571 research outputs found
Mathematical modeling of immune kinetics in advanced cancer through meta-analyses of complete response rates: immune synchronisation emerges as the likely key determinant of clinical response
Martin L Ashdown, Brendon J Coventry, Derek Abbot
Nitrofurantoin and fosfomycin for resistant urinary tract infections: old drugs for emerging problems
Uncomplicated urinary tract infection is one of the most common indications for antibiotic use in
the community. However, the Gram-negative organisms that can cause the infection are becoming
more resistant to antibiotics.
Many multidrug resistant organisms retain susceptibility to two old antibiotics, nitrofurantoin
and fosfomycin. Advantages over newer drugs include their high urinary concentrations and
minimal toxicity.
Fosfomycin is a potential treatment option for patients with uncomplicated urinary tract infection
due to resistant organisms. Nitrofu
Quantum noise in laser-interferometer gravitational-wave detectors with a heterodyne readout scheme
We analyze and discuss the quantum noise in signal-recycled laser
interferometer gravitational-wave detectors, such as Advanced LIGO, using a
heterodyne readout scheme and taking into account the optomechanical dynamics.
Contrary to homodyne detection, a heterodyne readout scheme can simultaneously
measure more than one quadrature of the output field, providing an additional
way of optimizing the interferometer sensitivity, but at the price of
additional noise. Our analysis provides the framework needed to evaluate
whether a homodyne or heterodyne readout scheme is more optimal for second
generation interferometers from an astrophysical point of view. As a more
theoretical outcome of our analysis, we show that as a consequence of the
Heisenberg uncertainty principle the heterodyne scheme cannot convert
conventional interferometers into (broadband) quantum non-demolition
interferometers.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figure
Yang-Mills Solutions on Euclidean Schwarzschild Space
We show that the apparently periodic Charap-Duff Yang-Mills `instantons' in
time-compactified Euclidean Schwarzschild space are actually time independent.
For these solutions, the Yang-Mills potential is constant along the time
direction (no barrier) and therefore, there is no tunneling. We also
demonstrate that the solutions found to date are three dimensional monopoles
and dyons. We conjecture that there are no time-dependent solutions in the
Euclidean Schwarzschild background.Comment: 12 pages, references added, version to appear in PR
Introduction to the functional RG and applications to gauge theories
These lectures contain an introduction to modern renormalization group (RG)
methods as well as functional RG approaches to gauge theories. In the first
lecture, the functional renormalization group is introduced with a focus on the
flow equation for the effective average action. The second lecture is devoted
to a discussion of flow equations and symmetries in general, and flow equations
and gauge symmetries in particular. The third lecture deals with the flow
equation in the background formalism which is particularly convenient for
analytical computations of truncated flows. The fourth lecture concentrates on
the transition from microscopic to macroscopic degrees of freedom; even though
this is discussed here in the language and the context of QCD, the developed
formalism is much more general and will be useful also for other systems.Comment: 60 pages, 14 figures, Lectures held at the 2006 ECT* School
"Renormalization Group and Effective Field Theory Approaches to Many-Body
Systems", Trento, Ital
Toward an internally consistent astronomical distance scale
Accurate astronomical distance determination is crucial for all fields in
astrophysics, from Galactic to cosmological scales. Despite, or perhaps because
of, significant efforts to determine accurate distances, using a wide range of
methods, tracers, and techniques, an internally consistent astronomical
distance framework has not yet been established. We review current efforts to
homogenize the Local Group's distance framework, with particular emphasis on
the potential of RR Lyrae stars as distance indicators, and attempt to extend
this in an internally consistent manner to cosmological distances. Calibration
based on Type Ia supernovae and distance determinations based on gravitational
lensing represent particularly promising approaches. We provide a positive
outlook to improvements to the status quo expected from future surveys,
missions, and facilities. Astronomical distance determination has clearly
