Chiral gauge theories with domain wall fermions

We have investigated a proposal to construct chiral gauge theories on the lattice using domain wall fermions. The model contains two opposite chirality zeromodes, which live on two domain walls. We couple only one of them to a gauge field, but find that mirror fermions which also couple to the gauge field always seem to exist.Comment: 3 pages. ref. added, some rewording at the end. contribution to Lattice'93. latex file, style file espcrc2.sty needed (appended), compressed tar file with two figures appended at the end (look for FIGURES

Two Immigrants with Tuberculosis of the Ear, Nose, and Throat Region with Skull Base and Cranial Nerve Involvement

We report two immigrants with tuberculosis of the skull base and a review of the literature. A Somalian man presented with bilateral otitis media, hearing loss, and facial and abducens palsy. Imaging showed involvement of both mastoid and petrous bones, extending via the skull base to the nasopharynx, suggesting tuberculosis which was confirmed by characteristic histology and positive auramine staining, while Ziehl-Neelsen staining and PCR were negative. A Sudanese man presented with torticollis and deviation of the uvula due to paresis of N. IX and XI. Imaging showed a retropharyngeal abscess and lysis of the clivus. Histology, acid-fast staining, and PCR were negative. Both patients had a positive Quantiferon TB Gold in-tube result and improved rapidly after empiric treatment for tuberculosis. Cultures eventually yielded M. tuberculosis. These unusual cases exemplify the many faces of tuberculosis and the importance to include tuberculosis in the differential diagnosis of unexplained problems

Systematic reduction of Hyperspectral Images for high-throughput Plastic Characterization

Hyperspectral Imaging (HSI) combines microscopy and spectroscopy to assess the spatial distribution of spectroscopically active compounds in objects, and has diverse applications in food quality control, pharmaceutical processes, and waste sorting. However, due to the large size of HSI datasets, it can be challenging to analyze and store them within a reasonable digital infrastructure, especially in waste sorting where speed and data storage resources are limited. Additionally, as with most spectroscopic data, there is significant redundancy, making pixel and variable selection crucial for retaining chemical information. Recent high-tech developments in chemometrics enable automated and evidence-based data reduction, which can substantially enhance the speed and performance of Non-Negative Matrix Factorization (NMF), a widely used algorithm for chemical resolution of HSI data. By recovering the pure contribution maps and spectral profiles of distributed compounds, NMF can provide evidence-based sorting decisions for efficient waste management. To improve the quality and efficiency of data analysis on hyperspectral imaging (HSI) data, we apply a convex-hull method to select essential pixels and wavelengths and remove uninformative and redundant information. This process minimizes computational strain and effectively eliminates highly mixed pixels. By reducing data redundancy, data investigation and analysis become more straightforward, as demonstrated in both simulated and real HSI data for plastic sorting

Staggered fermions for chiral gauge theories: Test on a two-dimensional axial-vector model

As a first step towards constructing chiral models on the lattice with staggered fermions, we study a U(1) model with axial-vector coupling to an external gauge field in two dimensions. In our approach gauge invariance is broken, but it is restored in the classical continuum limit. We find that the continuum divergence relations for the vector and axial-vector currents are reproduced, up to contact terms, which we determine analytically. The current divergence relations are also studied numerically for smooth external gauge fields with topological charge zero. We furthermore investigate the effect of fluctuating gauge transformations and of gauge configurations with non-trivial topological charge.Comment: 17 pages, 5 postscript figures (appended), ITFA 93-13, UCSD/PTH 93-1

Mono/Multi-material Characterization Using Hyperspectral Images and Multi-Block Non-Negative Matrix Factorization

Plastic sorting is a very essential step in waste management, especially due to the presence of multilayer plastics. These monomaterial and multimaterial plastics are widely employed to enhance the functional properties of packaging, combining beneficial properties in thickness, mechanical strength, and heat tolerance. However, materials containing multiple polymer species need to be pretreated before they can be recycled as monomaterials and therefore should not end up in monomaterial streams. Industry 4.0 has significantly improved materials sorting of plastic packaging in speed and accuracy compared to manual sorting, specifically through Near Infrared Hyperspectral Imaging (NIRHSI) that provides an automated, fast, and accurate material characterization, without sample preparation. Identification of multimaterials with HSI however requires novel dedicated approaches for chemical pattern recognition. Non negative Matrix Factorization, NMF, is widely used for the chemical resolution of hyperspectral images. Chemically relevant model constraints may make it specifically valuable to identify multilayer plastics through HSI. Specifically, Multi Block Non Negative Matrix Factorization (MBNMF) with correspondence among different chemical species constraint may be used to evaluate the presence or absence of particular polymer species. To translate the MBNMF model into an evidence based sorting decision, we extended the model with an F test to distinguish between monomaterial and multimaterial objects. The benefits of our new approach, MBNMF, were illustrated by the identification of several plastic waste objects

