Adjuvant chemotherapy for stage I non-seminomatous testicular cancer

Developments in the treatment of stage I testicular nonseminomatous germ cell tumours have aimed primarily at reducing morbidity since the introduction of retroperitoneal lymph node dissection. Surveillance after orchidectomy, i.e. follow-up alone with chemotherapy only for relapsed disease, was found to be logistically and psychologically taxing for patients. Risk factors for relapse were, however, identified from analyses of tumour histology of the orchidectomy specimen.Between September 1988 and April 1992, 20 patients with clinical stage I testicular non-seminomatous germ cell tumours and a relatively high risk of relapse were entered into a prospective study of adjuvant chemotherapy. The chemotherapy regimen consisted of 2 cycles of cisplatin, etoposide and bleomycin. Each cycle of chemotherapy lasted 3 days.There have been no relapses at a median follow-up of 31 months (range 12 - 53 months). Acute and late toxicity have been modest. We have found adjuvant chemotherapy to be effective after orchidectomy in patients with stage I disease with adverse prognostic factors for relapse

Preliminary Studies and Test Results of a Superconducting Hysteresis Motor with Multiphase Windings and Variable Number of Magnetic Poles

Part 15: Energy TransformationInternational audienceIn this paper a procedure for determining the number of different synchronous speeds that can be obtained from the stator of a drum motor as a function of the number of slots is presented. This preliminary study is foreseen for a hysteresis high-temperature superconducting motor, but the approach is directly applied in conventional motors. The targeted device has multiphase windings, in order to achieve full flexibility in torque-speed space through electronic variation of magnetic poles. Simulations are performed in order to achieve a qualitative understanding of the behaviour of the motor, namely in what concerns to torque and settling times from initial to synchronous speed. A prototype with eighteen slots in the stator and a bulk YBCO rotor is described and built, and experimental values of torque are obtained

A Supersymmetric Effective Chiral Lagrangian

We construct in a manifestly supersymmetric form the leading and subleading terms in momentum for an effective supersymmetric chiral Lagrangian in terms of complex pions and their superpartners. A soft supersymmetry breaking term is included and below the supersymmetry breaking scale the Lagrangian reduces to the usual bosonic chiral Lagrangian in terms of real pions.Comment: University of Southampton preprint no. SHEP 93/94-12 LATE

The spectrum of D_s mesons from lattice QCD

The spectrum of orbitally excited $D_s$ mesons is computed in the continuum limit of quenched lattice QCD. The results are consistent with the interpretation that the narrow resonance in the $D_s \pi^0$ channel discovered by the BABAR Collaboration is a $J^P=0^+$ $c\bar{s}$ meson. Furthermore, within statistical errors, the $1^+-1^-$ and the $0^+-0^-$ mass splittings are equal, in agreement with the chiral multiplet structure predicted by heavy hadron chiral effective theory. On our coarsest lattice we present results from the first study of orbitally excited $D_s$ mesons with two flavors of dynamical quarks, with mass slightly larger than the strange quark mass. These results are consistent with the quenched data.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure

Diquark-Antidiquark with open charm in QCD sum rules

Using the QCD sum rule approach we investigate the possible four-quark structure of the recently observed charmed scalar mesons $D_0^{0}(2308)$ (BELLE) and $D_0^{0,+}(2405)$ (FOCUS) and also of the very narrow $D_{sJ}^{+}(2317)$, firstly observed by BABAR. We use diquak-antidiquark currents and work to the order of $m_s$ in full QCD, without relying on $1/m_c$ expansion. Our results indicate that a four-quark structure is acceptable for the resonances observed by BELLE and BABAR: $D_0^{0}(2308)$ and $D_{sJ}^{+}(2317)$ respectively, but not for the resonances observed by FOCUS: $D_0^{0,+}(2405)$.Comment: 6 pages, 5 eps figures; Contribution to the 'Workshop on Light-Cone QCD and Nonperturbative Hadron Physics 2005 (LC2005)', Cairns-Australi

Plasma polymerization of (2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidin-1-yl)oxyl in a collisional, capacitively coupled radio frequency discharge