reached maturity and near-consistency.Comment: Review article, 59 pages (4 figures); Space Science Reviews, in press
(chapter 8 of a special collection resulting from the May 2016 ISSI-BJ
workshop on Astronomical Distance Determination in the Space Age
On the Nature of the Phase Transition in SU(N), Sp(2) and E(7) Yang-Mills theory
We study the nature of the confinement phase transition in d=3+1 dimensions
in various non-abelian gauge theories with the approach put forward in [1]. We
compute an order-parameter potential associated with the Polyakov loop from the
knowledge of full 2-point correlation functions. For SU(N) with N=3,...,12 and
Sp(2) we find a first-order phase transition in agreement with general
expectations. Moreover our study suggests that the phase transition in E(7)
Yang-Mills theory also is of first order. We find that it is weaker than for
SU(N). We show that this can be understood in terms of the eigenvalue
distribution of the order parameter potential close to the phase transition.Comment: 15 page
The Sensitivity of Ligo to a Stochastic Background, and its Dependance on the Detector Orientations
We analyze the sensitivity of a network of interferometer gravitational-wave
detectors to the gravitational-wave stochastic background, and derive the
dependence of this sensitivity on the orientations of the detector arms. We
build on and extend the recent work of Christensen, but our conclusion for the
optimal choice of orientations of a pair of detectors differs from his. For a
pair of detectors (such as LIGO) that subtends an angle at the center of the
earth of \,\alt 70^\circ, we find that the optimal configuration is for each
detector to have its arms make an angle of (modulo ) with
the arc of the great circle that joins them. For detectors that are farther
separated, each detector should instead have one arm aligned with this arc. We
also describe in detail the optimal data-analysis algorithm for searching for
the stochastic background with a detector network, which is implicit in earlier
work of Michelson. The LIGO pair of detectors will be separated by . The minimum detectable stochastic energy-density for these
detectors with their currently planned orientations is greater than
what it would be if the orientations were optimal.Comment: 56 pages, 10 figures, Caltech preprint GRP-347, submitted to Phys Rev
D, uses revtex macro
Detector Description and Performance for the First Coincidence Observations between LIGO and GEO
For 17 days in August and September 2002, the LIGO and GEO interferometer
gravitational wave detectors were operated in coincidence to produce their
first data for scientific analysis. Although the detectors were still far from
their design sensitivity levels, the data can be used to place better upper
limits on the flux of gravitational waves incident on the earth than previous
direct measurements. This paper describes the instruments and the data in some
detail, as a companion to analysis papers based on the first data.Comment: 41 pages, 9 figures 17 Sept 03: author list amended, minor editorial
change
Dark Energy and Gravity
I review the problem of dark energy focusing on the cosmological constant as
the candidate and discuss its implications for the nature of gravity. Part 1
briefly overviews the currently popular `concordance cosmology' and summarises
the evidence for dark energy. It also provides the observational and
theoretical arguments in favour of the cosmological constant as the candidate
and emphasises why no other approach really solves the conceptual problems
usually attributed to the cosmological constant. Part 2 describes some of the
approaches to understand the nature of the cosmological constant and attempts
to extract the key ingredients which must be present in any viable solution. I
argue that (i)the cosmological constant problem cannot be satisfactorily solved
until gravitational action is made invariant under the shift of the matter
lagrangian by a constant and (ii) this cannot happen if the metric is the
dynamical variable. Hence the cosmological constant problem essentially has to
do with our (mis)understanding of the nature of gravity. Part 3 discusses an
alternative perspective on gravity in which the action is explicitly invariant
under the above transformation. Extremizing this action leads to an equation
determining the background geometry which gives Einstein's theory at the lowest
order with Lanczos-Lovelock type corrections. (Condensed abstract).Comment: Invited Review for a special Gen.Rel.Grav. issue on Dark Energy,
edited by G.F.R.Ellis, R.Maartens and H.Nicolai; revtex; 22 pages; 2 figure
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