Calculations for Mirror Symmetry with D-branes

We study normal functions capturing D-brane superpotentials on several one- and two-parameter Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces and complete intersections in weighted projective space. We calculate in the B-model and interpret the results using mirror symmetry in the large volume regime, albeit without identifying the precise A-model geometry in all cases. We identify new classes of extensions of Picard-Fuchs equations, as well as a novel type of topology changing phase transition involving quantum D-branes. A 4-d domain wall which is obtained in one region of closed string moduli space from wrapping a four-chain interpolating between two Lagrangian submanifolds is, for other values of the parameters, represented by a disk ending on a single Lagrangian.Comment: 42 page

The first decade of web-based sports injury surveillance: Descriptive epidemiology of injuries in US high school girls’ basketball (2005–2006 through 2013–2014) and National Collegiate Athletic Association women’s basketball (2004–2005 through 2013–2014)

Context: The advent of Web-based sports injury surveillance via programs such as the High School Reporting Information Online system and the National Collegiate Athletic Association Injury Surveillance Program has aided the acquisition of girls’ and women’s basketball injury data. Objective: To describe the epidemiology of injuries sustained in high school girls’ basketball in the 2005–2006 through 2013–2014 academic years and collegiate women’s basketball in the 2004–2005 through 2013–2014 academic years using Web-based sports injury surveillance. Design: Descriptive epidemiology study. Setting: Online injury surveillance from basketball teams in high school girls (annual average ¼ 100) and collegiate women (annual average ¼ 57). Patients or Other Participants: Girls’ and women’s basketball players who participated in practices and competitions during the 2005–2006 through 2013–2014 academic years in high school or the 2004–2005 through 2013–2014 academic years in college. Main Outcome Measure(s): Certified athletic trainers collected time-loss (24 hours) injury and exposure data. Injury rates per 1000 athlete-exposures (AEs) were calculated. Injury rate ratios (IRRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to compare injury rates by school size or division, time in season, event type, and competition level. Results: The High School Reporting Information Online system documented 2930 time-loss injuries during 1 609 733 AEs; the National Collegiate Athletic Association Injury Surveillance Program documented 3887 time-loss injuries during 783 600 AEs. The injury rate was higher in college than in high school (4.96 versus 1.82/1000 AEs; IRR ¼ 2.73; 95% CI ¼ 2.60, 2.86). The injury rate was higher in competitions than in practices for both high school (IRR ¼ 3.03; 95% CI ¼ 2.82, 3.26) and collegiate (IRR ¼ 1.99; 95% CI ¼ 1.86, 2.12) players. The most common injuries at both levels were ligament sprains, concussions, and muscle/tendon strains; the majority of injuries affected the ankle, knee, and head/face. These injuries were often caused by contact with another player or a noncontact mechanism. Conclusions: Injury rates were higher in collegiate than in high school athletes and in competitions than in practices. Similarities in distributions of injuries by body parts, specific diagnoses, and mechanisms of injury suggest that both levels may benefit from similar injury-prevention strategies

The first decade of web-based sports injury surveillance: Descriptive epidemiology of injuries in US high school boys’ basketball (2005–2006 through 2013–2014) and National Collegiate Athletic Association men’s basketball (2004–2005 through 2013–2014)

