The production of a non-homogeneous classical pion field and the distribution of the neutral and charged pions

The probability distribution $dw/df$ as a function of the ratio $f=n_0/n_{tot}$ of the neutral to total multiplicities is calculated for the classical pion fields quickly varying in space and time.Comment: 6 pages, 1 .eps figure, using epsfig, submitted to Phys.Let

Anatomic Success of Scleral Buckling for Rhegmatogenous Retinal Detachment - A Retrospective Study of 524 Cases

Background/Aim: Our purpose was to investigate the anatomic success of scleral buckling surgery for rhegmatogenous retinal detachment. Material and Methods: A total of 524 consecutive patients were retrospectively analysed. Several parameters including the lens status, number of breaks and extent of retinal detachment, preoperative proliferative vitreoretinopathy and refractive errors were examined. The minimum follow-up was 6 months. The primary success rate was defined as anatomic success being stable over a period of at least 6 months after surgery. The secondary success rate was defined as anatomic success after the second intervention if necessary. Besides an analysis over all patients, the patients were grouped according to the severity of the preoperative situation in simple, medium and severe cases. Results: The overall primary anatomic success rate was 84.7% and the secondary success rate 96.4% after 1 initial scleral buckling surgery and 1 additional surgery in case of persisting retinal detachment, and 19.1% of the patients with an initially attached retina after 1 scleral buckling surgery experienced a redetachment in the postoperative course and were successfully treated in 60/85 cases. In phakic patients (n = 359) the primary success rate was 89.7%, whereas in pseudophakic patients (n = 165) a primary success rate of 73.9% was obtained. The primary success was additionally influenced by the extent of the retinal detachment measured in clock hours (p <0.001), undetected holes (p = 0.004), small (p = 0.037) and no gas tamponade (p = 0.021). In simple, medium and severe cases, phakic patients always achieved better anatomic results (89.9, 89.1 and 90.2%) compared to pseudophakic ones (82.5, 70.3 and 36.4%). Conclusion: Scleral buckling is a very good surgical option in phakic patients irrespective of the preoperative severity and simple cases in pseudophakic patients. Scleral buckling represents a surgical technique worth being trained and performed in the light of favourable results especially in phakic eyes. Copyright (C) 2010 S. Karger AG, Base

Fermionic Bound States and Pseudoscalar Exchange

We discuss the possibility that fermions bind due to Higgs or pseudoscalar exchange. It is reasonable to believe on qualitative grounds that this can occur for fermions with a mass larger than 800-900 GeV. An exchange of a pseudoscalar boson leads in the non-relativistic limit to an unacceptable potential which behaves like 1/r^3 at the origin. We show that this singular behaviour is smeared out when relativistic effects are included

Sequential epiretinal membrane removal with internal limiting membrane peeling in brilliant blue G-assisted macular surgery

Purpose To assess the selectivity of brilliant blue G (BBG) staining by analysing the morphological components of unstained and stained tissue obtained during epiretinal membrane (ERM) removal with internal limiting membrane (ILM) peeling in BBG-assisted macular surgery. Methods Twenty-six surgical specimens were removed from 13 eyes with epiretinal gliosis during vitrectomy using BBG for ERM and ILM peeling. We included eyes with idiopathic macular pucker, idiopathic macular hole and vitreomacular traction syndrome. The dye was injected into the fluid-filled globe. Unstained and stained epiretinal tissue was harvested consecutively and placed into separate containers. All specimens were processed for conventional transmission electron microscopy. Results The first surgical specimen of all eyes showed no intraoperative staining with BBG and corresponded to masses of cells and collagen. The second surgical specimen demonstrated good staining characteristics and corresponded to the ILM in all patients included. In seven eyes, the ILM specimens were seen with minor cell proliferations such as single cells or a monolayer of cells. Myofibroblasts, fibroblasts and astrocytes were present. In five cases, native vitreous collagen fibrils were found at the ILM. In six of the eyes, ILM specimens were blank. Conclusion Our clinicopathological correlation underlines the selective staining properties of BBG. The residual ILM is selectively stained by BBG even when a small amount of cells and collagen adheres to its vitreal side. To reduce the retinal exposure to the dye, the surgeon might choose to remove the ERM without using the dye, followed by a BBG injection to identify residual ILM

