Observations of red-giant variable stars by Aboriginal Australians

Aboriginal Australians carefully observe the properties and positions of stars, including both overt and subtle changes in their brightness, for subsistence and social application. These observations are encoded in oral tradition. I examine two Aboriginal oral traditions from South Australia that describe the periodic changing brightness in three pulsating, red-giant variable stars: Betelgeuse (Alpha Orionis), Aldebaran (Alpha Tauri), and Antares (Alpha Scorpii). The Australian Aboriginal accounts stand as the only known descriptions of pulsating variable stars in any Indigenous oral tradition in the world. Researchers examining these oral traditions over the last century, including anthropologists and astronomers, missed the description of these stars as being variable in nature as the ethnographic record contained several misidentifications of stars and celestial objects. Arguably, ethnographers working on Indigenous Knowledge Systems should have academic training in both the natural and social sciences.Comment: The Australian Journal of Anthropology (2018

QCD and Hadron Dynamics

Perturbative QCD predicts and describes various features of multihadron production. An amazing similarity between observable hadron systems and calculable underlying parton ensembles justifies the attempts to use the language of quarks and gluons down to small momentum scales, to approach the profound problems that are commonly viewed as being entirely non-perturbative.Comment: Talk at the Royal Society meeting "Structure of Matter", London, May 200

Impact of carbon dioxide versus air pneumoperitoneum on peritoneal cell migration and cell fate

Background: Postoperative systemic immune function is suppressed after open abdominal surgery, as compared with that after minimally invasive abdominal surgery. As a first line of defense, peritoneal macrophages (PMo) and polymorphonuclear neutrophil granulocytes (PMNs) are of primary importance in protecting the body from microorganisms. Previous studies have shown changes in these cell populations over time after open versus laparoscopic surgery. This study aimed to investigate the dynamics of cell recruitment and clearance of peritoneal cells. Methods: Female NMRI mice (33 ± 2 g) were randomly assigned to carbon dioxide (CO2) or air insufflation. Intravasal cells with phagocytic capabilities were selectively stained by intravenous injection of the fluorescent dye PKH26 24 h before surgery. Gas was insufflated into the peritoneal cavity through a catheter, and the pneumoperitoneum was maintained for 30 min. Peritoneal lavage was performed 1, 3, 8, or 24 h after surgery. Apoptotic cells were assessed by flow cytometry using a general caspase substrate. Results: The total peritoneal cell count did not differ between groups. The PKH26-positive PMo level was significantly increased after CO2, as compared with air, at 1 h and 24 h. The ratio of apoptotic PMo did not differ between the groups. In the peritoneal lavage, polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs) were tripled in the air group, as compared with the CO2 group, whereas the ratio of apoptotic PMNs was significantly decreased. There was a higher fraction of PKH26-positive PMNs after air exposure, as compared with that after CO2. Conclusions: Air exposure triggered a higher transmigration rate of PMNs from the blood compartment into the peritoneal cavity and decreased PMN apoptosis, as compared with CO2. The lower proportion of PKH26-positive peritoneal macrophages in the air group might have been attributable to a higher inflammatory stimulation than in the CO2 group, leading to increased emigration of PMo to draining lymph nodes. All the findings underscore a complex cell-specific regulation of cell recruitment and clearance in the peritoneal compartmen

Correcting the Colour-Dipole Cascade Model with Fixed Order Matrix Elements

An algorithm is presented in which the Colour-Dipole Cascade Model as implemented in the Ariadne program is corrected to match the fixed order tree-level matrix elements for e+e- -> n jets. The result is a full parton level generator for e+e- annihilation where the generated states are correct on tree-level to fixed order in alpha_S and to all orders with modified leading logarithmic (MLLA) accuracy. In this paper, matrix elements are used up to second order in alpha_S, but the scheme is applicable also for higher orders. An improvement to also include exact virtual corrections to fixed order is suggested and the possibility to extend the scheme to hadronic collisions is discussed

