157 research outputs found
Phase diagram of the ABC model on an interval
The three species asymmetric ABC model was initially defined on a ring by
Evans, Kafri, Koduvely, and Mukamel, and the weakly asymmetric version was
later studied by Clincy, Derrida, and Evans. Here the latter model is studied
on a one-dimensional lattice of N sites with closed (zero flux) boundaries. In
this geometry the local particle conserving dynamics satisfies detailed balance
with respect to a canonical Gibbs measure with long range asymmetric pair
interactions. This generalizes results for the ring case, where detailed
balance holds, and in fact the steady state measure is known only for the case
of equal densities of the different species: in the latter case the stationary
states of the system on a ring and on an interval are the same. We prove that
in the N to infinity limit the scaled density profiles are given by (pieces of)
the periodic trajectory of a particle moving in a quartic confining potential.
We further prove uniqueness of the profiles, i.e., the existence of a single
phase, in all regions of the parameter space (of average densities and
temperature) except at low temperature with all densities equal; in this case a
continuum of phases, differing by translation, coexist. The results for the
equal density case apply also to the system on the ring, and there extend
results of Clincy et al.Comment: 52 pages, AMS-LaTeX, 8 figures from 10 eps figure files. Revision:
minor changes in response to referee reports; paper to appear in J. Stat.
Phy
Sub-millimeter Tests of the Gravitational Inverse-square Law
Motivated by a variety of theories that predict new effects, we tested the
gravitational 1/r^2 law at separations between 10.77 mm and 137 microns using
two different 10-fold azimuthally symmetric torsion pendulums and rotating
10-fold symmetric attractors. Our work improves upon other experiments by up to
a factor of about 100. We found no deviation from Newtonian physics at the 95%
confidence level and interpret these results as constraints on extensions of
the Standard Model that predict Yukawa or power-law forces. We set a constraint
on the largest single extra dimension (assuming toroidal compactification and
that one extra dimension is significantly larger than all the others) of R <=
160 microns, and on two equal-sized large extra dimensions of R <= 130 microns.
Yukawa interactions with |alpha| >= 1 are ruled out at 95% confidence for
lambda >= 197 microns. Extra-dimensions scenarios stabilized by radions are
restricted to unification masses M >= 3.0 TeV/c^2, regardless of the number of
large extra dimensions. We also provide new constraints on power-law potentials
V(r)\propto r^{-k} with k between 2 and 5 and on the gamma_5 couplings of
pseudoscalars with m <= 10 meV/c^2.Comment: 34 pages, 38 figure
Entanglement of positive definite functions on compact groups
We define and study entanglement of continuous positive definite functions on
products of compact groups. We formulate and prove an infinite-dimensional
analog of Horodecki Theorem, giving a necessary and sufficient criterion for
separability of such functions. The resulting characterisation is given in
terms of mappings of the space of continuous functions, preserving positive
definiteness. The relation between the developed group-theoretical formalism
and the conventional one, given in terms of density matrices, is established
through the non-commutative Fourier analysis.Comment: published versio
Optical symmetries and anisotropic transport in high-Tc superconductors
A simple symmetry analysis of in-plane and out-of-plane transport in a family
of high temperature superconductors is presented. It is shown that generalized
scaling relations exist between the low frequency electronic Raman response and
the low frequency in-plane and out-of-plane conductivities in both the normal
and superconducting states of the cuprates. Specifically, for both the normal
and superconducting state, the temperature dependence of the low frequency
Raman slope scales with the axis conductivity, while the
Raman slope scales with the in-plane conductivity. Comparison with experiments
in the normal state of Bi-2212 and Y-123 imply that the nodal transport is
largely doping independent and metallic, while transport near the BZ axes is
governed by a quantum critical point near doping holes per
CuO plaquette. Important differences for La-214 are discussed. It is also
shown that the axis conductivity rise for is a consequence of
partial conservation of in-plane momentum for out-of-plane transport.Comment: 16 pages, 8 Figures (3 pages added, new discussion on pseudogap and
charge ordering in La214
The Similarity Hypothesis in General Relativity
Self-similar models are important in general relativity and other fundamental
theories. In this paper we shall discuss the ``similarity hypothesis'', which
asserts that under a variety of physical circumstances solutions of these
theories will naturally evolve to a self-similar form. We will find there is
good evidence for this in the context of both spatially homogenous and
inhomogeneous cosmological models, although in some cases the self-similar
model is only an intermediate attractor. There are also a wide variety of
situations, including critical pheneomena, in which spherically symmetric
models tend towards self-similarity. However, this does not happen in all cases
and it is it is important to understand the prerequisites for the conjecture.Comment: to be submitted to Gen. Rel. Gra
Fire as a fundamental ecological process: Research advances and frontiers
Fire is a powerful ecological and evolutionary force that regulates organismal traits, population sizes, species interactions, community composition, carbon and nutrient cycling and ecosystem function. It also presents a rapidly growing societal challenge, due to both increasingly destructive wildfires and fire exclusion in fire‐dependent ecosystems. As an ecological process, fire integrates complex feedbacks among biological, social and geophysical processes, requiring coordination across several fields and scales of study.
