Research needs for Chagas disease prevention.

We present an overview of the two main strategies for the primary (vector control) and secondary (patient care) prevention of Chagas disease (CD). We identify major advances, knowledge gaps, and key research needs in both areas. Improved specific chemotherapy, including more practical formulations (e.g., paediatric) or combinations of existing drugs, and a better understanding of pathogenesis, including the relative weights of parasite and host genetic makeup, are clearly needed. Regarding CD vectors, we find that only about 10-20% of published papers on triatomines deal directly with disease control. We pinpoint the pitfalls of the current consensus on triatomine systematics, particularly within the Triatomini, and suggest how some straightforward sampling and analytical strategies would improve research on vector ecology, naturally leading to sounder control-surveillance schemes. We conclude that sustained research on CD prevention is still crucial. In the past, it provided not only the know-how, but also the critical mass of scientists needed to foster and consolidate CD prevention programmes; in the future, both patient care and long-term vector control would nonetheless benefit from more sharply focused, problem-oriented research

The assessment of pain in older people

Pain is under-recognised and under-treated in older people. It is a subjective, personal experience, only known to the person who suffers. The assessment of pain is particularly challenging in the presence of severe cognitive impairment, communication difficulties or language and cultural barriers. These guidelines set out the key components of assessing pain in older people, together with a variety of practical scales that may be used with different groups, including those with varying levels of cognitive or communication impairment. The purpose is to provide professionals with a set of practical skills to assess pain as the first step towards its effective management. The guidance has implications for all healthcare and social care staff and can be applied in all settings, including the older person’s own home, in care homes, and in hospital

Transport anomalies in a simplified model for a heavy electron quantum critical point

We discuss the transport anomalies associated with the development of heavy electrons out of a neutral spin fluid using the large-N treatment of the Kondo-Heisenberg lattice model. At the phase transition in this model the spin excitations suddenly acquire charge. The Higgs process by which this takes place causes the constraint gauge field to loosely ``lock'' together with the external, electromagnetic gauge field. From this perspective, the heavy fermion phase is a Meissner phase in which the field representing the difference between the electromagnetic and constraint gauge field, is excluded from the material. We show that at the transition into the heavy fermion phase, both the linear and the Hall conductivity jump together. However, the Drude weight of the heavy electron fluid does not jump at the quantum critical point, but instead grows linearly with the distance from the quantum critical point, forming a kind of ``gossamer'' Fermi-liquid.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures. Small change in references in v

Hall effect in heavy-fermion metals

The heavy fermion systems present a unique platform in which strong electronic correlations give rise to a host of novel, and often competing, electronic and magnetic ground states. Amongst a number of potential experimental tools at our disposal, measurements of the Hall effect have emerged as a particularly important one in discerning the nature and evolution of the Fermi surfaces of these enigmatic metals. In this article, we present a comprehensive review of Hall effect measurements in the heavy-fermion materials, and examine the success it has had in contributing to our current understanding of strongly correlated matter. Particular emphasis is placed on its utility in the investigation of quantum critical phenomena which are thought to drive many of the exotic electronic ground states in these systems. This is achieved by the description of measurements of the Hall effect across the putative zero-temperature instability in the archetypal heavy-fermion metal YbRh$_2$Si$_2$. Using the Ce$M$In$_5$ (with $M =$ Co, Ir) family of systems as a paradigm, the influence of (antiferro-)magnetic fluctuations on the Hall effect is also illustrated. This is compared to prior Hall effect measurements in the cuprates and other strongly correlated systems to emphasize on the generality of the unusual magnetotransport in materials with non-Fermi liquid behavior.Comment: manuscript accepted in Adv. Phy

The Origin of the Rocky Mountains

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Evaluation of Tank 241-T-111 Level Data and In-Tank Video Inspection

This document summarizes the status of tank T-111 as of January 1, 2014 and estimates a leak rate and post-1994 leak volume for the tank

Effect of Polyethylene Glycol Treatment on Acetic Acid Emissions from Wood

Acetic acid is known to be emitted from sound wood and can accelerate damage to heritage materials, particularly metals. However, few studies have investigated the extent of acetic acid emissions from archaeological wood. This research utilised Solid-Phase-Micro-Extraction (SPME) GC–MS and lead coupon corrosion to identify volatile emissions from polyethylene glycol (PEG)-treated archaeological wood from the Mary Rose collection and assess if they could cause accelerated damage. In addition, the effect of PEG treatment on acetic acid emissions was investigated using sound wood samples. For sound wood, the PEG treatment acted as a barrier to acetic acid emissions, with higher-molecular-weight PEGs preventing more emissions. Archaeological wood, despite its age and high-molecular-weight PEG treatment, still emitted detectable concentrations of acetic acid. Moreover, they emitted a wider array of compounds compared to sound wood, including carbon disulphide. Like sound wood, when the archaeological wood samples were in a sealed environment with lead coupons, they caused accelerated corrosion to lead. This evidences that archaeological wood can emit high enough concentrations of volatile compounds to cause damage and further investigation should be performed to evaluate if this can occur inside museum display cases