1,563 research outputs found
Uveitis manifestations in patients of the Swiss Inflammatory Bowel Disease Cohort Study.
The knowledge about risk factors for the onset of uveitis manifestations in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is still limited. Here, we aimed to provide an overview of the clinical factors associated with the onset of uveitis in the Swiss IBD Cohort Study (SIBDCS).
We included epidemiological and clinical data from 1840 patients with Crohn's disease (CD) and 1426 patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) followed up in the SIBDCS between 2006 and 2018. Associations between disease characteristics and uveitis were assessed in univariate and multivariate analyses.
Overall, we identified 285 patients with uveitis. Uveitis was more frequent in patients with CD (11.1%; 205 of 1635) than UC (5.6%; 80 of 1346; odds ratio 2.11, p < 0.001). The occurrence of uveitis manifestations in patients with UC and CD was significantly associated with the onset of other extraintestinal manifestations, also in multivariate analyses. The onset of uveitis was associated with the hallmark features of severe disease in both CD and UC, including a higher clinical disease activity index and the use of immunomodulators or calcineurin inhibitors. In CD, uveitis was more frequent in females and showed a positive correlation with a positive family history of IBD.
Our data demonstrate that uveitis in IBD occurs more often in CD as well as in women and is associated with a more severe disease course. This might guide physicians' awareness in at-risk patients to the presence of uveitis extraintestinal manifestations and help to improve patient care
Superform formulation for vector-tensor multiplets in conformal supergravity
The recent papers arXiv:1110.0971 and arXiv:1201.5431 have provided a
superfield description for vector-tensor multiplets and their Chern-Simons
couplings in 4D N = 2 conformal supergravity. Here we develop a superform
formulation for these theories. Furthermore an alternative means of gauging the
central charge is given, making use of a deformed vector multiplet, which may
be thought of as a variant vector-tensor multiplet. Its Chern-Simons couplings
to additional vector multiplets are also constructed. This multiplet together
with its Chern-Simons couplings are new results not considered by de Wit et al.
in hep-th/9710212.Comment: 28 pages. V2: Typos corrected and references updated; V3: References
updated and typo correcte
N=2 Conformal Superspace in Four Dimensions
We develop the geometry of four dimensional N=2 superspace where the entire
conformal algebra of SU(2,2|2) is realized linearly in the structure group
rather than just the SL(2,C) x U(2)_R subgroup of Lorentz and R-symmetries,
extending to N=2 our prior result for N=1 superspace. This formulation
explicitly lifts to superspace the existing methods of the N=2 superconformal
tensor calculus; at the same time the geometry, when degauged to SL(2,C) x
U(2)_R, reproduces the existing formulation of N=2 conformal supergravity
constructed by Howe.Comment: 43 pages; v2 references added, acknowledgments update
Dipole Interactions and Electrical Polarity in Nanosystems -- the Clausius-Mossotti and Related Models
Point polarizable molecules at fixed spatial positions have solvable
electrostatic properties in classical approximation, the most familiar being
the Clausius-Mossotti (CM) formula. This paper generalizes the model and
imagines various applications to nanosystems. The behavior is worked out for a
sequence of octahedral fragments of simple cubic crystals, and the crossover to
the bulk CM law is found. Some relations to fixed moment systems are discussed
and exploited. The one-dimensional dipole stack is introduced as an important
model system. The energy of interaction of parallel stacks is worked out, and
clarifies the diverse behavior found in different crystal structures. It also
suggests patterns of self-organization which polar molecules in solution might
adopt. A sum rule on the stack interaction is found and tested. Stability of
polarized states under thermal fluctuations is discussed, using the
one-dimensional domain wall as an example. Possible structures for polar hard
ellipsoids are considered. An idea is formulated for enhancing polarity of
nanosystems by intentionally adding metallic coatings.Comment: 18 pages (includes 6 embedded figures and 3 tables). New references,
and other small improvements. Scheduled for publication by J. Chem. Phys.,
Jan. 200
A novel quantum key distribution scheme with orthogonal product states
The general conditions for the orthogonal product states of the multi-state
systems to be used in quantum key distribution (QKD) are proposed, and a novel
QKD scheme with orthogonal product states in the 3x3 Hilbert space is
presented. We show that this protocol has many distinct features such as great
capacity, high efficiency. The generalization to nxn systems is also discussed
and a fancy limitation for the eavesdropper's success probability is reached.Comment: 4 Pages, 3 Figure
The Machine Learning Landscape of Top Taggers
Based on the established task of identifying boosted, hadronically decaying
top quarks, we compare a wide range of modern machine learning approaches.
