Electronic Coherence Dephasing in Excitonic Molecular Complexes: Role of Markov and Secular Approximations

We compare four different types of equations of motion for reduced density matrix of a system of molecular excitons interacting with thermodynamic bath. All four equations are of second order in the linear system-bath interaction Hamiltonian, with different approximations applied in their derivation. In particular we compare time-nonlocal equations obtained from so-called Nakajima-Zwanzig identity and the time-local equations resulting from the partial ordering prescription of the cummulant expansion. In each of these equations we alternatively apply secular approximation to decouple population and coherence dynamics from each other. We focus on the dynamics of intraband electronic coherences of the excitonic system which can be traced by coherent two-dimensional spectroscopy. We discuss the applicability of the four relaxation theories to simulations of population and coherence dynamics, and identify features of the two-dimensional coherent spectrum that allow us to distinguish time-nonlocal effects.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figure

The SOFIA Pilot Trial:A cluster-randomized trial of coordinated, co-produced care to reduce mortality and improve quality of life in people with severe mental illness in the general practice setting

Abstract Background People with severe mental illness (SMI) have an increased risk of premature mortality, predominantly due to somatic health conditions. Evidence indicates that primary and tertiary prevention and improved treatment of somatic conditions in patients with SMI could reduce this excess mortality. This paper reports a protocol designed to evaluate the feasibility of a coordinated co-produced care program (SOFIA model, a Danish acronym for Severe Mental Illness and Physical Health in General Practice) in the general practice setting to reduce mortality and improve quality of life in patients with severe mental illness. Methods The SOFIA pilot trial is designed as a cluster randomized controlled trial targeting general practices in two regions in Denmark. We aim to include 12 practices, each of which is instructed to recruit up to 15 community-dwelling patients aged 18 and older with SMI. Practices will be randomized by a computer in a ratio of 2:1 to deliver a coordinated care program or usual care during a 6-month study period. A randomized algorithm is used to perform randomization. The coordinated care program includes educational training of general practitioners and their clinical staff educational training of general practitioners and their clinical staff, which covers clinical and diagnostic management and focus on patient-centered care of this patient group, after which general practitioners will provide a prolonged consultation focusing on individual needs and preferences of the patient with SMI and a follow-up plan if indicated. The outcomes will be parameters of the feasibility of the intervention and trial methods and will be assessed quantitatively and qualitatively. Assessments of the outcome parameters will be administered at baseline, throughout, and at end of the study period. Discussion If necessary the intervention will be revised based on results from this study. If delivery of the intervention, either in its current form or after revision, is considered feasible, a future, definitive trial to determine the effectiveness of the intervention in reducing mortality and improving quality of life in patients with SMI can take place. Successful implementation of the intervention would imply preliminary promise for addressing health inequities in patients with SMI. Trial registration The trial was registered in Clinical Trials as of November 5, 2020, with registration number NCT04618250 . Protocol version: January 22, 2021; original versio

Culinary communication practices:The role of retail spaces in producing field-specific cultural capital

Purpose: This chapter explores the practices underpinning the production of field-specific cultural capital at festivals, understood here as retail spaces that gather a plethora of distinct market actors. Methodology/Approach: This research presents evidence from an ethnographic study employing an interpretative paradigm and multiple data collection processes. The empirical research has been undertaken in the context of food festivals associated with the foodie taste regime. Findings: Three categories of practices that play a role in the production of field-specific cultural capital, namely representational, exchange, and experiential practices, are presented. Practical Implications: Our chapter provides recommendations for food festival organizers and participants who need to improve their practices when facing challenges such as increasing international competition and costs or declining sponsorship. Research Limitations/Implications: This chapter contributes to the growing body of field-level market analysis by showing how practices enabled by complex retail spaces contribute to the production of field-specific cultural capital. However, this chapter is limited by its focus on food festivals. Originality/Value of the Paper: This chapter theorizes how practices enable the acceleration and diversification of field-specific capital exchange, as well as its integration with other forms of capital

Wellness through a comprehensive Yogic breathing program – A controlled pilot trial

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Increasing rates of psychosocial disturbances give rise to increased risks and vulnerability for a wide variety of stress-related chronic pain and other illnesses. Relaxation exercises aim at reducing stress and thereby help prevent these unwanted outcomes. One of the widely used relaxation practices is yoga and yogic breathing exercises. One specific form of these exercises is Sudarshan Kriya and related practices (SK&P) which are understood to have favourable effects on the mind-body system. The goal of this pilot study was to design a protocol that can investigate whether SK&P can lead to increased feeling of wellness in healthy volunteers.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Participants were recruited in a small university city in Sweden and were instructed in a 6-day intensive program of SK&P which they practiced daily for six weeks. The control group was instructed to relax in an armchair each day during the same period. Subjects included a total of 103 adults, 55 in the intervention (SK&P) group and 48 in the control group. Various instruments were administered before and after the intervention. Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale measured the degree of anxiety and depression, Life Orientation Test measured dispositional optimism, Stress and Energy Test measured individual's energy and stress experiences. Experienced Deviation from Normal State measured the experience of altered state of consciousness.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There were no safety issues. Compliance was high (only 1 dropout in the SK&P group, and 5 in the control group). Outcome measures appeared to be appropriate for assessing the differences between the groups. Subjective reports generally correlated with the findings from the instruments. The data suggest that participants in the SK&P group, but not the control group, lowered their degree of anxiety, depression and stress, and also increased their degree of optimism (ANOVA; p < 0.001). The participants in the yoga group experienced the practices as a positive event that induced beneficial effects.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These data indicate that the experimental protocol that is developed here is safe, compliance level is good, and a full scale trial is feasible. The data obtained suggest that adult participants may improve their wellness by learning and applying a program based on yoga and yogic breathing exercises; this can be conclusively assessed in a large-scale trial.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p>Australian Clinical Trial Registry ACTRN012607000175471.</p

