450 research outputs found
Geographical access to radiation therapy in North Queensland: a retrospective analysis of patient travel to radiation therapy before and after the opening of an additional radiotherapy facility
Introduction: Access to radiation therapy (RT) underlies optimal care for prostate and breast cancer patients. This study investigates the impact of opening a new RT clinic on distance and road travel time to RT, and overall utilisation for prostate and breast cancer patients over a 3-year period in North Queensland (NQ), Australia.
Methods: The study used retrospective audit of two radiotherapy databases and a geographic information system to illustrate patient origins and distance to the RT clinic used over 3 years. Prostate and female breast cancer patients were selected from the radiation oncology databases of The Townsville Hospital (TTH) and Radiation Oncology Queensland (ROQ) Cairns between 1 July 2010 and 30 June 2013. Distance from a patient's home origin to the RT facility was mapped using a geographic information system (ArcGIS software), and travel time (minutes) and road distance (km) determined by Google Maps road directions.
Results: Overall number of prostate and breast cancer patients treated by RT in Cairns and Townsville clinics increased by 16% in 2011–2012 and by 29% in 2012–2013 from year 1 values. In 2010, 44% of the patients travelled 200–400 km to RT, which reduced to 21% in 2013. By 2013, with a second treatment facility, more than 70% of patients lived within 200 km of an RT facility (p<0.0001). Total median road travel time reduced annually from 201 minutes in 2010–2011 to 66 minutes in 2011–2012 and 56 minutes in 2012–2013 (p<0.0001), corresponding to a decrease in the median distance travelled to an RT facility.
Conclusions: An additional RT facility in NQ has led to an increase in patients treated with RT for prostate and breast cancer and, on average, less travel distance and time to treatment, suggesting improvement in access to RT in NQ
Quantum spin pumping with adiabatically modulated magnetic barrier's
A quantum pump device involving magnetic barriers produced by the deposition
of ferro magnetic stripes on hetero-structure's is investigated. The device for
dc- transport does not provide spin-polarized currents, but in the adiabatic
regime, when one modulates two independent parameters of this device, spin-up
and spin-down electrons are driven in opposite directions, with the net result
being that a finite net spin current is transported with negligible charge
current. We also analyze our proposed device for inelastic-scattering and
spin-orbit scattering. Strong spin-orbit scattering and more so inelastic
scattering have a somewhat detrimental effect on spin/charge ratio especially
in the strong pumping regime. Further we show our pump to be almost noiseless,
implying an optimal quantum spin pump.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures. Manuscript revised with additional new material
on spin-orbit scattering and inelastic scattering. Further new additions on
noiseless pumping and analytical results with distinction between weak and
strong pumping regimes. Accepted for publication in Physical Review
Longitudinal double-spin asymmetry and cross section for inclusive neutral pion production at midrapidity in polarized proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 200 GeV
We report a measurement of the longitudinal double-spin asymmetry A_LL and
the differential cross section for inclusive Pi0 production at midrapidity in
polarized proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 200 GeV. The cross section was
measured over a transverse momentum range of 1 < p_T < 17 GeV/c and found to be
in good agreement with a next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculation.
