Nucleation of Quark--Gluon Plasma from Hadronic Matter

The energy densities achieved during central collisions of large nuclei at Brookhaven's AGS may be high enough to allow the formation of quark--gluon plasma. Calculations based on relativistic nucleation theory suggest that rare events, perhaps one in every 10$^2$ or 10$^3$, undergo the phase transition. Experimental ramifications may include an enhancement in the ratio of pions to baryons, a reduction in the ratio of deuterons to protons, and a larger source size as seen by hadron interferometry.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figures available upon request, NUC--MINN--94/5--

The Drosophila phenotype ontology

BACKGROUND: Phenotype ontologies are queryable classifications of phenotypes. They provide a widely-used means for annotating phenotypes in a form that is human-readable, programatically accessible and that can be used to group annotations in biologically meaningful ways. Accurate manual annotation requires clear textual definitions for terms. Accurate grouping and fruitful programatic usage require high-quality formal definitions that can be used to automate classification. The Drosophila phenotype ontology (DPO) has been used to annotate over 159,000 phenotypes in FlyBase to date, but until recently lacked textual or formal definitions. RESULTS: We have composed textual definitions for all DPO terms and formal definitions for 77% of them. Formal definitions reference terms from a range of widely-used ontologies including the Phenotype and Trait Ontology (PATO), the Gene Ontology (GO) and the Cell Ontology (CL). We also describe a generally applicable system, devised for the DPO, for recording and reasoning about the timing of death in populations. As a result of the new formalisations, 85% of classifications in the DPO are now inferred rather than asserted, with much of this classification leveraging the structure of the GO. This work has significantly improved the accuracy and completeness of classification and made further development of the DPO more sustainable. CONCLUSIONS: The DPO provides a set of well-defined terms for annotating Drosophila phenotypes and for grouping and querying the resulting annotation sets in biologically meaningful ways. Such queries have already resulted in successful function predictions from phenotype annotation. Moreover, such formalisations make extended queries possible, including cross-species queries via the external ontologies used in formal definitions. The DPO is openly available under an open source license in both OBO and OWL formats. There is good potential for it to be used more broadly by the Drosophila community, which may ultimately result in its extension to cover a broader range of phenotypes

Capillary pressure of van der Waals liquid nanodrops

The dependence of the surface tension on a nanodrop radius is important for the new-phase formation process. It is demonstrated that the famous Tolman formula is not unique and the size-dependence of the surface tension can distinct for different systems. The analysis is based on a relationship between the surface tension and disjoining pressure in nanodrops. It is shown that the van der Waals interactions do not affect the new-phase formation thermodynamics since the effect of the disjoining pressure and size-dependent component of the surface tension cancel each other.Comment: The paper is dedicated to the 80th anniversary of A.I. Rusano

FlyBase: enhancing Drosophila Gene Ontology annotations

FlyBase (http://flybase.org) is a database of Drosophila genetic and genomic information. Gene Ontology (GO) terms are used to describe three attributes of wild-type gene products: their molecular function, the biological processes in which they play a role, and their subcellular location. This article describes recent changes to the FlyBase GO annotation strategy that are improving the quality of the GO annotation data. Many of these changes stem from our participation in the GO Reference Genome Annotation Project—a multi-database collaboration producing comprehensive GO annotation sets for 12 diverse species

Gauges and functional measures in quantum gravity I: Einstein theory

We perform a general computation of the off-shell one-loop divergences in Einstein gravity, in a two-parameter family of path integral measures, corresponding to different ways of parametrizing the graviton field, and a two-parameter family of gauges. Trying to reduce the gauge- and measure-dependence selects certain classes of measures and gauges respectively. There is a choice of two parameters (corresponding to the exponential parametrization and the partial gauge condition that the quantum field be traceless) that automatically eliminates the dependence on the remaining two parameters and on the cosmological constant. We observe that the divergences are invariant under a Z2 \u201cduality\u201d transformation that (in a particularly important special case) involves the replacement of the densitized metric by a densitized inverse metric as the fundamental quantum variable. This singles out a formulation of unimodular gravity as the unique \u201cself-dual\u201d theory in this class. \ua9 2016, The Author(s)

Feasibility of trial procedures for a randomised controlled trial of a community based group exercise intervention for falls prevention for visually impaired older people: the VIOLET study

Background Visually impaired older people (VIOP) have a higher risk of falling than their sighted peers, and are likely to avoid physical activity. The aim was to adapt the existing Falls Management Exercise (FaME) programme for VIOP, delivered in the community, and to investigate the feasibility of conducting a definitive randomised controlled trial (RCT) of this adapted intervention. Methods Two-centre randomised mixed methods pilot trial and economic evaluation of the adapted group-based FaME programme for VIOP versus usual care. A one hour exercise programme ran weekly over 12 weeks at the study sites (Newcastle and Glasgow), delivered by third sector (voluntary and community) organisations. Participants were advised to exercise at home for an additional two hours over the week. Those randomised to the usual activities group received no intervention. Outcome measures were completed at baseline, 12 and 24 weeks. The potential primary outcome was the Short Form Falls Efficacy Scale – International (SFES-I). Participants’ adherence was assessed by reviewing attendance records and self-reported compliance to the home exercises. Adherence with the course content (fidelity) by instructors was assessed by a researcher. Adverse events were collected in a weekly phone call. Results Eighteen participants, drawn from community-living VIOP were screened; 68 met the inclusion criteria; 64 participants were randomised with 33 allocated to the intervention and 31 to the usual activities arm. 94% of participants provided data at the 12 week visit and 92% at 24 weeks. Adherence was high. The intervention was found to be safe with 76% attending nine or more classes. Median time for home exercise was 50 min per week. There was little or no evidence that fear of falling, balance and falls risk, physical activity, emotional, attitudinal or quality of life outcomes differed between trial arms at follow-up. Conclusions The intervention, FaME, was implemented successfully for VIOP and all progression criteria for a main trial were met. The lack of difference between groups on fear of falling was unsurprising given it was a pilot study but there may have been other contributory factors including suboptimal exercise dose and apparent low risk of falls in participants. These issues need addressing for a future trial

