3,150 research outputs found
Impact of Plant-Based Meat Alternatives on the Gut Microbiota of Consumers: A Real-World Study
Eating less meat is increasingly seen as a healthier, more ethical option. This is leading to growing numbers of flexitarian consumers looking for plant-based meat alternatives (PBMAs) to replace at least some of the animal meat they consume. Popular PBMA products amongst flexitarians, including plant-based mince, burgers, sausages and meatballs, are often perceived as low-quality, ultra-processed foods. However, we argue that the mere industrial processing of ingredients of plant origin does not make a PBMA product ultra-processed by default. To test our hypothesis, we conducted a randomised controlled trial to assess the changes to the gut microbiota of a group of 20 participants who replaced several meat-containing meals per week with meals cooked with PBMA products and compared these changes to those experienced by a size-matched control. Stool samples were subjected to 16S rRNA sequencing. The resulting raw data was analysed in a compositionality-aware manner, using a range of innovative bioinformatic methods. Noteworthy changes included an increase in butyrate metabolising potential—chiefly in the 4-aminobutyrate/succinate and glutarate pathways—and in the joint abundance of butyrate-producing taxa in the intervention group compared to control. We also observed a decrease in the Tenericutes phylum in the intervention group and an increase in the control group. Based on our findings, we concluded that the occasional replacement of animal meat with PBMA products seen in flexitarian dietary patterns can promote positive changes in the gut microbiome of consumers
Gravitational wave burst vetoes in the LIGO S2 and S3 data analyses
The LIGO detectors collected about 4 months of data in 2003-2004 during two
science runs, S2 and S3. Several environmental and auxiliary channels that
monitor the instruments' physical environment and overall interferometric
operation were analyzed in order to establish the quality of the data as well
as the presence of transients of non-astrophysical origin. This analysis
allowed better understanding of the noise character of the instruments and the
establishment of correlations between transients in these channels and the one
recording the gravitational wave strain. In this way vetoes for spurious burst
were identified. We present the methodology we followed in this analysis and
the results from the S2 and S3 veto analysis within the context of the search
for gravitational wave bursts.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Classical and Quantum Gravity for
the special issue of the GWDAW9 Proceeding
A new look at the modified Coulomb potential in a strong magnetic field
The static Coulomb potential of Quantum Electrodynamics (QED) is calculated
in the presence of a strong magnetic field in the lowest Landau level (LLL)
approximation using two different methods. First, the vacuum expectation value
of the corresponding Wilson loop is calculated perturbatively in two different
regimes of dynamical mass , {\it i.e.}, and , where
is the longitudinal components of the momentum relative to
the external magnetic field . The result is then compared with the static
potential arising from Born approximation. Both results coincide. Although the
arising potentials show different behavior in the aforementioned regimes, a
novel dependence on the angle between the particle-antiparticle's axis
and the direction of the magnetic field is observed. In the regime
, for strong enough magnetic
field and depending on the angle , a qualitative change occurs in the
Coulomb-like potential; Whereas for the potential is repulsive,
it exhibits a minimum for angles .Comment: V1: 26 pages, 8 figures, latex format, V2: Accepted for publication
in PRD (2007
Unofficial urbanonymy of ekaterinburg: A sociolinguistic study
The article addresses the phenomenon of unofficial urbanonymy exemplified by urban place names of the Russian city of Ekaterinburg. With the term “city facilities” applying broadly to streets, squares, neighborhoods, etc., as well as to the elements of social, educational, cultural, industrial infrastructure, the authors examine the factors affecting the coinage of unofficial city names. This informal naming is regarded as an act of active social involvement in the creation of the “urban text”. To identify the intentions of such collective nominator, a survey was conducted among university students, post-graduates, and teaching staff, as well as senior school students (the total number of respondents comprising 300 people). The survey covered both permanent and temporary residents, including city guests. The compiled questionnaire included specification of the age and gender parameters of the audience, the respondents’ attitude to unofficial names, their views on why and where these urbanonyms are used. As the survey revealed, the key feature shared by all the creators of informal urbanonymy is their status as old-timers: the familiarity of nominators with informal place names attests to their deep involvement in the city life. For non-residents, the growing grasp of informal urbanonyms turns out to be a part of “initiation into old-timers”. Although the age characteristics of nominators do not seem particularly relevant with most respondents, one can still say that informal urbanonymy emerges in the youth environment. The analysis of the survey reveals two closely related trends affecting the development of unofficial urbanonymy, namely, the contraction of official names, manifested in morpheme clipping, shortening of names, and the tendency to “carnivalize” urban space, generating original, highly expressive figurative naming cases. © 2018, Ural University Press. All rights reserved.