Asymptotic Regge Trajectories of Non-strange Mesons

We analyze the asymptotic behavior of Regge trajectories of non-strange mesons. In contrast to an existing belief, it is demonstrated that for the asymptotically linear Regge trajectories the width of heavy hadrons cannot linearly depend on their mass. Using the data on masses and widths of rho_J, omega_J, a_J and f_J mesons for the spin values J \leq 6, we extract the parameters of the asymptotically linear Regge trajectory predicted by the finite width model of quark gluon bags. As it is shown the obtained parameters for the data set B correspond to the cross-over temperature lying in the interval 170.9-175.3 MeV which is consistent with the kinetic freeze-out temperature of early hadronizing particles found in relativistic heavy ion collisions at and above the highest SPS energy.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figure

Late presentation of superior mesenteric artery syndrome following scoliosis surgery: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Obstruction of the third part of the duodenum by the superior mesenteric artery (SMA) can occur following surgical correction of scoliosis. The condition most commonly occurs in significantly underweight patients with severe deformities during the first few days to a week following spinal surgery.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We present the atypical case of a patient with normal body habitus and a 50° adolescent idiopathic thoracolumbar scoliosis who underwent anterior spinal arthrodesis with instrumentation and developed SMA syndrome due to progressive weight loss several weeks postoperatively. The condition manifested with recurrent vomiting, abdominal distension, marked dehydration, and severe electrolyte disorder. Prolonged nasogastric decompression and nasojejunal feeding resulted in resolution of the symptoms with no recurrence at follow-up. The spinal instrumentation was retained and a solid spinal fusion was achieved with good spinal balance in both the coronal and sagittal planes.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>SMA syndrome can occur much later than previously reported and with potentially life-threatening symptoms following scoliosis correction. Early recognition of the condition and institution of appropriate conservative measures is critical to prevent the development of severe complications including the risk of death.</p

From correlation functions to Wilson loops

We start with an n-point correlation function in a conformal gauge theory. We show that a special limit produces a polygonal Wilson loop with $n$ sides. The limit takes the $n$ points towards the vertices of a null polygonal Wilson loop such that successive distances $x^2_{i,i+1} \to 0$. This produces a fast moving particle that generates a "frame" for the Wilson loop. We explain in detail how the limit is approached, including some subtle effects from the propagation of a fast moving particle in the full interacting theory. We perform perturbative checks by doing explicit computations in N=4 super-Yang-Mills.Comment: 37 pages, 10 figures; typos corrected, references adde

Enrichment methods to detect bone marrow micrometastases in breast carcinoma patients: clinical relevance

INTRODUCTION: Improving technologies for the detection and purification of bone marrow (BM) micrometastatic cells in breast cancer patients should lead to earlier prognosis of the risk of relapse and should make it possible to design more appropriate therapies. The technique used has to overcome the challenges resulting from the small number of target cells (one per million hematopoietic cells) and the heterogeneous expression of micrometastatic cell markers. In the present study, we have assessed the clinical relevance of current methods aimed at detecting rare disseminated carcinoma cells. METHODS: BM aspirates from 32 carcinoma patients were screened for the presence of micrometastatic cells positive for epithelial cell adhesion molecule and positive for cytokeratins, using optimized immunodetection methods. A comparison with data obtained for 46 control BM aspirates and a correlation with the clinical status of patients were performed. RESULTS: We developed a sensitive and efficient immunomagnetic protocol for the enrichment of BM micrometastases. This method was used to divide 32 breast carcinoma patients into three categories according to their epithelial cell adhesion molecule status. These categories were highly correlated with the recently revised American Joint Committee on Cancer staging system for breast cancer, demonstrating the clinical relevance of this simple and reliable immunomagnetic technique. We also evaluated immunocytochemical detection of cytokeratin-positive cells and cytomorphological parameters. Immunocytochemistry-based methods for the detection of BM micrometastases did not provide any information about the clinical status of patients, but helped to refine the immunomagnetic data by confirming the presence of micrometastases in some cases. We also tested a new density gradient centrifugation system, able to enrich the tumor fraction of BM specimens by twofold to threefold as compared with standard Ficoll methods. CONCLUSION: These improved methods for the detection of micrometastatic cells in patient BM should help clinicians to predict the clinical status of breast cancer patients at the time of surgery or treatment

