Predictors of diabetes risk in urban and rural areas in Colombia

Background: Nutritional habits low in fruits and vegetables and sedentary lifestyle are associated with a higher risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes (T2D). However, it is important to assess differences between urban and rural areas. This study aimed to analyze the associations between the risk of developing T2D and setting in the Colombian north coast in 2017. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 1,005 subjects. Data was collected by interviewing self-identified members of an urban community and a rural-indigenous population. The interaction terms were evaluated as well as the confounders. Then, adjusted binary logistic regressions were used to estimate the odds ratio (OR) and 95% Confidence Intervals (CI). Results: subjects with a high risk of T2D are more likely to belong to the urban setting (OR = 1.908; 95%CI = 1.201-2.01) compared with those with lower T2D after adjusting for age, Body Mass Index (BMI), physical activity, history of high levels of glycemia, and diabetes in relatives. Conclusions: Urban communities are more likely to have T2D compared with rural-indigenous populations. These populations have differences from the cultural context, including personal, and lifestyle factors.Peer reviewe

Graphene growth on h-BN by Molecular Beam Epitaxy

The growth of single layer graphene nanometer size domains by solid carbon source molecular beam epitaxy on hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) flakes is demonstrated. Formation of single-layer graphene is clearly apparent in Raman spectra which display sharp optical phonon bands. Atomic-force microscope images and Raman maps reveal that the graphene grown depends on the surface morphology of the h-BN substrates. The growth is governed by the high mobility of the carbon atoms on the h-BN surface, in a manner that is consistent with van der Waals epitaxy. The successful growth of graphene layers depends on the substrate temperature, but is independent of the incident flux of carbon atoms.Comment: Solid State Communications, 201

Chemical Abundances in the Secondary Star in the Black Hole Binary A0620-00

Using a high resolution spectrum of the secondary star in the black hole binary A0620-00, we have derived the stellar parameters and veiling caused by the accretion disk in a consistent way. We have used a chi^2 minimization procedure to explore a grid of 800 000 LTE synthetic spectra computed for a plausible range of both stellar and veiling parameters. Adopting the best model parameters found, we have determined atmospheric abundances of Fe, Ca, Ti, Ni and Al. The Fe abundance of the star is [Fe/H]=0.14 +- 0.20. Except for Ca, we found the other elements moderately over-abundant as compared with stars in the solar neighborhood of similar iron content. Taking into account the small orbital separation, the mass transfer rate and the mass of the convection zone of the secondary star, a comparison with element yields in supernova explosion models suggests a possible explosive event with a mass cut comparable to the current mass of the compact object. We have also analyzed the Li abundance, which is unusually high for a star of this spectral type and relatively low mass.Comment: 32 pages, 5 tables and 11 figures, uses rotate.st

The origin of slow electron recombination processes in dye-sensitized solar cells with alumina barrier coatings

We investigate the effect of a thin alumina coating of nanocrystalline TiO2 films on recombination dynamics of dye-sensitized solar cells. Both coated and uncoated cells were measured by a combination of techniques: transient absorption spectroscopy, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and open-circuit voltage decay. It is found that the alumina barrier reduces the recombination of photoinjected electrons to both dye cations and the oxidized redox couple. It is proposed that this observed retardation can be attributed primarily to two effects: almost complete passivation of surface trap states in TiO2 that are able to inject electrons to acceptor species, and slowing down by a factor of 3–4 the rate of interfacial charge transfer from conduction-band [email protected]

