123 research outputs found
The Effect of Hypermobility on the Incidence of Injury in Professional Football: A multi-site cohort study
Background: A recent study demonstrated joint hypermobility increased the incidence of injury in an elite football team utilising a univariate statistical model. Objectives: To compare injury incidence between hypermobile and non-hypermobile elite football players incorporating a multi-site design and multivariate inferential statistics. Methods: 80 players comprising 3 English Championship football teams were followed prospectively during the 2012-2013 season. Joint hypermobility was assessed according to the 9-point Beighton Criteria at the start of the study period. A cut-off score of ≥4 categorised a participant as hypermobile. Player exposure and time-loss injuries were recorded throughout. Results: Mean ± standard deviation incidence of injuries was 9.2 ± 10.8 injuries/1000h. The prevalence of hypermobility was 8.8%. Hypermobiles had a tendency for higher injury incidence (mean [95% confidence interval] difference, 5.2 [0.9-2.7] injuries/1000 h; p = 0.06). Cox regression analyses found training exposure to be highly significant in terms of injury risk (p < 0.001) for all participants. Non-hypermobiles had a lower injury risk (p = 0.11), according to the Cox model, which is suggestive but not conclusive that hypermobility predisposes injury risk. Conclusions Hypermobility showed a trend towards increased risk of injury. Training exposure is a significant injury risk factor in elite football
Invariant variational principle for Hamiltonian mechanics
It is shown that the action for Hamiltonian equations of motion can be
brought into invariant symplectic form. In other words, it can be formulated
directly in terms of the symplectic structure without any need to
choose some 1-form , such that , which is not unique
and does not even generally exist in a global sense.Comment: final version; to appear in J.Phys.A; 17 pages, 2 figure
Planck-Scale Physics and Neutrino Masses
We discuss gravitationally induced masses and mass splittings of Majorana,
Zeldovich-Konopinski-Mahmoud and Dirac neutrinos. Among other implications,
these effects can provide a solution of the solar neutrino puzzle. In
particular, we show how this may work in the 17 keV neutrino picture.Comment: 10 pages, IC/92/79, SISSA-83/92/EP, LMU-04/92 (the preprint number
has been corrected; no other changes
The Possibilist Transactional Interpretation and Relativity
A recent ontological variant of Cramer's Transactional Interpretation, called
"Possibilist Transactional Interpretation" or PTI, is extended to the
relativistic domain. The present interpretation clarifies the concept of
'absorption,' which plays a crucial role in TI (and in PTI). In particular, in
the relativistic domain, coupling amplitudes between fields are interpreted as
amplitudes for the generation of confirmation waves (CW) by a potential
absorber in response to offer waves (OW), whereas in the nonrelativistic
context CW are taken as generated with certainty. It is pointed out that
solving the measurement problem requires venturing into the relativistic domain
in which emissions and absorptions take place; nonrelativistic quantum
mechanics only applies to quanta considered as 'already in existence' (i.e.,
'free quanta'), and therefore cannot fully account for the phenomenon of
measurement, in which quanta are tied to sources and sinks.Comment: Final version with some minor corrections as published in Foundations
of Physics. This paper has significant overlap with Chapter 6 of my book on
the Transactional Interpretation, forthcoming from Cambridge University
Press:
http://www.cambridge.org/us/knowledge/isbn/item6860644/?site_locale=en_US
(Additional preview material is available at rekastner.wordpress.com)
Comments welcom
Constraints on the SU(3) Electroweak Model
We consider a recent proposal by Dimopoulos and Kaplan to embed the
electroweak SU(2)_L X U(1)_Y into a larger group SU(3)_W X SU(2) X U(1) at a
scale above a TeV. This idea is motivated by the prediction for the weak mixing
angle sin^2 theta_W = 1/4, which naturally appears in these models so long as
the gauge couplings of the high energy SU(2) and U(1) groups are moderately
large. The extended gauge dynamics results in new effective operators that
contribute to four-fermion interactions and Z pole observables. We calculate
the corrections to these electroweak precision observables and carry out a
global fit of the new physics to the data. For SU(2) and U(1) gauge couplings
larger than 1, we find that the 95% C.L. lower bound on the matching (heavy
gauge boson mass) scale is 11 TeV. We comment on the fine-tuning of the high
energy gauge couplings needed to allow matching scales above our bounds. The
remnants of SU(3)_W breaking include multi-TeV SU(2)_L doublets with electric
charge (+-2,+-1). The lightest charged gauge boson is stable, leading to
cosmological difficulties.Comment: 17 pages, LaTeX, 4 figures embedded, uses JHEP.cl
Neutral Particles in Light of the Majorana-Ahluwalia Ideas
The first part of this article (Sections I and II) presents oneself an
overview of theory and phenomenology of truly neutral particles based on the
papers of Majorana, Racah, Furry, McLennan and Case. The recent development of
the construct, undertaken by Ahluwalia [{\it Mod. Phys. Lett. A}{\bf 9} (1994)
439; {\it Acta Phys. Polon. B}{\bf 25} (1994) 1267; Preprints LANL
LA-UR-94-1252, LA-UR-94-3118], could be relevant for explanation of the present
experimental situation in neutrino physics and astrophysics.
