379 research outputs found
M2-M5 blackfold funnels
We analyze the basic M2-M5 intersection in the supergravity regime using the
blackfold approach. This approach allows us to recover the 1/4-BPS self-dual
string soliton solution of Howe, Lambert and West as a three-funnel solution of
an effective fivebrane worldvolume theory in a new regime, the regime of a
large number of M2 and M5 branes. In addition, it allows us to discuss finite
temperature effects for non-extremal self-dual string soliton solutions and
wormhole solutions interpolating between stacks of M5 and anti-M5 branes. The
purpose of this paper is to exhibit these solutions and their basic properties.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures, harvmac; typo corrected in equation (3.19
Changes in ponderal index and body mass index across childhood and their associations with fat mass and cardiovascular risk factors at age 15
Background: Little is known about whether associations between childhood adiposity and later adverse cardiovascular health outcomes are driven by tracking of overweight from childhood to adulthood and/or by vascular and metabolic changes from childhood overweight that persist into adulthood. Our objective is to characterise associations between trajectories of adiposity across childhood and a wide range of cardiovascular risk factors measured in adolescence, and explore the extent to which these are mediated by fat mass at age 15.
Methods and Findings: Using data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, we estimated individual trajectories of ponderal index (PI) from 0-2 years and BMI from 2-10 years using random-effects linear spline models (N = 4601). We explored associations between PI/BMI trajectories and DXA-determined total-body fat-mass and cardiovascular risk factors at 15 years (systolic and diastolic blood pressure, fasting LDL-and HDL-cholesterol, triglycerides, C-reactive protein, glucose, insulin) with and without adjustment for confounders. Changes in PI/BMI during all periods of infancy and childhood were associated with greater DXA-determined fat-mass at age 15. BMI changes in childhood, but not PI changes from 0-2 years, were associated with most cardiovascular risk factors in adolescence; associations tended to be strongest for BMI changes in later childhood (ages 8.5-10), and were largely mediated by fat mass at age 15.
Conclusion: Changes in PI/BMI from 0-10 years were associated with greater fat-mass at age 15. Greater increases in BMI from age 8.5-10 years are most strongly associated with cardiovascular risk factors at age 15, with much of these associations mediated by fat-mass at this age. We found little evidence supporting previous reports that rapid PI changes in infancy are associated with future cardiovascular risk. This study suggests that associations between early overweight and subsequent adverse cardiovascular health are largely due to overweight children tending to remain overweight
Entropy of the self-dual string soliton
We compute the entropy and the corresponding central charge of the self-dual
string soliton in the supergravity regime using the blackfold description of
the fully localized M2-M5 intersection.Comment: 15 pages, 1 figure, harvma
Worldvolume Superalgebra Of BLG Theory With Nambu-Poisson Structure
Recently it was proposed that the Bagger-Lambert-Gustavsson theory with
Nambu-Poisson structure describes an M5-brane in a three-form flux background.
In this paper we investigate the superalgebra associated with this theory. We
derive the central charges corresponding to M5-brane solitons in 3-form
backgrounds. We also show that double dimensional reduction of the superalgebra
gives rise to the Poisson bracket terms of a non-commutative D4-brane
superalgebra. We provide interpretations of the D4-brane charges in terms of
spacetime intersections.Comment: 23 pages; references added, section 4 clarification
Spinning strings and integrable spin chains in the AdS/CFT correspondence
In this introductory review we discuss dynamical tests of the AdS_5 x S^5
string/N=4 super Yang-Mills duality. After a brief introduction to AdS/CFT we
argue that semiclassical string energies yield information on the quantum
spectrum of the string in the limit of large angular momenta on the S^5. The
energies of the folded and circular spinning string solutions rotating on a S^3
within the S^5 are derived, which yield all loop predictions for the dual gauge
theory scaling dimensions. These follow from the eigenvalues of the dilatation
operator of N=4 super Yang-Mills in a minimal SU(2) subsector and we display
its reformulation in terms of a Heisenberg s=1/2 spin chain along with the
coordinate Bethe ansatz for its explicit diagonalization. In order to make
contact to the spinning string energies we then study the thermodynamic limit
of the one-loop gauge theory Bethe equations and demonstrate the matching with
the folded and closed string result at this loop order. Finally the known gauge
theory results at higher-loop orders are reviewed and the associated long-range
spin chain Bethe ansatz is introduced, leading to an asymptotic all-loop
conjecture for the gauge theory Bethe equations. This uncovers discrepancies at
the three-loop order between gauge theory scaling dimensions and string theory
energies and the implications of this are discussed. Along the way we comment
on further developments and generalizations of the subject and point to the
relevant literature.Comment: 40 pages, invited contribution to Living Reviews in Relativity. v2:
improvements in the text and references adde
A mediation approach to understanding socio-economic inequalities in maternal health-seeking behaviours in Egypt.
