Domain Wall Bubbles in High Energy Heavy Ion Collisions

It has been recently shown that meta-stable domain walls exist in high-density QCD ($\mu\neq 0$) as well as in QCD with large number of colors ($N_c\to\infty$), with the lifetime being exponentially long in both cases. Such metastable domain walls may exist in our world as well, especially in hot hadronic matter with temperature close to critical. In this paper we discuss what happens if a bubble made of such wall is created in heavy ion collisions, in the mixed phase between QGP and hadronic matter. We show it will further be expanded to larger volume $\sim 20 fm^3$ by the pion pressure, before it disappears, either by puncture or contraction. Both scenarios leave distinctive experimental signatures of such events, negatively affecting the interference correlations between the outgoing pions.Comment: 6 pages, 1 fi

Costs and advance directives at the end of life: a case of the ‘Coaching Older Adults and Carers to have their preferences Heard (COACH)’ trial

Background Total costs associated with care for older people nearing the end of life and the cost variations related with end of life care decisions are not well documented in the literature. Healthcare utilisation and associated health care costs for a group of older Australians who entered Transition Care following an acute hospital admission were calculated. Costs were differentiated according to a number of health care decisions and outcomes including advance directives (ADs). Methods Study participants were drawn from the Coaching Older Adults and Carers to have their preferences Heard (COACH) trial funded by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council. Data collected included total health care costs, the type of (and when) ADs were completed and the place of death. Two-step endogenous treatment-regression models were employed to test the relationship between costs and a number of variables including completion of ADs. Results The trial recruited 230 older adults with mean age 84 years. At the end of the trial, 53 had died and 80 had completed ADs. Total healthcare costs were higher for younger participants and those who had died. No statistically significant association was found between costs and completion of ADs. Conclusion For our frail study population, the completion of ADs did not have an effect on health care utilisation and costs. Further research is needed to substantiate these findings in larger and more diverse clinical cohorts of older people

The Psychological Science Accelerator’s COVID-19 rapid-response dataset

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Psychological Science Accelerator coordinated three large-scale psychological studies to examine the effects of loss-gain framing, cognitive reappraisals, and autonomy framing manipulations on behavioral intentions and affective measures. The data collected (April to October 2020) included specific measures for each experimental study, a general questionnaire examining health prevention behaviors and COVID-19 experience, geographical and cultural context characterization, and demographic information for each participant. Each participant started the study with the same general questions and then was randomized to complete either one longer experiment or two shorter experiments. Data were provided by 73,223 participants with varying completion rates. Participants completed the survey from 111 geopolitical regions in 44 unique languages/dialects. The anonymized dataset described here is provided in both raw and processed formats to facilitate re-use and further analyses. The dataset offers secondary analytic opportunities to explore coping, framing, and self-determination across a diverse, global sample obtained at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which can be merged with other time-sampled or geographic data

The Psychological Science Accelerator’s COVID-19 rapid-response dataset

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Psychological Science Accelerator coordinated three large-scale psychological studies to examine the effects of loss-gain framing, cognitive reappraisals, and autonomy framing manipulations on behavioral intentions and affective measures. The data collected (April to October 2020) included specific measures for each experimental study, a general questionnaire examining health prevention behaviors and COVID-19 experience, geographical and cultural context characterization, and demographic information for each participant. Each participant started the study with the same general questions and then was randomized to complete either one longer experiment or two shorter experiments. Data were provided by 73,223 participants with varying completion rates. Participants completed the survey from 111 geopolitical regions in 44 unique languages/dialects. The anonymized dataset described here is provided in both raw and processed formats to facilitate re-use and further analyses. The dataset offers secondary analytic opportunities to explore coping, framing, and self-determination across a diverse, global sample obtained at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which can be merged with other time-sampled or geographic data

Impact of soil properties on critical concentrations of cadmium, lead, copper, zinc and mercury in soil and soil solution in view of ecotoxicological effects

Concern about the input of metals to terrestrial ecosystems is related to (i) the ecotoxicological impact on soil organisms and plants (Bringmark et al. 1998; Palmborg et al. 1998) and also on aquatic organisms resulting from runoff to surface water and (ii) the uptake via food chains into animal tissues and products, which may result in health effects on animals and humans (Clark 1989). Effects on soil organisms, including microorganisms/macrofungi and soil fauna, such as nematodes and earthworms, are reduced species diversity, abundance, and biomass and changes in microbe-mediated processes (Bengtsson and Tranvik 1989; Giller et al. 1998; Vig et al. 2003). Effects on vascular plants include reduced development and growth of roots and shoots, elevated concentrations of starch and total sugar, decreased nutrient contents in foliar tissues, and decreased enzymatic activity (Prasad 1995; Das et al. 1997). A review of these phytotoxic effects is given by Balsberg-Påhlsson (1989). Effects on aquatic organisms, including algae, Crustacea, and fish, include effects on gill function (Sola et al. 1995), nervous systems (Baatrup 1991), and growth and reproduction rates (Mance 1987). Environmental quality standards or critical limits, often also denoted as Predicted No Effect Concentrations, or PNECs, for metals in soils and surface waters related to those effects serve as a guide in the environmental risk assessment process for those substances