Coherent Production of Pairs of Parabosons of Order 2

A parameter-free statistical model is used to study multiplicity signatures for coherent production of charged-pairs of parabosons of order p=2 in comparison with those arising in the case of ordinary bosons, p=1. Two non-negative real parameters arise because "ab" and "ba" are fundamentally distinct pair operators of charge "+1", A-quanta and charge "-1", B-quanta parabosons. In 3D plots of P(q)_m = "The probability of m paraboson charged-pairs and q positive parabosons" versus and , the p=1 curve is found to lie on the relatively narrow 2D p=2 surface.Comment: 25 pages, 16 figures, no macro

Astronomical spectrograph calibration with broad-spectrum frequency combs

Broadband femtosecond-laser frequency combs are filtered to spectrographically resolvable frequency-mode spacing, and the limitations of using cavities for spectral filtering are considered. Data and theory are used to show implications to spectrographic calibration of high-resolution, astronomical spectrometers

Thermopower of the Correlated Narrow Gap Semiconductor FeSi and Comparison to RuSi

Iron based narrow gap semiconductors such as FeSi, FeSb2, or FeGa3 have received a lot of attention because they exhibit a large thermopower, as well as striking similarities to heavy fermion Kondo insulators. Many proposals have been advanced, however, lacking quantitative methodologies applied to this problem, a consensus remained elusive to date. Here, we employ realistic many-body calculations to elucidate the impact of electronic correlation effects on FeSi. Our methodology accounts for all substantial anomalies observed in FeSi: the metallization, the lack of conservation of spectral weight in optical spectroscopy, and the Curie susceptibility. In particular we find a very good agreement for the anomalous thermoelectric power. Validated by this congruence with experiment, we further discuss a new physical picture of the microscopic nature of the insulator-to-metal crossover. Indeed, we find the suppression of the Seebeck coefficient to be driven by correlation induced incoherence. Finally, we compare FeSi to its iso-structural and iso-electronic homologue RuSi, and predict that partially substituted Fe(1-x)Ru(x)Si will exhibit an increased thermopower at intermediate temperatures.Comment: 14 pages. Proceedings of the Hvar 2011 Workshop on 'New materials for thermoelectric applications: theory and experiment

Evaluation of the drug solubility and rush ageing on drug release performance of various model drugs from the modified release polyethylene oxide matrix tablets

Hydrophilic matrix systems are currently some of the most widely used drug delivery systems for controlled-release oral dosage forms. Amongst a variety of polymers, polyethylene oxide (PEO) is considered an important material used in pharmaceutical formulations. As PEO is sensitive to thermal oxidation, it is susceptible to free radical oxidative attack. The aim of this study was to investigate the stability of PEO based formulations containing different model drugs with different water solubility, namely propranolol HCl, theophylline and zonisamide. Both polyox matrices 750 and 303 grade were used as model carriers for the manufacture of tablets stored at 40 °C. The results of the present study suggest that the drug release from the matrix was affected by the length of storage conditions, solubility of drugs and the molecular weight of the polymers. Generally, increased drug release rates were prevalent in soluble drug formulations (propranolol) when stored at the elevated temperature (40 °C). In contrast, it was not observed with semi soluble (theophylline) and poorly soluble (zonisamide) drugs especially when formulated with PEO 303 polymer. This indicates that the main parameters controlling the drug release from fresh polyox matrices are the solubility of the drug in the dissolution medium and the molecular weight of the polymer. DSC traces indicated that that there was a big difference in the enthalpy and melting points of fresh and aged PEO samples containing propranolol, whereas the melting point of the aged polyox samples containing theophylline and zonisamide was unaffected

