228 research outputs found
D3 branes in a Melvin universe: a new realm for gravitational holography
The decoupling limit of a certain configuration of D3 branes in a Melvin
universe defines a sector of string theory known as Puff Field Theory (PFT) - a
theory with non-local dynamics but without gravity. In this work, we present a
systematic analysis of the non-local states of strongly coupled PFT using
gravitational holography. And we are led to a remarkable new holographic
dictionary. We show that the theory admits states that may be viewed as brane
protrusions from the D3 brane worldvolume. The footprint of a protrusion has
finite size - the scale of non-locality in the PFT - and corresponds to an
operator insertion in the PFT. We compute correlators of these states, and we
demonstrate that only part of the holographic bulk is explored by this
computation. We then show that the remaining space holographically encodes the
dynamics of the D3 brane tentacles. The two sectors are coupled: in this
holographic description, this is realized via quantum entanglement across a
holographic screen - a throat in the geometry - that splits the bulk into the
two regions in question. We then propose a description of PFT through a direct
product of two Fock spaces - akin to other non-local settings that employ
quantum group structures.Comment: 44 pages, 13 figures; v2: minor corrections, citations added; v3:
typos corrected in section on local operators, some asymptotic expansions
improved and made more consistent with rest of paper in section on non-local
operator
Heavy Fermion Quantum Effects in SU(2)_L Gauge Theory
We explore the effects of a heavy fermion doublet in a simplified version of
the standard electroweak theory. We integrate out the doublet and compute the
exact effective energy functional of spatially varying gauge and Higgs fields.
We perform a variational search for a local minimum of the effective energy and
do not find evidence for a soliton carrying the quantum numbers of the
decoupled fermion doublet. The fermion vacuum polarization energy offsets the
gain in binding energy previously argued to be sufficient to stabilize a
fermionic soliton. The existence of such a soliton would have been a natural
way to maintain anomaly cancellation at the level of the states. We also see
that the sphaleron energy is significantly increased due to the quantum
corrections of the heavy doublet. We find that when the doublet is slightly
heavier than the quantum--corrected sphaleron, its decay is exponentially
suppressed owing to a new barrier. This barrier exists only for an intermediate
range of fermion masses, and a heavy enough doublet is indeed unstable.Comment: 30 pages LaTeX, 3 eps-figure
2+1 Dimensional Georgi-Glashow Instantons in Weyl Gauge
Semiclassical instanton solutions in the 3D SU(2) Georgi-Glashow model are
transformed into the Weyl gauge. This illustrates the tunneling interpretation
of these instantons and provides a smooth regularization of the singular
unitary gauge. The 3D Georgi-Glashow model has both instanton and sphaleron
solutions, in contrast to 3D Yang-Mills theory which has neither, and 4D
Yang-Mills theory which has instantons but no sphaleron, and 4D electroweak
theory which has a sphaleron but no instantons. We also discuss the spectral
flow picture of fundamental fermions in a Georgi-Glashow instanton background.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figures, revtex4; v2 - references and comments adde
On the issue of imposing boundary conditions on quantum fields
An interesting example of the deep interrelation between Physics and
Mathematics is obtained when trying to impose mathematical boundary conditions
on physical quantum fields. This procedure has recently been re-examined with
care. Comments on that and previous analysis are here provided, together with
considerations on the results of the purely mathematical zeta-function method,
in an attempt at clarifying the issue. Hadamard regularization is invoked in
order to fill the gap between the infinities appearing in the QFT renormalized
results and the finite values obtained in the literature with other procedures.Comment: 13 pages, no figure
Derivation, validation, and clinical relevance of a pediatric sepsis phenotype with persistent hypoxemia, encephalopathy, and shock
OBJECTIVES: Untangling the heterogeneity of sepsis in children and identifying clinically relevant phenotypes could lead to the development of targeted therapies. Our aim was to analyze the organ dysfunction trajectories of children with sepsis-associated multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) to identify reproducible and clinically relevant sepsis phenotypes and determine if they are associated with heterogeneity of treatment effect (HTE) to common therapies.
DESIGN: Multicenter observational cohort study.
SETTING: Thirteen PICUs in the United States.
PATIENTS: Patients admitted with suspected infections to the PICU between 2012 and 2018.
INTERVENTIONS: None.
MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: We used subgraph-augmented nonnegative matrix factorization to identify candidate trajectory-based phenotypes based on the type, severity, and progression of organ dysfunction in the first 72 hours. We analyzed the candidate phenotypes to determine reproducibility as well as prognostic, therapeutic, and biological relevance. Overall, 38,732 children had suspected infection, of which 15,246 (39.4%) had sepsis-associated MODS with an in-hospital mortality of 10.1%. We identified an organ dysfunction trajectory-based phenotype (which we termed persistent hypoxemia, encephalopathy, and shock) that was highly reproducible, had features of systemic inflammation and coagulopathy, and was independently associated with higher mortality. In a propensity score-matched analysis, patients with persistent hypoxemia, encephalopathy, and shock phenotype appeared to have HTE and benefit from adjuvant therapy with hydrocortisone and albumin. When compared with other high-risk clinical syndromes, the persistent hypoxemia, encephalopathy, and shock phenotype only overlapped with 50%-60% of patients with septic shock, moderate-to-severe pediatric acute respiratory distress syndrome, or those in the top tier of organ dysfunction burden, suggesting that it represents a nonsynonymous clinical phenotype of sepsis-associated MODS.
