The effect of mirabegron on patient-related outcomes in patients with overactive bladder: the results of post hoc correlation and responder analyses using pooled data from three randomized Phase III trials

Purpose To understand how improvements in the symptoms of overactive bladder (OAB) seen with the b3-adrenoceptor agonist mirabegron 50 mg, correlate with patient experience as measured by validated and standard patient-reported outcomes (PROs), and to identify whether there is overall directional consistency in the responsiveness of PROs to treatment effect. Methods In a post hoc analysis of pooled data from three randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, 12-week Phase III trials of mirabegron 50 mg once daily, responder rates for incontinence frequency (C50 % reduction in incontinence episodes/24 h from baseline to final visit), micturition frequency (B8 micturitions/24 h at final visit), and PROs [minimally important differences in patient perception of bladder condition (PPBC) and subsets of the overactive bladder questionnaire (OAB-q) measuring total health-related quality of life (HRQoL), and symptom bother] were evaluated individually and in combination. Results Mirabegron 50 mg demonstrated greater improvement from baseline to final visit than placebo for each of the responder analyses, whether for individual objective and subjective outcomes or combinations thereof. These improvements versus placebo were statistically significant for all double and triple responder analyses and for all single responder analyses except PPBC. PRO measurements showed directional consistency and significant correlations, and there were also significant correlations between objective and subjective measures of efficacy. Conclusions The improvements in objective measures seen with mirabegron 50 mg translate into a meaningful clinical benefit as evident by the directional consistency seen in HRQoL measures of benefit

Plume dynamics of laser-produced swine muscle tissue plasma

11 págs. 8 figs.; 2 tabs.We report on the plume dynamics of the plasma induced by laser ablation of a swine skeletal muscle tissue sample in different vacuum conditions. Pulses from a transversely excited atmospheric CO2 laser were focused onto a target sample and the induced plasma was allowed to expand in different air pressures. The expansion features were studied using fast photography of the overall visible emission by using a gated intensified charged coupled device. Free expansion and plume splitting were observed at different pressure levels. The expansion of the plasma plume front was analyzed using various expansion models and the velocity of the plume front was estimated. The effect of the number of accumulated laser shots on the crater volume at different ambient air pressures and an elemental analysis of the sample were performed using scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy analysis. The surface morphology of the irradiated surface showed that increasing the pressure of the ambient gas decreased the ablated mass, or in other words it reduced significantly the laser-target coupling.The authors gratefully acknowledge the support received in part by the DGICYT (Spain) Project MICINN: CTQ2013-43086 for this research.Peer reviewe

Partition functions and double-trace deformations in AdS/CFT

We study the effect of a relevant double-trace deformation on the partition function (and conformal anomaly) of a CFT at large N and its dual picture in AdS. Three complementary previous results are brought into full agreement with each other: bulk and boundary computations, as well as their formal identity. We show the exact equality between the dimensionally regularized partition functions or, equivalently, fluctuational determinants involved. A series of results then follows: (i) equality between the renormalized partition functions for all d; (ii) for all even d, correction to the conformal anomaly; (iii) for even d, the mapping entails a mixing of UV and IR effects on the same side (bulk) of the duality, with no precedent in the leading order computations; and finally, (iv) a subtle relation between overall coefficients, volume renormalization and IR-UV connection. All in all, we get a clean test of the AdS/CFT correspondence beyond the classical SUGRA approximation in the bulk and at subleading O(1) order in the large-N expansion on the boundary.Comment: 18 pages, uses JHEP3.cls. Published JHEP versio

The Influence of Free Quintessence on Gravitational Frequency Shift and Deflection of Light with 4D momentum

Based on the 4D momentum, the influence of quintessence on the gravitational frequency shift and the deflection of light are examined in modified Schwarzschild space. We find that the frequency of photon depends on the state parameter of quintessence $w_q$: the frequency increases for $-1<w_q<-1/3$ and decreases for $-1/3<w_q<0$. Meanwhile, we adopt an integral power number $a$ ($a = 3\omega_q + 2$) to solve the orbital equation of photon. The photon's potentials become higher with the decrease of $\omega_q$. The behavior of bending light depends on the state parameter $\omega_q$ sensitively. In particular, for the case of $\omega_q = -1$, there is no influence on the deflection of light by quintessence. Else, according to the H-masers of GP-A redshift experiment and the long-baseline interferometry, the constraints on the quintessence field in Solar system are presented here.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, 4 tables. European Physical Journal C in pres

Flavor changing single top quark production channels at e^+e^- colliders in the effective Lagrangian description

