Chiral Transition of N=4 Super Yang-Mills with Flavor on a 3-Sphere

We use the AdS/CFT correspondence to perform a numerical study of a phase transition in strongly-coupled large-Nc N = 4 Super-Yang-Mills theory on a 3-sphere coupled to a finite number Nf of massive N = 2 hypermultiplets in the fundamental representation of the gauge group. The gravity dual system is a number Nf of probe D7-branes embedded in AdS_5 x S^5. We draw the phase diagram for this theory in the plane of hypermultiplet mass versus temperature and identify for temperatures above the Hawking-Page deconfinement temperature a first-order phase transition line across which the chiral condensate jumps discontinuously.Comment: 23 pages, 15 figures, minor corrections, reference added, nine figures improved, no change in results or conclusions; expanded discussion of fixing finite counterterms in section 3.3, figures updated, no changes to conclusion

Distal Renal Tubular Acidosis and Sensorineural Deafness with Mutation in the ATP6V1B1 Gene

A acidose tubular renal distal é uma doença rara, caracterizada pela incapacidade na acidificação da urina, condicionando acidose metabólica hiperclorémica, hipocaliémia, hipercalciúria e nefrocalcinose, o que poderá causar atraso de crescimento, alteração do metabolismo ósseo e insuficiência renal crónica. A acidose tubular renal distal associada a surdez neurossensorial é uma doença de herança autossómica recessiva, causada por mutações do gene que codifica a subunidade B1 da H+ -ATPase (ATP6V1B1). Os autores relatam os casos de duas irmãs que apresentaram má progressão ponderal, alterações iónicas, do equilíbrio ácido base e surdez neurossensorial. Foi detectada em ambas as crianças a mutação homozigótica no gene ATP6V1B1. Com estes dois casos pretende -se destacar a importância de um diagnóstico precoce nesta patologia rara

Cochlear implantation in elderly: indication and results

The aim of the study was to investigate the outcome of CI among elderly cochlear implant recipients. Results from our study have shown that elder patient implanted above 75 yrs can obtain significant hearing benefit from cochlear implantation. Similarly to the results reported by Vermeer1, in our study subjects implanted at elder age show lower scores compared to younger adult implantees

The Role of Center Vortices in QCD

Center vortices are unambiguously identified after Laplacian Center Gauge fixing and their influence on confinement and chiral symmetry breaking is investigated on a sample of SU(2) configurations at zero and finite temperature.Comment: LaTeX, 4 pages, 3 figures, espcrc1.sty. Talk at PANIC '99, Uppsala, Sweden, June 9

Theta dependence of the vacuum energy in the SU(3) gauge theory from the lattice

We report on a precise computation of the topological charge distribution in the SU(3) Yang--Mills theory. It is carried out on the lattice with high statistics Monte Carlo simulations by employing the definition of the topological charge suggested by Neuberger's fermions. We observe significant deviations from a Gaussian distribution. Our results disfavour the theta behaviour of the vacuum energy predicted by instanton models, while they are compatible with the expectation from the large Nc expansion.Comment: Plain latex, 4 pages, 2 figure

The distribution of equivalent widths in long GRB afterglow spectra

The extreme brightness of gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows and their simple spectral shape make them ideal beacons to study the interstellar medium of their host galaxies through absorption line spectroscopy. Using 69 low-resolution GRB afterglow spectra, we conduct a study of the rest-frame equivalent width (EW) distribution of features with an average rest-frame EW larger than 0.5 A. To compare an individual GRB with the sample, we develop EW diagrams as a graphical tool, and we give a catalogue with diagrams for the 69 spectra. We introduce a line strength parameter (LSP) that allows us to quantify the strength of the absorption features as compared to the sample by a single number. Using the distributions of EWs of single-species features, we derive the distribution of column densities by a curve of growth (CoG) fit. We find correlations between the LSP and the extinction of the GRB, the UV brightness of the host galaxies and the neutral hydrogen column density. However, we see no significant evolution of the LSP with the redshift. There is a weak correlation between the ionisation of the absorbers and the energy of the GRB, indicating that, either the GRB event is responsible for part of the ionisation, or that galaxies with high-ionisation media produce more energetic GRBs. Spectral features in GRB spectra are, on average, 2.5 times stronger than those seen in QSO intervening damped Lyman-alpha (DLA) systems and slightly more ionised. In particular we find larger excess in the EW of CIV1549 relative to QSO DLAs, which could be related to an excess of Wolf-Rayet stars in the environments of GRBs. From the CoG fitting we obtain an average number of components in the absorption features of GRBs of 6.00(-1.25,+1.00). The most extreme ionisation ratios in our sample are found for GRBs with low neutral hydrogen column density, which could be related to ionisation by the GRB emission.Comment: 37 pages, 31 figures, 15 tables. Accepted for publication in Astonomy and Astrophysic

