728 research outputs found
Why Quantum Theory is Possibly Wrong
Quantum theory is a tremendously successful physical theory, but nevertheless
suffers from two serious problems: the measurement problem and the problem of
interpretational underdetermination. The latter, however, is largely overlooked
as a genuine problem of its own. Both problems concern the doctrine of realism,
but pull, quite curiously, into opposite directions. The measurement problem
can be captured such that due to scientific realism about quantum theory common
sense anti-realism follows, while theory underdetermination usually counts as
an argument against scientific realism. I will also consider the more refined
distinctions of ontic and epistemic realism and demonstrate that quantum theory
in its most viable interpretations conflicts with at least one of the various
realism claims. A way out of the conundrum is to come to the bold conclusion
that quantum theory is, possibly, wrong (in the realist sense)
LEAP2 changes with body mass and food intake in humans and mice
Acyl-ghrelin administration increases food intake, body weight, and blood glucose. In contrast, mice lacking ghrelin or ghrelin receptors (GHSRs) exhibit life-threatening
hypoglycemia during starvation-like conditions but do not consistently exhibit overt metabolic phenotypes when given ad libitum food access. These results, and findings of
ghrelin resistance in obese states, imply nutritional state-dependence of ghrelin’s metabolic actions. Here, we hypothesized that LEAP2 (liver enriched antimicrobial
peptide-2), a recently-characterized endogenous GHSR antagonist, blunts ghrelin action during obese states and post-prandially. To test this hypothesis, we determined
changes in plasma LEAP2 and acyl-ghrelin due to fasting, eating, obesity, Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB), vertical sleeve gastrectomy (VSG), oral glucose administration,
and type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) using humans and/or mice. Our results suggest that plasma LEAP2 is regulated by metabolic status: its levels increase with body mass
and blood glucose, and decrease with fasting, RYGB, and in post-prandial states following VSG. These changes were mostly opposite to those of acyl-ghrelin. Furthermore, using electrophysiology, we showed that LEAP2 both hyperpolarizes and prevents acyl-ghrelin from activating arcuate NPY neurons. We predict that the plasma LEAP2:acyl-ghrelin molar ratio may be a key determinant modulating acyl-ghrelin
activity in response to body mass, feeding status, and blood glucose
Pseudospin symmetry as a relativistic dynamical symmetry in the nucleus
Pseudospin symmetry in nuclei is investigated by solving the Dirac equation
with Woods-Saxon scalar and vector radial potentials, and studying the
correlation of the energy splittings of pseudospin partners with the nuclear
potential parameters. The pseudospin interaction is related to a
pseudospin-orbit term that arises in a Schroedinger-like equation for the lower
component of the Dirac spinor. We show that the contribution from this term to
the energy splittings of pseudospin partners is large. The near pseudospin
degeneracy results from a significant cancelation among the different terms in
that equation, manifesting the dynamical character of this symmetry in the
nucleus. We analyze the isospin dependence of the pseudospin symmetry and find
that its dynamical character is behind the different pseudospin splittings
observed in neutron and proton spectra of nuclei.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, uses REVTeX4 macro
Ground state and elementary excitations of single and binary Bose-Einstein condensates of trapped dipolar gases
We analyze the ground-state properties and the excitation spectrum of
Bose-Einstein condensates of trapped dipolar particles. First, we consider the
case of a single-component polarized dipolar gas. For this case we discuss the
influence of the trapping geometry on the stability of the condensate as well
as the effects of the dipole-dipole interaction on the excitation spectrum. We
discuss also the ground state and excitations of a gas composed of two
antiparallel dipolar components.Comment: 12 pages, 9 eps figures, final versio
Spin-orbit splittings in heavy-light mesons and Dirac equation
The spin-orbit splitting in heavy-light mesons is seen to be suppressed
experimentally. It is shown that it can be understood qualitatively in the
frame work of Dirac theory. An alternative derivation of a relativistic
dynamical symmetry for the Dirac Hamiltonian, which suppresses spin orbit
splitting, is also given. However it is shown that such a symmetry is not
needed since the spin-orbit splitting in Dirac theory with Coulomb like
potential (as is the case for the one gluon exchange potential in pQCD) is
small anyway.Comment: 9 pages, 1 fi
Explaining the social gradient in smoking and cessation: the peril and promise of social mobility
