Note on CKM Matrix Renormalization

A simple inspection of the one loop quark self-energy suggests a prescription of the CKM matrix renormalization in the standard model. It leads to a CKM matrix counterterm which is gauge parameter independent and satisfies the unitarity constraint, and renormalized physical amplitudes which are gauge parameter independent and smooth in quark mass difference. We make a point that caution should be practiced when interpreting the CKM martix counterterm in terms of those of parameters in a given representation due to rephasing effects from renormalization. We show how this can be done using the degrees of freedom in the on-shell renormalization scheme.Comment: version 1: 10 pages, no figures; version 2: proofread version for Phys Rev D with minor revisions: (1) divided into 3 sections; (2) added a footnote Comment on Ref. [8] as Ref. item [13]; (3) typos fixed and minor rewordin

Weblog patterns and human dynamics with decreasing interest

Weblog is the fourth way of network exchange after Email, BBS and MSN. Most bloggers begin to write blogs with great interest, and then their interests gradually achieve a balance with the passage of time. In order to describe the phenomenon that people's interest in something gradually decreases until it reaches a balance, we first propose the model that describes the attenuation of interest and reflects the fact that people's interest becomes more stable after a long time. We give a rigorous analysis on this model by non-homogeneous Poisson processes. Our analysis indicates that the interval distribution of arrival-time is a mixed distribution with exponential and power-law feature, that is, it is a power law with an exponential cutoff. Second, we collect blogs in ScienceNet.cn and carry on empirical studies on the interarrival time distribution. The empirical results agree well with the analytical result, obeying a special power law with the exponential cutoff, that is, a special kind of Gamma distribution. These empirical results verify the model, providing an evidence for a new class of phenomena in human dynamics. In human dynamics there are other distributions, besides power-law distributions. These findings demonstrate the variety of human behavior dynamics.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure

The effects of a 12-Month weight loss intervention on cognitive outcomes in adults with overweight and obesity

Obesity is associated with poorer executive functioning and reward sensitivity. Yet, we know very little about whether weight loss through diet and/or increased exercise engagement improves cognitive function. This study evaluated whether weight loss following a dietary and exercise intervention was associated with improved cognitive performance. We enrolled 125 middle-aged adults with overweight and obesity (98 female) into a 12-month behavioral weight loss intervention. Participants were assigned to one of three groups: energy-restricted diet alone, an energy-restricted diet plus 150 min of moderate intensity exercise per week or an energy restricted diet plus 250 min of exercise per week. All participants completed tests measuring executive functioning and/or reward sensitivity, including the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). Following the intervention, weight significantly decreased in all groups. A MANCOVA controlling for age, sex and race revealed a significant multivariate effect of group on cognitive changes. Post-hoc ANCOVAs revealed a Group x Time interaction only on IGT reward sensitivity, such that the high exercise group improved their performance relative to the other two intervention groups. Post-hoc ANCOVAs also revealed a main effect of Time, independent of intervention group, on IGT net payoff score. Changes in weight were not associated with other changes in cognitive performance. Engaging in a high amount of exercise improved reward sensitivity above and beyond weight loss alone. This suggests that there is additional benefit to adding exercise into behavioral weight loss regimens on executive functioning, even without additional benefit to weight loss

Search for anomalous top-gluon couplings at LHC revisited

Through top-quark pair productions at LHC, we study possible effects of nonstandard top-gluon couplings yielded by SU(3)xSU(2)xU(1) invariant dimension-6 effective operators. We calculate the total cross section and also some distributions for p p -> t tbar X as functions of two anomalous-coupling parameters, i.e., the chromoelectric and chromomagnetic moments of the top, which are constrained by the total cross section sigma(p pbar -> t tbar X) measured at Tevatron. We find that LHC might give us some chances to observe sizable effects induced by those new couplings.Comment: One comment and related two refs. added. Final version (to appear in Eur.Phys.J. C

Rapid decline in estimated glomerular filtration rate in sickle cell anemia: Results of a multicenter pooled analysis

Chronic kidney disease (CKD), typically defined as kidney damage or decreased kidney function for 3 or more months, is common in sickle cell disease (SCD). Increasing evidence suggests that the glomerulopathy of SCD is progressive. CKD is associated with increased mortality in SCD. Based on single center studies, we previously reported on the high prevalence of rapid decline in kidney function, defined as estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) loss >3.0 mL/min/1.73 m2per year, in SCD. In the present study, we further examine rapid eGFR decline in sickle cell anemia, using a pooled analysis of patients to better characterize factors associated with such decline and its association with mortality

Covariant description of inelastic electron--deuteron scattering:predictions of the relativistic impulse approximation

Using the covariant spectator theory and the transversity formalism, the unpolarized, coincidence cross section for deuteron electrodisintegration, $d(e,e'p)n$, is studied. The relativistic kinematics are reviewed, and simple theoretical formulae for the relativistic impulse approximation (RIA) are derived and discussed. Numerical predictions for the scattering in the high $Q^2$ region obtained from the RIA and five other approximations are presented and compared. We conclude that measurements of the unpolarized coincidence cross section and the asymmetry $A_\phi$, to an accuracy that will distinguish between different theoretical models, is feasible over most of the wide kinematic range accessible at Jefferson Lab.Comment: 54 pages and 24 figure

