Constraints on self-interacting Q-ball dark matter

We consider different types of Q-balls as self-interacting dark matter. For the Q-balls to act as the dark matter of the universe they should not evaporate, which requires them to carry very large charges; depending on the type, the minimum charge could be as high as Q \sim 10^{33} or the Q-ball coupling to ordinary matter as small as \sim 10^{-35}. The cross-section-to-mass ratio needed for self-interacting dark matter implies a mass scale of m \sim O(1) MeV for the quanta that the Q-balls consist of, which is very difficult to achieve in the MSSM.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figure

Fast Electroweak Symmetry Breaking and Cold Electroweak Baryogenesis

We construct a model for delayed electroweak symmetry breaking that takes place in a cold Universe with T<<100 GeV and which proceeds by a fast quench rather than by a conventional, slow, phase transition. This is achieved by coupling the Standard Model Higgs to an additional scalar field. We show that the quench transition can be made fast enough for successful Cold Electroweak Baryogenesis, while leaving known electroweak physics unchanged.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures. Section and extra checks added, conclusions unchanged. Published versio

Disparities in physical activity resource availability in six US regions

We conducted an ecologic study to determine physical activity resource availability overall and by sociodemographic groups in parts of six states (CA, IL, MD, MN, NC, NY). Data on parks and recreational facilities were collected from 3 sources in 2009–2012. Three measures characterized park and recreational facility availability at the census tract level: presence of ≥1 resource, number of resources, and resource kernel density. Associations between resource availability and census tract characteristics (predominant racial/ethnic group, median income, and proportion of children and older adults) were estimated using linear, binomial, and zero-inflated negative binomial regression in 2014. Pooled and stratified analyses were conducted. The study included 7,139 census tracts, comprising 9.5% of the 2010 US population. Overall the availability of parks and recreational facilities was lower in predominantly minority relative to non-Hispanic white census tracts. Low-income census tracts and those with a higher proportion of children had an equal or greater availability of park resources but fewer recreational facilities. Stratification revealed substantial variation in resource availability by state. The availability of physical activity resources varied by sociodemographic characteristics and across regions. Improved knowledge of resource distribution can inform strategies to provide equitable access to parks and recreational facilities

Neighborhood Social Resources and Depressive Symptoms: Longitudinal Results from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis

The ways in which a neighborhood environment may affect depression and depressive symptoms have not been thoroughly explored. This study used longitudinal data from 5475 adults in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis to investigate associations of time-varying depressive symptoms between 2000 and 2012 (measured using the 20-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D)) with survey-based measures of neighborhood safety and social cohesion (both individual-level perceptions and neighborhood-level aggregates) and densities of social engagement destinations. Linear mixed models were used to examine associations of baseline cross-sectional associations and cumulative exposures with changes over time in CES-D. Econometric fixed effects models were utilized to investigate associations of within-person changes in neighborhood exposures with within-person changes in CES-D. Adjusting for relevant covariates, higher safety and social cohesion and greater density of social engagement destinations were associated with lower CES-D at baseline. Greater cumulative exposure to these features was not associated with progression of CES-D over 10 years. Within-person increases in safety and in social cohesion were associated with decreases in CES-D, although associations with cohesion were not statistically significant. Social elements of neighborhoods should be considered by community planners and public health practitioners to achieve optimal mental health

Built environment change and change in BMI and waist circumference: Multi‐ethnic S tudy of A therosclerosis

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/109571/1/oby20873.pd

A truncation allele in vascular endothelial growth factor c reveals distinct modes of signaling during lymphatic and vascular development

Vascular endothelial growth factor C (Vegfc) is a secreted protein that guides lymphatic development in vertebrate embryos. However, its role during developmental angiogenesis is not well characterized. Here, we identify a mutation in zebrafish vegfc that severely affects lymphatic development and leads to angiogenesis defects on sensitized genetic backgrounds. The um18 mutation prematurely truncated Vegfc, blocking its secretion and paracrine activity but not its ability to activate its receptor Flt4. When expressed in endothelial cells, vegfc(um18) could not rescue lymphatic defects in mutant embryos, but induced ectopic blood vessel branching. Furthermore, vegfc-deficient endothelial cells did not efficiently contribute to tip cell positions in developing sprouts. Computational modeling together with assessment of endothelial cell dynamics by time-lapse analysis suggested that an autocrine Vegfc/Flt4 loop plays an important role in migratory persistence and filopodia stability during sprouting. Our results suggest that Vegfc acts in two distinct modes during development: as a paracrine factor secreted from arteries to guide closely associated lymphatic vasculature and as an autocrine factor to drive migratory persistence during angiogenesis

