Colour Confinement and Deformed Baryons in Quantum Chromodynamics

The confinement of coloured entities in Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) is traced to colour singletness of the observed entities. This is believed to arise from colour singlet state of quark-antiquark for mesons and a fully colour antisymmetric state for baryons. This demands a spherically symmetric baryon in the ground state. However it is pointed out that a deformed baryon in the ground state has been found to be extremely successful phenomenology. There are convincing experimental supports for a deformed nucleon as well. This means that something has been missed in the fundamental theory. In this paper this problem is traced to a new colour singlet state for baryons which has been missed hitherto and incorporation of which provides a consistent justification of a deformed baryon in the ground state. Interestingly this new colour singlet state is global in nature.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur

Quality of life after cesarean and vaginal delivery

Objective: Cesarean rates in recent decades have been increasing and a number of studies have shown that cesarean increases maternal morbidities. The aim of this study is to compare the quality of life after cesarean and vaginal delivery. Methods: This prospective study was carried out on 356 pregnant women visiting urban health centers in Shahroud City, Northeast Iran, in 2011. The subjects completed the quality of life questionnaire in the third trimester of pregnancy and at 8 weeks postpartum. Results: In primiparas, the mean global QOL scores for the cesarean and vaginal delivery groups were 67.65±12.7 and 72.12±11.8, respectively. Also, the scores for the physical, psychological and social domains of QOL as well as the global score of QOL were higher in the vaginal delivery group than the cesarean group (p<0.05). In the case of primiparas, multiple regression analysis revealed that after adjusting for education, desirability of pregnancy and the General Health Questionnaire score, the delivery type remained as a predictor of the scores for the physical (R2=1.7%; B=-3.826; p=0.031; CI [-7.301, -.350]) and social (R2=2.5%; B=-5.708; p=0.017; CI [-10.392, -1.023]) domains of QOL and the global QOL score (R2=2.6%; B=-4.065; p=0.006; CI [-6.964, -1.164]). While multiparas, there was no relationship between QOL and type of delivery. Conclusion: In this sample of low-risk women, cesarean negatively affected the QOL of primiparas. More studies with larger sample sizes should be conducted to examine the effects of cesarean on QOL in both primiparas and multiparas within a shorter period after delivery. © OMSB, 2013

Potential of Connected Fully Autonomous Vehicles in Reducing Congestion and Associated Carbon Emissions

Congestion is an ongoing problem for many urban centres worldwide (such as London), leading to excessive delays, noise and air pollution, frustrated drivers, and high energy consumption. The carbon footprint of conventional transport systems can be high as a result and transport is among the highest contributors of greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, with the growing interest in developing connected fully autonomous vehicles (ConFAVs), there is a pressing need to consider their effects within the congested urban setting. To address this, the current research study was designed to investigate the potential for ConFAVs in providing a sustainable transport solution. During this research, a simulation model was developed, calibrated, and validated using field data collected from several sites in East London, using the graphical user interface (GUI) simulation software PTV VISSIM to simulate the proposed driving and car following behaviour, which included the platooning of these ConFAVs, to assess how they could improve the level of service of the roads. Using the new model, this research addresses the shortcomings of two other adaptations of the Wiedemann 99 car-following models by changing the ConFAV’s behaviour to be more cautious when travelling behind a human driven vehicle, and less cautious when behind another ConFAV. As little is known about the transitional period from zero autonomy to full autonomy on the already congested road network, due to the fact that these vehicles are typically tested in small numbers (often one at a time in a controlled environment), the present research study introduced ConFAVs to the simulated network gradually and in large numbers at 20% intervals (namely 0% where there are no ConFAVs, 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, and finally 100% where all vehicles within the network were ConFAVs). The average delays and subsequent level of service for the roads within the networks were then assessed against each ConFAV penetration level. This helped understand how the network’s efficiency changes when the number of ConFAVs increases, and the potential benefits for these self-driving vehicles on congestion and the ensuing greenhouse gas emissions. The model showed that a reduction in delay of up to 100% can be achieved by introducing ConFAVs, which translates to a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. This, coupled with the fact that ConFAVs are predominantly electric, points to a future sustainable road transport system. The primary purpose of this research would be to investigate the potential of ConFAVs in reducing traffic congestion and, as a result, greenhouse gas emissions

The propensity to cycle tool: An open source online system for sustainable transport planning

