Numerical Evidence for the Observation of a Scalar Glueball

We compute from lattice QCD in the valence (quenched) approximation the partial decay widths of the lightest scalar glueball to pairs of pseudoscalar quark-antiquark states. These predictions and values obtained earlier for the scalar glueball's mass are in good agreement with the observed properties of $f_J(1710)$ and inconsistent with all other observed meson resonances.Comment: 12 pages of Latex, 3 PostsScript figures as separate uufil

Towards the glueball spectrum of full QCD

We present first results on masses of the scalar and tensor glueballs as well as of the torelon from simulations of QCD with two light flavours of Wilson fermions. The gauge configurations of extent 16^3*32 at beta = 5.6 and kappa = 0.156, 0.157 and 0.1575 have been generated as part of the SESAM collaboration programme. The present lattice resolutions correspond to 1/a = 2.0-2.3 GeV and ratios m(pi)/m(rho) = 0.83, 0.76 and 0.71, respectively. Studies on larger lattice volumes and closer to the chiral limit are in progress.Comment: 4 pages, LaTeX, espcrc2 and epsf styles required, 4 epsf figures, poster presented by G. Bali at Lattice '9

Salmonella Typhimurium in the Australian egg industry: multidisciplinary approach to addressing the public health challenge and future directions

In Australia, numerous egg related human Salmonella Typhimurium outbreaks have prompted significant interest amongst public health authorities and the egg industry to jointly address this human health concern. Nationwide workshops on Salmonella and eggs were conducted in Australia for egg producers and regulatory authorities. State and National regulators representing Primary Production, Communicable Disease Control, Public Health and Food Safety and Food Standards Australia and New Zealand. All attendees participated in discussions aimed at evaluating current evidence based information, issues related to quality egg production and how to ensure safe eggs in the supply chain, identifying research gaps and practical recommendations. The perceptions from egg producers and regulatory authorities from various states were recorded during the workshops. We presented the issues discussed during the workshops including Salmonella in the farm environment, Salmonella penetration across egg shell, virulence in humans, food/egg handling in the supply chain and intervention strategies. We also discussed the perceptions from egg producers and regulators. Recommendations placed emphasis on future research needs, communication between industry and regulatory authorities and education of food handlers. Communication between regulators and industry is pivotal to control egg borne S. Typhimurium outbreaks and collaborative efforts are required to design effective and appropriate control strategies.Kapil K. Chousalkar, Margaret Sexton, Andrea McWhorter, Kylie Hewson, Glen Martin, Craig Shadbolt & Paul Goldsmit

Psychometric Characteristics of the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) in Postpartum Mothers with Histories of Childhood Maltreatment

Background: There is increased awareness that resilience serves as a protective factor against adverse psychophysiological sequelae in the context of stress. However, there are few instruments to assess this construct in adult populations. The Connor-Davidson resilience scale (CD-RISC) has been developed to assess adaptation following stress exposure. While this instrument has previously demonstrated impressive reliability and construct validity, prior research has not supported the consistency of the originally described factor structure. There is also limited evidence regarding the measurement of resilience in the context of cumulative stress exposure. Objectives: This research explores the psychometric properties of the CD-RISC in mothers with childhood histories of maltreatment Materials and Methods: Postpartum women who endorsed a history of childhood abuse or neglect (N = 141) completed the CD-RISC, the childhood trauma questionnaire and other surveys measuring positive and negative health and functioning. We calculated descriptive statistics with percentage counts and means as appropriate. Internal reliability was evaluated by Cronbach’s alpha and the calculation of item-to-total score correlations. Parallel analysis (PA) was utilized to derive the number of retained factors. Results: A recent parenting transition concomitant with a history of maltreatment was associated with lower CD-RISC scores. Internal reliability and concurrent validity analyses were satisfactory and consistent with predicted hypotheses. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) supported a four-factor model of resilience with this population. Conclusions: This research offers further evidence of the reliability and validity of the CD-RISC. Further, the results of the EFA with parallel analysis offer an empirically-driven derivation of factors for this population

