Unitarity Corrections to the Proton Structure Functions through the Dipole Picture

We study the dipole picture for the description of the deep inelastic scattering, focusing on the structure functions which are driven directly by the gluon distribution. One performs estimates using the effective dipole cross section given by the Glauber-Mueller approach in QCD, which encodes the corrections due to the unitarity effects associated with the saturation phenomenon. We also address issues about frame invariance of the calculations when analysing the observables.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures. Version to be published in Phys. Rev.

Smartphone apps for the self-management of low back pain: A systematic review

Guidelines for low back pain (LBP) often recommend the use of self-management such as unsupervised exercise, booklets, and online education. Another potentially useful way for patients to self-manage LBP is by using smartphone applications (apps). However, to date, there has been no rigorous evaluation of LBP apps and no guidance for consumers on how to select high-quality, evidence-based apps. This chapter reviews smartphone apps for the self-management of LBP and evaluates their content quality and whether they recommend evidence-based interventions. This chapter shows that generally app developers are selecting interventions that are endorsed by guidelines, although their quality is low. There are many apps available for the self-management of LBP, but their effectiveness in improving patient outcomes has not been rigorously assessed. App developers need to work closely with healthcare professionals, researchers, and patients to ensure app content is accurate, evidence based, and engaging

Hofmeister Effect in Confined Spaces: Halogen Ions and Single Molecule Detection

AbstractDespite extensive research in the nanopore-sensing field, there is a paucity of experimental studies that investigate specific ion effects in confined spaces, such as in nanopores. Here, the effect of halogen anions on a simple bimolecular complexation reaction between monodisperse poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and α-hemolysin nanoscale pores have been investigated at the single-molecule level. The anions track the Hofmeister ranking according to their influence upon the on-rate constant. An inverse relationship was demonstrated for the off-rate and the solubility of PEG. The difference among anions spans several hundredfold. Halogen anions play a very significant role in the interaction of PEG with nanopores although, unlike K+, they do not bind to PEG. The specific effect appears dominated by a hydration-dehydration process where ions and PEG compete for water. Our findings provide what we believe to be novel insights into physicochemical mechanisms involved in single-molecule interactions with nanopores and are clearly relevant to more complicated chemical and biological processes involving a transient association of two or more molecules (e.g., reception, signal transduction, enzyme catalysis). It is anticipated that these findings will advance the development of devices with nanopore-based sensors for chemical and biological applications

Brazilian Feminisms in Global Spaces: Beijing and Beijing+20

Within the last decades, feminist movements in Brazil have advanced significantly beyond borders, gaining increasing recognition in global spaces, UN ones in particular, for positively influencing Brazil's official position. Unsurprisingly, Brazil has served four terms in the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) and, in the eyes of more progressive delegations, is a much needed presence to ensure no lost ground on what has been achieved in previous conferences. However, the actual presence of Brazilian feminist activists in the delegations and the NGO Forums has dwindled considerably. What have been the strategies and mechanisms at play in maintaining a radical vein in our official position? Can it be sustained without the more active involvement of feminist activists – say, throughout Brazil's new role as president of the 60th CSW session? These are some of the issues I address in this article, sharing the views of activists present at those events

Quarkonium+γ\gamma production in coherent hadron - hadron interactions at LHC energies

In this paper we study the $H + \gamma$ ($H = J/\Psi$ and $\Upsilon$) production in coherent hadron - hadron interactions at LHC energies. Considering the ultrarelativistic protons as a source of photons, we estimate the $\gamma + p \rightarrow H + \gamma + X$ cross section using the non-relativistic QCD (NRQCD) factorization formalism and considering different sets of values for the matrix elements. Our results for the total $p + p \rightarrow p + H + \gamma + X$ cross sections and rapidity distributions at $\sqrt{s} = 7$ and 14 TeV demonstrate that the experimental analysis of the $J/\Psi + \gamma$ production at LHC is feasible.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, 1 table. Improved version with a new figure. Version to be published in European Physical Journal

A randomized double-blind clinical trial of the effect of non-absorbable oral polymyxin on infants with severe infectious diarrhea

