Israel Cook Russell

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The size of two-body weakly bound objects : short versus long range potentials

The variation of the size of two-body objects is investigated, as the separation energy approaches zero, with both long range potentials and short range potentials having a repulsive core. It is shown that long range potentials can also give rise to very extended systems. The asymptotic laws derived for states with angular momentum l=1,2 differ from the ones obtained with short range potentials. The sensitivity of the asymptotic laws on the shape and length of short range potentials defined by two and three parameters is studied. These ideas as well as the transition from the short to the long range regime for the l=0 case are illustrated using the Kratzer potential.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Physical Review Letter

Calonectria spp. causing leaf spot, crown and root rot of ornamental plants in Tunisia

Calonectria spp. are important pathogens of ornamental plants in nurseries, especially in the Northern Hemisphere. They are commonly associated with a wide range of disease symptoms of roots, leaves and shoots. During a recent survey in Tunisia, a number of Calonectria spp. were isolated from tissues of ornamental plants showing symptoms of leaf spot, crown and root rot. The aim of this study was to identify these Calonectria spp. using morphological and DNA sequence comparisons. Two previously undescribed Calonectria spp., C. pseudomexicana sp. nov. and C. tunisiana sp. nov., were recognised. Calonectria mexicana and C. polizzii are newly reported for the African continent. Pathogenicity tests with all four Calonectria spp. showed that they are able to cause disease on seedlings of Callistemon spp., Dodonaea viscosa, Metrosideros spp. and Myrtus communis

Improving cost-effectiveness of hypertension management at a community health centre

Objectives. To describe the pattern of prescribing for hypertension at a community health centre (CHC) and to evaluate the impact of introducing treatment guidelines and restricting availability of less cost-effective antihypertensive drugs on prescribing patterns, costs of drug treatment and blood pressure (BP) control.Design. Before/after intervention study.Setting. Medium-sized CHC in the Cape Flats area of Cape Town.Subjects. 1 084 hypertensive patients attending the CHC, who had at least two prescriptions for antihypertensive drugs during a 1-year period starting on 1 January 1992. Interventions. 1. Implementation of stepped-care guidelines for hypertension, specifying treatment with more cost-effective drugs and minimising drug treatment. 2. Reducing availability for routine prescribing by CHC doctors of 10 less cost-effective antihypertensive drugs or drug combinations.Outcome measures. 1. Mean number of drugs prescribed per patient. 2. Proportion of prescriptions for: each major class of antihypertensive drug; restricted availability and freely prescribable drugs; and more and less cost-effective drugs. 3. Mean monthly cost of drugs prescribed per patient. 4. Mean blood pressure and proportion of BP readings controlled (<160/95 mmHg) or uncontrolled (≥160/95 mmHg).Results. A mean of 1.7 active drugs was prescribed per patient per visit. The most frequently prescribed drugs were thiazide-like diuretics (44.8%), centrally acting agents (28.4%) and b-blockers (13.2%). Mean monthly drug costs per patient decreased significantly by R1.99 (24.2%) from R8.24 to R6.25 between the first and last prescription for each patient (exclusive of any reduction due to withdrawal of treatment). This was attributable to reduced prescribing of more expensive drugs withdrawn from routine use and a 51.1% increase in prescribing of the most cost-effective drugs. The overall annual cost-saving of the changes in prescribing for this CHC are estimated at R75 150. Blood pressure control did not change significantly.Conclusion. The pattern of changes in prescribing and drug costs was consistent with a causal effect of the interventions. The study demonstrates the potential forimproving cost-effectiveness of hypertension care in primary care in South Africa and the potential for research in this setting

