9,051 research outputs found
Interactions of heavy-light mesons
The potential between static-light mesons forming a meson-meson or a
meson-antimeson system is calculated in quenched and unquenched SU(3) gauge
theory. We use the Sheikholeslami-Wohlert action and statistical estimators of
light quark propagators with maximal variance reduction. The dependence of the
potentials on the light quark spin and isospin and the effect of meson exchange
is investigated. Our main motivation is exploration of bound states of two
mesons and string breaking. The latter also involves the two-quark potential
and the correlation between two-quark and two-meson states.Comment: Contribution to LATTICE99 (QCD spectrum). 3 pages, 4 eps figure
The impact of a high versus a low glycaemic index breakfast cereal meal on verbal episodic memory in healthy adolescents
In this study, healthy adolescents consumed a) a low glycaemic index (G.I.) breakfast cereal meal, or b) a high G.I. breakfast cereal meal, before completing a test of verbal episodic memory in which the memory materials were encoded under conditions of divided attention. Analysis of remembering/forgetting indices revealed that the High G.I. breakfast group remembered significantly more items relative to the Low G.I. breakfast group after a long delay. The superior performance observed in the High G.I. group, relative to the Low G.I. group, may be due to the additional glucose availability provided by the high G.I. meal at the time of memory encoding. This increased glucose availability may be necessary for effective encoding under dual task conditions
B_s meson excited states from the lattice
This is a follow-up to our earlier work [Phys. Rev. D 65, 014512 (2002); Eur.
Phys. J. C 28, 79 (2003); Phys. Rev. D 69, 094505 (2004)] for the energies and
the charge (vector) and matter (scalar) distributions for S-wave states in a
heavy-light meson, where the heavy quark is static and the light quark has a
mass about that of the strange quark. We study the radial distributions of
higher angular momentum states, namely P- and D-wave states. In nature the
closest equivalent of this heavy-light system is the B_s meson.
The calculation is carried out with dynamical fermions on a 16^3 times 32
lattice with a lattice spacing of about 0.10 fm generated with the
non-perturbatively improved clover action. It is shown that several features of
the energies and radial distributions are in qualitative agreement with what
one expects from a simple one-body Dirac equation interpretation.Comment: 6 pages, poster presented at Lattice 2005 (Heavy quarks
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Biases incurred from non-random repeat testing of haemoglobin levels in blood donors
To help prevent anaemia, it is a requisite for blood donors to undergo a haemoglobin test to ensure levels are not too low before donation. It is therefore important to have an accurate testing device and strategy to ensure donors are not being inappropriately bled. A recent study in blood donors used a selective testing strategy where if a donor’s haemoglobin level is below the level required for donation, then another reading is taken and if this occurs again, a third and final reading is used. This strategy can reduce the average number of readings required per donor compared to taking three measurements for all donors. However, the final decision-making measurement will on average be higher than a single measurement. In this paper, a selective testing strategy is compared against other strategies. Individual-level biases are derived for the selective strategy and are shown to depend on how close a donor’s true haemoglobin level is to the donation threshold and the magnitude of error in the testing device. A simulation study was conducted using the distribution of haemoglobin levels from a large donor population to investigate the effects different strategies have on population performance. We consider scenarios based on varying the measurement device bias and error, including differential biases that depend on the underlying haemoglobin level. Discriminatory performance is shown to be affected when using the selective testing strategies, especially when measurement error is large and when differential bias is present in the device. We recommend that the average of a number of readings should be used in preference to selective testing strategies if multiple measurements are available
Algorithmic aspects of disjunctive domination in graphs
For a graph , a set is called a \emph{disjunctive
dominating set} of if for every vertex , is either
adjacent to a vertex of or has at least two vertices in at distance
from it. The cardinality of a minimum disjunctive dominating set of is
called the \emph{disjunctive domination number} of graph , and is denoted by
. The \textsc{Minimum Disjunctive Domination Problem} (MDDP)
is to find a disjunctive dominating set of cardinality .
