3,991 research outputs found
Reproducibility of lymphovascular space invasion (LVSI) assessment in endometrial cancer
Aims Lymphovascular space invasion (LVSI) in endometrial cancer (EC) is an important prognostic variable impacting on a patient's individual recurrence risk and adjuvant treatment recommendations. Recent work has shown that grading the extent of LVSI further improves its prognostic strength in patients with stage I endometrioid EC. Despite this, there is little information on the reproducibility of LVSI assessment in EC. Therefore, we designed a study to evaluate interobserver agreement in discriminating true LVSI from LVSI mimics (Phase I) and reproducibility of grading extent of LVSI (Phase II). Methods and results Scanned haematoxylin and eosin (H&E) slides of endometrioid EC (EEC) with a predefined possible LVSI focus were hosted on a website and assessed by a panel of six European gynaecological pathologists. In Phase I, 48 H&E slides were included for LVSI assessment and in Phase II, 42 H&E slides for LVSI grading. Each observer was instructed to apply the criteria for LVSI used in daily practice. The degree of agreement was measured using the two-way absolute agreement average-measures intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Reproducibility of LVSI assessment (ICC = 0.64, P < 0.001) and LVSI grading (ICC = 0.62, P < 0.001) in EEC was substantial among the observers. Conclusions Given the good reproducibility of LVSI, this study further supports the important role of LVSI in decision algorithms for adjuvant treatment
Investigation of the Domain Wall Fermion Approach to Chiral Gauge Theories on the Lattice
We investigate a recent proposal to construct chiral gauge theories on the
lattice using domain wall fermions. We restrict ourselves to the finite volume
case, in which two domain walls are present, with modes of opposite chirality
on each of them. We couple the chiral fermions on only one of the domain walls
to a gauge field. In order to preserve gauge invariance, we have to add a
scalar field, which gives rise to additional light mirror fermion and scalar
modes. We argue that in an anomaly free model these extra modes would decouple
if our model possesses a so-called strong coupling symmetric phase. However,
our numerical results indicate that such a phase most probably does not exist.
---- Note: 9 Postscript figures are appended as uuencoded compressed tar file.Comment: 27p. Latex; UCSD/PTH 93-28, Wash. U. HEP/93-6
Breakdown of the lattice polaron picture in La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 single crystals
When heated through the magnetic transition at Tc, La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 changes
from a band metal to a polaronic insulator. The Hall constant R_H, through its
activated behavior and sign anomaly, provides key evidence for polaronic
behavior. We use R_H and the Hall mobility to demonstrate the breakdown of the
polaron phase. Above 1.4Tc, the polaron picture holds in detail, while below,
the activation energies of both R_H and the mobility deviate strongly from
their polaronic values. These changes reflect the presence of metallic,
ferromagnetic fluctuations, in the volume of which the Hall effect develops
additional contributions tied to quantal phases.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, final version to appear in Phys. Rev. B Rapi
The bittersweet effects of COVID-19 on mental health:Results of an online survey among a sample of the Dutch population five weeks after relaxation of lockdown restriction
Previous research shows that crises can have both negative and positive mental health effects on the population. The current study explored these effects in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic after relaxation of governmental measures. An online survey was administered among a representative sample of the Dutch population (n = 1519) in June 2020, ten weeks after the peak of COVID-19 had passed, and five weeks after restrictions were relaxed. Participants were asked about mental health, adverse events during COVID-19, and about any positive effects of the pandemic. Most participants (80%, n = 1207) reported no change in mental health since the COVID-19 pandemic. This was also the case among respondents who had experienced an adverse event. Protective factors of mental health were being male and high levels of positive mental well-being. Risk factors were emotional loneliness and the experience of adverse life events. Social loneliness was positively associated with stable mental health, stressing the importance of meaningful relationships. Note that 58% of participants reported positive effects of the pandemic, the most common of which were rest, working from home, and feeling more socially connected. In summary, 10 weeks after the start of the crisis, and 5 weeks after relaxation of the restrictions, most people remained stable during the crisis, and were even able to report positive effects
Universal deformation rings for the symmetric group S_4
Let k be an algebraically closed field of characteristic 2, and let W be the
ring of infinite Witt vectors over k. Let S_4 denote the symmetric group on 4
letters. We determine the universal deformation ring R(S_4,V) for every
kS_4-module V which has stable endomorphism ring k and show that R(S_4,V) is
isomorphic to either k, or W[t]/(t^2,2t), or the group ring W[Z/2]. This gives
a positive answer in this case to a question raised by the first author and
Chinburg whether the universal deformation ring of a representation of a finite
group with stable endomorphism ring k is always isomorphic to a subquotient
ring of the group ring over W of a defect group of the modular block associated
to the representation.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figure
Controlling magnetic skyrmion nucleation with Ga+ ion irradiation
In this paper, we show that magnetic skyrmion nucleation can be controlled
using Ga+ ion irradiation, which manipulates the magnetic interface effects (in
particular the magnetic anisotropy and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction) that
govern the stability and energy cost of skyrmions in thin film systems. We
systematically and quantitatively investigated what effect these changes have
on the nucleation of magnetic skyrmions. Our results indicate that the energy
cost of skyrmion nucleation can be reduced up to 26% in the studied dose range
and that it scales approximately linearly with the square root of the
domain-wall energy density. Moreover, the total number of nucleated skyrmions
in irradiated devices after nucleation was found to depend linearly on the ion
dose and could be doubled compared to nonirradiated devices. These results show
that ion irradiation cannot only be used to enable local nucleation of
skyrmions, but that it also allows for fine control of the threshold and
efficiency of the nucleation process.Comment: Main: 17 pages, 3 figures; Supplemental Material: 7 pages, 5 figure
- âŠ