Hypertension care at a Cape Town community health centre

Objectives. To describe the demographic profile of hypertensive patients and the quality of care for hypertension at a Cape Town community health centre (CHC).Design. Prospective, descriptive study.Setting and subjects. Medium-sized CHC, attended by 1098 hypertensive patients during a 1-year period from 1 January 1992.Outcome measures. Default rate - proportion of due visits not attended. Loss to follow-up - proportion of patients persistently defaulting or not responding to recall. Frequency of blood pressure measurement - per 12 due visits. Compliance - proportion of patients collecting ≥ 75% of antihypertensive drugs. Blood pressure control - mean blood pressure of aggregated readings; and proportion controlled (<160/95 mmHg) on the basis of all blood pressure readings and mean blood pressures of individual patients with two or more readings during the study period.Results. More than half (51.6%) of the hypertensive patients were aged ≥ 65 years; 81.7% were female. The default rate was between 11.9% and 19.4%. Compliance was high (76.9%). Loss to follow-up was 8.1 %. Blood pressure was recorded a mean of 4.0 times per 12 due visits. There were no significant gender differences with regard to these measures. Mean blood pressure was 158.3/89.6 mmHg. Over half (56.7%) of all individual readings over the year were uncontrolled and 51.4% of patients were found to be uncontrolled when categorised by their mean blood pressure. Control was significantly poorer among women ≥ 65 years.Conclusion. We found better compliance, more frequent blood pressure measurement, and lower defaulting and loss to follow-up compared with previous South African studies in similar settings. Despite this, blood pressure control was mediocre. Possible explanations for this are discussed. The low proportion of male hypertensives attending the CHC suggests that the accessibility or acceptability of care is poor for this group. The study illustrates the potential for research in this setting and for the use of computers to monitor the quality of primary care.

How magic is the magic 68Ni nucleus?

We calculate the B(E2) strength in 68Ni and other nickel isotopes using several theoretical approaches. We find that in 68Ni the gamma transition to the first 2+ state exhausts only a fraction of the total B(E2) strength, which is mainly collected in excited states around 5 MeV. This effect is sensitive to the energy splitting between the fp shell and the g_{9/2}orbital. We argue that the small experimental B(E2) value is not strong evidence for the double-magic character of 68Ni.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Integrated pest management of insects and mites attacking pears in southern Oregon

This publication deals with the development of integrated pest management of insect and mite species that attack pears in southern Oregon. Since about 1900, when the pear industry became firmly established in this area, losses from arthropod pests have been an important and occasionally limiting factor to the continuous production of high-quality fruit. As is true of other agricultural crops, the pest control tactics utilized by pear growers have passed through distinct stages. In southern Oregon, these control stages can be categorized as ( 1) utilization of marginally effec­tive inorganic pesticides combined with labor ­intensive cultural control methods ( ca. 1900-1945), and ( 2) nearly sole reliance upon synthetic organic pesticides applied on a calendar or pre­ventative schedule ( 1945-present).Published May 1979. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalo

Bionomics and control of the two-spotted spider mite on pear in southern Oregon

Published November 1967. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalo

Determination of an optimal response cut-off able to predict progression-free survival in patients with well-differentiated advanced pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours treated with sunitinib: an alternative to the current RECIST-defined response.

BACKGROUND: Sunitinib prolongs progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with advanced pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours (pNET). Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST)-defined partial responses (PR; classically defined as ⩾30% size decrease from baseline) are infrequent. METHODS: Individual data of pNET patients from the phase II [NCT00056693] and pivotal phase III [NCT00428597] trials of sunitinib were analysed in this investigator-initiated, post hoc study. The primary objective was to determine the optimal RECIST (v.1.0) response cut-off value to identify patients who were progression-free at 11 months (median PFS in phase III trial); and the most informative time-point (highest area under the curve (AUC) by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis and logistic regression) for prediction of benefit (PFS) from sunitinib. RESULTS: Data for 237 patients (85 placebo; 152 sunitinib (n=66.50 mg \u274-weeks on/2-weeks off\u27 schedule; n=86 \u2737.5 mg continuous daily dosing (CDD)\u27)) and 788 scans were analysed. The median PFS for sunitinib and placebo were 9.3 months (95% CI 7.6-12.2) and 5.4 months (95% CI 3.5-6.01), respectively (hazard ratio (HR) 0.43 (95% CI 0.29-0.62); P CONCLUSIONS: A 10% reduction within marker lesions identifies pNET patients benefiting from sunitinib treatment with implications for maintenance of dose intensity and future trial design

Observation of Parity Nonconservation in Moller Scattering

We report a measurement of the parity-violating asymmetry in fixed target electron-electron (Moller) scattering: A_PV = -175 +/- 30 (stat.) +/- 20 (syst.) parts per billion. This first direct observation of parity nonconservation in Moller scattering leads to a measurement of the electron's weak charge at low energy Q^e_W = -0.053 +/- 0.011. This is consistent with the Standard Model expectation at the current level of precision: sin^2\theta_W(M_Z)_MSbar = 0.2293 +/- 0.0024 (stat.) +/- 0.0016 (syst.) +/- 0.0006 (theory).Comment: Version 3 is the same as version 2. These versions contain minor text changes from referee comments and a change in the extracted value of Q^e_W and sin^2\theta_W due to a change in the theoretical calculation of the bremsstrahulung correction (ref. 16