The design of caring environments and the quality of life of older people

There has been little systematic research into the design of care environments for older people. This article reviews empirical studies from both the architectural and the psychological literature. It outlines the instruments that are currently available for measuring both the environment and the quality of life of older people, and it summarises the evidence on the layout of buildings, the sensory environment and the privacy of residents. The conclusion is drawn that all evidence-based design must be a compromise or dynamic and, as demands on the caring environment change over time, this compromise must be re-visited in the form of post-occupancy evaluation

Dark Matter in Gauge Mediation from Emergent Supersymmetry

We investigated the viability of neutralino dark matter in the gauge mediation from emergent supersymmetry proposal. In this proposal, supersymmetry is broken at Planck scale and consequently, the gravitino is superheavy and completely decouples from the low energy theory. Squarks and sleptons obtain their soft masses dominantly through gauge mediation with other mechanisms highly suppressed. The lightest supersymmetric partner, in contrast to traditional gauge mediation, is a neutralino which is also a dark matter candidate. By explicit calculation of the low energy spectra, the parameter space was constrained using the WMAP observed relic density of dark matter, LEP2 Higgs mass bounds, collider bounds on supersymmetric partners and exotic B-meson decays. We found that the model has intriguing hybrid features such as a nearly gauge-mediated spectrum (the exception being the superheavy gravitino) but with a dominant mSUGRA-like bino-stau coannihilation channel and at large $\tan \beta$, A-resonance-like annihilation.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure

Kl3γ+K^+_{l3\gamma} decays revisited: branching ratios and T-odd momenta correlations

We calculate the branching ratios of the $K^+ \to \pi^0 l^+ \nu_l\gamma (l = e, \mu)$ decays, and the T-odd triple momenta correlations $\xi=\vec{q}\cdot[\vec{p}_l \times \vec{p}_\pi]/M^3_K$, due to the electromagnetic final state interaction, in these processes. The contributions on the order of $\omega^{-1}$ and $\omega^0$ to the corresponding amplitudes are treated exactly. For the branching ratios, the corrections on the order of $\omega$ are estimated and demonstrated to be small. We compare the results with those of other authors. In some cases our results differ considerably from the previous ones.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures; references adde

Searching for Composite Neutrinos in the Cosmic Microwave Background

We analyze signals in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) in theories where the small Dirac neutrino masses arise as a consequence of the compositeness of right-handed neutrinos. In such theories, the right-handed neutrinos are massless ``baryons'' of a new strong gauge interaction. We find that the results crucially depend on whether or not the new strong sector undergoes chiral symmetry breaking. In the case with chiral symmetry breaking, we find that there are indeed signals in the CMB, but none of them is a direct consequence of neutrino compositeness. In contrast, if the underlying theory does not undergo chiral symmetry breaking, the large scattering cross-section among the composites gives rise to a sizable CMB signal over a wide region of the parameter space, and it can potentially probe whether the neutrino mass spectrum is hierarchical, inverse hierarchical, or degenerate. We also discuss collider constraints on the compositeness in the context of the CMB signals.Comment: 26 pages. References and clarifying comments added. Version appearing to JHE

Bs(d)0−Bˉs(d)0B^0_{s(d)} - \bar{B}^0_{s(d)} mixing and new physics effects in a top quark two-Higgs doublet model

We calculate the new physics contributions to the neutral $B_d^0$ and $B_s^0$ meson mass splitting $\Delta M_d$ and $\Delta M_s$ induced by the box diagrams involving the charged-Higgs bosons in the top quark two-Higgs doublet model (T2HDM). Using the precision data, we obtain the bounds on the parameter space of the T2HDM: (a) for fixed $M_H=400$ GeV and $\delta=[0^\circ,60^\circ]$, the upper bound on $\tan{\beta}$ is $\tan \beta \leq 30$ after the inclusion of major theoretical uncertainties; (b) for the case of $\tan{\beta} \leq 20$, a light charged Higgs boson with a mass around 300 GeV is allowed; and (c) the bounds on $\tan{\beta}$ and $M_H$ are strongly correlated: a smaller (larger) $\tan{\beta}$ means a lighter (heavier) charged Higgs boson.Comment: 11 pages, 2 EPS figures, RevTex, new references adde

Use of personal child health records in the UK: findings from the millennium cohort study.