Given a positive integer and a graph , the \textsc{Disjunctive
Domination Decision Problem} (DDDP) is to decide whether has a disjunctive
dominating set of cardinality at most . In this article, we first propose a
linear time algorithm for MDDP in proper interval graphs. Next we tighten the
NP-completeness of DDDP by showing that it remains NP-complete even in chordal
graphs. We also propose a -approximation
algorithm for MDDP in general graphs and prove that MDDP can not be
approximated within for any unless NP
DTIME. Finally, we show that MDDP is
APX-complete for bipartite graphs with maximum degree
The Charge and Matter radial distributions of Heavy-Light mesons calculated on a lattice with dynamical fermions
A knowledge of the radial distributions of quarks inside hadrons could lead to a better understanding of the QCD description of these hadrons and possibly suggest forms for phenomenological models. As a step in this direction, in an earlier work, the charge (vector) and matter (scalar) radial distributions of heavy-light mesons were measured in the quenched approximation on a 16^3x24 lattice with a lattice spacing of 'a' approx. 0.17 fm, and a hopping parameter corresponding to a light quark mass about that of the strange quark. Here several improvements are now made: 1) The configurations are generated using dynamical fermions with a approx 0.14 fm; 2) Many more gauge configurations areincluded; 3) The distributions at many off-axis, in addition to on-axis, points are measured; 4) The data analysis is much more complete. In particular, distributions involving excited states are extracted. The exponential decay of the charge and matter distributions can be described by mesons of mass 0.9 +- 0.1 and 1.5 +- 0.1 GeV respectively -- values that are consistent with those of vector and scalar -states calculated directly with the same lattice parameters
Comparison of three microarray probe annotation pipelines: differences in strategies and their effect on downstream analysis
Background - Reliable annotation linking oligonucleotide probes to target genes is essential for functional biological analysis of microarray experiments. We used the IMAD, OligoRAP and sigReannot pipelines to update the annotation for the ARK-Genomics Chicken 20 K array as part of a joined EADGENE/SABRE workshop. In this manuscript we compare their annotation strategies and results. Furthermore, we analyse the effect of differences in updated annotation on functional analysis for an experiment involving Eimeria infected chickens and finally we propose guidelines for optimal annotation strategies. Results - IMAD, OligoRAP and sigReannot update both annotation and estimated target specificity. The 3 pipelines can assign oligos to target specificity categories although with varying degrees of resolution. Target specificity is judged based on the amount and type of oligo versus target-gene alignments (hits), which are determined by filter thresholds that users can adjust based on their experimental conditions. Linking oligos to annotation on the other hand is based on rigid rules, which differ between pipelines. For 52.7% of the oligos from a subset selected for in depth comparison all pipelines linked to one or more Ensembl genes with consensus on 44.0%. In 31.0% of the cases none of the pipelines could assign an Ensembl gene to an oligo and for the remaining 16.3% the coverage differed between pipelines. Differences in updated annotation were mainly due to different thresholds for hybridisation potential filtering of oligo versus target-gene alignments and different policies for expanding annotation using indirect links. The differences in updated annotation packages had a significant effect on GO term enrichment analysis with consensus on only 67.2% of the enriched terms. Conclusion - In addition to flexible thresholds to determine target specificity, annotation tools should provide metadata describing the relationships between oligos and the annotation assigned to them. These relationships can then be used to judge the varying degrees of reliability allowing users to fine-tune the balance between reliability and coverage. This is important as it can have a significant effect on functional microarray analysis as exemplified by the lack of consensus on almost one third of the terms found with GO term enrichment analysis based on updated IMAD, OligoRAP or sigReannot annotatio
Risk Factors for Bloodstream Infections Among an Urban Population with Skin and Soft Tissue Infections: A Retrospective Unmatched Case-Control Study
Introduction: The prevalence of acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections (ABSSSIs) continues to increase. Bloodstream infection (BSI) is a severe secondary complication of ABSSSI. The objective of this study was to determine clinical and sociodemographic risk factors for BSI in patients with acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections (ABSSSIs) and to determine if sociodemographic factors impact severity at presentation. Methods This was a retrospective unmatched (1:1) case-control study. Predictors of BSI and severe infection were sought through multivariable logistic regression analyses. Cases and controls were collected from two major medical centers located in downtown Detroit, Michigan: the Detroit Medical Center and the Henry Ford Health System. The population of interest included adult patients with community-onset (CO) ABSSSI treated at a participating hospital between January 2010 and December 2015. Cases were defined as those developing BSI within 48 h of admission with CO-ABSSSI as the primary source, while controls were those with CO-ABSSSI without BSI. Results A total of 392 patients (196 cases, 196 controls) were included. Independent predictors of BSI were male gender (aOR 1.85: 95% CI 1.11, 3.66), acute renal failure (aOR 2.08: 95% CI 1.18, 3.66), intravenous drug use (aOR 4.38, 95% CI 2.22, 8.62), and prior hospitalization (aOR 2.41, 95% CI 1.24, 4.93). African American race (aOR 2.18, 95% CI 1.38, 3.4), leukocytosis (aOR 2.24, 95% CI 1.41, 3.55), and prior hospitalization (aOR 2.07, 95% CI 1.19, 3.00) were significantly associated with infection severity. Conclusion Both clinical and sociodemographic factors were associated with BSI and severe infection underscoring the importance of social determinants of health in outcomes among underserved populations
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