Semi-leptonic decays heavy-light to heavy light

We present results for the QCD matrix elements involved in semi-leptonic decays of B-mesons into pseudo scalar heavy light states. The application of NRQCD heavy quarks allows for quark masses around the physical b-quark. We investigate the dependence of the form factors on the external momenta and looked at the mass dependence at zero recoil. For the first time, results for radially excited decay products are presented.Comment: 3 pages LaTeX, 5 figures, Talk given at LATTICE99(Heavy Quarks), June 29th to July 3rd, 1999, Pisa, Ital

The active microbial community more accurately reflects the anaerobic digestion process: 16S rRNA (gene) sequencing as a predictive tool

Background: Amplicon sequencing methods targeting the 16S rRNA gene have been used extensively to investigate microbial community composition and dynamics in anaerobic digestion. These methods successfully characterize amplicons but do not distinguish micro-organisms that are actually responsible for the process. In this research, the archaeal and bacterial community of 48 full-scale anaerobic digestion plants were evaluated on DNA (total community) and RNA (active community) level via 16S rRNA (gene) amplicon sequencing. Results: A significantly higher diversity on DNA compared with the RNA level was observed for archaea, but not for bacteria. Beta diversity analysis showed a significant difference in community composition between the DNA and RNA of both bacteria and archaea. This related with 25.5 and 42.3% of total OTUs for bacteria and archaea, respectively, that showed a significant difference in their DNA and RNA profiles. Similar operational parameters affected the bacterial and archaeal community, yet the differentiating effect between DNA and RNA was much stronger for archaea. Co-occurrence networks and functional prediction profiling confirmed the clear differentiation between DNA and RNA profiles. Conclusions: In conclusion, a clear difference in active (RNA) and total (DNA) community profiles was observed, implying the need for a combined approach to estimate community stability in anaerobic digestion

Scaling and Further Tests of Heavy Meson Decay Constant Determinations from Nonrelativistic QCD

We present results for the B_s meson decay constant f_{B_s} from simulations at three lattice spacings in the range a^{-1}=1.1 to 2.6 GeV using NRQCD heavy quarks and clover light quarks in the quenched approximation. We study scaling of this quantity and check the consistency between mesons decaying from rest and from a state with nonzero spatial momentum. The cancellation of power law contributions that arise in the NRQCD formulation of heavy-light currents is discussed. On the coarsest lattice the D_s meson decay constant f_{D_s} is calculated. Our best values for the decay constants are given by f_{B_s} = 187(4)(4)(11)(2)(7)(6) MeV and f_{D_s} = 223(6)(31)(38)(23)(9)(^{+3}_{-1}) MeV.Comment: 29 pages with 7 postscript figures, improved error analysis, version to appear in Physical Review

Critical care provision after colorectal cancer surgery

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the 2nd largest cause of cancer related mortality in the UK with 40 000 new patients being diagnosed each year. Complications of CRC surgery can occur in the perioperative period that leads to the requirement of organ support. The aim of this study was to identify pre-operative risk factors that increased the likelihood of this occurring. Methods: This is a retrospective observational study of all 6441 patients who underwent colorectal cancer surgery within the West of Scotland Region between 2005 and 2011. Logistic regression was employed to determine factors associated with receiving postoperative organ support. Results: A total of 610 (9 %) patients received organ support. Multivariate analysis identified age ≥65, male gender, emergency surgery, social deprivation, heart failure and type II diabetes as being independently associated with organ support postoperatively. After adjusting for demographic and clinical factors, patients with metastatic disease appeared less likely to receive organ support (p = 0.012). Conclusions: Nearly one in ten patients undergoing CRC surgery receive organ support in the post operative period. We identified several risk factors which increase the likelihood of receiving organ support post operatively. This is relevant when consenting patients about the risks of CRC surgery

New results on heavy hadron spectroscopy with NRQCD

We present results for the spectrum of b-bbar bound states in the quenched approximation for three different values of the lattice spacing. Results for spin-independent splittings are shown to have good scaling behaviour; spin-dependent splittings are more sensitive to discretisation effects. We discuss what needs to be done to match the experimental spectrum.Comment: 3 pages, contribution to Lattice'9