4,204 research outputs found
Strong Decays of Strange Quarkonia
In this paper we evaluate strong decay amplitudes and partial widths of
strange mesons (strangeonia and kaonia) in the 3P0 decay model. We give
numerical results for all energetically allowed open-flavor two-body decay
modes of all nsbar and ssbar strange mesons in the 1S, 2S, 3S, 1P, 2P, 1D and
1F multiplets, comprising strong decays of a total of 43 resonances into 525
two-body modes, with 891 numerically evaluated amplitudes. This set of
resonances includes all strange qqbar states with allowed strong decays
expected in the quark model up to ca. 2.2 GeV. We use standard nonrelativistic
quark model SHO wavefunctions to evaluate these amplitudes, and quote numerical
results for all amplitudes present in each decay mode. We also discuss the
status of the associated experimental candidates, and note which states and
decay modes would be especially interesting for future experimental study at
hadronic, e+e- and photoproduction facilities. These results should also be
useful in distinguishing conventional quark model mesons from exotica such as
glueballs and hybrids through their strong decays.Comment: 69 pages, 5 figures, 39 table
The Use of Massive Endoprostheses for the Treatment of Bone Metastases
Purpose. We report a series of 58 patients with metastatic bone disease treated with resection and endoprosthetic reconstruction over a five-year period at our institution. Introduction. The recent advances in adjuvant and neoadjuvant therapy in cancer treatment have resulted in improved prognosis of patients with bone metastases. Most patients who have either an actual or impending pathological fracture should have operative stabilisation or reconstruction. Endoprosthetic reconstructions are indicated in patients with extensive bone loss, failed conventional reconstructions, and selected isolated metastases. Methods and Results. We identified all patients who were diagnosed with metastatic disease to bone between 1999 and 2003. One hundred and seventy-one patients were diagnosed with bone metastases. Metastatic breast and renal cancer accounted for 84 lesions (49%). Fifty-eight patients with isolated bone metastasis to the appendicular skeleton had an endoprosthetic reconstruction. There were 28 males and 30
females. Twelve patients had an endoprosthesis in the upper extremity and 46 patients had an endoprosthesis in the lower extremity. The mean age at presentation was 62 years (24 to 88). At the time of writing, 19 patients are still alive, 34 patients have died, and 5 have been lost to follow up. Patients were followed up and evaluated using the musculoskeletal society tumour score (MSTS) and the Toronto extremity salvage score (TESS). The mean MSTS was 73% (57% to 90%) and TESS was 71% (46% to 95%). Mean follow-up was 48.2 months (range 27 to 82 months) and patients died of disease at a mean of 22 months (2 to 51 months) from surgery. Complications included 5 superficial wound infections, 1 aseptic loosening, 4 dislocations, 1 subluxation, and 1 case, where the tibial component of a prosthesis rotated requiring open repositioning. Conclusions. We conclude that endoprosthetic replacement for the treatment of isolated bone metastases is a reliable method of limb reconstruction in selected cases. It is associated with low complication and failure rates in our series, and achieves the aims of restoring function, allowing early weight bearing and alleviating pain
Who uses NHS health checks? Investigating the impact of ethnicity and gender and method of invitation on uptake of NHS health checks
Background
NHS Health Checks is a national risk assessment prevention programme for all individuals aged 40-74 that reside in England. Through the systematic assessment of an individualâs ten year disease risk, this programme aims to provide early identification and subsequent management of this risk. However, there is limited evidence on how socio-demographic factors impact on uptake and what influence the invitation method has on uptake to this programme.
Methods
NHS Health Check data from April 2013 to March 2014 was analysed (Nâ=â50,485) for all 30 GP Practices in Luton, a culturally diverse town in England, UK. Data was collected for age, ethnicity, uptake (attendance and non attendance) and invitation method (letter written, verbal face-to-face, telephone). Actual usage of NHS Health Checks was determined for each ethnic group of the population and compared using Chi-square analysis.
Results
The overall uptake rate for Luton was 44 %, markedly lower that the set target of 50â75 %. The findings revealed a variation of uptake in relation to age, gender, level of deprivation. Ethnicity and gender variations were also found, with âWhite Britishâ âBlack Caribbeanâ and âIndianâ patients most likely to take up a NHS Health Check.
However, patients from âAny Other White Backgroundâ and âBlack Africanâ were significantly less likely to uptake an NHS Health Check compared to all other ethnic groups. Ethnicity and gender differences were also noted in relation to invitation method.
