Excitations of torelon

The excitations of gluonic flux tube in a periodic lattice are examined. Monte Carlo simulations from an anisotropic lattice are presented and the comparison with effective string models is discussed.Comment: Talk at Lattice 2003; 3 pages, 4 figure

Implication of Intestinal Barrier Dysfunction in Gut Dysbiosis and Diseases

The intestinal mucosal barrier, also referred to as intestinal barrier, is widely recognized as a critical player in gut homeostasis maintenance as it ensures the complex crosstalk between gut microbes (both commensals and pathogens) and the host immune system. Highly specialized epithelial cells constantly cope with several protective and harmful agents to maintain the multiple physiological functions of the barrier as well as its integrity. However, both genetic defects and environmental factors can break such equilibrium, thus promoting gut dysbiosis, dysregulated immune-inflammatory responses, and even the development of chronic pathological conditions. Here, we review and discuss the molecular and cellular pathways underlying intestinal barrier structural and functional homeostasis, focusing on potential alterations that may undermine this fine balance

The locality of the fourth root of staggered fermion determinant in the interacting case

The fourth root approximation in LQCD simulations with dynamical staggered fermions requires justification. We test its validity numerically in the interacting theory in a renormalization group framework.Comment: 6 pages, Talk presented at Lattice 2005 (Machines and Algorithms

Resistance to apramycin of Salmonella and E.coli isolated from swine

The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of aminoglycosides antibiotic resistance in Salmonella spp. and E. coli strains. 32 E. coli, and 47 Salmonella spp., isolated from cases of enteritis in growers and fatteners from 1998 to 2002 in Umbria and Marche regions, were tested. Susceptibility to gentamicin, tobramycin and streptomycin was determined by Kirby-Bauer method, apramycin by microdilution method. 92,4 % of the strains tested were susceptible to apramycin, 77,2 % to gentamicin, 67,1 % to tobramycin and 35,4 % to streptomycin. A positive statistical association between gentamicin and apramycin (RR = 7,63; p = 0,014), tobramycin and apramycin (RR = 9,22; p = 0,027) was demonstrated. There is no difference between the association apramycin-streptomycin, suggesting a mechanism of resistance related to the presence of the aminoglycoside acetyltranspherase IV enzyme. The trend based on estimated OR from the resistance of the strains for every year considered was significant (p = 0,00049), showing a progressive decrease from 1998 (OR = 1) to 2002 (OR = 0,3)

The Equation of State for QCD with 2+1 Flavors of Quarks

We report results for the interaction measure, pressure and energy density for nonzero temperature QCD with 2+1 flavors of improved staggered quarks. In our simulations we use a Symanzik improved gauge action and the Asqtad $O(a^2)$ improved staggered quark action for lattices with temporal extent $N_t=4$ and 6. The heavy quark mass $m_s$ is fixed at approximately the physical strange quark mass and the two degenerate light quarks have masses $m_{ud} =0.1m_s$ or $0.2m_s$. The calculation of the thermodynamic observables employs the integral method where energy density and pressure are obtained by integration over the interaction measure.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, 3 tables, contribution to the XXIIIrd International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, 25-30 July 2005, Trinity College, Dublin, Irelan

Update on pi and K Physics

We present an update of the MILC studies of the physics of light pseudoscalars using improved staggered fermions. New runs at lighter quark mass, as well as increased statistics for older sets, are enabling us to improve the results for decay constants in full QCD. In addition, we have analyzed quenched runs at two different lattice spacings. This makes possible a test of the applicability of staggered chiral perturbation theory in a different context.Comment: presented at Lattice2005(Hadron Spectrum), Dublin, July 25-30, 2005, 6 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Proceedings of Scienc

More evidence of localization in the low-lying Dirac spectrum

We have extended our computation of the inverse participation ratio of low-lying (asqtad) Dirac eigenvectors in quenched SU(3). The scaling dimension of the confining manifold is clearer and very near 3. We have also computed the 2-point correlator which further characterizes the localization.Comment: presented at Lattice2005(Topology and Confinement), Dublin, July 25-30, 2005, 6 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Proceedings of Scienc

VOF Simulation of The Cavitating Flow in High Pressure GDI Injectors

The paper describes the development in the OpenFOAM ® technology of a dynamic multiphase Volume-of-Fluid (VoF) solver, supporting mesh handling with topological changes, that has been used for the study of the physics of the primary jet breakup and of the flow disturbance induced by the nozzle geometry during the injector opening event in high-pressure Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) engines. Turbulence modeling based on a scale-resolving approach has been applied, while phase change of fuel is accounted by means of a cavitation model that has been coupled with the VOF solver. Simulations have been carried out on a 6-hole prototype injector, especially developed for investigations in the framework of the collaborative project FUI MAGIE and provided by Continental Automotive SAS. Special attention has been paid to the domain decomposition strategy and to the code development of the solver, to ensure good load balancing and to minimize inter-processor communication, to achieve good performance and also high scalability on large computing clusters