Cosmic strings from pseudo-anomalous Fayet-Iliopoulos U(1) in D3/D7 brane inflation

We examine the consequences of recent developments on Fayet-Iliopoulos (FI) terms for D-term inflationary models. There is currently no known way to couple constant FI terms to supergravity consistently; only field-dependent FI terms are allowed. These are natural in string theory and we argue that the FI term in D3/D7 inflation turns out to be of this type, corresponding to a pseudo-anomalous U(1). T he anomaly is canceled by the Green-Schwarz mechanism in 4 dimensions. Inflation proceeds as usual, except that the scale is set by the GS parameter. Cosmic strings resulting from a pseudo-anomalous U(1) have potentially interesting characteristics. Originally expected to be global, they turn out to be local in the string theory context and can support currents. We outline the nature of these strings, discuss bounds on their formation, and summarize resulting cosmological consequences.Comment: 10 pages; minor changes to match published versio

Risk Factors for Bloodstream Infections Among an Urban Population with Skin and Soft Tissue Infections: A Retrospective Unmatched Case-Control Study

Introduction: The prevalence of acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections (ABSSSIs) continues to increase. Bloodstream infection (BSI) is a severe secondary complication of ABSSSI. The objective of this study was to determine clinical and sociodemographic risk factors for BSI in patients with acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections (ABSSSIs) and to determine if sociodemographic factors impact severity at presentation. Methods This was a retrospective unmatched (1:1) case-control study. Predictors of BSI and severe infection were sought through multivariable logistic regression analyses. Cases and controls were collected from two major medical centers located in downtown Detroit, Michigan: the Detroit Medical Center and the Henry Ford Health System. The population of interest included adult patients with community-onset (CO) ABSSSI treated at a participating hospital between January 2010 and December 2015. Cases were defined as those developing BSI within 48 h of admission with CO-ABSSSI as the primary source, while controls were those with CO-ABSSSI without BSI. Results A total of 392 patients (196 cases, 196 controls) were included. Independent predictors of BSI were male gender (aOR 1.85: 95% CI 1.11, 3.66), acute renal failure (aOR 2.08: 95% CI 1.18, 3.66), intravenous drug use (aOR 4.38, 95% CI 2.22, 8.62), and prior hospitalization (aOR 2.41, 95% CI 1.24, 4.93). African American race (aOR 2.18, 95% CI 1.38, 3.4), leukocytosis (aOR 2.24, 95% CI 1.41, 3.55), and prior hospitalization (aOR 2.07, 95% CI 1.19, 3.00) were significantly associated with infection severity. Conclusion Both clinical and sociodemographic factors were associated with BSI and severe infection underscoring the importance of social determinants of health in outcomes among underserved populations

Huntington's disease phenocopies are clinically and genetically heterogeneous

Huntington's disease (HD) classically presents with movement disorder, cognitive dysfunction and behavioral problems but is phenotypically variable. One percent of patients with HD-like symptoms lack the causative mutation and are considered HD phenocopies. Genetic diseases known to cause HD phenocopies include HD-like syndromes HDL1, HDL2, and HDL4 (SCA17). HD has phenotypic overlap with dentatorubral-pallidoluysian atrophy, the spinocerebellar ataxias and neuroferritinopathy. Identifying the genetic basis of HD phenocopies is important for diagnosis and may inform the search for HD genetic modifiers. We sought to identify neurogenetic diagnoses in the largest reported cohort of HD phenocopy patients. Two hundred eighty-five patients with syndromes consistent with HD, who were HD expansion-negative, were screened for mutations in PRNP, JPH3, TBP, DRPLA, SCA1, SCA2, SCA3, FTL and FRDA. Genetic diagnoses were made in 8 subjects: we identified 5 cases of HDL4, 1 of HDL1 and 1 of HDL2. One patient had Friedreich's ataxia. There were no cases of DRPLA, SCA1, SCA2, SCA3, or neuroferritinopathy. HD phenocopies are clinically and genetically diverse and a definitive genetic diagnosis is currently possible in only a minority of cases. When undertaken, it should be clinically directed and patients and clinicians should be prepared for the low probability of reaching a genetic diagnosis in this group of patients. (c) 2008 Movement Disorder Society