The Nature of Thermopower in Bipolar Semiconductors

The thermoemf in bipolar semiconductors is calculated. It is shown that it is necessary to take into account the nonequilibrium distribution of electron and hole concentrations (Fermi quasilevels of the electrons and holes). We find that electron and hole electric conductivities of contacts of semiconductor samples with connecting wires make a substantial contribution to thermoemf.Comment: 17 pages, RevTeX 3.0 macro packag

How to Make Large Domains of Disoriented Chiral Condensate

Rajagopal and Wilczek have proposed that relativistic nuclear collisions can generate domains in which the chiral condensate is disoriented. If sufficiently large ({\it i.e.} nucleus sized), such domains can yield measurable fluctuations in the number of neutral and charged pions. However, by numerical simulation of the zero-temperature two-flavor linear sigma model, we find that domains are essentially {\it pion} sized. Nevertheless, we show that large domains can occur if the effective mesons masses are much lighter.Comment: 6 pages and 2 postscript figures, BNL-GGP-

Renormalization Flow of Axion Electrodynamics

We study the renormalization flow of axion electrodynamics, concentrating on the non-perturbative running of the axion-photon coupling and the mass of the axion (like) particle. Due to a non-renormalization property of the axion-photon vertex, the renormalization flow is controlled by photon and axion anomalous dimensions. As a consequence, momentum-independent axion self-interactions are not induced by photon fluctuations. The non-perturbative flow towards the ultraviolet exhibits a Landau-pole-type behavior, implying that the system has a scale of maximum UV extension and that the renormalized axion-photon coupling in the deep infrared is bounded from above. Even though gauge invariance guarantees that photon fluctuations do not decouple in the infrared, the renormalized couplings remain finite even in the deep infrared and even for massless axions. Within our truncation, we also observe the existence of an exceptional RG trajectory, which is extendable to arbitrarily high scales, without being governed by a UV fixed point.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

Sorafenib prevents human retinal pigment epithelium cells from light-induced overexpression of VEGF, PDGF and PlGF

Background Cumulative light exposure is significantly associated with progression of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Inhibition of vascular endothelial growth factor is the main target of current antiangiogenic treatment strategies in AMD. However, other growth factors, such as platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) and placenta growth factor (PlGF), have a substantial impact on development of AMD. Previous reports indicate that sorafenib, an oral multikinase inhibitor, might have beneficial effects on exudative AMD. This study investigates the effects of sorafenib on light-induced overexpression of growth factors in human retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells. Methods Primary human RPE cells were exposed to white light and incubated with sorafenib. Viability, expression, and secretion of VEGF-A, PDGF-BB, and PlGF and their mRNA were determined by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reactions, immunohistochemistry and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. Results Light exposure decreased cell viability and increased expression and secretion of VEGF-A, PDGF-BB and PlGF. These light-induced effects were significantly reduced when cells were treated with sorafenib at a dose of 1 mu g/ml. Conclusion The results show that sorafenib has promising properties as a potential antiangiogenic treatment for AMD

Field-induced interaction of a pseudoscalar particle with photon in a magnetized e−e+e^-e^+ plasma

The effective interaction of a pseudoscalar particle with photon in plasma with the presence of a constant uniform magnetic field is investigated. It is shown that under some physical conditions the effective coupling between pseudoscalar particle and photon does not depend on medium parameters and particles momentum. The probability of the familon decay into photon pair in a strongly magnetized degenerate ultrarelativistic plasma is calculated.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures. To be published in Modern Physics Letters