V. The Semiclassical Foldy-Wouthuysen Transformation and the Derivation of the Bloch Equation for Spin-1/2 Polarised Beams Using Wigner Functions

A semiclassical Foldy--Wouthuysen transformation of the Dirac equation is used to obtain the radiationless Bloch equation for the polarisation density.Comment: 7 pages. No figures. Latex. Paper 5 of a set of 5. others are physics/9901038 physics/9901041 physics/9901042 physics/990104

Spin decoherence in electron storage rings --- more from a simple model

This is an addendum to the paper "Some models of spin coherence and decoherence in storage rings" by one of the authors [1] in which spin diffusion in simple electron storage rings is studied. In particular, we illustrate in a compact way, a key implication in the Epilogue of [1], namely that the exact formalism of [1] delivers a rate of depolarisation which can differ from that obtained by the conventional treatments of spin diffusion which rely on the use of the derivative $\partial \hat n/\partial\eta$ [2,3,4]. As a vehicle we consider a ring with a Siberian Snake and electron polarisation in the plane of the ring (Machine II in [1]). For this simple setup with its one-dimensional spin motion, we avoid having to deal directly with the Bloch equation [5,6] for the polarisation density. Our treatment, which is deliberately pedagogical, shows that the use of $\partial \hat n/\partial\eta$ provides a very good approximation to the rate of spin depolarisation in the model considered. But it then shows that the exact rate of depolarisation can be obtained by replacing $\partial \hat n/\partial\eta$ by another derivative as suggested in the Epilogue of [1], while giving a heuristic justification for the new derivative.Comment: 17 page

Michael and Gertrud: art and the artist in the films of Carl Theodor Dreyer

The films of Carl Theodor Dreyer are among the most painterly in cinema. Paintings and painting traditions are referenced throughout Dreyer’s work, and his scenographic space contains numerous paintings and objets d’art. These works play a decorative role, but also a narrative one: they presage and mirror events; they express or catalyse characters and relationships. While characters relate actively to these works of art, interpreting and communicating through them, the films’ narration frequently aestheticises the characters, transforming them into works of art in their own right. Through composition, staging and performance – Dreyer’s tableau style, close-ups of disembodied faces, statue-like poses – characters are compared, and compare themselves, to figures in art, even as they attempt to assert themselves within the diegesis. At once automaton and agent, the characters inhabit an uncertain realm between object and subject, predetermination and free will. From the conflict between these opposing orientations, often manifested through the forced marriage of narrative development and pictorial stasis, Dreyer reveals the dislocations of the human soul. Dreyer’s concern with the narrative possibilities of painting is most evident in Michael (1924), a film about the relationship between two painters, and the director’s most sustained elaboration of his tableau style prior to Gertrud (1964), which it anticipates. Together the two films bookend the major works of Dreyer’s career, while remaining stubbornly on the fringes of greatness, their narrative and stylistic difficulties preventing a wholehearted embrace by most critics. Drawing on Bordwell’s magisterial study of Dreyer, the recent monograph on Gertrud by James Schamus, and notions of the automaton as explored by Deleuze in Cinema 2: The Time-Image, this paper examines the pictorial, narrative and thematic roles played by painting and objets d’art in the two films and situates the films within the context of Dreyer’s oeuvre, paying particular attention to their broader function within the director’s cinematic thought and practice

The creative voice: free indirect speech in the cinema of Rohmer and Bresson

This article examines a particular use of the voice in cinema which conveys character reflexivity and generates expressive ambiguity in a film's narrative point of view. Drawing on Pasolini's notion of the free indirect style and Deleuze's elaboration of this into his concept of the free indirect speech-act, two different creative uses of speech are analysed: one in Rohmer's Claire's Knee (1970) and the other in Bresson's Diary of a Country Priest (1951). The essay finds that when characters narrate their thoughts, feelings, actions or experiences in a reflexive manner (that is, to themselves, even if also to another), and this activity becomes for a time the primary event of the film, these characters step into the role of storyteller. They become both subject and object of their utterances which take on the style of the free indirect. With this, the voice enters into a new relationship with the image – directing, counterpointing, or disconnecting from it – changing the function of voice and image while seeming momentarily to supplant the film's narration. The symbolic nature of language gives words the power to create images and meaning that cannot be captured or conveyed by the camera alone. Privileging speech as a creative force not only dimensionalises character but, on a formal level, creates a role for voice that allows it to exist not as an appendage to the image but for its own sake. In order to suggest practical uses for these theoretical considerations, Bresson's and Rohmer's reflections on the role of the voice are also discussed

