Coordinate representation of particle dynamics in AdS and in generic static spacetimes

We discuss the quantum dynamics of a particle in static curved spacetimes in a coordinate representation. The scheme is based on the analysis of the squared energy operator E^2, which is quadratic in momenta and contains a scalar curvature term. Our main emphasis is on AdS spaces, where this term is fixed by the isometry group. As a byproduct the isometry generators are constructed and the energy spectrum is reproduced. In the massless case the conformal symmetry is realized as well. We show the equivalence between this quantization and the covariant quantization, based on the Klein-Gordon type equation in AdS. We further demonstrate that the two quantization methods in an arbitrary (N+1)-dimensional static spacetime are equivalent to each other if the scalar curvature terms both in the operator E^2 and in the Klein-Gordon type equation have the same coefficient equal to (N-1)/(4N).Comment: 14 pages, no figures, typos correcte

Pemetrexed na segunda linha de tratamento do carcinoma do pulmão de não pequenas células – A experiência portuguesa

AbstractUntil 2004, docetaxel in monotherapy was the standard for second-line treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Pemetrexed (P) has shown similar activity in this setting with a better adverse event profile. In Portugal, it was introduced in October of 2004.We have carried out a retrospective analysis of patients (pts) who received P for second-line NSCLC in Portugal from October 2004 to December 2006. Data were collected from the records of pts with locally advanced or metastatic NSCLC and failed first-line chemotherapy enrolled in centers participating in the Portuguese Lung Cancer Study Group (GECP). Objective response (OR; complete [CR] or partial [PR] response) was evaluated using RECIST and safety was assessed using serious or non-serious adverse events (SAEs/AEs).By December 2006, 19 GECP centers had enrolled 244 pts who had received P for ≥1cycle, and were considered evaluable for both objective response and safety. Demography: male/female, 175/69; median age, 57.0years (range 20-81); smoking status, y/ex/n, 116/57/71; adenocarcinoma / squamous-cell carcinoma/other histology, 141/72/31; mean time to progression (TTP) 8.07months. Disease control in 209 evaluable pts was observed in 116 (55.5%): 2 CR, 45 PR and 69 SD; mean TTP 4.70months. The majority of AEs were grade 3 anemia (15 pts) and neutropenia (18 pts). The mean overall survival was 17.27months.Our retrospective analysis has observed a similar disease control rate with P in 2nd line (55.5%), and TTP (4.7months) in our current unselected population to that published in the literature. P is an option for second-line NSCLC with a good tolerability.Rev Port Pneumol 2008; XIV (Sup.2): S9-S2

Non-small cell lung cancer's burden of disease in Portugal

© European Society for Medical Oncology 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society for Medical Oncology. All rights reserved.Aim: To estimate the Disability Adjusted Life-Years (DALY) associated with Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) during 2012 in Portugal.The Faculty of Medicine, University of Lisbon received an unrestricted grant from Laboratórios Pfizer Lda. to conduct this study.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Non-perturbative electron dynamics in crossed fields

Intense AC electric fields on semiconductor structures have been studied in photon-assisted tunneling experiments with magnetic field applied either parallel (B_par) or perpendicular (B_per) to the interfaces. We examine here the electron dynamics in a double quantum well when intense AC electric fields F, and tilted magnetic fields are applied simultaneously. The problem is treated non-perturbatively by a time-dependent Hamiltonian in the effective mass approximation, and using a Floquet-Fourier formalism. For B_par=0, the quasi-energy spectra show two types of crossings: those related to different Landau levels, and those associated to dynamic localization (DL), where the electron is confined to one of the wells, despite the non-negligible tunneling between wells. B_par couples parallel and in-plane motions producing anti-crossings in the spectrum. However, since our approach is non-perturbative, we are able to explore the entire frequency range. For high frequencies, we reproduce the well known results of perfect DL given by zeroes of a Bessel function. We find also that the system exhibits DL at the same values of the field F, even as B_par non-zero, suggesting a hidden dynamical symmetry in the system which we identify with different parity operations. The return times for the electron at various values of field exhibit interesting and complex behavior which is also studied in detail. We find that smaller frequencies shifts the DL points to lower field F, and more importantly, yields poorer localization by the field. We analyze the explicit time evolution of the system, monitoring the elapsed time to return to a given well for each Landau level, and find non-monotonic behavior for decreasing frequencies.Comment: REVTEX4 + 11 eps figs, submitted to Phys. Rev.