© 2016 Robin Lovelace, Anna Goodman, Rachel Aldred, Nikolai Berkoff, Ali Abbas, and James Woodcock.Getting people cycling is an increasingly common objective in transport planning institutions worldwide. A growing evidence base indicates that high quality infrastructure can boost local cycling rates. Yet for infrastructure and other cycling measures to be effective, it is important to intervene in the right places, such as along ‘desire lines’ of high latent demand. This creates the need for tools and methods to help answer the question ‘where to build?’. Following a brief review of the policy and research context related to this question, this paper describes the design, features and potential applications of such a tool. The Propensity to Cycle Tool (PCT) is an online, interactive planning support system that was initially developed to explore and map cycling potential across England (see www.pct.bike). Based on origin-destination data it models cycling levels at area, desire line, route and route network levels, for current levels of cycling, and for scenario-based ‘cycling futures.’ Four scenarios are presented, including ‘Go Dutch’ and ‘Ebikes,’ which explore what would happen if English people had the same propensity to cycle as Dutch people and the potential impact of electric cycles on cycling uptake. The cost effectiveness of investment depends not only on the number of additional trips cycled, but on wider impacts such as health and carbon benefits. The PCT reports these at area, desire line, and route level for each scenario. The PCT is open source, facilitating the creation of scenarios and deployment in new contexts. We conclude that the PCT illustrates the potential of online tools to inform transport decisions and raises the wider issue of how models should be used in transport planning.The work presented was funded by the Department for Transport (contract no. RM5019SO7766: “Provision of Research Programme into Cycling: Propensity to Cycle”), with contract facilitation and project management by Brook Lyndhurst in Phase 1, and by Atkins in Phase 2. RL’s contribution was supported by the Consumer Data Research Centre (ESRC grant number ES/L011891/1). JW’s contribution was supported by an MRC Population Health Scientist Fellowship. JW’s and AA’s contributions were supported by the Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR), a UKCRC Public Health Research Centre of Excellence funded by the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Economic and Social Research Council, Medical Research Council, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), and the Wellcome Trust. AG’s contribution was supported by an NIHR post-doctoral fellowship. The views reported in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the DfT, Brook Lyndhurst, Atkins the NIHR, the NHS or the Department for Health

Pemanfaatan Teknologi Pascapanen untuk Pengembangan Agroindustri Perdesaan di Indonesia

EnglishPostharvest handling application is one of the ways to increase agricultural commodity's added value. In addition, it also can reduce agricultural yield loss. Technology application is started with dissemination and socialization activity and then followed by technology adoption. The process of dissemination and adoption of the introduced technologies is a crucial part of the efforts to apply technology at the end user's level. Various influencing factors on the process of dissemination and adoption are associated with the technology, dissemination process, and technology beneficiaries. This paper describes an analysis of post-harvest technology transfer process mainly for food crops and estate crops, and community development in various regions of Indonesia. A concept of zero waste development policy is enhanced in the process of disseminating postharvest technology toward development of rural agro-industry. With that action, it is expected that farmers' income and agricultural commodity competitiveness could be improved.IndonesianPenerapan teknologi pascapanen merupakan salah satu cara untuk meningkatkan nilai tambah komoditas pertanian. Selain itu, aplikasi teknologi pascapanen juga dapat menekan kehilangan hasil panen. Penerapan teknologi diawali dengan diseminasi teknologi, selanjutnya terjadi adopsi teknologi. Proses diseminasi dan adopsi teknologi ini merupakan bagian penting dalam pemanfaatan teknologi bagi pengguna. Berbagai faktor yang berpengaruh dalam proses diseminasi dan adopsi teknologi terkait dengan teknologi, proses diseminasi, dan penerima manfaat teknologi tersebut. Tulisan ini mendeskripsikan proses alih teknologi pascapanen produk tanaman pangan dan tanaman perkebunan serta pemberdayaan masyarakat pengguna teknologi pascapanen di berbagai daerah di Indonesia. Dalam proses mendiseminasikan teknologi pascapanen menuju pengembangan agroindustri di perdesaan dikembangkan konsep kebijakan yang diharapkan dapat meningkatkan pendapatan petani dan daya saing komoditas pertanian

Statistical analysis of Fisher et al. PBPK model of trichloroethylene kinetics.

