The Primary Spin-4 Casimir Operators in the Holographic SO(N) Coset Minimal Models

Starting from SO(N) current algebra, we construct two lowest primary higher spin-4 Casimir operators which are quartic in spin-1 fields. For N is odd, one of them corresponds to the current in the WB_{\frac{N-1}{2}} minimal model. For N is even, the other corresponds to the current in the WD_{\frac{N}{2}} minimal model. These primary higher spin currents, the generators of wedge subalgebra, are obtained from the operator product expansion of fermionic (or bosonic) primary spin-N/2 field with itself in each minimal model respectively. We obtain, indirectly, the three-point functions with two real scalars, in the large N 't Hooft limit, for all values of the 't Hooft coupling which should be dual to the three-point functions in the higher spin AdS_3 gravity with matter.Comment: 65 pages; present the main results only and to appear in JHEP where one can see the Appendi

Resistance Mechanisms for the Bruton\u27s Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor Ibrutinib

BACKGROUND Ibrutinib is an irreversible inhibitor of Bruton\u27s tyrosine kinase (BTK) and is effective in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Resistance to irreversible kinase inhibitors and resistance associated with BTK inhibition have not been characterized. Although only a small proportion of patients have had a relapse during ibrutinib therapy, an understanding of resistance mechanisms is important. We evaluated patients with relapsed disease to identify mutations that may mediate ibrutinib resistance. METHODS We performed whole-exome sequencing at baseline and the time of relapse on samples from six patients with acquired resistance to ibrutinib therapy. We then performed functional analysis of identified mutations. In addition, we performed Ion Torrent sequencing for identified resistance mutations on samples from nine patients with prolonged lymphocytosis. RESULTS We identified a cysteine-to-serine mutation in BTK at the binding site of ibrutinib in five patients and identified three distinct mutations in PLC gamma 2 in two patients. Functional analysis showed that the C481S mutation of BTK results in a protein that is only reversibly inhibited by ibrutinib. The R665W and L845F mutations in PLC gamma 2 are both potentially gain-of-function mutations that lead to autonomous B-cell-receptor activity. These mutations were not found in any of the patients with prolonged lymphocytosis who were taking ibrutinib. CONCLUSIONS Resistance to the irreversible BTK inhibitor ibrutinib often involves mutation of a cysteine residue where ibrutinib binding occurs. This finding, combined with two additional mutations in PLC gamma 2 that are immediately downstream of BTK, underscores the importance of the B-cell-receptor pathway in the mechanism of action of ibrutinib in CLL

Strings on the deformed T^{1,1}: giant magnon and single spike solutions

In this paper we find giant magnon and single spike string solutions in a sector of the gamma-deformed conifold. We examine the dispersion relations and find a behavior analogous to the undeformed case. The transcendental functional relations between the conserved charges are shifted by certain gamma-dependent term. The latter is proportional to the total momentum and thus qualitatively different from known cases.Comment: 35 pages, no figure

Responding to Young People's Health Risks in Primary Care: A Cluster Randomised Trial of Training Clinicians in Screening and Motivational Interviewing.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of a complex intervention implementing best practice guidelines recommending clinicians screen and counsel young people across multiple psychosocial risk factors, on clinicians' detection of health risks and patients' risk taking behaviour, compared to a didactic seminar on young people's health. DESIGN: Pragmatic cluster randomised trial where volunteer general practices were stratified by postcode advantage or disadvantage score and billing type (private, free national health, community health centre), then randomised into either intervention or comparison arms using a computer generated random sequence. Three months post-intervention, patients were recruited from all practices post-consultation for a Computer Assisted Telephone Interview and followed up three and 12 months later. Researchers recruiting, consenting and interviewing patients and patients themselves were masked to allocation status; clinicians were not. SETTING: General practices in metropolitan and rural Victoria, Australia. PARTICIPANTS: General practices with at least one interested clinician (general practitioner or nurse) and their 14-24 year old patients. INTERVENTION: This complex intervention was designed using evidence based practice in learning and change in clinician behaviour and general practice systems, and included best practice approaches to motivating change in adolescent risk taking behaviours. The intervention involved training clinicians (nine hours) in health risk screening, use of a screening tool and motivational interviewing; training all practice staff (receptionists and clinicians) in engaging youth; provision of feedback to clinicians of patients' risk data; and two practice visits to support new screening and referral resources. Comparison clinicians received one didactic educational seminar (three hours) on engaging youth and health risk screening. OUTCOME MEASURES: Primary outcomes were patient report of (1) clinician detection of at least one of six health risk behaviours (tobacco, alcohol and illicit drug use, risks for sexually transmitted infection, STI, unplanned pregnancy, and road risks); and (2) change in one or more of the six health risk behaviours, at three months or at 12 months. Secondary outcomes were likelihood of future visits, trust in the clinician after exit interview, clinician detection of emotional distress and fear and abuse in relationships, and emotional distress at three and 12 months. Patient acceptability of the screening tool was also described for the intervention arm. Analyses were adjusted for practice location and billing type, patients' sex, age, and recruitment method, and past health risks, where appropriate. An intention to treat analysis approach was used, which included multilevel multiple imputation for missing outcome data. RESULTS: 42 practices were randomly allocated to intervention or comparison arms. Two intervention practices withdrew post allocation, prior to training, leaving 19 intervention (53 clinicians, 377 patients) and 21 comparison (79 clinicians, 524 patients) practices. 69% of patients in both intervention (260) and comparison (360) arms completed the 12 month follow-up. Intervention clinicians discussed more health risks per patient (59.7%) than comparison clinicians (52.7%) and thus were more likely to detect a higher proportion of young people with at least one of the six health risk behaviours (38.4% vs 26.7%, risk difference [RD] 11.6%, Confidence Interval [CI] 2.93% to 20.3%; adjusted odds ratio [OR] 1.7, CI 1.1 to 2.5). Patients reported less illicit drug use (RD -6.0, CI -11 to -1.2; OR 0.52, CI 0.28 to 0.96), and less risk for STI (RD -5.4, CI -11 to 0.2; OR 0.66, CI 0.46 to 0.96) at three months in the intervention relative to the comparison arm, and for unplanned pregnancy at 12 months (RD -4.4; CI -8.7 to -0.1; OR 0.40, CI 0.20 to 0.80). No differences were detected between arms on other health risks. There were no differences on secondary outcomes, apart from a greater detection of abuse (OR 13.8, CI 1.71 to 111). There were no reports of harmful events and intervention arm youth had high acceptance of the screening tool. CONCLUSIONS: A complex intervention, compared to a simple educational seminar for practices, improved detection of health risk behaviours in young people. Impact on health outcomes was inconclusive. Technology enabling more efficient, systematic health-risk screening may allow providers to target counselling toward higher risk individuals. Further trials require more power to confirm health benefits. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN.com ISRCTN16059206

