Solitons in a Baby-Skyrme model with invariance under area preserving diffeomorphisms

We study the properties of soliton solutions in an analog of the Skyrme model in 2+1 dimensions whose Lagrangian contains the Skyrme term and the mass term, but no usual kinetic term. The model admits a symmetry under area preserving diffeomorphisms. We solve the dynamical equations of motion analytically for the case of spinning isolated baryon type solitons. We take fully into account the induced deformation of the spinning Skyrmions and the consequent modification of its moment of inertia to give an analytical example of related numerical behaviour found by Piette et al.. We solve the equations of motion also for the case of an infinite, open string, and a closed annular string. In each case, the solitons are of finite extent, so called "compactons", being exactly the vacuum outside a compact region. We end with indications on the scattering of baby-Skyrmions, as well as some considerations as the properties of solitons on a curved space.Comment: 30 pages, 5 figures, revtex, major modifications, conclusions modifie

Ludii -- The Ludemic General Game System

While current General Game Playing (GGP) systems facilitate useful research in Artificial Intelligence (AI) for game-playing, they are often somewhat specialised and computationally inefficient. In this paper, we describe the "ludemic" general game system Ludii, which has the potential to provide an efficient tool for AI researchers as well as game designers, historians, educators and practitioners in related fields. Ludii defines games as structures of ludemes -- high-level, easily understandable game concepts -- which allows for concise and human-understandable game descriptions. We formally describe Ludii and outline its main benefits: generality, extensibility, understandability and efficiency. Experimentally, Ludii outperforms one of the most efficient Game Description Language (GDL) reasoners, based on a propositional network, in all games available in the Tiltyard GGP repository. Moreover, Ludii is also competitive in terms of performance with the more recently proposed Regular Boardgames (RBG) system, and has various advantages in qualitative aspects such as generality.Comment: Accepted at ECAI 202

Soliton-potential interaction in the nonlinear Klein-Gordon model

The interaction of solitons with external potentials in nonlinear Klein-Gordon field theory is investigated using an improved model. The presented model has been constructed with a better approximation for adding the potential to the Lagrangian through the metric of background space-time. The results of the model are compared with another model and the differences are discussed.Comment: 14 pages,8 figure

Karyology of three evolutionarily hexaploid southern African species of yellowfish, Labeobarbus Rüppel, 1836 (Cyprinidae)

The karyotypes of three species of yellowfish, namely Labeobarbus marequensis (A. Smith, 1841), L. capensis (A. Smith, 1841) and L. polylepis (Boulenger, 1907), were examined by Giemsa staining using an approach improved for the description of high chromosome numbers. In each case, 2n = 150; no heteromorphic chromosomes were detected; chromosomes in all morphological categories ranged smoothly from large to small, with no distinctly large submetacentric pairs; and metacentric chromosomes showed little variation in size. Labeobarbus marequensis had 26 metacentric (m), 44 submetacentric (sm), 42 subtelocentric (st) and 38 acrocentric (a) chromosomes and a fundamental number (FN) of 262; L. capensis had 16 m, 58 sm, 42 st and 34 a chromosomes and FN = 266; and L. polylepis had 18 m, 60 sm, 42 st and 30 a chromosomes and FN = 270. These results, combined with published literature, imply that Labeobarbus Rüppel, 1836 is an evolutionarily hexaploid African lineage and support its removal from synonymy with the evolutionarily tetraploid Asian genus Tor Gray, 1834. A review of fundamental numbers for conspecific Labeobarbus species examined in different studies implicated karyological technique as a confounding factor in assessing details of karyotypes, leading to recommendations for future karyological studies of barbine fishes. Potential synapomorphies are pointed out in karyological characters of species within Labeobarbus

The Casimir energy of skyrmions in the 2+1-dimensional O(3)-model

One-loop quantum corrections to the classical vortices in 2+1 dimensional O(3)-models are evaluated. Skyrme and Zeeman potential terms are used to stabilize the size of topological solitons. Contributions from zero modes, bound-states and scattering phase-shifts are calculated for vortices with winding index n=1 and n=2. For both cases the S-matrix shows a pronounced series of resonances for magnon-vortex scattering in analogy to the well-established baryon resonances in hadron physics, while vortices with n>2 are already classically unstable against decay. The quantum corrections destabilize the classically bound n=2 configuration. Approximate independence of the results with respect to changes in the renormalization scale is demonstrated.Comment: 24 pages LaTeX, 14 figure

Collision-Induced Decay of Metastable Baby Skyrmions

Many extensions of the standard model predict heavy metastable particles which may be modeled as solitons (skyrmions of the Higgs field), relating their particle number to a winding number. Previous work has shown that the electroweak interactions admit processes in which these solitons decay, violating standard model baryon number. We motivate the hypothesis that baryon-number-violating decay is a generic outcome of collisions between these heavy particles. We do so by exploring a 2+1 dimensional theory which also possesses metastable skyrmions. We use relaxation techniques to determine the size, shape and energy of static solitons in their ground state. These solitons could decay by quantum mechanical tunneling. Classically, they are metastable: only a finite excitation energy is required to induce their decay. We attempt to induce soliton decay in a classical simulation by colliding pairs of solitons. We analyze the collision of solitons with varying inherent stabilities and varying incident velocities and orientations. Our results suggest that winding-number violating decay is a generic outcome of collisions. All that is required is sufficient (not necessarily very large) incident velocity; no fine-tuning of initial conditions is required.Comment: 24 pages, 7 figures, latex. Very small changes onl

