Isomer depletion as experimental evidence of nuclear excitation by electron capture.

The atomic nucleus and its electrons are often thought of as independent systems that are held together in the atom by their mutual attraction. Their interaction, however, leads to other important effects, such as providing an additional decay mode for excited nuclear states, whereby the nucleus releases energy by ejecting an atomic electron instead of by emitting a γ-ray. This 'internal conversion' has been known for about a hundred years and can be used to study nuclei and their interaction with their electrons. In the inverse process-nuclear excitation by electron capture (NEEC)-a free electron is captured into an atomic vacancy and can excite the nucleus to a higher-energy state, provided that the kinetic energy of the free electron plus the magnitude of its binding energy once captured matches the nuclear energy difference between the two states. NEEC was predicted in 1976 and has not hitherto been observed. Here we report evidence of NEEC in molybdenum-93 and determine the probability and cross-section for the process in a beam-based experimental scenario. Our results provide a standard for the assessment of theoretical models relevant to NEEC, which predict cross-sections that span many orders of magnitude. The greatest practical effect of the NEEC process may be on the survival of nuclei in stellar environments, in which it could excite isomers (that is, long-lived nuclear states) to shorter-lived states. Such excitations may reduce the abundance of the isotope after its production. This is an example of 'isomer depletion', which has been investigated previously through other reactions, but is used here to obtain evidence for NEEC.

Implementing an electronic sideband offset lock for isotope shift spectroscopy in radium.

We demonstrate laser frequency stabilization with at least 6 GHz of offset tunability using an in-phase/quadrature (IQ) modulator to generate electronic sidebands (ESB) on a titanium sapphire laser at 714 nm and we apply this technique to perform isotope shift spectroscopy of 226Ra and 225Ra. By locking the laser to a single resonance of a high finesse optical cavity and adjusting the lock offset, we determine the frequency difference between the magneto-optical trap (MOT) transitions in the two isotopes to be 2630.0 ± 0.3 MHz, a factor of 29 more precise than the previously available data. Using the known value of the hyperfine splitting of the 3P1 level, we calculate the isotope shift for the 1S0 to 3P1 transition to be 2267.0 ± 2.2 MHz, a factor of 8 more precise than the best available value. Our technique could be applied to countless other atomic systems to provide unprecedented precision in isotope shift spectroscopy and other relative frequency comparisons.

Angular Correlations in the ß Decay of

We present the first measurement of the α-ß-ν angular correlation in the Gamow-Teller ß^{+} decay of ^{8}B. This was accomplished using the Beta-decay Paul Trap, expanding on our previous work on the ß^{-} decay of ^{8}Li. The ^{8}B result is consistent with the V-A electroweak interaction of the standard model and, on its own, provides a limit on the exotic right-handed tensor current relative to the axial-vector current of |C_{T}/C_{A}|^{2}<0.013 at the 95.5% confidence level. This represents the first high-precision angular correlation measurements in mirror decays and was made possible through the use of an ion trap. By combining this ^{8}B result with our previous ^{8}Li results, we demonstrate a new pathway for increased precision in searches for exotic currents.

Implementation of a 2-for-1 Price Incentive for Fruits and Vegetables in a Grocery Retail Setting.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: There is growing interest in expanding healthy eating interventions in the retail setting. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the implementation of a successful 2-for-1 price incentive for fruits and vegetables (F&V), including frozen and canned, that took place in partnership with a large chain grocery retailer in Maine. Intervention Approach. A randomized controlled trial (RCT) pilot study was conducted in 2015-2016, followed by a larger RCT in 2016-2017, to assess whether a supermarket double-dollar F&V incentive increased purchases of these items. EVALUATION METHODS: A convergent, parallel mixed-methods design was used to examine barriers and facilitators to implementing the interventions, using six implementation outcomes: acceptability, adoption, appropriateness, feasibility, implementation fidelity, and perceived cost. RESULTS: The intervention was deemed highly acceptable, appropriate, and feasible by shoppers, retailers, and researchers. The F&V discount had a high rate of initial adoption. There was a moderate degree of fidelity, which improved over time based on lessons learned from the pilot and applied to the subsequent RCT. Specific costs associated with implementation from the research perspective are reported. Implications for Practice, Policy, and Research. Partnerships between academic researchers and retailers can be an effective model for improving healthful purchases among shoppers. These findings are relevant for investigators, public health advocates, and retailers interested in implementing similar grocery retail-based interventions.

Return to sports bridge program improves outcomes, decreases ipsilateral knee re-injury and contralateral knee injury rates post-ACL reconstruction.