An experimental study on the effects of a simulation game on students’ clinical cognitive skills and motivation

textabstractSimulation games are becoming increasingly popular in education, but more insight in their critical design features is needed. This study investigated the effects of fidelity of open patient cases in adjunct to an instructional e-module on students’ cognitive skills and motivation. We set up a three-group randomized post-test-only design: a control group working on an e-module; a cases group, combining the e-module with low-fidelity text-based patient cases, and a game group, combining the e-module with a high-fidelity simulation game with the same cases. Participants completed questionnaires on cognitive load and motivation. After a 4-week study period, blinded assessors rated students’ cognitive emergency care skills in two mannequin-based scenarios. In total 61 students participated and were assessed; 16 control group students, 20 cases students and 25 game students. Learning time was 2 h longer for the cases and game groups than for the control group. Acquired cognitive skills did not differ between groups. The game group experienced higher intrinsic and germane cognitive load than the cases group (p = 0.03 and 0.01) and felt more engaged (p < 0.001). Students did not profit from working on open cases (in adjunct to an e-module), which nonetheless challenged them to study longer. The e-module appeared to be very effective, while the high-fidelity game, although engaging, probably distracted students and impeded learning. Medical educators designing motivating and effective skills training for novices should align case complexity and fidelity with students’ proficiency level. The relation between case-fidelity, motivation and skills development is an important field for further study

Investigation of the Domain Wall Fermion Approach to Chiral Gauge Theories on the Lattice

We investigate a recent proposal to construct chiral gauge theories on the lattice using domain wall fermions. We restrict ourselves to the finite volume case, in which two domain walls are present, with modes of opposite chirality on each of them. We couple the chiral fermions on only one of the domain walls to a gauge field. In order to preserve gauge invariance, we have to add a scalar field, which gives rise to additional light mirror fermion and scalar modes. We argue that in an anomaly free model these extra modes would decouple if our model possesses a so-called strong coupling symmetric phase. However, our numerical results indicate that such a phase most probably does not exist. ---- Note: 9 Postscript figures are appended as uuencoded compressed tar file.Comment: 27p. Latex; UCSD/PTH 93-28, Wash. U. HEP/93-6

Novel chemistry of invasive plants: exotic species have more unique 1 metabolomic profiles than native congeners 2 3

and their native congeners of the family Asteraceae. Our results showed that plant chemistry is 51 highly species-specific and diverse among both exotic and native species. Nonetheless, the exotic 52 species had on average a higher total number of metabolites and more species-unique 53 metabolites compared to their native congeners. Herbivory led to an overall increase of 54 metabolites in all plant species. Generalist herbivore performance was lower on most of the 55 exotic species compared to the native species. We conclude that high chemical diversity and 56 large phytochemical uniqueness of the exotic species could be indicative of biological invasion 57 potential

Comorbidity, not patient age, is associated with impaired safety outcomes in vedolizumab- and ustekinumab-treated patients with inflammatory bowel disease-a prospective multicentre cohort study

Background: Few data are available on the effects of age and comorbidity on treatment outcomes of vedolizumab and ustekinumab in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Aims: To evaluate the association between age and comorbidity with safety and effectiveness outcomes of vedolizumab and ustekinumab in IBD. Methods: IBD patients initiating vedolizumab or ustekinumab in regular care were enrolled prospectively. Comorbidity prevalence was assessed using the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI). Association between age and CCI, both continuously assessed, with safety outcomes (any infection, hospitalisation, adverse events) during treatment, and effectiveness outcomes (clinical response and remission, corticosteroid-free remission, clinical remission combined with biochemical remission) after 52 weeks of treatment were evaluated. Multivariable logistic regression was used to adjust for confounders. Results: We included 203 vedolizumab- and 207 ustekinumab-treated IBD patients, mean age 42.2 (SD 16.0) and 41.6 (SD 14.4). Median treatment duration 54.0 (IQR 19.9-104.0) and 48.4 (IQR 24.4-55.1) weeks, median follow-up time 104.0 (IQR 103.1-104.0) and 52.0 weeks (IQR 49.3-100.4). On vedolizumab, CCI associated independently with any infection (OR 1.387, 95% CI 1.022-1.883, P = 0.036) and hospitalisation (OR 1.586, 95% CI 1.127-2.231, P = 0.008). On ustekinumab, CCI associated independently with hospitalisation (OR 1.621, 95% CI 1.034-2.541, P = 0.035). CCI was not associated with effectiveness, and age was not associated with any outcomes. Conclusions: Comorbidity - but not age - is associated with an increased risk of hospitalisations on either treatment, and with any infection on vedolizumab. This underlines the importance of comorbidity assessment and safety monitoring of IBD patients

Individual differences in metabolomics: individualised responses and between-metabolite relationships

Many metabolomics studies aim to find ‘biomarkers’: sets of molecules that are consistently elevated or decreased upon experimental manipulation. Biological effects, however, often manifest themselves along a continuum of individual differences between the biological replicates in the experiment. Such differences are overlooked or even diminished by methods in standard use for metabolomics, although they may contain a wealth of information on the experiment. Properly understanding individual differences is crucial for generating knowledge in fields like personalised medicine, evolution and ecology. We propose to use simultaneous component analysis with individual differences constraints (SCA-IND), a data analysis method from psychology that focuses on these differences. This method constructs axes along the natural biochemical differences between biological replicates, comparable to principal components. The model may shed light on changes in the individual differences between experimental groups, but also on whether these differences correspond to, e.g., responders and non-responders or to distinct chemotypes. Moreover, SCA-IND reveals the individuals that respond most to a manipulation and are best suited for further experimentation. The method is illustrated by the analysis of individual differences in the metabolic response of cabbage plants to herbivory. The model reveals individual differences in the response to shoot herbivory, where two ‘response chemotypes’ may be identified. In the response to root herbivory the model shows that individual plants differ strongly in response dynamics. Thereby SCA-IND provides a hitherto unavailable view on the chemical diversity of the induced plant response, that greatly increases understanding of the system