Multidisciplinary approach to cylindrical anisotropic metamaterials

Anisotropic characteristics of cylindrically corrugated microstructures are analyzed in terms of their acoustic and electromagnetic (EM) behavior paying special attention to their differences and similarities. A simple analytical model has been developed using effective medium theory to understand the anisotropic features of both types of waves in terms of radial and angular components of the wave propagation velocity. The anisotropic constituent parameters have been obtained by measuring the resonances of cylindrical cavities, as well as from numerical simulations. This permits one to characterize propagation of acoustic and EM waves and to compare the fundamental anisotropic features generated by the corrugated effective medium. Anisotropic coefficients match closely in both physics fields but other relevant parameters show significant differences in the behavior of both types of waves. © IOP Publishing Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft.The authors acknowledge financial support from the Spanish MICINN (TEC 2010-19751 and Consolider CSD2008-00066) and from the US Office of Naval Research (N000140910554). DT also acknowledges support from the program 'Campus de Excelencia Internacional 2010 UPV'.Carbonell Olivares, J.; Torrent Martí, D.; Diaz Rubio, A.; Sánchez-Dehesa Moreno-Cid, J. (2011). Multidisciplinary approach to cylindrical anisotropic metamaterials. New Journal of Physics. 13:103034-103034. doi:10.1088/1367-2630/13/10/103034S10303410303413Engheta, N., & Ziolkowski, R. W. (Eds.). (2006). Metamaterials. doi:10.1002/0471784192Pendry, J. B. (2006). Controlling Electromagnetic Fields. Science, 312(5781), 1780-1782. doi:10.1126/science.1125907Pendry, J. B. (2000). Negative Refraction Makes a Perfect Lens. Physical Review Letters, 85(18), 3966-3969. doi:10.1103/physrevlett.85.3966Schurig, D., Mock, J. J., Justice, B. J., Cummer, S. A., Pendry, J. B., Starr, A. F., & Smith, D. R. (2006). Metamaterial Electromagnetic Cloak at Microwave Frequencies. Science, 314(5801), 977-980. doi:10.1126/science.1133628Torrent, D., & Sánchez-Dehesa, J. (2009). Radial Wave Crystals: Radially Periodic Structures from Anisotropic Metamaterials for Engineering Acoustic or Electromagnetic Waves. Physical Review Letters, 103(6). doi:10.1103/physrevlett.103.064301Jacob, Z., Alekseyev, L. V., & Narimanov, E. (2006). Optical Hyperlens: Far-field imaging beyond the diffraction limit. Optics Express, 14(18), 8247. doi:10.1364/oe.14.008247Bradley, C. E. (1994). Time harmonic acoustic Bloch wave propagation in periodic waveguides. Part I. Theory. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 96(3), 1844-1853. doi:10.1121/1.410196Bradley, C. E. (1994). Time harmonic acoustic Bloch wave propagation in periodic waveguides. Part II. Experiment. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 96(3), 1854-1862. doi:10.1121/1.410197Schoenberg, M., & Sen, P. N. (1983). Properties of a periodically stratified acoustic half‐space and its relation to a Biot fluid. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 73(1), 61-67. doi:10.1121/1.388724Peng, L., Ran, L., & Mortensen, N. A. (2010). Achieving anisotropy in metamaterials made of dielectric cylindrical rods. Applied Physics Letters, 96(24), 241108. doi:10.1063/1.3453446Carbonell, J., Cervera, F., Sánchez-Dehesa, J., Arriaga, J., Gumen, L., & Krokhin, A. (2010). Homogenization of two-dimensional anisotropic dissipative photonic crystal. Applied Physics Letters, 97(23), 231122. doi:10.1063/1.3526381Valero-Nogueira, A., Alfonso, E., Herranz, J. I., & Baquero, M. (2007). Planar slot-array antenna fed by an oversized quasi-TEM waveguide. Microwave and Optical Technology Letters, 49(8), 1875-1877. doi:10.1002/mop.22586Ni, Y., Gao, L., & Qiu, C.-W. (2010). Achieving Invisibility of Homogeneous Cylindrically Anisotropic Cylinders. Plasmonics, 5(3), 251-258. doi:10.1007/s11468-010-9145-8Huang, Y., Feng, Y., & Jiang, T. (2007). Electromagnetic cloaking by layered structure of homogeneous isotropic materials. Optics Express, 15(18), 11133. doi:10.1364/oe.15.011133Elliott, R. (1954). On the theory of corrugated plane surfaces. Transactions of the IRE Professional Group on Antennas and Propagation, 2(2), 71-81. doi:10.1109/t-ap.1954.27975Goubau, G. (1950). Surface Waves and Their Application to Transmission Lines. Journal of Applied Physics, 21(11), 1119-1128. doi:10.1063/1.1699553Wang, B., Jin, Y., & He, S. (2008). Design of subwavelength corrugated metal waveguides for slow waves at terahertz frequencies. Applied Optics, 47(21), 3694. doi:10.1364/ao.47.003694Kildal, P.-S. (1990). Artificially soft and hard surfaces in electromagnetics. IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, 38(10), 1537-1544. doi:10.1109/8.59765Giovannini, L., Nizzoli, F., & Marvin, A. M. (1992). Theory of surface acoustic phonon normal modes and light scattering cross section in a periodically corrugated surface. Physical Review Letters, 69(10), 1572-1575. doi:10.1103/physrevlett.69.1572Lakhtakia, A., Varadan, V. K., & Varadan, V. V. (1985). On the acoustic response of a deeply corrugated periodic surface— A hybrid T‐matrix approach. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 78(6), 2100-2104. doi:10.1121/1.392669Kundu, T., Banerjee, S., & Jata, K. V. (2006). An experimental investigation of guided wave propagation in corrugated plates showing stop bands and pass bands. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 120(3), 1217-1226. doi:10.1121/1.2221534Torrent, D., & Sánchez-Dehesa, J. (2010). Anisotropic Mass Density by Radially Periodic Fluid Structures. Physical Review Letters, 105(17). doi:10.1103/physrevlett.105.174301Chew, W. C. (1999). Waves and Fields in Inhomogenous Media. doi:10.1109/9780470547052Smith, D. R., Vier, D. C., Koschny, T., & Soukoulis, C. M. (2005). Electromagnetic parameter retrieval from inhomogeneous metamaterials. Physical Review E, 71(3). doi:10.1103/physreve.71.036617Fokin, V., Ambati, M., Sun, C., & Zhang, X. (2007). Method for retrieving effective properties of locally resonant acoustic metamaterials. Physical Review B, 76(14). doi:10.1103/physrevb.76.144302Marcuvitz, N. (1986). Waveguide Handbook. doi:10.1049/pbew021

