892 research outputs found
A note on the use of reduced transport fluid (RTF) for isolation of Neisseria gonorrhoeae
Swabs containing pus from urethral discharges obtained from 55 male patients attending venereal disease clinics were transported in Stuart's transport medium or RTF (reduced transport fluid) and then cultured on ThayerMartin plates. Forty-eight swabs showed the presence of Neisseria in smears and 45 gave good growth of N. gonorrhoeae when cultured 18 - 24 hours after the swabs were taken from the patient.S. Afr. Med. J., 48, 1195 (1974)
More on the infrared renormalization group limit cycle in QCD
We present a detailed study of the recently conjectured infrared
renormalization group limit cycle in QCD using chiral effective field theory.
It was conjectured that small increases in the up and down quark masses can
move QCD to the critical trajectory for an infrared limit cycle in the
three-nucleon system. At the critical quark masses, the binding energies of the
deuteron and its spin-singlet partner are tuned to zero and the triton has
infinitely many excited states with an accumulation point at the three-nucleon
threshold. We exemplify three parameter sets where this effect occurs at
next-to-leading order in the chiral counting. For one of them, we study the
structure of the three-nucleon system in detail using both chiral and contact
effective field theories. Furthermore, we investigate the matching of the
chiral and contact theories in the critical region and calculate the influence
of the limit cycle on three-nucleon scattering observables.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, discussion improved, results unchanged, version
to appear in EPJ
Body Fixed Frame, Rigid Gauge Rotations and Large N Random Fields in QCD
The "body fixed frame" with respect to local gauge transformations is
introduced. Rigid gauge "rotations" in QCD and their \Sch equation are studied
for static and dynamic quarks. Possible choices of the rigid gauge field
configuration corresponding to a nonvanishing static colormagnetic field in the
"body fixed" frame are discussed. A gauge invariant variational equation is
derived in this frame. For large number N of colors the rigid gauge field
configuration is regarded as random with maximally random probability
distribution under constraints on macroscopic--like quantities. For the uniform
magnetic field the joint probability distribution of the field components is
determined by maximizing the appropriate entropy under the area law constraint
for the Wilson loop. In the quark sector the gauge invariance requires the
rigid gauge field configuration to appear not only as a background but also as
inducing an instantaneous quark-quark interaction. Both are random in the large
N limit.Comment: 29 pages LATEX, Weizmann Institute preprint WIS-93/40/Apr -P
Gene Dosage–limiting Role of Aire in Thymic Expression, Clonal Deletion, and Organ-specific Autoimmunity
Inactivation of the autoimmune regulator (Aire) gene causes a rare recessive disorder, autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome 1 (APS1), but it is not known if Aire-dependent tolerance mechanisms are susceptible to the quantitative genetic changes thought to underlie more common autoimmune diseases. In mice with a targeted mutation, complete loss of Aire abolished expression of an insulin promoter transgene in thymic epithelium, but had no effect in pancreatic islets or the testes. Loss of one copy of Aire diminished thymic expression of the endogenous insulin gene and the transgene, resulting in a 300% increase in islet-reactive CD4 T cells escaping thymic deletion in T cell receptor transgenic mice, and dramatically increased progression to diabetes. Thymic deletion induced by antigen under control of the thyroglobulin promoter was abolished in Aire homozygotes and less efficient in heterozygotes, providing an explanation for thyroid autoimmunity in APS1. In contrast, Aire deficiency had no effect on thymic deletion to antigen controlled by a systemic H-2K promoter. The sensitivity of Aire-dependent thymic deletion to small reductions in function makes this pathway a prime candidate for more subtle autoimmune quantitative trait loci, and suggests that methods to increase Aire activity would be a potent strategy to lower the incidence of organ-specific autoimmunity
Matching functions for heavy particles
We introduce matching functions as a means of summing heavy-quark logarithms
to any order. Our analysis is based on Witten's approach, where heavy quarks
are decoupled one at a time in a mass-independent renormalization scheme. The
outcome is a generalization of the matching conditions of Bernreuther and
Wetzel: we show how to derive closed formulas for summed logarithms to any
order, and present explicit expressions for leading order and next-to-leading
order contributions. The decoupling of heavy quarks in theories lacking
asymptotic freedom is also considered.Comment: Revised version to be published in Physical Review D; added section
with application to decoupling of heavy particles in non-asymptotically free
theorie
The Pole Mass of The Heavy Quark. Perturbation Theory and Beyond
The key quantity of the heavy quark theory is the quark mass . Since
quarks are unobservable one can suggest different definitions of . One of
the most popular choices is the pole quark mass routinely used in perturbative
calculations and in some analyses based on heavy quark expansions. We show that
no precise definition of the pole mass can be given in the full theory once
non-perturbative effects are included. Any definition of this quantity suffers
from an intrinsic uncertainty of order \Lam /m_Q. This fact is succinctly
described by the existence of an infrared renormalon generating a factorial
divergence in the high-order coefficients of the series; the
corresponding singularity in the Borel plane is situated at . A
