Submillimeter Atmospheric Transparency at Maunakea, at the South Pole, and at Chajnantor

For a systematic assessment of submillimeter observing conditions at different sites, we constructed tipping radiometers to measure the broad band atmospheric transparency in the window around 350 $\mu$m wavelength. The tippers were deployed on Maunakea, Hawaii, at the South Pole, and in the vicinity of Cerro Chajnantor in northern Chile. Identical instruments permit direct comparison of these sites. Observing conditions at the South Pole and in the Chajnantor area are better than on Maunakea. Simultaneous measurements with two tippers demonstrate conditions at the summit of Cerro Chajnantor are significantly better than on the Chajnantor plateau.Comment: Accepted by PAS

David Dexter Perkins (1919-2007)

Obituary of David Dexter Perkin

Conservation tillage increases in soil water storage, soil animal populations, grain yield, and response to fertiliser in the semi-arid subtropics

We compared 4 tillage practices (traditional, stubble mulch, reduced, no tillage) during 10 years under rainfed conditions on an alluvial soil in the semi-arid subtropics of central Queensland. In the final 4 years, responses to applied fertiliser nitrogen (N), sulfur (S), and zinc (Zn) were determined. We measured soil water storage, soil nitrate accumulation, grain yield (sorghum, wheat), grain protein content, and populations of soil macrofauna, with the aim of identifying soil-conserving practices that also produce high yields of high quality grain. Stubble mulch, reduced tillage, and no tillage all outyielded traditional tillage when soil fertility was adequate. With applied N, S, and Zn, the mean wheat yields from traditional, stubble mulch, reduced, and no tillage were 2.44, 3.32, 3.46, and 3.64 t/ha, respectively. The yield responses to tillage practices were due to increases in storage of soil water or efficiency of crop water use or both. Populations of soil macrofauna averaged (per m2) 19 (traditional tillage), 21 (stubble mulch), 33 (reduced tillage), and 44 (no tillage). The effect of the tillage practices on soil animal populations may be a factor contributing to the measured differences in soil water storage and water use efficiency. We conclude that conservation tillage practices can greatly increase grain yields, provided crop and fallow management practices are appropriate. Potential yield advantages are realised if crop establishment, crop nutrition; and control of weeds, bests, and diseases are adequate

Stability of the Submillimeter Brightness of the Atmosphere Above Mauna Kea, Chajnantor and the South Pole

The summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii, the area near Cerro Chajnantor in Chile, and the South Pole are sites of large millimeter or submillimeter wavelength telescopes. We have placed 860 GHz sky brightness monitors at all three sites and present a comparative study of the measured submillimeter brightness due to atmospheric thermal emission. We report the stability of that quantity at each site.Comment: 6 figure

Magnetic Monopoles, Electric Neutrality and the Static Maxwell-Dirac Equations

We study the full Maxwell-Dirac equations: Dirac field with minimally coupled electromagnetic field and Maxwell field with Dirac current as source. Our particular interest is the static case in which the Dirac current is purely time-like -- the "electron" is at rest in some Lorentz frame. In this case we prove two theorems under rather general assumptions. Firstly, that if the system is also stationary (time independent in some gauge) then the system as a whole must have vanishing total charge, i.e. it must be electrically neutral. In fact, the theorem only requires that the system be {\em asymptotically} stationary and static. Secondly, we show, in the axially symmetric case, that if there are external Coulomb fields then these must necessarily be magnetically charged -- all Coulomb external sources are electrically charged magnetic monopoles

Maximum tumor diameter is associated with event-free survival in PET-negative patients with stage I/IIA Hodgkin lymphoma.