What an Agile Leader Does: The Group Dynamics Perspective

When large industrial organizations change to (or start with) an agile approach to operations, managers and some employees are supposed to be “agile leaders” often without being given a clear definition of what that comprises when building agile teams. An inductive thematic analysis was used to investigate what 15 appointed leaders actually do and perceive as challenges regarding group dynamics working with an agile approach. Team maturity, Team design, and Culture and mindset were all categories of challenges related to group dynamics that the practitioners face and manage in their work-life that are not explicitly mentioned in the more process-focused agile transformation frameworks. The results suggest that leader mitigation of these three aspects of group dynamics is essential to the success of an agile transformation

A systematic analysis of host factors reveals a Med23-interferon-λ regulatory axis against herpes simplex virus type 1 replication

Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) is a neurotropic virus causing vesicular oral or genital skin lesions, meningitis and other diseases particularly harmful in immunocompromised individuals. To comprehensively investigate the complex interaction between HSV-1 and its host we combined two genome-scale screens for host factors (HFs) involved in virus replication. A yeast two-hybrid screen for protein interactions and a RNA interference (RNAi) screen with a druggable genome small interfering RNA (siRNA) library confirmed existing and identified novel HFs which functionally influence HSV-1 infection. Bioinformatic analyses found the 358 HFs were enriched for several pathways and multi-protein complexes. Of particular interest was the identification of Med23 as a strongly anti-viral component of the largely pro-viral Mediator complex, which links specific transcription factors to RNA polymerase II. The anti-viral effect of Med23 on HSV-1 replication was confirmed in gain-of-function gene overexpression experiments, and this inhibitory effect was specific to HSV-1, as a range of other viruses including Vaccinia virus and Semliki Forest virus were unaffected by Med23 depletion. We found Med23 significantly upregulated expression of the type III interferon family (IFN-λ) at the mRNA and protein level by directly interacting with the transcription factor IRF7. The synergistic effect of Med23 and IRF7 on IFN-λ induction suggests this is the major transcription factor for IFN-λ expression. Genotypic analysis of patients suffering recurrent orofacial HSV-1 outbreaks, previously shown to be deficient in IFN-λ secretion, found a significant correlation with a single nucleotide polymorphism in the IFN-λ3 (IL28b) promoter strongly linked to Hepatitis C disease and treatment outcome. This paper describes a link between Med23 and IFN-λ, provides evidence for the crucial role of IFN-λ in HSV-1 immune control, and highlights the power of integrative genome-scale approaches to identify HFs critical for disease progression and outcome

Collective Dynamics of Gene Expression in Cell Populations

The phenotypic state of the cell is commonly thought to be determined by the set of expressed genes. However, given the apparent complexity of genetic networks, it remains open what processes stabilize a particular phenotypic state. Moreover, it is not clear how unique is the mapping between the vector of expressed genes and the cell's phenotypic state. To gain insight on these issues, we study here the expression dynamics of metabolically essential genes in twin cell populations. We show that two yeast cell populations derived from a single steady-state mother population and exhibiting a similar growth phenotype in response to an environmental challenge, displayed diverse expression patterns of essential genes. The observed diversity in the mean expression between populations could not result from stochastic cell-to-cell variability, which would be averaged out in our large cell populations. Remarkably, within a population, sets of expressed genes exhibited coherent dynamics over many generations. Thus, the emerging gene expression patterns resulted from collective population dynamics. It suggests that in a wide range of biological contexts, gene expression reflects a self-organization process coupled to population-environment dynamics

Behavior and Impact of Zirconium in the Soil–Plant System: Plant Uptake and Phytotoxicity

Because of the large number of sites they pollute, toxic metals that contaminate terrestrial ecosystems are increasingly of environmental and sanitary concern (Uzu et al. 2010, 2011; Shahid et al. 2011a, b, 2012a). Among such metals is zirconium (Zr), which has the atomic number 40 and is a transition metal that resembles titanium in physical and chemical properties (Zaccone et al. 2008). Zr is widely used in many chemical industry processes and in nuclear reactors (Sandoval et al. 2011; Kamal et al. 2011), owing to its useful properties like hardness, corrosion-resistance and permeable to neutrons (Mushtaq 2012). Hence, the recent increased use of Zr by industry, and the occurrence of the Chernobyl and Fukashima catastrophe have enhanced environmental levels in soil and waters (Yirchenko and Agapkina 1993; Mosulishvili et al. 1994 ; Kruglov et al. 1996)