Here, we describe the diversity of ways in which fire operates as a fundamental ecological and evolutionary process on Earth. We explore research priorities in six categories of fire ecology: (a) characteristics of fire regimes, (b) changing fire regimes, (c) fire effects on above‐ground ecology, (d) fire effects on below‐ground ecology, (e) fire behaviour and (f) fire ecology modelling.
We identify three emergent themes: the need to study fire across temporal scales, to assess the mechanisms underlying a variety of ecological feedbacks involving fire and to improve representation of fire in a range of modelling contexts.
Synthesis : As fire regimes and our relationships with fire continue to change, prioritizing these research areas will facilitate understanding of the ecological causes and consequences of future fires and rethinking fire management alternatives
New horizons in the role of digital data in the healthcare of older people
There are national and global moves to improve effective digital data design and application in healthcare. This New Horizons commentary describes the role of digital data in healthcare of the ageing population. We outline how health and social care professionals can engage in the proactive design of digital systems that appropriately serve people as they age, carers and the workforce that supports them.
Key Points
Healthcare improvements have resulted in increased population longevity and hence multimorbidity.
Shared care records to improve communication and information continuity across care settings hold potential for older people.
Data structure and coding are key considerations.
A workforce with expertise in caring for older people with relevant knowledge and skills in digital healthcare is important
Application of a risk-management framework for integration of stromal tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in clinical trials
Stromal tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (sTILs) are a potential predictive biomarker for immunotherapy response in metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). To incorporate sTILs into clinical trials and diagnostics, reliable assessment is essential. In this review, we propose a new concept, namely the implementation of a risk-management framework that enables the use of sTILs as a stratification factor in clinical trials. We present the design of a biomarker risk-mitigation workflow that can be applied to any biomarker incorporation in clinical trials. We demonstrate the implementation of this concept using sTILs as an integral biomarker in a single-center phase II immunotherapy trial for metastatic TNBC (TONIC trial, NCT02499367), using this workflow to mitigate risks of suboptimal inclusion of sTILs in this specific trial. In this review, we demonstrate that a web-based scoring platform can mitigate potential risk factors when including sTILs in clinical trials, and we argue that this framework can be applied for any future biomarker-driven clinical trial setting
Post-acute COVID-19 neuropsychiatric symptoms are not associated with ongoing nervous system injury
A proportion of patients infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 experience a range of neuropsychiatric symptoms months after infection, including cognitive deficits, depression and anxiety. The mechanisms underpinning such symptoms remain elusive. Recent research has demonstrated that nervous system injury can occur during COVID-19. Whether ongoing neural injury in the months after COVID-19 accounts for the ongoing or emergent neuropsychiatric symptoms is unclear. Within a large prospective cohort study of adult survivors who were hospitalized for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection, we analysed plasma markers of nervous system injury and astrocytic activation, measured 6 months post-infection: neurofilament light, glial fibrillary acidic protein and total tau protein. We assessed whether these markers were associated with the severity of the acute COVID-19 illness and with post-acute neuropsychiatric symptoms (as measured by the Patient Health Questionnaire for depression, the General Anxiety Disorder assessment for anxiety, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment for objective cognitive deficit and the cognitive items of the Patient Symptom Questionnaire for subjective cognitive deficit) at 6 months and 1 year post-hospital discharge from COVID-19. No robust associations were found between markers of nervous system injury and severity of acute COVID-19 (except for an association of small effect size between duration of admission and neurofilament light) nor with post-acute neuropsychiatric symptoms. These results suggest that ongoing neuropsychiatric symptoms are not due to ongoing neural injury
Large-scale phenotyping of patients with long COVID post-hospitalization reveals mechanistic subtypes of disease
One in ten severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infections result in prolonged symptoms termed long coronavirus disease (COVID), yet disease phenotypes and mechanisms are poorly understood1. Here we profiled 368 plasma proteins in 657 participants ≥3 months following hospitalization. Of these, 426 had at least one long COVID symptom and 233 had fully recovered. Elevated markers of myeloid inflammation and complement activation were associated with long COVID. IL-1R2, MATN2 and COLEC12 were associated with cardiorespiratory symptoms, fatigue and anxiety/depression; MATN2, CSF3 and C1QA were elevated in gastrointestinal symptoms and C1QA was elevated in cognitive impairment. Additional markers of alterations in nerve tissue repair (SPON-1 and NFASC) were elevated in those with cognitive impairment and SCG3, suggestive of brain–gut axis disturbance, was elevated in gastrointestinal symptoms. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2-specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) was persistently elevated in some individuals with long COVID, but virus was not detected in sputum. Analysis of inflammatory markers in nasal fluids showed no association with symptoms. Our study aimed to understand inflammatory processes that underlie long COVID and was not designed for biomarker discovery. Our findings suggest that specific inflammatory pathways related to tissue damage are implicated in subtypes of long COVID, which might be targeted in future therapeutic trials
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