Relating the Cosmological Constant and Supersymmetry Breaking in Warped Compactifications of IIB String Theory

It has been suggested that the observed value of the cosmological constant is related to the supersymmetry breaking scale M_{susy} through the formula Lambda \sim M_p^4 (M_{susy}/M_p)^8. We point out that a similar relation naturally arises in the codimension two solutions of warped space-time varying compactifications of string theory in which non-isotropic stringy moduli induce a small but positive cosmological constant.Comment: 7 pages, LaTeX, references added and minor changes made, (v3) map between deSitter and global cosmic brane solutions clarified, supersymmetry breaking discussion improved and references adde

Memory Effects and Scaling Laws in Slowly Driven Systems

This article deals with dynamical systems depending on a slowly varying parameter. We present several physical examples illustrating memory effects, such as metastability and hysteresis, which frequently appear in these systems. A mathematical theory is outlined, which allows to show existence of hysteresis cycles, and determine related scaling laws.Comment: 28 pages (AMS-LaTeX), 18 PS figure

Patient organizations and primary care development: reflections by patients with chronic diseases

To explore how patients with chronic diseases, as well as members of patient organizations, perceive primary care and how they think about how to participate in primary care development. Focus group interviews with 28 patients in three regions in Sweden were conducted. We identified four themes: Availability of care, How to be met by professionals, Information needs and Continuity and prevention in care. Important was to meet the same doctor at every visit and to be met with empathy and knowledge about your disease. Suggestions about better use of technical information services, introduction of a coordinator in the waiting room and longer and varied open hours came up. The information needs for newly diagnosed and those with a long disease trajectory differed and care treatment plans were asked for by many participants. Discussions between patient organizations about how to participate in education of health care professionals were recommended. Patients’ with chronic diseases want to take more active part in their own care. By promoting more contacts between patient organizations, influence on the politic agendas may be achieved. To achieve effects, the patient organizations should be proposed to be included and to activate themselves about these results. If so, a stronger patient voice may be heard in the society. A change in the paternalistic philosophy in primary health care is also needed so the patients’ rights and contribution will be acknowledged and joint education with health professionals could be one way

Metastability in Interacting Nonlinear Stochastic Differential Equations II: Large-N Behaviour

We consider the dynamics of a periodic chain of N coupled overdamped particles under the influence of noise, in the limit of large N. Each particle is subjected to a bistable local potential, to a linear coupling with its nearest neighbours, and to an independent source of white noise. For strong coupling (of the order N^2), the system synchronises, in the sense that all oscillators assume almost the same position in their respective local potential most of the time. In a previous paper, we showed that the transition from strong to weak coupling involves a sequence of symmetry-breaking bifurcations of the system's stationary configurations, and analysed in particular the behaviour for coupling intensities slightly below the synchronisation threshold, for arbitrary N. Here we describe the behaviour for any positive coupling intensity \gamma of order N^2, provided the particle number N is sufficiently large (as a function of \gamma/N^2). In particular, we determine the transition time between synchronised states, as well as the shape of the "critical droplet", to leading order in 1/N. Our techniques involve the control of the exact number of periodic orbits of a near-integrable twist map, allowing us to give a detailed description of the system's potential landscape, in which the metastable behaviour is encoded

On the Instanton Contributions to the Masses and Couplings of E6E_6 Singlets

We consider the gauge neutral matter in the low--energy effective action for string theory compactification on a \cym\ with $(2,2)$ world--sheet supersymmetry. At the classical level these states (the \sing's of $E_6$) correspond to the cohomology group H^1(\M,{\rm End}\>T). We examine the first order contribution of instantons to the mass matrix of these particles. In principle, these corrections depend on the \K\ parameters $t_i$ through factors of the form e^{2\p i t_i} and also depend on the complex structure parameters. For simplicity we consider in greatest detail the quintic threefold \cp4[5]. It follows on general grounds that the total mass is often, and perhaps always, zero. The contribution of individual instantons is however nonzero and the contribution of a given instanton may develop poles associated with instantons coalescing for certain values of the complex structure. This can happen when the underlying \cym\ is smooth. Hence these poles must cancel between the coalescing instantons in order that the superpotential be finite. We examine also the \Y\ couplings involving neutral matter \ysing\ and neutral and charged fields \ymix, which have been little investigated even though they are of phenomenological interest. We study the general conditions under which these couplings vanish classically. We also calculate the first--order world--sheet instanton correction to these couplings and argue that these also vanish.Comment: 40 pages, plain TeX with epsf, one uuencoded figur

Mechanics of universal horizons

Modified gravity models such as Ho\v{r}ava-Lifshitz gravity or Einstein-{\ae}ther theory violate local Lorentz invariance and therefore destroy the notion of a universal light cone. Despite this, in the infrared limit both models above possess static, spherically symmetric solutions with "universal horizons" - hypersurfaces that are causal boundaries between an interior region and asymptotic spatial infinity. In other words, there still exist black hole solutions. We construct a Smarr formula (the relationship between the total energy of the spacetime and the area of the horizon) for such a horizon in Einstein-{\ae}ther theory. We further show that a slightly modified first law of black hole mechanics still holds with the relevant area now a cross-section of the universal horizon. We construct new analytic solutions for certain Einstein-{\ae}ther Lagrangians and illustrate how our results work in these exact cases. Our results suggest that holography may be extended to these theories despite the very different causal structure as long as the universal horizon remains the unique causal boundary when matter fields are added.Comment: Minor clarifications. References update

Inhibition of Nuclear Factor of Activated T-Cells (NFAT) Suppresses Accelerated Atherosclerosis in Diabetic Mice

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY: Diabetic patients have a much more widespread and aggressive form of atherosclerosis and therefore, higher risk for myocardial infarction, peripheral vascular disease and stroke, but the molecular mechanisms leading to accelerated damage are still unclear. Recently, we showed that hyperglycemia activates the transcription factor NFAT in the arterial wall, inducing the expression of the pro-atherosclerotic protein osteopontin. Here we investigate whether NFAT activation may be a link between diabetes and atherogenesis. METHODOLOGY AND PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetes in apolipoprotein E(-/-) mice resulted in 2.2 fold increased aortic atherosclerosis and enhanced pro-inflammatory burden, as evidenced by elevated blood monocytes, endothelial activation- and inflammatory markers in aorta, and pro-inflammatory cytokines in plasma. In vivo treatment with the NFAT blocker A-285222 for 4 weeks completely inhibited the diabetes-induced aggravation of atherosclerosis, having no effect in non-diabetic mice. STZ-treated mice exhibited hyperglycemia and higher plasma cholesterol and triglycerides, but these were unaffected by A-285222. NFAT-dependent transcriptional activity was examined in aorta, spleen, thymus, brain, heart, liver and kidney, but only augmented in the aorta of diabetic mice. A-285222 completely blocked this diabetes-driven NFAT activation, but had no impact on the other organs or on splenocyte proliferation or cytokine secretion, ruling out systemic immunosuppression as the mechanism behind reduced atherosclerosis. Instead, NFAT inhibition effectively reduced IL-6, osteopontin, monocyte chemotactic protein 1, intercellular adhesion molecule 1, CD68 and tissue factor expression in the arterial wall and lowered plasma IL-6 in diabetic mice. CONCLUSIONS: Targeting NFAT signaling may be a novel and attractive approach for the treatment of diabetic macrovascular complications