PURPOSE: To present the results of a return to sports bridge program designed to reduce knee injuries following ACL reconstruction and physical therapy. METHODS: One hundred and fifty (male = 83, female = 67) patients participated in a whole body neuromuscular control, progressive resistance strength and agility training program. Post-program testing included functional movement form, dynamic knee stability, lower extremity power, agility, and sports skill assessments. Participants completed the Knee Outcome Survey-Sports Activity Scale (KOS-SAS) before and after program initiation. Pre-participation scores were re-estimated following program completion. RESULTS: Global rating KOS-SAS score at program entry was 75 ± 13. Post-program global rating and calculated KOS-SAS were 91.0 ± 9.8 and 90.9 ± 9.7, respectively (p < 0.0001). Pre-participation KOS-SAS score re-estimates at program completion were 54.5 ± 23.3 and 57.3 ± 18.5, respectively. The approximately 20% lower pre-program KOS-SAS score re-estimates (p < 0.0001) observed at program completion suggests that subjects had inaccurately high sports readiness perceptions at program entry. Perceived overall sports activity knee function ratings improved from 2.9 ± 0.6 (abnormal) at program entry to 1.3 ± 0.5 (normal) at completion (p < 0.0001). Most subjects returned back to sports at or above their pre-injury performance skill/performance level (84%, 126/150). By 6.8 ± 3.2 years (range = 2-13 years) post-surgery, ten subjects had sustained an ipsilateral knee re-injury or contralateral knee injury (6.7%). The 2.7% non-contact contralateral and 1.3% non-contact ipsilateral knee injury rates observed were significantly lower than those cited in previous reports. CONCLUSION: Supplementing primary ACL reconstruction and standard physical therapy with a return to sports bridge program prior to release to unrestricted sports performance was effective at improving patient outcomes and decreasing ipsilateral knee re-injury and contralateral knee injury rates. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: II.

Anthropogenic control over wintertime oxidation of atmospheric pollutants.

During winter in the mid-latitudes, photochemical oxidation is significantly slower than in summer and the main radical oxidants driving formation of secondary pollutants, such as fine particulate matter and ozone, remain uncertain, owing to a lack of observations in this season. Using airborne observations, we quantify the contribution of various oxidants on a regional basis during winter, enabling improved chemical descriptions of wintertime air pollution transformations. We show that 25-60% of NOx is converted to N2O5 via multiphase reactions between gas-phase nitrogen oxide reservoirs and aerosol particles, with ~93% reacting in the marine boundary layer to form >2.5 ppbv ClNO2. This results in >70% of the oxidizing capacity of polluted air during winter being controlled, not by typical photochemical reactions, but from these multiphase reactions and emissions of volatile organic compounds, such as HCHO, highlighting the control local anthropogenic emissions have on the oxidizing capacity of the polluted wintertime atmosphere.

Nasal and sinus symptoms and chronic rhinosinusitis in a population-based sample.

BACKGROUND: The objective of this study was to describe the first US-based study to use the European Position Paper on Rhinosinusitis (EPOS) criteria to study the prevalence of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) in a general-population sample. METHODS: A CRS symptom questionnaire was mailed to 23 700 primary care patients from Geisinger Clinic, a health system serving 45 counties in Pennsylvania. CRS cases were categorized into four unique subgroups based on EPOS symptoms: obstruction and discharge with no smell loss or pain/pressure; smell loss without pain/pressure; facial pain and/or pressure without smell loss; and both smell loss and pain/pressure. All cases were required to have nasal obstruction or discharge. Logistic regression was used to evaluate potential factors associated with CRS subgroups. RESULTS: We found that 11.9% of patients met criteria for CRS. Prevalence peaked at 15.9% between ages 50 and 59 years and then dropped to 6.8% after age 69. The odds of CRS was higher among patients who were white, younger, smokers, had a history of Medical Assistance, and had other diseases. When CRS subgroups were modeled separately, these associations were no longer significant for some CRS subgroups. Comorbid diseases were most strongly associated with CRS cases who reported smell loss and facial pain and/or pressure and had the weakest associations with CRS cases who did not report these symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: CRS is a highly prevalent and heterogeneous condition. Differences in risk factors and health outcomes across symptom subgroups may be indicative of differences in etiology that have implications for disease management.

A review of medication adherence in people with epilepsy.