peculiar feature is that this renormalon is not associated with the matrix
element of a local operator. The difference \La \equiv M_{H_Q}-m_Q^{pole} can
still be defined in Heavy Quark Effective Theory, but only at the price of
introducing an explicit dependence on a normalization point : \La (\mu
). Fortunately the pole mass {\em per se} does not appear in
calculable observable quantities.Comment: 22 pages, Latex, 6 figures (available upon request), TPI-MINN-94/4-T,
CERN-TH.7171/94, UND-HEP-94-BI
The Hyperfine Spin Splittings In Heavy Quarkonia
The hyperfine spin splittings in heavy quarkonia are studied using the
recently developed renormalization group improved spin-spin potential which is
independent of the scale parameter . The calculated energy difference
between the and the fits the experimental data well, while
the predicted energy difference between the center of the gravity
of states and the state of charmonium has the correct
sign but is somewhat larger than the experimental data. This is not surprising
since there are several other contributions to , which we discuss,
that are of comparable size ( MeV) that should be included, before
precise agreement with the data can be expected. The mass differences of the
, , , and
are also predicted.Comment: 17 page
The (LATTICE) QCD Potential and Running Coupling: How to Accurately Interpolate between Multi-Loop QCD and the String Picture
We present a simple parameterization of a running coupling constant, defined
via the static potential, that interpolates between 2-loop QCD in the UV and
the string prediction in the IR. Besides the usual \Lam-parameter and the
string tension, the coupling depends on one dimensionless parameter,
determining how fast the crossover from UV to IR behavior occurs (in principle
we know how to take into account any number of loops by adding more
parameters). Using a new Ansatz for the LATTICE potential in terms of the
continuum coupling, we can fit quenched and unquenched Monte Carlo results for
the potential down to ONE lattice spacing, and at the same time extract the
running coupling to high precision. We compare our Ansatz with 1-loop results
for the lattice potential, and use the coupling from our fits to quantitatively
check the accuracy of 2-loop evolution, compare with the Lepage-Mackenzie
estimate of the coupling extracted from the plaquette, and determine Sommer's
scale much more accurately than previously possible. For pure SU(3) we
find that the coupling scales on the percent level for .Comment: 47 pages, incl. 4 figures in LaTeX [Added remarks on correlated vs.
uncorrelated fits in sect. 4; corrected misprints; updated references.
In search of the QCD-Gravity correspondence
Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) is the fundamental theory of strong
interactions. It describes the behavior of quarks and gluons which are the
smallest known constituents of nuclear matter. The difficulties in solving the
theory at low energies in the strongly interacting, non-perturbative regime
have left unanswered many important questions in QCD, such as the nature of
confinement or the mechanism of hadronization. In these lectures oriented
towards the students we introduce two classes of dualities that attempt to
reproduce many of the features of QCD, while making the treatment at strong
coupling more tractable: (1) the AdS/CFT correspondence between a specific
class of string theories and a conformal field theory and (2) an effective
low-energy theory of QCD dual to classical QCD on a curved conformal
gravitational background. The hope is that by applying these dualities to the
evaluation of various properties of the strongly-interacting matter produced in
heavy ion collisions one can understand how QCD behaves at strong coupling. We
give an outline of the applications, with emphasis on two transport
coefficients of QCD matter -- shear and bulk viscosities.Comment: 31 pages, 7 figures; Lectures delivered by D. Kharzeev at the
International QGP Winter School, Jaipur, India, February 1-3, 200
Genomic analyses of hair from Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) remains among the most influential and popular classical music composers. Health problems significantly impacted his career as a composer and pianist, including progressive hearing loss, recurring gastrointestinal complaints, and liver disease. In 1802, Beethoven requested that following his death, his disease be described and made public. Medical biographers have since proposed numerous hypotheses, including many substantially heritable conditions. Here we attempt a genomic analysis of Beethoven in order to elucidate potential underlying genetic and infectious causes of his illnesses. We incorporated improvements in ancient DNA methods into existing protocols for ancient hair samples, enabling the sequencing of high-coverage genomes from small quantities of historical hair. We analyzed eight independently sourced locks of hair attributed to Beethoven, five of which originated from a single European male. We deemed these matching samples to be almost certainly authentic and sequenced Beethoven\u27s genome to 24-fold genomic coverage. Although we could not identify a genetic explanation for Beethoven\u27s hearing disorder or gastrointestinal problems, we found that Beethoven had a genetic predisposition for liver disease. Metagenomic analyses revealed furthermore that Beethoven had a hepatitis B infection during at least the months prior to his death. Together with the genetic predisposition and his broadly accepted alcohol consumption, these present plausible explanations for Beethoven\u27s severe liver disease, which culminated in his death. Unexpectedly, an analysis of Y chromosomes sequenced from five living members of the Van Beethoven patrilineage revealed the occurrence of an extra-pair paternity event in Ludwig van Beethoven\u27s patrilineal ancestry
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