Envelope structure of deeply embedded young stellar objects in the Serpens Molecular Cloud

Aperture synthesis and single-dish (sub) millimeter molecular lines and continuum observations reveal in great detail the envelope structure of deeply embedded young stellar objects (SMM1, SMM2, SMM3, SMM4) in the densely star-forming Serpens Molecular Cloud. Resolved millimeter continuum emission constrains the density structure to a radial power law with index -2.0 +/- 0.5, and envelope masses of 8.7, 3.0, and 5.3 M_sol for SMM1, SMM3, and SMM4. The core SMM2 does not seem to have a central condensation and may not have formed a star yet. The molecular line observations can be described by the same envelope model, if an additional, small amount of warm (100 K) material is included. This probably corresponds to the inner few hundred AU of the envelope were the temperature is high. In the interferometer beam, the molecular lines reveal the inner regions of the envelopes, as well as interaction of the outflow with the surrounding envelope. Bright HCO+ and HCN emission outlines the cavities, while SiO and SO trace the direct impact of the outflow on ambient gas. Taken together, these observations provide a first comprehensive view of the physical and chemical structure of the envelopes of deeply embedded young stellar objects in a clustered environment on scales between 1000 and 10,000 AU.Comment: 46 pages, incl. 12 postscript figures, uses ApJ latex and psfig macro

Unknotting night-time muscle cramp: a survey of patient experience, help-seeking behaviour and perceived treatment effectiveness

Background: Night-time calf cramping affects approximately 1 in 3 adults. The aim of this study was to explore the experience of night-time calf cramp; if and where people seek treatment advice; and perceived treatment effectiveness. Methods: 80 adults who experienced night-time calf cramp at least once per week were recruited from the Hunter region, NSW, Australia through newspaper, radio and television advertisements. All participants completed a pilot-tested survey about muscle cramp. Quantitative data were analysed with independent-sample t-tests, Chi square tests and Fisher’s tests. Qualitative data were transcribed and sorted into categories to identify themes. Results: Median recalled age of first night-time calf cramp was 50 years. Most participants recalled being awoken from sleep by cramping, and experiencing cramping of either calf muscle, calf-muscle soreness in the days following cramp and cramping during day-time. Despite current therapies, mean usual pain intensity was 66 mm on a 100 mm visual analogue scale. Participants described their cramps as being ‘unbearable’, ‘unmanageable’ and ‘cruel’. One participant stated that ‘sometimes I just wish I could cut my legs open’ and another reported ‘getting about 2h sleep a night due to cramps’. Most participants had sought advice about their night-time calf cramps from a health professional. Participants identified 49 different interventions used to prevent night-time calf cramp. Of all treatment ratings, 68% described the intervention used to prevent cramp as being ‘useless’ or of ‘a little help’. Of 14 participants who provided additional information regarding their use of quinine, eight had a current prescription of quinine for muscle cramp at the time of the survey. None had been asked by their prescribing doctor to stop using quinine. Conclusion: Night time calf cramps typically woke sufferers from sleep, affected either leg and caused ongoing pain. Most participants experienced little or no relief with current therapies used to prevent muscle cramp. Most people who were taking quinine for muscle cramp were unaware that the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration withdrew support of quinine for muscle cramp in 2004 due to the risk of thrombocytopaenia. Case-control studies are required to identify therapeutic targets so that clinical trials can evaluate safe interventions to prevent recurrent cramp

A first look at maximally twisted mass lattice QCD calculations at the physical point

In this contribution, a first look at simulations using maximally twisted mass Wilson fermions at the physical point is presented. A lattice action including clover and twisted mass terms is presented and the Monte Carlo histories of one run with two mass-degenerate flavours at a single lattice spacing are shown. Measurements from the light and heavy-light pseudoscalar sectors are compared to previous $N_f = 2$ results and their phenomenological values. Finally, the strategy for extending simulations to $N_f = 2 + 1 + 1$ is outlined.Comment: presented at the 31st International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory (Lattice 2013), 29 July - 3 August 2013, Mainz, German

Light quark masses and pseudoscalar decay constants from Nf=2 Lattice QCD with twisted mass fermions

We present the results of a lattice QCD calculation of the average up-down and strange quark masses and of the light meson pseudoscalar decay constants with Nf=2 dynamical fermions. The simulation is carried out at a single value of the lattice spacing with the twisted mass fermionic action at maximal twist, which guarantees automatic O(a)-improvement of the physical quantities. Quark masses are renormalized by implementing the non-perturbative RI-MOM renormalization procedure. Our results for the light quark masses are m_ud^{msbar}(2 GeV)= 3.85 +- 0.12 +- 0.40 MeV, m_s^{msbar}(2 GeV) = 105 +- 3 +- 9 MeV and m_s/m_ud = 27.3 +- 0.3 +- 1.2. We also obtain fK = 161.7 +- 1.2 +- 3.1 MeV and the ratio fK/fpi=1.227 +- 0.009 +- 0.024. From this ratio, by using the experimental determination of Gamma(K-> mu nu (gamma))/Gamma(pi -> mu nu (gamma)) and the average value of |Vud| from nuclear beta decays, we obtain |Vus|=0.2192(5)(45), in agreement with the determination from Kl3 decays and the unitarity constraint.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figure

O(a)-improved quark action on anisotropic lattices and perturbative renormalization of heavy-light currents