The longitudinal double-spin asymmetry was measured in the range of 3.7 < p_T <
11 GeV/c and excludes a maximal positive gluon polarization in the proton. The
mean transverse momentum fraction of Pi0's in their parent jets was found to be
around 0.7 for electromagnetically triggered events.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. D (RC
High non-photonic electron production in + collisions at = 200 GeV
We present the measurement of non-photonic electron production at high
transverse momentum ( 2.5 GeV/) in + collisions at
= 200 GeV using data recorded during 2005 and 2008 by the STAR
experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The measured
cross-sections from the two runs are consistent with each other despite a large
difference in photonic background levels due to different detector
configurations. We compare the measured non-photonic electron cross-sections
with previously published RHIC data and pQCD calculations. Using the relative
contributions of B and D mesons to non-photonic electrons, we determine the
integrated cross sections of electrons () at 3 GeV/10 GeV/ from bottom and charm meson decays to be = 4.0({\rm
stat.})({\rm syst.}) nb and =
6.2({\rm stat.})({\rm syst.}) nb, respectively.Comment: 17 pages, 17 figure
Longitudinal scaling property of the charge balance function in Au + Au collisions at 200 GeV
We present measurements of the charge balance function, from the charged
particles, for diverse pseudorapidity and transverse momentum ranges in Au + Au
collisions at 200 GeV using the STAR detector at RHIC. We observe that the
balance function is boost-invariant within the pseudorapidity coverage [-1.3,
1.3]. The balance function properly scaled by the width of the observed
pseudorapidity window does not depend on the position or size of the
pseudorapidity window. This scaling property also holds for particles in
different transverse momentum ranges. In addition, we find that the width of
the balance function decreases monotonically with increasing transverse
momentum for all centrality classes.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure
Energy and system size dependence of \phi meson production in Cu+Cu and Au+Au collisions
We study the beam-energy and system-size dependence of \phi meson production
(using the hadronic decay mode \phi -- K+K-) by comparing the new results from
Cu+Cu collisions and previously reported Au+Au collisions at \sqrt{s_NN} = 62.4
and 200 GeV measured in the STAR experiment at RHIC. Data presented are from
mid-rapidity (|y|<0.5) for 0.4 < pT < 5 GeV/c. At a given beam energy, the
transverse momentum distributions for \phi mesons are observed to be similar in
yield and shape for Cu+Cu and Au+Au colliding systems with similar average
numbers of participating nucleons. The \phi meson yields in nucleus-nucleus
collisions, normalised by the average number of participating nucleons, are
found to be enhanced relative to those from p+p collisions with a different
trend compared to strange baryons. The enhancement for \phi mesons is observed
to be higher at \sqrt{s_NN} = 200 GeV compared to 62.4 GeV. These observations
for the produced \phi(s\bar{s}) mesons clearly suggest that, at these collision
energies, the source of enhancement of strange hadrons is related to the
formation of a dense partonic medium in high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions
and cannot be alone due to canonical suppression of their production in smaller
systems.Comment: 20 pages and 5 figure
Measurement of the Bottom contribution to non-photonic electron production in collisions at =200 GeV
The contribution of meson decays to non-photonic electrons, which are
mainly produced by the semi-leptonic decays of heavy flavor mesons, in
collisions at 200 GeV has been measured using azimuthal
correlations between non-photonic electrons and hadrons. The extracted
decay contribution is approximately 50% at a transverse momentum of GeV/. These measurements constrain the nuclear modification factor for
electrons from and meson decays. The result indicates that meson
production in heavy ion collisions is also suppressed at high .Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, accepted by PR
Measurement of the B0-anti-B0-Oscillation Frequency with Inclusive Dilepton Events
The - oscillation frequency has been measured with a sample of
23 million \B\bar B pairs collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II
asymmetric B Factory at SLAC. In this sample, we select events in which both B
mesons decay semileptonically and use the charge of the leptons to identify the
flavor of each B meson. A simultaneous fit to the decay time difference
distributions for opposite- and same-sign dilepton events gives ps.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, submitted to Physical Review Letter
Chronic neuropsychiatric sequelae of SARS‐CoV‐2: Protocol and methods from the Alzheimer's Association Global Consortium
Introduction
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused >3.5 million deaths worldwide and affected >160 million people. At least twice as many have been infected but remained asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic. COVID-19 includes central nervous system manifestations mediated by inflammation and cerebrovascular, anoxic, and/or viral neurotoxicity mechanisms. More than one third of patients with COVID-19 develop neurologic problems during the acute phase of the illness, including loss of sense of smell or taste, seizures, and stroke. Damage or functional changes to the brain may result in chronic sequelae. The risk of incident cognitive and neuropsychiatric complications appears independent from the severity of the original pulmonary illness. It behooves the scientific and medical community to attempt to understand the molecular and/or systemic factors linking COVID-19 to neurologic illness, both short and long term.
Methods
This article describes what is known so far in terms of links among COVID-19, the brain, neurological symptoms, and Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related dementias. We focus on risk factors and possible molecular, inflammatory, and viral mechanisms underlying neurological injury. We also provide a comprehensive description of the Alzheimer's Association Consortium on Chronic Neuropsychiatric Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (CNS SC2) harmonized methodology to address these questions using a worldwide network of researchers and institutions.
Results
Successful harmonization of designs and methods was achieved through a consensus process initially fragmented by specific interest groups (epidemiology, clinical assessments, cognitive evaluation, biomarkers, and neuroimaging). Conclusions from subcommittees were presented to the whole group and discussed extensively. Presently data collection is ongoing at 19 sites in 12 countries representing Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Europe.
Discussion
The Alzheimer's Association Global Consortium harmonized methodology is proposed as a model to study long-term neurocognitive sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection
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