Flavor-Dependence and Higher Orders of Gauge-Independent Solutions in Strong Coupling Gauge Theory

The fermion flavor $N_f$ dependence of non-perturbative solutions in the strong coupling phase of the gauge theory is reexamined based on the interrelation between the inversion method and the Schwinger-Dyson equation approach. Especially we point out that the apparent discrepancy on the value of the critical coupling in QED will be resolved by taking into account the higher order corrections which inevitably lead to the flavor-dependence. In the quenched QED, we conclude that the gauge-independent critical point $\alpha_c=2\pi/3$ obtained by the inversion method to the lowest order will be reduced to the result $\alpha_c=\pi/3$ of the Schwinger-Dyson equation in the infinite order limit, but its convergence is quite slow. This is shown by adding the chiral-invariant four-fermion interaction.Comment: CHIBA-EP-72, 13 pages (including 1 Table), LaTex fil

Análises in situ de U e Pb em zircão por SHRIMP II por controle remoto e de Hf por LA-ICP-MS: um exemplo de datação e da evolução genética de zircão através da razão 176Hf/177Hf em amostra da pedreira Ita no Complexo Atuba, SE Brasil

Operar o espectrômetro de massa SHRIMP à distância, remotamente via Internet, é sem dúvida uma técnica alternativa de grande interesse para a datação de cristais de zircão. Embora não represente avanço no método geocronológico U-Pb em zircão, a técnica de operação remota traz, além de facilidade, grande economia nesse tipo de análise. Foi executada pela primeira vez em análises espectrométicas envolvendo dois laboratoratórios internacionais (São Paulo, Brasil - Beijing, China) possibilitando a obtenção de resultados em tempo real. O procedimento foi aplicado em três amostras de rochas gnáissico-migmatíticas da pedreira Ita (próxima à cidade de Curitiba - Paraná - Brasil) pertencentes ao Complexo Atuba. Tais rochas, quando analisadas através do método U-Pb (TIMS) demonstraram uma evolução complexa, com idades bastante imprecisas. A presença de importantes heranças arqueanas e paleoproterozoicas, neste complexo, foram confirmadas nas zonas internas de cristais de zircão obtidas em leucossomas neoproterozoicos. Análises adicionais realizadas em rochas dioríticas indicaram ser intrusivas, e não encaixantes, e apresentaram idades relacionadas às colisões continentais (0.6 Ga) envolvidas durante a assembléia de Gondwana, no Neoproterozoico. A determinação das razões de isótopos de Hf em cristais de zircão, por meio de LA-ICP-MS, representa uma nova opção para checar a importância relativa da contribuição de material do manto (&#949;Hf >; 0) e crosta (&#949;Hf ; 0) and crustal contributions (&#949;Hf < 0) during the growth of the zircon crystals. While the archean component in the complex was derived from the mantle (&#949;Hf +1.5 to +8.7) the paleoproterozoic component had a crustal contribution (&#949;Hf-9.1 to -10.1)

Dynamical Breakdown of Chirality and Parity in (2+1)-dimensional QED

In the (2+1)-dimensional QED with and without the Chern-Simons term, we find the non-local gauge in which there is no wavefunction renormalization for the fermion in the framework of the Schwinger-Dyson equation. By solving the Schwinger-Dyson equation in the non-local gauge, we find a finite critical value $N_f^c$ for the number of flavors $N_f$ of four-component Dirac fermions, above which the chiral symmetry restores irrespective of presence or absence of the Chern-Simons term. In the same framework, we study the possibility of dynamical breakdown of the parity. It is shown that the parity is not dynamically broken. We discuss this reason from the viewpoint of the Schwinger-Dyson equation.Comment: 22 pages, LaTeX, to be published in Nucl. Phys.

Complications Associated With Spine Surgery in Patients Aged 80 Years or Older: Japan Association of Spine Surgeons with Ambition (JASA) Multicenter Study