Technology and Sociomaterial Performation

Part 1: IS/IT Implementation and AppropriationInternational audienceOrganizational researchers have acknowledged that understanding the relationship between technology and organization is crucial to understanding modern organizing and organizational change [1]. There has been a significant amount of debate concerning the theoretical foundation of this relationship. Our research draws and extends Deleuze and DeLanda’s work on assemblages and Callon’s concept of performation to investigate how different sociomaterial practices are changed and stabilized after the implementation of new technology. Our findings from an in-depth study of two ambulatory clinics within a hospital system indicate that “perform-ing” of constituting, counter-performing, calibrating, and stratifying explained the process of sociomaterial change and that this process is governed by an overarching principle of “performative exigency”. Future studies on sociomateriality and change may benefit from a deeper understanding of how sociomaterial assemblages are rendered performative

Democracy in trade unions, democracy through trade unions?

Since the Webbs published Industrial Democracy at the end of the nineteenth century, the principle that workers have a legitimate voice in decision-making in the world of work – in some versions through trade unions, in others at least formally through separate representative structures – has become widely accepted in most west European countries. There is now a vast literature on the strengths and weaknesses of such mechanisms, and we review briefly some of the key interpretations of the rise (and fall) of policies and structures for workplace and board-level representation. We also discuss the mainly failed attempts to establish broader processes of economic democracy, which the eclipse of nationally specific mechanisms of class compromise makes again a salient demand. Economic globalization also highlights the need for transnational mechanisms to achieve worker voice (or more radically, control) in the dynamics of capital-labour relations. We therefore examine the role of trade unions in coordinating pressure for a countervailing force at European and global levels, and in the construction of (emergent?) supranational industrial relations. However, many would argue that unions cannot win legitimacy as democratizing force unless manifestly democratic internally. We therefore revisit debates on and dilemmas of democracy within trade unions, and examine recent initiatives to enhance democratization

Searches at HERA for Squarks in R-Parity Violating Supersymmetry

A search for squarks in R-parity violating supersymmetry is performed in e^+p collisions at HERA at a centre of mass energy of 300 GeV, using H1 data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 37 pb^(-1). The direct production of single squarks of any generation in positron-quark fusion via a Yukawa coupling lambda' is considered, taking into account R-parity violating and conserving decays of the squarks. No significant deviation from the Standard Model expectation is found. The results are interpreted in terms of constraints within the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM), the constrained MSSM and the minimal Supergravity model, and their sensitivity to the model parameters is studied in detail. For a Yukawa coupling of electromagnetic strength, squark masses below 260 GeV are excluded at 95% confidence level in a large part of the parameter space. For a 100 times smaller coupling strength masses up to 182 GeV are excluded.Comment: 32 pages, 14 figures, 3 table

Clinical effectiveness of elective single versus double embryo transfer: meta-analysis of individual patient data from randomised trials

Objective To compare the effectiveness of elective single embryo transfer versus double embryo transfer on the outcomes of live birth, multiple live birth, miscarriage, preterm birth, term singleton birth, and low birth weight after fresh embryo transfer, and on the outcomes of cumulative live birth and multiple live birth after fresh and frozen embryo transfers

Endogenous sex steroids and risk of cervical carcinoma : results from the EPIC study

Background: Epidemiologic data and animal models suggest that, despite the predominant role of human papillomavirus infection, sex steroid hormones are also involved in the etiology of invasive cervical carcinoma (ICC). Methods: Ninety-nine ICC cases, 121 cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 3 (CIN3) cases and 2 control women matched with each case for center, age, menopausal status and blood collection-related variables, were identified in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study. Circulating levels of testosterone (T) and estradiol (E(2)); dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS); progesterone (premenopausal women); and sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) were measured using immunoassays. Levels of free (f) T and E(2) were calculated from absolute concentrations of T, E(2), and SHBG. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were computed using regularized conditional logistic regression. Results: Among premenopausal women, associations with ICC were observed for fT (OR for highest vs. lowest tertile 5.16, 95% CI, 1.50-20.1). SHBG level was associated with a significant downward trend in ICC risk. T, E(2), fE(2), and DHEAS showed nonsignificant positive association with ICC. Progesterone was uninfluential. Among postmenopausal women, associations with ICC were found for T (OR 3.14; 95% CI, 1.21-9.37), whereas E(2) and fT showed nonsignificant positive association. SHBG level was unrelated to ICC risk in postmenopausal women. No associations between any hormone and CIN3 were detected in either pre- or postmenopausal women. Conclusions: Our findings suggest for the first time that T and possibly E(2) may be involved in the etiology of ICC. Impact: The responsiveness of cervical tumors to hormone modulators is worth exploring. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 20(12); 2532-40. (C) 2011 AACR