We perform a global analysis of the sensitivity of LEP2 and e^+e^- colliders with a c.m. energy in the range 500 - 2000 GeV to new flavor-changing single top quark production in the effective Lagrangian approach. The processes considered are sensitive to new flavor-changing effective vertices such as Ztc, htc, four-Fermi tcee contact terms as well as a right-handed Wtb coupling. We show that e^+ e^- colliders are most sensitive to the physics responsible for the contact tcee vertices. For example, it is found that the recent data from the 189 GeV LEP2 run can be used to rule out any new flavor physics that can generate these four-Fermi operators up to energy scales of \Lambda > 0.7 - 1.4 TeV, depending on the type of the four-Fermi interaction. We also show that a corresponding limit of \Lambda > 1.3 - 2.5 and \Lambda > 17 - 27 TeV can be reached at the future 200 GeV LEP2 run and a 1000 GeV e^+e^- collider, respectively. We note that these limits are much stronger than the typical limits which can be placed on flavor diagonal four-Fermi couplings. Similar results hold for \mu^+\mu^- colliders and for tu(bar) associated production. Finally we briefly comment on the necessity of measuring all flavor-changing effective vertices as they can be produced by different types of heavy physics.Comment: 34 pages, plain latex, 7 figures embadded in the text using epsfig. Added new references and discussions regarding their relevance to the paper. Added more comments on the comparison between flavor-changing and flavor-diagonal contact terms and on the importance of measuring the Ztc verte

Higgs Boson Decay into Hadronic Jets

The remarkable agreement of electroweak data with standard model (SM) predictions motivates the study of extensions of the SM in which the Higgs boson is light and couples in a standard way to the weak gauge bosons. Postulated new light particles should have small couplings to the gauge bosons. Within this context it is natural to assume that the branching fractions of the light SM-like Higgs boson mimic those in the standard model. This assumption may be unwarranted, however, if there are non-standard light particles coupled weakly to the gauge bosons but strongly to the Higgs field. In particular, the Higgs boson may effectively decay into hadronic jets, possibly without important bottom or charm flavor content. As an example, we present a simple extension of the SM, in which the predominant decay of the Higgs boson occurs into a pair of light bottom squarks that, in turn, manifest themselves as hadronic jets. Discovery of the Higgs boson remains possible at an electron-positron linear collider, but prospects at hadron colliders are diminished substantially.Comment: 30 pages, 7 figure

Top-squark searches at the Tevatron in models of low-energy supersymmetry breaking

We study the production and decays of top squarks (stops) at the Tevatron collider in models of low-energy supersymmetry breaking. We consider the case where the lightest Standard Model (SM) superpartner is a light neutralino that predominantly decays into a photon and a light gravitino. Considering the lighter stop to be the next-to-lightest Standard Model superpartner, we analyze stop signatures associated with jets, photons and missing energy, which lead to signals naturally larger than the associated SM backgrounds. We consider both 2-body and 3-body decays of the top squarks and show that the reach of the Tevatron can be significantly larger than that expected within either the standard supergravity models or models of low-energy supersymmetry breaking in which the stop is the lightest SM superpartner. For a modest projection of the final Tevatron luminosity, L = 4 fb-1, stop masses of order 300 GeV are accessible at the Tevatron collider in both 2-body and 3-body decay modes. We also consider the production and decay of ten degenerate squarks that are the supersymmetric partners of the five light quarks. In this case we find that common squark masses up to 360 GeV are easily accessible at the Tevatron collider, and that the reach increases further if the gluino is light.Comment: 32 pages, 9 figures; references adde

Recent experimental results in sub- and near-barrier heavy ion fusion reactions

Recent advances obtained in the field of near and sub-barrier heavy-ion fusion reactions are reviewed. Emphasis is given to the results obtained in the last decade, and focus will be mainly on the experimental work performed concerning the influence of transfer channels on fusion cross sections and the hindrance phenomenon far below the barrier. Indeed, early data of sub-barrier fusion taught us that cross sections may strongly depend on the low-energy collective modes of the colliding nuclei, and, possibly, on couplings to transfer channels. The coupled-channels (CC) model has been quite successful in the interpretation of the experimental evidences. Fusion barrier distributions often yield the fingerprint of the relevant coupled channels. Recent results obtained by using radioactive beams are reported. At deep sub-barrier energies, the slope of the excitation function in a semi-logarithmic plot keeps increasing in many cases and standard CC calculations over-predict the cross sections. This was named a hindrance phenomenon, and its physical origin is still a matter of debate. Recent theoretical developments suggest that this effect, at least partially, may be a consequence of the Pauli exclusion principle. The hindrance may have far-reaching consequences in astrophysics where fusion of light systems determines stellar evolution during the carbon and oxygen burning stages, and yields important information for exotic reactions that take place in the inner crust of accreting neutron stars.Comment: 40 pages, 63 figures, review paper accepted for EPJ