Статья посвящена исследованию феномена неофициальной урбанонимии на примере урбанонимов города Екатеринбурга. Понимая под городскими топообъектами не только улицы, площади, микрорайоны и т. п., но и социально-бытовые, учебные, культурные, промышленные объекты (здания и строения), авторы исследуют факторы, влияющие на появление неофициальных городских названий. Неофициальная урбанономинация расценивается как акт активного вмешательства городского социума в создание «городского текста». Для оценки интенций социума-номинатора проведено анкетирование среди преподавателей, аспирантов и студентов вузов, а также старшеклассников (общее число респондентов — 300 человек). Среди анкетируемых присутствуют как горожане, так и люди, приехавшие в Екатеринбург недавно или являющиеся гостями города. Разработанная авторами анкета включает вопросы, позволяющие выявить возрастные и гендерные параметры социума, отношение респондентов к неофициальным названиям, их представления о причинах возникновения и сферах бытования новых урбанонимов. Проведенный опрос показал, что главным параметром, характеризующим создателей неофициальной урбанонимии, является их статус старожилов: знание неофициального урбанонимикона является свидетельством глубинной включенности номинаторов в жизнь города. Для негорожан знакомство с неофициальными урбанонимами оказывается элементом «посвящения в старожилы». Хотя возрастная характеристика номинаторов не представляется респондентам существенной, всеже можно говорить о том, что неофициальная урбанонимия создается в молодежной среде. Результаты анкетирования демонстрируют два тесно переплетающихся фактора, влияющих на развитие неофициальной урбанонимии: это реализация принципа экономии языковых усилий, проявляющаяся в процессах усечения, стяжения официальных названий, и тенденция к карнавализации городского пространства, порождающая яркие, насыщенные экспрессией образные именования.The study was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (the project 18-012-00586 “Urbanonymy as part of the linguistic landscape of a city: traditions and perspectives of sustainable development”)
Unofficial urbanonymy of ekaterinburg: A sociolinguistic study
The article addresses the phenomenon of unofficial urbanonymy exemplified by urban place names of the Russian city of Ekaterinburg. With the term “city facilities” applying broadly to streets, squares, neighborhoods, etc., as well as to the elements of social, educational, cultural, industrial infrastructure, the authors examine the factors affecting the coinage of unofficial city names. This informal naming is regarded as an act of active social involvement in the creation of the “urban text”. To identify the intentions of such collective nominator, a survey was conducted among university students, post-graduates, and teaching staff, as well as senior school students (the total number of respondents comprising 300 people). The survey covered both permanent and temporary residents, including city guests. The compiled questionnaire included specification of the age and gender parameters of the audience, the respondents’ attitude to unofficial names, their views on why and where these urbanonyms are used. As the survey revealed, the key feature shared by all the creators of informal urbanonymy is their status as old-timers: the familiarity of nominators with informal place names attests to their deep involvement in the city life. For non-residents, the growing grasp of informal urbanonyms turns out to be a part of “initiation into old-timers”. Although the age characteristics of nominators do not seem particularly relevant with most respondents, one can still say that informal urbanonymy emerges in the youth environment. The analysis of the survey reveals two closely related trends affecting the development of unofficial urbanonymy, namely, the contraction of official names, manifested in morpheme clipping, shortening of names, and the tendency to “carnivalize” urban space, generating original, highly expressive figurative naming cases. © 2018, Ural University Press. All rights reserved.