2,236 research outputs found
Conformal weights in the Kerr/CFT correspondence
It has been conjectured that a near-extreme Kerr black hole is described by a
2d CFT. Previous work has shown that CFT operators dual to axisymmetric
gravitational perturbations have integer conformal weights. In this paper, we
study the analogous problem in 5d. We consider the most general near-extreme
vacuum black hole with two rotational symmetries. This includes Myers-Perry
black holes, black rings and Kaluza-Klein black holes. We find that operators
dual to gravitational (or electromagnetic or massless scalar field)
perturbations preserving both rotational symmetries have integer conformal
weights, the same for all black holes considered.Comment: 19 page
Stable non-uniform black strings below the critical dimension
The higher-dimensional vacuum Einstein equation admits translationally
non-uniform black string solutions. It has been argued that infinitesimally
non-uniform black strings should be unstable in 13 or fewer dimensions and
otherwise stable. We construct numerically non-uniform black string solutions
in 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 dimensions. Their stability is investigated using
local Penrose inequalities. Weakly non-uniform solutions behave as expected.
However, in 12 and 13 dimensions, strongly non-uniform solutions appear to be
stable and can have greater horizon area than a uniform string of the same
mass. In 14 and 15 dimensions all non-uniform black strings appear to be
stable.Comment: 26 pages, 11 figures. V2: reference added, matches published versio
Protozoan and metazoan parasites of Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus cultured in Brazil
ABSTRACT
Objective. This study describes the parasitic fauna and relative condition factor (Kn) in Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus L. (Cichlidae) from fish farms in the State of Amapá. Material and methods. 123 fish from four fish farms in the state of Amapá, Brazil were necropsied for parasitological and Kn analysis. Results. 64.2% of the examined fish, had the gills infected with Cichlidogyrus tilapiae Paperna, 1960 (Monogenoidea: Dactylogyridae); Ichthyophthirius multifiliis Fouquet, 1876 (Protozoa: Ciliophora), Trichodina Ehrenberg, 1830 and Paratrichodina africana Kazubski & El-Tantawy, 1986 (Protozoa: Trichodinidae). The highest prevalence found corresponded to Monogenoidea C. tilapiae while the lowest corresponded to Trichodinidae. However, I. multifiliis was the parasite that presented the greatest intensity and abundance. The differences found in the infection rates of the different fish farms due to causes further discussed. The parasitism did not influence the relative condition factor (Kn) of fish. This was the first record of P. africana in Brazil and occurred in the Eastern Amazon. Conclusions. In Brazil, Lamproglena sp. is an emerging parasite in the Southern and Southeastern regions, but this crustacean was not found in the Nile tilapia in the State of Amapá. The parasitic infections in Nile tilapia farmed in Brazil are caused by protozoan, monogenoidea, crustacea and digenea species, and the regional differences on their prevalence and intensity rates are discussed in this study
Axion Protection from Flavor
The QCD axion fails to solve the strong CP problem unless all explicit PQ
violating, Planck-suppressed, dimension n<10 operators are forbidden or have
exponentially small coefficients. We show that all theories with a QCD axion
contain an irreducible source of explicit PQ violation which is proportional to
the determinant of the Yukawa interaction matrix of colored fermions.
Generically, this contribution is of low operator dimension and will
drastically destabilize the axion potential, so its suppression is a necessary
condition for solving the strong CP problem. We propose a mechanism whereby the
PQ symmetry is kept exact up to n=12 with the help of the very same flavor
symmetries which generate the hierarchical quark masses and mixings of the SM.
This "axion flavor protection" is straightforwardly realized in theories which
employ radiative fermion mass generation and grand unification. A universal
feature of this construction is that the heavy quark Yukawa couplings are
generated at the PQ breaking scale.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figure
Performance of Model-Based Network Meta-Analysis (MBNMA) of Time-Course Relationships : A Simulation Study
String theoretic QCD axions in the light of PLANCK and BICEP2
The QCD axion solving the strong CP problem may originate from antisymmetric
tensor gauge fields in compactified string theory, with a decay constant around
the GUT scale. Such possibility appears to be ruled out now by the detection of
tensor modes by BICEP2 and the PLANCK constraints on isocurvature density
perturbations. A more interesting and still viable possibility is that the
string theoretic QCD axion is charged under an anomalous U(1)_A gauge symmetry.
