2,568 research outputs found
The correlates and extent of prescribing of medications for alcohol relapse prevention in England
AIMS: To determine the pattern and extent of prescribing of medications for alcohol relapse prevention (ARP) in England. DESIGN: Cross-sectional. SETTING: Specialist drug and alcohol treatment providers in England reporting to the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System. PARTICIPANTS: Service users aged 18+, alcohol the primary substance of dependence, completing a treatment journey between April 2013 and March 2016 (N=188,152). MEASUREMENTS: Prescription of medications for ARP during a treatment journey. Data on service users' demographics, treatment and clinical characteristics were extracted. FINDINGS: The rate of prescribing of medications for ARP was 2.1% in 2013/14, 6.8% in 2014/15 and 7.8% in 2015/16. A greater likelihood of prescription was associated with treatment journey year (2014/15; Adjusted Odds Ratio (ORadj )=3.269, 95% Confidence Intervals (CI)=3.044-3.510, 2015/16; ORadj =3.823, CI=3.560-4.106), age (25-34; ORadj =1.622, CI=1.380-1.907, 35-54; ORadj =1.901, CI=1.628-2.220 or 55+; ORadj =1.700, CI=1.446-1.999), female gender (ORadj =1.129, CI=1.077-1.184), white ethnicity (ORadj =1.219, CI=1.077-1.380), regional prevalence of alcohol dependence (middle rate; ORadj =1.121, CI=1.024-1.228), severity of alcohol dependence (moderate dependence without complex needs; ORadj =1.329, CI=1.244-1.419, severe dependence without complex needs; ORadj =1.308, CI=1.188-1.441, moderate/severe dependence with complex needs; ORadj =1.131, CI=1.020-1.255), treatment setting (inpatient; ORadj =10.512, CI=9.950-11.104, Primary Care; ORadj =2.264, CI=2.050-2.500, residential; ORadj =3.216, CI=2.807-3.685), prior treatment for alcohol dependence (ORadj =1.242, CI=1.183-1.304), longer treatment journey (ORadj =1.002, CI=1.002-1.002), more drinking days in the prior 28 days (ORadj =1.021, CI=1.018-1.024) and drinking a higher number of alcohol units in the prior 28 days (ORadj =1.002 CI=1.001-1.004). Living in a region of England with the lowest alcohol prevalence was associated with a lower likelihood of prescription of medication for ARP (ORadj =0.491, CI=0.436-0.552). CONCLUSIONS: In England, medications for alcohol relapse prevention are rarely prescribed (e.g., 7.8% in 2015/16) and those prescriptions appear to be associated with specific service user demographics, treatment, and clinical characteristics
Isotropy of the early universe from CMB anisotropies
The acoustic peak in the CMB power spectrum is sensitive to causal processes
and cosmological parameters in the early universe up to the time of last
scattering. We provide limits on correlated spatial variations of the peak
height and peak position and interpret these as constraints on the spatial
variation of the cosmological parameters (baryon density, cold dark matter
density and cosmological constant as well as the amplitude and tilt of the
original fluctuations). We utilize recent work of Hansen, Banday and Gorski
(HBG) who have studied the spatial isotropy of the power spectrum as measured
by WMAP by performing the power spectrum analysis on smaller patches of the
sky. We find that there is no statistically significant correlated asymmetry of
the peak. HBG have also provided preliminary indications of a preferred
direction in the lower angular momentum range(~ 2-40) and we show how possible
explanations of this asymmetry are severely constrained by the data on the
acoustic peak. Finally we show a possible non-gaussian feature in the data,
associated with a difference in the northern and southern galactic hemispheres.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, v.2 adds an extra relevant reference and commen
Effective Gravitational Field of Black Holes
The problem of interpretation of the \hbar^0-order part of radiative
corrections to the effective gravitational field is considered. It is shown
that variations of the Feynman parameter in gauge conditions fixing the general
covariance are equivalent to spacetime diffeomorphisms. This result is proved
for arbitrary gauge conditions at the one-loop order. It implies that the
gravitational radiative corrections of the order \hbar^0 to the spacetime
metric can be physically interpreted in a purely classical manner. As an
example, the effective gravitational field of a black hole is calculated in the
first post-Newtonian approximation, and the secular precession of a test
particle orbit in this field is determined.Comment: 8 pages, LaTeX, 1 eps figure. Proof of the theorem and typos
correcte
Towards pp -> VVjj at NLO QCD: Bosonic contributions to triple vector boson production plus jet
In this work, some of the NLO QCD corrections for pp -> VVjj + X are
