Transport theory with self-consistent confinement related to the lattice data

The space-time development of a quark-gluon plasma is calculated from a Vlasov equation for the distribution function of quasiparticles with medium dependent masses. At each space-time point the masses are calculated selfconsistently from a gap equation, whose form is determined by the requirement that in thermal equilibrium and for a range of temperatures the energy density of the quasi-particle system is identical to the one from lattice calculations . The numerical solutions of the Vlasov equation display confinement. Relations to effective theories like that by Friedberg Lee and Nambu Jona-Lasinio are established.Comment: 9 pages, 12 figure

Probing Electroweak Symmetry Breaking Mechanism at the LHC: A Guideline from Power Counting Analysis

We formulate the equivalence theorem as a theoretical criterion for sensitively probing the electroweak symmetry breaking mechanism, and develop a precise power counting method for the chiral Lagrangian formulated electroweak theories. Armed with these, we perform a systematic analysis on the sensitivities of the scattering processes $W^\pm W^\pm \rightarrow W^\pm W^\pm$ and $q\bar{q}'\rightarrow W^\pm Z$ for testing all possible effective bosonic operators in the chiral Lagrangian formulated electroweak theories at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The analysis shows that these two kinds of processes are "complementary" in probing the electroweak symmetry breaking sector.Comment: Extended version, 11-page-Latex-file and 3 separate PS-Figs. To be Published in Mod.Phys.Lett.

Patterns of Influenza Vaccination Coverage in the United States from 2009 to 2015

Background: Globally, influenza is a major cause of morbidity, hospitalization and mortality. Influenza vaccination has shown substantial protective effectiveness in the United States. We investigated state-level patterns of coverage rates of seasonal and pandemic influenza vaccination, among the overall population in the U.S. and specifically among children and the elderly, from 2009/10 to 2014/15, and associations with ecological factors. Methods and Findings: We obtained state-level influenza vaccination coverage rates from national surveys, and state-level socio-demographic and health data from a variety of sources. We employed a retrospective ecological study design, and used mixed-model regression to determine the levels of ecological association of the state-level vaccinations rates with these factors, both with and without region as a factor for the three populations. We found that health-care access is positively and significantly associated with mean influenza vaccination coverage rates across all populations and models. We also found that prevalence of asthma in adults are negatively and significantly associated with mean influenza vaccination coverage rates in the elderly populations. Conclusions: Health-care access has a robust, positive association with state-level vaccination rates across different populations. This highlights a potential population-level advantage of expanding health-care access.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure

Duality walls, duality trees and fractional branes

We compute the NSVZ beta functions for N = 1 four-dimensional quiver theories arising from D-brane probes on singularities, complete with anomalous dimensions, for a large set of phases in the corresponding duality tree. While these beta functions are zero for D-brane probes, they are non-zero in the presence of fractional branes. As a result there is a non-trivial RG behavior. We apply this running of gauge couplings to some toric singularities such as the cones over Hirzebruch and del Pezzo surfaces. We observe the emergence in string theory, of ``Duality Walls,'' a finite energy scale at which the number of degrees of freedom becomes infinite, and beyond which Seiberg duality does not proceed. We also identify certain quiver symmetries as T-duality-like actions in the dual holographic theory