LigASite—a database of biologically relevant binding sites in proteins with known apo-structures

Better characterization of binding sites in proteins and the ability to accurately predict their location and energetic properties are major challenges which, if addressed, would have many valuable practical applications. Unfortunately, reliable benchmark datasets of binding sites in proteins are still sorely lacking. Here, we present LigASite (‘LIGand Attachment SITE’), a gold-standard dataset of binding sites in 550 proteins of known structures. LigASite consists exclusively of biologically relevant binding sites in proteins for which at least one apo- and one holo-structure are available. In defining the binding sites for each protein, information from all holo-structures is combined, considering in each case the quaternary structure defined by the PQS server. LigASite is built using simple criteria and is automatically updated as new structures become available in the PDB, thereby guaranteeing optimal data coverage over time. Both a redundant and a culled non-redundant version of the dataset is available at http://www.scmbb.ulb.ac.be/Users/benoit/LigASite. The website interface allows users to search the dataset by PDB identifiers, ligand identifiers, protein names or sequence, and to look for structural matches as defined by the CATH homologous superfamilies. The datasets can be downloaded from the website as Schema-validated XML files or comma-separated flat files

Gaia Data Release 1: the archive visualisation service

Context. The first Gaia data release (DR1) delivered a catalogue of astrometry and photometry for over a billion astronomical sources. Within the panoplyof methods used for data exploration, visualisation is often the starting point and even the guiding reference for scientific thought. However, this is a volume of data that cannot be efficiently explored using traditional tools, techniques, and habits. Aims. We aim to provide a global visual exploration service for the Gaia archive, something that is not possible out of the box for most people. The service has two main goals. The first is to provide a software platform for interactive visual exploration of the archive contents, using common personal computers and mobile devices available to most users. The second aim is to produce intelligible and appealing visual representations of the enormous information content of the archive. Methods. The interactive exploration service follows a client-server design. The server runs close to the data, at the archive, and is responsible for hiding as far as possible the complexity and volume of the Gaia data from the client. This is achieved by serving visual detail on demand. Levels of detail are pre-computed using data aggregation and subsampling techniques. For DR1, the client is a web application that provides an interactive multi-panel visualisation workspace as well as a graphical user interface. Results. The Gaia archive Visualisation Service offers a web-based multi-panel interactive visualisation desktop in a browser tab. It currently provides highly configurable 1D histograms and 2D scatter plots of Gaia DR1 and the Tycho-Gaia Astrometric Solution (TGAS) with linked views. An innovative feature is the creation of ADQL queries from visually defined regions in plots. These visual queries are ready for use in the Gaia Archive Search/data retrieval service. In addition, regions around user-selected objects can be further examined with automatically generated SIMBAD searches. Integration of the Aladin Lite and JS9 applications add support to the visualisation of HiPS and FITS maps. The production of the all-sky source density map that became the iconic image of Gaia DR1 is described in detail. Conclusions. On the day of DR1, over seven thousand users accessed the Gaia Archive visualisation portal. The system, running on a single machine, proved robust and did not fail while enabling thousands of users to visualise and explore the over one billion sources in DR1. There are still several limitations, most noticeably that users may only choose from a list of pre-computed visualisations. Thus, other visualisation applications that can complement the archive service are examined. Finally, development plans for Data Release 2 are presented

Factors Affecting Usage of a Digital Asthma Monitoring Application by Old-Age Asthmatics Living in Inner Central Portugal

