Non-strategic nuclear weapons: the next step in multilateral arms control

This paper by Crispin Rovere and Kalman A Robertson addresses the many barriers to including tactical nuclear weapons in disarmament talks. It considers the difficulty of bringing other emerging powers such as China into the nuclear arms control equation. The study proposes a new arms control treaty that would ban outright the development and possession of a special kind of tactical nuclear weapon called \u27low-yield nuclear weapons\u27 that the authors argue carries an increasingly grave risk of starting a nuclear war. The paper says that Australia should take the lead in promoting a new treaty banning low-yield nuclear weapons. A longer discussion paper, which includes a more thorough exploration of the technical, strategic and legal issues, as well as many references for further reading is available below

Singing synthesis with an evolved physical model

A two-dimensional physical model of the human vocal tract is described. Such a system promises increased realism and control in the synthesis. of both speech and singing. However, the parameters describing the shape of the vocal tract while in use are not easily obtained, even using medical imaging techniques, so instead a genetic algorithm (GA) is applied to the model to find an appropriate configuration. Realistic sounds are produced by this method. Analysis of these, and the reliability of the technique (convergence properties) is provided

Outcomes of haematology/oncology patients admitted to intensive care unit at The Canberra Hospital

BACKGROUND: Outcomes for haematology/oncology patients have improved; however, determining their suitability for intensive care unit (ICU) admission remains challenging and controversial. AIM: Examine outcomes of patients admitted to an Australian tertiary hospital ICU and explore potential prognostic factors. METHODS: A retrospective review of patients with haematological and solid tumour malignancies non-electively admitted to The Canberra Hospital (TCH) ICU, between January 2008 and December 2012. Patient demographics, cancer details, reasons for ICU admission and Acute Physiologic and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II scores were collected, and survival rates calculated and correlated with potential prognostic factors. RESULTS Of 205 patients, 113 (55%) had haematological malignancies, and 92 (45%) had solid tumours: 58% male and mean age 60.3 years (standard deviation (SD) 13.4). Eighty-two per cent of solid tumour patients had metastatic disease and 55% received palliative chemotherapy. Primary reasons for ICU admission included sepsis (59%), respiratory distress (37%) and hypotension/shock (18%). Mean APACHE II score was 20.1(SD 0.55); mean length of stay in ICU, 4 days (SD 5.2); ICU survival was 76% with 62% and 41% alive at 30 days and 6 months respectively. Overall 1-year survival was 36%. High APACHE II scores and ≥2 organs failing were significant risk factors for 30-day mortality. CONCLUSION: Short-term outcomes were similar to contemporary studies from a general tertiary hospital setting and better than historical data. Sixty-two per cent of patients were alive 30 days post-ICU admission, with a significant minority alive at 12 months, confirming some patients achieved worthwhile outcomes. Further research is needed to ensure appropriate patient selection and to explore quality of life post ICU

The structure of epitaxial V2O3 films and their surfaces : a medium energy ion scattering study

Medium energy ion scattering, using 100 keV H+ incident ions, has been used to investigate the growth of epitaxial films, up to thicknesses of ~200 Å, of V2O3 on both Pd(111) and Au(111). Scattered-ion energy spectra provide a measure of the average film thickness and the variations in this thickness, and show that, with suitable annealing, the crystalline quality is good. Plots of the scattering yield as a function of scattering angle, so-called blocking curves, have been measured for two different incidence directions and have been used to determine the surface structure. Specifically, scattering simulations for a range of different model structures show poor agreement with experiment for half-metal (….V’O3V) and vanadyl (….V’O3V=O) terminations, with and without surface interlayer relaxations. However, good agreement with experiment is found for the modified oxygen-termination structure, first proposed by Kresse et al., in which a subsurface V half-metal layer is moved up into the outermost V buckled metal layer to produce a VO2 overlayer on the underlying V2O3, with an associated layer structure of ….O3VV’’V’O3

