Organizational capacities for 'residential care homes for the elderly' to provide culturally appropriate end-of- life care for Chinese elders and their families.

Developing culturally appropriate end-of-life care for Chinese elderly and families is not an endemic challenge for Hong Kong, but that of the Western countries with a noticeable trend of rising Chinese population. The particular development of Hong Kong healthcare system, which is currently the major provider of end-of-life care, makes Hong Kong a fruitful case for understanding the confluence of the West and the East cultures in end-of-life care practices. This study therefore aims at building our best practice to enhance the capacity of residential care homes in providing culturally appropriate end-of-life care. We conducted two phases of research, a questionnaire survey and a qualitative study, which respectively aims at (1) understanding the EoL care service demand and provision in RCHEs, including death facts and perceived barriers and challenges in providing quality end-of-life care in care homes, and (2) identifying the necessary organizational capacities for the ‘relational personhood’ to be sustained in the process of ageing and dying in residential care homes. Findings shed light on how to empower residential care homes with necessary environmental, structural and cultural-resource-related capacity for providing quality end-of-life care for Chinese elders and their families

Structural properties of Co2TiSi films on GaAs(001)

Co2TiSi films were grown by molecular beam epitaxy on GaAs(001) and analyzed using reflection high-energy electron diffraction, and electron microscopy. In addition, X-ray diffraction was combined with lattice parameter calculations by density functional theory comparing the L21 and B2 structures and considering the influence of non-stoichiometry. Columnar growth is found and attributed to inhomogeneous epitaxial strain from non-random alloying. In films with thicknesses up to 13 nm, these columns may be the origin of perpendicular magnetization with the easy axis perpendicular to the sample surface. We found L21 and B2 ordered regions, however the [Co]/[Ti]-ratio is changing in dependence of the position in the film. The resulting columnar structure is leading to anisotropic B2-ordering with the best order parallel to the axes of the columns

Compact graphene mode-locked wavelength-tunable erbium-doped fiber lasers: from all anomalous dispersion towards all normal dispersion

Soliton operation and soliton wavelength tuning of erbium-doped fiber lasers mode locked with atomic layer graphene was experimentally investigated under various cavity dispersion conditions. It was shown that not only wide range soliton wavelength tuning but also soltion pulse width variation could be obtained in the fiber lasers. Our results show that the graphene mode locked erbium-doped fiber lasers provide a compact, user friendly and low cost wavelength tunable ultrahsort pulse source

The Simplest Little Higgs

We show that the SU(3) little Higgs model has a region of parameter space in which electroweak symmetry breaking is natural and in which corrections to precision electroweak observables are sufficiently small. The model is anomaly free, generates a Higgs mass near 150 GeV, and predicts new gauge bosons and fermions at 1 TeV.Comment: 13 pages + appendix, typos corrected, version to appear in JHE

Human Metapneumovirus Detection in Patients with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome

We used a combination approach of conventional virus isolation and molecular techniques to detect human metapneumovirus (HMPV) in patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Of the 48 study patients, 25 (52.1%) were infected with HMPV; 6 of these 25 patients were also infected with coronavirus, and another 5 patients (10.4%) were infected with coronavirus alone. Using this combination approach, we found that human laryngeal carcinoma (HEp-2) cells were superior to rhesus monkey kidney (LLC-MK2) cells commonly used in previous studies for isolation of HMPV. These widely available HEp-2 cells should be included in conjunction with a molecular method for cell culture followup to detect HMPV, particularly in patients with SARS

Can R-parity violation explain the LSND data as well?

The recent Super-Kamiokande data now admit only one type of mass hierarchy in a framework with three active and one sterile neutrinos. We show that neutrino masses and mixings generated by R-parity-violating couplings, with values within their experimental upper limits, are capable of reproducing this hierarchy, explaining all neutrino data particularly after including the LSND results.Comment: 7 pages, Latex, 3 PS figures; in v2 a few clarifying remarks included and two references added (to appear in Physical Review D

Facile Synthesis of ZnO Nanorods by Microwave Irradiation of Zinc–Hydrazine Hydrate Complex

ZnO nanorods have been successfully synthesized by a simple microwave-assisted solution phase approach. Hydrazine hydrate has been used as a mineralizer instead of sodium hydroxide. XRD and FESEM have been used to characterize the product. The FESEM images show that the diameter of the nanorods fall in the range of about 25–75 nm and length in the range of 500–1,500 nm with an aspect ratio of about 20–50. UV–VIS and photoluminescence spectra of the nanorods in solution have been taken to study their optical properties. A mechanism for microwave synthesis of the ZnO nanorods using hydrazine hydrate precursor has also been proposed

