The Association of Lung Cancer Mortality with Income and Education in Kentucky Counties

Lung cancer, the primary cause of cancer death in the United States, is particularly problematic in Kentucky, which has the nation’s highest rate of adult smokers. In fact, each Kentucky county exceeds the national rate for per capita lung cancer deaths. This project analyzes the relationships between lung cancer deaths, high school graduation rates, per capita personal income and adult smoking – and whether statistically significant differences exist among the variables between Kentucky’s Appalachian and non-Appalachian counties

Policy Analysis: Is There a Relationship Between Required Physical Education in Lower Grades and Adolescent Obesity Rates? A Kentucky Case Study

Childhood obesity has emerged as a national epidemic − and one with serious short- and long-term personal health, medical system and economic consequences. The prevalence of obesity more than doubled among U.S. children ages 6 to 11 between 1980 and 2006, while the rate for those from ages 12 to 19 more than tripled. This study analyzes whether required physical education in elementary and/or middle school is associated with lower rates of obesity among U.S. high school students, with an emphasis on those living in Kentucky

Cooperative Binding of Heat Shock Factor to the Yeast \u3ci\u3eHSP82\u3c/i\u3e Promoter In Vivo and In Vitro

revious work has shown that heat shock factor (HSF) plays a central role in remodeling the chromatin structure of the yeastHSP82 promoter via constitutive interactions with its high-affinity binding site, heat shock element 1 (HSE1). The HSF-HSE1 interaction is also critical for stimulating both basal (noninduced) and induced transcription. By contrast, the function of the adjacent, inducibly occupied HSE2 and -3 is unknown. In this study, we examined the consequences of mutations in HSE1, HSE2, and HSE3 on HSF binding and transactivation. We provide evidence that in vivo, HSF binds to these three sites cooperatively. This cooperativity is seen both before and after heat shock, is required for full inducibility, and can be recapitulated in vitro on both linear and supercoiled templates. Quantitative in vitro footprinting reveals that occupancy of HSE2 and -3 by Saccharomyces cerevisiae HSF (ScHSF) is enhanced ∼100-fold through cooperative interactions with the HSF-HSE1 complex. HSE1 point mutants, whose basal transcription is virtually abolished, are functionally compensated by cooperative interactions with HSE2 and -3 following heat shock, resulting in robust inducibility. Using a competition binding assay, we show that the affinity of recombinant HSF for the full-length HSP82promoter is reduced nearly an order of magnitude by a single-point mutation within HSE1, paralleling the effect of these mutations on noninduced transcript levels. We propose that the remodeled chromatin phenotype previously shown for HSE1 point mutants (and lost in HSE1 deletion mutants) stems from the retention of productive, cooperative interactions between HSF and its target binding sites

Flows and Solitary Waves in Unitary Matrix Models with Logarithmic Potentials

We investigate unitary one-matrix models coupled to bosonic quarks. We derive a flow equation for the square-root of the specific heat as a function of the renormalized quark mass. We show numerically that the flows have a finite number of solitary waves, and we postulate that their number equals the number of quark flavors. We also study the nonperturbative behavior of this theory and show that as the number of flavors diverges, the flow does not reach two-dimensional gravity.Comment: 26 pages + 4 figure

Solitons in Noncommutative Gauge Theory

We present a unified treatment of classical solutions of noncommutative gauge theories. We find all solutions of the noncommutative Yang-Mills equations in 2 dimensions; and show that they are labelled by two integers -- the rank of gauge group and the magnetic charge. The magnetic vortex solutions are unstable in 2+1 dimensions, but correspond to the full, stable BPS solutions of N=4 U(1) noncommutative gauge theory in 4 dimensions, that describes N infinite D1 strings that pierce a D3 brane at various points, in the presence of a background B field in the Seiberg-Witten limit. We discuss the behaviour of gauge invariant observables in the background of the solitons. We use these solutions to construct a panoply of BPS and non-BPS solutions of supersymmetric gauge theories that describe various configurations of D-branes. We analyze the instabilities of the non-BPS solutions. We also present an exact analytic solution of noncommutative gauge theory that describes a U(2) monopole.Comment: 37pp. harvmac big mod

