A Single Scale Theory for Cold and Hot Dark Matter

We show that a recently proposed extension of the MSSM can provide a scenario where both the cold and hot dark matter of the universe owe their origin to a single scale connected with the breakdown of the global B-L symmetry. The susy partner of the majoron and the light Majorana neutrinos are the cold and hot dark matter candidates respectively in this model and their desired relative abundances emerge when the scale of B-L symmetry breaking is in the TeV range.Comment: UMD-PP-94-102 (latex file; 15 pages

Quantum phase transition in the Frenkel-Kontorova chain: from pinned instanton glass to sliding phonon gas

We study analytically and numerically the one-dimensional quantum Frenkel-Kontorova chain in the regime when the classical model is located in the pinned phase characterized by the gaped phonon excitations and devil's staircase. By extensive quantum Monte Carlo simulations we show that for the effective Planck constant $\hbar$ smaller than the critical value $\hbar_c$ the quantum chain is in the pinned instanton glass phase. In this phase the elementary excitations have two branches: phonons, separated from zero energy by a finite gap, and instantons which have an exponentially small excitation energy. At $\hbar=\hbar_c$ the quantum phase transition takes place and for $\hbar>\hbar_c$ the pinned instanton glass is transformed into the sliding phonon gas with gapless phonon excitations. This transition is accompanied by the divergence of the spatial correlation length and appearence of sliding modes at $\hbar>\hbar_c$.Comment: revtex 16 pages, 18 figure

The absolute infrared magnitudes of type Ia supernovae

The absolute luminosities and homogeneity of early-time infrared (IR) light curves of type Ia supernovae are examined. Eight supernovae are considered. These are selected to have accurately known epochs of maximum blue light as well as having reliable distance estimates and/or good light curve coverage. Two approaches to extinction correction are considered. Owing to the low extinction in the IR, the differences in the corrections via the two methods are small. Absolute magnitude light curves in the J, H and K-bands are derived. Six of the events, including five established ``Branch-normal'' supernovae show similar coeval magnitudes. Two of these, SNe 1989B and 1998bu, were observed near maximum infrared light. This occurs about 5 days {\it before} maximum blue light. Absolute peak magnitudes of about -19.0, -18.7 and -18.8 in J, H & K respectively were obtained. The two spectroscopically peculiar supernovae in the sample, SNe 1986G and 1991T, also show atypical IR behaviour. The light curves of the six similar supernovae can be represented fairly consistently with a single light curve in each of the three bands. In all three IR bands the dispersion in absolute magnitude is about 0.15 mag, and this can be accounted for within the uncertainties of the individual light curves. No significant variation of absolute IR magnitude with B-band light curve decline rate, Delta m_{15}(B), is seen over the range 0.87<Delta m_{15}(B)<1.31. However, the data are insufficient to allow us to decide whether or not the decline rate relation is weaker in the IR than in the optical region. IR light curves of type Ia supernovae should eventually provide cosmological distance estimates which are of equal or even superior quality to those obtained in optical studies.Comment: 19 pages, 9 figures, MNRAS in press (includes Referee's changes

Cost Effectiveness of a Pharmacy-Only Refill Program in a Large Urban HIV/AIDS Clinic in Uganda

HIV/AIDS clinics in Uganda and other low-income countries face increasing numbers of patients and workforce shortages. We performed a cost-effectiveness analysis comparing a Pharmacy-only Refill Program (PRP), a form of task-shifting, to the Standard of Care (SOC) at a large HIV/AIDS clinic in Uganda, the Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI). The PRP was started to reduce workforce shortages and optimize patient care by substituting pharmacy visits for SOC involving monthly physician visits for accessing antiretroviral medicines.We used a retrospective cohort analysis to compare the effectiveness of the PRP compared to SOC. Effectiveness was defined as Favorable Immune Response (FIR), measured as having a CD4 lymphocyte count of over 500 cells/µl at follow-up. We used multivariate logistic regression to assess the difference in FIR between patients in the PRP and SOC. We incorporated estimates of effectiveness into an incremental cost-effectiveness analysis performed from a limited societal perspective. We estimated costs from previous studies at IDI and conducted univariate and probabilistic sensitivity analyses. We identified 829 patients, 578 in the PRP and 251 in SOC. After 12.8 months (PRP) and 15.1 months (SOC) of follow-up, 18.9% of patients had a FIR, 18.6% in the PRP and 19.6% in SOC. There was a non-significant 9% decrease in the odds of having a FIR for PRP compared to SOC after adjusting for other variables (OR 0.93, 95% CI 0.55-1.58). The PRP was less costly than the SOC (US$520 vs. 655 annually, respectively). The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio comparing PRP to SOC was US$ 13,500 per FIR. PRP remained cost-effective at univariate and probabilistic sensitivity analysis.The PRP is more cost-effective than the standard of care. Similar task-shifting programs might help large HIV/AIDS clinics in Uganda and other low-income countries to cope with increasing numbers of patients seeking care

