Fecal contamination of drinking-water in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: access to safe drinking-water is a fundamental requirement for good health and is also a human right. Global access to safe drinking-water is monitored by WHO and UNICEF using as an indicator “use of an improved source,” which does not account for water quality measurements. Our objectives were to determine whether water from “improved” sources is less likely to contain fecal contamination than “unimproved” sources and to assess the extent to which contamination varies by source type and setting.Methods and findings: studies in Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish were identified from online databases, including PubMed and Web of Science, and grey literature. Studies in low- and middle-income countries published between 1990 and August 2013 that assessed drinking-water for the presence of Escherichia coli or thermotolerant coliforms (TTC) were included provided they associated results with a particular source type. In total 319 studies were included, reporting on 96,737 water samples. The odds of contamination within a given study were considerably lower for “improved” sources than “unimproved” sources (odds ratio [OR] = 0.15 [0.10–0.21], I2 = 80.3% [72.9–85.6]). However over a quarter of samples from improved sources contained fecal contamination in 38% of 191 studies. Water sources in low-income countries (OR = 2.37 [1.52–3.71]; p<0.001) and rural areas (OR = 2.37 [1.47–3.81] p<0.001) were more likely to be contaminated. Studies rarely reported stored water quality or sanitary risks and few achieved robust random selection. Safety may be overestimated due to infrequent water sampling and deterioration in quality prior to consumption.Conclusion: access to an “improved source” provides a measure of sanitary protection but does not ensure water is free of fecal contamination nor is it consistent between source types or settings. International estimates therefore greatly overstate use of safe drinking-water and do not fully reflect disparities in access. An enhanced monitoring strategy would combine indicators of sanitary protection with measures of water qualit

Properties of branes in curved spacetimes

A generic property of curved manifolds is the existence of focal points. We show that branes located at focal points of the geometry satisfy special properties. Examples of backgrounds to which our discussion applies are AdS_m x S^n and plane wave backgrounds. As an example, we show that a pair of AdS_2 branes located at the north and south pole of the S^5 in AdS_5 x S^5 are half supersymmetric and that they are dual to a two-monopole solution of N=4 SU(N) SYM theory. Our second example involves spacelike branes in the (Lorentzian) plane wave. We develop a modified lightcone gauge for the open string channel, analyze in detail the cylinder diagram and establish open-closed duality. When the branes are located at focal points of the geometry the amplitude acquires most of the characteristics of flat space amplitudes. In the open string channel the special properties are due to stringy modes that become massless.Comment: 41 pages; v2:typos corrected, ref adde

Open Spinning Strings and AdS/dCFT Duality

We consider open spinning string solutions on an AdS_4 x S^2-brane (D5-brane) in the bulk AdS_5 x S^5 background. By taking account of the breaking of SO(6)_R to SO(3)_H x SO(3)_V due to the presence of the AdS-brane, the open rotating string ansatz is discussed. We construct the elliptic folded/circular open string solutions in the SU(2) and the SL(2) sectors, so that they satisfy the appropriate boundary conditions. On the other hand, in the SU(2) sector of the gauge theory, we compute the matrix of anomalous dimension of the defect operator, which turns out to be the Hamiltonian of an open integrable spin chain. Then we consider the coordinate Bethe ansatz with arbitrary number of impurities, and compare the boundary condition of the Bethe wavefunction with that of the corresponding open string solution. We also discuss the Bethe ansatz for the open SL(2) spin chain with several supports from the string theory side. Then, in both SU(2) and SL(2) sectors, we analyze the Bethe equations in the thermodynamic limit and formulate the `doubling trick' on the Riemann surface associated with the gauge theory.Comment: 1+50 pages, 7 figures, JHEP style, references adde

Sporting embodiment: sports studies and the (continuing) promise of phenomenology