Context: The advent of Web-based sports injury surveillance via programs such as the High School Reporting Information Online system and the National Collegiate Athletic Association Injury Surveillance Program has aided the acquisition of boys’ and men’s basketball injury data. Objective: To describe the epidemiology of injuries sustained in high school boys’ basketball in the 2005–2006 through 2013–2014 academic years and collegiate men’s basketball in the 2004–2005 through 2013–2014 academic years using Web-based sports injury surveillance. Design: Descriptive epidemiology study. Setting: Online injury surveillance from basketball teams of high school boys (annual average ¼ 100) and collegiate men (annual average ¼ 55). Patients or Other Participants: Boys’ and men’s basketball players who participated in practices and competitions during the 2005–2006 through 2013–2014 academic years in high school or the 2004–2005 through 2013–2014 academic years in college. Main Outcome Measures: Athletic trainers collected time-loss (24 hours) injury and exposure data. Injury rates per 1000 athlete-exposures (AEs) were calculated. Injury rate ratios (IRRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) compared injury rates by school size or division, time in season, event type, and competition level. Results: The High School Reporting Information Online system documented 3056 time-loss injuries during 1 977 480 AEs; the National Collegiate Athletic Association Injury Surveillance Program documented 4607 time-loss injuries during 868 631 AEs. The injury rate was higher for college than for high school (5.30 versus 1.55/1000 AE; IRR ¼ 3.43; 95% CI ¼ 3.28, 3.59). The injury rate was higher for competitions than for practices in both high school (IRR ¼ 2.38; 95% CI ¼ 2.22, 2.56) and college (IRR ¼ 2.02; 95% CI ¼ 1.90, 2.14). The most common injuries at both levels were ligament sprains, muscle/ tendon strains, and concussions; most injuries affected the ankle, knee, and head/face. Injuries were most often caused by contact with another player or noncontact mechanisms. Conclusions: Injury rates were greater among collegiate players compared with high school players and were greater during competitions than practices at both levels. Distributions of injuries by body part, diagnoses, and mechanisms of injury were similar, suggesting that athletes at both levels may benefit from similar injury-prevention strategies

Specific Heat of Liquid Helium in Zero Gravity very near the Lambda Point

We report the details and revised analysis of an experiment to measure the specific heat of helium with subnanokelvin temperature resolution near the lambda point. The measurements were made at the vapor pressure spanning the region from 22 mK below the superfluid transition to 4 uK above. The experiment was performed in earth orbit to reduce the rounding of the transition caused by gravitationally induced pressure gradients on earth. Specific heat measurements were made deep in the asymptotic region to within 2 nK of the transition. No evidence of rounding was found to this resolution. The optimum value of the critical exponent describing the specific heat singularity was found to be a = -0.0127+ - 0.0003. This is bracketed by two recent estimates based on renormalization group techniques, but is slightly outside the range of the error of the most recent result. The ratio of the coefficients of the leading order singularity on the two sides of the transition is A+/A- =1.053+ - 0.002, which agrees well with a recent estimate. By combining the specific heat and superfluid density exponents a test of the Josephson scaling relation can be made. Excellent agreement is found based on high precision measurements of the superfluid density made elsewhere. These results represent the most precise tests of theoretical predictions for critical phenomena to date.Comment: 27 Pages, 20 Figure

Extreme Ultra-Violet Spectroscopy of the Lower Solar Atmosphere During Solar Flares

The extreme ultraviolet portion of the solar spectrum contains a wealth of diagnostic tools for probing the lower solar atmosphere in response to an injection of energy, particularly during the impulsive phase of solar flares. These include temperature and density sensitive line ratios, Doppler shifted emission lines and nonthermal broadening, abundance measurements, differential emission measure profiles, and continuum temperatures and energetics, among others. In this paper I shall review some of the advances made in recent years using these techniques, focusing primarily on studies that have utilized data from Hinode/EIS and SDO/EVE, while also providing some historical background and a summary of future spectroscopic instrumentation.Comment: 34 pages, 8 figures. Submitted to Solar Physics as part of the Topical Issue on Solar and Stellar Flare

PPPC 4 DM ID: A Poor Particle Physicist Cookbook for Dark Matter Indirect Detection

We provide ingredients and recipes for computing signals of TeV-scale Dark Matter annihilations and decays in the Galaxy and beyond. For each DM channel, we present the energy spectra of electrons and positrons, antiprotons, antideuterons, gamma rays, neutrinos and antineutrinos e, mu, tau at production, computed by high-statistics simulations. We estimate the Monte Carlo uncertainty by comparing the results yielded by the Pythia and Herwig event generators. We then provide the propagation functions for charged particles in the Galaxy, for several DM distribution profiles and sets of propagation parameters. Propagation of electrons and positrons is performed with an improved semi-analytic method that takes into account position-dependent energy losses in the Milky Way. Using such propagation functions, we compute the energy spectra of electrons and positrons, antiprotons and antideuterons at the location of the Earth. We then present the gamma ray fluxes, both from prompt emission and from Inverse Compton scattering in the galactic halo. Finally, we provide the spectra of extragalactic gamma rays. All results are available in numerical form and ready to be consumed.Comment: 57 pages with many figures and tables. v4: updated to include a 125 higgs boson, computation and discussion of extragalactic spectra corrected, some other typos fixed; all these corrections and updates are reflected on the numerical ingredients available at http://www.marcocirelli.net/PPPC4DMID.html they correspond to Release 2.