Comparing benefits from many possible computed tomography lung cancer screening programs: Extrapolating from the National Lung Screening Trial using comparative modeling

Background: The National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) demonstrated that in current and former smokers aged 55 to 74 years, with at least 30 pack-years of cigarette smoking history and who had quit smoking no more than 15 years ago, 3 annual computed tomography (CT) screens reduced lung cancer-specific mortality by 20% relative to 3 annual chest X-ray screens. We compared the benefits achievable with 576 lung cancer screening programs that varied CT screen number and frequency, ages of screening, and eligibility based on smoking. Methods and Findings: We used five independent microsimulation models with lung cancer natural history parameters previously calibrated to the NLST to simulate life histories of the US cohort born in 1950 under all 576 programs. 'Efficient' (within model) programs prevented the greatest number of lung cancer deaths, compared to no screening, for a given number of CT screens. Among 120 'consensus efficient' (identified as efficient across models) programs, the average starting age was 55 years, the stopping age was 80 or 85 years, the average minimum pack-years was 27, and the maximum years since quitting was 20. Among consensus efficient programs, 11% to 40% of the cohort was screened, and 153 to 846 lung cancer deaths were averted per 100,000 people. In all models, annual screening based on age and smoking eligibility in NLST was not efficient; continuing screening to age 80 or 85 years was more efficient. Conclusions: Consensus results from five models identified a set of efficient screening programs that include annual CT lung cancer screening using criteria like NLST eligibility but extended to older ages. Guidelines for screening should also consider harms of screening and individual patient characteristics

Fitting the integrated Spectral Energy Distributions of Galaxies

Fitting the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of galaxies is an almost universally used technique that has matured significantly in the last decade. Model predictions and fitting procedures have improved significantly over this time, attempting to keep up with the vastly increased volume and quality of available data. We review here the field of SED fitting, describing the modelling of ultraviolet to infrared galaxy SEDs, the creation of multiwavelength data sets, and the methods used to fit model SEDs to observed galaxy data sets. We touch upon the achievements and challenges in the major ingredients of SED fitting, with a special emphasis on describing the interplay between the quality of the available data, the quality of the available models, and the best fitting technique to use in order to obtain a realistic measurement as well as realistic uncertainties. We conclude that SED fitting can be used effectively to derive a range of physical properties of galaxies, such as redshift, stellar masses, star formation rates, dust masses, and metallicities, with care taken not to over-interpret the available data. Yet there still exist many issues such as estimating the age of the oldest stars in a galaxy, finer details ofdust properties and dust-star geometry, and the influences of poorly understood, luminous stellar types and phases. The challenge for the coming years will be to improve both the models and the observational data sets to resolve these uncertainties. The present review will be made available on an interactive, moderated web page (sedfitting.org), where the community can access and change the text. The intention is to expand the text and keep it up to date over the coming years.Comment: 54 pages, 26 figures, Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Scienc

The impact of atrial fibrillation on prognosis in aortic stenosis

Background Atrial fibrillation (AF) and aortic stenosis (AS) are both highly prevalent and often coexist. Various studies have focused on the prognostic value of AF in patients with AS, but rarely considered left ventricular (LV) diastolic function as a prognostic factor. Objective To evaluate the prognostic impact of AF in patients with AS while correcting for LV diastolic function. Methods Patients with first diagnosis of significant AS were selected and stratified according to history of AF. The endpoint was all-cause mortality. Results In total, 2849 patients with significant AS (mean age 72 +/- 12 years, 54.8% men) were evaluated, and 686 (24.1%) had a history of AF. During a median follow-up of 60 (30-97) months, 1182 (41.5%) patients died. Ten-year mortality rate in patients with AF was 46.8% compared to 36.8% in patients with sinus rhythm (SR) (log-rank P < 0.001). On univariable (HR: 1.42; 95% CI: 1.25-1.62; P < 0.001) and multivariable Cox regression analysis (HR: 1.19; 95% CI: 1.02-1.38; P = 0.026), AF was independently associated with mortality. However, when correcting for indexed left atrial volume, E/e' or both, AF was no longer independently associated with all-cause mortality. Conclusion Patients with significant AS and AF have a reduced survival as compared to patients with SR. Nonetheless, when correcting for markers of LV diastolic function, AF was not independently associated with outcomes in patients with significant AS.Cardiolog