We investigate the Symanzik improvement of the Wilson quark action on anisotropic lattices. Taking first a general action with nearest-neighbor and clover interactions, we study the mass dependence of the ratio of the hopping parameters, the clover coefficients, and an improvement coefficient for heavy-light vector and axial vector currents. We show how tree-level improvement can be achieved. For a particular choice of the spatial Wilson coupling, the results simplify, and $O(m_0a_\tau)$ improvement is possible. (Here $m_0$ is the bare quark mass and $a_\tau$ the temporal lattice spacing.) With this choice we calculate the renormalization factors of heavy-light bilinear operators at one-loop order of perturbation theory employing the standard plaquette gauge action.Comment: 26 pages, 8 figure

The optimal starting time of postoperative intraperitoneal mitomycin-C therapy with preserved intestinal wound healing

BACKGROUND: There is controversy about the effect of the timing of intraperitoneal administration of chemotherapeutic agents on the healing of intestinal anastomosis. We have investigated the effect on intestinal wound healing of mitomycin-C administered at different times post-operatively. METHODS: Eighty-four Wistar-Albino female rats underwent ileal resection and end-to-end anastomosis. The rats were randomly selected for intraperitoneal administration of mitomycin-C or saline as follows: mitomycin-C group (n = 65), 2 mg/kg mitomycin-C; control group (n = 13), 10 ml saline. The former was sub-divided into 5 equal groups (A 1–5) and mitomycin-C was administered postoperatively as follows: day 0 (A1), day 3 (A2), day 5 (A3), day 7 (A4) and day 10 (A5). All the rats were sacrificed on the 14th postoperative day and anastomotic bursting pressures and tissue hydroxyproline levels were determined. RESULTS: Five of the animals died postoperatively: 2 (15.4%) in group A1, 2 (15.4%) in group A2 and 1(7.7%) in group A3. Non-lethal anastomotic leakage was observed in a further five animals: 1 in group A1, 2 in group A2, 1 in group A5 and 1 in the control group. Groups A1 and A2 had significantly lower anastomotic bursting pressures than the other groups (P was <0.05 for each comparison). The anastomotic bursting pressures of group A3, A4 and A5 were comparable with those of the controls (P was >0.05 for each comparison). Tissue hydroxyproline levels in group A1 and A2 were significantly lower than in the controls (P values were <0.05 for each comparison) or the other mitomycin-C sub-groups (P was <0.05 for each comparison). CONCLUSIONS: Intraperitoneal chemotherapy impairs intestinal wound healing when applied before the 5th postoperative day. Additional therapeutic approaches are needed to prevent this potentially lethal side effect of early intraperitoneal mitomycin-C administration

The Fanconi Anemia Core Complex Is Dispensable during Somatic Hypermutation and Class Switch Recombination

To generate high affinity antibodies during an immune response, B cells undergo somatic hypermutation (SHM) of their immunoglobulin genes. Error-prone translesion synthesis (TLS) DNA polymerases have been reported to be responsible for all mutations at template A/T and at least a fraction of G/C transversions. In contrast to A/T mutations which depend on PCNA ubiquitination, it remains unclear how G/C transversions are regulated during SHM. Several lines of evidence indicate a mechanistic link between the Fanconi Anemia (FA) pathway and TLS. To investigate the contribution of the FA pathway in SHM we analyzed FancG-deficient B cells. B cells deficient for FancG, an essential member of the FA core complex, were hypersensitive to treatment with cross-linking agents. However, the frequencies and nucleotide exchange spectra of SHM remained comparable between wild-type and FancG-deficient B cells. These data indicate that the FA pathway is not involved in regulating the outcome of SHM in mammals. In addition, the FA pathway appears dispensable for class switch recombination

Active Membrane Fluctuations Studied by Micropipet Aspiration

We present a detailed analysis of the micropipet experiments recently reported in J-B. Manneville et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 4356--4359 (1999), including a derivation of the expected behaviour of the membrane tension as a function of the areal strain in the case of an active membrane, i.e., containing a nonequilibrium noise source. We give a general expression, which takes into account the effect of active centers both directly on the membrane, and on the embedding fluid dynamics, keeping track of the coupling between the density of active centers and the membrane curvature. The data of the micropipet experiments are well reproduced by the new expressions. In particular, we show that a natural choice of the parameters quantifying the strength of the active noise explains both the large amplitude of the observed effects and its remarkable insensitivity to the active-center density in the investigated range. [Submitted to Phys Rev E, 22 March 2001]Comment: 14 pages, 5 encapsulated Postscript figure

D*-->Dpi and D*-->Dgamma decays: Axial coupling and Magnetic moment of D* meson

The axial coupling and the magnetic moment of D*-meson or, more specifically, the couplings g(D*Dpi) and g(D*Dgamma), encode the non-perturbative QCD effects describing the decays D*-->Dpi and D*-->Dgamma. We compute these quantities by means of lattice QCD with Nf=2 dynamical quarks, by employing the Wilson ("clover") action. On our finer lattice (a=0.065 fm) we obtain: g(D*Dpi)=20 +/- 2, and g(D0*D0gamma)=[2.0 +/- 0.6]/GeV. This is the first determination of g(D0*D0gamma) on the lattice. We also provide a short phenomenological discussion and the comparison of our result with experiment and with the results quoted in the literature.Comment: 22 pages, 3 figure