BACKGROUND: The levels and origins of socio-economic inequalities in health-seeking behaviours in Egypt are poorly understood. This paper assesses the levels of health-seeking behaviours related to maternal care (antenatal care [ANC] and facility delivery) and their accumulation during pregnancy and childbirth. Secondly, it explores the mechanisms underlying the association between socio-economic position (SEP) and maternal health-seeking behaviours. Thirdly, it examines the effectiveness of targeting of free public ANC and delivery care. METHODS: Data from the 2008 Demographic and Health Survey were used to capture two latent constructs of SEP: individual socio-cultural capital and household-level economic capital. These variables were entered into an adjusted mediation model, predicting twelve dimensions of maternal health-seeking; including any ANC, private ANC, first ANC visit in first trimester, regular ANC (four or more visits during pregnancy), facility delivery, and private delivery. ANC and delivery care costs were examined separately by provider type (public or private). RESULTS: While 74.2% of women with a birth in the 5-year recall period obtained any ANC and 72.4% delivered in a facility, only 48.8% obtained the complete maternal care package (timely and regular facility-based ANC as well as facility delivery) for their most recent live birth. Both socio-cultural capital and economic capital were independently positively associated with receiving any ANC and delivering in a facility. The strongest direct effect of socio-cultural capital was seen in models predicting private provider use of both ANC and delivery. Despite substantial proportions of women using public providers reporting receipt of free care (ANC: 38%, delivery: 24%), this free-of-charge public care was not effectively targeted to women with lowest economic resources. CONCLUSIONS: Socio-cultural capital is the primary mechanism leading to inequalities in maternal health-seeking in Egypt. Future studies should therefore examine the objective and perceived quality of care from different types of providers. Improvements in the targeting of free public care could help reduce the existing SEP-based inequalities in maternal care coverage in the short term
Revisiting the S-matrix approach to the open superstring low energy effective lagrangian
The conventional S-matrix approach to the (tree level) open string low energy
effective lagrangian assumes that, in order to obtain all its bosonic
order terms, it is necessary to know the open string (tree level)
-point amplitude of massless bosons, at least expanded at that order in
. In this work we clarify that the previous claim is indeed valid for
the bosonic open string, but for the supersymmetric one the situation is much
more better than that: there are constraints in the kinematical bosonic terms
of the amplitude (probably due to Spacetime Supersymmetry) such that a much
lower open superstring -point amplitude is needed to find all the
order terms. In this `revisited' S-matrix approach we have
checked that, at least up to order, using these kinematical
constraints and only the known open superstring 4-point amplitude, it is
possible to determine all the bosonic terms of the low energy effective
lagrangian. The sort of results that we obtain seem to agree completely with
the ones achieved by the method of BPS configurations, proposed about ten years
ago. By means of the KLT relations, our results can be mapped to the NS-NS
sector of the low energy effective lagrangian of the type II string theories
implying that there one can also find kinematical constraints in the -point
amplitudes and that important informations can be inferred, at least up to
order, by only using the (tree level) 4-point amplitude.Comment: 34 pages, 3 figure, Submitted on Aug 4, 2012, Published on Oct 15,
201
A systematic review of strategies to recruit and retain primary care doctors
Background There is a workforce crisis in primary care. Previous research has looked at the reasons underlying recruitment and retention problems, but little research has looked at what works to improve recruitment and retention. The aim of this systematic review is to evaluate interventions and strategies used to recruit and retain primary care doctors internationally. Methods A systematic review was undertaken. MEDLINE, EMBASE, CENTRAL and grey literature were searched from inception to January 2015.Articles assessing interventions aimed at recruiting or retaining doctors in high income countries, applicable to primary care doctors were included. No restrictions on language or year of publication. The first author screened all titles and abstracts and a second author screened 20%. Data extraction was carried out by one author and checked by a second. Meta-analysis was not possible due to heterogeneity. Results 51 studies assessing 42 interventions were retrieved. Interventions were categorised into thirteen groups: financial incentives (n=11), recruiting rural students (n=6), international recruitment (n=4), rural or primary care focused undergraduate placements (n=3), rural or underserved postgraduate training (n=3), well-being or peer support initiatives (n=3), marketing (n=2), mixed interventions (n=5), support for professional development or research (n=5), retainer schemes (n=4), re-entry schemes (n=1), specialised recruiters or case managers (n=2) and delayed partnerships (n=2). Studies were of low methodological quality with no RCTs and only 15 studies with a comparison group. Weak evidence supported the use of postgraduate placements in underserved areas, undergraduate rural placements and recruiting students to medical school from rural areas. There was mixed evidence about financial incentives. A marketing campaign was associated with lower recruitment. Conclusions This is the first systematic review of interventions to improve recruitment and retention of primary care doctors. Although the evidence base for recruiting and care doctors is weak and more high quality research is needed, this review found evidence to support undergraduate and postgraduate placements in underserved areas, and selective recruitment of medical students. Other initiatives covered may have potential to improve recruitment and retention of primary care practitioners, but their effectiveness has not been established
Super Weyl invariance: BPS equations from heterotic worldsheets
It is well-known that the beta functions on a string worldsheet correspond to
the target space equations of motion, e.g. the Einstein equations. We show that
the BPS equations, i.e. the conditions of vanishing supersymmetry variations of
the space-time fermions, can be directly derived from the worldsheet. To this
end we consider the RNS-formulation of the heterotic string with (2,0)
supersymmetry, which describes a complex torsion target space that supports a
holomorphic vector bundle. After a detailed account of its quantization and
renormalization, we establish that the cancellation of the Weyl anomaly
combined with (2,0) finiteness implies the heterotic BPS conditions: At the one
loop level the geometry is required to be conformally balanced and the gauge
background has to satisfy the Hermitean Yang-Mills equations.Comment: 1+31 pages LaTeX, 5 figures; final version, discussion relation Weyl
invariance and (2,0) finiteness extended, typos correcte
- …