NJL with eight quark interactions: Chiral phases at finite T

The thermodynamic potential and thermal dependence of low lying mass spectra of scalars and pseudoscalars are evaluated in a generalized Nambu -- Jona-Lasinio model, which incorporates eight-quark interactions. These are necessary to stabilize the scalar effective potential for the light and strange quark flavors, which would be otherwise unbounded from below. In addition it turns out that they are also crucial to i) lower the temperature of the chiral transition, in conformity with lattice calculations, ii) sharpen the temperature interval in which the crossover occurs, iii) or even allow for first order transitions to occur with realistic quark mass values, from certain critical values of the parameters. These are unprecedented results which cannot be obtained within the NJL approaches restricted to quartic and six-quark interactions.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, Talk presented at SCADRON 70 Workshop on Scalar Mesons and Related Topics, Lisbon, 11-16 February 200

Advanced Multilevel Node Separator Algorithms

A node separator of a graph is a subset S of the nodes such that removing S and its incident edges divides the graph into two disconnected components of about equal size. In this work, we introduce novel algorithms to find small node separators in large graphs. With focus on solution quality, we introduce novel flow-based local search algorithms which are integrated in a multilevel framework. In addition, we transfer techniques successfully used in the graph partitioning field. This includes the usage of edge ratings tailored to our problem to guide the graph coarsening algorithm as well as highly localized local search and iterated multilevel cycles to improve solution quality even further. Experiments indicate that flow-based local search algorithms on its own in a multilevel framework are already highly competitive in terms of separator quality. Adding additional local search algorithms further improves solution quality. Our strongest configuration almost always outperforms competing systems while on average computing 10% and 62% smaller separators than Metis and Scotch, respectively

Fully differential cross sections for photo-double-ionization of D2

We report the first kinematically complete study of the four-body fragmentation of the D2 molecule following absorption of a single photon. For equal energy sharing of the two electrons and a photon energy of 75.5 eV, we observed the relaxation of one of the selection rules valid for He photo-double-ionization and a strong dependence of the electron angular distribution on the orientation of the molecular axis. This effect is reproduced by a model in which a pair of photoionization amplitudes is introduced for the light polarization parallel and perpendicular to the molecular axis

Recent Advances in Graph Partitioning

We survey recent trends in practical algorithms for balanced graph partitioning together with applications and future research directions

Erratum to: 36th International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1186/s13054-016-1208-6.]

Correction to: Two years later: Is the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic still having an impact on emergency surgery? An international cross-sectional survey among WSES members

Background: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is still ongoing and a major challenge for health care services worldwide. In the first WSES COVID-19 emergency surgery survey, a strong negative impact on emergency surgery (ES) had been described already early in the pandemic situation. However, the knowledge is limited about current effects of the pandemic on patient flow through emergency rooms, daily routine and decision making in ES as well as their changes over time during the last two pandemic years. This second WSES COVID-19 emergency surgery survey investigates the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on ES during the course of the pandemic. Methods: A web survey had been distributed to medical specialists in ES during a four-week period from January 2022, investigating the impact of the pandemic on patients and septic diseases both requiring ES, structural problems due to the pandemic and time-to-intervention in ES routine. Results: 367 collaborators from 59 countries responded to the survey. The majority indicated that the pandemic still significantly impacts on treatment and outcome of surgical emergency patients (83.1% and 78.5%, respectively). As reasons, the collaborators reported decreased case load in ES (44.7%), but patients presenting with more prolonged and severe diseases, especially concerning perforated appendicitis (62.1%) and diverticulitis (57.5%). Otherwise, approximately 50% of the participants still observe a delay in time-to-intervention in ES compared with the situation before the pandemic. Relevant causes leading to enlarged time-to-intervention in ES during the pandemic are persistent problems with in-hospital logistics, lacks in medical staff as well as operating room and intensive care capacities during the pandemic. This leads not only to the need for triage or transferring of ES patients to other hospitals, reported by 64.0% and 48.8% of the collaborators, respectively, but also to paradigm shifts in treatment modalities to non-operative approaches reported by 67.3% of the participants, especially in uncomplicated appendicitis, cholecystitis and multiple-recurrent diverticulitis. Conclusions: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic still significantly impacts on care and outcome of patients in ES. Well-known problems with in-hospital logistics are not sufficiently resolved by now; however, medical staff shortages and reduced capacities have been dramatically aggravated over last two pandemic years

