428 research outputs found
Euclidean Gibbs states of interacting quantum anharmonic oscillators
A rigorous description of the equilibrium thermodynamic properties of an
infinite system of interacting -dimensional quantum anharmonic oscillators
is given. The oscillators are indexed by the elements of a countable set
, possibly irregular; the anharmonic potentials
vary from site to site. The description is based on the representation of the
Gibbs states in terms of path measures -- the so called Euclidean Gibbs
measures. It is proven that: (a) the set of such measures
is non-void and compact; (b) every obeys an
exponential integrability estimate, the same for the whole set
; (c) every has a
Lebowitz-Presutti type support; (d) is a singleton at
high temperatures. In the case of attractive interaction and we prove
that at low temperatures. The uniqueness of Gibbs
measures due to quantum effects and at a nonzero external field are also proven
in this case. Thereby, a qualitative theory of phase transitions and quantum
effects, which interprets most important experimental data known for the
corresponding physical objects, is developed. The mathematical result of the
paper is a complete description of the set , which refines
and extends the results known for models of this type.Comment: 60 page
CAG repeat length in the androgen receptor gene is related to age at diagnosis of prostate cancer and response to endocrine therapy, but not to prostate cancer risk
The length of the polymorphic CAG repeat in the N-terminal of the androgen receptor (AR) gene is inversely correlated with the transactivation function of the AR. Some studies have indicated that short CAG repeats are related to higher risk of prostate cancer. We performed a case–control study to investigate relations between CAG repeat length and prostate cancer risk, tumour grade, tumour stage, age at diagnosis and response to endocrine therapy. The study included 190 AR alleles from prostate cancer patients and 186 AR alleles from female control subjects. All were whites from southern Sweden. The frequency distribution of CAG repeat length was strikingly similar for cases and controls, and no significant correlation between CAG repeat length and prostate cancer risk was detected. However, for men with non-hereditary prostate cancer (n = 160), shorter CAG repeats correlated with younger age at diagnosis (P = 0.03). There were also trends toward associations between short CAG repeats and high grade (P = 0.07) and high stage (P = 0.07) disease. Furthermore, we found that patients with long CAG repeats responded better to endocrine therapy, even after adjusting for pretreatment level of prostate-specific antigen and tumour grade and stage (P = 0.05). We conclude that short CAG repeats in the AR gene correlate with young age at diagnosis of prostate cancer, but not with higher risk of the disease. Selection of patients with early onset prostate cancer in case–control studies could therefore lead to an over-estimation of the risk of prostate cancer for men with short CAG repeats. An association between long CAG repeats and good response to endocrine therapy was also found, but the mechanism and clinical relevance are unclear. © 1999 Cancer Research Campaig
Exploring the proton spin structure
Understanding the spin structure of the proton is one of the main challenges
in hadronic physics. While the concepts of spin and orbital angular momentum
are pretty clear in the context of non-relativistic quantum mechanics, the
generalization of these concepts to quantum field theory encounters serious
difficulties. It is however possible to define meaningful decompositions of the
proton spin that are (in principle) measurable. We propose a summary of the
present situation including recent developments and prospects of future
developments.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure, 2 tables, contribution to the proceedings of the
DAE-BRNS High Energy Physics Symposium 2014, Dec 8-12, Guwahati, Indi
Full nonperturbative QCD simulations with 2+1 flavors of improved staggered quarks
Dramatic progress has been made over the last decade in the numerical study
of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) through the use of improved formulations of QCD
on the lattice (improved actions), the development of new algorithms and the
rapid increase in computing power available to lattice gauge theorists. In this
article we describe simulations of full QCD using the improved staggered quark
formalism, ``asqtad'' fermions. These simulations were carried out with two
degenerate flavors of light quarks (up and down) and with one heavier flavor,
the strange quark. Several light quark masses, down to about 3 times the
physical light quark mass, and six lattice spacings have been used. These
