Gluons at finite temperature

The gluon propagator is investigated at finite temperature via lattice simulations. In particular, we discuss its interpretation as a massive-type bosonic propagator. Moreover, we compute the corresponding spectral density and study the violation of spectral positivity. Finally, we explore the dependence of the gluon propagator on the phase of the Polyakov loop

INDIVIDUAL INFUSION OF M-HEALTH TECHNOLOGIES: DETERMINANTS AND OUTCOMES

Despite substantial research on IT implementation in the IS field, the healthcare industry has historically been considered a technological laggard and lacks direction for how to successfully infuse new technological innovations within individuals work practices. Theoretically, mobile-health (m-health) technologies, if infused in work practices can potentially enhance the quality of healthcare delivery. The question remains as to whether practitioners\u27 performance significantly improves and individual knowledge is enhanced through the infusion of these technologies. While a significant amount of extant literature focuses on initial technology adoption and acceptance, there remains a dearth of literature in the IS field focusing on the long term utilisation and associated benefits. This paper addresses this gap in extant literature through the development and testing of a conceptual model, exploring determinants of individual infusion of m-health technologies and their subsequent outcomes. This study reveals (a) key enablers of successful mobile infusion in a healthcare context and that successful infusion is determined by the characteristics of the: 1. technology 2. user and 3. task, (b) Infusion of mobile technologies leads to improvements in preventative care, greater decision making and reduced medical errors and, (c) Individuals perceive that knowledge is presented rather than created through mobile technologies

Using multiple classifiers for predicting the risk of endovascular aortic aneurysm repair re-intervention through hybrid feature selection.

Feature selection is essential in medical area; however, its process becomes complicated with the presence of censoring which is the unique character of survival analysis. Most survival feature selection methods are based on Cox's proportional hazard model, though machine learning classifiers are preferred. They are less employed in survival analysis due to censoring which prevents them from directly being used to survival data. Among the few work that employed machine learning classifiers, partial logistic artificial neural network with auto-relevance determination is a well-known method that deals with censoring and perform feature selection for survival data. However, it depends on data replication to handle censoring which leads to unbalanced and biased prediction results especially in highly censored data. Other methods cannot deal with high censoring. Therefore, in this article, a new hybrid feature selection method is proposed which presents a solution to high level censoring. It combines support vector machine, neural network, and K-nearest neighbor classifiers using simple majority voting and a new weighted majority voting method based on survival metric to construct a multiple classifier system. The new hybrid feature selection process uses multiple classifier system as a wrapper method and merges it with iterated feature ranking filter method to further reduce features. Two endovascular aortic repair datasets containing 91% censored patients collected from two centers were used to construct a multicenter study to evaluate the performance of the proposed approach. The results showed the proposed technique outperformed individual classifiers and variable selection methods based on Cox's model such as Akaike and Bayesian information criterions and least absolute shrinkage and selector operator in p values of the log-rank test, sensitivity, and concordance index. This indicates that the proposed classifier is more powerful in correctly predicting the risk of re-intervention enabling doctor in selecting patients' future follow-up plan

The WC10 central stars CPD-56 degrees 8032 and He 2-113 .1. Distances and nebular parameters

We present the results of an analysis of the WC10 central stars CPD −56°8032 and He 2-113 and of their surrounding planetary nebulae (PNe). UCL Echelle Spectrograph spectra with a resolving power of R = 50 000, covering the wavelength range 3600–9500 Å, were obtained for both objects. Expansion and radial velocities are derived from the nebular Balmer lines. Reddenings were derived from the observed Hα/Hβ decrements, as well as from the ratio of the radio free-free and Hβ fluxes. We find that E(B—V) = 0.68 for CPD−56°8032 and 1.00 for He 2-113. The bolometric luminosity is found to be 2820 D2 (kpc) L⊙ for CPD — 56°8032 and 2290 D2 (kpc) L⊙ for He 2-113. We have used a calibration based on Magellanic Cloud Wolf-Rayet central stars to estimate a distance of 1.35 kpc to CPD — 56°8032 and 1.50 kpc to He 2-113. A comparison of the radial velocities of interstellar Na I D-line absorption components with Galactic rotation curve predictions for each line of sight yields distances which agree within the uncertainties with these values. We also present deconvolved pre-COSTAR HST Hβ images, from which we derive nebular angular sizes of 1.6 × 2.1 arcsec2 for CPD—56°8032 and 1.4 × 1.1 arcsec2 for He 2-113. From our spectra, nebular electron temperatures of 8800 and 8400 K are derived for CPD. 56°8032 and He 2-113 respectively, while an electron density of 6 × 104 cm−3 is determined for both nebulae. Sulphur is found to have a near-solar abundance in both nebulae, and the nebular nitrogen abundances are also close to solar. The nebular C/O abundance ratios (determined with the help of low-resolution IUE spectra) are found to be equal to 13 for CPD. 56°8032 and 10 for He 2-113, respectively, significantly higher than the values normally found for Galactic PNe. We find no detectable amounts of hydrogen in either stellar wind

Eotaxin: a potent eosinophil chemoattractant cytokine detected in a guinea pig model of allergic airways inflammation.