OBJECTIVES: The personal child health record (PCHR) is a record of a child's growth, development, and uptake of preventive health services, designed to enhance communication between parents and health professionals. We examined its use throughout the United Kingdom with respect to recording children's weight and measures of social disadvantage and infant health. DESIGN: Cross sectional survey within a cohort study. SETTING: UK. PARTICIPANTS: Mothers of 18,503 children born between 2000 and 2002, living in the UK at 9 months of age. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Proportion of mothers able to produce their child's PCHR; proportion of PCHRs consulted containing record of child's last weight; effective use of the PCHR (defined as production, consultation, and child's last weight recorded). RESULTS: In all, 16,917 (93%) mothers produced their child's PCHR and 15,138 (85%) mothers showed effective use of their child's PCHR. Last weight was recorded in 97% of PCHRs consulted. Effective use was less in children previously admitted to hospital, and, in association with factors reflecting social disadvantage, including residence in disadvantaged communities, young maternal age, large family size (four or more children; incidence rate ratio 0.87; 95% confidence interval 0.83 to 0.91), and lone parent status (0.88; 0.86 to 0.91). CONCLUSIONS: Use of the PCHR is lower by women living in disadvantaged circumstances, but overall the record is retained and used by a high proportion of all mothers throughout the UK in their child's first year of life. PCHR use is endorsed in the National Service Framework for Children and has potential benefits which extend beyond the direct care of individual children

Hunting the Scalar Glueball: Prospects for BES III

The search for the ground state scalar glueball G_0 is reviewed. Spin zero glueballs will have unique dynamical properties if the amplitude is suppressed by chiral symmetry, as it is to all orders in perturbation theory: for instance, mixing of G_0 with \bar qq mesons would be suppressed, radiative J/psi decay would be a filter for new physics in the spin zero channel, and the decay G_0 \to \bar KK could be enhanced relative to G_0 \to \pi \pi. These properties are consistent with the identification of f_0(1710) as the largely unmixed ground state scalar glueball, while recent BES data implies that f_0(1500) does not contain the dominant glueball admixture. Three hypotheses are discussed: that G_0 is 1) predominantly f_0(1500) or 2) predominantly f_0(1710) or 3) is strongly mixed between f_0(1500) and f_0(1710).Comment: 10 pages, talk presented at CHARM 2006, Beijing IHEP, June 5-7, 2006, to be published in the proceeding

Evaluation of subcutaneous proleukin (Interleukin-2) in a randomized international trial (ESPRIT): Geographical and gender differences in the baseline characteristics of participants

Background: ESPRIT, is a phase III, open-label, randomized, international clinical trial evaluating the effects of subcutaneous recombinant interleukin-2 (rIL-2) plus antiretroviral therapy (ART) versus ART alone on HIV-disease progression and death in HIV-1-infected individuals with CD4+ T-cells ≥300 cells/μL. Objectives: To describe the baseline characteristics of participants randomized to ESPRIT overall and by geographic location. Method: Baseline characteristics of randomized participants were summarized by region. Results: 4,150 patients were enrolled in ESPRIT from 254 sites in 25 countries. 41%, 27%, 16%, 11%, and 5% were enrolled in Europe, North America, South America, Asia, and Australia, respectively. The median age was 40 years, 81% were men, and 76%, 11%, and 9% were Caucasian, Asian, and African American or African, respectively. 44% of women enrolled (n = 769) were enrolled in Thailand and Argentina. Overall, 55% and 38% of the cohort acquired HIV through male homosexual and heterosexual contact, respectively. 25% had a prior history of AIDS-defining illness; Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia, M. tuberculosis, and esophageal candida were most commonly reported. Median nadir and baseline CD4+ T-cell counts were 199 and 458 cells/μL, respectively. 6% and 13% were hepatitis B or C virus coinfected, respectively. Median duration of antiretroviral therapy (ART) was 4.2 years; the longest median duration was in Australia (5.2 years) and the shortest was in Asia (2.3 years). 17%, 13%, and 69% of participants began ART before 1995, between 1996 and 1997, and from 1998 onward, respectively. 86% used ART from two or more ART classes, with 49% using a protease inhibitor-based regimen and 46% using a nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor-based regimen. 78% had plasma HIV RNA below detection (<500 cp/mL). Conclusion: ESPRIT has enrolled a diverse population of HIV-infected individuals including large populations of women and patients of African-American/African and Asian ethnicity often underrepresented in HIV research. As a consequence, the results of the study may have wide global applicability