enable controlled continuum and chiral extrapolations of many low energy QCD
observables. We review the improved staggered formalism, emphasizing both
advantages and drawbacks. In particular, we review the procedure for removing
unwanted staggered species in the continuum limit. We then describe the asqtad
lattice ensembles created by the MILC Collaboration. All MILC lattice ensembles
are publicly available, and they have been used extensively by a number of
lattice gauge theory groups. We review physics results obtained with them, and
discuss the impact of these results on phenomenology. Topics include the heavy
quark potential, spectrum of light hadrons, quark masses, decay constant of
light and heavy-light pseudoscalar mesons, semileptonic form factors, nucleon
structure, scattering lengths and more. We conclude with a brief look at highly
promising future prospects.Comment: 157 pages; prepared for Reviews of Modern Physics. v2: some rewriting
throughout; references update
Feasibility of familial PSA screening: psychosocial issues and screening adherence
This study examined factors that predict psychological morbidity and screening adherence in first-degree relatives (FDRs) taking part in a familial PSA screening study. Prostate cancer patients (index cases – ICs) who gave consent for their FDRs to be contacted for a familial PSA screening study to contact their FDRs were also asked permission to invite these FDRs into a linked psychosocial study. Participants were assessed on measures of psychological morbidity (including the General Health Questionnaire; Cancer Worry Scale; Health Anxiety Questionnaire; Impact of Events Scale); and perceived benefits and barriers, knowledge; perceived risk/susceptibility; family history; and socio-demographics. Of 255 ICs, 155 (61%) consented to their FDRs being contacted. Of 207 FDRs approached, 128 (62%) consented and completed questionnaires. Multivariate logistic regression revealed that health anxiety, perceived risk and subjective stress predicted higher cancer worry (P=0.05). Measures of psychological morbidity did not predict screening adherence. Only past screening behaviour reliably predicted adherence to familial screening (P=0.05). First-degree relatives entering the linked familial PSA screening programme do not, in general, have high levels of psychological morbidity. However, a small number of men exhibited psychological distress
Shaping the Development of Prejudice: Latent Growth Modeling of the Influence of Social Dominance Orientation on Outgroup Affect in Youth
Social dominance orientation (SDO) has been theorized as a stable, early-emerging trait influencing outgroup evaluations, a view supported by evidence from cross-sectional and two-wave longitudinal research. Yet, the limitations of identifying causal paths with cross-sectional and two-wave designs are increasingly being acknowledged. This article presents the first use of multi-wave data to test the over-time relationship between SDO and outgroup affect among young people. We use cross-lagged and latent growth modeling (LGM) of a three-wave data set employing Norwegian adolescents (over 2 years, N = 453) and a five-wave data set with American university students (over 4 years, N = 748). Overall, SDO exhibits high temporal rank-order stability and predicts changes in outgroup affect. This research represents the strongest test to date of SDO’s role as a stable trait that influences the development of prejudice, while highlighting LGM as a valuable tool for social and political psychology
Crisis? What crisis? A critical appraisal of World Bank housing policy in the wake of the global financial crisis
Spin structure of the nucleon: QCD evolution, lattice results and models
The question how the spin of the nucleon is distributed among its quark and
gluon constituents is still a subject of intense investigations. Lattice QCD
has progressed to provide information about spin fractions and orbital angular
momentum contributions for up- and down-quarks in the proton, at a typical
scale \mu^2~4 GeV^2. On the other hand, chiral quark models have traditionally
been used for orientation at low momentum scales. In the comparison of such
model calculations with experiment or lattice QCD, fixing the model scale and
the treatment of scale evolution are essential. In this paper, we present a
refined model calculation and a QCD evolution of lattice results up to
next-to-next-to-leading order. We compare this approach with the Myhrer-Thomas
scenario for resolving the proton spin puzzle.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, equation (9) has been corrected leading to a
revised figure 1b. Revision matches published versio
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