In Section III the new fundamental wave equations for self/anti-self
conjugate type-II spinors, proposed by Ahluwalia, are re-casted to covariant
form. The connection with the Foldy-Nigam-Bargmann-Wightman- Wigner (FNBWW)
type quantum field theory is found. The possible applications to the problem of
neutrino oscillations are discussed.Comment: REVTEX file. 21pp. No figure
Planck scale effects in neutrino physics
We study the phenomenology and cosmology of the Majoron (flavon) models of
three active and one inert neutrino paying special attention to the possible
(almost) conserved generalization of the Zeldovich-Konopinski-Mahmoud lepton
charge. Using Planck scale physics effects which provide the breaking of the
lepton charge, we show how in this picture one can incorporate the solutions to
some of the central issues in neutrino physics such as the solar and
atmospheric neutrino puzzles, dark matter and a 17 keV neutrino. These
gravitational effects induce tiny Majorana mass terms for neutrinos and
considerable masses for flavons. The cosmological demand for the sufficiently
fast decay of flavons implies a lower limit on the electron neutrino mass in
the range of 0.1-1 eV.Comment: 24 pages, 1 figure (not included but available upon request), LaTex,
IC/92/196, SISSA-140/92/EP, LMU-09/9
VectorBase: a data resource for invertebrate vector genomics
VectorBase (http://www.vectorbase.org) is an NIAID-funded Bioinformatic Resource Center focused on invertebrate vectors of human pathogens. VectorBase annotates and curates vector genomes providing a web accessible integrated resource for the research community. Currently, VectorBase contains genome information for three mosquito species: Aedes aegypti, Anopheles gambiae and Culex quinquefasciatus, a body louse Pediculus humanus and a tick species Ixodes scapularis. Since our last report VectorBase has initiated a community annotation system, a microarray and gene expression repository and controlled vocabularies for anatomy and insecticide resistance. We have continued to develop both the software infrastructure and tools for interrogating the stored data
From least action in electrodynamics to magnetomechanical energy -- a review
The equations of motion for electromechanical systems are traced back to the
fundamental Lagrangian of particles and electromagnetic fields, via the Darwin
Lagrangian. When dissipative forces can be neglected the systems are
conservative and one can study them in a Hamiltonian formalism. The central
concepts of generalized capacitance and inductance coefficients are introduced
and explained. The problem of gauge independence of self-inductance is
considered. Our main interest is in magnetomechanics, i.e. the study of systems
where there is exchange between mechanical and magnetic energy. This throws
light on the concept of magnetic energy, which according to the literature has
confusing and peculiar properties. We apply the theory to a few simple
examples: the extension of a circular current loop, the force between parallel
wires, interacting circular current loops, and the rail gun. These show that
the Hamiltonian, phase space, form of magnetic energy has the usual property
that an equilibrium configuration corresponds to an energy minimum.Comment: 29 pages, 9 figures, 65 reference
PD-L1 Overexpression, SWI/SNF Complex Deregulation, and Profound Transcriptomic Changes Characterize Cancer-Dependent Exhaustion of Persistently Activated CD4+ T Cells
Growing tumors avoid recognition and destruction by the immune system. During
continuous stimulation of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) by tumors, TILs become functionally
exhausted; thus, they become unable to kill tumor cells and to produce certain cytokines and lose
their ability to proliferate. This collectively results in the immune escape of cancer cells. Here, we
show that breast cancer cells expressing PD-L1 can accelerate exhaustion of persistently activated
human effector CD4+ T cells, manifesting in high PD-1 and PD-L1 expression level son T cell surfaces,
decreased glucose metabolism genes, strong downregulation of SWI/SNF chromatin remodelingcomplex subunits, and p21 cell cycle inhibitor upregulation. This results in inhibition of T cell
proliferation and reduction of T cell numbers. The RNAseq analysis on exhausted CD4+ T cells
indicated strong overexpression of IDO1 and genes encoding pro-inflammatory cytokines and
chemokines. Some interleukins were also detected in media from CD4+ T cells co-cultured with
cancer cells. The PD-L1 overexpression was also observed in CD4+ T cells after co-cultivation with
other cell lines overexpressing PD-L1, which suggested the existence of a general mechanism of CD4+
T cell exhaustion induced by cancer cells. The ChIP analysis on the PD-L1 promoter region indicated
that the BRM recruitment in control CD4+ T cells was replaced by BRG1 and EZH2 in CD4+ T cells
strongly exhausted by cancer cells. These findings suggest that epi-drugs such as EZH2 inhibitors
may be used as immunomodulators in cancer treatment
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