People with epilepsy (PWE) have a higher risk of mortality in comparison with the general population. This in part reflects intrinsic factors or associated comorbidities, but poor adherence to anti-epileptic drugs (AED) has also been shown to contribute to increased risk of death and increased utilization of unscheduled care. The aim of this review was to determine the prevalence of non-adherence to AED in PWE, evaluate whether specific clinical and demographic features can allow clinicians to identify those at highest risk and identify the methods and techniques that can be used to improve adherence in clinical settings. We identified relevant studies for the prevalence of medication non-adherence in PWE by searching MEDLINE (1946-7 Dec 2015), EMBASE (1947-7 Dec 2015) and Cochrane Library (1946-7 Dec 2015) as per predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. We included 17 research studies from our review of the medical literature to determine the prevalence of medication non-adherence in epilepsy. The prevalence of significant medication non-adherence in epilepsy has been reported to vary between 26% and 79%. This variation partly reflects the differences in defining what clinically significant medication adherence is, the methods used to estimate the scale of the problem and the underlying population heterogeneity. A number of clinical and demographic features have been associated with poor adherence allowing clinicians to identify those at greatest risk. Educating patients and their carers about the risks associated with poor adherence, certain behavioural interventions and simplifying their drug regimens have been shown to improve adherence.

Electroencephalographic markers in dementia.

Dementia is a global health problem with a huge impact on the lives of those afflicted. There are several distinct diseases that are classified under the umbrella term "dementia" ranging from neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease to chronic infections of the central nervous system such as subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), a rare complication of measles virus infection in childhood. Clinical features, neuropsychological profiles and imaging characteristics of the various dementia syndromes can be sufficiently distinct to distinguish them from one another. However, in some cases, the cognitive, psychiatric and behavioural features can sufficiently overlap such that neurophysiologic testing may be of help. While it is recognized the electroencephalogram (EEG) may have a special role to play in the diagnosis of certain dementing illnesses such as SSPE and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) that have characteristic EEG changes, current research focusses on the potential utility of quantitative EEG as one more tool in the armamentarium of clinicians dealing with patients who suffer from a dementing illness. We searched PubMed and the Cochrane Database from 1 January 1946 up to 1 January 2016, combining the search terms "EEG," "electroencephalography," "dementia" and "status epilepticus"; identified papers from these searches were then read in detail and summarized. Here, we discuss both the qualitative and quantitative EEG findings in the various types of dementia.

Dr. Solco Tromp and the Tromp Award.

The Tromp Award is the highest honor awarded by the International Society of Biometeorology (ISB). The award acknowledges outstanding research in biometeorology by a scientist under the age of 35 and was established in conjunction with the Tromp Foundation and the ISB. In honor of the 60th anniversary of the ISB, this article will provide a brief summary of the life of Dr. Solco Tromp and of the six awardees of the Tromp Award since the inaugural issuance of the award in 1999. The Tromp Award was established in part to recognize and support the efforts of young biometeorological professionals. As the brief summary of the awardees and a few of their selected subsequent publications have shown, the ISB and the Tromp Award has proven effective at identifying and supporting promising young scientists.

The application of the European heat wave of 2003 to Korean cities to analyze impacts on heat-related mortality.

The goal of this research is to transpose the unprecedented 2003 European excessive heat event to six Korean cities and to develop meteorological analogs for each. Since this heat episode is not a model but an actual event, we can use a plausible analog to assess the risk of increasing heat on these cities instead of an analog that is dependent on general circulation (GCM) modeling or the development of arbitrary scenarios. Initially, the 2003 summer meteorological conditions from Paris are characterized statistically and these characteristics are transferred to the Korean cites. Next, the new meteorological dataset for each Korean city is converted into a daily air mass calendar. We can then determine the frequency and character of "offensive" air masses in the Korean cities that are historically associated with elevated heat-related mortality. One unexpected result is the comparative severity of the very hot summer of 1994 in Korea, which actually eclipsed the 2003 analog. The persistence of the offensive air masses is considerably greater for the summer of 1994, as were dew point temperatures for a majority of the Korean cities. For all the Korean cities but one, the summer of 1994 is associated with more heat-related deaths than the analog summer, in some cases yielding a sixfold increase over deaths in an average summer. The Korean cities appear less sensitive to heat-related mortality problems during very hot summers than do large eastern and Midwestern US cities, possibly due to a lesser summer climate variation and efficient social services available during extreme heat episodes.

Osteosarcoma in a Patient Receiving Long-Term TNF Inhibitor Therapy.

Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have an increased risk of developing malignancy. The use of immunosuppressive therapies and tumour necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors in these patients may provide a further risk for the development of malignancy. We report the clinical and pathological findings of a high grade osteosarcoma in a patient with Crohns disease receiving TNF inhibitor therapy. In this case, a 32-year old female presented with a painful right knee after receiving maintenance adalimumab for Crohns disease for a period of six years. There is a substantial hypothetical link between TNF inhibitor regimens such as adalimumab and an increased risk of malignancy. TNF inhibitor therapy should be ceased and chemotherapy and surgery is an effective combined modality approach in these patients. The role of TNF inhibitors in patients after cancer diagnosis is uncertain and further research is required to assess efficacy and safety.

First Measurement of the Atomic Electric Dipole Moment of (225)Ra.