Asymptotic Safety, Emergence and Minimal Length

There seems to be a common prejudice that asymptotic safety is either incompatible with, or at best unrelated to, the other topics in the title. This is not the case. In fact, we show that 1) the existence of a fixed point with suitable properties is a promising way of deriving emergent properties of gravity, and 2) there is a sense in which asymptotic safety implies a minimal length. In so doing we also discuss possible signatures of asymptotic safety in scattering experiments.Comment: LaTEX, 20 pages, 2 figures; v.2: minor changes, reflecting published versio

A risk profile for identifying community-dwelling elderly with a highrisk of recurrent falling: results of a 3-year prospective study

Introduction: The aim of the prospective study reported here was to develop a risk profile that can be used to identify community-dwelling elderly at a high risk of recurrent falling. Materials and methods: The study was designed as a 3-year prospective cohort study. A total of 1365 community-dwelling persons, aged 65 years and older, of the population-based Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam participated in the study. During an interview in 1995/1996, physical, cognitive, emotional and social aspects of functioning were assessed. A follow-up on the number of falls and fractures was conducted during a 3-year period using fall calendars that participants filled out weekly. Recurrent fallers were identified as those who fell at least twice within a 6-month period during the 3-year follow-up. Results: The incidence of recurrent falls at the 3-year follow-up point was 24.9% in women and 24.4% in men. Of the respondents, 5.5% reported a total of 87 fractures that resulted from a fall, including 20 hip fractures, 21 wrist fractures and seven humerus fractures. Recurrent fallers were more prone to have a fall-related fracture than those who were not defined as recurrent fallers (11.9% vs. 3.4%; OR: 3.8; 95% CI: 2.3-6.1). Backward logistic regression analysis identified the following predictors in the risk profile for recurrent falling: two or more previous falls, dizziness, functional limitations, weak grip strength, low body weight, fear of falling, the presence of dogs/cats in the household, a high educational level, drinking 18 or more alcoholic consumptions per week and two interaction terms (high educationx18 or more alcohol consumptions per week and two or more previous falls x fear of falling) (AUC=0.71). Discussion: At a cut-off point of 5 on the total risk score (range 0-30), the model predicted recurrent falling with a sensitivity of 59% and a specificity of 71%. At a cut-off point of 10, the sensitivity and specificity were 31% and 92%, respectively. A risk profile including nine predictors that can easily be assessed seems to be a useful tool for the identification of community-dwelling elderly with a high risk of recurrent falling. © International Osteoporosis Foundation and National Osteoporosis Foundation 2006

Conformal gauge-Yukawa theories away from four dimensions

We present the phase diagram and associated fixed points for a wide class of Gauge-Yukawa theories in d=4+ϵ dimensions. The theories we investigate involve non-abelian gauge fields, fermions and scalars in the Veneziano-Witten limit. The analysis is performed in steps, we start with QCD d and then we add Yukawa interactions and scalars which we study at next-to- and next-to-next-to-leading order. Interacting infrared fixed points naturally emerge in dimensions lower than four while ultraviolet ones appear above four. We also analyse the stability of the scalar potential for the discovered fixed points. We argue for a very rich phase diagram in three dimensions while in dimensions higher than four certain Gauge-Yukawa theories are ultraviolet complete because of the emergence of an asymptotically safe fixed point

Characteristics of outdoor falls among older people: A qualitative study

Background Falls are a major threat to older people’s health and wellbeing. Approximately half of falls occur in outdoor environments but little is known about the circumstances in which they occur. We conducted a qualitative study to explore older people’s experiences of outdoor falls to develop understanding of how they may be prevented. Methods We conducted nine focus groups across the UK (England, Wales, and Scotland). Our sample was from urban and rural settings and different environmental landscapes. Participants were aged 65+ and had at least one outdoor fall in the past year. We analysed the data using framework and content analyses. Results Forty-four adults aged 65 – 92 took part and reported their experience of 88 outdoor falls. Outdoor falls occurred in a variety of contexts, though reports suggested the following scenarios may have been more frequent: when crossing a road, in a familiar area, when bystanders were around, and with an unreported or unknown attribution. Most frequently, falls resulted in either minor or moderate injury, feeling embarrassed at the time of the fall, and anxiety about falling again. Ten falls resulted in fracture, but no strong pattern emerged in regard to the contexts of these falls. Anxiety about falling again appeared more prevalent among those that fell in urban settings and who made more visits into their neighbourhood in a typical week. Conclusions This exploratory study has highlighted several aspects of the outdoor environment that may represent risk factors for outdoor falls and associated fear of falling. Health professionals are recommended to consider outdoor environments as well as the home setting when working to prevent falls and increase mobility among older people