Effectiveness of 4 Pulpotomy Techniques—Randomized Controlled Trial

Pulpotomy is the accepted therapy for the management of cariously exposed pulps in symptom-free primary molars; however, evidence is lacking about the most appropriate technique. The aim of this study was to compare the relative effectiveness of the Er:YAG laser, calcium hydroxide, and ferric sulfate techniques with that of dilute formocresol in retaining such molars symptom-free. Two hundred primary molars in 107 healthy children were included and randomly allocated to one of the techniques. The treated teeth were blindly re-evaluated after 6, 12, 18, and 24 months. Descriptive data analysis and logistic regression analysis, accounting for each patient's effect by a generalized estimating equation (GEE), were used. After 24 months, the following total and clinical success rates were determined (%): formocresol 85 (96), laser 78 (93), calcium hydroxide 53 (87), and ferric sulfate 86 (100). Only calcium hydroxide performed significantly worse than formocresol (p = 0.001, odds ratio = 5.6, 95% confidence interval 2.0-15.5). In conclusion, calcium hydroxide is less appropriate for pulpotomies than is formocresol

A human embryonic kidney 293T cell line mutated at the Golgi -mannosidase II locus

Disruption of Golgi -mannosidase II activity can result in type II congenital dyserythropoietic anemia and can induce lupus-like autoimmunity in mice. Here, we isolate a mutant human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293T cell line, called Lec36, that displays sensitivity to ricin that lies between the parental HEK 293T cells, whose secreted and membrane-expressed proteins are dominated by complex-type glycosylation, and 293S Lec1 cells, which only produce oligomannose-type N-linked glycans. The stem cell marker, 19A, was transiently expressed in the HEK 293T Lec36 cells, and in parental HEK 293T cells with and without the potent Golgi -mannosidase II inhibitor, swainsonine. Negative-ion nano-electrospray ionization mass spectra of the 19A N-linked glycans from HEK 293T Lec36 and swainsonine-treated HEK 293T cells were qualitatively indistinguishable and, as shown by collision-induced dissociation spectra, dominated by hybrid-type glycosylation. Nucleotide sequencing revealed mutations in each allele of MAN2A1, the gene encoding Golgi -mannosidase II: a point mutation in one allele mapping to the active site and an in-frame deletion of twelve-nucleotides in the other. Expression of wild-type but not the mutant MAN2A1 alleles in Lec36 cells restored processing of the 19A reporter glycoprotein to complex-type glycosylation. The Lec36 cell line will be useful for expressing therapeutic glycoproteins with hybrid-type glycans and provides a sensitive host for detecting mutations in human MAN2A1 causing type II congenital dyserythropoietic anemia

Changing Patterns of lung, liver, and head and neck non-AIDS-defining cancers relative to HIV status in Tanzania between 2002-2014

