Pion-Pion Phase-Shifts and the Value of Quark-Antiquark Condensate in the Chiral Limit

We use low energy pion-pion phase-shifts in order to make distinction between the alternatives for the value of the quark-antiquark condensate $B_0$ in the chiral limit. We will consider the amplitude up to and including ${\cal O}(p^4)$ contributions within the Standard and Generalized Chiral Perturbation Theory frameworks. They are unitarized by means of Pad\'e approximants in order to fit experimental phase-shifts in the resonance region. As the best fits correspond to $\alpha = \beta = 1$, we conclude that pion-pion phase-shift analysis favors the standard ChPT scenario, which assumes just one, large leading order parameter $_{_0}$.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures and 1 tabl

Crossing Symmetry Violation of Unitarized Pion-Pion Amplitude in the Resonance Region

Pion-pion scattering amplitude obtained from one-loop Chiral Perturbation Theory (ChPT) is crossing symmetric, however the corresponding partial wave amplitudes do not respect exact unitarity relation. There are different approaches to get unitarized partial wave amplitudes from ChPT. Here we consider the inverse amplitude method (IAM) that is often used to fit pion-pion phase shifts to experimental data, by adjusting free parameters. We measure the amount of crossing symmetry violation (CSV) in this case and we show that crossing symmetry is badly violated by the IAM unitarized ChPT amplitude in the resonance region. Important CSV also occurs when all free parameters are set equal to zero.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Contesting the psychiatric framing of ME / CFS

ME/CFS is a medically contested illness and its understanding, framing and treatment has been the subject of heated debate. This paper examines why framing the condition as a psychiatric issue—what we refer to as ‘psychiatrisation’—has been so heavily contested by patients and activists. We argue that this contestation is not simply about stigmatising mental health conditions, as some have suggested, but relates to how people diagnosed with mental illness are treated in society, psychiatry and the law. We highlight the potentially harmful consequences of psychiatrisation which can lead to people’s experiential knowledge being discredited. This stems, in part, from a psychiatric-specific form of ‘epistemic injustice’ which can result in unhelpful, unwanted and forced treatments. This understanding helps explain why the psychiatrisation of ME/CFS has become the focus of such bitter debate and why psychiatry itself has become such a significant field of contention, for both ME/CFS patients and mental health service users/survivors. Notwithstanding important differences, both reject the way psychiatry denies patient explanations and understandings, and therefore share a collective struggle for justice and legitimation. Reasons why this shared struggle has not resulted in alliances between ME and mental health activists are noted

Fluid Ontologies in the Search for MH370

This paper gives an account of the disappearance of Malaysian Airways Flight MH370 into the southern Indian Ocean in March 2014 and analyses the rare glimpses into remote ocean space this incident opened up. It follows the tenuous clues as to where the aeroplane might have come to rest after it disappeared from radar screens – seven satellite pings, hundreds of pieces of floating debris and six underwater sonic recordings – as ways of entering into and thinking about ocean space. The paper pays attention to and analyses this space on three registers – first, as a fluid, more-than-human materiality with particular properties and agencies; second, as a synthetic situation, a composite of informational bits and pieces scopically articulated and augmented; and third, as geopolitics, delineated by the protocols of international search and rescue. On all three registers – as matter, as data and as law – the ocean is shown to be ontologically fluid, a world defined by movement, flow and flux, posing intractable difficulties for human interactions with it

Accreditation of postgraduate speciality training programmes in Endodontology. Minimum criteria for training Specialists in Endodontology within Europe

This consensus statement from the European Society of Endodontology (ESE) sets out the minimum criteria for training Specialists in Endodontology within Europe. The case is made for recognizing Endodontology as a distinctive dental discipline throughout Europe. Guidelines are presented on the requirements of a specialist and of a specialist training programme in Endodontology. The aims, objectives and curriculum content of a specialist training pathway are outlined, with guidelines on trainee appraisal, and the expectations of faculty and institutional commitment. In publishing these guidelines, the ESE is responding to a public and professional need for consistently high standards of training and specialist clinical service within Europe