Negotiating with North Korea,

Perhaps the potentially most volatile part of the world is North Korea. Talks between the United States and North Korea seem to be a series of impasses, confrontations, brinkmanship, threats, and blusters. The usual explanation for this state of perpetual frustration for U.S. negotiators is that they are dealing with an enigmatic regime that has no regard for peaceful resolution of the confrontations between it and the rest of the world. This work provides an al- ternate path for understanding and working toward more successful negoti- ations than has been the historical case for over half a century

Observations of Field Enhancement on the HMS Lancaster

Prepared for: Theater Nuclear Warfare Program Office, PHS 423 Naval Sea Systems Command, Department of the Navy and Defense Nuclear AgencyField enhancement was observed aboard the HMS Lancaster, during EMP ship trials using Empress II. Measured fields exceeded nominal free fields by several hundred percent. This report describes measurements, present observations and makes suggestions for future trials.PMS 423 and Defense Nuclear AgencyApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Legal and Ethical Guiding Principles and Constraints Concerning Non-Lethal Weapons Technology and Employment

A paper submitted to Non-Lethal Defense III, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland, February 1998.Development and employment of nonlethal weapons and their associated technologies require legal and ethical review prior to the procurement and acquisition process. Non-lethal technologies apply to the entire spectrum of conflict in the post Cold-War environments, including Military Operations Other Than War. However, the use of these non-traditional methods must still adhere to the same principles which have historically guided the conduct of our armed forces, namely, humanitarian law, customary international law, and the Law cf Armed Conflict.The unconventional technologies associated with non-lethal weapons make them sensitive to the provisions of more recent treaties and conventions, including the Chemical and Biological Weapons Conventions and the four Protocols of the Certain Conventional Weapons Convention and the appended 1995 Supplement. In addition, other treaties such as the Nairobi International Telecommunications Convention and the Montreal Protocol on the Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer may impact the use cf certain non-lethal weapons technologies

Grazing-incidence Cerenkov x-ray generation

X-ray Cerenkov radiation can be generated by electrons incident on thin foils. For grazing incidence the Cerenkov radiation intensity can be more than a decade greater than for perpendicular incidence. Experimental results are discussed in terms of a simple formalism. 17 refs., 3 figs

Entanglement entropy of two disjoint blocks in XY chains

We study the Renyi entanglement entropies of two disjoint intervals in XY chains. We exploit the exact solution of the model in terms of free Majorana fermions and we show how to construct the reduced density matrix in the spin variables by taking properly into account the Jordan-Wigner string between the two blocks. From this we can evaluate any Renyi entropy of finite integer order. We study in details critical XX and Ising chains and we show that the asymptotic results for large blocks agree with recent conformal field theory predictions if corrections to the scaling are included in the analysis correctly. We also report results in the gapped phase and after a quantum quench.Comment: 34 pages, 11 figure

Distinct functions of HTLV-1 Tax1 from HTLV-2 Tax2 contribute key roles to viral pathogenesis

While the human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is the etiologic agent of adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL), to date, its close relative HTLV-2 is not associated with ATL or other types of malignancies. Accumulating evidence shows that HTLV-1 Tax1 and HTLV-2 Tax2 have many shared activities, but the two proteins have a limited number of significantly distinct activities, and these distinctions appear to play key roles in HTLV-1 specific pathogenesis. In this review, we summarize the functions of Tax1 associated with cell survival, cell proliferation, persistent infection as well as pathogenesis. We emphasize special attention to distinctions between Tax1 and Tax2

Why Are Outcomes Different for Registry Patients Enrolled Prospectively and Retrospectively? Insights from the Global Anticoagulant Registry in the FIELD-Atrial Fibrillation (GARFIELD-AF).

Background: Retrospective and prospective observational studies are designed to reflect real-world evidence on clinical practice, but can yield conflicting results. The GARFIELD-AF Registry includes both methods of enrolment and allows analysis of differences in patient characteristics and outcomes that may result. Methods and Results: Patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) and ≥1 risk factor for stroke at diagnosis of AF were recruited either retrospectively (n = 5069) or prospectively (n = 5501) from 19 countries and then followed prospectively. The retrospectively enrolled cohort comprised patients with established AF (for a least 6, and up to 24 months before enrolment), who were identified retrospectively (and baseline and partial follow-up data were collected from the emedical records) and then followed prospectively between 0-18 months (such that the total time of follow-up was 24 months; data collection Dec-2009 and Oct-2010). In the prospectively enrolled cohort, patients with newly diagnosed AF (≤6 weeks after diagnosis) were recruited between Mar-2010 and Oct-2011 and were followed for 24 months after enrolment. Differences between the cohorts were observed in clinical characteristics, including type of AF, stroke prevention strategies, and event rates. More patients in the retrospectively identified cohort received vitamin K antagonists (62.1% vs. 53.2%) and fewer received non-vitamin K oral anticoagulants (1.8% vs . 4.2%). All-cause mortality rates per 100 person-years during the prospective follow-up (starting the first study visit up to 1 year) were significantly lower in the retrospective than prospectively identified cohort (3.04 [95% CI 2.51 to 3.67] vs . 4.05 [95% CI 3.53 to 4.63]; p = 0.016). Conclusions: Interpretations of data from registries that aim to evaluate the characteristics and outcomes of patients with AF must take account of differences in registry design and the impact of recall bias and survivorship bias that is incurred with retrospective enrolment. Clinical Trial Registration: - URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov . Unique identifier for GARFIELD-AF (NCT01090362)