Dynamical tunneling in molecules: Quantum routes to energy flow

Dynamical tunneling, introduced in the molecular context, is more than two decades old and refers to phenomena that are classically forbidden but allowed by quantum mechanics. On the other hand the phenomenon of intramolecular vibrational energy redistribution (IVR) has occupied a central place in the field of chemical physics for a much longer period of time. Although the two phenomena seem to be unrelated several studies indicate that dynamical tunneling, in terms of its mechanism and timescales, can have important implications for IVR. Examples include the observation of local mode doublets, clustering of rotational energy levels, and extremely narrow vibrational features in high resolution molecular spectra. Both the phenomena are strongly influenced by the nature of the underlying classical phase space. This work reviews the current state of understanding of dynamical tunneling from the phase space perspective and the consequences for intramolecular vibrational energy flow in polyatomic molecules.Comment: 37 pages and 23 figures (low resolution); Int. Rev. Phys. Chem. (Review to appear in Oct. 2007

Collapse of a Bose gas: kinetic approach

We have analytically explored temperature dependence of critical number of particles for the collapse of a harmonically trapped attractively interacting Bose gas below the condensation point by introducing a kinetic approach within the Hartree-Fock approximation. The temperature dependence obtained by this easy approach is consisted with that obtained from the scaling theory.Comment: Brief Report, 4 pages, 1 figure, Accepted in Pramana-Journal of Physic

Moving from evidence-based medicine to evidence-based health.

While evidence-based medicine (EBM) has advanced medical practice, the health care system has been inconsistent in translating EBM into improvements in health. Disparities in health and health care play out through patients' limited ability to incorporate the advances of EBM into their daily lives. Assisting patients to self-manage their chronic conditions and paying attention to unhealthy community factors could be added to EBM to create a broader paradigm of evidence-based health. A perspective of evidence-based health may encourage physicians to consider their role in upstream efforts to combat socially patterned chronic disease

Surface Characterisation Based Tool Wear Monitoring in Peripheral milling

The progress of surface metrology in the last decade has led to improved 3D characterisation of surfaces which offers the possibility of monitoring manufacturing operations to give highly detailed information regarding the machine tool condition. This paper presents a case study where areal surface characterisation is used to monitor tool wear in peripheral milling. Due to the fact that tool wear has a direct effect on the machined workpiece surface, the machined surface topography contains much information concerning the machining conditions including the tool wear state. Through analysing the often subtle changes in the surface topography the tool wear state can be highlighted. This paper utilises areal surface characterization, areal auto-correlation function (AACF) and pattern analysis to illustrate the effect of tool wear on the workpiece surface. The result shows that: (1) tool wear, previously difficult to detect will influence almost all of the areal surface parameters; (2) the pattern features of AACF spectrum can reflect the subtle surface texture variation with increasing tool wear. The authors consider that, combined analysis of the surface roughness and its AACF spectrum are a good choice for monitoring the tool wear state especially with the latest developments in on-machine surface metrology

Reconstruction of Demand Shocks in Input-Output Networks

Input-Output analysis describes the dependence of production, demand and trade between sectors and regions and allows to understand the propagation of economic shocks through economic networks. A central challenge in practical applications is the availability of data. Observations may be limited to the impact of the shocks in few sectors, but a complete picture of the origin and impacts would be highly desirable to guide political countermeasures. In this article we demonstrate that a shock in the final demand in few sectors can be fully reconstructed from limited observations of production changes. We adapt three algorithms from sparse signal recovery and evaluate their performance and their robustness to observation uncertainties.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, conference proceeding for CompleNet 202

An Efficient Method of Modeling Material Properties Using a Thermal Diffusion Analogy: An Example Based on Craniofacial Bone

The ability to incorporate detailed geometry into finite element models has allowed researchers to investigate the influence of morphology on performance aspects of skeletal components. This advance has also allowed researchers to explore the effect of different material models, ranging from simple (e.g., isotropic) to complex (e.g., orthotropic), on the response of bone. However, bone's complicated geometry makes it difficult to incorporate complex material models into finite element models of bone. This difficulty is due to variation in the spatial orientation of material properties throughout bone. Our analysis addresses this problem by taking full advantage of a finite element program's ability to solve thermal-structural problems. Using a linear relationship between temperature and modulus, we seeded specific nodes of the finite element model with temperatures. We then used thermal diffusion to propagate the modulus throughout the finite element model. Finally, we solved for the mechanical response of the finite element model to the applied loads and constraints. We found that using the thermal diffusion analogy to control the modulus of bone throughout its structure provides a simple and effective method of spatially varying modulus. Results compare favorably against both experimental data and results from an FE model that incorporated a complex (orthotropic) material model. This method presented will allow researchers the ability to easily incorporate more material property data into their finite element models in an effort to improve the model's accuracy