Cascades with Adjoint Matter: Adjoint Transitions

A large class of duality cascades based on quivers arising from non-isolated singularities enjoy adjoint transitions - a phenomenon which occurs when the gauge coupling of a node possessing adjoint matter is driven to strong coupling in a manner resulting in a reduction of rank in the non-Abelian part of the gauge group and a subsequent flow to weaker coupling. We describe adjoint transitions in a simple family of cascades based on a Z2-orbifold of the conifold using field theory. We show that they are dual to Higgsing and produce varying numbers of U(1) factors, moduli, and monopoles in a manner which we calculate. This realizes a large family of cascades which proceed through Seiberg duality and Higgsing. We briefly describe the supergravity limit of our analysis, as well as a prescription for treating more general theories. A special role is played by N=2 SQCD. Our results suggest that additional light fields are typically generated when UV completing certain constructions of spontaneous supersymmetry breaking into cascades, potentially leading to instabilities.Comment: 29 pages, a few typos fixed, improved discussion, added figure; now there is 1 figur

Use of smokeless tobacco among groups of Pakistani medical students – a cross sectional study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Use of smokeless tobacco is common in South Asia. Tobacco is a major preventable cause of morbidity and mortality. Doctors make one of the best avenues to influence patients' tobacco use. However, medical students addicted to tobacco are likely to retain this habit as physicians and are unlikely to counsel patients against using tobacco. With this background, this study was conducted with the objective of determining the prevalence of smokeless tobacco among Pakistani medical students.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A cross sectional study was carried out in three medical colleges of Pakistan – one from the north and two from the southern region. 1025 students selected by convenient sampling completed a peer reviewed, pre-tested, self-administered questionnaire. Questions were asked regarding lifetime use (at least once or twice in their life), current use (at least once is the last 30 days), and established use (more than 100 times in their life) of smokeless tobacco. Chi square and logistic regression analyses were used.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Two hundred and twenty (21.5%) students had used tobacco in some form (smoked or smokeless) in their lifetime. Sixty six (6.4%) students were lifetime users of smokeless tobacco. Thirteen (1.3%) were daily users while 18 (1.8%) fulfilled the criterion for established users. Niswar was the most commonly used form of smokeless tobacco followed by paan and nass. Most naswar users belonged to NWFP while most paan users studied in Karachi. On univariate analysis, lifetime use of smokeless tobacco showed significant associations with the use of cigarettes, student gender (M > F), student residence (boarders > day scholars) and location of the College (NWFP > Karachi). Multivariate analysis showed independent association of lifetime use of smokeless tobacco with concomitant cigarette smoking, student gender and location of the medical college.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The use of smokeless tobacco among medical students cannot be ignored. The governments should add the goal of eliminating smokeless tobacco to existing drives against cigarette smoking. Drives in Karachi should focus more on eliminating paan usage while those in NWFP should focus more on the use of naswar. Medical colleges should provide greater education about the myths and hazards of smokeless tobacco.</p

Gauge gravity duality for d-wave superconductors: prospects and challenges

We write down an action for a charged, massive spin two field in a fixed Einstein background. Despite some technical problems, we argue that in an effective field theory framework and in the context of the AdS/CFT correspondence, this action can be used to study the properties of a superfluid phase transition with a d-wave order parameter in a dual strongly interacting field theory. We investigate the phase diagram and the charge conductivity of the superfluid phase. We also explain how possible couplings between the spin two field and bulk fermions affect the fermion spectral function.Comment: 42 pages, 6 figure

Effect of farnesol on structure and composition of staphylococcus epidermidis biofilm matrix

Staphylococcus epidermidis is the most frequent cause of nosocomial sepsis and catheter-related infections in which biofilm formation is considered to be one of the main virulence mechanisms. Moreover, their increased resistance to conventional antibiotic therapy enhances the need to develop new therapeutical agents. Farnesol, a natural sesquiterpenoid present in many essential oils, has been described as impairing bacterial growth. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of farnesol on the structure and composition of biofilm matrix of S. epidermidis. Biofilms formed in the presence of farnesol (300 μM) contained less biomass, and displayed notable changes in the composition of the biofilm matrix. Changes in the spacial structure were also verified by confocal scanning laser microscopy (CSLM). The results obtained by the quantification of extracellular polymers and by wheat germ agglutinin (WGA) fluorescent detection of glycoproteins containing β(1→4)-N-acetyl-d-glucosamine support the hypothesis that farnesol causes disruption of the cytoplasmic membrane and consequently release of cellular content.Fernanda Gomes and Pilar Teixeira fully acknowledge the financial support of Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (FCT) through the grants SFRH/BD/32126/2006 and SFRH/BPD/26803/2006, respectively

A prospective multi-center cohort study of acute non-displaced fractures of the scaphoid: operative versus non-operative treatment [NCT00205985]

BACKGROUND: Acute scaphoid fractures are common in active adults and do lead to reasonable time lost to work. One important goal of treatment is early return to work or sport. On this background, the adequate treatment of non-displaced acute scaphoid fractures is still under discussion. The aim of this study is to compare time to return to previous activity level comparing surgical versus non-surgical treatment of non-displaced acute scaphoid fractures. METHODS/DESIGN: The study is designed as a non-randomized multiple center cohort study including 12 sites in Germany and Austria. The inclusion period is planned to be 12 months with a follow up of 6 months. Allocation to operative or non-operative treatment is choosen by the patient together with his treating surgeon. The primary outcome is time to return to previous activity level adapted for loading of the wrist in daily life as measured by a newly developed questionnaire (PLDL-wrist). Factors identified a priori to be associated with the outcome, e.g., poverty status, age, education, smoking status, gender, and occupation, are measured to ensure adequate control for their potential confounding effects. DISCUSSION: The rationale and the design of a multiple center cohort study are presented. As it is not considered feasible to randomize patients in this study, potential confounding effects need to be controlled adequately

