Mind your meat: Religious differences in the social perception of animals

While previous work demonstrated that animals are categorised based on their edibility, little research has systematically evaluated the role of religion in the perception of animal edibility, particularly when specific animals are deemed sacred in a religion. In two studies, we explored a key psychological mechanism through which sacred animals are deemed inedible by members of a faith: mind attribution. In Study 1, non-vegetarian Hindus in Singapore (N = 70) evaluated 19 animals that differed in terms of their sacredness and edibility. Results showed that participants categorised animals into three groups: holy animals (high sacredness but low edibility), food animals (low sacredness but high edibility) and neutral animals (low sacredness and low edibility). Holy animals were deemed to possess greater mental life compared to other animal categories. In Study 2, we replicated this key finding with Hindus in India (N = 100), and further demonstrated that the observed pattern of results was specific to Hindus but not Muslims (N = 90). In both studies, mind attribution mediated the negative association between sacredness and edibility. Our findings illustrate how religious groups diverge in animal perception, thereby highlighting the role of mind attribution as a crucial link between sacredness and edibility

Is there a role for prophylactic mesh in abdominal wall closure after emergency laparotomy? A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background Incisional hernias are a common complication of emergency laparotomy and are associated with significant morbidity. Recent studies have found a reduction in incisional hernias when mesh is placed prophylactically during abdominal closure in elective laparotomies. This systematic review will assess the safety and efficacy of prophylactic mesh placement in emergency laparotomy. Methods A systematic review was performed according to the PROSPERO registered protocol (CRD42018109283). Papers were dual screened for eligibility, and included when a comparison was made between closure with prophylactic mesh and closure with a standard technique, reported using a comparative design (i.e. case–control, cohort or randomised trial), where the primary outcome was incisional hernia. Bias was assessed using the Cochrane risk of bias in non-randomised studies tool. A meta-analysis of incisional hernia rate was performed to estimate risk ratio using a random effects model (Mantel–Haenszel approach). Results 332 studies were screened for eligibility, 29 full texts were reviewed and 2 non-randomised studies were included. Both studies were biased due to confounding factors, as closure technique was based on patient risk factors for incisional hernia. Both studies found significantly fewer incisional hernias in the mesh groups [3.2% vs 28.6% (p < 0.001) and 5.9% vs 33.3% (p = 0.0001)]. A meta-analysis of incisional hernia risk favoured prophylactic mesh closure [risk ratio 0.15 (95% CI 0.6–0.35, p < 0.001)]. Neither study found an association between mesh and infection or enterocutaneous fistula. Conclusion This review found that there are limited data to assess the effect or safety profile of prophylactic mesh in the emergency laparotomy setting. The current data cannot reliably assess the use of mesh due to confounding factors, and a randomised controlled trial is required to address this important clinical question

Atrial fibrillation after gastrointestinal surgery: incidence and associated risk factors

BACKGROUND: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common dysrhythmia that can occur after major physiological stress including surgery (postoperative AF). There are few data on postoperative AF after abdominal surgery. We set out to define the incidence of de novo postoperative AF after abdominal surgery and associated risk factors. METHODS: The Patient History Integrated Data store administrative database was interrogated for patients aged ≥65 y undergoing abdominal surgery from April 2012 to April 2014. Patients with pre-existing AF were excluded. The primary outcome was diagnosis of AF. RESULTS: Two thousand nine hundred and sixty-seven cases were included of whom 187 developed postoperative AF within 90 d (6.3%). The rate of postoperative AF varied by operation and was highest in small bowel resection (17.2%) and lowest in biliary surgery (4.8%). Median time to detection of postoperative AF was 32 d. Patients who developed postoperative AF were significantly older than those who did not develop AF (median age 75.3 y versus 72.4 y, P < 0.01). Logistic regression modeling found increasing age (odds ratio [OR] 1.03 [confidence interval {CI} 1.01-1.06], hypertension OR 1.73 [CI 1.19-2.51]), congestive cardiac failure (OR 3.04 [CI 1.88-4.92], and vascular disease OR 2.29 [CI 1.39-3.37]) were predictive of the development of postoperative AF within 30 d. The area under the curve for this model was 0.733. CONCLUSIONS: Postoperative AF affects a significant number of patients after abdominal surgery. Demographics such as history of cardiovascular disease might aid prediction of postoperative AF. Postoperative AF is mostly identified after discharge, suggesting the need for postoperative screening

Mass inflation in f(R) gravity: A conjecture on the resolution of the mass inflation singularity

We study gravitational collapse of a charged black hole in f(R) gravity using double-null formalism. We require cosmological stability to f(R) models; we used the Starobinsky model and the R + (1/2)cR^2 model. Charged black holes in f(R) gravity can have a new type of singularity due to higher curvature corrections, the so-called f(R)-induced singularity, although it is highly model-dependent. As the advanced time increases, the internal structure will approach the Cauchy horizon, which may not be an inner apparent horizon. There is mass inflation as one approaches the Cauchy horizon and hence the Cauchy horizon may be a curvature singularity with nonzero area. However, the Ricci scalar is finite for an out-going null observer. This can be integrated as follows: Cosmologically stable higher curvature corrections of the Ricci scalar made it bounded even in the presence of mass inflation. Finally, we conjecture that if there is a general action including general higher curvature corrections with cosmological stability, then the corrections can make all curvature components finite even in the presence of mass inflation. This might help us to resolve the problem of inner horizon instability of regular black hole models.Comment: 31 pages, 15 figure

