4,087 research outputs found
Developing Integrated Clinical Pathways for the Management of Clinically Severe Adult Obesity: a Critique of NHS England Policy
Purpose of the Review: Pathways for obesity prevention and treatment are well documented, yet the prevalence of obesity is
rising, and access to treatment (including bariatric surgery) is limited. This review seeks to assess the current integrated clinical
pathway for obesity management in England and determine the major challenges.
Recent Findings: Evidence for tier 2 (community-based lifestyle intervention) and tier 3 (specialist weight management services)
is limited, and how it facilitates care and improve outcomes in tier 4 remains uncertain. Treatment access, rigidity in pathways,
uncertain treatment outcomes and weight stigma seems to be major barriers to improved care.
Summary: More emphasis must be placed on access to effective treatments, treatment flexibility, addressing stigma and ensuring
treatment efficacy including long-term health outcomes. Prevention and treatment should both receive significant focus though
should be considered to be largely separate pathways. A simplified system for weight management is needed to allow flexibility
and the delivery of personalized care including post-bariatric surgery care for those who need it
No triangles on the moduli space of maximally supersymmetric gauge theory
Maximally supersymmetric gauge theory in four dimensions has a remarkably
simple S-matrix at the origin of its moduli space at both tree and loop level.
This leads to the question what, if any, of this structure survives at the
complement of this one point. Here this question is studied in detail at one
loop for the branch of the moduli space parameterized by a vacuum expectation
value for one complex scalar. Motivated by the parallel D-brane picture of
spontaneous symmetry breaking a simple relation is demonstrated between the
Lagrangian of broken super Yang-Mills theory and that of its higher dimensional
unbroken cousin. Using this relation it is proven both through an on- as well
as an off-shell method there are no so-called triangle coefficients in the
natural basis of one-loop functions at any finite point of the moduli space for
the theory under study. The off-shell method yields in addition absence of
rational terms in a class of theories on the Coulomb branch which includes the
special case of maximal supersymmetry. The results in this article provide
direct field theory evidence for a recently proposed exact dual conformal
symmetry motivated by the AdS/CFT correspondence.Comment: 39 pages, 4 figure
Analysis of Cattle Social Transitional Behaviour: Attraction and Repulsion.
Understanding social interactions in livestock groups could improve management practices, but this can be difficult and time-consuming using traditional methods of live observations and video recordings. Sensor technologies and machine learning techniques could provide insight not previously possible. In this study, based on the animals' location information acquired by a new cooperative wireless localisation system, unsupervised machine learning approaches were performed to identify the social structure of a small group of cattle yearlings (n=10) and the social behaviour of an individual. The paper first defined the affinity between an animal pair based on the ranks of their distance. Unsupervised clustering algorithms were then performed, including K-means clustering and agglomerative hierarchical clustering. In particular, K-means clustering was applied based on logical and physical distance. By comparing the clustering result based on logical distance and physical distance, the leader animals and the influence of an individual in a herd of cattle were identified, which provides valuable information for studying the behaviour of animal herds. Improvements in device robustness and replication of this work would confirm the practical application of this technology and analysis methodologies
Dimensions of professional competences for interventions towards sustainability
This paper investigates sustainability competences through the eyes of professional practitioners in the field of sustainability and presents empirical data that have been created using an action research approach. The design of the study consists of two workshops, in which professional practitioners in interaction with each other and the facilitators are invited to explore and reflect on the specific knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours necessary to conduct change processes successfully towards sustainability in a variety of business and professional contexts. The research focuses on the competences associated with these change processes to devise, propose and conduct appropriate interventions that address sustainability issues. Labelled ‘intervention competence’, this ability comprises an interlocking set of knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours that include: appreciating the importance of (trying to) reaching decisions or interventions; being able to learn from lived experience of practice and to connect such learning to one’s own scientific knowledge; being able to engage in political-strategic thinking, deliberations and actions, related to different perspectives; the ability for showing goal-oriented, adequate action; adopting and communicating ethical practices during the intervention process; being able to cope with the degree of complexity, and finally being able to translate stakeholder diversity into collectively produced interventions (actions) towards sustainability. Moreover, this competence has to be practised in contexts of competing values, non-technical interests and power relations. The article concludes with recommendations for future research and practice
Classical integrability and quantum aspects of the AdS(3) x S(3) x S(3) x S(1) superstring
In this paper we continue the investigation of aspects of integrability of
the type IIA AdS(3) x S(3) x S(3) x S(1) and AdS(3) x S(3) x T(4) superstrings.