Unlike most established methods they rely on low-level input, for instance
calorimeter output. While their network architectures are vastly different,
their performance is comparatively similar. In general, we find that these new
approaches are extremely powerful and great fun.Comment: Yet another tagger included
The Real Anatomy of Complex Linear Superfields
Recent work on classicication of off-shell representations of N-extended
worldline supersymmetry without central charges has uncovered an unexpectedly
vast number--trillions of even just (chromo)topology types--of so called
adinkraic supermultiplets. Herein, we show by explicit analysis that a
long-known but rarely used representation, the complex linear supermultiplet,
is not adinkraic, cannot be decomposed locally, but may be reduced by means of
a Wess-Zumino type gauge. This then indicates that the already unexpectedly
vast number of adinkraic off-shell supersymmetry representations is but the
proverbial tip of the iceberg.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figure
Extended supersymmetric sigma models in AdS_4 from projective superspace
There exist two superspace approaches to describe N=2 supersymmetric
nonlinear sigma models in four-dimensional anti-de Sitter (AdS_4) space: (i) in
terms of N=1 AdS chiral superfields, as developed in arXiv:1105.3111 and
arXiv:1108.5290; and (ii) in terms of N=2 polar supermultiplets using the AdS
projective-superspace techniques developed in arXiv:0807.3368. The virtue of
the approach (i) is that it makes manifest the geometric properties of the N=2
supersymmetric sigma-models in AdS_4. The target space must be a non-compact
hyperkahler manifold endowed with a Killing vector field which generates an
SO(2) group of rotations on the two-sphere of complex structures. The power of
the approach (ii) is that it allows us, in principle, to generate hyperkahler
metrics as well as to address the problem of deformations of such metrics.
Here we show how to relate the formulation (ii) to (i) by integrating out an
infinite number of N=1 AdS auxiliary superfields and performing a superfield
duality transformation. We also develop a novel description of the most general
N=2 supersymmetric nonlinear sigma-model in AdS_4 in terms of chiral
superfields on three-dimensional N=2 flat superspace without central charge.
This superspace naturally originates from a conformally flat realization for
the four-dimensional N=2 AdS superspace that makes use of Poincare coordinates
for AdS_4. This novel formulation allows us to uncover several interesting
geometric results.Comment: 88 pages; v3: typos corrected, version published in JHE
The treatment of severe child aggression (TOSCA) study: Design challenges
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Polypharmacy (the concurrent use of more than one psychoactive drug) and other combination interventions are increasingly common for treatment of severe psychiatric problems only partly responsive to monotherapy. This practice and research on it raise scientific, clinical, and ethical issues such as additive side effects, interactions, threshold for adding second drug, appropriate target measures, and (for studies) timing of randomization. One challenging area for treatment is severe child aggression. Commonly-used medications, often in combination, include psychostimulants, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, and alpha-2 agonists, which vary considerably in terms of perceived safety and efficacy.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In designing our NIMH-funded trial of polypharmacy, we focused attention on the added benefit of a second drug (risperidone) to the effect of the first (stimulant). We selected these two drugs because their associated adverse events might neutralize each other (e.g., sleep delay and appetite decrease from stimulant versus sedation and appetite increase from antipsychotic). Moreover, there was considerable evidence of efficacy for each drug individually for the management of ADHD and child aggression. The study sample comprised children (ages 6-12 years) with both diagnosed ADHD and disruptive behavior disorder (oppositional-defiant or conduct disorder) accompanied by severe physical aggression. In a staged sequence, the medication with the least problematic adverse effects (stimulant) was openly titrated in 3 weeks to optimal effect. Participants whose behavioral symptoms were not normalized received additional double-blind medication, either risperidone or placebo, by random assignment. Thus children whose behavioral symptoms were normalized with stimulant medication were not exposed to an antipsychotic. All families participated in an empirically-supported parent training program for disruptive behavior, so that the actual comparison was stimulant+parent training versus stimulant+antipsychotic+parent training.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We hope that the resolutions of the challenges presented here will be useful to other investigators and facilitate much-needed research on child psychiatric polypharmacy.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p>ClinicalTrials.gov <a href="http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00796302">NCT00796302</a></p
Relating harmonic and projective descriptions of N=2 nonlinear sigma models
Recent papers have established the relationship between projective superspace
and a complexified version of harmonic superspace. We extend this construction
to the case of general nonlinear sigma models in both frameworks. Using an
analogy with Hamiltonian mechanics, we demonstrate how the Hamiltonian
structure of the harmonic action and the symplectic structure of the projective
action naturally arise from a single unifying action on a complexified version
of harmonic superspace. This links the harmonic and projective descriptions of
hyperkahler target spaces. For the two examples of Taub-NUT and Eguchi-Hanson,
we show how to derive the projective superspace solutions from the harmonic
superspace solutions.Comment: 25 pages; v3: typo fixed in eq (1.36
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