Getting science to the citizen : 'food addiction' at the British Science Festival as a case study of interactive public engagement with high profile scientific controversy

Non peer reviewedPublisher PD

Self-avoiding walks on a bilayer Bethe lattice

We propose and study a model of polymer chains in a bilayer. Each chain is confined in one of the layers and polymer bonds on first neighbor edges in different layers interact. We also define and comment results for a model with interactions between monomers on first neighbor sites of different layers. The thermodynamic properties of the model are studied in the grand-canonical formalism and both layers are considered to be Cayley trees. In the core region of the trees, which we may call a bilayer Bethe lattice, we find a very rich phase diagram in the parameter space defined by the two activities of monomers and the Boltzmann factor associated to the interlayer interaction between bonds or monomers. Beside critical and coexistence surfaces, there are tricritical, bicritical and critical endpoint lines, as well as higher order multicritical points.Comment: 21 pages, 10 figures. Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment (in press

Exploring religious tourist experiences in Jerusalem: The intersection of Abrahamic religions

By considering the importance of religious tourism for travel and the tourism industry, this study aims to identify religious tourists' experiences in Jerusalem, as one of the most important holy cities. By a survey, 848 data were collected from the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim religious tourists. Results showed that religious tourism experience was a multi-faceted construct, which consists of engaging mentally, discovering new things, interacting & belonging, connecting spiritually & emotionally, and relaxing & finding peace dimensions. By using these dimensions, perceived experience differences of tourists were examined depending on religion. Moreover, religious tourism experience was identified to significantly affect overall tourist satisfaction with Jerusalem. The study concluded with discussion of the findings and their implications

X-ray Doppler Imaging of 44i Boo with Chandra

Chandra High-Energy Transmission Grating observations of the bright eclipsing contact binary 44i Boo show X-ray line profiles which are Doppler-shifted by orbital motions. The X-ray emission spectrum contains a multitude of lines superimposed on a weak continuum, with strong lines of O VIII, Ne X, Fe XVII, and Mg XII. The profiles of these lines from the total observed spectrum show Doppler-broadened widths of ~ 550 km s^{-1}. Line centroids vary with orbital phase, indicating velocity changes of > 180 km s^{-1}. The first-order light curve shows significant variability, but no clear evidence for either primary or secondary eclipses. Flares are observed for all spectral ranges; additionally, the light curve constructed near the peak of the emission measure distribution (T_e = 5 to 8 X 10^6 K) shows quiescent variability as well as flares. The phase-dependences of line profiles and light curves together imply that at least half of the emission is localized at high latitude. A simple model with two regions on the primary star at relatively high latitude reproduces the observed line profile shifts and quiescent light curve. These first clear X-ray Doppler shifts of stellar coronal material illustrate the power of Chandra.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures to be published in Astrophysical Journal Letter

Exact results of the mixed-spin Ising model on a decorated square lattice with two different decorating spins of integer magnitudes

The mixed-spin Ising model on a decorated square lattice with two different decorating spins of the integer magnitudes S_B = 1 and S_C = 2 placed on horizontal and vertical bonds of the lattice, respectively, is examined within an exact analytical approach based on the generalized decoration-iteration mapping transformation. Besides the ground-state analysis, finite-temperature properties of the system are also investigated in detail. The most interesting numerical result to emerge from our study relates to a striking critical behaviour of the spontaneously ordered 'quasi-1D' spin system. It was found that this quite remarkable spontaneous order arises when one sub-lattice of the decorating spins (either S_B or S_C) tends towards their 'non-magnetic' spin state S = 0 and the system becomes disordered only upon further single-ion anisotropy strengthening. The effect of single-ion anisotropy upon the temperature dependence of the total and sub-lattice magnetization is also particularly investigated.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figure

Observations of Lick Standard Stars Using the SCORPIO Multi-Slit Unit at the SAO 6-m Telescope

We present Lick line-index measurements of standard stars from the list of Worthey. The spectra were taken with the multi-slit unit of the SCORPIO spectrograph at the 6-m Special Astrophysical observatory telescope. We describe in detail our method of analysis and explain the importance of using the Lick index system for studying extragalactic globular clusters. Our results show that the calibration of our instrumental system to the standard Lick system can be performed with high confidence.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure

The prognostic impact of comorbidity, nutritional and performance status on patients with diffuse large B cell lymphoma

Background: The aim of the study was to investigate the impact of nutritional status, comorbidity, and performance status on patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Methods: A retrospective study was conducted on 112 DLBCL patients who were diagnosed at our center between 2009 and 2018. Demographic and disease characteristics and laboratory test results were recorded. Assessments were made using the age-adjusted Charlson comorbidity index (CCI-A) for comorbidity, albumin level for nutritional status, and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) score for performance status. Results: The mean age of the patients was found to be 62.63 ± 15.16 years. The ECOG score of 65 patients (69.1%) was in the range of 0-1. The mean follow-up time of the patients was determined to be 25.24 ± 25.11 months, and at the end of the follow-up period, 64 patients (57.1%) were survivors. The progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), and 5-year OS rates of those with CCI-A > 4 were found to be significantly lower than those with CCI-A score ≤4 (P < 0.05). As a result of the Cox-Regression (Backward: LR method) analysis, ECOG and albumin levels were found to be independent risk factors for both OS and PFS (P < 0.05). Conclusion: This study demonstrated that CCI-A, ECOG, and nutritional status are independent prognostic markers for DLBCL patients. Initial evaluation of these patients should include all these parameters, which are easily available at the time of diagnosis