The Geometric Phase and Gravitational Precession of D-Branes

We study Berry's phase in the D0-D4-brane system. When a D0-brane moves in the background of D4-branes, the first excited states undergo a holonomy described by a non-Abelian Berry connection. At weak coupling this is an SU(2) connection over R^5, known as the Yang monopole. At strong coupling, the holonomy is recast as the classical gravitational precession of a spinning particle. The Berry connection is the spin connection of the near-horizon limit of the D4-branes, which is a continuous deformation of the Yang and anti-Yang monopole.Comment: 23 pages; v3: typos correcte

Who's opting-in? a demographic analysis of the U.K. NHS Organ Donor Register

The NHS Organ Donor Register (NHS ODR) is a centralised database for U.K. residents wishing to be organ donors. Opt-in membership to the NHS ODR demonstrates an expression of a wish to donate, which can be key in decisions made by family members at time of death. By examining the demographic breakdown of the 24.9 million registrants, campaigns can be better targeted to increase membership among those groups underrepresented on the NHS ODR. Data from the NHS ODR (as of March 2017) was analysed using Chi2 Goodness of Fit analyses and Chi2 Test of Independence for the categorical variables of gender, nation of residency at time of registration, ethnicity, organ preference, registration age and age at registration. Goodness of fit analyses showed significant differences between demographic representation on the NHS ODR compared to the U.K. population. Cramer's V showed significant associations were only of note (above 0.1) for age, ethnicity in the U.K. as a whole and ethnicity in England. Older (70+) and younger people (0-14) were underrepresented and those of White Ethnicity overrepresented on the NHS ODR. Although association strength was weak, more women and less residents of England were present compared to the U.K. population. Tests of independence showed significant differences between age at registration and current age on the register and cornea donation preferences. These results indicate areas for targeting by campaigns to increase NHS ODR membership. By understanding the strength of these associations, resources can be utilised in areas where underrepresentation is larger and will have the most impact to demographics of the NHS ODR. Additionally, by identifying which groups are over and underrepresented, future research can explore the reasons for this in these demographic groups

Primary care interventions to encourage organ donation registration: a systematic review

BACKGROUND: Previous research has proposed that primary care interventions to increase organ donation rates can help address the discrepancy between organ donation rates and the number of patients awaiting transplant. However, no systematic review has been conducted to examine interventions in this setting. OBJECTIVE: To synthesise evidence from previous organ donation interventions conducted in a primary care setting. METHODS: Six databases and grey literature were systematically searched between November 2016 and July 2017. Inclusion criteria included English language, studies published after the year 2000 and unpublished studies. A quality assessment and narrative synthesis was conducted. RESULTS: Ten studies met the inclusion criteria, nine of which examined actual organ donor registration as their primary outcome. Eight interventions increased registration to be an organ donor. Successful interventions utilised active methods of participant engagement that encouraged donation at the point of patient contact. DISCUSSION: Despite the small pool of studies that met the inclusion criteria, the results suggest that primary care interventions could produce promising results for increasing organ donation registration. However, additional higher quality studies are required before firm conclusions can be made. Barriers to implementation were also found and suggest that the feasibility of a primary care environment for organ donation intervention should be investigated

The Geometric Phase in Supersymmetric Quantum Mechanics

We explore the geometric phase in N=(2,2) supersymmetric quantum mechanics. The Witten index ensures the existence of degenerate ground states, resulting in a non-Abelian Berry connection. We exhibit a non-renormalization theorem which prohibits the connection from receiving perturbative corrections. However, we show that it does receive corrections from BPS instantons. We compute the one-instanton contribution to the Berry connection for the massive CP^1 sigma-model as the potential is varied. This system has two ground states and the associated Berry connection is the smooth SU(2) 't Hooft-Polyakov monopole.Comment: 28 pages, 2 figures, references added. v2: clarification of possible corrections to Abelian Berry phase. v3: footnotes added to point the reader towards later development

A many-analysts approach to the relation between religiosity and well-being

The relation between religiosity and well-being is one of the most researched topics in the psychology of religion, yet the directionality and robustness of the effect remains debated. Here, we adopted a many-analysts approach to assess the robustness of this relation based on a new cross-cultural dataset (N=10,535 participants from 24 countries). We recruited 120 analysis teams to investigate (1) whether religious people self-report higher well-being, and (2) whether the relation between religiosity and self-reported well-being depends on perceived cultural norms of religion (i.e., whether it is considered normal and desirable to be religious in a given country). In a two-stage procedure, the teams first created an analysis plan and then executed their planned analysis on the data. For the first research question, all but 3 teams reported positive effect sizes with credible/confidence intervals excluding zero (median reported β=0.120). For the second research question, this was the case for 65% of the teams (median reported β=0.039). While most teams applied (multilevel) linear regression models, there was considerable variability in the choice of items used to construct the independent variables, the dependent variable, and the included covariates

The Science Performance of JWST as Characterized in Commissioning

This paper characterizes the actual science performance of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), as determined from the six month commissioning period. We summarize the performance of the spacecraft, telescope, science instruments, and ground system, with an emphasis on differences from pre-launch expectations. Commissioning has made clear that JWST is fully capable of achieving the discoveries for which it was built. Moreover, almost across the board, the science performance of JWST is better than expected; in most cases, JWST will go deeper faster than expected. The telescope and instrument suite have demonstrated the sensitivity, stability, image quality, and spectral range that are necessary to transform our understanding of the cosmos through observations spanning from near-earth asteroids to the most distant galaxies.Comment: 5th version as accepted to PASP; 31 pages, 18 figures; https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1538-3873/acb29