Plasma polymerization of (2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidin-1-yl)oxyl (TEMPO) yields thin films containing stable nitroxide radicals that have properties analogous to that of nitric oxide (NO) without short lifetimes. This property gives TEMPO films a wide variety of potential applications. Typically, control of the final film chemistry is difficult and the plasma discharge conditions must be tailored to in order to maximize the retention of these nitroxide groups during the polymerization and deposition process. In this study, plasma diagnostics and surface analysis of the deposited films were carried out to determine the optimal plasma conditions for the retention of nitroxide groups. These techniques included energy-resolved mass spectrometry, heated planar probe ion current measurements, deposition rate measurements, and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Results show that operating the plasma with a combination of low input powers and high pressures produces a collisional discharge in which fragmentation of the TEMPO molecule is suppressed, leading to good retention of nitroxide groups. Ion energy distribution functions and quartz crystal microbalance measurements support the soft landing theory of ion deposition on the substrate within this γ-mode, in which the flux of low energy, soft landed ions form the primary contribution to film growth. XPS analysis of deposited polymers shows 75.7% retention of N - O groups in the polymer films deposited in a 25 Pa 5 W discharge. © 2020 Author(s)

Dark mammoth trunks in the merging galaxy NGC 1316 and a mechanism of cosmic double helices

NGC 1316 is a giant, elliptical galaxy containing a complex network of dark, dust features. The morphology of these features has been examined in some detail using a Hubble Space Telescope, Advanced Camera for Surveys image. It is found that most of the features are constituted of long filaments. There also exist a great number of dark structures protruding inwards from the filaments. Many of these structures are strikingly similar to elephant trunks in H II regions in the Milky Way Galaxy, although much larger. The structures, termed mammoth trunks, generally are filamentary and often have shapes resembling the letters V or Y. In some of the mammoth trunks the stem of the Y can be resolved into two or more filaments, many of which showing signs of being intertwined. A model of the mammoth trunks, related to a recent theory of elephant trunks, is proposed. Based on magnetized filaments, the model is capable of giving an account of the various shapes of the mammoth trunks observed, including the twined structures.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Scienc

Level-Spacing Distributions and the Bessel Kernel

The level spacing distributions which arise when one rescales the Laguerre or Jacobi ensembles of hermitian matrices is studied. These distributions are expressible in terms of a Fredholm determinant of an integral operator whose kernel is expressible in terms of Bessel functions of order $\alpha$. We derive a system of partial differential equations associated with the logarithmic derivative of this Fredholm determinant when the underlying domain is a union of intervals. In the case of a single interval this Fredholm determinant is a Painleve tau function.Comment: 18 pages, resubmitted to make postscript compatible, no changes to manuscript conten

QCD Sum Rules for the production of the X(3872) as a mixed molecule-charmonium state in B meson decay

We use QCD sum rules to calculate the branching ratio for the production of the meson X(3872) in the decay $B\to X(3872)K$, assumed to be a mixture between charmonium and exotic molecular $[c\bar{q}][q\bar{c}]$ states with $J^{PC}=1^{++}$. We find that in a small range for the values of the mixing angle, $5^\circ\leq\theta\leq13^\circ$, we get the branching ratio ${\mathcal{B}}(B\to XK)=(1.00\pm0.68)\times10^{-5}$, which is in agreement with the experimental upper limit. This result is compatible with the analysis of the mass and decay width of the mode $J/\psi(n\pi)$ and the radiative decay mode $J/\psi\gamma$ performed in the same approach.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures; revised versions to appear on Phys. Lett.

Ages for exoplanet host stars

Age is an important characteristic of a planetary system, but also one that is difficult to determine. Assuming that the host star and the planets are formed at the same time, the challenge is to determine the stellar age. Asteroseismology provides precise age determination, but in many cases the required detailed pulsation observations are not available. Here we concentrate on other techniques, which may have broader applicability but also serious limitations. Further development of this area requires improvements in our understanding of the evolution of stars and their age-dependent characteristics, combined with observations that allow reliable calibration of the various techniques.Comment: To appear in "Handbook of Exoplanets", eds. Deeg, H.J. & Belmonte, J.A, Springer (2018