404 research outputs found
Experience with chronic haemodialysis in Johannesburg
Since 1966 the treatment for patients with end-stage renal disease in Johannesburg has primarily been renal transplantation. This has required an adequate programme of regular dialysis. All patients were treated at the central hospital or at two small satellite units. A total of 158 patients, mean age 34,2 years (88 males) have been dialysed. The mean duration on dialysis prior to transplantation was 5,6 months (range 1 week - 23 months). The commonest cause of renal failure in males was chronic glomerulonephritis (63%), whereas in females it was analgesic nephropathy (39%). Twenty-seven patients (17%) died while on dialysis, including 6 who had had unsuccessful transplantations. Renal osteodystrophy was diagnosed in 30% of the patients. Hepatitis has been endemic among both patients and staff. Nephrectomies were done in 106 patients. Ten patients had operations for peptic ulcer and 5 parathyroidectomies were performed. The number of patients unsuccessfully transplanted, or who died, was less than the number of new patients requiring treatment. In addition, an increasing proportion of patients have become 'relatively untransplaotable'. This has led to overloading of facilities.S. Afr. Med. J., 48, 1821 (1974
Growing old, yet staying young: The role of telomeres in bats' exceptional longevity
Understanding aging is a grand challenge in biology. Exceptionally long-lived animals have mechanisms that underpin extreme longevity. Telomeres are protective nucleotide repeats on chromosome tips that shorten with cell division, potentially limiting life span. Bats are the longest-lived mammals for their size, but it is unknown whether their telomeres shorten. Using >60 years of cumulative mark-recapture field data, we show that telomeres shorten with age inRhinolophus ferrumequinumandMiniopterus schreibersii, but not in the bat genus with greatest longevity,Myotis. As in humans, telomerase is not expressed inMyotis myotisblood or fibroblasts. Selection tests on telomere maintenance genes show thatATMandSETX, which repair and prevent DNA damage, potentially mediate telomere dynamics inMyotisbats. Twenty-one telomere maintenance genes are differentially expressed inMyotis, of which 14 are enriched for DNA repair, and 5 for alternative telomere-lengthening mechanisms. We demonstrate how telomeres, telomerase, and DNA repair genes have contributed to the evolution of exceptional longevity inMyotisbats, advancing our understanding of healthy aging
pi+ + d --> p + p reaction between 18 and 44 MeV
A study of the reaction pi+ + d --> p + p has been performed in the energy
range of 18 - 44 MeV. Total cross sections and differential cross sections at
six angles have been measured at 15 energies with an energy increment of 1 - 2
MeV. This is the most systematic data set in this energy range. No structure in
the energy dependence of the cross section has been observed within the
accuracy of this experiment.Comment: 20 pages, 7 Postscript figure
Probing the high momentum component of the deuteron at high Q^2
The d(e,e'p) cross section at a momentum transfer of 3.5 (GeV/c)^2 was
measured over a kinematical range that made it possible to study this reaction
for a set of fixed missing momenta as a function of the neutron recoil angle
theta_nq and to extract missing momentum distributions for fixed values of
theta_nq up to 0.55 GeV/c. In the region of 35 (deg) <= theta_nq <= 45 (deg)
recent calculations, which predict that final state interactions are small,
agree reasonably well with the experimental data. Therefore these experimental
reduced cross sections provide direct access to the high momentum component of
the deuteron momentum distribution in exclusive deuteron
electro-disintegration.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure
Scaling Tests of the Cross Section for Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering
We present the first measurements of the \vec{e}p->epg cross section in the
deeply virtual Compton scattering (DVCS) regime and the valence quark region.
The Q^2 dependence (from 1.5 to 2.3 GeV^2) of the helicity-dependent cross
section indicates the twist-2 dominance of DVCS, proving that generalized
parton distributions (GPDs) are accessible to experiment at moderate Q^2. The
helicity-independent cross section is also measured at Q^2=2.3 GeV^2. We
present the first model-independent measurement of linear combinations of GPDs
and GPD integrals up to the twist-3 approximation.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables. Text shortened for publication.
References added. One figure remove
Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering off the neutron
The present experiment exploits the interference between the Deeply Virtual
Compton Scattering (DVCS) and the Bethe-Heitler processes to extract the
imaginary part of DVCS amplitudes on the neutron and on the deuteron from the
helicity-dependent D cross section measured at =1.9
GeV and =0.36. We extract a linear combination of generalized parton
distributions (GPDs) particularly sensitive to , the least constrained
GPD. A model dependent constraint on the contribution of the up and down quarks
to the nucleon spin is deduced.Comment: Published in Phys. Rev. Let
Cross Section Measurements of Charged Pion Photoproduction in Hydrogen and Deuterium from 1.1 to 5.5 GeV
The differential cross section for the gamma +n --> pi- + p and the gamma + p
--> pi+ n processes were measured at Jefferson Lab. The photon energies ranged
from 1.1 to 5.5 GeV, corresponding to center-of-mass energies from 1.7 to 3.4
GeV. The pion center-of-mass angles varied from 50 degree to 110 degree. The
pi- and pi+ photoproduction data both exhibit a global scaling behavior at high
energies and high transverse momenta, consistent with the constituent counting
rule prediction and the existing pi+ data. The data suggest possible
substructure of the scaling behavior, which might be oscillations around the
scaling value. The data show an enhancement in the scaled cross section at
center-of-mass energy near 2.2 GeV. The differential cross section ratios at
high energies and high transverse momenta can be described by calculations
based on one-hard-gluon-exchange diagrams.Comment: 18 pages, 19 figure
The E00-110 experiment in Jefferson Lab's Hall A: Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering off the Proton at 6 GeV
We present final results on the photon electroproduction
() cross section in the deeply virtual Compton
scattering (DVCS) regime and the valence quark region from Jefferson Lab
experiment E00-110. Results from an analysis of a subset of these data were
published before, but the analysis has been improved which is described here at
length, together with details on the experimental setup. Furthermore,
additional data have been analyzed resulting in photon electroproduction cross
sections at new kinematic settings, for a total of 588 experimental bins.
Results of the - and -dependences of both the helicity-dependent and
helicity-independent cross sections are discussed. The -dependence
illustrates the dominance of the twist-2 handbag amplitude in the kinematics of
the experiment, as previously noted. Thanks to the excellent accuracy of this
high luminosity experiment, it becomes clear that the unpolarized cross section
shows a significant deviation from the Bethe-Heitler process in our kinematics,
compatible with a large contribution from the leading twist-2 DVCS term to
the photon electroproduction cross section. The necessity to include
higher-twist corrections in order to fully reproduce the shape of the data is
also discussed. The DVCS cross sections in this paper represent the final set
of experimental results from E00-110, superseding the previous publication.Comment: 48 pages, 32 figure
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