The International Pulsar Timing Array: First data release

International audienceThe highly stable spin of neutron stars can be exploited for a variety of (astro)physical investigations. In particular, arrays of pulsars with rotational periods of the order of milliseconds can be used to detect correlated signals such as those caused by gravitational waves. Three such 'pulsar timing arrays' (PTAs) have been set up around the world over the past decades and collectively form the 'International' PTA (IPTA). In this paper, we describe the first joint analysis of the data from the three regional PTAs, i.e. of the first IPTA data set. We describe the available PTA data, the approach presently followed for its combination and suggest improvements for future PTA research. Particular attention is paid to subtle details (such as underestimation of measurement uncertainty and long-period noise) that have often been ignored but which become important in this unprecedentedly large and inhomogeneous data set. We identify and describe in detail several factors that complicate IPTA research and provide recommendations for future pulsar timing efforts. The first IPTA data release presented here (and available on-line) is used to demonstrate the IPTA's potential of improving upon gravitational-wave limit

Clustering Algorithms: Their Application to Gene Expression Data

Gene expression data hide vital information required to understand the biological process that takes place in a particular organism in relation to its environment. Deciphering the hidden patterns in gene expression data proffers a prodigious preference to strengthen the understanding of functional genomics. The complexity of biological networks and the volume of genes present increase the challenges of comprehending and interpretation of the resulting mass of data, which consists of millions of measurements; these data also inhibit vagueness, imprecision, and noise. Therefore, the use of clustering techniques is a first step toward addressing these challenges, which is essential in the data mining process to reveal natural structures and iden-tify interesting patterns in the underlying data. The clustering of gene expression data has been proven to be useful in making known the natural structure inherent in gene expression data, understanding gene functions, cellular processes, and subtypes of cells, mining useful information from noisy data, and understanding gene regulation. The other benefit of clustering gene expression data is the identification of homology, which is very important in vaccine design. This review examines the various clustering algorithms applicable to the gene expression data in order to discover and provide useful knowledge of the appropriate clustering technique that will guarantee stability and high degree of accuracy in its analysis procedure

Risk profiles and one-year outcomes of patients with newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation in India: Insights from the GARFIELD-AF Registry.

BACKGROUND: The Global Anticoagulant Registry in the FIELD-Atrial Fibrillation (GARFIELD-AF) is an ongoing prospective noninterventional registry, which is providing important information on the baseline characteristics, treatment patterns, and 1-year outcomes in patients with newly diagnosed non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF). This report describes data from Indian patients recruited in this registry. METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 52,014 patients with newly diagnosed AF were enrolled globally; of these, 1388 patients were recruited from 26 sites within India (2012-2016). In India, the mean age was 65.8 years at diagnosis of NVAF. Hypertension was the most prevalent risk factor for AF, present in 68.5% of patients from India and in 76.3% of patients globally (P < 0.001). Diabetes and coronary artery disease (CAD) were prevalent in 36.2% and 28.1% of patients as compared with global prevalence of 22.2% and 21.6%, respectively (P < 0.001 for both). Antiplatelet therapy was the most common antithrombotic treatment in India. With increasing stroke risk, however, patients were more likely to receive oral anticoagulant therapy [mainly vitamin K antagonist (VKA)], but average international normalized ratio (INR) was lower among Indian patients [median INR value 1.6 (interquartile range {IQR}: 1.3-2.3) versus 2.3 (IQR 1.8-2.8) (P < 0.001)]. Compared with other countries, patients from India had markedly higher rates of all-cause mortality [7.68 per 100 person-years (95% confidence interval 6.32-9.35) vs 4.34 (4.16-4.53), P < 0.0001], while rates of stroke/systemic embolism and major bleeding were lower after 1 year of follow-up. CONCLUSION: Compared to previously published registries from India, the GARFIELD-AF registry describes clinical profiles and outcomes in Indian patients with AF of a different etiology. The registry data show that compared to the rest of the world, Indian AF patients are younger in age and have more diabetes and CAD. Patients with a higher stroke risk are more likely to receive anticoagulation therapy with VKA but are underdosed compared with the global average in the GARFIELD-AF. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION-URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT01090362