In such case, the axion decay constant can be much lower than the GUT scale if
moduli are stabilized near the point of vanishing Fayet-Illiopoulos term, and
U(1)_A-charged matter fields get a vacuum value far below the GUT scale due to
a tachyonic SUSY breaking scalar mass. We examine the symmetry breaking pattern
of such models during the inflationary epoch with the Hubble expansion rate
10^{14} GeV, and identify the range of the QCD axion decay constant, as well as
the corresponding relic axion abundance, consistent with known cosmological
constraints. In addition to the case that the PQ symmetry is restored during
inflation, there are other viable scenarios, including that the PQ symmetry is
broken during inflation at high scales around 10^{16}-10^{17} GeV due to a
large Hubble-induced tachyonic scalar mass from the U(1)_A D-term, while the
present axion scale is in the range 10^{9}-5\times 10^{13} GeV, where the
present value larger than 10^{12} GeV requires a fine-tuning of the axion
misalignment angle. We also discuss the implications of our results for the
size of SUSY breaking soft masses.Comment: 29 pages, 1 figure; v3: analysis updated including the full
anharmonic effects, references added, version accepted for publication in
JHE
Power grip, pinch grip, manual muscle testing or thenar atrophy - which should be assessed as a motor outcome after carpal tunnel decompression? A systematic review
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Objective assessment of motor function is frequently used to evaluate outcome after surgical treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). However a range of outcome measures are used and there appears to be no consensus on which measure of motor function effectively captures change. The purpose of this systematic review was to identify the methods used to assess motor function in randomized controlled trials of surgical interventions for CTS. A secondary aim was to evaluate which instruments reflect clinical change and are psychometrically robust.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The bibliographic databases Medline, AMED and CINAHL were searched for randomized controlled trials of surgical interventions for CTS. Data on instruments used, methods of assessment and results of tests of motor function was extracted by two independent reviewers.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Twenty-two studies were retrieved which included performance based assessments of motor function. Nineteen studies assessed power grip dynamometry, fourteen studies used both power and pinch grip dynamometry, eight used manual muscle testing and five assessed the presence or absence of thenar atrophy. Several studies used multiple tests of motor function. Two studies included both power and pinch strength and reported descriptive statistics enabling calculation of effect sizes to compare the relative responsiveness of grip and pinch strength within study samples. The study findings suggest that tip pinch is more responsive than lateral pinch or power grip up to 12 weeks following surgery for CTS.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Although used most frequently and known to be reliable, power and key pinch dynamometry are not the most valid or responsive tools for assessing motor outcome up to 12 weeks following surgery for CTS. Tip pinch dynamometry more specifically targets the thenar musculature and appears to be more responsive. Manual muscle testing, which in theory is most specific to the thenar musculature, may be more sensitive if assessed using a hand held dynamometer – the Rotterdam Intrinsic Handheld Myometer. However further research is needed to evaluate its reliability and responsiveness and establish the most efficient and psychometrically robust method of evaluating motor function following surgery for CTS.</p
The anomalous U(1) global symmetry and flavors from an SU(5) x SU(5) GUT in orbifold compactification
In string compactifications, frequently there appears the anomalous U(1)
gauge symmetry which belonged to E8E8 of the heterotic string. This
anomalous U(1) gauge boson obtains mass at the compactification scale, just
below GeV, by absorbing one pseudoscalar (corresponding to the
model-independent axion) from the second rank anti-symmetric tensor field
.
Below the compactification scale, there results a global symmetry U(1) whose charge is the original gauge U(1) charge. This is
the most natural global symmetry, realizing the "invisible" axion. This global
symmetry U(1) is suitable for a flavor symmetry. In the simplest
compactification model with the flipped SU(5) grand unification, we calculate
all the low energy parameters in terms of the vacuum expectation values of the
standard model singlets.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figur
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