Can Momentum Correlations Proof Kinetic Equilibration in Heavy Ion Collisions at 160 AGeV?

We perform an event-by-event analysis of the transverse momentum distribution of final state particles in central Pb(160AGeV)+Pb collisions within a microscopic non-equilibrium transport model (UrQMD). Strong influence of rescattering is found. The extracted momentum distributions show less fluctuations in A+A collisions than in p+p reactions. This is in contrast to simplified p+p extrapolations and random walk models.Comment: 9 pages, 3 eps figures, submitted to Phys. Lett.

Occupational health risks associated with the use of germicides in health care

Environmental surfaces have been clearly linked to transmission of key pathogens in health care facilities, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus, Clostridium difficile, norovirus, and multidrug-resistant gram-negative bacilli. For this reason, routine disinfection of environmental surfaces in patient rooms is recommended. In addition, decontamination of shared medical devices between use by different patients is also recommended. Environmental surfaces and noncritical shared medical devices are decontaminated by low-level disinfectants, most commonly phenolics, quaternary ammonium compounds, improved hydrogen peroxides, and hypochlorites. Concern has been raised that the use of germicides by health care personnel may increase the risk of these persons for developing respiratory illnesses (principally asthma) and contact dermatitis. Our data demonstrate that dermatitis and respiratory symptoms (eg, asthma) as a result of chemical exposures, including low-level disinfectants, are exceedingly rare. Unprotected exposures to high-level disinfectants may cause dermatitis and respiratory symptoms. Engineering controls (eg, closed containers, adequate ventilation) and the use of personal protective equipment (eg, gloves) should be used to minimize exposure to high-level disinfectants. The scientific evidence does not support that the use of low-level disinfectants by health care personnel is an important risk for the development of asthma or contact dermatitis

Novel NN interaction and the spectroscopy of light nuclei

Nucleon-nucleon (NN) phase shifts and the spectroscopy of $A \le 6$ nuclei are successfully described by an inverse scattering potential that is separable with oscillator form factors.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, 13 table

Excitation Function of Energy Density and Partonic Degrees of Freedom in Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions

We estimate the energy density pile-up at mid-rapidity in central Pb+Pb collisions from 2 - 200 GeV/nucleon. The energy density is decomposed into hadronic and partonic contributions. A detailed analysis of the collision dynamics in the framework of a microscopic transport model shows the importance of partonic degrees of freedom and rescattering of leading (di)quarks in the early phase of the reaction for lab-energies > 30 GeV/nucleon. In Pb+Pb collisions at 160 GeV/nucleon the energy density reaches up to 4 GeV/fm^3, 95% of which are contained in partonic degrees of freedom.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Response to Deltoid Muscle Injection of Hepatitis B Vaccine After Failure to Respond to Gluteal Injections

To the Editor. In their article entitled "Prehospital Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation: Is It Effective?" Cummins and Eisenberg state: "Clinical evidence provides strong support for efforts to increase the percent of persons in cardiac arrests who receive early bystander CPR [cardiopulmonary resuscitation]. These efforts do no harm and clearly save lives." We wish to report a subgroup of patients in whom early bystander-initiated CPR may be dramatically successful

The failure of microglia to digest developmental apoptotic cells contributes to the pathology of RNASET2-deficient leukoencephalopathy

The contribution of microglia in neurological disorders is emerging as a leading disease driver rather than a consequence of pathology. RNAseT2‐deficient leukoencephalopathy is a severe childhood white matter disorder affecting patients in their first year of life and mimicking a cytomegalovirus brain infection. The early onset and resemblance of the symptoms to a viral infection suggest an inflammatory and embryonic origin of the pathology. There are no treatments available for this disease as our understanding of the cellular drivers of the pathology are still unknown. In this study, using a zebrafish mutant for the orthologous rnaset2 gene, we have identified an inflammatory signature in early development and an antiviral immune response in mature adult brains. Using the optical transparency and the ex utero development of the zebrafish larvae we studied immune cell behavior during brain development and identified abnormal microglia as an early marker of pathology. Live imaging and electron microscopy identified that mutant microglia displayed an engorged morphology and were filled with undigested apoptotic cells and undigested substrate. Using microglia‐specific depletion and rescue experiments, we identified microglia as drivers of this embryonic phenotype and potential key cellular player in the pathology of RNAseT2‐deficient leukoencephalopathy. Our zebrafish model also presented with reduced survival and locomotor defects, therefore recapitulating many aspects of the human disease. Our study therefore placed our rnaset2 mutant at the forefront of leukodystrophy preclinical models and highlighted tissue‐specific approaches as future therapeutic avenues

Hadronic observables from SIS to SPS energies - anything strange with strangeness ?

We calculate $p, \pi^\pm, K^\pm$ and $\Lambda$(+$\Sigma^0$) rapidity distributions and compare to experimental data from SIS to SPS energies within the UrQMD and HSD transport approaches that are both based on string, quark, diquark ($q, \bar{q}, qq, \bar{q}\bar{q}$) and hadronic degrees of freedom. The two transport models do not include any explicit phase transition to a quark-gluon plasma (QGP). It is found that both approaches agree rather well with each other and with the experimental rapidity distributions for protons, $\Lambda$'s, $\pi^\pm$ and $K^\pm$. Inspite of this apparent agreement both transport models fail to reproduce the maximum in the excitation function for the ratio $K^+/\pi^+$ found experimentally between 11 and 40 A$\cdot$GeV. A comparison to the various experimental data shows that this 'failure' is dominantly due to an insufficient description of pion rapidity distributions rather than missing 'strangeness'. The modest differences in the transport model results -- on the other hand -- can be attributed to different implementations of string formation and fragmentation, that are not sufficiently controlled by experimental data for the 'elementary' reactions in vacuum.Comment: 46 pages, including 15 eps figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.

Hadronic freeze-out following a first order hadronization phase transition in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions

We analyze the hadronic freeze-out in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions at RHIC in a transport approach which combines hydrodynamics for the early, dense, deconfined stage of the reaction with a microscopic non-equilibrium model for the later hadronic stage at which the hydrodynamic equilibrium assumptions are not valid. With this ansatz we are able to self-consistently calculate the freeze-out of the system and determine space-time hypersurfaces for individual hadron species. The space-time domains of the freeze-out for several hadron species are found to be actually four-dimensional, and differ drastically for the individual hadrons species. Freeze-out radii distributions are similar in width for most hadron species, even though the Omega-baryon is found to be emitted rather close to the phase boundary and shows the smallest freeze-out radii and times among all baryon species. The total lifetime of the system does not change by more than 10% when going from SPS to RHIC energies.Comment: 11 pages, 4 eps-figures included, revised versio