349 research outputs found
String splitting and strong coupling meson decay
We study the decay of high spin mesons using the gauge/string theory
correspondence. The rate of the process is calculated by studying the splitting
of a macroscopic string intersecting a D-brane. The result is applied to the
decay of mesons in N=4 SYM with a small number of flavors and in a gravity dual
of large N QCD. In QCD the decay of high spin mesons is found to be heavily
suppressed in the regime of validity of the supergravity description.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figures. V2: References added. V3: Minor correction
Longitudinal Changes in Health-Related Quality of Life in Primary Glomerular Disease: Results From the CureGN Study
© 2020 Introduction: Prior cross-sectional studies suggest that health-related quality of life (HRQOL) worsens with more severe glomerular disease. This longitudinal analysis was conducted to assess changes in HRQOL with changing disease status. Methods: Cure Glomerulonephropathy (CureGN) is a cohort of patients with minimal change disease, focal seNorthwell Healthntal glomerulosclerosis, membranous nephropathy, IgA vasculitis, or IgA nephropathy. HRQOL was assessed at enrollment and follow-up visits 1 to 3 times annually for up to 5 years with the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS). Global health, anxiety, and fatigue domains were measured in all; mobility was measured in children; and sleep-related impairment was measured in adults. Linear mixed effects models were used to evaluate HRQOL responsiveness to changes in disease status. Results: A total of 469 children and 1146 adults with PROMIS scores were included in the analysis. HRQOL improved over time in nearly all domains, though group-level changes were modest. Edema was most consistently associated with worse HRQOL across domains among children and adults. A greater number of symptoms also predicted worse HRQOL in all domains. Sex, age, obesity, and serum albumin were associated with some HRQOL domains. The estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) was only associated with fatigue and adult physical health; proteinuria was not associated with any HRQOL domain in adjusted models. Conclusion: HRQOL measures were responsive to changes in disease activity, as indicated by edema. HRQOL over time was not predicted by laboratory-based markers of disease. Patient-reported edema and number of symptoms were the strongest predictors of HRQOL, highlighting the importance of the patient experience in glomerular disease. HRQOL outcomes inform understanding of the patient experience for children and adults with glomerular diseases
A Wave-function for Stringy Universes
We define a wave-function for string theory cosmological backgrounds. We give
a prescription for computing its norm following an earlier analysis within
general relativity. Under Euclidean continuation, the cosmologies we discuss in
this paper are described in terms of compact parafermionic worldsheet systems.
To define the wave-function we provide a T-fold description of the
parafermionic conformal field theory, and of the corresponding string
cosmology. In specific examples, we compute the norm of the wave-function and
comment on its behavior as a function of moduli.Comment: 30 pages, 3 figures, v3: references adde
Topological Cigar and the c=1 String : Open and Closed
We clarify some aspects of the map between the c=1 string theory at self-dual
radius and the topologically twisted cigar at level one. We map the ZZ and FZZT
D-branes in the c=1 string theory at self dual radius to the localized and
extended branes in the topological theory on the cigar. We show that the open
string spectrum on the branes in the two theories are in correspondence with
each other, and their two point correlators are equal. We also find a
representation of an extended N=2 algebra on the worldsheet which incorporates
higher spin currents in terms of asymptotic variables on the cigar.Comment: 37 pages, 2 figures, corrections to section 3.1, references adde
Religion and religious education : comparing and contrasting pupilsâ and teachersâ views in an English school
This publication builds on and develops the English findings of the qualitative study of European teenagersâ perspectives on religion and religious education (Knauth et al. 2008), part of âReligion in Education: A contribution to dialogue or a factor of conflict in transforming societies of European countries?â (REDCo) project. It uses data gathered from 27 pupils, aged 15-16, from a school in a multicultural Northern town in England and compares those findings with data gathered from ten teachers in the humanities faculty of the same school, collected during research for the Warwick REDCo Community of Practice. Comparisons are drawn between the teachersâ and their pupilsâ attitudes and values using the same structure as the European study: personal views and experiences of religion, the social dimension of religion, and religious education in school. The discussion offers an analysis of the similarities and differences in worldviews and beliefs which emerged. These include religious commitment/observance differences between the mainly Muslim-heritage pupils and their mainly non-practising Christian-heritage teachers. The research should inform the ways in which the statutory duties to promote community cohesion and equalities can be implemented in schools. It should also facilitate intercultural and interreligious understanding between teachers and the pupils from different ethnic and religious backgrounds
On the Lagrangian Realization of Non-Critical -Strings
A large class of non-critical string theories with extended worldsheet gauge
symmetry are described by two coupled, gauged Wess-Zumino-Witten Models. We
give a detailed analysis of the gauge invariant action and in particular the
gauge fixing procedure and the resulting BRST symmetries. The results are
