contradictory. Methods: Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the association between employment status and mortality among 7361 middle-aged African American and white women who participated in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study. Women were classified as employed or homemakers at the baseline examination (1987–1989) and were followed for approximately 11 years. Proportional hazards regression was used to estimate unadjusted and adjusted hazard ratios. Results: After adjusting for sociodemographic factors and selected risk factors for mortality, employed women had a lower risk of mortality than homemakers (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.65, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.49, 0.86). This decreased risk of mortality persisted in additional analyses that excluded those who died within the first 2 years of follow-up or, alternatively, those with a history of coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke, cancer, hypertension, diabetes, or a perception of fair or poor health at baseline. In cause of death-specific analyses, the mortality advantage among employed women persisted for circulatory systemrelated deaths; however, the association for cancer-related deaths was weaker, and the CI included one. Conclusions: As the association between employment status and mortality was not explained by known risk factors for mortality, additional research is needed to identify other potential factors that may help to explain this relationshiphttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/57749/1/Womens Employment in Status and Mortality The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study.pd

Set optimization - a rather short introduction

Recent developments in set optimization are surveyed and extended including various set relations as well as fundamental constructions of a convex analysis for set- and vector-valued functions, and duality for set optimization problems. Extensive sections with bibliographical comments summarize the state of the art. Applications to vector optimization and financial risk measures are discussed along with algorithmic approaches to set optimization problems

The ANTARES Optical Beacon System

ANTARES is a neutrino telescope being deployed in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of a three dimensional array of photomultiplier tubes that can detect the Cherenkov light induced by charged particles produced in the interactions of neutrinos with the surrounding medium. High angular resolution can be achieved, in particular when a muon is produced, provided that the Cherenkov photons are detected with sufficient timing precision. Considerations of the intrinsic time uncertainties stemming from the transit time spread in the photomultiplier tubes and the mechanism of transmission of light in sea water lead to the conclusion that a relative time accuracy of the order of 0.5 ns is desirable. Accordingly, different time calibration systems have been developed for the ANTARES telescope. In this article, a system based on Optical Beacons, a set of external and well-controlled pulsed light sources located throughout the detector, is described. This calibration system takes into account the optical properties of sea water, which is used as the detection volume of the ANTARES telescope. The design, tests, construction and first results of the two types of beacons, LED and laser-based, are presented.Comment: 21 pages, 18 figures, submitted to Nucl. Instr. and Meth. Phys. Res.

A First Search for coincident Gravitational Waves and High Energy Neutrinos using LIGO, Virgo and ANTARES data from 2007

We present the results of the first search for gravitational wave bursts associated with high energy neutrinos. Together, these messengers could reveal new, hidden sources that are not observed by conventional photon astronomy, particularly at high energy. Our search uses neutrinos detected by the underwater neutrino telescope ANTARES in its 5 line configuration during the period January - September 2007, which coincided with the fifth and first science runs of LIGO and Virgo, respectively. The LIGO-Virgo data were analysed for candidate gravitational-wave signals coincident in time and direction with the neutrino events. No significant coincident events were observed. We place limits on the density of joint high energy neutrino - gravitational wave emission events in the local universe, and compare them with densities of merger and core-collapse events.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, science summary page at http://www.ligo.org/science/Publication-S5LV_ANTARES/index.php. Public access area to figures, tables at https://dcc.ligo.org/cgi-bin/DocDB/ShowDocument?docid=p120000

Natural Form of Noncytolytic Flexible Human Fc as a Long-Acting Carrier of Agonistic Ligand, Erythropoietin

Human IgG1 Fc has been widely used as a bioconjugate, but exhibits shortcomings, such as antibody- and complement-mediated cytotoxicity as well as decreased bioactivity, when applied to agonistic proteins. Here, we constructed a nonimmunogenic, noncytolytic and flexible hybrid Fc (hyFc) consisting of IgD and IgG4, and tested its function using erythropoietin (EPO) conjugate, EPO-hyFc. Despite low amino acid homology (20.5%) between IgD Fc and IgG4 Fc, EPO-hyFc retained “Y-shaped” structure and repeated intravenous administrations of EPO-hyFc into monkeys did not generate EPO-hyFc-specific antibody responses. Furthermore, EPO-hyFc could not bind to FcγR I and C1q in contrast to EPO-IgG1 Fc. In addition, EPO-hyFc exhibited better in vitro bioactivity and in vivo bioactivity in rats than EPO-IgG1 Fc, presumably due to the high flexibility of IgD. Moreover, the mean serum half-life of EPO-hyFc(H), a high sialic acid content form of EPO-hyFc, was approximately 2-fold longer than that of the heavily glycosylated EPO, darbepoetin alfa, in rats. More importantly, subcutaneous injection of EPO-hyFc(H) not only induced a significantly greater elevation of serum hemoglobin levels than darbepoetin alfa in both normal rats and cisplatin-induced anemic rats, but also displayed a delayed time to maximal serum level and twice final area-under-the-curve (AUClast). Taken together, hyFc might be a more attractive Fc conjugate for agonistic proteins/peptides than IgG1 Fc due to its capability to elongate their half-lives without inducing host effector functions and hindering bioactivity of fused molecules. Additionally, a head-to-head comparison demonstrated that hyFc-fusion strategy more effectively improved the in vivo bioactivity of EPO than the hyperglycosylation approach