Peculiar properties of the Josephson junction at the transition from 0 to Pi state

It is demonstrated that in the diffusive superconductor-ferromagnet-superconductor (S/F/S) junctions the current-phase relation is practically sinusoidal everywhere except in a narrow region near the 0-Pi transition. In this region the second harmonic dominates the scenario of the 0-Pi transition. We predict a first order transition for the S/F/S junctions with a homogeneous F barrier. However, in real junctions a small modulation of the thickness of the barrier may favor the continious 0-Pi transition and the realisation of the Josephson junction with an arbitrary ground state phase difference. The performed calculations of the second harmonic amplitude provide a natural explanation of the recent contradictory results on the second harmonic measurements.Comment: Corrected version. To be published in PRB Rapid Communication

Light scalars in semi-leptonic decays of heavy quarkonia

We study the mechanism of production of the light scalar mesons in the $D_s^+\to\pi^+\pi^- e^+\nu$ decays: $D_s^+\to s\bar s e^+\nu\to [\sigma(600)+f_0(980)] e^+\nu\to\pi^+\pi^- e^+\nu$, and compare it with the mechanism of production of the light pseudoscalar mesons in the $D_s^+\to (\eta/\eta') e^+\nu$ decays: $D_s^+\to s\bar s e^+\nu\to (\eta/\eta')e^+\nu$. We show that the $s\bar s\to\sigma(600)$ transition is negligibly small in comparison with the $s\bar s\to f_0(980)$ one. As for the the $f_0(980)$ meson, the intensity of the $s\bar s\to f_0(980)$ transition makes near thirty percent from the intensity of the $s\bar s\to\eta_s$ ($\eta_s=s\bar s$) transition. So, the $D_s^+\to\pi^+\pi^- e^+\nu$ decay supports the previous conclusions about a dominant role of the four-quark components in the $\sigma(600)$ and $f_0(980)$ mesons.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, the variant matches the publication in Phys. Rev.

A longitudinal, observational study examining the relationships of patient satisfaction with services and mental well-being to their clinical course in young people with Type 1 diabetes mellitus during transition from child to adult health services

AIM: We hypothesized that participant well-being and satisfaction with services would be positively associated with a satisfactory clinical course during transition from child to adult health care. METHODS: Some 150 young people with Type 1 diabetes mellitus from five diabetes units in England were recruited to a longitudinal study of transition. Each young person was visited at home four times by a research assistant; each visit was 1 year apart. Satisfaction with services (Mind the Gap; MTG) and mental well-being (Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale; WEMWBS) were captured. Change in HbA1c , episodes of ketoacidosis, clinic and retinal screening attendance were used to assess clinical course. In total, 108 of 150 (72%) young people had sufficient data for analysis at visit 4. RESULTS: Mean age at entry was 16 years. By visit 4, 81.5% had left paediatric healthcare services. Median HbA1c increased significantly (P = 0.01) from 69 mmol/mol (8.5%) at baseline to 75 mmol/mol (9.0%) at visit 4. WEMWBS scores were comparable with those in the general population at baseline and were stable over the study period. MTG scores were also stable. By visit 4, some 32 individuals had a 'satisfactory' and 76 a 'suboptimal' clinical course. There were no significant differences in average WEMWBS and MTG scores between the clinical course groups (P = 0.96, 0.52 respectively); nor was there a significant difference in transfer status between the clinical course groups. CONCLUSIONS: The well-being of young people with diabetes and their satisfaction with transition services are not closely related to their clinical course. Investigating whether innovative psycho-educational interventions can improve the clinical course is a research priority