New Fisheries-related data from the Mediterranean Sea (April 2015)

In this second Collective Article with fisheries-related data from the Mediterranean Sea we present the evaluation of bony structures in aging of Barbus tauricus, otolith dimensions-body length relationships for two species (Trachinus draco and Synchiropus phaeton), information on the growth of juvenile Thunnus thynnus and of Ruvettus pretiosus, weight-length relationships for three species (Aulopus fiamentosus, Thunnus thynnus and Tylosurus acus imperialis) and data on feeding habits and reproduction of Aulopus fiamentosus

Thermodynamics of Decaying Vacuum Cosmologies

The thermodynamic behavior of vacuum decaying cosmologies is investigated within a manifestly covariant formulation. Such a process corresponds to a continuous irreversible energy flow from the vacuum component to the created matter constituents. It is shown that if the specific entropy per particle remains constant during the process, the equilibrium relations are preserved. In particular, if the vacuum decays into photons, the energy density $\rho$ and average number density of photons $n$ scale with the temperature as $\rho \sim T^{4}$ and $n \sim T^{3}$. The temperature law is determined and a generalized Planckian type form of the spectrum, which is preserved in the course of the evolution, is also proposed. Some consequences of these results for decaying vacuum FRW type cosmologies as well as for models with ``adiabatic'' photon creation are discussed.Comment: 21 pages, uses LATE

A Massive S-duality in 4 dimensions

We reduce the Type IIA supergravity theory with a generalized Scherk-Schwarz ansatz that exploits the scaling symmetry of the dilaton, the metric and the NS 2-form field. The resulting theory is a new massive, gauged supergravity theory in four dimensions with a massive 2-form field and a massive 1-form field. We show that this theory is S-dual to a theory with a massive vector field and a massive 2-form field, which are dual to the massive 2-form and 1-form fields in the original theory, respectively. The S-dual theory is shown to arise from a Scherk-Schwarz reduction of the heterotic theory. Hence we establish a massive, S-duality type relation between the IIA theory and the heterotic theory in four dimensions. We also show that the Lagrangian for the new four dimensional theory can be put in the most general form of a D=4, N=4 gauged Lagrangian found by Schon and Weidner, in which (part of) the SL(2) group has been gauged.Comment: 20 pages, references adde

Cosmological constraints from lensing statistics and supernovae on the cosmic equation of state

We investigate observational constraints from lensing statistics and high-z type Ia supernovae on flat cosmological models with nonrelativistic matter and an exotic fluid with equation of state, $p_x=(m/3 -1)\rho_x$. We show that agreement with both tests at the 68% confidence level is possible if the parameter $m$ is low ($m \lesssim 0.85$) and $0.24 \lesssim \Omega_{m0} \lesssim 0.38$ with lower values of $\Omega_{m0}$ corresponding to higher $m$. We find that a conventional cosmological constant model with $\Omega_{m0}\simeq 0.33$ is the best fit model of the combined likelihood.Comment: 7 pages, 4 postscript figures, revtex, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Discrete symmetries, invisible axion and lepton number symmetry in an economic 3-3-1 model

We show that Peccei-Quinn and lepton number symmetries can be a natural outcome in a 3-3-1 model with right-handed neutrinos after imposing a Z_11 x Z_2 symmetry. This symmetry is suitably accommodated in this model when we augmented its spectrum by including merely one singlet scalar field. We work out the breaking of the Peccei-Quinn symmetry, yielding the axion, and study the phenomenological consequences. The main result of this work is that the solution to the strong CP problem can be implemented in a natural way, implying an invisible axion phenomenologically unconstrained, free of domain wall formation and constituting a good candidate for the cold dark matter.Comment: 17 pages, Revtex

On the perturbative chiral ring for marginally deformed N=4 SYM theories

For \cal{N}=1 SU(N) SYM theories obtained as marginal deformations of the \cal{N}=4 parent theory we study perturbatively some sectors of the chiral ring in the weak coupling regime and for finite N. By exploiting the relation between the definition of chiral ring and the effective superpotential we develop a procedure which allows us to easily determine protected chiral operators up to n loops once the superpotential has been computed up to (n-1) order. In particular, for the Lunin-Maldacena beta-deformed theory we determine the quantum structure of a large class of operators up to three loops. We extend our procedure to more general Leigh-Strassler deformations whose chiral ring is not fully understood yet and determine the weight-two and weight-three sectors up to two loops. We use our results to infer general properties of the chiral ring.Comment: LaTex, 40 pages, 4 figures, uses JHEP3; v2: minor correction