1,626 research outputs found
The Propinquus Group of the Crawfish Genus Orconectes (Decapoda: Astacidae)
Author Institution: Department of Biology, University of Virginia, CharlottesvilleNine species and subspecies assigned to the Propinquus Group, Propinquus Section, of the crawfish genus Orconectes are evaluated on the basis of 1226 specimens examined. Eleven characters are analyzed statistically and 12 more qualitatively, principally by determination of comparative frequencies. O. jeffersoni is judged specifically distinct from O. propinquus and the conspecific O. s. sanborni and O. s. erismophorous. All other taxa of the Group are distinct species. A new species from Iowa is diagnosed, but not described. Two distinct subgroups, Propinquus and Sanborni, are proposed and diagnosed. A lectotype and paralectotypes were designated for Cambarus obscurus Hagen and for Cambarus sanborni Faxon. Standard taxonomic characters in crawfishes are discussed briefly with particular reference to the Propinquus Group
CARETS: A prototype regional environmental information system. Volume 2, parts A and B: Norfolk and environs; a land use perspective
The author has identified the following significant results. The Norfolk-Portsmouth metropolitan statistical area in southeastern Virginia was the site of intensive testing of a number of land resources assessment methods. Land use and land cover data at three levels of detail were derived by manual image interpretation from both aircraft and satellite sources and used to characterize the 1,766 sq km (682 sq mi) area from the perspective of its various resource-related activities and problems. Measurements at level 1 from 1:100, 000 scale maps revealed 42 percent of the test area (excluding bays and estuaries) to be forest, 28 percent agriculture, 23 percent urban and built-up, 4 percent nonforested wetlands, and 2 percent water. At the same scale and level of detail, 10 percent of the area underwent change from one land use category to another in the period 1959-70, 62 percent of which involved the relatively irreversible change from forest or agriculture to urban uses
Unitarity and the Holographic S-Matrix
The bulk S-Matrix can be given a non-perturbative definition in terms of the
flat space limit of AdS/CFT. We show that the unitarity of the S-Matrix, ie the
optical theorem, can be derived by studying the behavior of the OPE and the
conformal block decomposition in the flat space limit. When applied to
perturbation theory in AdS, this gives a holographic derivation of the cutting
rules for Feynman diagrams.
To demonstrate these facts we introduce some new techniques for the analysis
of conformal field theories. Chief among these is a method for conglomerating
local primary operators to extract the contribution of an individual primary in
their OPE. This provides a method for isolating the contribution of specific
conformal blocks which we use to prove an important relation between certain
conformal block coefficients and anomalous dimensions. These techniques make
essential use of the simplifications that occur when CFT correlators are
expressed in terms of a Mellin amplitude.Comment: 33+12 pages, 6 figures; v2: typos corrected, some clarifications
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Light dark matter and dark force at colliders
Light Dark Matter, GeV, with sizable direct detection rate is an
interesting and less explored scenario. Collider searches can be very powerful,
such as through the channel in which a pair of dark matter particle are
produced in association with a jet. It is a generic possibility that the
mediator of the interaction between DM and the nucleus will also be accessible
at the Tevatron and the LHC. Therefore, collider search of the mediator can
provide a more comprehensive probe of the dark matter and its interactions. In
this article, to demonstrate the complementarity of these two approaches, we
focus on the possibility of the mediator being a new gauge boson, which
is probably the simplest model which allows a large direct detection cross
section for a light dark matter candidate. We combine searches in the
monojet+MET channel and dijet resonance search for the mediator. We find that
for the mass of between 250 GeV and 4 TeV, resonance searches at the
colliders provide stronger constraints on this model than the monojet+MET
searches.Comment: 23 pages and 14 figure
Responsiveness of SF-36 Health Survey and Patient Generated Index in people with chronic knee pain commenced on oral analgesia: analysis of data from a randomised controlled clinical trial
Purpose. (1) to assess the responsiveness of the Short Form 36 Health Survey (SF-36) and Patient Generated Index (PGI) in people with knee pain who were given oral analgesics; and (2) to perform content analysis of the SF-36 and PGI aiming to identify differences between the instruments and causes of different responsiveness.
Methods. An observational study nested within a randomised controlled trial comparing oral paracetamol, ibuprofen or a combination of the two in 884 community-derived people with chronic knee pain. Each participant was given the SF-36 and PGI questionnaires to fill out at baseline, day 10, week 7 and week 13 after commencement on analgesia. Responsiveness was measured as a standardised response mean from baseline and contents of the instruments were analysed.
Results. The PGI showed the greater responsiveness to analgesics than the SF-36 throughout the study period. Only the Bodily Pain Score of the SF-36 showed comparable responsiveness to the PGI. The standardised response mean of the PGI at 13 weeks was 0.61 (95% confidence interval 0.51 to 0.72), and that of the Bodily Pain Score of the SF-36 was 0.49 (95% confidence interval 0.39 to 0.58). Content analysis of the PGI identified multiple areas which are not represented in the SF-36 which may help explain its performance.
Conclusions. Overall the PGI is more responsive than the SF-36 to commonly used oral analgesics taken for knee pain. The PGI is able to elicit areas of individualised health related quality of life which are not captured by the SF-36
Prevalence of ocular and oculodermal melanocytosis in Spanish population with uveal melanoma
ProducciĂłn CientĂficaThe aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of ocular and oculodermal melanocytosis (ODM) among patients with uveal melanoma (UM) in a Spanish population.
