6,282 research outputs found
Consistency of dust solutions with div H=0
One of the necessary covariant conditions for gravitational radiation is the
vanishing of the divergence of the magnetic Weyl tensor H_{ab}, while H_{ab}
itself is nonzero. We complete a recent analysis by showing that in
irrotational dust spacetimes, the condition div H=0 evolves consistently in the
exact nonlinear theory.Comment: 3 pages Revte
Integrability of irrotational silent cosmological models
We revisit the issue of integrability conditions for the irrotational silent
cosmological models. We formulate the problem both in 1+3 covariant and 1+3
orthonormal frame notation, and show there exists a series of constraint
equations that need to be satisfied. These conditions hold identically for
FLRW-linearised silent models, but not in the general exact non-linear case.
Thus there is a linearisation instability, and it is highly unlikely that there
is a large class of silent models. We conjecture that there are no spatially
inhomogeneous solutions with Weyl curvature of Petrov type I, and indicate
further issues that await clarification.Comment: Minor corrections and improvements; 1 new reference; to appear Class.
Quantum Grav.; 16 pages Ioplpp
Exploring Nonlinearity in the Association Between Birth Defect Rates and Agrichemicals in Groundwater in an Agricultural State
Background: Agricultural practices over the last 70 years have led to increased agrichemical contamination in some drinking water supplies. Studies report an elevated risk of birth defects associated with exposure to nitrate or atrazine, but little is known about effects of co-exposure. This ecological study evaluated the relationship between the concomitant presence of nitrate and atrazine in Nebraska drinking water supplies and risk for birth defects.
Methods: County birth data were combined with water chemistry data retrieved from a state-sponsored agrichemical contaminant database. Segmented linear regression was used to examine associations between percentage of wells with nitrate and atrazine (separately and as a mixture), and the risk of birth defects.
Results: When modeled for wells with nitrate-N concentrations \u3e 2 mg/L, the slope of the first regression segment was positive, increasing to 58% positive wells. After 58% positivity, the slope showed a negative association with birth defect rates. Adding atrazine to the model moved the changepoints to a lower percentage of wells positive for these agrichemicals in the association to birth defect rates. Models consistently showed this pattern of association with and without other nitrosatable compounds present.
Conclusions: The results support an effect of nitrate and nitrosatable compounds on fetal development and suggest the relationship may be nonlinear. Exposure to nitrate and nitrosatable compounds as a mixture may have separate biological effects on reproductive outcomes when compared to the single compounds.https://digitalcommons.unmc.edu/chri_forum/1059/thumbnail.jp
The Diabetes Remission Clinical Trial (DiRECT): protocol for a cluster randomised trial
Background:
Despite improving evidence-based practice following clinical guidelines to optimise drug therapy, Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) still exerts a devastating toll from vascular complications and premature death. Biochemical remission of T2DM has been demonstrated with weight loss around 15kg following bariatric surgery and in several small studies of non-surgical energy-restriction treatments. The non-surgical Counterweight-Plus programme, running in Primary Care where obesity and T2DM are routinely managed, produces >15 kg weight loss in 33 % of all enrolled patients. The Diabetes UK-funded Counterpoint study suggested that this should be sufficient to reverse T2DM by removing ectopic fat in liver and pancreas, restoring first-phase insulin secretion.
The Diabetes Remission Clinical Trial (DiRECT) was designed to determine whether a structured, intensive, weight management programme, delivered in a routine Primary Care setting, is a viable treatment for achieving durable normoglycaemia. Other aims are to understand the mechanistic basis of remission and to identify psychological predictors of response.
Methods/Design:
Cluster-randomised design with GP practice as the unit of randomisation: 280 participants from around 30 practices in Scotland and England will be allocated either to continue usual guideline-based care or to add the Counterweight-Plus weight management programme, which includes primary care nurse or dietitian delivery of 12-20weeks low calorie diet replacement, food reintroduction, and long-term weight loss maintenance. Main inclusion criteria: men and women aged 20-65years, all ethnicities, T2DM 0-6years duration, BMI 27-45 kg/m2. Tyneside participants will undergo Magnetic Resonance (MR) studies of pancreatic and hepatic fat, and metabolic studies to determine mechanisms underlying T2DM remission. Co-primary endpoints: weight reductionââ„â15 kg and HbA1c <48 mmol/mol at one year. Further follow-up at 2 years.