applied to the example of strings.Comment: 19 pages, LaTeX (REVTEX macro's
Text Messaging for Disease Monitoring in Childhood Nephrotic Syndrome
© 2019 International Society of Nephrology Introduction: There is limited information on effective disease monitoring for prompt interventions in childhood nephrotic syndrome. We examined the feasibility and effectiveness of a novel text messaging system (SMS) for disease monitoring in a multicenter, prospective study. Methods: A total of 127 patients results, symptoms, and medication adherence were sent to a designated caregiver (n = 116) or adolescent patient (n = 3). Participants responded by texting. Feasibility of SMS was assessed by SMS adoption, retention, and engagement, and concordance between participant-reported results and laboratory/clinician assessments. The number of disease relapses and time-to-remission data captured by SMS were compared with data collected by conventional visits. Results: A total of 119 of 127 (94%) patients agreed to SMS monitoring. Retention rate was 94%, with a median follow-up of 360 days (interquartile range [IQR] 353â362). Overall engagement was high, with a median response rate of 87% (IQR, 68â97). Concordance between SMS-captured home urine protein results and edema status with same-day in-person study visit was excellent (kappa values 0.88 and 0.92, respectively). SMS detected a total of 108 relapse events compared with 41 events captured by scheduled visits. Median time to remission after enrollment was 22 days as captured by SMS versus 50 days as captured by scheduled visits. Conclusion: SMS was well accepted by caregivers and adolescent patients and reliably captured nephrotic syndrome disease activity between clinic visits. Additional studies are needed to explore the impact of SMS on disease outcomes
National societies' needs as assessed by the ESTRO National Societies Committee survey: A European perspective
Purpose: To determine how ESTRO can collaborate with Radiation Oncology National Societies (NS) according to its mission and values, and to define the new roadmap to strengthen the NS network role in the forthcoming years. Materials and methods: The ESTRO NS committee launched a survey addressed to all European National Societies, available online from June 5th to October 30th 2018. Questions were divided into three main sections: (1) general information about NS; (2) relevant activities (to understand the landscape of each NS context of action); (3) relevant needs (to understand how ESTRO can support the NS). Eighty-nine European NS were invited to participate. Respondents were asked to rank ESTRO milestones in order of importance, indicating the level of priority to their society. Results: A total of 58 out of 89 NS (65.2%) from 31 European countries completed the questionnaire. The majority of NS ranked âOptimal patient care to cure cancer and to reduce treatment-related toxicityâ as the highest level of priority. This aligns well with the ESTRO vision 2030 âOptimal health for all together.â NS also indicated a high need for more consensus guidelines and exchange of best practices, access to high quality accredited education, implementation of the ESTRO School Core Curriculum at the national level, and defining quality indicators and standard in Radiation Oncology, improved communication and increased channelling of information. Conclusion: The results of this survey will be used to strengthen the relations between ESTRO and European NS to promote and develop initiatives to improve cancer care
Mesoscopic Klein-Schwinger effect in graphene
Strong electric field annihilation by particle-antiparticle pair creation,
described in detail by Sauter and Schwinger, is a basic non-perturbative
prediction of quantum electrodynamics. Its experimental demonstration remains
elusive as Schwinger fields are beyond reach even for the light
electron-positron pairs. Here we put forward a mesoscopic variant of the
Schwinger effect in graphene, which hosts Dirac fermions with electron-hole
symmetry. Using DC transport and RF noise, we report on universal 1d-Schwinger
conductance at the pinch-off of ballistic graphene transistors. Strong
pinch-off electric fields are concentrated in a length at the transistor drain, and induce Schwinger e-h pair
creation at saturation, for a Schwinger voltage on the order
of the pinch-off voltage. This Klein-Schwinger effect (KSE) precedes an
instability toward an ohmic Zener regime, which is rejected at twice the
pinch-off voltage in long devices. The KSE not only gives clues to current
saturation limits in ballistic graphene, but also opens new routes for quantum
electrodynamic experiments in the laboratory.Comment: 32 pages, 11 figures, updated to include the link to the set of
experimental data on the Zenodo deposit at DOI 10.5281/zenodo.710463
Inside the Horizon with AdS/CFT
Using the eternal BTZ black hole as a concrete example, we show how spacelike
singularities and horizons can be described in terms of AdS/CFT amplitudes. Our
approach is based on analytically continuing amplitudes defined in Euclidean
signature. This procedure yields finite Lorentzian amplitudes. The naive
divergences associated with the Milne type singularity of BTZ are regulated by
an prescription inherent in the analytic continuation and a
cancellation between future and past singularities.
The boundary description corresponds to a tensor product of two CFTs in an
entangled state, as in previous work. We give two bulk descriptions
corresponding to two different analytic continuations. In the first, only
regions outside the horizon appear explicitly, and so amplitudes are manifestly
finite. In the second, regions behind the horizon and on both sides of the
singularity appear, thus yielding finite amplitudes for virtual particles
propagating through the black hole singularity. This equivalence between
descriptions only outside and both inside and outside the horizon is
reminiscent of the ideas of black hole complementarity.Comment: 31 pages, 6 figure
- âŠ