Conclusions
The findings revealed that different invitation methods were effective for different ethnic and gender groups. Therefore, it is suggested that established protocols of invitation are specifically designed for maximizing the response rate for each population group. Future research should now focus on uncovering the barriers to uptake in particular culturally diverse population groups to determine how public health teams can better engage with these communities
Resonant Two-body D Decays
The contribution of a resonance to is
calculated by applying the soft pion theorem to , and is
found to be about 30% of the measured amplitude and to be larger than the
component of this amplitude. We estimate a 70% contribution to
the total amplitude from a higher resonance. This implies large
deviations from factorization in D decay amplitudes, a lifetime difference
between D^0 and D^+, and an enhancement of mixing due to SU(3)
breaking.Comment: To be published in Physical Review Letters, some corrections,
references update
A partial wave analysis of the centrally produced K+K- and K0K0 systems in pp interactions at 450 GeV/c and new information on the spin of the fJ(1710)
A partial wave analysis of the centrally produced K+K- and K0K0 channels has
been performed in pp collisions using an incident beam momentum of 450 GeV/c.
An unambiguous physical solution has been found in each channel. The striking
feature is the observation of peaks in the S-wave corresponding to the f0(1500)
and fJ(1710) with J = 0. The D-wave shows evidence for the f2(1270)/a2(1320),
the f2(1525) and the f2(2150) but there is no evidence for a statistically
significant contribution in the D-wave in the 1.7 GeV mass region.Comment: 15 pages, Latex, 5 Figure
Observation of B+ -> K+ eta gamma
We report measurements of radiative B decays with K eta gamma final states,
using a data sample of 253 /fb recorded at the Upsilon(4S) resonance with the
Belle detector at the KEKB e+e- storage ring. We observe B+ -> K+ eta gamma for
the first time with a branching fraction of (8.4 +- 1.5(stat) +1.2 -0.9(syst))
X 10^{-6} for M(Keta) K0 eta gamma.
We also search for B -> K3*(1780) gamma.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, accepted by Phys. Lett.
Detecting very-high-frequency relic gravitational waves by electromagnetic wave polarizations in a waveguide
The polarization vector (PV) of an electromagnetic wave (EW) will experience
a rotation in a region of spacetime perturbed by gravitational waves (GWs).
Based on this idea, Cruise's group has built an annular waveguide to detect
GWs. We give detailed calculations of the rotations of the polarization vector
of an EW caused by incident GWs from various directions and in various
polarization states, and then analyze the accumulative effects on the
polarization vector when the EW passes n cycles along the annular waveguide. We
reexamine the feasibility and limitation of this method to detect GWs of high
frequency around 100 MHz, in particular, the relic gravitational waves (RGWs).
By comparing the spectrum of RGWs in the accelerating universe with the
detector sensitivity of the current waveguide, it is found that the amplitude
of the RGWs is too low to be detected by the waveguide detectors currently
running. Possible ways of improvements on detection are discussed also.Comment: 18pages, 10 figures, accepted by ChJA
The geographies of access to enterprise finance: the case of the West Midlands, UK
The geographies of access to enterprise finance: the case of the West Midlands, UK, Regional Studies. Whilst there is a long history of credit rationing to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK, the financial crisis has seen banks retreat further from lending to viable SMEs due to a reassessment of risk and lack of available capital. In so doing, the credit crunch is thought to be creating new geographies of financial exclusion. This paper explores the financial inclusion of enterprise through community development finance institutions (CDFIs) which provide loan finance to firms at the commercial margins in the West Midlands, UK. The paper concludes that CDFIs could partially address the financial exclusion of enterprise as an additional, alternative source of finance to that of mainstream banks
The Electromagnetic Mass Differences of Pions and Kaons
We use the Cottingham method to calculate the pion and kaon electromagnetic
mass differences with as few model dependent inputs as possible. The
constraints of chiral symmetry at low energy, QCD at high energy and
experimental data in between are used in the dispersion relation. We find
excellent agreement with experiment for the pion mass difference. The kaon mass
difference exhibits a strong violation of the lowest order prediction of
Dashen's theorem, in qualitative agreement with several other recent
calculations.Comment: 40 pages, Latex, needs axodraw. and psfig. macros, 4 figure
The K^*_0(800) scalar resonance from Roy-Steiner representations of pi K scattering
We discuss the existence of the light scalar meson K^*_0(800) (also called
kappa) in a rigorous way, by showing the presence of a pole in the pi K --> pi
K amplitude on the second Riemann sheet. For this purpose, we study the domain
of validity of two classes of Roy-Steiner representations in the complex energy
plane. We prove that one of them is valid in a region sufficiently broad in the
imaginary direction. From this representation, we compute the l=0 partial wave
in the complex plane with neither additional approximation nor model
dependence, relying only on experimental data. A scalar resonance with
strangeness S=1 is found with the following mass and width: E_kappa = 658 \pm
13 MeV and Gamma_kappa = 557 \pm 24 MeV.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures. Domain of validity of a Roy-Steiner
representation corrected and enlarged, and features of the K^*_0(800) pole
discussed in more details. Conclusions unchange
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