Rural-urban disparities in child nutrition in Bangladesh and Nepal

Background The persistence of rural-urban disparities in child nutrition outcomes in developing countries alongside rapid urbanisation and increasing incidence of child malnutrition in urban areas raises an important health policy question - whether fundamentally different nutrition policies and interventions are required in rural and urban areas. Addressing this question requires an enhanced understanding of the main drivers of rural-urban disparities in child nutrition outcomes especially for the vulnerable segments of the population. This study applies recently developed statistical methods to quantify the contribution of different socio-economic determinants to rural-urban differences in child nutrition outcomes in two South Asian countries – Bangladesh and Nepal. Methods Using DHS data sets for Bangladesh and Nepal, we apply quantile regression-based counterfactual decomposition methods to quantify the contribution of (1) the differences in levels of socio-economic determinants (covariate effects) and (2) the differences in the strength of association between socio-economic determinants and child nutrition outcomes (co-efficient effects) to the observed rural-urban disparities in child HAZ scores. The methodology employed in the study allows the covariate and coefficient effects to vary across entire distribution of child nutrition outcomes. This is particularly useful in providing specific insights into factors influencing rural-urban disparities at the lower tails of child HAZ score distributions. It also helps assess the importance of individual determinants and how they vary across the distribution of HAZ scores. Results There are no fundamental differences in the characteristics that determine child nutrition outcomes in urban and rural areas. Differences in the levels of a limited number of socio-economic characteristics – maternal education, spouse’s education and the wealth index (incorporating household asset ownership and access to drinking water and sanitation) contribute a major share of rural-urban disparities in the lowest quantiles of child nutrition outcomes. Differences in the strength of association between socio-economic characteristics and child nutrition outcomes account for less than a quarter of rural-urban disparities at the lower end of the HAZ score distribution. Conclusions Public health interventions aimed at overcoming rural-urban disparities in child nutrition outcomes need to focus principally on bridging gaps in socio-economic endowments of rural and urban households and improving the quality of rural infrastructure. Improving child nutrition outcomes in developing countries does not call for fundamentally different approaches to public health interventions in rural and urban areas

Jet energy measurement with the ATLAS detector in proton-proton collisions at root s=7 TeV

The jet energy scale and its systematic uncertainty are determined for jets measured with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of √s = 7TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 38 pb-1. Jets are reconstructed with the anti-kt algorithm with distance parameters R=0. 4 or R=0. 6. Jet energy and angle corrections are determined from Monte Carlo simulations to calibrate jets with transverse momenta pT≥20 GeV and pseudorapidities {pipe}η{pipe}<4. 5. The jet energy systematic uncertainty is estimated using the single isolated hadron response measured in situ and in test-beams, exploiting the transverse momentum balance between central and forward jets in events with dijet topologies and studying systematic variations in Monte Carlo simulations. The jet energy uncertainty is less than 2. 5 % in the central calorimeter region ({pipe}η{pipe}<0. 8) for jets with 60≤pT<800 GeV, and is maximally 14 % for pT<30 GeV in the most forward region 3. 2≤{pipe}η{pipe}<4. 5. The jet energy is validated for jet transverse momenta up to 1 TeV to the level of a few percent using several in situ techniques by comparing a well-known reference such as the recoiling photon pT, the sum of the transverse momenta of tracks associated to the jet, or a system of low-pT jets recoiling against a high-pT jet. More sophisticated jet calibration schemes are presented based on calorimeter cell energy density weighting or hadronic properties of jets, aiming for an improved jet energy resolution and a reduced flavour dependence of the jet response. The systematic uncertainty of the jet energy determined from a combination of in situ techniques is consistent with the one derived from single hadron response measurements over a wide kinematic range. The nominal corrections and uncertainties are derived for isolated jets in an inclusive sample of high-pT jets. Special cases such as event topologies with close-by jets, or selections of samples with an enhanced content of jets originating from light quarks, heavy quarks or gluons are also discussed and the corresponding uncertainties are determined. © 2013 CERN for the benefit of the ATLAS collaboration