Introduction: the high cure rates achieved in early-stage (ES) Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) are one of the great successes of hemato-oncology, but late treatment-related toxicity undermines long-term survival. Improving overall survival and quality of life further will require maintaining disease control while potentially de-escalating chemotherapy and/or omitting radiotherapy to reduce late toxicity. Accurate stratification of patients is required to facilitate individualized treatment approaches. Response assessment using 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (PET) is a powerful predictor of outcome in HL,1,2 and has been used in multiple studies, including the United Kingdom National Cancer Research Institute Randomised Phase III Trial to Determine the Role of FDG–PET Imaging in Clinical Stages IA/IIA Hodgkin’s Disease (UK NCRI RAPID) trial, to investigate whether patients achieving complete metabolic remission (CMR) can be treated with chemotherapy alone.3-5 These PET-adapted trials have demonstrated that omitting radiotherapy results in higher relapse rates, but without compromising overall survival.3-5 For the 75% of patients who achieved CMR in RAPID, neither baseline clinical risk stratification (favorable/unfavorable) nor PET (Deauville score 1/2) predicted disease relapse; additional biomarkers are needed.1 Tumor bulk has long been recognized as prognostic in HL,1,6 but there remains uncertainty about the significance and definition of bulk in the era of PET-adapted treatment.7 We performed a subsidiary analysis of RAPID to assess the prognostic value of baseline maximum tumor dimension (MTD) in patients achieving CMR. Methods: ee have previously reported the RAPID trial design, primary results, and outcomes according to pretreatment risk stratification and PET score.1,3 Patients were aged 16 to 75 years with untreated ES-HL and without B-symptoms or mediastinal bulk (mass > 1/3 internal mediastinal diameter at T5/6).6 Metabolic response after 3 cycles of ABVD chemotherapy (doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine) was centrally assessed using PET (N = 562). Patients with CMR (ie, Deauville score 1-2) were randomly assigned to receive involved field radiotherapy (IFRT; n = 208) or no further therapy (NFT; n = 211). PET-positive patients (score, 3-5; n = 143) received a fourth cycle of ABVD and IFRT. Baseline disease assessment was performed by computed tomography, and bidimensional target lesion measurements were reported by local radiologists in millimeters. The association of baseline MTD with HL-related event-free survival (EFS: progression or HL-related death) and progression-free survival (PFS) (progression or any-cause death) was assessed using Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analyses. Non-HL deaths were either related to primary treatment toxicity or occurred in HL remission.1 United Kingdom ethical approval for the RAPID trial was via the UK Multicentre Research ethics committee. Results and discussion: baseline patient characteristics have been previously described.1 Median age was 34 years (range, 16-75 years); 184 (37.4%) of 492 patients had unfavorable risk by European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer criteria, and 155 (32.3%) of 480 by German Hodgkin Study Groupcriteria. Median MTD for patients achieving CMR was 3.0 cm (interquartile range, 2.0-4.0 cm) and 3.0 cm (interquartile range, 1.8-4.5 cm) in the NFT and IFRT groups, respectively, whereas PET-positive patients had a median MTD of 3.9 cm (interquartile range, 2.8-5.1 cm). After a median follow-up of 61.6 m, 44 HL progression events occurred: 21 NFT, 9 IFRT and 14 PET-positive. No patient received salvage treatment without documented progression. Only 5 HL-related deaths occurred (1 IFRT, 4 PET-positive), and 12 non-HL deaths (4 NFT, 6 IFRT, 2 PET-positive).1 For patients with CMR (N = 419), there was a strong association between MTD and EFS (hazard ratio [HR], 1.19; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.02-1.39; P = .02), adjusting for treatment group, with an approximate 19% increase in HL risk per centimeter increase in MTD. The association was similar in both treatment groups (NFT HR, 1.20 [95% CI, 0.99-1.44; P = .06]; IFRT HR, 1.19 [95% CI, 0.92-1.55; P = .19]). The observed effect sizes did not markedly change after adjusting for baseline clinical risk factors, and similar results were observed for PFS (supplemental Table 1). In contrast, for PET-positive patients, there was no association between MTD and EFS (HR, 0.88; 95% CI, 0.70-1.11; P = .29) or PFS (HR, 0.87; 95% CI, 0.70-1.08; P = .21). In an exploratory analysis within the NFT group, MTD was dichotomized using increasing 1-cm intervals to investigate the relationship between MTD thresholds and EFS. The largest effect size was observed with an MTD threshold of ≥5 cm (Table 1). Similar results were observed for PFS; this threshold also performed best in time-dependent receiver operating characteristic curve analyses. It was not possible to assess MTD thresholds in the IFRT group with only 9 events. Among all randomized patients, 79 (18.9%) had MTD of ≥5 cm, the majority with mediastinal (n = 43), supraclavicular (n = 17), or cervical (n = 16) locations. Five-year EFS for patients with MTD of ≥5 cm randomly assigned to NFT and IFRT was 79.3% (n = 39; 95% CI, 66.6%-92.0%) and 94.9% (n = 40; 95% CI, 88.0%-100%), respectively (P = .03; Figure 1)

Factorizable ribbon quantum groups in logarithmic conformal field theories

We review the properties of quantum groups occurring as Kazhdan--Lusztig dual to logarithmic conformal field theory models. These quantum groups at even roots of unity are not quasitriangular but are factorizable and have a ribbon structure; the modular group representation on their center coincides with the representation on generalized characters of the chiral algebra in logarithmic conformal field models.Comment: 27pp., amsart++, xy. v2: references added, some other minor addition

Positron Emission Tomography Score Has Greater Prognostic Significance Than Pretreatment Risk Stratification in Early-Stage Hodgkin Lymphoma in the UK RAPID Study.

PURPOSE: Accurate stratification of patients is an important goal in Hodgkin lymphoma (HL), but the role of pretreatment clinical risk stratification in the context of positron emission tomography (PET) -adapted treatment is unclear. We performed a subsidiary analysis of the RAPID trial to assess the prognostic value of pretreatment risk factors and PET score in determining outcomes. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients with stage IA to IIA HL and no mediastinal bulk underwent PET assessment after three cycles of doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine; 143 PET-positive patients (PET score, 3 to 5) received a fourth doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine cycle and involved-field radiotherapy, and 419 patients in complete metabolic remission were randomly assigned to receive involved-field radiotherapy (n = 208) or no additional treatment (n = 211). Cox regression was used to investigate the association between PET score and pretreatment risk factors with HL-specific event-free survival (EFS). RESULTS: High PET score was associated with inferior EFS, before (P .4). CONCLUSION: In RAPID, a positive PET scan did not carry uniform prognostic weight; only a PET score of 5 was associated with inferior outcomes. This suggests that in future trials involving patients without B symptoms or mediastinal bulk, a score of 5 rather than a positive PET result should be used to guide treatment escalation in early-stage HL

Small animal disease surveillance: respiratory disease 2017

This report focuses on surveillance for respiratory disease in companion animals. It begins with an analysis of data from 392 veterinary practices contributing to the Small Animal Veterinary Surveillance Network (SAVSNET) between January and December 2017. The following section describes canine respiratory coronavirus infections in dogs, presenting results from laboratory-confirmed cases across the country between January 2010 and December 2017. This is followed by an update on the temporal trends of three important syndromes in companion animals, namely gastroenteritis, pruritus and respiratory disease, from 2014 to 2017. A fourth section presents a brief update on Streptococcus equi subspecies zooepidemicus in companion animals. The final section summarises some recent developments pertinent to companion animal health, namely eyeworm (Thelazzia callipaeda) infestations in dogs imported to the UK and canine influenza virus in the USA and Canada