Eosinophil accumulation is a prominent feature of allergic inflammatory reactions, such as those occurring in the lung of the allergic asthmatic, but the endogenous chemoattractants involved have not been identified. We have investigated this in an established model of allergic inflammation, using in vivo systems both to generate and assay relevant activity. Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid was taken from sensitized guinea pigs at intervals after aerosol challenge with ovalbumin. BAL fluid was injected intradermally in unsensitized assay guinea pigs and the accumulation of intravenously injected 111In-eosinophils was measured. Activity was detected at 30 min after allergen challenge, peaking from 3 to 6 h and declining to low levels by 24 h. 3-h BAL fluid was purified using high performance liquid chromatography techniques in conjunction with the skin assay. Microsequencing revealed a novel protein from the C-C branch of the platelet factor 4 superfamily of chemotactic cytokines. The protein, eotaxin, exhibits homology of 53% with human MCP-1, 44% with guinea pig MCP-1, 31% with human MIP-1α, and 26% with human RANTES. Laser desorption time of flight mass analysis gave four different signals (8.15, 8.38, 8.81, and 9.03 kD), probably reflecting differential O-glycosylation. Eotaxin was highly potent, inducing substantial 111In-eosinophil accumulation at a 1-2-pmol dose in the skin, but did not induce significant 111In-neutrophil accumulation. Eotaxin was a potent stimulator of both guinea pig and human eosinophils in vitro. Human recombinant RANTES, MIP-1α, and MCP-1 were all inactive in inducing 111In-eosinophil accumulation in guinea pig skin; however, evidence was obtained that eotaxin shares a binding site with RANTES on guinea pig eosinophils. This is the first description of a potent eosinophil chemoattractant cytokine generated in vivo and suggests the possibility that similar molecules may be important in the human asthmatic lung

Strontium potently inhibits mineralisation in bone-forming primary rat osteoblast cultures and reduces numbers of osteoclasts in mouse marrow cultures

The basic mechanisms by which strontium ranelate acts on bone are still unclear. We show that an important action of strontium salts is to block calcification in cultures of osteoblasts, the bone-forming cells. These results suggest that strontium treatment could have previously overlooked effects on bone

Near-Field Analysis of Terahertz Pulse Generation From Photo-Excited Charge Density Gradients

Excitation of photo-current transients at semiconductor surfaces by subpicosecond optical pulses gives rise to emission of electromagnetic pulses of terahertz (THz) frequency radiation. To correlate the THz emission with the photo-excited charge density distribution and the photo-current direction, we mapped near-field and far-field distributions of the generated THz waves from GaAs and Fe-doped InGaAs surfaces. The experimental results show that the charge dynamics in the plane of the surface can radiate substantially stronger THz pulses than the charge dynamics in the direction normal to the surface, which is generally regarded as the dominant origin of the emission

Derivative pricing under the possibility of long memory in the supOU stochastic volatility model

We consider the supOU stochastic volatility model which is able to exhibit long-range dependence. For this model we give conditions for the discounted stock price to be a martingale, calculate the characteristic function, give a strip where it is analytic and discuss the use of Fourier pricing techniques. Finally, we present a concrete specification with polynomially decaying autocorrelations and calibrate it to observed market prices of plain vanilla options

Disintegration of Dung Pats from Cattle Treated with the Ivermectin Anthelmintic Bolus, or the Biocontrol Agent Duddingtonia flagrans

An experiment was performed during the grazing seasons of 1998, 1999 and 2000 to study the influence of the antiparasitic drug ivermectin and the nematophagous fungus Duddingtonia flagrans on cattle dung disintegration. The faeces originated from groups of animals that were part of a separate grazing experiment where different control strategies for nematode parasite infections were investigated. Each group consisted of 10 first-season grazing cattle that were either untreated, treated with the ivermectin sustained-release bolus, or fed chlamydospores of D. flagrans. Faeces were collected monthly on 4 occasions and out of pooled faeces from each group, 4 artificial 1 kg dung pats were prepared and deposited on nylon mesh on an enclosed pasture and protected from birds. The position of the new set of pats was repeated throughout the 3 years of the study. Each year, the dung pats were weighed 4, 6, 8 and 10 weeks after deposition and immediately afterwards replaced to their initial positions. Results showed that there was no difference in faecal pat disintegration between groups. However, the time-lag between deposition and complete disintegration of the faeces varied significantly between deposition occasions. Dung pats disappeared within 2 weeks (visual observation) when subjected to heavy rainfall early after deposition, whereas an extended dry period coincided with faeces still remaining 12 months after deposition