presented. A program in Mathematica based on the structure of FeynCalc which
automatically simplifies a set of amplitudes up to the hexagon level of rank 5
has been created for this purpose. We focus on two different topologies. The
first involves all the virtual contributions needed for quadruple electroweak
vector boson production, i.e. pp -> VVVV + X. In the second, the remaining
"bosonic" corrections to electroweak triple vector boson production with an
additional jet (pp -> VVV j + X) are computed. We show the factorization
formula of the infrared divergences of the bosonic contributions for VVVV and
VVVj production with V=(W,Z,gamma). Stability issues associated with the
evaluation of the hexagons up to rank 5 are studied. The CPU time of the
FORTRAN subroutines rounds the 2 milliseconds and seems to be competitive with
other more sophisticated methods. Additionally, in Appendix A the master
equations to obtain the tensor coefficients up to the hexagon level in the
external momenta convention are presented including the ones needed for small
Gram determinants.Comment: 48 pages,16 figure
Baryon Masses in Chiral Perturbation Theory with Infrared Regularization
The baryon masses are examined in SU(3) chiral perturbation theory to third
order using the recently proposed infrared regularization scheme. Fourth order
is estimated by evaluating the dominant diagram. With this regularization the
magnitude of the loop integrals is reduced so that the convergence of the
series appears to be better than in the heavy baryon approach.Comment: The original third order calculation is supplemented by an estimate
of fourth order using just the dominant diagram. The convergence still
appears to be better than in the heavy baryon approach. To be published in
Phys. Rev. C. 15 pages latex, 2 postscript figure
Quantum power correction to the Newton law
We have found the graviton contribution to the one-loop quantum correction to
the Newton law. This correction results in interaction decreasing with distance
as 1/r^3 and is dominated numerically by the graviton contribution. The
previous calculations of this contribution to the discussed effect are
demonstrated to be incorrect.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures; numerical error corrected, few references adde
Casimir bag energy in the stochastic approximation to the pure QCD vacuum
We study the Casimir contribution to the bag energy coming from gluon field
fluctuations, within the context of the stochastic vacuum model (SVM) of pure
QCD. After formulating the problem in terms of the generating functional of
field strength cumulants, we argue that the resulting predictions about the
Casimir energy are compatible with the phenomenologically required bag energy
term.Comment: 16 page
Quantum Gravitational Corrections to the Nonrelativistic Scattering Potential of Two Masses
We treat general relativity as an effective field theory, obtaining the full
nonanalytic component of the scattering matrix potential to one-loop order. The
lowest order vertex rules for the resulting effective field theory are
presented and the one-loop diagrams which yield the leading nonrelativistic
post-Newtonian and quantum corrections to the gravitational scattering
amplitude to second order in G are calculated in detail. The Fourier
transformed amplitudes yield a nonrelativistic potential and our result is
discussed in relation to previous calculations. The definition of a potential
is discussed as well and we show how the ambiguity of the potential under
coordinate changes is resolved.Comment: 27 pages, 17 figure
K -> pi pi Electroweak Penguins in the Chiral Limit
We report on dispersive and finite energy sum rule analyses of the
electroweak penguin matrix elements in the chiral
limit. We accomplish the correct perturbative matching (scale and scheme
dependence) at NLO in alpha_s, and we describe two different strategies for
numerical evaluation.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. Contribution to QCD02, International Conference
on Quantum Chromo-Dynamics, Montpellier (France), July 2-9 200
Photon-Photon Scattering, Pion Polarizability and Chiral Symmetry
Recent attempts to detect the pion polarizability via analysis of
measurements are examined. The connection
between calculations based on dispersion relations and on chiral perturbation
theory is established by matching the low energy chiral amplitude with that
given by a full dispersive treatment. Using the values for the polarizability
required by chiral symmetry, predicted and experimental cross sections are
shown to be in agreement.Comment: 21 pages(+10 figures available on request), LATEX, UMHEP-38
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