Energy Conservation and Saturation in Small-x Evolution

Important corrections to BFKL evolution are obtained from non-leading contributions and from non-linear effects due to unitarisation or saturation. It has been difficult to estimate the relative importance of these effects, as NLO effects are most easily accounted for in momentum space while unitarisation and saturation are easier in transverse coordinate space. An essential component of the NLO contributions is due to energy conservation effects, and in this paper we present a model for implementing such effects together with saturation in Mueller's dipole evolution formalism. We find that energy conservation severely dampens the small-x rise of the gluon density and, as a consequence, the onset of saturation is delayed. Using a simple model for the proton we obtain a reasonable qualitative description of the x-dependence of F2 at low Q^2 as measured at HERA even without saturation effects. We also give qualitative descriptions of the energy dependence of the cross section for gamma*-gamma* and gamma*-nucleus scattering

Efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors in alveolar soft-part sarcoma: results from a retrospective worldwide registry

Alveolar soft-part sarcoma; Immune checkpoint; ImmunotherapySarcoma alveolar de partes blandas; Puntos de control inmunológico; InmunoterapiaSarcoma alveolar de parts toves; Punts de control immunològic; ImmunoteràpiaBackground Conventional cytotoxic drugs are not effective in alveolar soft-part sarcoma (ASPS). Immune checkpoint (programmed cell death protein 1/programmed death-ligand 1) inhibitors (ICIs) are promising drugs in ASPS. A worldwide registry explored the efficacy of ICI in ASPS. Materials and methods Data from adult patients diagnosed with ASPS and treated with ICI for advanced disease in expert sarcoma centers from Europe, Australia and North America were retrospectively collected, including demographics and data related to treatments and outcome. Results Seventy-six ASPS patients, with a median age at diagnosis of 25 years (range 3-61 years), were registered. All patients received ICI for metastatic disease. Immunotherapy regimens consisted of monotherapy in 38 patients (50%) and combination in 38 (50%) (23 with a tyrosine kinase inhibitor). Among the 68 assessable patients, there were 3 complete responses and 34 partial responses, translating into an overall response rate of 54.4%. After a median follow-up of 36 months [95% confidence interval (CI) 32-40 months] since the start of immunotherapy, 45 (59%) patients have progressed on ICI, with a median progression-free survival (PFS) of 16.3 months (95% CI 8-25 months). Receiving ICI in first line (P = 0.042) and achieving an objective response (P = 0.043) correlated with a better PFS. Median estimated overall survival (OS) from ICI initiation has not been reached. The 12-month and 24-month OS rates were 94% and 81%, respectively. Conclusions This registry constitutes the largest available series of ASPS treated with ICI. Our results suggest that the ICI treatment provides long-lasting disease control and prolonged OS in patients with advanced ASPS, an ultra-rare entity with limited active therapeutic options.DSM is a recipient of a Sara Borrell postdoctoral fellowship funded by the National Institute of Health Carlos III (ISCIII) (CD20/00155). The authors thank SELNET project. SELNET has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 825806

Interaction induced collapse of a section of the Fermi sea in in the zig-zag Hubbard ladder

Using the next-nearest neighbor (zig-zag) Hubbard chain as an one dimemensional model, we investigate the influence of interactions on the position of the Fermi wavevectors with the density-matrix renormalization-group technique (DMRG). For suitable choices of the hopping parameters we observe that electron-electron correlations induce very different renormalizations for the two different Fermi wavevectors, which ultimately lead to a complete destruction of one section of the Fermi sea in a quantum critical point

W+jets Matrix Elements and the Dipole Cascade

We extend the algorithm for matching fixed-order tree-level matrix element generators with the Dipole Cascade Model in Ariadne to apply to processes with incoming hadrons. We test the algoritm on for the process W+n jets at the Tevatron, and find that the results are fairly insensitive to the cutoff used to regularize the soft and collinear divergencies in the tree-level matrix elements. We also investigate a few observables to check the sensitivity to the matrix element correction

Radiotherapy optimAl Design: An Academic Radiotherapy Treatment Design System

Optimally designing radiotherapy and radiosurgery treatments to increase the likelihood of a successful recovery from cancer is an important application of operations research. Researchers have been hindered by the lack of academic software that supports head-to-head comparisons of different techniques, and this article addresses the inherent difficulties of designing and implementing an academic treatment planning system. In particular, this article details the algorithms and the software design of Radiotherapy optimAl Design (RAD)