Siren song: the narrating voice in two films by Raúl Ruiz

In two documentary-inflected fiction films, The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting (L’Hypothèse du tableau volé, 1979) and the lesser known short, Ice Stories (Histoires de glace, 1987), Raúl Ruiz employs oral narration, both on screen and in voice-over, to lead the viewer into labyrinthine narratives that recall in their baroque complexity the fiction of Jorge Luis Borges. While Borges grounds his stories in the real world through referencing historical times, people and places, and often uses an academic style and form to bestow an air of seriousness and rigour to his conceptual flights of fancy, Ruiz counterpoints the fantastic nature of his stories with documentary devices and images. Combined with articulate and persuasive oral narration, Ruiz creates a unique and mysterious world that marries the real with the fantastic to unsettling effect. This paper explores how Ruiz uses specifically cinematic approaches, such as unusual voice-image juxtapositions and multiple oral narrators to challenge, like Borges before him, accepted notions of time, causality and identity, and how he incorporates other art forms, such as paintings, photographs and the tableau vivant, to interrogate the boundaries of filmic form and style

Space shuttle: Longitudinal and lateral directional stability characteristics of the MDAC high cross range delta wing orbiter

Low speed wind tunnel tests on longitudinal and lateral stability of high cross range delta wing space shuttle

Re-evaluation of HER2 status in metastatic breast cancer and tumor-marker guided therapy with vinorelbine and trastuzumab

Background: HER2 is overexpressed in 20 - 30% of breast cancers. Compared to chemotherapy alone, chemotherapy with trastuzumab improves clinical outcome in patients with HER2- positive metastatic breast cancer ( MBC). In general, HER2 status in a primary lesion predicts the status of metastases, so that biopsy of metastatic lesions appears unnecessary. Case Report: A 39- year old woman was diagnosed with primary breast cancer in November 2000. Using the method and scoring system of the DAKO Hercep Test, the tumor has shown low HER2 expression ( DAKO score 1+). After failure of several chemotherapy regimens for metastatic disease ( liver, skeletal), the patient underwent CT- guided needle biopsy of the liver which showed HER2 positive adenocarcinoma ( DAKO score 3+). In consequence, the patient was treated with vinorelbine ( 30 mg/ m(2) d1,8,15 q4w) and trastuzumab ( 4 mg/ kg loading dose, 2 mg/ kg weekly). During a treatment period of 4 months imaging results as well as tumor marker kinetics indicated an excellent response with sustained decrease of tumor markers. A retrospective analysis of the HER2 shed antigen in metastatic stage revealed excessively increased serum levels and supports HER2 overexpression observed in liver metastasis. The kinetics of the HER2 shed antigen during therapy for metastatic disease were found to be in phase with the kinetics of CEA and CA15- 3. Conclusion: This case report demonstrates that re- evaluation of the HER2 status may be helpful in single patients not sufficiently responding to treatment of metastatic disease. Determination of HER2 overexpression may be facilitated by a determination of the HER2 shed antigen level in peripheral blood

Particle kinetic simulation of high altitude hypervelocity flight

In this grant period, the focus has been on the effects of thermo-chemical nonequilibrium in low-density gases, and on interactions between such gases and solid surfaces. Such conditions apply to hypersonic flows of re-entry vehicles, and to the expansion plumes of small rockets. Due to the nonequilibrium nature of these flows, a particle approach has been adopted. The method continues to undergo refinement and application to typical flows of interest. A number of studies have been performed for flows in thermo-chemical nonequilibrium. The effects of vibrational nonequilibrium on the rate of dissociation were studied for diatomic nitrogen. It was found that a new model reproduced the nonequilibrium behavior observed experimentally