Decoherence in elastic and polaronic transport via discrete quantum states

Here we study the effect of decoherence on elastic and polaronic transport via discrete quantum states. The calculations are performed with the help of nonperturbative computational scheme, based on the Green's function theory within the framework of polaron transformation (GFT-PT), where the many-body electron-phonon interaction problem is mapped exactly into a single-electron multi-channel scattering problem. In particular, the influence of dephasing and relaxation processes on the shape of the electrical current and shot noise curves is discussed in detail under the linear and nonlinear transport conditions.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure

Radiative corrections to low energy neutrino reactions

We show that the radiative corrections to charged current (CC) nuclear reactions with an electron(positron) in the final state are described by a universal function. The consistency of our treatment of the radiative corrections with the procedure used to extract the value of the axial coupling constant $g_A$ is discussed. To illustrate we apply our results to (anti)neutrino deuterium disintegration and to $pp$ fusion in the sun. The limit of vanishing electron mass is considered, and a simple formula valid for E_{obs}\gsim 1 MeV is obtained. The size of the nuclear structure-dependent effects is also discussed. Finally, we consider CC transitions with an electron(positron) in the initial state and discuss some applications to electron capture reactions.Comment: 23 pages, 5 figure

Slow Coarsening in an Ising Chain with Competing Interactions

We investigate the zero-temperature coarsening dynamics of a chain of Ising spins with a nearest-neighbor ferromagnetic and an nth-neighbor antiferromagnetic interactions. For sufficiently large antiferromagnetic interaction, the ground state consists of $n$ consecutive up spins followed by n down spins, etc. We show that the asymptotic coarsening into this ground state is governed by a multispecies reactive gas of elementary excitations. The basic elementary excitations are identified and each decays at a different power-law rate in time. The dominant excitations are domains of n+1 spins which diffuse freely and disappear through processes which are effectively governed by (n+1)-particle annihilation. This implies that the ground state is approached slowly with time, as t^{-1/n}.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, revtex 2-column format, submitted to J. Phys.

Overcoming controllability problems in distributed testing from an input output transition system

This is the Pre-print version of the Article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2012 Springer VerlagThis paper concerns the testing of a system with physically distributed interfaces, called ports, at which it interacts with its environment. We place a tester at each port and the tester at port p observes events at p only. This can lead to controllability problems, where the observations made by the tester at a port p are not sufficient for it to be able to know when to send an input. It is known that there are test objectives, such as executing a particular transition, that cannot be achieved if we restrict attention to test cases that have no controllability problems. This has led to interest in schemes where the testers at the individual ports send coordination messages to one another through an external communications network in order to overcome controllability problems. However, such approaches have largely been studied in the context of testing from a deterministic finite state machine. This paper investigates the use of coordination messages to overcome controllability problems when testing from an input output transition system and gives an algorithm for introducing sufficient messages. It also proves that the problem of minimising the number of coordination messages used is NP-hard

A systematic review of the incidence of and risk factors for postoperative atrial fibrillation following general surgery

Atrial fibrillation is a common cardiac arrhythmia and can occur de novo following a surgical procedure. It is associated with increased inpatient and long-term mortality. There is limited evidence concerning new-onset atrial fibrillation following abdominal surgery. This study aimed to identify the prevalence of and risk factors for postoperative atrial fibrillation in the general surgical population. A systematic search of the Embase, MEDLINE and Cochrane (CENTRAL) databases was conducted. Studies were included in the review if they reported cases of new-onset atrial fibrillation within 30 days of the index operation. Results were evaluated qualitatively due to substantial clinical heterogeneity. Incidence rates were pooled using a weighted random-effects meta-analysis model. A total of 835 records were initially identified, from which 32 full texts were retrieved. Following review, 13 studies were included that involved 52,959 patients, of whom 10.94% (95%CI 7.22-15.33) developed atrial fibrillation. Five studies of patients undergoing oesophagectomy (n = 376/1923) had a weighted average rate of 17.66% (95%CI 12.16-21.47), compared with 7.63% (95%CI 4.39-11.98) from eight studies of non-oesophageal surgery (n = 2927/51,036). Identified risk factors included: increasing age; history of cardiac disease; postoperative complications, particularly, sepsis, pneumonia and pleural effusions. New-onset postoperative atrial fibrillation is common, and is more frequent after surgery involving the thorax. Future work should focus on stratifying risk to allow targeted prophylaxis of atrial fibrillation and other peri-operative complications

Origami World

We paste together patches of $AdS_6$ to find solutions which describe two 4-branes intersecting on a 3-brane with non-zero tension. We construct explicitly brane arrays with Minkowski, de Sitter and Anti-de Sitter geometries intrinsic to the 3-brane, and describe how to generalize these solutions to the case of $AdS_{4+n}$, $n>2$, where $n$ $n+2$-branes intersect on a 3-brane. The Minkowski and de Sitter solutions localize gravity to the intersection, leading to 4D Newtonian gravity at large distances. We show this explicitly in the case of Minkowski origami by finding the zero-mode graviton, and computing the couplings of the bulk gravitons to the matter on the intersection. In de Sitter case, this follows from the finiteness of the bulk volume. The effective 4D Planck scale depends on the square of the fundamental 6D Planck scale, the $AdS_6$ radius and the angles between the 4-branes and the radial $AdS$ direction, and for the Minkowski origami it is $M_4{}^2 = {2/3} \Bigl(\tan \alpha_1 + \tan \alpha_2 \Bigr) M_*{}^4 L^2$. If $M_* \sim {\rm few} \times TeV$ this may account for the Planck-electroweak hierarchy even if $L \sim 10^{-4} {\rm m}$, with a possibility for sub-millimeter corrections to the Newton's law. We comment on the early universe cosmology of such models.Comment: plain LaTeX, 23 pages + 2 .eps figure