Microbial activity in Martian analog soils after ionizing radiation: implications for the preservation of subsurface life on Mars

At present, the surface of Mars is affected by a set of factors that can prevent the survival of Earth-like life. However, the modern concept of the evolution of the planet assumes the existence more favorable for life climate in the past. If in the past on Mars had formed a biosphere, similar to the one that originated in the early Earth, it is supposed that it is preserved till now in anabiotic state in the bowels of the planet, like microbial communities inhabiting the ancient permafrost of Arctic and Antarctic. In the conditions of modern Martian regolith, this relic life seems to be deprived of the possibility of damage reparation (or these processes occur on a geological time scale), and ionizing radiation should be considered the main factor inhibiting such anabiotic life. In the present study, we studied soil samples, selected in two different extreme habitats of the Earth: ancient permafrost from the Dry Valleys of Antarctica and Xerosol soil from the mountain desert in Morocco, gamma-irradiated with 40 kGy dose at low pressure (1 Torr) and low temperature (−50 °C). Microbial communities inhabiting these samples showed in situ high resistance to the applied effects, retained high number of viable cells, metabolic activity, and high biodiversity. Based on the results, it is assumed that the putative biosphere could be preserved in the dormant state for at least 500 thousand years and 8 million years in the surface layer of Mars regolith and at 5 m depth, respectively, at the current level of ionizing radiation intensity

Profiles of Microbial Fatty Acids in the Human Metabolome are Disease-Specific

The human gastrointestinal tract is inhabited by a diverse and dense symbiotic microbiota, the composition of which is the result of host–microbe co-evolution and co-adaptation. This tight integration creates intense cross-talk and signaling between the host and microbiota at the cellular and metabolic levels. In many genetic or infectious diseases the balance between host and microbiota may be compromised resulting in erroneous communication. Consequently, the composition of the human metabolome, which includes the gut metabolome, may be different in health and disease states in terms of microbial products and metabolites entering systemic circulation. To test this hypothesis, we measured the level of hydroxy, branched, cyclopropyl and unsaturated fatty acids, aldehydes, and phenyl derivatives in blood of patients with a hereditary autoinflammatory disorder, familial Mediterranean fever (FMF), and in patients with peptic ulceration (PU) resulting from Helicobacter pylori infection. Discriminant function analysis of a data matrix consisting of 94 cases as statistical units (37 FMF patients, 14 PU patients, and 43 healthy controls) and the concentration of 35 microbial products in the blood as statistical variables revealed a high accuracy of the proposed model (all cases were correctly classified). This suggests that the profile of microbial products and metabolites in the human metabolome is specific for a given disease and may potentially serve as a biomarker for disease

Complete photo-fragmentation of the deuterium molecule

All properties of molecules, from binding and excitation energies to their geometry, are determined by the highly correlated initial state wavefunction of the electrons and nuclei. Perhaps surprisingly, details of these correlations can be revealed by studying the break-up of these systems into their constituents. The fragmentation might be initiated by the absorption of a single photon [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6], collision with a charged particle [7, 8] or exposure to a strong laser pulse [9, 10]. If the exciting interaction is sufficiently understood, one can use the fragmentation process as a tool to learn about the bound initial state [11, 12]. However, often the interaction and the fragment motions pose formidable challenges to quantum theory [13, 14, 15]. Here we report the coincident measurement of the momenta of both nuclei and both electrons from the single photon induced fragmentation of the deuterium molecule. The results reveal that the correlated motion of the electrons is strongly dependent on the inter-nuclear separation in the molecular ground state at the instant of photon absorption