The Sigma Commutator from Lattice QCD

As a direct source of information on chiral symmetry breaking within QCD, the sigma commutator is of considerable importance. Since hadron structure is a non-perturbative problem, numerical calculations on a space-time lattice are currently the only rigorous approach. With recent advances in the calculation of hadron masses within full QCD, it is of interest to see whether the sigma commutator can be calculated directly from the dependence of the nucleon mass on the input quark mass. We show that, provided the correct chiral behaviour of QCD is respected in the extrapolation to realistic quark masses, one can indeed obtain a fairly reliable determination of the sigma commutator using present lattice data. For two-flavour dynamical fermion QCD the sigma commutator lies between 45 and 55 MeV based on recent data from CP-PACS and UKQCD.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, uses espcrc1.sty and epsfig.sty. Contribution to the proceedings of the International Conference on Quark Nuclear Physics held in Adelaide Feb. 200

Understanding The Relationship Between Cultural Wellness And Academic Achievement On Standing Rock Reservation

Academic achievement concerns are common among reservation schools in North and South Dakota and elicit numerous questions regarding how to address these concerns to improve educational outcomes for Native American students. This study examined the relationship between cultural wellness integration, based on the Medicine Wheel model, and the following academic achievement measures: standardized achievement tests, attendance, graduation rates, and behavioral disciplinary referrals. The specific research questions that guided this study are: 1) Using a Medicine Wheel model, how are schools on Standing Rock Reservation integrating cultural wellness? 2) How do cultural wellness integration practices relate to academic achievement in schools on Standing Rock Reservation? 3) What are common cultural wellness related concerns hindering academic achievement among students on Standing Rock Reservation, and how can school staffs address those concerns? This study utilized a mixed methods design comparing quantitative with qualitative data to determine how cultural wellness correlates with academic achievement measures. Data consisted of 65 surveys from seven school districts on Standing Rock Reservation with 10 interviews from staff including administrators, teachers, and paraprofessionals. In alignment with Indigenous methodology, this study examined cultural wellness integration by using the four directions/domains of the Medicine Wheel: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. The quantitative survey analysis revealed a significant relationship between mental familiarity and emotional wellness integration. In-School Suspension (ISS) was assessed using survey data analyzing the frequency of emotional wellness responses by including negative emotional wellness questions documenting the frequency teachers reported sending students to ISS. The data indicated mental familiarity (the level of understanding for the following terms): boarding schools, forced assimilation, historical trauma, intergenerational trauma, and Adverse Childhood Experiences corresponded with emotional wellness responses by 17%; meaning, on average, a one-unit increase of emotional wellness increased the value of mental familiarity by 0.33 units. With an increase in mental familiarity, there was a decrease in negative emotional wellness responses (ISS). The quantitative data aligned with the qualitative data; the themes generated from the qualitative interviews reported the importance of understanding “where the students are coming from” and the importance of building relationships between school staff and students to influence academic achievement and address behavioral concerns for students on Standing Rock Reservation. Other findings from the qualitative data reported Historical Trauma and low self-esteem as common cultural wellness concerns impacting educational outcomes and increasing classroom student behavioral concerns

Drinking Interventions in Pharmacies Study (DIPS): Development, implementation and evaluation of a pilot project to deliver interventions on alcohol issues in community pharmacies - Final Report

There is increasing concern amongst health professionals, social care professionals and policy makers at the rising level of alcohol consumption in the UK and the overwhelming evidence of the negative impact of excessive alcohol consumption on health. Excessive alcohol consumption is associated with an increased risk of a whole range of illnesses that collectively contribute substantially to the morbidity and mortality of the population as a whole (Alcohol Concern, 2006)

The role of community pharmacists in supporting self-management in patients with psoriasis.

Background: The majority of patients with psoriasis have mild to moderate disease which can be managed in primary care with topical therapies. The supportive role of pharmacists for patients with long-term dermatological conditions is largely unknown. Objective: To assess the impact of an educational intervention delivered by community pharmacists to improve self-management for people with psoriasis. Method: The study involved a pre- and post-intervention design. Seven community pharmacies were selected based on their location (urban, rural etc.) and the pharmacists recruited via local comprehensive research networks. Patients with mild to moderate psoriasis were recruited either opportunistically or via a letter of invite by pharmacists who undertook a face-to-face consultation with one follow-up visit after 6 weeks. The primary outcome was the change in person-centred dermatology self-care index (PEDESI) score and secondary outcomes were the self-assessed psoriasis and severity index (SAPASI), measuring disease severity and the dermatology quality of life index (DLQI). Key findings: A total of 47 patients were recruited. At 6 weeks, 42/47 (89.3%) patients completed the follow-up consultation. There was a significant increase in mean PEDESI scores (25.15 versus 17.78, P < 0.001) at 6 weeks compared to baseline. Similarly, SAPASI (11.60 versus 7.74, P < 0.001) and DLQI (7.21 versus 4.14, P < 0.001) scores improved significantly. Conclusion: Pharmacist-assisted support for patients with psoriasis improved knowledge, reduced disease severity and the impact on quality of life. These results suggest that community pharmacists might have an important role to play in facilitating self-management for patients with psoriasis

An exploratory study of the views of community pharmacy staff on the management of patients with undiagnosed skin problems.