Longitudinal study of glomerular hyperfiltration in adults with sickle cell anemia: a multicenter pooled analysis

Glomerular hyperfiltration is common in young sickle cell anemia patients and precedes development of overt kidney disease. In this multicenter pooled cohort, we characterized hyperfiltration and its decline to normal range in adult patients. Glomerular filtration rate (GFR) was estimated using the creatinine-based 2009 CKD-EPI (Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration) equation omitting race adjustment and the 2021 CKD-EPI equation. Using CKD-EPI–2009, 506 patients had baseline estimated GFR (eGFR) $90 mL/min per 1.73 m2, median age of 24 (interquartile range [IQR], 19-34) years and 5.17 years of follow-up. The prevalence of hyperfiltration (eGFR$140 and $130 mL/min per 1.73 m2 for men and women, respectively) was 38.3%. Using CKD-EPI–2009, baseline hyperfiltration was less likely with older age (odds ratio [OR], 0.78; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.73-0.83; P, .0001), male sex (OR, 0.32; 95% CI, 0.18-0.58; P 5 .0002), and higher weight (OR, 0.96; 95% CI, 0.94-0.99; P 5 .001). Using CKD-EPI–2021, hyperfiltration was similarly less likely with older age (OR, 0.75; 95% CI, 0.70-0.81; P, .0001), male sex (OR, 0.24; 95% CI, 0.13-0.44; P, .0001), and higher weight (OR, 0.97; 95% CI, 0.95-0.99; P 5 .004). In patients with baseline hyperfiltration, eGFR declined to normal values at a median age of 26.2 years. Using CKD-EPI–2009, this decline was associated with male sex (HR, 2.20; 95% CI, 1.26-3.87; P 5 .006), systolic blood pressure (hazard ratio [HR], 1.02; 95% CI, 1.01-1.04; P 5 .01), and hydroxyurea use (HR, 1.74; 95% CI, 1.002-3.03; P 5 .05). Using CKD-EPI–2021, decline of eGFR to normal was only associated with male sex (HR, 3.39; 95% CI, 2.01-5.69; P, .0001). Decline to normal eGFR range from hyperfiltration occurs earlier in males, those on hydroxyurea, and with higher systolic blood pressure

Ordering and Fluctuation of Orbital and Lattice Distortion in Perovskite Manganese Oxides

Roles of orbital and lattice degrees of freedom in strongly correlated systems are investigated to understand electronic properties of perovskite Mn oxides such as La_{1-x}Sr_{x}MnO_{3}. An extended double-exchange model containing Coulomb interaction, doubly degenerate orbitals and Jahn-Teller coupling is derived under full polarization of spins with two-dimensional anisotropy. Quantum fluctuation effects of Coulomb interaction and orbital degrees of freedom are investigated by using the quantum Monte Carlo method. In undoped states, it is crucial to consider both the Coulomb interaction and the Jahn-Teller coupling in reproducing characteristic hierarchy of energy scales among charge, orbital-lattice and spin degrees of freedom in experiments. Our numerical results quantitatively reproduce the charge gap amplitude as well as the stabilization energy and the amplitude of the cooperative Jahn-Teller distortion in undoped compounds. Upon doping of carriers, in the absence of the Jahn-Teller distortion, critical enhancement of both charge compressibility and orbital correlation length is found with decreasing doping concentration. These are discussed as origins of strong incoherence in charge dynamics. With the Jahn-Teller coupling in the doped region, collapse of the Jahn-Teller distortion and instability to phase separation are obtained and favorably compared with experiments. These provide a possible way to understand the complicated properties of lightly doped manganites.Comment: 22 pages RevTeX including 25 PS figures, submitted to Phys.Rev.B, replaced version; two figures are replaced by Fig.17 with minor changes in the tex

Classical Yang-Mills Black hole hair in anti-de Sitter space

The properties of hairy black holes in Einstein–Yang–Mills (EYM) theory are reviewed, focusing on spherically symmetric solutions. In particular, in asymptotically anti-de Sitter space (adS) stable black hole hair is known to exist for frak su(2) EYM. We review recent work in which it is shown that stable hair also exists in frak su(N) EYM for arbitrary N, so that there is no upper limit on how much stable hair a black hole in adS can possess

Topologies and Laplacian spectra of a deterministic uniform recursive tree

The uniform recursive tree (URT) is one of the most important models and has been successfully applied to many fields. Here we study exactly the topological characteristics and spectral properties of the Laplacian matrix of a deterministic uniform recursive tree, which is a deterministic version of URT. Firstly, from the perspective of complex networks, we determine the main structural characteristics of the deterministic tree. The obtained vigorous results show that the network has an exponential degree distribution, small average path length, power-law distribution of node betweenness, and positive degree-degree correlations. Then we determine the complete Laplacian spectra (eigenvalues) and their corresponding eigenvectors of the considered graph. Interestingly, all the Laplacian eigenvalues are distinct.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figures, definitive version accepted for publication in EPJ