[en] Analysis show that temperatures in Ghana were significantly higher during the 1961-90 era than in the 1931-60 era; this rising trend was discerned even over the last three decades 1961-70, 1971-80 and 1981-90. It involved maximum, minimum, and average temperatures throughout the year, and across virtually the whole country; just the low altitude and non-industrialized Axim, Saltpond, and Kete-Krachi regions experienced some spells of rather higher 1931-60 temperatures. Given the current worldwide 'greenhouse' global warming evolution, this rising temperature development is particularly noteworthy. Urbanization, coupled with the modest industrial development in Ghana. over the past six decades possibly also contributed to it. That notwithstanding, the temperature cycle throughout Ghana has remained quite stable all this while; consistently attaining a maximum in February or March, declining steadily to a minimum in August, and then rising to a second but lower peak in about November. (author). 10 tabs., 22 figs., 3 refs

[en] A brief review is given of some of the applications of environmentally friendly renormalization to finite temperature field theory. In particular I show the benefits of using more than one renormalization group in the context of a gauge invariant coupling constant in the magnetic sector of QCD. It is shown that at high temperatures the magnetic sector shows confining properties characteristic of a three dimensional theory in accord with recent lattice results

[en] Purpose: Malignant murine tumors exhibiting a high spontaneous apoptosis index (AI) have a high response rate and curability after ionizing radiation treatment. We assessed spontaneous AI and the immunohistochemical staining of the tumor suppressor gene p53 and the proto-oncogene bcl-2 in patients with staged T3 rectal cancer uniformly treated with preoperative infusional chemoradiation and correlated these tumor parameters to treatment outcome. Methods and Materials: A retrospective analysis of 50 pretreatment rectal cancer biopsies was done by visually scoring the hematoxylin and eosin slides for the percentage of apoptotic and mitotic nuclei (MI). Immunohistochemical staining was used to assess p53 and bcl-2. Treatment response was assessed pathologically in the resected surgical specimen by microscopically scoring treatment effect using a four point grading system. Infusional chemoradiation consisted of 45 Gy in 25 fractions over 5 weeks in conjunction with a continuous infusion of 5-fluorouracil given in a dosage of 300 mg/m²/day. Surgery was performed approximately 6 weeks after completion of pre-operative therapy. Results: The median spontaneous AI was 2.0% and did not correlate with the MI. Higher AI values were found in patients with an excellent or good response to treatment compared to those having a poor treatment response (Spearman's rank correlation p=0.02). Better treatment response was also observed in the absence of bcl-2 staining (p=0.01); no correlation with treatment response was observed with p53 immunohistochemical staining. Survival was significantly better in those with excellent or good treatment response compared to those with less responsive tumors, however there was no correlation with AI, bcl-2 or p53 staining and survival. Conclusions: Poor down staging assessed by the presence of residual disease in a resected rectal cancer specimen after preoperative chemoradiation indicates treatment resistance and relatively poor prognosis. Low spontaneous AI and bcl-2 positivity are associated with poor down staging suggesting that these parameters should be examined further in rectal cancer since they could be useful as predictors of treatment resistance. Therapies specifically targeting the biomolecular pathways involved with apoptosis could translate into an increase in the use of sphincter preserving surgery

[en] In this article I give a brief account of the development of research in the Renormalization Group in Mexico, paying particular attention to novel conceptual and technical developments associated with the tool itself, rather than applications of standard Renormalization Group techniques. Some highlights include the development of new methods for understanding and analysing two extreme regimes of great interest in quantum field theory -- the ''high temperature'' regime and the Regge regime

[en] We present a new technique for the calculation of bound states in relativistic quantum field theories using renormalization group methods. As a simple example, we show our results for the mass of the lowest-lying bound state in a scalar model and compare with the Bethe-Salpeter approach

[en] The 50-mm superconducting dipole magnet approximately 1.3 m in length was fabricated at LBL to provide a background field up to 7 T in the Cable Test Facility at SSCL. The dipole has a stainless steel beam tube with a 47.88-mm OD and a wall thickness of 2.095 mm which significantly reduced the usefulness of this magnet. There were many unsuccessful attempts to remove this tube at 300 K and 80 K. The authors have devised a method of an ordinary multi-cutting process inside the magnet without its disassembly. In this article, tooling construction details with regulating cutting depths will be discussed

[en] The 'environmentally friendly' renormalization group is capable of describing the asymptotic behaviour of Green functions in extremely asymmetric kinematical regions. In particular, the Regge limit can be employed to calculate Regge trajectories in perturbation theory containing the information about bound states and resonances. We present results for a bosonic theory with cubic coupling

[en] Using an environmentally friendly renormalization we derive, from an underlying field theory representation, a formal expression for the equation of state, y = f(x), that exhibits all desired asymptotic and analyticity properties in the three limits x → 0, x → ∞ and x → -1. The only necessary inputs are the Wilson functions γ_λ, γ_ψ and γ_φ², associated with a renormalization of the transverse vertex functions. These Wilson functions exhibit a crossover between the Wilson-Fisher fixed point and the fixed point that controls the coexistence curve. Restricting to the case N = 1, we derive a one-loop equation of state for 2 < d < 4 naturally parameterized by a ratio of nonlinear scaling fields. For d = 3 we show that a non-parameterized analytic form can be deduced. Various asymptotic amplitudes are calculated directly from the equation of state in all three asymptotic limits of interest and comparison made with known results. By positing a scaling form for the equation of state inspired by the one-loop result, but adjusted to fit the known values of the critical exponents, we obtain better agreement with known asymptotic amplitudes

[en] Using an environmentally friendly renormalization group we derive an ab initio universal scaling form for the equation of state for the O(N) model, y = f(x), that exhibits all required analyticity properties in the limits x → 0, x → ∞ and x → -1. Unlike current methodologies based on a phenomenological scaling ansatz the scaling function is derived solely from the underlying Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson Hamiltonian and depends only on the three Wilson functions γ_λ, γ_ψ and γ_φ² which exhibit a non-trivial crossover between the Wilson-Fisher fixed point and the strong coupling fixed point associated with the Goldstone modes on the coexistence curve. We give explicit results for N = 2, 3 and 4 to one-loop order and compare with known results

[en] It is evident that there is a nuclear skills shortage within the UK, and logically it can be assumed that the shortfall extends to the radiation protection arena. Plans for nuclear new-build and the decommissioning of existing nuclear sites will require many more people with radiological knowledge and practical competencies. This converts to a nuclear industry requirement in the order of 1000 new recruits per year over at least the next ten years, mainly as new apprentices and graduates. At the same time, the strong demand for persons with radiation protection know-how in the non-nuclear and health care sectors is unlikely to diminish.The task of filling this skills gap is a significant one and it will require a determined effort from many UK stakeholders. The Society for Radiological Protection (SRP) has adopted a strategy in recent years to help address this skills gap. The aim is to engage the interest of secondary school students in the science of radiation and inspire them to follow a career in radiation protection. This paper presents the reasoning behind this strategy and, in an ‘outreach case study’, describes the establishment of the annual SRP Schools Event. This event is becoming an important addition to the national efforts aimed at increasing the numbers of skilled UK radiation protection professionals over the forthcoming decades. (note)