METHODS:
Retrospective review of the medical records of patients with ODM among patients with UM.
RESULTS:
Ten (11 eyes) of 400 patients (2.7%) with UM associated had ODM. The mean age at diagnosis of UM among patients with ODM was 62 years. One patient had bilateral tumours. UM was diagnosed during a routine-examination in two cases. All tumours were medium (7/11) or large (4/11) in size, with a mean maximum base of 13 mm and height of 7 mm. No patient had extraocular extension or metastatic disease at diagnosis. Enucleation was done in five cases and I-125-brachytherapy in six. The mean follow-up was 43 months. One patient died because of metastasis 2 years after enucleation; one patient is currently on treatment of systemic metastasis 11 years after.
CONCLUSIONS:
ODM is more frequent in spanish population with UM than in American population. Despite the risk of UM in ODM, it is often diagnosed late when a conservative treatment is not indicated
MFV Reductions of MSSM Parameter Space
The 100+ free parameters of the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM)
make it computationally difficult to compare systematically with data,
motivating the study of specific parameter reductions such as the cMSSM and
pMSSM. Here we instead study the reductions of parameter space implied by using
minimal flavour violation (MFV) to organise the R-parity conserving MSSM, with
a view towards systematically building in constraints on flavour-violating
physics. Within this framework the space of parameters is reduced by expanding
soft supersymmetry-breaking terms in powers of the Cabibbo angle, leading to a
24-, 30- or 42-parameter framework (which we call MSSM-24, MSSM-30, and MSSM-42
respectively), depending on the order kept in the expansion. We provide a
Bayesian global fit to data of the MSSM-30 parameter set to show that this is
manageable with current tools. We compare the MFV reductions to the
19-parameter pMSSM choice and show that the pMSSM is not contained as a subset.
The MSSM-30 analysis favours a relatively lighter TeV-scale pseudoscalar Higgs
boson and with multi-TeV sparticles.Comment: 2nd version, minor comments and references added, accepted for
publication in JHE
Closing in on Asymmetric Dark Matter I: Model independent limits for interactions with quarks
It is argued that experimental constraints on theories of asymmetric dark
matter (ADM) almost certainly require that the DM be part of a richer hidden
sector of interacting states of comparable mass or lighter. A general requisite
of models of ADM is that the vast majority of the symmetric component of the DM
number density must be removed in order to explain the observed relationship
via the DM asymmetry. Demanding the efficient
annihilation of the symmetric component leads to a tension with experimental
limits if the annihilation is directly to Standard Model (SM) degrees of
freedom. A comprehensive effective operator analysis of the model independent
constraints on ADM from direct detection experiments and LHC monojet searches
is presented. Notably, the limits obtained essentially exclude models of ADM
with mass 1GeV 100GeV annihilating to SM quarks via
heavy mediator states. This motivates the study of portal interactions between
the dark and SM sectors mediated by light states. Resonances and threshold
effects involving the new light states are shown to be important for
determining the exclusion limits.Comment: 18+6 pages, 18 figures. v2: version accepted for publicatio
Use of Genomic DNA as an Indirect Reference for Identifying Gender-Associated Transcripts in Morphologically Identical, but Chromosomally Distinct, Schistosoma mansoni Cercariae
BACKGROUND: The use of DNA microarray technology to study global Schistosoma gene expression has led to the rapid identification of novel biological processes, pathways or associations. Implementation of standardized DNA microarray protocols across laboratories would assist maximal interpretation of generated datasets and extend productive application of this technology. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Utilizing a new Schistosoma mansoni oligonucleotide DNA microarray composed of 37,632 elements, we show that schistosome genomic DNA (gDNA) hybridizes with less variation compared to complex mixed pools of S. mansoni cDNA material (Râ=â0.993 for gDNA compared to Râ=â0.956 for cDNA during âself versus selfâ hybridizations). Furthermore, these effects are species-specific, with S. japonicum or Mus musculus gDNA failing to bind significantly to S. mansoni oligonucleotide DNA microarrays (e.g Râ=â0.350 when S. mansoni gDNA is co-hybridized with S. japonicum gDNA). Increased median fluorescent intensities (209.9) were also observed for DNA microarray elements hybridized with S. mansoni gDNA compared to complex mixed pools of S. mansoni cDNA (112.2). Exploiting these valuable characteristics, S. mansoni gDNA was used in two-channel DNA microarray hybridization experiments as a common reference for indirect identification of gender-associated transcripts in cercariae, a schistosome life-stage in which there is no overt sexual dimorphism. This led to the identification of 2,648 gender-associated transcripts. When compared to the 780 gender-associated transcripts identified by hybridization experiments utilizing a two-channel direct method (co-hybridization of male and female cercariae cDNA), indirect methods using gDNA were far superior in identifying greater quantities of differentially expressed transcripts. Interestingly, both methods identified a concordant subset of 188 male-associated and 156 female-associated cercarial transcripts, respectively. Gene ontology classification of these differentially expressed transcripts revealed a greater diversity of categories in male cercariae. Quantitative real-time PCR analysis confirmed the DNA microarray results and supported the reliability of this platform for identifying gender-associated transcripts. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Schistosome gDNA displays characteristics highly suitable for the comparison of two-channel DNA microarray results obtained from experiments conducted independently across laboratories. The schistosome transcripts identified here demonstrate, for the first time, that gender-associated patterns of expression are already well established in the morphologically identical, but chromosomally distinct, cercariae stage
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