Incidence, in-hospital case-fatality rates, and management practices in Puerto Ricans hospitalized with acute myocardial infarction

OBJECTIVE: There are extremely limited data on minority populations, especially Hispanics, describing the clinical epidemiology of acute coronary disease. The aim of this study is to examine the incidence rate of acute myocardial infarction (AMI), in-hospital case-fatality rate (CFR), and management practices among residents of greater San Juan (Puerto Rico) who were hospitalized with an initial AMI. METHODS: Our trained study staff reviewed and independently validated the medical records of patients who had been hospitalized with possible AMI at any of the twelve hospitals located in greater San Juan during calendar year 2007. RESULTS: The incidence rate (# per 100,000 population) of 1,415 patients hospitalized with AMI increased with advancing age and were significantly higher for older patients for men (198) than they were for women (134). The average age of the study population was 64 years, and women comprised 45% of the study sample. Evidence-based cardiac therapies, e.g., aspirin, beta blockers, ACE inhibitors/angiotensin receptor blockers, and statins, were used with 60% of the hospitalized patients, and women were less likely than men to have received these therapies (59% vs. 65%) or to have undergone interventional cardiac procedures (47% vs. 59%) (p \u3c 0.05). The in-hospital CFR increased with advancing age and were higher for women (8.6%) than they were for men (6.0%) (p \u3c 0.05). CONCLUSION: Efforts are needed to reduce the magnitude of AMI, enhance the use of evidence-based cardiac therapies, reduce possible gender disparities, and improve the short-term prognoses of Puerto Rican patients hospitalized with an initial AMI

Search for the standard model Higgs boson in the H to ZZ to 2l 2nu channel in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

A search for the standard model Higgs boson in the H to ZZ to 2l 2nu decay channel, where l = e or mu, in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV is presented. The data were collected at the LHC, with the CMS detector, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 inverse femtobarns. No significant excess is observed above the background expectation, and upper limits are set on the Higgs boson production cross section. The presence of the standard model Higgs boson with a mass in the 270-440 GeV range is excluded at 95% confidence level.Comment: Submitted to JHE

Search for anomalous t t-bar production in the highly-boosted all-hadronic final state

A search is presented for a massive particle, generically referred to as a Z', decaying into a t t-bar pair. The search focuses on Z' resonances that are sufficiently massive to produce highly Lorentz-boosted top quarks, which yield collimated decay products that are partially or fully merged into single jets. The analysis uses new methods to analyze jet substructure, providing suppression of the non-top multijet backgrounds. The analysis is based on a data sample of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5 inverse femtobarns. Upper limits in the range of 1 pb are set on the product of the production cross section and branching fraction for a topcolor Z' modeled for several widths, as well as for a Randall--Sundrum Kaluza--Klein gluon. In addition, the results constrain any enhancement in t t-bar production beyond expectations of the standard model for t t-bar invariant masses larger than 1 TeV.Comment: Submitted to the Journal of High Energy Physics; this version includes a minor typo correction that will be submitted as an erratu

Measurement of the t t-bar production cross section in the dilepton channel in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The t t-bar production cross section (sigma[t t-bar]) is measured in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV in data collected by the CMS experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2.3 inverse femtobarns. The measurement is performed in events with two leptons (electrons or muons) in the final state, at least two jets identified as jets originating from b quarks, and the presence of an imbalance in transverse momentum. The measured value of sigma[t t-bar] for a top-quark mass of 172.5 GeV is 161.9 +/- 2.5 (stat.) +5.1/-5.0 (syst.) +/- 3.6(lumi.) pb, consistent with the prediction of the standard model.Comment: Replaced with published version. Included journal reference and DO