146 research outputs found
Ultraviolet and Infrared Divergences in Implicit Regularization: a Consistent Approach
Implicit Regularization is a 4-dimensional regularization initially conceived
to treat ultraviolet divergences. It has been successfully tested in several
instances in the literature, more specifically in those where Dimensional
Regularization does not apply. In the present contribution we extend the method
to handle infrared divergences as well. We show that the essential steps which
rendered Implicit Regularization adequate in the case of ultraviolet
divergences have their counterpart for infrared ones. Moreover we show that a
new scale appears, typically an infrared scale which is completely independent
of the ultraviolet one. Examples are given.Comment: 9 pages, version to appear in Mod. Phys. Lett.
Regularization Independent Analysis of the Origin of Two Loop Contributions to N=1 Super Yang-Mills Beta Function
We present a both ultraviolet and infrared regularization independent
analysis in a symmetry preserving framework for the N=1 Super Yang-Mills beta
function to two loop order. We show explicitly that off-shell infrared
divergences as well as the overall two loop ultraviolet divergence cancel out
whilst the beta function receives contributions of infrared modes.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, typos correcte
Patient and physician satisfaction in an observational study with methyl aminolevulinate daylight-photodynamic therapy in the treatment of multiple actinic keratoses of the face and scalp in 6 European countries
BACKGROUND
Guidelines recommend treating actinic keratoses (AKs) as they are recognized as precursors of invasive squamous cell carcinoma.
OBJECTIVE
The objective of this study was to collect real-world clinical data on the use of methyl aminolevulinate daylight photodynamic therapy (MAL DL-PDT) for the treatment of face and scalp AK in Europe.
METHODS
A prospective, multicenter, non-interventional study was conducted in six European countries in patients receiving a single treatment of MAL DL-PDT for face and/or scalp AK. Patient-reported outcomes were assessed by patient questionnaires at baseline and at 3 months after treatment, efficacy was assessed at 3 months using a 6-point global improvement scale, and adverse events (AE) were recorded at each visit.
RESULTS
Overall, 325 patients were enrolled from 52 investigational centres, 314 of whom attended the 3-month visit. Most patients had multiple lesions (58.4% had >10 lesions) with lesions mainly located on the scalp (60.0%) and/or forehead (54.2%). AKs were predominantly grade I (39.4%) or grade II (33.2%), and 10.5% of patients had grade III lesions. The proportions of patients and physicians that were overall satisfied to very satisfied with the MAL DL-PDT treatment were 80.4% and 90.3%, respectively. The vast majority of patients (90.0%) would consider using MAL DL-PDT again if needed. Physician-assessed efficacy at 3 months was at least much improved in 83.5% of patients, with 45.9% of patients requiring no retreatment. Related AEs were reported in 15% of patients.
CONCLUSION
Use of MAL DL-PDT for multiple face and/or scalp AKs resulted in high levels of patient and physician satisfaction in clinical practice in Europe, reflecting the good efficacy and high tolerability of this convenient procedure
Naturalness and theoretical constraints on the Higgs boson mass
Arbitrary regularization dependent parameters in Quantum Field Theory are
usually fixed on symmetry or phenomenology grounds. We verify that the
quadratically divergent behavior responsible for the lack of naturalness in the
Standard Model (SM) is intrinsically arbitrary and regularization dependent.
While quadratic divergences are welcome for instance in effective models of low
energy QCD, they pose a problem in the SM treated as an effective theory in the
Higgs sector. Being the very existence of quadratic divergences a matter of
debate, a plausible scenario is to search for a symmetry requirement that could
fix the arbitrary coefficient of the leading quadratic behavior to the Higgs
boson mass to zero. We show that this is possible employing consistency of
scale symmetry breaking by quantum corrections. Besides eliminating a
fine-tuning problem and restoring validity of perturbation theory, this
requirement allows to construct bounds for the Higgs boson mass in terms of
(where is the renormalized Higgs mass and
is the 1-loop Higgs mass correction). Whereas
(perturbative regime) in this scenario allows the Higgs boson mass around the
current accepted value, the inclusion of the quadratic divergence demands
arbitrarily large to reach that experimental value.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
QED with minimal and nonminimal couplings: on the quantum generation of Lorentz violating terms in the pure photon sector
We consider an effective model formed by usual QED (minimal coupling) with
the addition of a nonminimal Lorentz violating interaction (proportional to a
fixed 4-vector ) which may radiatively generate both CPT even and odd
terms in the pure gauge sector.
We show that gauge invariance from usual QED, considered as a limit of the
model for , plays an important role in the discussion of
the radiatively induced Lorentz violating terms at one-loop order. Moreover,
despite the nonrenormalizability of the (effective) model preventing us from
readily extending our discussion to higher orders, it is still possible to
display the general form of the breaking terms of the photon sector in the on
shell limit organized in powers of which in turn can be considered as a
small expansion parameter.Comment: Journal reference: J. Phys. G 39 (2012) 03500
Melanocortin-1 Receptor, Skin Cancer and Phenotypic Characteristics (M-SKIP) Project: Study Design and Methods for Pooling Results of Genetic Epidemiological Studies
Background: For complex diseases like cancer, pooled-analysis of individual data represents a powerful tool to investigate the joint contribution of genetic, phenotypic and environmental factors to the development of a disease. Pooled-analysis of epidemiological studies has many advantages over meta-analysis, and preliminary results may be obtained faster and with lower costs than with prospective consortia. Design and methods: Based on our experience with the study design of the Melanocortin-1 receptor (MC1R) gene, SKin cancer and Phenotypic characteristics (M-SKIP) project, we describe the most important steps in planning and conducting a pooled-analysis of genetic epidemiological studies. We then present the statistical analysis plan that we are going to apply, giving particular attention to methods of analysis recently proposed to account for between-study heterogeneity and to explore the joint contribution of genetic, phenotypic and environmental factors in the development of a disease. Within the M-SKIP project, data on 10,959 skin cancer cases and 14,785 controls from 31 international investigators were checked for quality and recoded for standardization. We first proposed to fit the aggregated data with random-effects logistic regression models. However, for the M-SKIP project, a two-stage analysis will be preferred to overcome the problem regarding the availability of different study covariates. The joint contribution of MC1R variants and phenotypic characteristics to skin cancer development will be studied via logic regression modeling. Discussion: Methodological guidelines to correctly design and conduct pooled-analyses are needed to facilitate application of such methods, thus providing a better summary of the actual findings on specific fields
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