Holographic Roberge-Weiss Transitions

We investigate N=4 SYM coupled to fundamental flavours at nonzero imaginary quark chemical potential in the strong coupling and large N limit, using gauge/gravity duality applied to the D3-D7 system, treating flavours in the probe approximation. The interplay between Z(N) symmetry and the imaginary chemical potential yields a series of first-order Roberge-Weiss transitions. An additional thermal transition separates phases where quarks are bound/unbound into mesons. This results in a set of Roberge-Weiss endpoints: we establish that these are triple points, determine the Roberge-Weiss temperature, give the curvature of the phase boundaries and confirm that the theory is analytic in mu^2 when mu^2~0.Comment: 37 pages, 13 figures; minor comments added, to appear in JHE

Simultaneous sinus lift and implant placement using lateral approach in atrophic posterior maxilla with residual bone height of 5 mm or less. A systematic review

Aim To test both success and survival rate of implant placed simultaneously with sinus lift in atro-phic posterior maxilla with a residual bone height of less than 5 mm. Materials and methods A computer search strategy was developed for the following electronic databases: MEDLINE/ PubMed and EMBASE. All the relevant articles were screened involving controlled clinical trials, randomized clinical trials, prospective cohort studies. Results The selection process yielded 12 studies, published between 1999 and 2016, 6 of which were prospective, 1 was a randomized controlled trial, 5 were controlled studies. Conclusions Within the limitation of this systematic review, the qualitative data analysis revealed that the survival rate of implants placed in grafted sinus ranged from 61% to 100%; on the other hand, the success rate ranged between 75.3% to 94.8%. No significant differences were detected regarding different grafting materials used. In order to understand if the one-stage pro-cedure is an effective and predictable surgical alternative in critically resorbed maxillae, larger and well designed clinical trials are needed

Time-dependent excitation and ionization modelling of absorption-line variability due to GRB 080310

We model the time-variable absorption of FeII, FeIII, SiII, CII and CrII detected in UVES spectra of GRB 080310, with the afterglow radiation exciting and ionizing the interstellar medium in the host galaxy at a redshift of z=2.42743. To estimate the rest-frame afterglow brightness as a function of time, we use a combination of the optical VRI photometry obtained by the RAPTOR-T telescope array -- which are presented in this paper -- and Swift's X-Ray Telescope observations. Excitation alone, which has been successfully applied for a handful of other GRBs, fails to describe the observed column-density evolution in the case of GRB 080310. Inclusion of ionization is required to explain the column-density decrease of all observed FeII levels (including the ground state 6D9/2) and increase of the FeIII 7S3 level. The large population of ions in this latter level (up to 10% of all FeIII) can only be explained through ionization of FeII, whereby a large fraction of the ionized FeII ions -- we calculate 31% using the Flexible Atomic (FAC) and Cowan codes -- initially populate the 7S3 level of FeIII rather than the ground state. This channel for producing a significant FeIII 7S3 level population may be relevant for other objects in which absorption lines from this level -- the UV34 triplet -- are observed, such as BAL quasars and Eta Carinae. This provides conclusive evidence for time-variable ionization in the circumburst medium, which to date has not been convincingly detected. However, the best-fit distance of the neutral absorbing cloud to the GRB is 200--400 pc, i.e. similar to GRB-absorber distance estimates for GRBs without any evidence for ionization. We find that the presence of time-varying ionization in GRB 080310 is likely due to a combination of the super-solar iron abundance ([Fe/H]=+0.2) and the low HI column density (log N(HI)=18.7). [abridged]Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures; accepted for publication in A&A (on August 8, 2012