A Surgeon’s Duty

Dr. Albert Gaillard Hall described a scenario in where he was tricked by his soldiers; “At our rendezvous, on three successive mornings, men reported sick, complaining of backache and headache, and with a very heavily coated tongue, but without other symptoms. Thinking it might prove an oncoming fever, I excused the first and second lots, and then saw that they were ‘old-soldiering the surgeon.’ Long afterwards one of the men explained the trick. The camp was surrounded by rose-bushes in bloom, and a liberal chewing of rose-leaves a little before sick call produced the effect I saw on the tongue. This is but an illustration of innumerable devices to mislead the surgeon and get excused from duty or to escape the battlefield.” [excerpt

NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES MACRO FISCAL POLICY IN ECONOMIC UNIONS: STATES AS AGENTS

Carr and Adam Scavatti for outstanding research assistance. The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the Federal Reserve System, or the University of Pennsylvania. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peerreviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications

Impact of an Alcohol-Based Hand Sanitizer Intervention on the Spread of Viruses in Homes

The objectives of this study were to determine the movement of a virus throughout a household and the impact of an alcohol-based hand sanitizer (ABHS) on reducing the movement and exposure of the virus to household members. Bacterial virus MS-2 was used as the surrogate for human enteric and respiratory viruses. Seven households with families having at least two children in the age range of 2–18 living in the home were used in this study. The hands of one adult family member were contaminated with 1 × 10(8). MS-2 bacteriophage in each home. After 8 h, the hands of each family member (10 fingers) and 20 frequently touched fomites were sampled to determine baseline contamination without intervention. Within 8 h, MS-2 was detected on all of the family member’s hands and most of the fomites. The intervention consisted of providing the families in all selected homes with bottles of an ABHS, which were placed in the kitchen, bathrooms, and nurseries. Smaller individual bottles were provided for each family member greater than 12 years old to place in purses, pockets, backpacks, etc. The families were instructed to use the ABHS one time or three times during the day. For one and three uses, a statistically significant reduction of virus on un-inoculated and inoculated hands of ~99 % occurred within 8 h. Similar reductions occurred on fomites throughout the households (97–99 %). These results demonstrate that the use of an ABHS can significantly reduce transfer of a virus to the hands, and to the commonly touched surfaces within the household

Sensitivity of food webs to nitrogen pollution: a study of three transitional water ecosystems embedded in agricultural landscapes

1 - Transitional water ecosystems constitute extremely complex and productive environments, a preferred route of migrating birds and optimal nursery locations for many fish species. In these interesting environments, descriptors of trophic relationships between species in a web have been suggested as potential integrative and sensitive endpoints for anthropogenic pressure.2 - To better understand the effects of environmental disturbance on the resident macroinvertebrate assemblage structure, we analysed food webs in three neighbouring transitional water ecosystems located along the Thyrrenian coastal area of Central Italy (Lake Caprolace, Lake Fogliano and Lake Sabaudia), which are affected by different inputs of nitrates from agricultural, farming and urban activities.3 - Macrozoobenthos, aquatic macrophytes and attached macroalgae, leaf detritus from sediments and suspended organic matter in the water column were sampled at four sites in each ecosystem and stable isotope analysis (C and N) was carried out in order to describe trophic pathways and the food web structure.4 - ä15N values of macroinvertebrates increased from Caprolace to Sabaudia according to increasing nitrate concentration derived from organic sources. Macrozoobenthic assemblages varied in species composition with the lowest biodiversity found in Sabaudia, the most polluted ecosystem. Also proportion of primary consumers, predators and omnivorous species varied, with cascade effects on food web topology and nutrient flow pathways.5 - In particular, omnivorous and generalist predators were more numerous in Sabaudia, where food chains were longer and webs less compartmentalised than in Caprolace and Fogliano. In Sabaudia a lower level of web robustness to species loss was also observed.6 - These results suggest that nitrogen pollution can be responsible of evident changes in the architecture of biodiversity between ecosystems, determining less robust trophic structures with strong implication for biodiversity management and conservation

Meromorphic Scaling Flow of N=2 Supersymmetric SU(2) Yang-Mills with Matter

Beta-functions are derived for the flow of N=2 SUSY SU(2) Yang-Mills in 4-dimensions with massless matter multiplets in the fundamental representation of the gauge group. The beta-functions represent the flow of the couplings as the VEV of the Higgs field is lowered and are modular forms of weight -2. They have the correct asymptotic behaviour at both the strong and weak coupling fixed points. Corrections to the massless beta-functions when masses are turned on are discussed.Comment: 23 pages, 4 figures, typset using JHEP3 style. References updated and minor typos fixed in v

Red cell distribution width (RDW) and complete blood cell count-derived measures in non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy

Purpose: To assess the role of complete blood cell count (CBC) dimensional indices and CBC-derived measures in non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NA-AION). Methods: In this retrospective case-control survey, 37 newly diagnosed NA-AION patients and 37 sex-and age-matched cataract controls were enrolled in 2017-2018. On the same day of NA-AION diagnosis, a blood sample was collected and CBC was determined using an automatic blood counter. CBC dimensional indices, such as mean platelet volume (MPV) and red cell distribution width (RDW), and CBC-combined indices, including neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR), derived NLR [dNLR = neutrophils/(white blood cells-neutrophils)], and platelet/lymphocyte ratio (PLR), were evaluated. Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) was also measured. Results: Mean platelet count, median MPV, RDW, NLR, and dNLR were 221±48 x 109/L, 8.2 fL (IQR=7.6-8.9), 13% (IQR=12-14.5), 2.50 (IQR=1.77-3.06), and 1.73 (IQR=1.31-2.07) in NA-AION patients and 248±56 x 109/L, 7.60 fL (IQR=7.05-8.25), 12% (IQR=11.6-13), 1.95 (IQR=1.43-2.49) and 1.36 (IQR=1.07-1.69) in controls. NA-AION patients showed significantly lower platelet count (p=0.03) and significantly higher median values of MPV (p=0.01), RDW (p=0.015), NLR (p=0.03), and dNLR (p=0.01). Multivariate logistic regression models disclosed a significant correlation only between higher levels of RDW and NA-AION (p≤0.05). The attributable risk of the association between NA-AION and RDW was 33%. Conclusions: Results suggest that RDW may be somehow involved in the pathogenesis of NA-AION. However, high-quality cohort studies are warranted to confirm whether, or not, an altered RDW may be considered a potential biomarker of this vascular disorder affecting the optic nerve

Acquisition and preliminary analysis of multi-channel seismic reflection data, acquired during the oceanographic cruises of the TOMO-ETNA experiment

The TOMO-ETNA experiment was performed in the framework of the FP7 “MED-SUV” (MEDiterranean SUpersite Volcanoes) in order to gain a detailed geological and structural model of the continental and oceanic crust concerning Etna and Aeolian Islands volcanoes (Sicily, Italy), by means of active and passive seismic exploration methodologies. Among all data collected, some 1410 km of marine multi-channel seismic (MCS) reflection profiles were acquired in the Ionian and Tyrrhenian Seas during two of the three oceanographic cruises of the TOMO-ETNA experiment, in July and November 2014, with the aim of shading light to deep, intermediate and shallow stratigraphy and crustal structure of the two above mentioned areas. The MCS sections, targeted to deep exploration, were acquired during the oceanographic cruise on board of the R/V “Sarmiento de Gamboa”, using an active seismic source of 16 air-guns, for a total volume of 4340 cu. in., and a 3000 m long, 240-channels digital streamer as receiving system. High-resolution seismic profiles were instead collected through the R/V “Aegaeo”, using two smaller air-guns (overall 270 cu. in. volume) and a 96 channels, 300 m long digital streamer. This paper provides a detailed description of the acquisition parameters and main processing steps adopted for the MCS data. Some processed lines are shown and preliminarily interpreted, to highlight the overall good quality and the high potential of the MCS sections collected during the TOMO-ETNA experiment. © 2016 by the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia. All rights reserved

Matrix Models, Monopoles and Modified Moduli

Motivated by the Dijkgraaf-Vafa correspondence, we consider the matrix model duals of N=1 supersymmetric SU(Nc) gauge theories with Nf flavors. We demonstrate via the matrix model solutions a relation between vacua of theories with different numbers of colors and flavors. This relation is due to an N=2 nonrenormalization theorem which is inherited by these N=1 theories. Specializing to the case Nf=Nc, the simplest theory containing baryons, we demonstrate that the explicit matrix model predictions for the locations on the Coulomb branch at which monopoles condense are consistent with the quantum modified constraints on the moduli in the theory. The matrix model solutions include the case that baryons obtain vacuum expectation values. In specific cases we check explicitly that these results are also consistent with the factorization of corresponding Seiberg-Witten curves. Certain results are easily understood in terms of M5-brane constructions of these gauge theories.Comment: 27 pages, LaTeX, 2 figure

Phases of N=1 USp(2N_c) Gauge Theories with Flavors

We studied the phase structures of N=1 supersymmetric USp(2N_c) gauge theory with N_f flavors in the fundamental representation as we deformed the N=2 supersymmetric QCD by adding the superpotential for adjoint chiral scalar field. We determined the most general factorization curves for various breaking patterns, for example, the two different breaking patterns of quartic superpotential. We observed all kinds of smooth transitions for quartic superpotential. Finally we discuss the intriguing role of USp(0) in the phase structure and the possible connection with observations made recently in hep-th/0304271 (Aganagic, Intriligator, Vafa and Warner) and in hep-th/0307063 (Cachazo).Comment: 61pp; Improved the presentation, references are added and to appear in PR

Nonabelian Faddeev-Niemi Decomposition of the SU(3) Yang-Mills Theory

Faddeev and Niemi (FN) have introduced an abelian gauge theory which simulates dynamical abelianization in Yang-Mills theory (YM). It contains both YM instantons and Wu-Yang monopoles and appears to be able to describe the confining phase. Motivated by the meson degeneracy problem in dynamical abelianization models, in this note we present a generalization of the FN theory. We first generalize the Cho connection to dynamical symmetry breaking pattern SU(N+1) -> U(N), and subsequently try to complete the Faddeev-Niemi decomposition by keeping the missing degrees of freedom. While it is not possible to write an on-shell complete FN decomposition, in the case of SU(3) theory of physical interest we find an off-shell complete decomposition for SU(3) -> U(2) which amounts to partial gauge fixing, generalizing naturally the result found by Faddeev and Niemi for the abelian scenario SU(N+1) -> U(1)^N. We discuss general topological aspects of these breakings, demonstrating for example that the FN knot solitons never exist when the unbroken gauge symmetry is nonabelian, and recovering the usual no-go theorems for colored dyons.Comment: Latex 30 page