By constructing a one parameter family of flat connections we prove that the
Green-Schwarz string is classically integrable, at least to quadratic order in
fermions, without fixing the kappa-symmetry. We then compare the quantum
dispersion relation, fixed by integrability up to an unknown interpolating
function h(lambda), to explicit one-loop calculations on the string worldsheet.
For AdS(3) x S(3) x S(3) x S(1) the spectrum contains heavy, as well as light
and massless modes, and we find that the one-loop contribution differs
depending on how we treat these modes showing that similar regularization
ambiguities as appeared in AdS(4)/CFT(3) occur also here.Comment: 29 pages; v2: updated references and acknowledgmen
Finite-gap equations for strings on AdS_3 x S^3 x T^4 with mixed 3-form flux
We study superstrings on AdS_3 x S^3 x T^4 supported by a combination of
Ramond-Ramond and Neveu-Schwarz-Neveu-Schwarz three form fluxes, and construct
a set of finite-gap equations that describe the classical string spectrum.
Using the recently proposed all-loop S-matrix we write down the all-loop Bethe
ansatz equations for the massive sector. In the thermodynamic limit the Bethe
ansatz reproduces the finite-gap equations. As part of this derivation we
propose expressions for the leading order dressing phases. These phases differ
from the well-known Arutyunov-Frolov-Staudacher phase that appears in the pure
Ramond-Ramond case. We also consider the one-loop quantization of the algebraic
curve and determine the one-loop corrections to the dressing phases. Finally we
consider some classical string solutions including finite size giant magnons
and circular strings.Comment: 44 pages, 3 figures. v2: references and a discussion about
perturbative results adde
Jet Dipolarity: Top Tagging with Color Flow
A new jet observable, dipolarity, is introduced that can distinguish whether
a pair of subjets arises from a color singlet source. This observable is
incorporated into the HEPTopTagger and is shown to improve discrimination
between top jets and QCD jets for moderate to high pT.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures (updated to JHEP version
On BCFW shifts of integrands and integrals
In this article a first step is made towards the extension of
Britto-Cachazo-Feng-Witten (BCFW) tree level on-shell recursion relations to
integrands and integrals of scattering amplitudes to arbitrary loop order.
Surprisingly, it is shown that the large BCFW shift limit of the integrands has
the same structure as the corresponding tree level amplitude in any minimally
coupled Yang-Mills theory in four or more dimensions. This implies that these
integrands can be reconstructed from a subset of their `single cuts'. The main
tool is powercounting Feynman graphs in a special lightcone gauge choice
employed earlier at tree level by Arkani-Hamed and Kaplan. The relation between
shifts of integrands and shifts of its integrals is investigated explicitly at
one loop. Two particular sources of discrepancy between the integral and
integrand are identified related to UV and IR divergences. This is
cross-checked with known results for helicity equal amplitudes at one loop. The
nature of the on-shell residue at each of the single-cut singularities of the
integrand is commented upon. Several natural conjectures and opportunities for
further research present themselves.Comment: 43 pages, 6 figures, v2: minor improvement in exposition, typos
fixed, bibliography update
Non-thermal emission processes in massive binaries
In this paper, I present a general discussion of several astrophysical
processes likely to play a role in the production of non-thermal emission in
massive stars, with emphasis on massive binaries. Even though the discussion
will start in the radio domain where the non-thermal emission was first
detected, the census of physical processes involved in the non-thermal emission
from massive stars shows that many spectral domains are concerned, from the
radio to the very high energies.
First, the theoretical aspects of the non-thermal emission from early-type
stars will be addressed. The main topics that will be discussed are
respectively the physics of individual stellar winds and their interaction in
binary systems, the acceleration of relativistic electrons, the magnetic field
of massive stars, and finally the non-thermal emission processes relevant to
the case of massive stars. Second, this general qualitative discussion will be
followed by a more quantitative one, devoted to the most probable scenario
where non-thermal radio emitters are massive binaries. I will show how several
stellar, wind and orbital parameters can be combined in order to make some
semi-quantitative predictions on the high-energy counterpart to the non-thermal
emission detected in the radio domain.
These theoretical considerations will be followed by a census of results
obtained so far, and related to this topic... (see paper for full abstract)Comment: 47 pages, 5 postscript figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy
and Astrophysics Review. Astronomy and Astrophysics Review, in pres
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