Evaluation of Reclaimer Sludge Disposal from Post-combustion CO2 Capture

AbstractAn important environmental issue for amine-based post-combustion CO2 capture is the generation of reclaimer sludge containing degradation products and impurities that must be disposed. This paper evaluated the environmental fate of reclaimer wastes generated from three amine-based solvents (monoethanolamine, piperazine, and a methyldiethanolamine/piperazine blend) used for CO2 capture at a pulverized coal and a natural-gas combined cycle power plant (900 and 810 MWe, respectively) with typical flue gas compositions. The solvent loss and impurities and degradation accumulation in the CO2 capture units were modeled. A techno-economic analysis of different reclaiming technologies was conducted. The reclaimer sludge was classified based on US and EU regulations for hazardous waste, and alternative options for reclaimer sludge disposal were evaluated

Glueball calculations in large-N_c gauge theory

We use the light-front Hamiltonian of transverse lattice gauge theory to compute from first principles the glueball spectrum and light-front wavefunctions in the leading order of the 1/N_c colour expansion. We find 0^{++}, 2^{++}, and 1^{+-} glueballs having masses consistent with N_c=3 data available from Euclidean lattice path integral methods. The wavefunctions exhibit a light-front constituent gluon structure.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, uses macro boxedeps.tex, minor corrections in revised versio

Scalar Mesons in a Chiral Quark Model with Glueball

Ground-state scalar isoscalar mesons and a scalar glueball are described in a U(3)xU(3) chiral quark model of the Nambu--Jona-Lasinio (NJL) type with 't Hooft interaction. The latter interaction produces singlet-octet mixing in the scalar and pseudoscalar sectors. The glueball is introduced into the effective meson Lagrangian as a dilaton on the base of scale invariance. The mixing of the glueball with scalar isoscalar quarkonia and amplitudes of their decays into two pseudoscalar mesons are shown to be proportional to current quark masses, vanishing in the chiral limit. Mass spectra of the scalar mesons and the glueball and their main modes of strong decay are described.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX text, requires svjour.cls and svepj.cl

Mixing of scalar glueballs and flavour-singlet scalar mesons

We discuss in detail the extraction of hadronic mixing strengths from lattice studies. We apply this to the mixing of a scalar glueball and a scalar meson in the quenched approximation. We also measure correlations appropriate for flavour-singlet scalar mesons using dynamical quark configurations from UKQCD. This enables us to compare the results from the quenched study of the mixing with the direct determination of the mixed spectrum. Improved methods of evaluating the disconnected quark diagrams are also presented.Comment: 23 pages, 5 postscript figure

The equation of state for two flavor QCD at N_t=6

We calculate the two flavor equation of state for QCD on lattices with lattice spacing a=(6T)^{-1} and find that cutoff effects are substantially reduced compared to an earlier study using a=(4T)^{-1}. However, it is likely that significant cutoff effects remain. We fit the lattice data to expected forms of the free energy density for a second order phase transition at zero-quark-mass, which allows us to extrapolate the equation of state to m_q=0 and to extract the speed of sound. We find that the equation of state depends weakly on the quark mass for small quark mass.Comment: 24 pages, latex, 11 postscipt figure

Psoriatic arthritis, axial spondyloarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis in Norway : nationwide prevalence and use of biologic agents

Objective To estimate the prevalence of psoriatic arthritis (PsA), axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and the use of biologic agents in these diseases in Norway. Methods From the Norwegian Patient Registry (NPR), we identified as PsA, axSpA and RA patients >= 18 years those with >= 2 recorded episodes with diagnostic coding for index disease (L40.5, M07.0-M07.3 for PsA; M45, M46.0, M46.1, M46.8 and M46.9 for axSpA; M05-M06 for RA). We calculated the point prevalence of PsA, axSpA and RA as per the 1(st) of January 2017 in the Norwegian adult population (age >= 18). Dispensed disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) prescriptions were obtained from the Norwegian Prescription Database and biologic DMARDs given in hospitals from the NPR. Results The point prevalence of PsA, axSpA, RA, and any of these diseases in total was 0.46%, 0.41%, 0.78%, and 1.56%, respectively. Among women, the prevalence of PsA, axSpA, and RA was 0.50%, 0.37%, and 1.10%, and among men 0.43%, 0.45%, and 0.46%, respectively. In 2017, 27.3% of RA patients, 25.7% of PsA patients and 35.1% of axSpA patients used biologic DMARDs. Treatment with biologics was more frequent in younger age groups in all three diseases, and became more infrequent especially after age >= 55 years. Conclusion In Norway, the combined prevalence of PsA, axSpA, and RA was over 1.5%. Reflecting the good overall access to highly effective but costly biologic treatments, more than a fourth of these patients used biologic agents, which corresponds to over 0.4% of Norwegian adult population.Peer reviewe