7,085 research outputs found
Ground state properties of heavy alkali halides
We extend previous work on alkali halides by calculations for the heavy-atom
species RbF, RbCl, LiBr, NaBr, KBr, RbBr, LiI, NaI, KI, and RbI. Relativistic
effects are included by means of energy-consistent pseudopotentials,
correlations are treated at the coupled-cluster level. A striking deficiency of
the Hartree-Fock approach are lattice constants deviating by up to 7.5 % from
experimental values which is reduced to a maximum error of 2.4 % by taking into
account electron correlation. Besides, we provide ab-initio data for in-crystal
polarizabilities and van der Waals coefficients.Comment: accepted by Phys. Rev.
An immunotherapy survivor population: health-related quality of life and toxicity in patients with metastatic melanoma treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors
© The Author(s) 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.Purpose The immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have resulted in subgroups of patients with metastatic melanoma achievinghigh-quality durable responses. Metastatic melanoma survivors are a new population in the era of cancer survivorship. The aimofthis study was to evaluate metastatic melanoma survivors in terms of health-related quality of life (HRQoL), immune-relatedadverse events (irAEs) and exposure to immunosuppressive agents in a large single centre in the UK.Methods We defined the survivor population as patients with a diagnosis of metastatic melanoma who achieved a durableresponse to an ICI and had been followed-up for a minimum of 12 months from initiation of ICI without disease progression.HRQoL was assessed using SF-36. Electronic health records were accessed to collect data on demographics, treatments, irAEsand survival. HRQoL data was compared with two norm-based datasets.Results Eighty-four metastatic melanoma survivors were eligible and 87% (N = 73) completed the SF-36. ICI-related toxicity ofany grade occurred in 92%of patients and 43%had experienced a grade 3 or 4 toxicity. Almost half (49%) of the patients requiredsteroids for the treatment of ICI-related toxicity, whilst 14% required treatment with an immunosuppressive agent beyondsteroids.Melanoma survivors had statistically significant lower HRQoL scores with regard to physical, social and physical rolefunctioning and general health compared with the normative population. There was a trend towards inferior scores in patientswith previous exposure to ipilimumab compared with those never exposed to ipilimumab.Conclusions Our results show that metastatic melanoma survivors have potentially experienced significant ICI-related toxicityand experience significant impairments in specific HRQoL domains. Future service planning is required to meet this populationâsunique survivorship needs.Peer reviewe
The Gibbs-Thomson formula at small island sizes - corrections for high vapour densities
In this paper we report simulation studies of equilibrium features, namely
circular islands on model surfaces, using Monte-Carlo methods. In particular,
we are interested in studying the relationship between the density of vapour
around a curved island and its curvature-the Gibbs-Thomson formula. Numerical
simulations of a lattice gas model, performed for various sizes of islands,
don't fit very well to the Gibbs-Thomson formula. We show how corrections to
this form arise at high vapour densities, wherein a knowledge of the exact
equation of state (as opposed to the ideal gas approximation) is necessary to
predict this relationship. Exploiting a mapping of the lattice gas to the Ising
model one can compute the corrections to the Gibbs-Thomson formula using high
field series expansions. We also investigate finite size effects on the
stability of the islands both theoretically and through simulations. Finally
the simulations are used to study the microscopic origins of the Gibbs-Thomson
formula. A heuristic argument is suggested in which it is partially attributed
to geometric constraints on the island edge.Comment: 27 pages including 7 figures, tarred, gzipped and uuencoded. Prepared
using revtex and espf.sty. To appear in Phys. Rev.
The First Ultra-cool Brown Dwarf Discovered by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer
We report the discovery of the first new ultra-cool brown dwarf (BDs) found with the Wide-field Infrared Survey
Explorer (WISE). The objectâs preliminary designation is WISEPC J045853.90+643451.9. Follow-up spectroscopy
with the LUCIFER instrument on the Large Binocular Telescope indicates that it is a very late-type T dwarf with a
spectral type approximately equal to T9. Fits to an IRTF/SpeX 0.8â2.5 ÎŒm spectrum to the model atmospheres of
Marley and Saumon indicate an effective temperature of approximately 600 K as well as the presence of vertical
mixing in its atmosphere. The new BD is easily detected by WISE, with a signal-to-noise ratio of ~36 at 4.6 ÎŒm.
Current estimates place it at a distance of 6â10 pc. This object represents the first in what will likely be hundreds of
nearby BDs found by WISE that will be suitable for follow-up observations, including those with the James Webb
Space Telescope. One of the two primary scientific goals of the WISE mission is to find the coolest, closest stars to
our Sun; the discovery of this new BD proves that WISE is capable of fulfilling this objective
A Spectral Method for Elliptic Equations: The Neumann Problem
Let be an open, simply connected, and bounded region in
, , and assume its boundary is smooth.
Consider solving an elliptic partial differential equation over with a Neumann boundary condition. The problem is converted
to an equivalent elliptic problem over the unit ball , and then a spectral
Galerkin method is used to create a convergent sequence of multivariate
polynomials of degree that is convergent to . The
transformation from to requires a special analytical calculation
for its implementation. With sufficiently smooth problem parameters, the method
is shown to be rapidly convergent. For
and assuming is a boundary, the convergence of
to zero is faster than any power of .