The present study evaluated the effect of non-absorbable oral polymyxin on the duodenal microflora and clinical outcome of infants with severe infectious diarrhea. Polymyxin was chosen because classic enteropathogenic Escherichia coli was more sensitive to this antibiotic. Twenty-five infants were randomly assigned to a 7-day treatment with oral polymyxin (2.5 mg/kg in 4 daily doses) or placebo. Duodenal and stool cultures were performed before and after the treatment. Five patients were excluded during the study because of introduction of parental antibiotic therapy due to clinical sepsis (N = 3) or rapid clinical improvement (N = 2). In the polymyxin group, small bowel bacterial overgrowth occurred in 61.5% of the cases (8/13) before treatment and in 76.9% (10/13) after treatment. In the placebo group these values were 71.4% (5/7) and 57.1% (4/7), respectively. By the 7th day, clinical cure was observed in 84.6% of the cases (11/13) in the polymyxin group and in 71.4% (5/7) in the placebo group (P = 0.587). Considering all 25 patients included in the study, clinical cure occurred on the 7th day in 12/14 cases (85.7%) in the polymyxin group and 6/11 cases (54.5%) in the placebo group (P = 0.102). Clinical sepsis occurred in 3/11 (27.3%) of the patients in the placebo group and in none (0/14) in the polymyxin group (P = 0.071). Oral polymyxin was not effective in reducing bacterial overgrowth or in improving the clinical outcome of infants hospitalized with severe infectious diarrhea. Taking into account the small sample size, the rate of cure on the 7th day and the rate of clinical sepsis, further studies with greater number of patients are necessary to evaluate these questions

Effectiveness of surgery for lumbar spinal stenosis

Background: The management of spinal stenosis by surgery has increased rapidly in the past two decades, however, there is still controversy regarding the efficacy of surgery for this condition. Our aim was to investigate the efficacy and comparative effectiveness of surgery in the management of patients with lumbar spinal stenosis. Methods: Electronic searches were performed on MEDLINE, EMBASE, AMED, CINAHL, Web of Science, LILACS and Cochrane Library from inception to November 2014. Hand searches were conducted on included articles and relevant reviews. We included randomised controlled trials evaluating surgery compared to no treatment, placebo/sham, or to another surgical technique in patients with lumbar spinal stenosis. Primary outcome measures were pain, disability, recovery and quality of life. The PEDro scale was used for risk of bias assessment. Data were pooled with a random-effects model, and the GRADE approach was used to summarise conclusions. Results: Nineteen published reports (17 trials) were included. No trials were identified comparing surgery to no treatment or placebo/sham. Pooling revealed that decompression plus fusion is not superior to decompression alone for pain (mean difference -3.7, 95% confidence interval -15.6 to 8.1), disability (mean difference 9.8, 95% confidence interval -9.4 to 28.9), or walking ability (risk ratio 0.9, 95% confidence interval 0.4 to 1.9). Interspinous process spacer devices are slightly more effective than decompression plus fusion for disability (mean difference 5.7, 95% confidence interval 1.3 to 10.0), but they resulted in significantly higher reoperation rates when compared to decompression alone (28% v 7%, P < 0.001). There are no differences in the effectiveness between other surgical techniques for our main outcomes. Conclusions: The relative efficacy of various surgical options for treatment of spinal stenosis remains uncertain. Decompression plus fusion is not more effective than decompression alone. Interspinous process spacer devices result in higher reoperation rates than bony decompression

The open superstring 5-point amplitude revisited

We derive the complete five-gluon scattering amplitude at tree level, within the context of Open Superstring theory. We find the general expression in terms of kinematic factors, and also find its complete expansion up to ${\cal O}({\alpha'}^3)$ terms. We use our scattering amplitude to test three non-equivalent ${\cal O}({\alpha'}^3)$ effective lagrangians that have recently been matter of some controversy.Comment: 41 pages. Submitted to JHEP on June 07. Accepted on July 3

Hard diffractive quarkonium hadroproduction at high energies

We present a study of heavy quarkonium production in hard diffractive process by the Pomeron exchange for Tevatron and LHC energies. The numerical results are computed using recent experimental determination of the diffractive parton density functions in Pomeron and are corrected by unitarity corrections through gap survival probability factor. We give predictions for single as well as central diffractive ratios. These processes are sensitive to the gluon content of the Pomeron at small Bjorken-x and may be particularly useful in studying the small-x physics. They may also be a good place to test the different available mechanisms for quarkonium production at hadron colliders.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, 1 table. Final version to be published in European Physical Journal