Discussion:
This study will establish whether a structured weight management programme, delivered in Primary Care by practice nurses or dietitians, is a viable treatment to achieve T2DM remission. Results, available from 2018 onwards, will inform future service strategy
Anomalous Dimensions of Non-Chiral Operators from AdS/CFT
Non-chiral operators with positive anomalous dimensions can have interesting
applications to supersymmetric model building. Motivated by this, we develop a
new method for obtaining the anomalous dimensions of non-chiral double-trace
operators in N=1 superconformal field theories (SCFTs) with weakly-coupled AdS
duals. Via the Hamiltonian formulation of AdS/CFT, we show how to directly
compute the anomalous dimension as a bound state energy in the gravity dual.
This simplifies previous approaches based on the four-point function and the
OPE. We apply our method to a class of effective AdS5 supergravity models, and
we find that the binding energy can have either sign. If such models can be UV
completed, they will provide the first calculable examples of SCFTs with
positive anomalous dimensions.Comment: 38 pages, 2 figures, refs adde
Bounds on SCFTs from Conformal Perturbation Theory
The operator product expansion (OPE) in 4d (super)conformal field theory is
of broad interest, for both formal and phenomenological applications. In this
paper, we use conformal perturbation theory to study the OPE of nearly-free
fields coupled to SCFTs. Under fairly general assumptions, we show that the OPE
of a chiral operator of dimension with its complex
conjugate always contains an operator of dimension less than . Our
bounds apply to Banks-Zaks fixed points and their generalizations, as we
illustrate using several examples.Comment: 36 pages; v2: typos fixed, minor change
High-density information storage in an absolutely defined aperiodic sequence of monodisperse copolyester
Synthesis of a polymer composed of a large discrete number of chemically distinct monomers in an absolutely defined aperiodic sequence remains a challenge in polymer chemistry. The synthesis has largely been limited to oligomers having a limited number of repeating units due to the difficulties associated with the step-by-step addition of individual monomers to achieve high molecular weights. Here we report the copolymers of ??-hydroxy acids, poly(phenyllactic-co-lactic acid) (PcL) built via the cross-convergent method from four dyads of monomers as constituent units. Our proposed method allows scalable synthesis of sequence-defined PcL in a minimal number of coupling steps from reagents in stoichiometric amounts. Digital information can be stored in an aperiodic sequence of PcL, which can be fully retrieved as binary code by mass spectrometry sequencing. The information storage density (bit/Da) of PcL is 50% higher than DNA, and the storage capacity of PcL can also be increased by adjusting the molecular weight (~38???kDa)
Bounds on 4D Conformal and Superconformal Field Theories
We derive general bounds on operator dimensions, central charges, and OPE
coefficients in 4D conformal and N=1 superconformal field theories. In any CFT
containing a scalar primary phi of dimension d we show that crossing symmetry
of implies a completely general lower bound on the central
charge c >= f_c(d). Similarly, in CFTs containing a complex scalar charged
under global symmetries, we bound a combination of symmetry current two-point
function coefficients tau^{IJ} and flavor charges. We extend these bounds to
N=1 superconformal theories by deriving the superconformal block expansions for
four-point functions of a chiral superfield Phi and its conjugate. In this case
we derive bounds on the OPE coefficients of scalar operators appearing in the
Phi x Phi* OPE, and show that there is an upper bound on the dimension of Phi*
Phi when dim(Phi) is close to 1. We also present even more stringent bounds on
c and tau^{IJ}. In supersymmetric gauge theories believed to flow to
superconformal fixed points one can use anomaly matching to explicitly check
whether these bounds are satisfied.Comment: 47 pages, 9 figures; V2: small corrections and clarification
Gravito-electromagnetism
We develop and apply a fully covariant 1+3 electromagnetic analogy for
gravity. The free gravitational field is covariantly characterized by the Weyl
gravito-electric and gravito-magnetic spatial tensor fields, whose dynamical
equations are the Bianchi identities. Using a covariant generalization of
spatial vector algebra and calculus to spatial tensor fields, we exhibit the
covariant analogy between the tensor Bianchi equations and the vector Maxwell
equations. We identify gravitational source terms, couplings and potentials
with and without electromagnetic analogues. The nonlinear vacuum Bianchi
equations are shown to be invariant under covariant spatial duality rotation of
the gravito-electric and gravito-magnetic tensor fields. We construct the
super-energy density and super-Poynting vector of the gravitational field as
natural U(1) group invariants, and derive their super-energy conservation
equation. A covariant approach to gravito-electric/magnetic monopoles is also
presented.Comment: 14 pages. Version to appear in Class. Quant. Gra
- âŠ