709 research outputs found
Brave New World versus Island â Utopian and Dystopian Views on Psychopharmacology
Aldous Huxleyâs Brave New World is a famous dystopia, frequently called upon in public discussions about new biotechnology. It is less well known that 30Â years later Huxley also wrote a utopian novel, called Island. This paper will discuss both novels focussing especially on the role of psychopharmacological substances. If we see fiction as a way of imagining what the world could look like, then what can we learn from Huxleyâs novels about psychopharmacology and how does that relate to the discussion in the ethical and philosophical literature on this subject? The paper argues that in the current ethical discussion the dystopian vision on psychopharmacology is dominant, but that a comparison between Brave New World and Island shows that a more utopian view is possible as well. This is illustrated by a discussion of the issue of psychopharmacology and authenticity. The second part of the paper draws some further conclusions for the ethical debate on psychopharmacology and human enhancement, by comparing the novels not only with each other, but also with our present reality. It is claimed that the debate should not get stuck in an opposition of dystopian and utopian views, but should address important issues that demand attention in our real world: those of evaluation and governance of enhancing psychopharmacological substances in democratic, pluralistic societies
INCLUSIVE PARTICLE PRODUCTION IN \pbp COLLISIONS
We calculate the inclusive production of charged hadrons in \pbp collisions
to next-to-leading order (NLO) in the QCD improved parton model using a new set
of NLO fragmentation functions for charged pions and kaons. We predict
transverse-momentum distributions and compare them with experimental data from
the CERN S\pbpS Collider and the Fermilab Tevatron.Comment: the file containing the figures has been replaced: we correct a
mistake in the uuencoding procedure and we give the real Fig 4 instead of the
spurious one which was accidentally included in the previous file. the text
is unchanged
Pion and Kaon Production in and Collisions at Next-to-Leading Order
We present new sets of fragmentation functions for charged pions and kaons,
both at leading and next-to-leading order. They are fitted to data on inclusive
charged-hadron production in annihilation taken by TPC at PEP (~GeV) and to similar data by ALEPH at LEP, who discriminated between
events with charm, bottom, and light- flavour fragmentation in their
charged-hadron sample. We treat all partons independently and to properly
incorporate the charm and bottom thresholds. Due to the sizeable energy gap
between PEP and LEP, we are sensitive to the scaling violation in the
fragmentation process, which allows us to extract a value for the asymptotic
scale parameter of QCD, . Recent data on inclusive charged-hadron
production in tagged three-jet events by OPAL and similar data for longitudinal
electron polarization by ALEPH allow us to pin down the gluon fragmentation
functions. Our new fragmentation functions lead to an excellent description of
a multitude of other data on inclusive charged-hadron production,
ranging from ~GeV to LEP energy. In addition, they agree nicely
with the transverse-momentum spectra of single charged hadrons measured by H1
and ZEUS in photoproduction at the collider HERA, which represents a
nontrivial check of the factorization theorem of the QCD-improved parton model.Comment: 22 pages, latex, 13 compressed ps figures in separate fil
Complete Order alpha_s^3 Results for e^+ e^- to (gamma,Z) to Four Jets
We present the next-to-leading order (O(alpha_s^3)) perturbative QCD
predictions for e^+e^- annihilation into four jets. A previous calculation
omitted the O(alpha_s^3) terms suppressed by one or more powers of 1/N_c^2,
where N_c is the number of colors, and the `light-by-glue scattering'
contributions. We find that all such terms are uniformly small, constituting
less than 10% of the correction. For the Durham clustering algorithm, the
leading and next-to-leading logarithms in the limit of small jet resolution
parameter y_{cut} can be resummed. We match the resummed results to our
fixed-order calculation in order to improve the small y_{cut} prediction.Comment: Latex2e, 17 pages with 5 encapsulated figures. Note added regarding
subsequent related work. To appear in Phys. Rev.