The radioactive radium-225 ((225)Ra) atom is a favorable case to search for a permanent electric dipole moment. Because of its strong nuclear octupole deformation and large atomic mass, (225)Ra is particularly sensitive to interactions in the nuclear medium that violate both time-reversal symmetry and parity. We have developed a cold-atom technique to study the spin precession of (225)Ra atoms held in an optical dipole trap, and demonstrated the principle of this method by completing the first measurement of its atomic electric dipole moment, reaching an upper limit of |d((225)Ra)|<5.0×10(-22) e cm (95% confidence).

Limit on Tensor Currents from

In the standard model, the weak interaction is formulated with a purely vector-axial-vector (V-A) structure. Without restriction on the chirality of the neutrino, the most general limits on tensor currents from nuclear ß decay are dominated by a single measurement of the ß-ν[over ¯] correlation in ^{6}He ß decay dating back over a half century. In the present work, the ß-ν[over ¯]-α correlation in the ß decay of ^{8}Li and subsequent α-particle breakup of the ^{8}Be^{*} daughter was measured. The results are consistent with a purely V-A interaction and in the case of couplings to right-handed neutrinos (C_{T}=-C_{T}^{'}) limits the tensor fraction to |C_{T}/C_{A}|^{2}<0.011 (95.5% C.L.). The measurement confirms the ^{6}He result using a different nuclear system and employing modern ion-trapping techniques subject to different systematic uncertainties.

Decay and Fission Hindrance of Two- and Four-Quasiparticle K Isomers in

Two isomers decaying by electromagnetic transitions with half-lives of 4.7(1.1) and 247(73) µs have been discovered in the heavy ^{254}Rf nucleus. The observation of the shorter-lived isomer was made possible by a novel application of a digital data acquisition system. The isomers were interpreted as the K^{π}=8^{-}, ν^{2}(7/2^{+}[624],9/2^{-}[734]) two-quasineutron and the K^{π}=16^{+}, 8^{-}ν^{2}(7/2^{+}[624],9/2^{-}[734])⊗8^{-}π^{2}(7/2^{-}[514],9/2^{+}[624]) four-quasiparticle configurations, respectively. Surprisingly, the lifetime of the two-quasiparticle isomer is more than 4 orders of magnitude shorter than what has been observed for analogous isomers in the lighter N=150 isotones. The four-quasiparticle isomer is longer lived than the ^{254}Rf ground state that decays exclusively by spontaneous fission with a half-life of 23.2(1.1) µs. The absence of sizable fission branches from either of the isomers implies unprecedented fission hindrance relative to the ground state.

Five-year risk of incident disease following a diagnosis of chronic rhinosinusitis.

BACKGROUND: Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) has a broad range of comorbidities. Due to a lack of longitudinal studies, it is not known whether these comorbidities cause CRS, are promoted by CRS, or share a systemic disease process with CRS. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to determine the risk of incident disease within 5 years after a new diagnosis of CRS with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) and without nasal polyps (CRSsNP). METHODS: We conducted a case-control study nested within the longitudinal cohort of primary care patients in the Geisinger Clinic using electronic health record data. We evaluated incident disease over 5 years in newly diagnosed CRSwNP and CRSsNP cases compared to controls using multivariable Cox regression models. RESULTS: CRSsNP (n = 3612) cases were at greater risk (HR, 95% confidence interval) than controls for incidence of: upper airway diseases, including adenotonsillitis (3.29, 2.41-4.50); lower aerodigestive tract diseases, including asthma (2.69, 2.14-3.38); epithelial conditions, including atopic dermatitis (2.75, 1.23-6.16); and hypertension (1.38, 1.19-1.61). CRSwNP (n = 241) cases were at greater risk for obesity than controls (1.74, 1.08-2.80), but CRSwNP was not associated with other diseases. CONCLUSION: The risk of other diseases associated with CRS adds to the burden of an already highly burdensome condition, and suggests either that CRS promotes onset of other diseases or is an indicator of systemic disease processes. Different patterns of association with diseases by CRS phenotype may be due to CRSwNP sample size limitations or reflect a different pattern of disease onset by phenotype. These findings have implications for screening guidelines and care of CRS patients.

First report of a mermithid nematode infecting the invasive Megacopta cribraria (Hemiptera: Plataspidae) in the United States.

Megacopta cribraria (Hemiptera: Plataspidae) has become a pest of soybean, Glycine max (L.), in the United States. While several natural enemies of M. cribraria have been reported, our study is the first to report nematodes beneath the pleural membranes in the abdominal cavities of adults. Morphological and molecular analyses suggest this nematode belongs to the family Mermithidae. This first report of a nematode infection in M. cribraria adds to the current inventory of enemies attacking this insect. Our observations provide a basis for future research to examine the impact of nematodes on M. cribraria mortality and to investigate their capacity to reduce populations.