Update on Counting Valence Quarks at RHIC

We update our former analysis of the Nuclear Modification Factors (NMF) for different hadron species at RHIC and LHC. This update is motivated by the new experimental data from STAR which presents differences with the preliminary data used to fix some of the parameters in our model. The main change is the use of AKK fragmentation functions for the hard part of the spectrum and minor adjustments of the coalescence (soft) contribution. We confirm that observation of the NMF for the f_0 meson can shed light on its quark composition.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Nuclear Shadowing and Diffraction

The relation between diffraction in lepton-proton collisions and shadowing of nuclear structure functions which arises from Gribov inelastic shadowing, is described. A model realizing such relation, which produces a parameter-free description of experimental data on nuclear structure functions at small $x$, is presented. The application to the description of multiplicities in nuclear collisions is discussed and related to other approaches.Comment: LaTeX, 6 pages, 5 eps figures, uses enclosed ws-ijmpa.cls; invited talk given by N. Armesto at the Eighth Workshop on Non-Perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics, Paris, France, June 7th-11th 200

Charm quenching in heavy-ion collisions at the LHC

D-meson suppression in Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC due to charm quark in-medium energy loss is estimated within a model that describes the available quenching measurements at RHIC. The result is compared to that previously published by the author. The expected sensitivity of the ALICE experiment for studying charm energy loss via fully-reconstructed D^0-meson decays is also presented.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures. To appear in the proceedings of Hot Quarks 2004: Workshop for Young Scientists on the Physics of Ultrarelativistic Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions, Taos Valley, New Mexico, 18-24 July 2004. Submitted to J. Phys.

Nuclear size and rapidity dependence of the saturation scale from QCD evolution and experimental data

The solutions of the Balitsky-Kovchegov evolution equations are studied numerically and compared with known analytical estimations. The rapidity and nuclear size dependences of the saturation scale are obtained for the cases of fixed and running coupling constant. These same dependences are studied in experimental data, on lepton-nucleus, deuteron-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions, through geometric scaling and compared with the theoretical calculations.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures. Contribution based on talks given by J. G. Milhano and C. A. Salgado to the proceedings of ``Hard Probes 2004'', Ericeira (Portugal), November 4-10, 200

Religious leaders\u27 perceptions of advance care planning: a secondary analysis of interviews with Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Islamic, Jewish, Sikh and Bahai leaders

Background: International guidance for advance care planning (ACP) supports the integration of spiritual and religious aspects of care within the planning process. Religious leaders’ perspectives could improve how ACP programs respect patients’ faith backgrounds. This study aimed to examine: (i) how religious leaders understand and consider ACP and its implications, including (ii) how religion affects followers’ approaches to end-of-life care and ACP, and (iii) their implications for healthcare. Methods: Interview transcripts from a primary qualitative study conducted with religious leaders to inform an ACP website, ACPTalk, were used as data in this study. ACPTalk aims to assist health professionals conduct sensitive conversations with people from different religious backgrounds. A qualitative secondary analysis conducted on the interview transcripts focussed on religious leaders’ statements related to this study’s aims. Interview transcripts were thematically analysed using an inductive, comparative, and cyclical procedure informed by grounded theory. Results: Thirty-five religious leaders (26 male; mean 58.6-years-old), from eight Christian and six non-Christian (Jewish, Buddhist, Islamic, Hindu, Sikh, Bahá’í) backgrounds were included. Three themes emerged which focussed on: religious leaders’ ACP understanding and experiences; explanations for religious followers’ approaches towards end-of-life care; and health professionals’ need to enquire about how religion matters. Most leaders had some understanding of ACP and, once fully comprehended, most held ACP in positive regard. Religious followers’ preferences for end-of-life care reflected family and geographical origins, cultural traditions, personal attitudes, and religiosity and faith interpretations. Implications for healthcare included the importance of avoiding generalisations and openness to individualised and/ or standardised religious expressions of one’s religion. Conclusions: Knowledge of religious beliefs and values around death and dying could be useful in preparing health professionals for ACP with patients from different religions but equally important is avoidance of assumptions. Community-based initiatives, programs and faith settin

Medium-induced multi-photon radiation

We study the spectrum of multi-photon radiation off a fast quark in medium in the BDMPS/ASW approach. We reproduce the medium-induced one-photon radiation spectrum in dipole approximation, and go on to calculate the two-photon radiation in the Moli\`{e}re limit. We find that in this limit the LPM effect holds for medium-induced two-photon ladder emission.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure. Proceedings of Hot Quarks 2010, La Londe Les Maures, Franc

High-Resolution Three-Dimensional NMR Structure Of The KRAS Proto-Oncogene Promoter Reveals Key Features Of A G-Quadruplex Involved In Transcriptional Regulation

Non-canonical base pairing within guanine-rich DNA and RNA sequences can produce G-quartets, whose stacking leads to the formation of a G-quadruplex (G4). G4s can coexist with canonical duplex DNA in the human genome and have been suggested to suppress gene transcription, and much attention has therefore focused on studying G4s in promotor regions of disease-related genes. For example, the human KRAS proto-oncogene contains a nuclease-hypersensitive element located upstream of the major transcription start site. The KRAS nuclease-hypersensitive element (NHE) region contains a G-rich element (22RT; 5′-AGGGCGGTGTGGGAATAGGGAA-3′) and encompasses a Myc-associated zinc finger-binding site that regulates KRAS transcription. The NEH region therefore has been proposed as a target for new drugs that control KRAS transcription, which requires detailed knowledge of the NHE structure. In this study, we report a high-resolution NMR structure of the G-rich element within the KRAS NHE. We found that the G-rich element forms a parallel structure with three G-quartets connected by a four-nucleotide loop and two short one-nucleotide double-chain reversal loops. In addition, a thymine bulge is found between G8 and G9. The loops of different lengths and the presence of a bulge between the G-quartets are structural elements that potentially can be targeted by small chemical ligands that would further stabilize the structure and interfere or block transcriptional regulators such as Myc-associated zinc finger from accessing their binding sites on the KRAS promoter. In conclusion, our work suggests a possible new route for the development of anticancer agents that could suppress KRAS expression

Inductive Entanglement Classification of Four Qubits under SLOCC

Using an inductive approach to classify multipartite entangled states under stochastic local operations and classical communication introduced recently by the authors [Phys. Rev. A 74, 052336 (2006)], we give the complete classification of four-qubit entangled pure states. Apart from the expected degenerate classes, we show that there exist eight inequivalent ways to entangle four qubits. In this respect, permutation symmetry is taken into account and states with a structure differing only by parameters inside a continuous set are considered to belong to the same class.Comment: 11 pages and no figures. Accepted in PR

AAMQS: a non-linear QCD description of new HERA data at small-x

We present a global analysis of available data on inclusive structure functions measured in electron-proton scattering at small values of Bjorken-x, including the latest data from the combined HERA analysis on reduced cross sections. Our approach relies on the dipole formulation of DIS together with the use of the non-linear running coupling BK equation for the description of the small-x dynamics. With the resulting parametrization we are able to describe the latest FL data measured by the H1 collaboration. Further, we discuss the kinematical domain where significant deviations from NLO-DGLAP should be expected and the ability of non-linnear physics to account for such deviations.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, Proceedings of Quark Matter 2011, Annecy, Franc