Two physiologically based pharmacokinetic models for trichloroethylene (TCE) in mice and humans were calibrated with new toxicokinetic data sets. Calibration is an important step in model development, essential to a legitimate use of models for research or regulatory purposes. A Bayesian statistical framework was used to combine prior information about the model parameters with the data likelihood to yield posterior parameter distributions. For mice, these distributions represent uncertainty. For humans, the use of a population statistical model yielded estimates of both variability and uncertainty in human toxicokinetics of TCE. After adjustment of the models by Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling, the mouse model agreed with a large part of the data. Yet, some data on secondary metabolites were not fit well. The posterior parameter distributions obtained for mice were quite narrow (coefficient of variation [CV] of about 10 or 20%), but these CVs might be underestimated because of the incomplete fit of the model. The data fit, for humans, was better than for mice. Yet, some improvement of the model is needed to correctly describe trichloroethanol concentrations over long time periods. Posterior uncertainties about the population means corresponded to 10-20% CV. In terms of human population variability, volumes and flows varied across subject by approximately 20% CV. The variability was somewhat higher for partition coefficients (between 30 and 40%) and much higher for the metabolic parameters (standard deviations representing about a factor of 2). Finally, the analysis points to differences between human males and females in the toxicokinetics of TCE. The significance of these differences in terms of risk remains to be investigated

Newly Discovered RR Lyrae Stars in the SDSSXPanXSTARRS1XCatalina Footprint

We present the detection of 6,371 RR Lyrae (RRL) stars distributed across ~14,000 deg^2 of the sky from the combined data of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System 1 (PS1), and the second photometric catalogue from the Catalina Survey (CSDR2), out of these, ~2,021 RRL stars (~572 RRab and 1,449 RRc) are new discoveries. The RRL stars have heliocentric distances in the 4--28 kpc distance range. RRL-like color cuts from the SDSS and variability cuts from the PS1 are used to cull our candidate list. We then use the CSDR2 multi-epoch data to refine our sample. Periods were measured using the Analysis of Variance technique while the classification process is performed with the Template Fitting Method in addition to the visual inspection of the light curves. A cross-match of our RRL star discoveries with previous published catalogs of RRL stars yield completeness levels of ~50% for both RRab and RRc stars, and an efficiency of ~99% and ~87% for RRab and RRc stars, respectively. We show that our method for selecting RRL stars allows us to recover halo structures. The full lists of all the RRL stars are made publicly available.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures. Accepted 2014 March 30. Received 2014 March 12; in original form 2013 November 2

Post-chemotherapy residual mass in stage IIC seminomatous testicular tumor

Introduction The management of patients with residual masses following chemotherapy for advanced seminoma remains a difficult problem with no clear guidelines. While most patients with advanced seminoma achieve a complete or partial response with cisplatin based chemotherapy1, a significant number will reveal a residual mass on follow up CT scan or MR imaging2,3. Management options for post chemotherapy residual mass in a case of seminoma include close observation, radiation therapy and excisional surgery. While 80 to 85% of residual masses represent either fibrosis or necrotic tissue needing no further therapy, 10 to 15% may contain viable tumor which, if not recognized and effectively treated, may be lethal. A case of a stage II seminoma with post chemotherapy residual mass is presented and contemporary literature on this topic is reviewed

Spectral characteristics of normal and nutrient-deficient maize leaves

Reflectance, transmittance and absorbance spectra of normal and six types of mineral-deficient (N,P,K,S,Mg and Ca) maize (Zea mays L.) leaves were analyzed at 30 selected wavelengths along the electromagnetic spectrum from 500 to 2600 nm. Chlorophyll content and percent leaf moisture were also determined. Leaf thermograms were obtained for normal, N- and S- deficient leaves. The results of the analysis of variance showed significant differences in reflectance, transmittance and absorbance in the visible wavelengths among leaf numbers 3, 4, and 5, among the seven nutrient treatments, and among the interactions of leaves and treatments. In the reflective infrared wavelengths only treatments produced significant differences. The chlorophyll content of leaves was reduced in all deficiencies in comparison to controls. Percent moisture was increased in S-, Mg- and N- deficiencies. Positive correlation (r = 0.707) between moisture content and percent absorption at both 1450 and 1930 nm were obtained. Polynomial regression analysis of leaf thickness and leaf moisture content showed that these two variables were significantly and directly related (r = 0.894)