Whilst in recent years sports studies have addressed the calls ‘to bring the body back in’ to theorisations of sport and physical activity, the ‘promise of phenomenology’ remains largely under-realised with regard to sporting embodiment. Relatively few accounts are grounded in the ‘flesh’ of the lived sporting body, and phenomenology offers a powerful framework for such analysis. A wide-ranging, multi-stranded, and interpretatively contested perspective, phenomenology in general has been taken up and utilised in very different ways within different disciplinary fields. The purpose of this article is to consider some selected phenomenological threads, key qualities of the phenomenological method, and the potential for existentialist phenomenology in particular to contribute fresh perspectives to the sociological study of embodiment in sport and exercise. It offers one way to convey the ‘essences’, corporeal immediacy and textured sensuosity of the lived sporting body. The use of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) is also critically addressed. Key words: phenomenology; existentialist phenomenology; interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA); sporting embodiment; the lived-body; Merleau-Pont

Comments on D-brane Interactions in PP-wave Backgrounds

We calculate the interaction potential between widely separated D-branes in PP-wave backgrounds in string theory as well as in low-energy supergravity. Timelike and spacelike orientations are qualitatively different but in both cases the effective brane tensions and RR charges take the same values as in Minkowski space in accordance with the expectations from the sigma model perturbation theory.Comment: Latex, 22 pages. Typos corrected and a reference added, final versio

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results

Jet size dependence of single jet suppression in lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s(NN)) = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions at the LHC provide direct sensitivity to the physics of jet quenching. In a sample of lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s) = 2.76 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 7 inverse microbarns, ATLAS has measured jets with a calorimeter over the pseudorapidity interval |eta| < 2.1 and over the transverse momentum range 38 < pT < 210 GeV. Jets were reconstructed using the anti-kt algorithm with values for the distance parameter that determines the nominal jet radius of R = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. The centrality dependence of the jet yield is characterized by the jet "central-to-peripheral ratio," Rcp. Jet production is found to be suppressed by approximately a factor of two in the 10% most central collisions relative to peripheral collisions. Rcp varies smoothly with centrality as characterized by the number of participating nucleons. The observed suppression is only weakly dependent on jet radius and transverse momentum. These results provide the first direct measurement of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions and complement previous measurements of dijet transverse energy imbalance at the LHC.Comment: 15 pages plus author list (30 pages total), 8 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Physics Letters B. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2011-02

Le magmatisme de la région de Kwyjibo, Province\ud du Grenville (Canada) : intérêt pour les\ud minéralisations de type fer-oxydes associées

The granitic plutons located north of the Kwyjibo property in Quebec’s Grenville Province are of\ud Mesoproterozoic age and belong to the granitic Canatiche Complex . The rocks in these plutons are calc-alkalic, K-rich,\ud and meta- to peraluminous. They belong to the magnetite series and their trace element characteristics link them to\ud intraplate granites. They were emplaced in an anorogenic, subvolcanic environment, but they subsequently underwent\ud significant ductile deformation. The magnetite, copper, and fluorite showings on the Kwyjibo property are polyphased\ud and premetamorphic; their formation began with the emplacement of hydraulic, magnetite-bearing breccias, followed by\ud impregnations and veins of chalcopyrite, pyrite, and fluorite, and ended with a late phase of mineralization, during\ud which uraninite, rare earths, and hematite were emplaced along brittle structures. The plutons belong to two families:\ud biotite-amphibole granites and leucogranites. The biotite-amphibole granites are rich in iron and represent a potential\ud heat and metal source for the first, iron oxide phase of mineralization. The leucogranites show a primary enrichment in\ud REE (rare-earth elements), F, and U, carried mainly in Y-, U-, and REE-bearing niobotitanates. They are metamict and\ud underwent a postmagmatic alteration that remobilized the uranium and the rare earths. The leucogranites could also be\ud a source of rare earths and uranium for the latest mineralizing events

Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw > 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour, are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017 +/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio

Observation of a new chi_b state in radiative transitions to Upsilon(1S) and Upsilon(2S) at ATLAS

The chi_b(nP) quarkonium states are produced in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector. Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.4 fb^-1, these states are reconstructed through their radiative decays to Upsilon(1S,2S) with Upsilon->mu+mu-. In addition to the mass peaks corresponding to the decay modes chi_b(1P,2P)->Upsilon(1S)gamma, a new structure centered at a mass of 10.530+/-0.005 (stat.)+/-0.009 (syst.) GeV is also observed, in both the Upsilon(1S)gamma and Upsilon(2S)gamma decay modes. This is interpreted as the chi_b(3P) system.Comment: 5 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 1 table, corrected author list, matches final version in Physical Review Letter