Diffusion tensor MR imaging in the evaluation of Wallerian degeneration in pediatric strokes: work-in-progress

Poster Session - Pediatric Brain MR Imaging: no. 2090We use DTI to detect and quantify Wallerian degeneration (WD) in pediatric MCA strokes. Fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD)of the infarction, ipsilateral internal capsule (PLIC) and cerebral peduncle (CP) were measured in nine children and compared to the matched contralateral side. WD was characterized by statistically significant differences in FA, but not MD, of the ipsilateral PLIC and CP compared to normal side. FA was reduced in all children, whilst corresponding hyperintense signals on T2W were seen in five children. DTI is more sensitive than conventional MRI and can be used to detect and quantify WD.published_or_final_versio

Application of a Nano-antimicrobial film to prevent ventilator-associated pneumonia: A pilot study

Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is one of the most common hospital-associated infections and has accounted for approximately 15% of all hospital-associated infections. In 76% of the VAP cases, the same bacteria colonize the oral cavity and lungs. Oral care interventions may play a role in the prevention of VAP, yet more than half of the hospitals do not have specific policies for the oral care of intubated patients. Oral cavity interlinks with respiratory tracts and digestive tracts. After surgery has been performed in these areas, aerobic and anaerobic bacteria frequently induce operative wound infections in teeth, gingiva and supporting tissues of the teeth and tonsils. This study investigates the effects of a nanotechnology antimicrobial spray (JUC) on the incidence of VAP. 320 patients diagnosed with VAP were randomly divided into treatment and control groups. After using chlorhexidine mouthrinse, the treatment group used a nanotechnology antimicrobial spray to the nose and mouth. The control group was given normal saline. The incidence rate of VAP was significantly lower in the treatment (8.38%) than control group (54.24%) (p<0.01). A physical antimicrobial film is formed on the surface of oral and nasal mucosa after using the JUC spray which effectively reduces the microbial colonization in the sprayed areas, thus reducing and delaying the incidence of VAP. © 2011 Academic Journals.published_or_final_versio

Effect of a Chinese herbal medicine on chronic periodontitis patients

published_or_final_versio

Effect of a Chinese herbal medicine on aggressive periodontitis patients

published_or_final_versio

ATLAS Z Excess in Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model

Recently the ATLAS collaboration reported a 3 sigma excess in the search for the events containing a dilepton pair from a Z boson and large missing transverse energy. Although the excess is not sufficiently significant yet, it is quite tempting to explain this excess by a well-motivated model beyond the standard model. In this paper we study a possibility of the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) for this excess. Especially, we focus on the MSSM spectrum where the sfermions are heavier than the gauginos and Higgsinos. We show that the excess can be explained by the reasonable MSSM mass spectrum.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures; published versio

Imperial trophy or island relict? A new extinction paradigm for Père David's deer: a Chinese conservation icon

The file attached is the Published/publisher’s pdf version of the article

Natural Islands for a 125 GeV Higgs in the scale-invariant NMSSM

We study whether a 125 GeV standard model-like Higgs boson can be accommodated within the scale-invariant NMSSM in a way that is natural in all respects, i.e., not only is the stop mass and hence its loop contribution to Higgs mass of natural size, but we do not allow significant tuning of NMSSM parameters as well. We pursue as much as possible an analytic approach which gives clear insights on various ways to accommodate such a Higgs mass, while conducting complementary numerical analyses. We consider both scenarios with singlet-like state being heavier and lighter than SM-like Higgs. With A-terms being small, we find for the NMSSM to be perturbative up to GUT scale, it is not possible to get 125 GeV Higgs mass, which is true even if we tune parameters of NMSSM. If we allow some of the couplings to become non-perturbative below the GUT scale, then the non-tuned option implies that the singlet self-coupling, kappa, is larger than the singlet-Higgs coupling, lambda, which itself is order 1. This leads to a Landau pole for these couplings close to the weak scale, in particular below ~10^4 TeV. In both the perturbative and non-perturbative NMSSM, allowing large A_lambda, A_kappa gives "more room" to accommodate a 125 GeV Higgs, but a tuning of these A-terms may be needed. In our analysis we also conduct a careful study of the constraints on the parameter space from requiring global stability of the desired vacuum fitting a 125 GeV Higgs, which is complementary to existing literature. In particular, as the singlet-Higgs coupling lambda increases, vacuum stability becomes more serious of an issue.Comment: 34 pages, 4 figures, references added, minor corrections to text and figures, version to be published in JHE

Time periodicity and dynamical stability in two-boson systems

We calculate the period of recurrence of dynamical systems comprising two interacting bosons. A number of theoretical issues related to this problem are discussed, in particular, the conditions for small periodicity. The knowledge gathered in this way is then used to propose a notion of dynamical stability based on the stability of the period. Dynamical simulations show good agreement with the proposed scheme. We also apply the results to the phenomenon known as coherent population trapping and find stability conditions in this specific case.Comment: 7+ pages, 5 figure

Hydrogen-induced modifications of electrical properties of insulating ferrites

2009-2010 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe