The Holographic Dual of 2+1 Dimensional QFTs with N=1 SUSY and Massive Fundamental Flavours

The Maldacena Nastase solution is generalised to include massive fundamental matter through the addition of a flavour profile. This gives a holographic dual to N=1 SYM-CS with massive fundamental matter with a singularity free IR. We study this solution in some detail confirming confinement and asymptotic freedom. A recently proposed solution generating technique is then applied which results in a new type-IIA supergravity solution. In a certain limit the geometry of this solution is asymptotically AdS_4X Y, where Y is the metric at the base of the Bryant-Salamon G_2 cone, which has topology S^3XS^3.Comment: 31 pages plus appendices, 6 figures. v3: Typos corrected, version to appear in JHE

Long-term ecological changes in Mediterranean mountain lakes linked to recent climate change and Saharan dust deposition revealed by diatom analyses

Anthropogenic climate change and the recent increase of Saharan dust deposition has had substantial effects on Mediterranean alpine regions. We examined changes in diatom assemblage composition over the past ~180 years from high-resolution, dated sediment cores retrieved from six remote lakes in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of Southern Spain. In all lakes, changes in diatom composition began over a century ago, but were more pronounced after ~1970 CE, concurrent with trends in rising regional air temperature, declining precipitation, and increased Saharan dust deposition. Temperature was identified as the main predictor of diatom assemblage changes, whereas both Saharan dust deposition drivers, the Sahel precipitation index and the winter North Atlantic Oscillation, were secondary explanatory variables. Diatom compositional shifts are indicative of lake alkalinization (linked to heightened evapoconcentration and an increase in calcium-rich Saharan dust input) and reduced lake water turbulence (linked to lower water levels and reduced inflows to the lakes). Moreover, decreases in epiphytic diatom species were indicative of increasing aridity and the drying of catchment meadows. Our results support the conclusions of previous chlorophyll-a and cladoceran-based paleolimnological analyses of these same dated sedimentary records which show a regional-scale response to climate change and Saharan dust deposition in Sierra Nevada lakes and their catchments during the 20th century. However, diatom assemblages seem to respond to different atmospheric and climate-related effects than cladoceran assemblages and chlorophyll-a concentrations. The recent impact of climate change and atmospheric Saharan deposition on lake biota assemblages and water chemistry, as well as catchment water availability, will have important implications for the valuable ecosystem services that the Sierra Nevada provides

Holographic duals of SQCD models in low dimensions

We obtain gravity duals to supersymmetric gauge theories in two and three spacetime dimensions with unquenched flavor. The supergravity solutions are generated by a set of color branes wrapping a compact cycle in a Calabi-Yau threefold, together with another set of flavor branes extended along the directions orthogonal to the cycle wrapped by the color branes. We construct supergravity backgrounds which include the backreaction induced by a smeared set of flavor branes, which act as delocalized dynamical sources of the different supergravity fields.Comment: 42 pages, 5 figures;v2: typos correcte

London calling Gaza: The role of international collaborations in the globalisation of postgraduate burn care education.

Burn injuries represent a significant epidemiological problem, with the vast majority occurring in low- to middle-income countries. These regions also represent areas where lack of socioeconomic growth and geopolitical instability pose additional barriers not only to healthcare provision but also to the acquisition of continuing professional development. Long-distance, web-based learning programmes ('tele-education') have been identified as a successful and powerful means of propagating up-to-date medical education and training in poor-resource, isolated or conflict-ridden regions. This report evaluates the role of tele-education in delivering a distance-learning Master's degree in Burn Care to a group of 11 healthcare professionals working in the occupied Palestinian territories (OPT), which was funded as part of a collaboration between Queen Mary University of London and IMET-Pal (International Medical Education Trust - Palestine). We present our experience in delivering the programme in a conflict-ridden part of the world, which includes the specific adaptations to tailor the programme to regional needs as well the unique challenges faced by students and faculty in enhancing the educational value of this unique initiative. The academic achievements of this group of healthcare professionals were found to be comparable to historical student cohorts from privileged socioeconomic backgrounds and the majority of students felt that participation in the programme contributed to a direct improvement to their daily burn care practices. The successful outcomes achieved by our students support the constantly emerging evidence that targeted, well-delivered, long-distance learning programmes can become powerful tools in combating inequalities in global healthcare and health education

D3/D7 Quark-Gluon Plasma with Magnetically Induced Anisotropy

We study the effects of the temperature and of a magnetic field in the setup of an intersection of D3/D7 branes, where a large number of D7 branes is smeared in the transverse directions to allow for a perturbative solution in a backreaction parameter. The magnetic field sources an anisotropy in the plasma, and we investigate its physical consequences for the thermodynamics and energy loss of particles probing the system. In particular we comment on the stress-energy tensor of the plasma, the propagation of sound in the directions parallel and orthogonal to the magnetic field, the drag force of a quark moving through the medium and jet quenching.Comment: 29 pages + appendices, 5 figures. v2 Version to appear in JHEP, with minor revisions, references added and typos correcte

A Discrete Choice Experiment to assess patients’ preferences for HIV treatment in the rural population in Colombia

"Aim: To elicit patients’ preferences for HIV treatment of the rural population in Colombia. Methods: A discrete choice experiment (DCE), conducted in a HIV clinic in Bogotá, was used to examine the trade-off between five HIV treatment attributes: effect on life expectancy, effect on physical activity, risk of moderate side-effects, accessibility to clinic, and economic costs to access controls. Attributes selection was based on literature review, expert consultation and a focus group with six patients. An efficient experimental design was used to define two versions of the questionnaire with each of 12 choice sets and a dominance task was added to check reliability. A mixed logit model was then used to analyse the data and sub-group analyses were conducted on the basis of age, gender, education, and sexual preference. Results: A total of 129 HIV patients were included for analysis. For all treatment attributes, significant differences between at least two levels were observed, meaning that all attributes were significant predictors of choice. Patients valued the effect on physical activity (conditional relative importance of 27.5%) and the effect on life expectancy (26.0%) the most. Sub-group analyses regard age and education showed significant differences: younger patients and high educated patients valued the effect on physical activity the most important, whereas older patients mostly valued the effect on life expectancy and low educated patients mostly valued the accessibility to clinic. Limitations: One potential limitation is selection bias, as only patients from one HIV clinic were reached. Additionally, questionnaires were partly administered in the waiting rooms, which potentially led to noise in the data. Conclusions: This study suggests that all HIV treatment characteristics included in this DCE were important and that HIV patients from rural Colombia valued short-term efficacy (i.e. effect on physical activity) and long-term efficacy (i.e. effect on life expectancy) the most. © 2020, © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor and Francis Group.

A Discrete Choice Experiment to assess patients’ preferences for HIV treatment in the urban population in Colombia

Aim: This study aimed to assess patients' preferences for HIV treatment in an urban Colombian population. Methods: A Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE) was conducted. Urban Colombian HIV patients were asked to repetitively choose between two hypothetical treatments that differ in regard to five attributes 'effect on life expectancy', 'effect on physical activity', 'risk of moderate side effects, 'accessibility to clinic' and 'economic cost to access controls'. Twelve choice sets were made using an efficient design. A Mixed Logit Panel Model was used for the analysis and subgroup analyses were performed according to age, gender, education level and sexual preference. Results: A total of 224 HIV patients were included. All attributes were significant, indicating that there were differences between at least two levels of each attribute. Patients preferred to be able to perform all physical activity without difficulty, to have large positive effects on life expectancy, to travel less than 2 h, to have lower risk of side-effects and to have subsidized travel costs. The attributes 'effect on physical activity' and 'effects on life expectancy' were deemed the most important. Sub-analyses showed that higher educated patients placed more importance on the large positive effects of HIV treatment, and a more negative preference for subsidized travel cost (5% level). Limitations: A potential limitation is selection bias as it is difficult to make a systematic urban/rural division of respondents. Additional, questionnaires were partly administered in the waiting rooms, which potentially led to some noise in the data. Conclusions: Findings suggests that short-term efficacy (i.e. effect on physical activity) and long-term efficacy (i.e. effect on life expectancy) are the most important treatment characteristics for HIV urban patients in Colombia. Preference data could provide relevant information for clinical and policy decision-making to optimize HIV care

Algorithm Engineering in Robust Optimization

Robust optimization is a young and emerging field of research having received a considerable increase of interest over the last decade. In this paper, we argue that the the algorithm engineering methodology fits very well to the field of robust optimization and yields a rewarding new perspective on both the current state of research and open research directions. To this end we go through the algorithm engineering cycle of design and analysis of concepts, development and implementation of algorithms, and theoretical and experimental evaluation. We show that many ideas of algorithm engineering have already been applied in publications on robust optimization. Most work on robust optimization is devoted to analysis of the concepts and the development of algorithms, some papers deal with the evaluation of a particular concept in case studies, and work on comparison of concepts just starts. What is still a drawback in many papers on robustness is the missing link to include the results of the experiments again in the design

The Non-SUSY Baryonic Branch: Soft Supersymmetry Breaking of N=1 Gauge Theories

We study a non-supersymmetric deformation of the field theory dual to the baryonic branch of Klebanov-Strassler. Using a combination of analytical (series expansions) and numerical methods we construct non-supersymmetric backgrounds that smoothly interpolate between the desired UV and IR behaviors. We calculate various observables of the field theory and propose a picture of soft breaking by gaugino masses that is consistent with the various calculations on the string side.Comment: 32 pages plus many appendixes. One figur