Phase Separation of Rigid-Rod Suspensions in Shear Flow
We analyze the behavior of a suspension of rigid rod-like particles in shear
flow using a modified version of the Doi model, and construct diagrams for
phase coexistence under conditions of constant imposed stress and constant
imposed strain rate, among paranematic, flow-aligning nematic, and log-rolling
nematic states. We calculate the effective constitutive relations that would be
measured through the regime of phase separation into shear bands. We calculate
phase coexistence by examining the stability of interfacial steady states and
find a wide range of possible ``phase'' behaviors.Comment: 23 pages 19 figures, revised version to be published in Physical
Review
Ethnic differences translate to inadequacy of high-risk screening for gestational diabetes mellitus in an Asian population: a cohort study
Background: universal and high-risk screening for gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) has been widely studied and debated. Few studies have assessed GDM screening in Asian populations and even fewer have compared Asian ethnic groups in a single multi-ethnic population.Methods: 1136 pregnant women (56.7% Chinese, 25.5% Malay and 17.8% Indian) from the Growing Up in Singapore Towards healthy Outcomes (GUSTO) birth cohort study were screened for GDM by 75-g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) at 26â28 weeks of gestation. GDM was defined using the World Health Organization (WHO) criteria. High-risk screening is based on the guidelines of the UK National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.Results: universal screening detected significantly more cases than high-risk screening [crude OR 2.2 (95% CI 1.7-2.8)], particularly for Chinese women [crude OR = 3.5 (95% CI 2.5-5.0)]. Pre-pregnancy BMI > 30 kg/m2 (adjusted OR = 3.4, 95% CI 1.5-7.9) and previous GDM history (adjusted OR = 6.6, 95% CI 1.2-37.3) were associated with increased risk of GDM in Malay women while GDM history was the only significant risk factor for GDM in Chinese women (adjusted OR = 4.7, 95% CI 2.0-11.0).Conclusion: risk factors used in high-risk screening do not sufficiently predict GDM risk and failed to detect half the GDM cases in Asian women. Asian women, particularly Chinese, should be screened to avoid under-diagnosis of GDM and thereby optimize maternal and fetal outcome
Pulsar Timing and its Application for Navigation and Gravitational Wave Detection
Pulsars are natural cosmic clocks. On long timescales they rival the
precision of terrestrial atomic clocks. Using a technique called pulsar timing,
the exact measurement of pulse arrival times allows a number of applications,
ranging from testing theories of gravity to detecting gravitational waves. Also
an external reference system suitable for autonomous space navigation can be
defined by pulsars, using them as natural navigation beacons, not unlike the
use of GPS satellites for navigation on Earth. By comparing pulse arrival times
measured on-board a spacecraft with predicted pulse arrivals at a reference
location (e.g. the solar system barycenter), the spacecraft position can be
determined autonomously and with high accuracy everywhere in the solar system
and beyond. We describe the unique properties of pulsars that suggest that such
a navigation system will certainly have its application in future astronautics.
We also describe the on-going experiments to use the clock-like nature of
pulsars to "construct" a galactic-sized gravitational wave detector for
low-frequency (f_GW ~1E-9 - 1E-7 Hz) gravitational waves. We present the
current status and provide an outlook for the future.Comment: 30 pages, 9 figures. To appear in Vol 63: High Performance Clocks,
Springer Space Science Review
Magnetic Field Generation in Stars
Enormous progress has been made on observing stellar magnetism in stars from
the main sequence through to compact objects. Recent data have thrown into
sharper relief the vexed question of the origin of stellar magnetic fields,
which remains one of the main unanswered questions in astrophysics. In this
chapter we review recent work in this area of research. In particular, we look
at the fossil field hypothesis which links magnetism in compact stars to
magnetism in main sequence and pre-main sequence stars and we consider why its
feasibility has now been questioned particularly in the context of highly
magnetic white dwarfs. We also review the fossil versus dynamo debate in the
context of neutron stars and the roles played by key physical processes such as
buoyancy, helicity, and superfluid turbulence,in the generation and stability
of neutron star fields.
Independent information on the internal magnetic field of neutron stars will
come from future gravitational wave detections. Thus we maybe at the dawn of a
new era of exciting discoveries in compact star magnetism driven by the opening
of a new, non-electromagnetic observational window.
We also review recent advances in the theory and computation of
magnetohydrodynamic turbulence as it applies to stellar magnetism and dynamo
theory. These advances offer insight into the action of stellar dynamos as well
as processes whichcontrol the diffusive magnetic flux transport in stars.Comment: 41 pages, 7 figures. Invited review chapter on on magnetic field
generation in stars to appear in Space Science Reviews, Springe
Observation of exclusive DVCS in polarized electron beam asymmetry measurements
We report the first results of the beam spin asymmetry measured in the
reaction e + p -> e + p + gamma at a beam energy of 4.25 GeV. A large asymmetry
with a sin(phi) modulation is observed, as predicted for the interference term
of Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering and the Bethe-Heitler process. The
amplitude of this modulation is alpha = 0.202 +/- 0.028. In leading-order and
leading-twist pQCD, the alpha is directly proportional to the imaginary part of
the DVCS amplitude.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure
Complete measurement of three-body photodisintegration of 3He for photon energies between 0.35 and 1.55 GeV
The three-body photodisintegration of 3He has been measured with the CLAS
detector at Jefferson Lab, using tagged photons of energies between 0.35 GeV
and 1.55 GeV. The large acceptance of the spectrometer allowed us for the first
time to cover a wide momentum and angular range for the two outgoing protons.
Three kinematic regions dominated by either two- or three-body contributions
have been distinguished and analyzed. The measured cross sections have been
compared with results of a theoretical model, which, in certain kinematic
ranges, have been found to be in reasonable agreement with the data.Comment: 22 pages, 25 eps figures, 2 tables, submitted to PRC. Modifications:
removed 2 figures, improvements on others, a few minor modifications to the
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