Color Screening and Quark-Quark Interactions in Finite Temperature QCD

We analyze the screening of static diquark sources in 2-flavor QCD and compare results with the screening of static quark-antiquark pairs. We show that a two quark system in a fixed color representations is screened at short distances like a single quark source in the same color representation whereas at large distances the two quarks are screened independently. At high temperatures we observe that the relative strength of the interaction in diquark and quark-antiquark systems, respectively, obeys Casimir scaling. We use this result to examine the possible existence of heavy quark-quark bound states in the high temperature phase of QCD. We find support for the existence of $bb$ states up to about $2T_c$ while $cc$ states are unlikely to be formed above $T_c$.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure

Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Time to Cure of Incontinence Present at Nursing Home Admission

Abstract As many as half of older people that are admitted to nursing homes (NHs) are incontinent of urine and/or feces. Not much is known about the rate of cure of incontinence present at NH admission, but available reports suggest the rate is low. There have been racial and ethnic disparities in incontinence treatment, but the role of disparities in the cure of incontinence is understudied. Using the Peters-Belson method and multilevel predictors, our findings showed that there were disparities in the time to cure of incontinence for Hispanic NH admissions. A significantly smaller proportion of older Hispanic admissions were observed to have their incontinence cured and cured later than expected had they been White non-Hispanic. Reducing disparities in incontinence cure will improve health outcomes of Hispanic NH admissions. Significant predictors in our model suggest strategies to reduce the disparity including attention to managing fecal incontinence and incontinence in those with cognitive impairment, improving residents’ functional status, and increasing resources to NHs admitting older Hispanics with incontinence to develop innovative and cost effective ways to provide equitable quality care

Metabolism And The Rise Of Fungus Cultivation By Ants

Most ant colonies are comprised of workers that cooperate to harvest resources and feed developing larvae. Around 50 million years ago (MYA), ants of the attine lineage adopted an alternative strategy, harvesting resources used as compost to produce fungal gardens. While fungus cultivation is considered a major breakthrough in ant evolution, the associated ecological consequences remain poorly understood. Here, we compare the energetics of attine colony-farms and ancestral hunter-gatherer colonies using metabolic scaling principles within a phylogenetic context. We find two major energetic transitions. First, the earliest lower-attine farmers transitioned to lower mass-specific metabolic rates while shifting significant fractions of biomass from ant tissue to fungus gardens. Second, a transition 20 MYA to specialized cultivars in the higher-attine clade was associated with increased colony metabolism (without changes in garden fungal content) and with metabolic scaling nearly identical to hypometry observed in hunter-gatherer ants, although only the hunter-gatherer slope was distinguishable from isometry. Based on these evolutionary transitions, we propose that shifting living-tissue storage from ants to fungal mutualists provided energetic storage advantages contributing to attine diversification and outline critical assumptions that, when tested, will help link metabolism, farming efficiency, and colony fitness.Integrative Biolog

Beam Splitter for Spin Waves in Quantum Spin Network

We theoretically design and analytically study a controllable beam splitter for the spin wave propagating in a star-shaped (e.g., a $Y$-shaped beam) spin network. Such a solid state beam splitter can display quantum interference and quantum entanglement by the well-aimed controls of interaction on nodes. It will enable an elementary interferometric device for scalable quantum information processing based on the solid system.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, derivation of formulae change

Altered expression of caspases-4 and -5 during inflammatory bowel disease and colorectal cancer : diagnostic and therapeutic potential

Caspases are a group of proteolytic enzymes involved in the co-ordination of cellular processes, including cellular homeostasis, inflammation and apoptosis. Altered activity of caspases, particularly caspase-1, has been implicated in the development of intestinal diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and colorectal cancer (CRC). However, the involvement of two related inflammatory caspase members, caspases-4 and -5, during intestinal homeostasis and disease has not yet been established. This study demonstrates that caspases-4 and -5 are involved in IBD-associated intestinal inflammation. Furthermore, we found a clear correlation between stromal caspase-4 and -5 expression levels, inflammation and disease activity in ulcerative colitis patients. Deregulated intestinal inflammation in IBD patients is associated with an increased risk of developing CRC. We found robust expression of caspases-4 and -5 within intestinal epithelial cells, exclusively within neoplastic tissue, of colorectal tumours. An examination of adjacent normal, inflamed and tumour tissue from patients with colitis-associated CRC confirmed that stromal expression of caspases-4 and -5 is increased in inflamed and dysplastic tissue, while epithelial expression is restricted to neoplastic tissue. In addition to identifying caspases-4 and -5 as potential targets for limiting intestinal inflammation, this study has identified epithelial-expressed caspases-4 and -5 as biomarkers with diagnostic and therapeutic potential in CRC