Magda Ines Teixeira Abreu,1,* Adalberto Fernandes Santos,1– 3,* Jorge MR Gama,4 Salete Valente,1,5 Maria Jesus Valente,1,5 Henrique Pereira,6,7 Frederico Regateiro,2,8– 10 Bernardo Sousa-Pinto,11,12 Maria Teresa Ventura,13,14 Jean Bousquet,15– 17 Luis Taborda-Barata1,2,18,19 1Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal; 2CICS-UBI – Health Sciences Research Centre, University of Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal; 3Faculty of Medicine, Agostinho Neto University, Luanda, Angola; 4Center of Mathematics and Applications, Faculty of Sciences, University of Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal; 5Department of Pulmonology, Cova da Beira University Hospital Centre, Covilhã, Portugal; 6Psychology and Education Department, Faculty of Human and Social Sciences, University of Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal; 7The Research Center in Sports Sciences, Health Sciences and Human Development (CIDESD), University of Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal; 8Institute of Immunology, Faculty of Medicine of the University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal; 9Centro de Neurociências e Biologia Celular, CIBB, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal; 10Allergy & Clinical Immunology Unit, Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal; 11MEDCIDS - Department of Community Medicine, Information and Health Decision Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal; 12CINTESIS - Center for Health Technology and Services Research, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal; 13Unit of Geriatric Immunoallergology, University of Bari Medical School, Bari, Italy; 14Institute of Science of Food Production, National Research Council (Ispa-Cnr), Bari, Italy; 15Institute of Allergology, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany; 16Allergology and Immunology, Fraunhofer Institute for Translational Medicine and Pharmacology ITMP, Berlin, Germany; 17Department of Pulmonology, University Hospital Montpellier, Montpellier, France; 18UBIAir - Clinical & Experimental Lung Centre, UBIMedical, University of Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal; 19Department of Immunoallergology, Cova da Beira University Hospital Centre, Covilhã, Portugal*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Luis Taborda-Barata, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Beira Interior, Avenida Infante D, Covilhã, Henrique, 6200-506, Portugal, Tel +351 275329001, Fax +351 275329003, Email [email protected]: To analyse factors affecting the ability to use the digital asthma monitoring application Mask-Air® in old-age individuals living in inland Portugal.Patients and Methods: In this observational study, patients with medically confirmed asthma who agreed to participate were interviewed and subdivided into Non-users Group: those who could not use the application and Users Group: those who could. Sociodemographic and psychological data, comorbidities, and asthma status were compared between groups. Assessment of reasons for refusal was based on a 6-item questionnaire.Results: Among the 72 sequentially recruited patients (mean age±SD 73.26± 5.43 yrs; 61 women; 11 men), 44 (61.1%; mean age±SD 74.64± 5.68 yrs; 38 women; 6 men)) were included in Non-users Group and 28 (38.9%; mean age±SD 71.11± 4.26 yrs; 23 women; 5 men) in Users Group. Non-users Group patients were significantly older, had lower socioeconomic level, and more frequently had severe asthma (25% vs 3.6%; Odds ratio=0.08 (95% CI=0.01– 0.81; p=0.033)) and diabetes (32.6% vs 7.4%; Odds ratio=0.17 (95% CI=0.03– 0.80; p=0.025)) than Users Group. The main reasons for not using the App were “Lack of required hardware” (n=35) and “Digital illiteracy” (n=26), but lack of interest to use the App among those who had conditions to use it was uncommon.Conclusion: Most old-age asthmatics living in Beira Interior either lack a smartphone or digital skills, which are significant obstacles to implementing app-based monitoring studies.Plain Language Summary: This study was done to see whether it was possible to use a mobile phone application (App) to help old-age asthmatics living in inner Central Portugal better monitor and self-manage their disease.The researchers interviewed a group of 72 patients with proven asthma who agreed to participate in the study. This group was subdivided into two subgroups: Non-users Group (44 patients) included those who could not use the App because they did not have a smartphone; Users Group (28 patients) included those who had all the conditions to use the App. Patients were helped to download the App (called MASK-Air), were given a thorough explanation about it, and about how it should be used on a daily basis to monitor their asthma symptoms.The researchers found that patients in Non-users Group were significantly older, had worse socioeconomic conditions, and more often had severe asthma and diabetes. They also discovered that the main reasons for not using the App were lack of a smartphone and not knowing how to use a smartphone.These results show that lacking a smartphone and not knowing how to use digital tools are frequent situations in old-age asthmatics living in inner Central Portugal, and these may be obstacles for patients in monitoring their own asthma symptoms.Keywords: asthma, mHealth, digital literacy, disease monitoring, old-ag

Insulin Resistance Exacerbates Genetic Predisposition to Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Individuals Without Diabetes

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149741/1/hep41353.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149741/2/hep41353_am.pd

<i>Gaia</i> Data Release 1. Summary of the astrometric, photometric, and survey properties

Context. At about 1000 days after the launch of Gaia we present the first Gaia data release, Gaia DR1, consisting of astrometry and photometry for over 1 billion sources brighter than magnitude 20.7. Aims. A summary of Gaia DR1 is presented along with illustrations of the scientific quality of the data, followed by a discussion of the limitations due to the preliminary nature of this release. Methods. The raw data collected by Gaia during the first 14 months of the mission have been processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC) and turned into an astrometric and photometric catalogue. Results. Gaia DR1 consists of three components: a primary astrometric data set which contains the positions, parallaxes, and mean proper motions for about 2 million of the brightest stars in common with the HIPPARCOS and Tycho-2 catalogues – a realisation of the Tycho-Gaia Astrometric Solution (TGAS) – and a secondary astrometric data set containing the positions for an additional 1.1 billion sources. The second component is the photometric data set, consisting of mean G-band magnitudes for all sources. The G-band light curves and the characteristics of ∼3000 Cepheid and RR-Lyrae stars, observed at high cadence around the south ecliptic pole, form the third component. For the primary astrometric data set the typical uncertainty is about 0.3 mas for the positions and parallaxes, and about 1 mas yr−1 for the proper motions. A systematic component of ∼0.3 mas should be added to the parallax uncertainties. For the subset of ∼94 000 HIPPARCOS stars in the primary data set, the proper motions are much more precise at about 0.06 mas yr−1. For the secondary astrometric data set, the typical uncertainty of the positions is ∼10 mas. The median uncertainties on the mean G-band magnitudes range from the mmag level to ∼0.03 mag over the magnitude range 5 to 20.7. Conclusions. Gaia DR1 is an important milestone ahead of the next Gaia data release, which will feature five-parameter astrometry for all sources. Extensive validation shows that Gaia DR1 represents a major advance in the mapping of the heavens and the availability of basic stellar data that underpin observational astrophysics. Nevertheless, the very preliminary nature of this first Gaia data release does lead to a number of important limitations to the data quality which should be carefully considered before drawing conclusions from the data