Cumulative Risk and a Call for Action in Environmental Justice Communities

Health disparities, social inequalities, and environmental injustice cumulatively affect individual and community vulnerability and overall health; yet health researchers, social scientists and environmental scientists generally study them separately. Cumulative risk assessment in poor, racially segregated, economically isolated and medically underserved communities needs to account for their multiple layers of vulnerability, including greater susceptibility, greater exposure, less preparedness to cope, and less ability to recover in the face of exposure. Recommendations for evidence-based action in environmental justice communities include: reducing pollution in communities of highest burden; building on community resources; redressing inequality when doing community-based research; and creating a screening framework to identify communities of greatest risk

Relics of Supersymmetry in Ordinary 1-flavor QCD: Hairpin Diagrams and Scalar-Pseudoscalar Degeneracy

The large-$N_c$ orientifold planar equivalence between $\mathcal{N}=1$ SUSY Yang-Mills theory and ordinary 1-flavor QCD suggests that low-energy quark-gluon dynamics in QCD should be constrained by the supersymmetry of the parent theory. One SUSY relic expected from orientifold equivalence is the approximate degeneracy of the scalar and pseudoscalar mesons in 1-flavor QCD. Here we study the role of the $q\bar{q}$ annihilation (hairpin) contributions to the meson correlators. These annihilation terms induce mass shifts of opposite sign in the scalar and pseudoscalar channels, making degeneracy plausible. Calculations of valence and hairpin correlators in quenched lattice QCD are consistent with approximate degeneracy, although the errors on the scalar hairpin are large. We also study the role of $q\bar{q}$ annihilation in the 1- and 2-flavor Nambu-Jona Lasinio model, where annihilation terms arise from the chiral field determinant representing the axial U(1) anomaly. Scalar-pseudoscalar degeneracy for the 1-flavor case reduces to a constraint on the relative size of the anomalous and non-anomalous 4-fermion couplings.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figure

The Latino Health Insurance Program: A Pilot Intervention for Enrolling Latino Families in Health Insurance Programs, East Boston, Massachusetts, 2006-2007

BACKGROUND. Thirteen percent of Latinos in Massachusetts lack health insurance, the highest rate of any ethnic or racial group. Families without health insurance are more likely to be in poor or fair health, to lack a regular medical provider, and to not have visited a medical provider in the past year. CONTEXT. The Latino Health Insurance Program is designed as a response both to the high rate of uninsurance among Latinos in Boston and to the multiple obstacles that keep Latino parents from applying for insurance for their families. METHODS. In 2006, we designed and implemented a culturally competent model of health insurance outreach, education, enrollment and maintenance, and referral for primary care and social services for Latino families. CONSEQUENCES. Year 1 results of the Latino Health Insurance Program are promising. Six community members were hired and trained as case managers. A total of 230 children and adults were enrolled or re-enrolled in health insurance programs and received other needed services. Retention was near 100% after 1 year. INTERPRETATION. The Latino Health Insurance Program may serve as a model health insurance access program that can be adapted by community-based organizations and also can be incorporated into public agency programs for Latinos and other immigrant and minority groups. The program continues to serve East Boston residents and was expanded in 2008.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U48 DP000058-03

Fractionally charged Wilson loops as a probe of θ\theta-dependence in CPN−1CP^{N-1} sigma models: Instantons vs. large N

The behavior of Wilson loops with fractional charge is used to study the $\theta$-dependence of the free energy density $\epsilon(\theta)$ for the $CP^1$, $CP^5$, and $CP^9$ sigma models in two spacetime dimensions. The function $\epsilon(\theta)$ is extracted from the area law for a Wilson loop of charge $q=\theta/2\pi$. For $CP^1$, $\epsilon(\theta)$ is smooth in the region $\theta\approx\pi$ and well-described by a dilute instanton gas throughout the range $0<\theta<2\pi$. For $CP^5$ and $CP^9$ the energy exhibits a clear cusp and evidence for discrete, degenerate vacua at $\theta = \pi$, as expected from large $N$ arguments. For $CP^9$ the $\theta$-dependence is in good quantitative agreement with the leading order large $N$ prediction $\epsilon(\theta)={1/2}\chi_t\theta^2$ throughout the range $0<\theta<\pi$.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figure

Langevin Equation for the Rayleigh model with finite-ranged interactions

Both linear and nonlinear Langevin equations are derived directly from the Liouville equation for an exactly solvable model consisting of a Brownian particle of mass $M$ interacting with ideal gas molecules of mass $m$ via a quadratic repulsive potential. Explicit microscopic expressions for all kinetic coefficients appearing in these equations are presented. It is shown that the range of applicability of the Langevin equation, as well as statistical properties of random force, may depend not only on the mass ratio $m/M$ but also by the parameter $Nm/M$, involving the average number $N$ of molecules in the interaction zone around the particle. For the case of a short-ranged potential, when $N\ll 1$, analysis of the Langevin equations yields previously obtained results for a hard-wall potential in which only binary collisions are considered. For the finite-ranged potential, when multiple collisions are important ($N\gg 1$), the model describes nontrivial dynamics on time scales that are on the order of the collision time, a regime that is usually beyond the scope of more phenomenological models.Comment: 21 pages, 1 figure. To appear in Phys. Rev.