Numerical examples in and show experimentally
an exponential rate of convergence.Comment: 23 pages, 11 figure
Intermediate temperature dynamics of one-dimensional Heisenberg antiferromagnets
We present a general theory for the intermediate temperature (T) properties
of Heisenberg antiferromagnets of spin-S ions on p-leg ladders, valid for 2Sp
even or odd. Following an earlier proposal for 2Sp even (Damle and Sachdev,
cond-mat/9711014), we argue that an integrable, classical, continuum model of a
fixed-length, 3-vector applies over an intermediate temperature range; this
range becomes very wide for moderate and large values of 2Sp. The coupling
constants of the effective model are known exactly in terms of the energy gap
above the ground state (for 2Sp even) or a crossover scale (for 2Sp odd).
Analytic and numeric results for dynamic and transport properties are obtained,
including some exact results for the spin-wave damping. Numerous quantitative
predictions for neutron scattering and NMR experiments are made. A general
discussion on the nature of T>0 transport in integrable systems is also
presented: an exact solution of a toy model proves that diffusion can exist in
integrable systems, provided proper care is taken in approaching the
thermodynamic limit.Comment: 38 pages, including 12 figure
Posterior-based proposals for speeding up Markov chain Monte Carlo
Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) is widely used for Bayesian inference in
models of complex systems. Performance, however, is often unsatisfactory in
models with many latent variables due to so-called poor mixing, necessitating
development of application specific implementations. This paper introduces
"posterior-based proposals" (PBPs), a new type of MCMC update applicable to a
huge class of statistical models (whose conditional dependence structures are
represented by directed acyclic graphs). PBPs generates large joint updates in
parameter and latent variable space, whilst retaining good acceptance rates
(typically 33%). Evaluation against other approaches (from standard Gibbs /
random walk updates to state-of-the-art Hamiltonian and particle MCMC methods)
was carried out for widely varying model types: an individual-based model for
disease diagnostic test data, a financial stochastic volatility model, a mixed
model used in statistical genetics and a population model used in ecology.
Whilst different methods worked better or worse in different scenarios, PBPs
were found to be either near to the fastest or significantly faster than the
next best approach (by up to a factor of 10). PBPs therefore represent an
additional general purpose technique that can be usefully applied in a wide
variety of contexts.Comment: 54 pages, 11 figures, 2 table
Survey on solar X-ray flares and associated coherent radio emissions
The radio emission during 201 X-ray selected solar flares was surveyed from
100 MHz to 4 GHz with the Phoenix-2 spectrometer of ETH Zurich. The selection
includes all RHESSI flares larger than C5.0 jointly observed from launch until
June 30, 2003. Detailed association rates of radio emission during X-ray flares
are reported. In the decimeter wavelength range, type III bursts and the
genuinely decimetric emissions (pulsations, continua, and narrowband spikes)
were found equally frequently. Both occur predominantly in the peak phase of
hard X-ray (HXR) emission, but are less in tune with HXRs than the
high-frequency continuum exceeding 4 GHz, attributed to gyrosynchrotron
radiation. In 10% of the HXR flares, an intense radiation of the above genuine
decimetric types followed in the decay phase or later. Classic meter-wave type
III bursts are associated in 33% of all HXR flares, but only in 4% they are the
exclusive radio emission. Noise storms were the only radio emission in 5% of
the HXR flares, some of them with extended duration. Despite the spatial
association (same active region), the noise storm variations are found to be
only loosely correlated in time with the X-ray flux. In a surprising 17% of the
HXR flares, no coherent radio emission was found in the extremely broad band
surveyed. The association but loose correlation between HXR and coherent radio
emission is interpreted by multiple reconnection sites connected by common
field lines.Comment: Solar Physics, in pres
Music for Thought: Examining Saudi Identities Expressed Through Music on Social Media
The aim of this chapter is to investigate how social media help create and diffuse popular music in Saudi Arabia and how such music questions the officially accepted identities and social practices. Social media are widely used as means of promotion among artists around the world; yet Saudi Arabia deserves special attention. This is because traditional media act much more strictly as gatekeepers in the kingdom; hence, social media offer greater possibility for circulation of popular entertainment, especially when it touches upon the questions related to the core values of the Saudi society. Such is the case of recordings by Hesham Fageeh âNo woman, No driveâ (2013) or the recently trending video clip âHwagesâ that, both, received peak visibility online and sparked debates about women empowerment. Similarly, some videos trending online prompted a dance craze, for instance, âBarbsâ showed a choreography that was subsequently copied by fans who uploaded their performances online. Dancing is a prohibition among the conservative segments of society; yet, the vastly young population of Saudi Arabia seeks entertainment.Social media in Saudi Arabia have become primordial means of communication in the kingdom with highest rates of social media participation in the Middle East and seventh rank in the world (2016). Consequently, this chapter employs a mixed-method approach in order to uncover how social media breaks the monopoly on entertainment by promoting different musical genres and encouraging social debate
Local models for intersecting brane worlds
We describe the construction of configurations of D6-branes wrapped on
compact 3-cycles intersecting at points in non-compact Calabi-Yau threefolds.
Such constructions provide local models of intersecting brane worlds, and
describe sectors of four-dimensional gauge theories with chiral fermions. We
present several classes of non-compact manifolds with compact 3-cycles
intersecting at points, and discuss the rules required for model building with
wrapped D6-branes. The rules to build 3-cycles are simple, and allow easy
computation of chiral spectra, RR tadpoles and the amount of preserved
supersymmetry. We present several explicit examples of these constructions,
some of which have Standard Model like gauge group and three quark-lepton
generations. In some cases, mirror symmetry relates the models to other
constructions used in phenomenological D-brane model building, like D-branes at
singularities. Some simple N=1 supersymmetric configurations may lead to
relatively tractable G_2 manifolds upon lift to M-theory, which would be
non-compact but nevertheless yield four-dimensional chiral gauge field
theories.Comment: 52 pages, latex, 24 enclosed eps figures; v2. typo correcte
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