Study Design:Retrospective study of registry data.Objectives:Aging of society and recent advances in surgical techniques and general anesthesia have increased the demand for spinal surgery in elderly patients. Many complications have been described in elderly patients, but a multicenter study of perioperative complications in spinal surgery in patients aged 80 years or older has not been reported. Therefore, the goal of the study was to analyze complications associated with spine surgery in patients aged 80 years or older with cervical, thoracic, or lumbar lesions.Methods:A multicenter study was performed in patients aged 80 years or older who underwent 262 spinal surgeries at 35 facilities. The frequency and severity of complications were examined for perioperative complications, including intraoperative and postoperative complications, and for major postoperative complications that were potentially life threatening, required reoperation in the perioperative period, or left a permanent injury.Results:Perioperative complications occurred in 75 of the 262 surgeries (29%) and 33 were major complications (13%). In multivariate logistic regression, age over 85 years (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.007, P = 0.025) and estimated blood loss ≥500 g (HR = 3.076, P = .004) were significantly associated with perioperative complications, and an operative time ≥180 min (HR = 2.78, P = .007) was significantly associated with major complications.Conclusions:Elderly patients aged 80 years or older with comorbidities are at higher risk for complications. Increased surgical invasion, and particularly a long operative time, can cause serious complications that may be life threatening. Therefore, careful decisions are required with regard to the surgical indication and procedure in elderly patients

Risk Factors for Delirium After Spine Surgery in Extremely Elderly Patients Aged 80 Years or Older and Review of the Literature: Japan Association of Spine Surgeons with Ambition Multicenter Study

Study Design:Retrospective database analysis.Objective:Spine surgeries in elderly patients have increased in recent years due to aging of society and recent advances in surgical techniques, and postoperative complications have become more of a concern. Postoperative delirium is a common complication in elderly patients that impairs recovery and increases morbidity and mortality. The objective of the study was to analyze postoperative delirium associated with spine surgery in patients aged 80 years or older with cervical, thoracic, and lumbar lesions.Methods:A retrospective multicenter study was performed in 262 patients 80 years of age or older who underwent spine surgeries at 35 facilities. Postoperative complications, incidence of postoperative delirium, and hazard ratios of patient-specific and surgical risk factors were examined.Results:Postoperative complications occurred in 59 of the 262 spine surgeries (23%). Postoperative delirium was the most frequent complication, occurring in 15 of 262 patients (5.7%), and was significantly associated with hypertension, cerebrovascular disease, cervical lesion surgery, and greater estimated blood loss (P < .05). In multivariate logistic regression using perioperative factors, cervical lesion surgery (odds ratio = 4.27, P < .05) and estimated blood loss ≥300 mL (odds ratio = 4.52, P < .05) were significantly associated with postoperative delirium.Conclusions:Cervical lesion surgery and greater blood loss were perioperative risk factors for delirium in extremely elderly patients after spine surgery. Hypertension and cerebrovascular disease were significant risk factors for postoperative delirium, and careful management is required for patients with such risk factors

Reinforcement Learning to Create Value and Policy Functions Using Minimax Tree Search in Hex

Recently, the use of reinforcement-learning algorithms has been proposed to create value and policy functions, and their effectiveness has been demonstrated using Go, Chess, and Shogi. In previous studies, the policy function was trained to predict the search probabilities of each move output by Monte Carlo tree search; thus, a number of simulations were required to obtain the search probabilities. We propose a reinforcement-learning algorithm with game of self-play to create value and policy functions such that the policy function is trained directly from the game results without the search probabilities. In this study, we use Hex, a board game developed by Piet Hein, to evaluate the proposed method. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed learning algorithm in terms of the policy function accuracy, and play a tournament with the proposed computer Hex algorithm DeepEZO and 2017 world-champion programs. The tournament results demonstrate that DeepEZO outperforms all programs. DeepEZO achieved a winning percentage of 79.3% against the world-champion program MoHex2.0 under the same search conditions on $13 \times 13$ board. We also show that the highly accurate policy functions can be created by training the policy functions to increase the number of moves to be searched in the loser position

Strengthening of Ti-6Al-4V alloy by short-time duplex heat treatment

The effect of short-time duplex heat treatment on the microstructure and mechanical properties of Ti-6Al-4V alloy was investigated. This heat treatment consisted of solution treatment at 1203 K for 60 s and subsequent water-quenching plus aging at 753, 853 and 953 K for 40 s. The yield strength and tensile strength of the alloy were significantly increased by the above heat treatment and their maximum improvement rates reached about 25%. It was thought that this strengthening was caused by the formation of 0 martensite phase with quenching after the short-time solution treatment and the precipitation of fine phase in the retained phase during the short-time aging. In spite of the remarkable improvement in the strength, the ductility of the heat-treated materials remained above the level of the non-treated material, most likely because strain-induced martensite transformation occurred in phase which was retained even after the short-time aging