Cosmological implications of conformal field theory

Requiring all massless elementary fields to have conformal scaling symmetry removes a conflict between gravitational theory and the quantum theory of elementary particles and fields. Extending this postulate to the scalar field of the Higgs model, dynamical breaking of both gauge and conformal symmetries determines parameters for the interacting fields. In uniform isotropic geometry a modified Friedmann cosmic evolution equation is derived with nonvanishing cosmological constant. Parameters determined by numerical solution are consistent with empirical data for redshifts $z\leq z_*=1090$, including luminosity distances for observed type Ia supernovae and peak structure ratios in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). The theory does not require dark matter.Comment: 8 pages Conclusions about the early universe which must be reexamined have been removed. Manuscript revised and reformatted. Accepted for publication in Modern Physics Letters A (2011

Possible Cosmological Implications of the Quark-Hadron Phase Transition

We study the quark-hadron phase transition within an effective model of QCD, and find that in a reasonable range of the main parameters of the model, bodies with quark content between $10^{-2}$ and 10 solar masses can have been formed in the early universe. In addition, we show that a significant amount of entropy is released during the transition. This may imply the existence of a higher baryon number density than what is usually expected at temperatures above the QCD scale. The cosmological QCD transition may then provide a natural way for decreasing the high baryon asymmetry created by an Affleck-Dine like mechanism down to the value required by primordial nucleosynthesis.Comment: 19 pages, LaTeX, 5 Postscript figures included. Submitted to Journal of Physics

Estimating Community Stability and Ecological Interactions from Time-Series Data

Natural ecological communities are continuously buffeted by a varying environment, often making it difficult to measure the stability of communities using concepts requiring the existence of an equilibrium point. Instead of an equilibrium point, the equilibrial state of communities subject to environmental stochasticity is a stationary distribution, which is characterized by means, variances, and other statistical moments. Here, we derive three properties of stochastic multispecies communities that measure different characteristics associated with community stability. These properties can be estimated from multispecies time-series data using first-order multivariate autoregressive (MAR(1)) models. We demonstrate how to estimate the parameters of MAR(1) models and obtain confidence intervals for both parameters and the measures of stability. We also address the problem of estimation when there is observation (measurement) error. To illustrate these methods, we compare the stability of the planktonic communities in three lakes in which nutrient loading and planktivorous fish abundance were experimentally manipulated. MAR(1) models and the statistical methods we present can be used to identify dynamically important interactions between species and to test hypotheses about stability and other dynamical properties of naturally varying ecological communities. Thus, they can be used to integrate theoretical and empirical studies of community dynamics

1953 oil and gas well drilling statistics

Includes The development of underground storage in Ohio, by J.J. Schmidt, K.C. Cottingham and Rotary vs cable tool drilling in Ohio, by Robert L. Alkire

Enhancing the Prospects for Palliative Care at the End of Life: A Statewide Educational Demonstration Project to Improve Advance Care Planning

Although patients want to participate in discussions and decisions about their end-of-life care, studies show that providers frequently fail to invite them to explore advanced care preferences or goals for living. The purpose of our demonstration project was to provide education and coaching to individuals, health providers, and organizations across the state of Indiana intended to facilitate these conversations, documenting and honoring individuals' life goals and preferences for care during the final stages of life. Education and training engaged community members as well as healthcare providers to: (1) improve participant comfort and facility discussing end-of-life issues; (2) improve knowledge of healthcare choices, including palliative and hospice care; and (3) prepare all participants to explore and document personal values, life goals, and priorities as well as goals of care. Between January of 2013 and June of 2015, the team educated close to 5,000 participants. Participants' ratings of the quality and perceived usefulness of the educational events ranged from 4 to 5 (using a 5-point scale, with 5 = most effective). Participant comments were overwhelmingly favorable and indicated an intention to put the advance care planning resources, communication skills, knowledge of palliative and hospice care, and personal renewal techniques into practice. Participant motivation to foster advance care planning, discussions of palliative care, and end-of-life conversations was facilitated by the reframing of these conversations as identifying goals of care and priorities for living well during an important stage of life. Successful strategies included helping providers and patients to adopt a broader meaning for “sustaining hope” (not for cure, but for engaging in highly valued activities), developing provider communication skills and comfort in initiating potentially difficult discussions, engaging a new community health workforce who will develop trusting relationships with patients in home-based services, and fostering self-awareness and self-care among palliative care providers

Three-pion exchange: a gap in the nucleon-nucleon potential

The leading contribution to the three-pion exchange nucleon-nucleon potential is calculated in the framework of chiral symmetry. It has pseudoscalar and axial components and is dominated by the former, which has a range of about 1.5 fm and tends to enhance the OPEP. The strength of this force does not depend on the pion mass and hence it survives in the chiral limit.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures, 1 tabl

Evaluation of interprofessional relational coordination and patients’ perception of care in outpatient oncology teams

This pilot study was designed to measure teamwork and the relationship of teamwork to patient perceptions of care among 63 members of 12 oncology teams at a Cancer Centre in the Midwest. Lack of teamwork in cancer care can result in serious clinical errors, fragmentation of care, and poor quality of care. Many oncology team members, highly skilled in clinical care, are not trained to work effectively as members of a care team. The research team administered the Relational Coordination survey to core oncology team members—medical oncologists, nurse coordinators, and clinical secretaries—to measure seven dimensions of team skills (four relating to communication [frequency, timeliness, accuracy, and problem solving] and three relating to relationship [shared goals, shared knowledge, and mutual respect]) averaged to create a Relational Coordination Index. The results indicated that among the team member roles, nurse coordinator relational coordination indices were the strongest and most positively correlated with patient perception of care. Statistically significant correlations were intra-nurse coordinator relational coordination indices and two patient perception of care factors (information and education and patient’s preferences). All other nurse coordinator intra-role as well as inter-role correlations were also positively correlated, although not statistically significant

New CMB Power Spectrum Constraints from MSAMI

We present new cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy results from the combined analysis of the three flights of the first Medium Scale Anisotropy Measurement (MSAM1). This balloon-borne bolometric instrument measured about 10 square degrees of sky at half-degree resolution in 4 frequency bands from 5.2 icm to 20 icm with a high signal-to-noise ratio. Here we present an overview of our analysis methods, compare the results from the three flights, derive new constraints on the CMB power spectrum from the combined data and reduce the data to total-power Wiener-filtered maps of the CMB. A key feature of this new analysis is a determination of the amplitude of CMB fluctuations at $\ell \sim 400$. The analysis technique is described in a companion paper by Knox.Comment: 9 pages, 6 included figure

Relics of the Cosmological QCD Phase Transition

The abundance and size distribution of quark nuggets (QN), formed a few microseconds after the big bang due to first order QCD phase transition in the early universe, has been estimated. It appears that stable QNs could be a viable candidate for cosmological dark matter. The evolution of baryon inhomogeneity due to evaporated (unstable) QNs are also examined.Comment: To appear in Physical Review