Facile synthesis of nanostructured WO3 thin films and their characterization for ethanol sensing.

A simple technique to fabricate nanostructured WO3 thin films onto conductomeric transducers has been employed for ethanol sensing application. Initially, pure tungsten (W) thin films were deposited onto the substrate employing RF sputterer and followed by an etching process. Three types of etching agent were used: nitric (HNO3), sulphuric (H2SO4), and phosphoric (H3PO4) acid. It was found that the surface morphology and crystallinity of the WO3 films were heavily dependant to the etchants employed during the fabrication process. The developed sensors were tested towards ethanol vapor of different concentrations (10–200 ppm) at temperatures between room and 450 °C. The sensors showed stable and reproducible response at optimum operating temperatures. High sensor response towards vaporized ethanol as well as fast τres and τrec was observed during the “adsorption” and “desorption” interval. The recorded maximum response for these devices when exposed towards 100 ppm ethanol was measured to be 8 (Ro = 4.6 kΩ), 5.8 (Ro = 22.5 GΩ), and 5 (Ro = 0.29 MΩ) for HNO3, H3PO4, and H2SO4, respectively. The optimum operating temperatures were determined to be 400, 300–380, and 360 °C for the sensors developed using HNO3, H3PO4, and H2SO4, respectively

A Magnetic Resonance Realization of Decoherence-Free Quantum Computation

We report the realization, using nuclear magnetic resonance techniques, of the first quantum computer that reliably executes an algorithm in the presence of strong decoherence. The computer is based on a quantum error avoidance code that protects against a class of multiple-qubit errors. The code stores two decoherence-free logical qubits in four noisy physical qubits. The computer successfully executes Grover's search algorithm in the presence of arbitrarily strong engineered decoherence. A control computer with no decoherence protection consistently fails under the same conditions.Comment: 5 pages with 3 figures, revtex4, accepted by Physical Review Letters; v2 minor revisions to conten

Effects of Cationic Species in Salts on the Electrical Conductivity of Doped PEDOT:PSS Films

The electrical conductivity of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) films with four salts that have various cations but the same bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)amide (TFSI) anion was studied. We found that doping salts of small-sized cations led to better conductivity because of the improved crystalline order and p-doped level of PEDOT, as revealed by the grazing-incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering (GIWAXS) and UV-vis spectrum. This phenomenon can be rationalized with the fact that small-sized cations with stronger Coulombic interactions can lead to high doping and rearrangement of PEDOT:PSS. These findings will help to develop recipes based on the PEDOT:PSS/salt composite toward the applications for printed flexible electronics

Goals of Fecal Incontinence Management Identified by Community-Living Incontinent Adults

The purpose of this study was to identify goals of fecal incontinence (FI) management and their importance to community-living adults if complete continence would not be possible. Participants expressed their goals of FI management in a semi structured interview, selected others from 12 investigator-identified goals, and rated their importance. Five thematic categories emerged from the 114 participant-identified goal statements: Fecal Incontinence/Bowel Pattern, Lifestyle, Emotional Responses, Adverse Effects of Fecal Incontinence, and Self-Care Practices. Participants selected a median of seven investigator-identified goals (range = 2 to 12). Goals selected by the most participants were decreased number of leaks of stool and greater confidence in controlling fecal incontinence. These goals also had the highest importance along with decreased leakage of loose or liquid stool. The type and number of management goals identified by participants offer a toolbox of options from which to focus therapy when cure is not possible and promote patient satisfaction