Abstract Background Tanzania, like other low-income countries, has an increasing cancer burden that remains underestimated. Infection-associated malignancies, particularly HIV-infection, represent a great proportion of cancer burden in Tanzania and throughout Africa. Availability of HIV treatment and improved survival of HIV patients are suggested factors related to increasing prevalence of non-AIDS-defining cancers (NADCs). This study examined patterns of NADCs and proportions of HIV-positivity at the Ocean Road Cancer Institute (ORCI). Methods We reviewed logbooks of all ORCI patients diagnosed and/or treated for lung, liver, and head and neck cancers during 2002–2014. The number of total cancers diagnosed at ORCI during this period was used to calculate proportions of NADCs. We abstracted medical records to obtain demographic and clinical profiles and HIV status information for 1127 patients diagnosed or treated during 2010–2014. Trends in numbers and proportions of NADCs were analyzed using Joinpoint regression. Characteristics of NADC patients were analyzed using multinomial logistic regression. Results NADCs diagnosed at ORCI increased by 33.8% from 2002 to 2014 while the proportion of NADCs relative to all cancers significantly decreased from 6.8% in 2002 to 5.6% in 2014 (APC = -2.74%). Numbers and proportions of lung and liver cancers increased compared to all cancer diagnoses from 2002 to 2014. The number of head and neck cancers increased while decreasing proportionally compared to all cancer diagnoses from 2002 to 2014. Among patients with pathologically confirmed NADCs between 2010 and 2014, HIV prevalence showed a non-statistically significant decrease from 8.1 to 7.1% (APC = -3.77%). Conclusions Absolute numbers of lung, liver, and head and neck cancers increased at ORCI by 1/3 since 2002. Improving survivorship of HIV patients and varying immunodeficiency status may have contributed to the increasing number of NADCs. Total cancer diagnoses nearly doubled during this period, leading to a smaller relative proportion of NADCs diagnosed in 2014 compared to 2002. Late- stage diagnosis and short survival of NADCs included this study may explain possible underestimation and smaller increase in proportion of these particular NADCs compared to other NADCs studied in Tanzania. The slight decrease in proportion of HIV-positive NADC patients during 2010–2014 may suggest increasing patient longevity and more effective HIV management in Tanzania.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/134744/1/13027_2016_Article_106.pd

Symbolic powers of monomial ideals and Cohen-Macaulay vertex-weighted digraphs

In this paper we study irreducible representations and symbolic Rees algebras of monomial ideals. Then we examine edge ideals associated to vertex-weighted oriented graphs. These are digraphs having no oriented cycles of length two with weights on the vertices. For a monomial ideal with no embedded primes we classify the normality of its symbolic Rees algebra in terms of its primary components. If the primary components of a monomial ideal are normal, we present a simple procedure to compute its symbolic Rees algebra using Hilbert bases, and give necessary and sufficient conditions for the equality between its ordinary and symbolic powers. We give an effective characterization of the Cohen--Macaulay vertex-weighted oriented forests. For edge ideals of transitive weighted oriented graphs we show that Alexander duality holds. It is shown that edge ideals of weighted acyclic tournaments are Cohen--Macaulay and satisfy Alexander dualityComment: Special volume dedicated to Professor Antonio Campillo, Springer, to appea

InGaAs spin light emitting diodes measured in the Faraday and oblique Hanle geometries

InGaAs quantum well light emitting diodes (LED) with spin-injecting, epitaxial Fe contacts were fabricated using an in situ wafer transfer process where the semiconductor wafer was transferred under ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) conditions to a metals growth chamber to achieve a high quality interface between the two materials. The spin LED devices were measured optically with applied magnetic fields in either the Faraday or the oblique Hanle geometries in two experimental set-ups. Optical polarizations efficiencies of 4.5% in the Faraday geometry and 1.5% in the Hanle geometry are shown to be equivalent. The polarization efficiency of the electroluminescence is seen to decay as the temperature increases although the spin lifetime remains constant due to the influence of the D'yakonov–Perel' spin scattering mechanism in the quantum well.RM would like to acknowledge support from the EPSRC.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from the Institute of Physics via https://doi.org/10.1088/0022-3727/49/16/16510

Interfacial charge transfer in nanoscale polymer transistors

Interfacial charge transfer plays an essential role in establishing the relative alignment of the metal Fermi level and the energy bands of organic semiconductors. While the details remain elusive in many systems, this charge transfer has been inferred in a number of photoemission experiments. We present electronic transport measurements in very short channel ($L < 100$ nm) transistors made from poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT). As channel length is reduced, the evolution of the contact resistance and the zero-gate-voltage conductance are consistent with such charge transfer. Short channel conduction in devices with Pt contacts is greatly enhanced compared to analogous devices with Au contacts, consistent with charge transfer expectations. Alternating current scanning tunneling microscopy (ACSTM) provides further evidence that holes are transferred from Pt into P3HT, while much less charge transfer takes place at the Au/P3HT interface.Comment: 19 preprint pages, 6 figure