HELAC-PHEGAS: automatic computation of helicity amplitudes and cross sections

HELAC-PHEGAS is a FORTRAN based package that is able to compute automatically and efficiently tree-order helicity amplitudes and cross sections for arbitrary scattering processes within the standard electroweak theory and QCD. The algorithm for the amplitude computation, HELAC, exploits the virtues of the Dyson-Schwinger equations. The phase-space generation algorithm, PHEGAS, constructs all possible kinematical mappings dictated by the amplitude under consideration. Combined with mutichannel self-optimized Monte Carlo integration it results to efficient cross section evaluation.Comment: 4 pages, LaTeX, to appear in the proceedings of the VII International Workshop on Advanced Computing and Analysis Technics in Physics Research, ACAT 2000, Fermilab, October 16-20, 200

Efficacy and safety of prucalopride in the treatment of chronic constipation

Background: Chronic constipation is a common condition that significantly impacts health care utilization, productivity, and quality of life. Laxatives are commonly used, although often insufficient in restoring normal bowel function or providing adequate relief. There remains a significant need for the development of novel agents to optimize treatment of this condition. Prucalopride, a selective, high-affinity 5-hydroxytryptamine 4 receptor agonist, stimulates gastrointestinal and colonic motility and alleviates common symptoms of chronic constipation. Here authors are evaluating efficacy and safety study of this drug in chronic constipation patient.Methods: This is a prospective observational study where chronic constipation patient treated with prucalopride 2 mg daily once were enrolled during 6 month period. Data at one week and four weeks were observed along with adverse effects. Efficacy assessed by the number of Spontaneous Complete Bowel Movements (SCBMs) per week recorded by patient diaries. Patients were defined as responders when they had a mean of three or more SCBMs per week over the whole treatment period. The primary efficacy end point was proportion of responders after 1 week and after 4 weeks of treatment.Results: A total of 43 patients diagnosed with chronic constipation and treated with prucalopride were included in study. The proportions of patients in the present study with at least three SCBMs per week (responders) were 44.2% (19 out of 43 patients) at 1 week and 46.5% (20 out of 43 patients) at 4 weeks. Treatment was well tolerated with minimal side effects. Common adverse effects reported in our study were gastrointestinal disorders like diarrhea, nausea and abdominal pain and nervous system disorders like headache and dizziness.Conclusions: Prucalopride is effective, has a good safety profile, and is well tolerated in chronic constipation treatment

Artificial control of the bias-voltage dependence of tunnelling anisotropic magnetoresistance using quantization in a single-crystal ferromagnet

A major issue in the development of spintronic memory devices is the reduction of the power consumption for the magnetization reversal. For this purpose, the artificial control of the magnetic anisotropy of ferromagnetic materials is of great importance. Here, we demonstrate the control of the carrier-energy dependence of the magnetic anisotropy of the density of states (DOS) using the quantum size effect in a single-crystal ferromagnetic material, GaMnAs. We show that the mainly two-fold symmetry of the magnetic anisotropy of DOS, which is attributed to the impurity band, is changed to a four-fold symmetry by enhancing the quantum size effect in the valence band of the GaMnAs quantum wells. By combination with the gate-electric field control technique, our concept of the usage of the quantum size effect for the control of the magnetism will pave the way for the ultra-low-power manipulation of magnetization in future spintronic devices.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure

Exploring language education in Scotland:multilingual aspiration in a monolingual perspective

Scotland attempts to dispel the hegemonic identity of a ‘monolingual country’. The aim of this paper is to explore the educational habitus in contemporary Scotland as articulated by two mechanisms. These are: efforts to promote linguistic vitality and language revitalization, with the development of new curricula and pedagogies; and the working of governing mechanisms and policy instruments, particularly the 1+ 2 Language Approach (Scottish Government 2012). With this in mind, specific policy documents such as 1+2 Language Policy (Scottish Government 2012), National Gaelic Language Plan 2012-2017 (Bòrd na Gàidhlig 2012), Consultation Paper of Gaelic Medium Education (GME) Bill (Scottish Government 2014) and their related documents were studied. A discursive analytic tool was used: Spolsky’s (2004, 2009, 2012) a three component model of language policy – practices, beliefs and management. According to Spolsky, practices “are the observable behaviors and choices” (2009, p. 4); beliefs “are the values or statuses assigned to named languages, varieties and features” (2009, p. 4) and management is the explicit and observable effort… to modify practices and beliefs” (2009, p. 4)