Coisotropic D-branes on AdS4 x CP3 and massive deformations

We scan for massive type IIA SU(3)-structure compactifications of the type AdS4 x CP3 with internal symmetry group SO(4). This group acts on CP3 with cohomogeneity one, so that one would expect new non-homogeneous solutions. We find however that all such solutions enhance their symmetry group to Sp(2) and form, in fact, the homogeneous family first described in arXiv:0712.1396. This is in accordance with arXiv:0901.0969, which argues from the CFT-side that although new vacua with SO(4) symmetry group and N=2 supersymmetry should exist, they fall outside our ansatz of strict SU(3)-structure, and instead have genuine SU(3)x SU(3)-structure. We do find that the SO(4)-invariant description, which singles out one preferential direction in the internal space, is well-adapted for describing the embedding of AdS4-filling supersymmetric D8-branes on both the original ABJM configuration as its massive Sp(2)-symmetric deformations.Supersymmetry requires these D-branes to be of the coisotropic type, which means in particular that their world-volume gauge field must be non-trivial.Comment: 24 pages, 1 figure, v2: due to a serious mistake the claims of the paper had to be correcte

Student politics, teaching politics, black politics: an interview with Ansel Wong

Ansel Wong is the quiet man of British black politics, rarely in the limelight and never seeking political office. And yet his ‘career’ here – from Black Power firebrand to managing a multimillion budget as head of the Greater London Council’s Ethnic Minority Unit in the 1980s – spells out some of the most important developments in black educational and cultural projects. In this interview, he discusses his identification with Pan-Africanism, his involvement in student politics, his role in the establishment of youth projects and supplementary schools in the late 1960s and 1970s, and his involvement in black radical politics in London in the same period, all of which took place against the background of revolutionary ferment in the Third World and the world of ideas, and were not without their own internal class and ethnic conflicts

Comparative safety and effectiveness of vedolizumab to tumour necrosis factor antagonist therapy for Crohn\u27s disease

© 2020 The Authors. Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd Background: Direct comparisons are lacking between vedolizumab and tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-antagonist therapy in Crohn\u27s disease (CD). Aim: To compare safety and effectiveness of vedolizumab and TNF-antagonist therapy in adult CD patients. Methods: Retrospective observational cohort (May 2014–December 2017) propensity score-weighted comparison of vedolizumab vs TNF-antagonist therapy (infliximab, adalimumab, certolizumab) in CD. Propensity scores were weighted for age, prior treatments, disease complications, extent and severity, steroid dependence, and concomitant immunosuppressive drug use. The primary outcome was comparative risk for infections or non-infectious serious adverse events (requiring antibiotics, antivirals, antifungals, hospitalisation, or treatment discontinuation, or resulting in death). Secondary comparative effectiveness outcomes were clinical remission (resolution of CD-related symptoms), steroid-free clinical remission and endoscopic remission (absence of ulcers/erosions). Results: We included 1266 patients (n = 659 vedolizumab). Rates of non-infectious serious adverse events (odds ratio [OR] 0.072, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.012-0.242), but not serious infections (OR 1.183, 95% CI 0.786-1.795), were significantly lower with vedolizumab vs TNF-antagonist therapy. Safety comparisons for non-infectious serious adverse events remained significant after adjusting for differences in duration of exposure. No significant difference was observed between vedolizumab and TNF-antagonist therapy for clinical remission (hazard ratio [HR] 0.932, 95% CI 0.707-1.228), steroid-free clinical remission (HR 1.250, 95% CI 0.677-2.310) or endoscopic remission (HR 0.827, 95% CI 0.595-1.151). TNF-antagonist therapy was associated with higher treatment persistence compared with vedolizumab. Conclusions: There was a lower risk of non-infectious serious adverse events, but not serious infections, with vedolizumab vs TNF-antagonist therapy, with no significant difference for achieving disease remission

Dense genotyping of immune-related loci in idiopathic inflammatory myopathies confirms HLA alleles as the strongest genetic risk factor and suggests different genetic background for major clinical subgroups

OBJECTIVES: The idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIMs) are a heterogeneous group of rare autoimmune diseases characterised by muscle weakness and extramuscular manifestations such as skin rashes and interstitial lung disease. We genotyped 2566 IIM cases of Caucasian descent using the Immunochip; a custom array covering 186 established autoimmune susceptibility loci. The cohort was predominantly comprised of patients with dermatomyositis (DM, n=879), juvenile DM (JDM, n=481), polymyositis (PM, n=931) and inclusion body myositis (n=252) collected from 14 countries through the Myositis Genetics Consortium. RESULTS: The human leucocyte antigen (HLA) and PTPN22 regions reached genome-wide significance (