Smoking in high-income countries is now concentrated in poor communities whose relatively high smoking prevalence is explained by greater uptake but above all by lower quit rates. Whilst a number of barriers to smoking cessation have been identified, this is the first paper to situate cessation itself as a classed and cultural practice. Drawing on ethnographic research carried out in a working class community in the North of England between 2012 and 2015, I theorise smoking cessation as a symbolic practice in relation to the affective experience of class and social mobility. I show that ambivalence about upward mobility as separation and loss translated into ambivalence about smoking cessation. The reason for this was that the social gradient in smoking operated dynamically at the level of the individual life course i.e. smoking cessation followed upward mobility. A serious health problem was an appropriate reason to quit but older women continued to smoke despite serious health problems. This was linked to historical gender roles leading to women placing a low priority on their own health as well as the intergenerational reproduction of smoking through close affective links with smoking parents
Fitting the integrated Spectral Energy Distributions of Galaxies
Fitting the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of galaxies is an almost
universally used technique that has matured significantly in the last decade.
Model predictions and fitting procedures have improved significantly over this
time, attempting to keep up with the vastly increased volume and quality of
available data. We review here the field of SED fitting, describing the
modelling of ultraviolet to infrared galaxy SEDs, the creation of
multiwavelength data sets, and the methods used to fit model SEDs to observed
galaxy data sets. We touch upon the achievements and challenges in the major
ingredients of SED fitting, with a special emphasis on describing the interplay
between the quality of the available data, the quality of the available models,
and the best fitting technique to use in order to obtain a realistic
measurement as well as realistic uncertainties. We conclude that SED fitting
can be used effectively to derive a range of physical properties of galaxies,
such as redshift, stellar masses, star formation rates, dust masses, and
metallicities, with care taken not to over-interpret the available data. Yet
there still exist many issues such as estimating the age of the oldest stars in
a galaxy, finer details ofdust properties and dust-star geometry, and the
influences of poorly understood, luminous stellar types and phases. The
challenge for the coming years will be to improve both the models and the
observational data sets to resolve these uncertainties. The present review will
be made available on an interactive, moderated web page (sedfitting.org), where
the community can access and change the text. The intention is to expand the
text and keep it up to date over the coming years.Comment: 54 pages, 26 figures, Accepted for publication in Astrophysics &
Space Scienc
Magnetic Reconnection in Extreme Astrophysical Environments
Magnetic reconnection is a basic plasma process of dramatic rearrangement of
magnetic topology, often leading to a violent release of magnetic energy. It is
important in magnetic fusion and in space and solar physics --- areas that have
so far provided the context for most of reconnection research. Importantly,
these environments consist just of electrons and ions and the dissipated energy
always stays with the plasma. In contrast, in this paper I introduce a new
direction of research, motivated by several important problems in high-energy
astrophysics --- reconnection in high energy density (HED) radiative plasmas,
where radiation pressure and radiative cooling become dominant factors in the
pressure and energy balance. I identify the key processes distinguishing HED
reconnection: special-relativistic effects; radiative effects (radiative
cooling, radiation pressure, and Compton resistivity); and, at the most extreme
end, QED effects, including pair creation. I then discuss the main
astrophysical applications --- situations with magnetar-strength fields
(exceeding the quantum critical field of about 4 x 10^13 G): giant SGR flares
and magnetically-powered central engines and jets of GRBs. Here, magnetic
energy density is so high that its dissipation heats the plasma to MeV
temperatures. Electron-positron pairs are then copiously produced, making the
reconnection layer highly collisional and dressing it in a thick pair coat that
traps radiation. The pressure is dominated by radiation and pairs. Yet,
radiation diffusion across the layer may be faster than the global Alfv\'en
transit time; then, radiative cooling governs the thermodynamics and
reconnection becomes a radiative transfer problem, greatly affected by the
ultra-strong magnetic field. This overall picture is very different from our
traditional picture of reconnection and thus represents a new frontier in
reconnection research.Comment: Accepted to Space Science Reviews (special issue on magnetic
reconnection). Article is based on an invited review talk at the
Yosemite-2010 Workshop on Magnetic Reconnection (Yosemite NP, CA, USA;
February 8-12, 2010). 30 pages, no figure
Accuracy of emergency medical service telephone triage of need for an ambulance response in suspected COVID-19 : an observational cohort study
Objective: To assess accuracy of emergency medical service (EMS) telephone triage in identifying patients who need an EMS response and identify factors which affect triage accuracy.