Change in left ventricular geometry during antihypertensive treatment in children with primary hypertension

The pattern of the left ventricle (LV) has important significance in adults with hypertension. The aim of the present study was to analyze changes and determinants of LV geometry after 1 year of antihypertensive treatment in children with primary hypertension (PH) in relation to metabolic abnormalities and anthropometrical parameters. In 86 children (14.1 ± 2.4 years) with newly diagnosed PH, LV geometry and biochemical parameters before and after 12 months of standard antihypertensive therapy were assessed. At baseline, normal LV geometry (NG) was found in 42 (48.9%), concentric remodeling (CR) in 4 (4.6%), concentric hypertrophy (CH) in 8 (9.3%), and eccentric hypertrophy (EH) in 32 (37.2%) patients. The prevalence of NG in patients with severe hypertension was significantly lower than in patients with ambulatory hypertension. There were no differences in dipping status in relation to LV geometry. Patients with CH and EH were more viscerally obese than patients with NG. Patients with CH had higher diastolic blood pressure in comparison with EH patients (p < 0.05). The main predictor of relative wall thickness (RWT) was the triglycerides to high density lipoprotein cholesterol (TG/HDL) ratio (R2 = 0.319, β = 0.246, p = 0.004). Patients received 12 months of antihypertensive treatment, either lifestyle modification only (n = 37) or lifestyle modification plus antihypertensive medications (n = 49) if severe ambulatory hypertension or target organ damage were present. After 12 months of treatment the prevalence of EH (37.2% vs 18.6%, p = 0.003) decreased but prevalence of CH did not change. Patients in whom RWT decreased also decreased waist circumference and TG/HDL; the main predictor of RWT decrease was a decrease of the TG/HDL ratio (β = 0.496, R2 = 0.329, p = 0.002). In adolescents with PH, LV geometry is related to central obesity and insulin resistance. Decrease of abdominal obesity and insulin resistance are the most important predictors of normalization of LV geometry, however CH has lower potential to normalize LV geometry

Supernova Bounds on Resonant Active-Sterile Neutrino Conversions

We discuss the effects of resonant $\nu_e \to \nu_s$ and $\bar{\nu}_e \to \bar{\nu}_s$ ($\nu_s$ is a sterile neutrino) conversions in the dense medium of a supernova. In particular, we assume the sterile neutrino $\nu_s$ to be in the hot dark matter few eV mass range. The implications of such a scenario for the supernova shock re-heating, the detected $\bar\nu_e$ signal from SN1987A and for the r-process nucleosynthesis hypothesis are analysed in some detail. The resulting constraints on mixing and mass difference for the $\nu_e-\nu_s$ system are derived. There is also an allowed region in the neutrino parameter space for which the r-process nucleosynthesis can be enhanced.Comment: Latex file, 27 pages including 10 ps figures, uses psfig.sty. Few references added, some change in the Acknowledgements and some minor corrections in the tex

Pergamon Press Lid,I 1984 Pattern Recognition Society

Abstract--We describe the current status of an ongoing research effort to develop a geographic information system based on quadtrees. Quadtree encodings were constructed for area, point and line features for a small area in Northern California. The encoding used was a variant of the linear quadtree. The implementation used a B-tree to organize the list of leaves and allow management of trees too large to fit in core memory. Several database query functions have been implemented, including set operations, region property computations, map editing functions and map subset and windowing functions. A user of the system may access the database via an English-like query language. Quadtrees Geographic information systems Curve representatio