Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and Hyperfine Structure

Contains reports on four research projects

The Market for Legal Services: Paraprofessionals and Specialists

This is a working paper prepared for The Professional Organizations Committee

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and Hyperfine Structure

Contains reports on seven research projects

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and Hyperfine Structure

Contains research objectives and reports onAlfred P. Sloan Foundatio

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and Hyperfine Structure

Contains reports on five research projects

Static Critical Behavior of the Spin-Freezing Transition in the Geometrically Frustrated Pyrochlore Antiferromagnet Y2Mo2O7

Some frustrated pyrochlore antiferromagnets, such as Y2Mo2O7, show a spin-freezing transition and magnetic irreversibilities below a temperature Tf similar to what is observed nonlinear magnetization measurements on Y2Mo2O7 that provide strong evidence that there is an underlying thermodynamic phase transition at Tf, which is characterized by critical exponents \gamma \approx 2.8 and \beta \approx 0.8. These values are typical of those found in random spin glasses, despite the fact that the level of random disorder in Y2Mo2O7 is immeasurably small.Comment: Latex file, calls for 4 encapsulated postscript figures (included). Submitted to Phys. Rev. Letters

Cost-effectiveness analysis of malaria chemoprophylaxis for travellers to West-Africa

BACKGROUND: The importation of malaria to non-endemic countries remains a major cause of travel-related morbidity and a leading cause of travel-related hospitalizations. Currently they are three priority medications for malaria prophylaxis to West Africa: mefloquine, atovaquone/proguanil and doxycycline. We investigate the cost effectiveness of a partial reimbursement of the cheapest effective malaria chemoprophylaxis (mefloquine) for travellers to high risk areas of malaria transmission compared with the current situation of no reimbursement. METHODS: This study is a cost-effectiveness analysis based on malaria cases imported from West Africa to Switzerland from the perspective of the Swiss health system. We used a decision tree model and made a literature research on the components of travel related malaria. The main outcome measure was the cost effectiveness of malaria chemoprophylaxis reimbursement based on malaria and deaths averted. RESULTS: Using a program where travellers would be reimbursed for 80% of the cost of the cheapest malaria chemoprophylaxis is dominant (i.e. cost saving and more effective than the current situation) using the assumption that currently 68.7% of travellers to West Africa use malaria chemoprophylaxis. If the current usage of malaria chemoprophylaxis would be higher, 82.4%, the incremental cost per malaria case averted is € 2'302. The incremental cost of malaria death averted is € 191'833.The most important factors influencing the model were: the proportion of travellers using malaria chemoprophylaxis, the probability of contracting malaria without malaria chemoprophylaxis, the cost of the mefloquine regimen, the decrease in the number of travellers without malaria chemoprophylaxis in the reimbursement strategy. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that a reimbursement of 80% of the cost of the cheapest effective malaria chemoprophylaxis (mefloquine) for travellers from Switzerland to West Africa is highly effective in terms of malaria cases averted and is cost effective to the Swiss health system. These data are relevant to discussions about the cost effectiveness of malaria chemoprophylaxis reimbursement for vulnerable groups such as those visiting friends and relatives who have the highest risk of malaria, who are least likely to use chemoprophylaxis

Western Indian Ocean marine and terrestrial records of climate variability: a review and new concepts on land-ocean interactions since AD 1660

We examine the relationship between three tropical and two subtropical western Indian Ocean coral oxygen isotope time series to surface air temperatures (SAT) and rainfall over India, tropical East Africa and southeast Africa. We review established relationships, provide new concepts with regard to distinct rainfall seasons, and mean annual temperatures. Tropical corals are coherent with SAT over western India and East Africa at interannual and multidecadal periodicities. The subtropical corals correlate with Southeast African SAT at periodicities of 16–30 years. The relationship between the coral records and land rainfall is more complex. Running correlations suggest varying strength of interannual teleconnections between the tropical coral oxygen isotope records and rainfall over equatorial East Africa. The relationship with rainfall over India changed in the 1970s. The subtropical oxygen isotope records are coherent with South African rainfall at interdecadal periodicities. Paleoclimatological reconstructions of land rainfall and SAT reveal that the inferred relationships generally hold during the last 350 years. Thus, the Indian Ocean corals prove invaluable for investigating land–ocean interactions during past centuries