Design: Observational cohort study.
Setting Emergency telephone triage provided by Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) National Health Service (NHS) Trust.
Participants: 12 653 adults who contacted EMS telephone triage services provided by YAS between 2 April 2020 and 29 June 2020 assessed by COVID-19 telephone triage pathways were included.
Outcome: Accuracy of call handler decision to dispatch an ambulance was assessed in terms of death or need for organ support at 30 days from first contact with the telephone triage service.
Results: Callers contacting EMS dispatch services had an 11.1% (1405/12 653) risk of death or needing organ support. In total, 2000/12 653 (16%) of callers did not receive an emergency response and they had a 70/2000 (3.5%) risk of death or organ support. Ambulances were dispatched to 4230 callers (33.4%) who were not conveyed to hospital and did not deteriorate. Multivariable modelling found variables of older age (1 year increase, OR: 1.05, 95% CI: 1.04 to 1.05) and presence of pre-existing respiratory disease (OR: 1.35, 95% CI: 1.13 to 1.60) to be predictors of false positive triage.
Conclusion: Telephone triage can reduce ambulance responses but, with low specificity. A small but significant proportion of patients who do not receive an initial emergency response deteriorated. Research to improve accuracy of EMS telephone triage is needed and, due to limitations of routinely collected data, this is likely to require prospective data collection
Accuracy of telephone triage for predicting adverse outcomes in suspected COVID-19: an observational cohort study
Objective: To assess accuracy of telephone triage in identifying need for emergency care among those with suspected COVID-19 infection and identify factors which affect triage accuracy.
Design: Observational cohort study.
Setting: Community telephone triage provided in the UK by Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust (YAS).
Participants: 40 261 adults who contacted National Health Service (NHS) 111 telephone triage services provided by YAS between 18 March 2020 and 29 June 2020 with symptoms indicating COVID-19 infection were linked to Office for National Statistics death registrations and healthcare data collected by NHS Digital.
Outcome: Accuracy of triage disposition was assessed in terms of death or need for organ support up to 30 days from first contact.
Results: Callers had a 3% (1200/40 261) risk of serious adverse outcomes (death or organ support). Telephone triage recommended self-care or non-urgent assessment for 60% (24 335/40 261), with a 1.3% (310/24 335) risk of adverse outcomes. Telephone triage had 74.2% sensitivity (95% CI: 71.6 to 76.6%) and 61.5% specificity (95% CI: 61% to 62%) for the primary outcome. Multivariable analysis suggested respiratory comorbidities may be overappreciated, and diabetes underappreciated as predictors of deterioration. Repeat contact with triage service appears to be an important under-recognised predictor of deterioration with 2 contacts (OR 1.77, 95% CI: 1.14 to 2.75) and 3 or more contacts (OR 4.02, 95% CI: 1.68 to 9.65) associated with false negative triage.
Conclusion: Patients advised to self-care or receive non-urgent clinical assessment had a small but non-negligible risk of serious clinical deterioration. Repeat contact with telephone services needs recognition as an important predictor of subsequent adverse outcomes
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