Predictors of persistently positive Mycobacterium-tuberculosis-specific interferon-gamma responses in the serial testing of health care workers

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Data on the performance of Mycobacterium-tuberculosis-specific interferon-(IFN)-γ release assays (IGRAs) in the serial testing of health care workers (HCWs) is limited. The objective of the present study was to determine the frequency of IGRA conversions and reversions and to identify predictors of persistent IGRA positivity among serially tested German HCWs in the absence of recent extensive tuberculosis (TB) exposure.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In this observational cohort-study HCWs were prospectively recruited within occupational safety and health measures and underwent a tuberculin skin test (TST) and the IGRA QuantiFERON^®-TB Gold In-Tube (QFT-GIT) at baseline. The QFT-GIT was repeated 18 weeks later in the median. QFT-GIT conversions (and reversions) were defined as baseline IFN-γ < 0.35 IU/ml and follow-up IFN-γ ≥ 0.35 IU/ml (and vice versa). Predictors of persistently positive QFT-GIT results were calculated by logistic regression analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In total, 18 (9.9%) and 15 (8.2%) of 182 analyzed HCWs were QFT-GIT-positive at baseline and at follow-up, respectively. We observed a strong overall agreement between baseline and follow-up QFT-GIT results (κ = 0.70). Reversions (6/18, 33.3%) occurred more frequently than conversions (3/162, 1.9%). Age and positive prior and recent TST results independently predicted persistent QFT-GIT positivity. Furthermore, the chance of having persistently positive QFT-GIT results raised about 3% with each additional 0.1 IU/ml increase in the baseline IFN-γ response (adjusted odds ratio 1.03, 95% confidence interval 1.01-1.04). No active TB cases were detected within an observational period of more than two years.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The QFT-GIT's utility for the application in serial testing was limited by a substantial proportion of reversions. This shortcoming could be overcome by the implementation of a borderline zone for the interpretation of QFT-GIT results. However, further studies are needed to clearly define the within-subject variability of the QFT-GIT and to confirm that increasing age, concordantly positive TST results, and the extend of baseline IFN-γ responses may predict the persistence of QFT-GIT positivity over time in serially tested HCWs with only a low or medium TB screening risk in a TB low-incidence setting.</p

Diamonds, gold and crime displacement: Hatton Garden, and the evolution of organised crime in the UK

The 2015 Hatton Garden Heist was described as the ‘largest burglary in English legal history’. However, the global attention that this spectacular crime attracted to ‘The Garden’ tended to concentrate upon the value of the stolen goods and the vintage of the burglars. What has been ignored is how the burglary shone a spotlight into Hatton Garden itself, as an area with a unique ‘upperworld’ commercial profile and skills cluster that we identify as an incubator and facilitator for organised crime. The Garden is the UK’s foremost jewellery production and retail centre and this paper seeks to explore how Hatton Garden’s businesses integrated with a fluid criminal population to transition, through hosting lucrative (and bureaucratically complex) VAT gold frauds from 1980 to the early 1990s, to become a major base for sophisticated acquisitive criminal activities. Based on extensive interviews over a thirty year period, evidence from a personal research archive and public records, this paper details a cultural community with a unique criminal profile due to the particularities of its geographical location, ethnic composition, trading culture, skills base and international connections. The processes and structures that facilitate criminal markets are largely under-researched (Antonopoulos et al. 2015: 11), and this paper considers how elements of Hatton Garden’s ‘upperworld’ businesses integrated with project criminals, displaced by policing strategies, to effect this transition

TRY plant trait database - enhanced coverage and open access

Plant traits-the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants-determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait-based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits-almost complete coverage for 'plant growth form'. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait-environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives

Rapid eye movements to a virtual target are biased by illusory context in the Poggendorff figure.

In order to determine the influence of perceptual input upon oculomotor responses, we examined rapid saccadic eye movements made by healthy human observers to a virtual target defined by the extrapolated intersection of a pointer with a distant landing line. While corresponding perceptual judgments showed no evidence of systematic bias, eye movements showed a strong bias, in the direction of assimilation of the saccade trajectory to the shortest path between the end of the pointer and the landing line. Adding an abutting vertical inducing line to make an angle of 45 deg with the pointer led to a larger bias in the same direction as the classical Poggendorff illusion. This additional Poggendorff effect was similar in direction and magnitude for the eye movements and the perceptual responses. Latency and dynamics of the eye movements were closely similar to those recorded for a control task in which observers made a saccade from the start fixation to an explicit target on the landing line. Further experiments with inducing lines presented briefly at various times during the saccade latency period showed that the magnitude of the saccade bias was affected by inducer presentation during the saccade planning process, but not during the saccade itself. We conclude that the neural mechanisms for extrapolation can feed into the control of eye movements without obvious penalties in timing and accuracy and that this information can instantaneously modify motor response throughout the planning phase, suggesting close association between perceptual and motor mechanisms in the process of visuo-spatial extrapolation