Birmingham’s Eastside story: making steps towards sustainability?

Sustainability has come to play a dominant discursive role in the UK planning system, particularly relating to urban regeneration. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the role that sustainability plays in a major regeneration programme, known as Eastside, currently underway in Birmingham, the UK. That this £6 billion redevelopment is now widely talked about by such key players as Birmingham City Council and the Regional Development Agency, Advantage West Midlands, as having a central sustainability agenda points to the growing importance of the ideal of sustainability in planning and regeneration agendas. In this paper, we investigate in detail how and why sustainability has become part of the planning discourse for Eastside and critically evaluate what impact, if any, this is having on public policy decision-making

An Exact Black Hole Entropy Bound

We show that a Rademacher expansion can be used to establish an exact bound for the entropy of black holes within a conformal field theory framework. This convergent expansion includes all subleading corrections to the Bekenstein-Hawking term.Comment: 6 pages, Latex, v2 minor re-wording, additional reference, to appear in Phyical Review D (title changed in journal

Quasinormal Modes and Black Hole Quantum Mechanics in 2+1 Dimensions

We explore the relationship between classical quasinormal mode frequencies and black hole quantum mechanics in 2+1 dimensions. Following a suggestion of Hod, we identify the real part of the quasinormal frequencies with the fundamental quanta of black hole mass and angular momentum. We find that this identification leads to the correct quantum behavior of the asymptotic symmetry algebra, and thus of the dual conformal field theory. Finally, we suggest a further connection between quasinormal mode frequencies and the spectrum of a set of nearly degenerate ground states whose multiplicity may be responsible for the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy.Comment: 8 pages, LaTeX; references added and corrected, introduction and conclusion slightly expande

Vector Supersymmetry of 2D Yang-Mills Theory

The vector supersymmetry of the 2D topological BF model is extended to 2D Yang-Mills. The consequences of the corresponding Ward identity on the ultraviolet behavior of the theory are analyzed.Comment: Some references adde

Symmetries and Observables for BF-theories in Superspace

The supersymmetric version of a topological quantum field theory describing flat connections, the super BF-theory, is studied in the superspace formalism. A set of observables related to topological invariants is derived from the curvature of the superspace. Analogously to the non-supersymmetric versions, the theory exhibits a vector-like supersymmetry. The role of the vector supersymmetry and an additional new symmetry of the action in the construction of observables is explained.Comment: 11 pages, LaTe

Conformal Field Theory Interpretation of Black Hole Quasi-normal Modes

We obtain exact expressions for the quasi-normal modes of various spin for the BTZ black hole. These modes determine the relaxation time of black hole perturbations. Exact agreement is found between the quasi-normal frequencies and the location of the poles of the retarded correlation function of the corresponding perturbations in the dual conformal field theory. This then provides a new quantitative test of the AdS/CFT correspondence.Comment: 4 pages, RevTeX, references adde

N=2 Supersymmetric Model with Dirac-Kahler Fermions from Generalized Gauge Theory in Two Dimensions

We investigate the generalized gauge theory which has been proposed previously and show that in two dimensions the instanton gauge fixing of the generalized topological Yang-Mills action leads to a twisted N=2 supersymmetric action. We have found that the R-symmetry of N=2 supersymmetry can be identified with the flavour symmetry of Dirac-Kahler fermion formulation. Thus the procedure of twist allows topological ghost fields to be interpreted as the Dirac-Kahler matter fermions.Comment: 22 pages, LaTe

Relaxation in Conformal Field Theory, Hawking-Page Transition, and Quasinormal/Normal Modes

We study the process of relaxation back to thermal equilibrium in $(1+1)$-dimensional conformal field theory at finite temperature. When the size of the system is much larger than the inverse temperature, perturbations decay exponentially with time. On the other hand, when the inverse temperature is large, the relaxation is oscillatory with characteristic period set by the size of the system. We then analyse the intermediate regime in two specific models, namely free fermions, and a strongly coupled large $\tt k$ conformal field theory which is dual to string theory on $(2+1)$-dimensional anti-de Sitter spacetime. In the latter case, there is a sharp transition between the two regimes in the ${\tt k}=\infty$ limit, which is a manifestation of the gravitational Hawking-Page phase transition. In particular, we establish a direct connection between quasinormal and normal modes of the gravity system, and the decaying and oscillating behaviour of the conformal field theory.Comment: 10 pages, latex, no figure

Area Spectrum of Extremal Reissner-Nordstr\"om Black Holes from Quasi-normal Modes

Using the quasi-normal modes frequency of extremal Reissner-Nordstr\"om black holes, we obtain area spectrum for these type of black holes. We show that the area and entropy black hole horizon are equally spaced. Our results for the spacing of the area spectrum differ from that of schwarzschild black holes.Comment: 6 pages, no figure, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Behavioral Management of Auditory Hallucinations: Implementation and Evaluation of a 10-Week Course

A 10-session behavioral course for self-management of auditory hallucinations in patients with schizophrenia has demonstrated positive outcomes. This article evaluates both the course’s implementation and benefits to patients attending the course. Teleconferencing, electronic media, and 26 monthly conference calls were used to educate six advanced practice nurses (APNs) at six sites about the course implementation. Thirty-two patients within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs participated in the course. All of the APNs reported course helpfulness, improved communication with patients about voices, and improved harm assessment. Of the patients, 96% found the course helpful: 67% no longer heard voices to harm self or others, and 60% had improved auditory hallucination intensity scores. The project demonstrated successful implementation and practice integration with APNs’ activities corresponding to Rogers’ stages of innovation adoption. Facilitators and barriers to implementation are also described