CONCLUSIONS: We derived and validated the persistent hypoxemia, encephalopathy, and shock phenotype, which is highly reproducible, clinically relevant, and associated with HTE to common adjuvant therapies in children with sepsis
Early Use of Adjunctive Therapies for Pediatric Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome:A PARDIE Study
Rationale: Few data exist to guide early adjunctive therapy use in pediatric acute respiratory distress syndrome (PARDS). Objectives: To describe contemporary use of adjunctive therapies for early PARDS as a framework for future investigations. Methods: This was a preplanned substudy of a prospective, international, cross-sectional observational study of children with PARDS from 100 centers over 10 study weeks. Measurements and Main Results: We investigated six adjunctive therapies for PARDS: continuous neuromuscular blockade, corticosteroids, inhaled nitric oxide (iNO), prone positioning, high-frequency oscillatory ventilation (HFOV), and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. Almost half (45%) of children with PARDS received at least one therapy. Variability was noted in the median starting oxygenation index of each therapy; corticosteroids started at the lowest oxygenation index (13.0; interquartile range, 7.6â22.0) and HFOV at the highest (25.7; interquartile range, 16.7â37.3). Continuous neuromuscular blockade was the most common, used in 31%, followed by iNO (13%), corticosteroids (10%), prone positioning (10%), HFOV (9%), and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (3%). Steroids, iNO, and HFOV were associated with comorbidities. Prone positioning and HFOV were more common in middle-income countries and less frequently used in North America. The use of multiple ancillary therapies increased over the first 3 days of PARDS, but there was not an easily identifiable pattern of combination or order of use. Conclusions: The contemporary description of prevalence, combinations of therapies, and oxygenation threshold for which the therapies are applied is important for design of future studies. Region of the world, income, and comorbidities influence adjunctive therapy use and are important variables to include in PARDS investigations
Tacit collusion, firm asymmetries and numbers:evidence from EC merger cases
The purpose of this paper is to identify empirically the implicit structural model, especially the roles of size asymmetries and concentration, used by the European Commission to identify mergers with coordinated effects (i.e. collective dominance). Apart from its obvious policy-relevance, the paper is designed to shed empirical light on the conditions under which tacit collusion is most likely. We construct a database relating to 62 candidate mergers and find that, in the eyes of the Commission, tacit collusion in this context virtually never involves more than two firms and requires close symmetry in the market shares of the two firms
Predicting Mortality in Children With Pediatric Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome:A Pediatric Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Incidence and Epidemiology Study
OBJECTIVES: Pediatric acute respiratory distress syndrome is heterogeneous, with a paucity of risk stratification tools to assist with trial design. We aimed to develop and validate mortality prediction models for patients with pediatric acute respiratory distress syndrome. DESIGN: Leveraging additional data collection from a preplanned ancillary study (Version 1) of the multinational Pediatric Acute Respiratory Distress syndrome Incidence and Epidemiology study, we identified predictors of mortality. Separate models were built for the entire Version 1 cohort, for the cohort excluding neurologic deaths, for intubated subjects, and for intubated subjects excluding neurologic deaths. Models were externally validated in a cohort of intubated pediatric acute respiratory distress syndrome patients from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. SETTING: The derivation cohort represented 100 centers worldwide; the validation cohort was from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. PATIENTS: There were 624 and 640 subjects in the derivation and validation cohorts, respectively. INTERVENTIONS: None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The model for the full cohort included immunocompromised status, Pediatric Logistic Organ Dysfunction 2 score, day 0 vasopressor-inotrope score and fluid balance, and PaO2/FIO2 6 hours after pediatric acute respiratory distress syndrome onset. This model had good discrimination (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve 0.82), calibration, and internal validation. Models excluding neurologic deaths, for intubated subjects, and for intubated subjects excluding neurologic deaths also demonstrated good discrimination (all area under the receiver operating characteristic curve â„ 0.84) and calibration. In the validation cohort, models for intubated pediatric acute respiratory distress syndrome (including and excluding neurologic deaths) had excellent discrimination (both area under the receiver operating characteristic curve â„ 0.85), but poor calibration. After revision, the model for all intubated subjects remained miscalibrated, whereas the model excluding neurologic deaths showed perfect calibration. Mortality models also stratified ventilator-free days at 28 days in both derivation and validation cohorts. CONCLUSIONS: We describe predictive models for mortality in pediatric acute respiratory distress syndrome using readily available variables from day 0 of pediatric acute respiratory distress syndrome which outperform severity of illness scores and which demonstrate utility for composite outcomes such as ventilator-free days. Models can assist with risk stratification for clinical trials
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