Supersymmetric WZW σ\sigma Model on Full and Half Plane

We study classical integrability of the supersymmetric U(N) $\sigma$ model with the Wess-Zumino-Witten term on full and half plane. We demonstrate the existence of nonlocal conserved currents of the model and derive general recursion relations for the infinite number of the corresponding charges in a superfield framework. The explicit form of the first few supersymmetric charges are constructed. We show that the considered model is integrable on full plane as a concequence of the conservation of the supersymmetric charges. Also, we study the model on half plane with free boundary, and examine the conservation of the supersymmetric charges on half plane and find that they are conserved as a result of the equations of motion and the free boundary condition. As a result, the model on half plane with free boundary is integrable. Finally, we conclude the paper and some features and comments are presented.Comment: 12 pages. submitted to IJMP

Impact of a Dyadic Intervention on Family Supporter Involvement in Helping Adults Manage Type 2 Diabetes

Background: Family support for adults’ diabetes care is associated with improved self-management and outcomes, but healthcare providers lack structured ways to engage those supporters. Objective: Assess the impact of a patient-supporter diabetes management intervention on supporters’ engagement in patients’ diabetes care, support techniques, and caregiving experience. Design: Multivariate regression models examined between-group differences in support-related measures observed as part of a larger trial randomizing participants to a dyadic intervention versus usual care. Participants: A total of 239 adults with type 2 diabetes and either A1c \u3e8% or systolic blood pressure \u3e160mmHg enrolled with a family supporter. Intervention: Health coaches provided training on positive support techniques and facilitated self-management information sharing and goal-setting. Main Measures: Patient and supporter reports at baseline and 12 months of supporter roles in diabetes care and caregiving experience. Results: At 12 months, intervention-assigned patients had higher odds of reporting increased supporter involvement in remembering medical appointments (AOR 2.74, 95% CI 1.44, 5.21), performing home testing (AOR 2.40, 95% CI 1.29, 4.46), accessing online portals (AOR 2.34, 95% CI 1.29, 4.30), deciding when to contact healthcare providers (AOR 2.12, 95% CI 1.15, 3.91), and refilling medications (AOR 2.10, 95% CI 1.14, 3.89), but not with attending medical appointments or with healthy eating and exercise. Intervention-assigned patients reported increased supporter use of autonomy supportive communication (+0.27 points on a 7-point scale, p=0.02) and goal-setting techniques (+0.30 points on a 5-point scale, p=0.01). There were no differences at 12 months in change scores measuring supporter distress about patients’ diabetes or caregiving burden. Intervention-assigned supporters had significantly larger increases in satisfaction with health system support for their role (+0.88 points on a 10-point scale, p=0.01). Conclusions: A dyadic patient-supporter intervention led to increased family supporter involvement in diabetes self-management and increased use of positive support techniques, without increasing caregiver stress

Study protocol for THINK : a multinational open-label phase I study to assess the safety and clinical activity of multiple administrations of NKR-2 in patients with different metastatic tumour types

Introduction: NKR-2 are autologous T cells genetically modified to express a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) comprising a fusion of the natural killer group 2D (NKG2D) receptor with the CD3 zeta signalling domain, which associates with the adaptor molecule DNAX-activating protein of 10 kDa (DAP10) to provide co-stimulatory signal upon ligand binding. NKG2D binds eight different ligands expressed on the cell surface of many tumour cells and which are normally absent on non-neoplastic cells. In preclinical studies, NKR-2 demonstrated long-term antitumour activity towards a breadth of tumour indications, with maximum efficacy observed after multiple NKR-2 administrations. Importantly, NKR-2 targeted tumour cells and tumour neovasculature and the local tumour immunosuppressive microenvironment and this mechanism of action of NKR-2 was established in the absence of preconditioning. Methods and analysis: This open-label phase I study will assess the safety and clinical activity of NKR-2 treatment administered three times, with a 2-week interval between each administration in different tumour types. The study will contain two consecutive segments: a dose escalation phase followed by an expansion phase. The dose escalation study involves two arms, one in solid tumours (five specific indications) and one in haematological tumours (two specific indications) and will include three dose levels in each arm: 3x10(8), 1x10(9) and 3x10(9) NKR-2 per injection. On the identification of the recommended dose in the first segment, based on dose-limiting toxicity occurrences, the study will expand to seven different cohorts examining the seven different tumour types separately. Clinical responses will be determined according to standard Response Evaluation Criteria In Solid Tumors (RECIST) criteria for solid tumours or international working group response criteria in haematological tumours. Ethics approval and dissemination: Ethical approval has been obtained at all sites. Written informed consent will be taken from all participants. The results of this study will be disseminated through presentation at international scientific conferences and reported in peer-reviewed scientific journals