Dynamics of Strings in Noncommutative Gauge Theory

We continue our study of solitons in noncommutative gauge theories and present an extremely simple BPS solution of N=4 U(1) noncommutative gauge theory in 4 dimensions, which describes N infinite D1 strings that pierce a D3 brane at various points, in the presence of a background B-field in the Seiberg-Witten limit. We call this solution the N-fluxon. For N=1 we calculate the complete spectrum of small fluctuations about the fluxon and find three kinds of modes: the fluctuations of the superstring in 10 dimensions arising from fundamental strings attached to the D1strings, the ordinary particles of the gauge theory in 4 dimensions and a set of states with discrete spectrum, localized at the intersection point--- corresponding to fundamental strings stretched between the D1string and the D3 brane. We discuss the fluctuations about theN-fluxon as well and derive explicit expressions for the amplitudes of interactions between these various modes. We show that translations in noncommutative gauge theories are equivalent to gauge transformations (plus a constant shift of the gauge field) and discuss the implications for the translational zeromodes of our solitons. We also find the dyonic versions of N-fluxon, as well as of our previous string-monopole solution.Comment: 30pp. ; v2. references added, a few typos correcte

Monopoles and Strings in Noncommutative Gauge Theory

We study some non-perturbative aspects of noncommutative gauge theories. We find analytic solutions of the equations of motion, for noncommutative U(1) gauge theory, that describe magnetic monopoles with a finite tension string attached. These solutions are non-singular, finite and sourceless. We identify the string with the projection of a D-string ending on a D3-brane in the presence of a constant B-field.Comment: harvmac, 37 pp; v2. tension matched, typos corrected, refs adde

Gravitational effects in ultrahigh-energy string scattering

Ultrahigh-energy string scattering is investigated to clarify the relative role of string and gravitational effects, and their possible contributions to nonlocal behavior. Different regimes can be characterized by varying the impact parameter at fixed energy. In the regime where momentum transfers reach the string scale, string effects appear subdominant to higher-loop gravitational processes, approximated via the eikonal. At smaller impact parameters, "diffractive" or "tidal" string excitation leads to processes dominated by highly excited strings. However, new evidence is presented that these excitation effects do not play a direct role in black hole formation, which corresponds to breakdown of gravitational perturbation theory and appears to dominate at sufficiently small impact parameters. The estimated amplitudes violate expected bounds on high-energy behavior for local theories.Comment: 19 pages, harvmac. v2: fixed typos, added refs and discussion of longitudinal spread. v3: minor changes to agree with published versio

Two-Matrix model with ABAB interaction

Using recently developed methods of character expansions we solve exactly in the large N limit a new two-matrix model of hermitean matrices A and B with the action S={1\over 2}(\tr A^2+\tr B^2)-{\alpha\over 4}(\tr A^4+\tr B^4) -{\beta\over 2} \tr(AB)^2. This model can be mapped onto a special case of the 8-vertex model on dynamical planar graphs. The solution is parametrized in terms of elliptic functions. A phase transition is found: the critical point is a conformal field theory with central charge c=1 coupled to 2D quantum gravity.Comment: harvmac, 24 pages, 5 figures (1 color figure

Nurse Anesthetists in Southeastern Kentucky: A Survey of Supply Versus Demand

Examines the geographic maldistribution of nurse anesthetists in Kentucky and the status of their positions and vacancies at all 19 hospitals in the southeastern part of the state. UK Center for Excellence in Rural Health-Hazard researchers found that southeastern Kentucky has 12.5 percent of Kentucky’s total population and performs 11.5 percent of the state’s total surgeries - but has only 6.5 percent of the state’s total resident nurse anesthetists