Статья посвящена исследованию феномена неофициальной урбанонимии на примере урбанонимов города Екатеринбурга. Понимая под городскими топообъектами не только улицы, площади, микрорайоны и т. п., но и социально-бытовые, учебные, культурные, промышленные объекты (здания и строения), авторы исследуют факторы, влияющие на появление неофициальных городских названий. Неофициальная урбанономинация расценивается как акт активного вмешательства городского социума в создание «городского текста». Для оценки интенций социума-номинатора проведено анкетирование среди преподавателей, аспирантов и студентов вузов, а также старшеклассников (общее число респондентов — 300 человек). Среди анкетируемых присутствуют как горожане, так и люди, приехавшие в Екатеринбург недавно или являющиеся гостями города. Разработанная авторами анкета включает вопросы, позволяющие выявить возрастные и гендерные параметры социума, отношение респондентов к неофициальным названиям, их представления о причинах возникновения и сферах бытования новых урбанонимов. Проведенный опрос показал, что главным параметром, характеризующим создателей неофициальной урбанонимии, является их статус старожилов: знание неофициального урбанонимикона является свидетельством глубинной включенности номинаторов в жизнь города. Для негорожан знакомство с неофициальными урбанонимами оказывается элементом «посвящения в старожилы». Хотя возрастная характеристика номинаторов не представляется респондентам существенной, всеже можно говорить о том, что неофициальная урбанонимия создается в молодежной среде. Результаты анкетирования демонстрируют два тесно переплетающихся фактора, влияющих на развитие неофициальной урбанонимии: это реализация принципа экономии языковых усилий, проявляющаяся в процессах усечения, стяжения официальных названий, и тенденция к карнавализации городского пространства, порождающая яркие, насыщенные экспрессией образные именования.The study was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (the project 18-012-00586 “Urbanonymy as part of the linguistic landscape of a city: traditions and perspectives of sustainable development”)
Universal Holographic Chiral Dynamics in an External Magnetic Field
In this work we further extend the investigation of holographic gauge
theories in external magnetic fields, continuing earlier work. We study the
phenomenon of magnetic catalysis of mass generation in 1+3 and 1+2 dimensions,
using D3/D7- and D3/D5-brane systems, respectively. We obtain the low energy
effective actions of the corresponding pseudo Goldstone bosons and study their
dispersion relations. The D3/D7 system exhibits the usual
Gell-Mann--Oakes--Renner (GMOR) relation and a relativistic dispersion
relation, while the D3/D5 system exhibits a quadratic non-relativistic
dispersion relation and a modified linear GMOR relation. The low energy
effective action of the D3/D5 system is related to that describing magnon
excitations in a ferromagnet. We also study properties of general Dp/Dq systems
in an external magnetic field and verify the universality of the magnetic
catalysis of dynamical symmetry breaking.Comment: 41 pages, 11 figures, references adde
Dynamical symmetry breaking in the external gravitational and constant magnetic fields
We investigate the effects of the external gravitational and constant
magnetic fields to the dynamical symmetrybreaking. As simple models of the
dynamical symmetry breaking we consider the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model and
the supersymmetric Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (SUSY NJL) model non-minimally
interacting with the external gravitational field and minimally interacting
with constant magnetic field. The explicit expressions for the scalar and
spinor Green functions are found up to the linear terms on the spacetime
curvature and exactly for a constant magnetic field. We obtain the effective
potential of the above models from the Green functions in the magnetic field in
curved spacetime. Calculating the effective potential numerically with the
varying curvature and/or magnetic fields we show the effects of the external
gravitational and magnetic fields to the phase structure of the theories. In
particular, increase of the curvature in the spontaneously broken chiral
symmetry phase due to the fixed magnetic field makes this phase to be less
broken. On the same time strong magnetic field quickly induces chiral symmetry
breaking even at the presence of fixed gravitational field within nonbroken
phase.Comment: 23 pages, Latex, epic.sty and eepic.sty are use
Inverse Symmetry Breaking and the Exact Renormalization Group
We discuss the question of inverse symmetry breaking at non-zero temperature
using the exact renormalization group. We study a two-scalar theory and
concentrate on the nature of the phase transition during which the symmetry is
broken. We also examine the persistence of symmetry breaking at temperatures
higher than the critical one.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure
Chiral symmetry breaking by a non-Abelian external field in (2+1)-dimensions
We investigate the effect of a constant external non-Abelian field on chiral
symmetry breaking in a (2+1)-dimensional Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model and in 3D QCD
by solving the gap equation and the Bethe-Salpeter equation, and also by RG
analysis. In the (2+1)-dimensional NJL model chiral symmetry breaking occurs
for any weak coupling constant but in 3D QCD catalysis of chiral symmetry
breaking does not occur.Comment: 11 pages, RevTe
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