Quark mass dependence of the nucleon axial-vector coupling constant

We study the quark mass expansion of the axial-vector coupling constant g_A of the nucleon. The aim is to explore the feasibility of chiral effective field theory methods for extrapolation of lattice QCD results - so far determined at relatively large quark masses corresponding to pion masses larger than 0.6 GeV - down to the physical value of the pion mass. We compare two versions of non-relativistic chiral effective field theory: One scheme restricted to pion and nucleon degrees of freedom only, and an alternative approach which incorporates explicit Delta(1230) resonance degrees of freedom. It turns out that, in order to approach the physical value of g_A in a leading-one-loop calculation, the inclusion of the explicit Delta(1230) degrees of freedom is crucial. With information on important higher order couplings constrained from analyses of inelastic pion production processes, a chiral extrapolation function for g_A is obtained, which works well from the chiral limit across the physical point into the region of present lattice data. The resulting enhancement of our extrapolation function near the physical pion mass is found to arise from an interplay between long- and short- distance physics.Comment: 21 pages, LaTeX, 7 figure

Faking like a woman? Towards an interpretative theorization of sexual pleasure.

This article explores the possibility of developing a feminist approach to gendered and sexual embodiment which is rooted in the pragmatist/interactionist tradition derived from G.H. Mead, but which in turn develops this perspective by inflecting it through more recent feminist thinking. In so doing we seek to rebalance some of the rather abstract work on gender and embodiment by focusing on an instance of 'heterosexual' everyday/night life - the production of the female orgasm. Through engaging with feminist and interactionist work, we develop an approach to embodied sexual pleasure that emphasizes the sociality of sexual practices and of reflexive sexual selves. We argue that sexual practices and experiences must be understood in social context, taking account of the situatedness of sex as well as wider socio-cultural processes the production of sexual desire and sexual pleasure (or their non-production) always entails interpretive, interactional processes

Attitudes toward westbound refugees in the East German press

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/67107/2/10.1177_002200277001400303.pd

Moments of isovector quark distributions from lattice QCD

We present a complete analysis of the chiral extrapolation of lattice moments of all twist-2 isovector quark distributions, including corrections from Nπ and Δπ loops. Even though the Δ resonance formally gives rise to higher order non-analytic structure, the coefficients of the higher order terms for the helicity and transversity moments are large and cancel much of the curvature generated by the wave function renormalization. The net effect is that, whereas the unpolarized moments exhibit considerable curvature, the polarized moments show little deviation from linearity as the chiral limit is approached

Systematic review of the prospective association of daily step counts with risk of mortality, cardiovascular disease, and dysglycemia

Background: Daily step counts is an intuitive metric that has demonstrated success in motivating physical activity in adults and may hold potential for future public health physical activity recommendations. This review seeks to clarify the pattern of the associations between daily steps and subsequent all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality, and dysglycemia, as well as the number of daily steps needed for health outcomes. Methods: A systematic review was conducted to identify prospective studies assessing daily step count measured by pedometer or accelerometer and their associations with all-cause mortality, CVD morbidity or mortality, and dysglycemia (dysglycemia or diabetes incidence, insulin sensitivity, fasting glucose, HbA1c). The search was performed across the Medline, Embase, CINAHL, and the Cochrane Library databases from inception to August 1, 2019. Eligibility criteria included longitudinal design with health outcomes assessed at baseline and subsequent timepoints; defining steps per day as the exposure; reporting all-cause mortality, CVD morbidity or mortality, and/or dysglycemia outcomes; adults ≥18 years old; and non-patient populations. Results: Seventeen prospective studies involving over 30,000 adults were identified. Five studies reported on all-cause mortality (follow-up time 4-10 years), four on cardiovascular risk or events (6 months to 6 years), and eight on dysglycemia outcomes (3 months to 5 years). For each 1000 daily step count increase at baseline, risk reductions in all-cause mortality (6-36%) and CVD (5-21%) at follow-up were estimated across a subsample of included studies. There was no evidence of significant interaction by age, sex, health conditions or behaviors (e.g., alcohol use, smoking status, diet) among studies that tested for interactions. Studies examining dysglycemia outcomes report inconsistent findings, partially due to heterogeneity across studies of glycemia-related biomarker outcomes, analytic approaches, and sample characteristics. Conclusions: Evidence from longitudinal data consistently demonstrated that walking an additional 1000 steps per day can help lower the risk of all-cause mortality, and CVD morbidity and mortality in adults, and that health benefits are present below 10,000 steps per day. However, the shape of the dose-response relation is not yet clear. Data are currently lacking to identify a specific minimum threshold of daily step counts needed to obtain overall health benefit

End-of-life care and rituals in contexts of post-migration diversity in Europe:An introduction

No abstract available