Objective: The aim of this study was to explore pharmacist and medicine counter assistant (MCA) perceptions of community pharmacy management of patients presenting with symptomatic skin problems. Methods: The study involved semi-structured telephone interviews with 10 pharmacists and 15 MCAs from seven pharmacies. Interviews focused on perceptions of their role in managing symptomatic skin problems and views on why people sought pharmacy advice and any barriers to management. Advice from the local ethics committee was that approval was not required for the study. We analysed the interviews using the framework approach. Key finding: Pharmacists identified two key themes that defined their role; triage and reassurance. In contrast, MCAs defined their role as information gatherers and independent advisors. Themes identified by both pharmacists and MCAs relating to the use of pharmacy as a source of advice were convenience, the perceived non-serious nature of conditions and inaccessibility of the GP. Additionally, MCAs believed familiarity with the pharmacist was important. Both pharmacists and MCAs identified their lack of dermatological knowledge as a barrier with pharmacists reporting insufficient time to deal effectively with patients. MCAs identified the potential for misdiagnosis by pharmacists as another potential barrier. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that the role of pharmacists and MCAs is complementary; MCAs screen and provide the necessary information to pharmacists who then decide upon an appropriate course of action for the patient. Nevertheless, a major barrier to pharmacy-supported self-care of symptomatic skin problems is a perceived lack of knowledge and training in dermatology

Optimizing the use of oral anticoagulant therapy for atrial fibrilation in primary care: a pharmacist-led intervention.

Background: Updated evidence-based guidelines for the management of atrial fibrillation (AF) necessitate patient review, particularly with respect to oral anticoagulants, to ensure maximum health gain around stroke prophylaxis. Objective To quantify the level of anticoagulation utilisation in patients with a CHA2DS2-VASc≥1/≥2 (male/female) according to evidence-based guidelines and to assess the impact of a pharmacist-led intervention to optimise therapy. Setting: Fifteen general medical practices in Liverpool, North-West England with a practice population of 99,129. Method GRASP-AF software was employed to interrogate patient electronic medical records to identify and risk stratify AF patients (using CHA2DS2-VASc). A pharmacist then reviewed the medical records of those of patients not anticoagulated and with a CHA2DS2-VASc≥1/≥2 (male/female). Recommendations were discussed with a general practitioner (GP) and those patients in whom the need for anticoagulation was agreed were invited for a consultation with either the pharmacist or GP and therapy optimised where appropriate. The GPs were responsible for managing those patients referred for diagnosis confirmation or further specialist opinion. Main outcome measure: Proportion of patients eligible/not eligible for anticoagulation; proportions in whom anticoagulants initiated, refused, antiplatelets discontinued. Results: Five hundred and twenty-three patients (31% of patients identified with AF and a CHA2DS2-VASc≥1/≥2 (male/female)) were not receiving an anticoagulant (26 subsequently died or left the practice leaving 497). Three hundred and eighty-two (77%) pharmacist recommendations to a GP were agreed without modification. Following outcomes of diagnostic investigations and specialist referrals, 202 (41%) patients were candidates for anticoagulation, 251 (51%) were not eligible for anticoagulation, 103 (21%) were anticoagulated (56 warfarin, 47 DOAC). Conclusion: A pharmacist-led intervention re-aligned oral anticoagulant therapy to the latest evidence based guidelines for stroke prophylaxis, whilst simultaneously correcting the over-utilisation of antiplatelet therapy

Chiral Nonanalytic Behaviour: The Edinburgh Plot

The Edinburgh Plot is a scale independent way of presenting lattice QCD calculations over a wide range of quark masses. In this sense it is appealing as an indicator of how the approach to physical quark masses is progressing. The difficulty remains that even the most state of the art calculations are still at quark masses that are too heavy to apply dimensionally-regulated chiral perturbation theory. We present a method allowing predictions of the behaviour of the Edinburgh plot, in both the continuum, and on the lattice.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures, Lattice2002(Spectrum

Ab-initio study of polarizability and induced charge densities in multilayer graphene films

The original published version of this article may be found on the Physical Review B website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.77.195406 Copyright (2008) American Physical SocietyWe present an ab initio analysis of polarization of multilayer graphene systems under applied electric fields. The effects of applied electric fields are calculated using a Berry phase approach within a plane-wave density functional formalism. We have determined polarizability values for graphene films and carbon nanotubes and found that the polarizability of graphene films follows a linear relationship with the number of layers. We also examined changes in the induced charge distribution as a function of graphene layers. We focus, in particular, on the bilayer graphene system. Under applied electric fields, we found the Mexican hat band structure near the K point reported by previous groups. We found that the induced charge primarily accumulated on the B sublattice sites. This observation is supported by additional calculations with a tight-binding Green's function model. By examining the local density of states at the Fermi energy, we found a high density of states at the B sites at the Fermi energy. In contrast, coupling between A sites in neighboring graphene layers leads to negligible density of states at the Fermi level. This high density of states at the B sites results in greater induced charge under applied electric fields. This scenario of preferential induced charge on the B sublattice sites under applied electric fields could impact the stability of atoms and molecules absorbed on bilayer graphene

Properties of short channel ballistic carbon nanotube transistors with ohmic contacts

We present self-consistent, non-equilibrium Green's function calculations of the characteristics of short channel carbon nanotube transistors, focusing on the regime of ballistic transport with ohmic contacts. We first establish that the band lineup at the contacts is renormalized by charge transfer, leading to Schottky contacts for small diameter nanotubes and ohmic contacts for large diameter nanotubes, in agreement with recent experiments. For short channel ohmic contact devices, source-drain tunneling and drain-induced barrier lowering significantly impact the current-voltage characteristics. Furthermore, the ON state conductance shows a temperature dependence, even in the absence of phonon scattering or Schottky barriers. This last result also agrees with recently reported experimental measurements.Comment: Nanotechnology, in pres