Electroweak Bubble Nucleation, Nonperturbatively

We present a lattice method to compute bubble nucleation rates at radiatively induced first order phase transitions, in high temperature, weakly coupled field theories, nonperturbatively. A generalization of Langer's approach, it makes no recourse to saddle point expansions and includes completely the dynamical prefactor. We test the technique by applying it to the electroweak phase transition in the minimal standard model, at an unphysically small Higgs mass which gives a reasonably strong phase transition (lambda/g^2 =0.036, which corresponds to m(Higgs)/m(W) = 0.54 at tree level but does not correspond to a positive physical Higgs mass when radiative effects of the top quark are included), and compare the results to older perturbative and other estimates. While two loop perturbation theory slightly under-estimates the strength of the transition measured by the latent heat, it over-estimates the amount of supercooling by a factor of 2.Comment: 48 pages, including 16 figures. Minor revisions and typo fixes, nothing substantial, conclusions essentially unchange

Influence of Inflammatory and Oxidative Stress Pathways on Longitudinal Symptom Experiences in Children With Leukemia

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of oxidative stress (F2-isoprostanes) and inflammatory (interleukin [IL]-8) biomarkers on symptom trajectories during the first 18 months of childhood leukemia treatment. Method: A repeated-measures design was used to evaluate symptoms experienced by 218 children during treatment. A symptom cluster (fatigue, pain, and nausea) was explored over four time periods: initiation of post-induction therapy, 4 and 8 months into post-induction therapy, and the beginning of maintenance therapy (12 months postinduction). F2-isoprostanes and IL-8 were evaluated in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples collected at baseline (diagnosis) and then at the four time periods. The longitudinal relationships of these biomarkers with the symptom cluster were examined using the longitudinal parallel process. Results: Pain and fatigue levels were highest during the post-induction phases of treatment and decreased slightly during maintenance therapy, while nausea scores were relatively stable. Even in the later phases of treatment, children continued to experience symptoms. CSF levels of the biomarkers increased during the post-induction phases of treatment. Early increases in the biomarkers were associated with more severe symptoms during the same period; patients who had increased biomarkers over time also experienced more severe symptoms over time. Conclusions: Findings reveal that children experienced symptoms throughout the course of leukemia treatment and support hypothesized longitudinal relationships of oxidative stress and inflammatory biomarkers with symptom severity. Activation of the biomarker pathways during treatment may explain underlying mechanisms of symptom experiences and identify which children are at risk for severe symptoms.National Institutes of Health [R01CA1693398]This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Old North Durham, Durham County : an action-oriented community diagnosis including secondary data analysis and qualitative data collection

What would you say if you were to receive a phone call from a graduate student saying that she or he along with five other students were conducting a community diagnosis of your neighborhood? Perhaps, you would ask what a community diagnosis was; maybe, you would wonder why it is they think that your neighborhood needs diagnosing; or, perhaps, you would think that these students should first concern themselves with their own "community." You would not have been alone in asking yourself these questions. We asked ourselves these questions and many others as we began our "community diagnosis" in the fall semester 2000. Community diagnosis is a required course in the Health Behavior and Health Education Department of the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina. It is a two-semester course designed to teach students how to conduct action-oriented community-based public health work. During the first semester, students assess the needs, strengths and concerns of the community to which they have been assigned. During the second semester, students engage more closely with community members as they conduct interviews and hold focus groups in their community. Towards the completion of our work, we give back to the community what it is that they told us. This is usually done through a community forum. The following document reports on our work in North Durham during the academic year 2000-2001. The report describes the methods that we used in our work, the meaning of community for us, secondary data that we found on Durham and North Durham, and the data gleaned from our interviews with service providers and community members. The report concludes by describing our community forum and recommendations and conclusions from our work. We were not exactly sure where community diagnosis would lead us when the six of us were handed a sheet of paper with two important words written there on: North Durham. What does it mean? "North Durham County," we pondered. "northern Durham, the city," we asked. We soon discovered that it meant the city but we still wondered what parts of the city were considered North Durham. Perhaps, such questions appear easy to answer: we might only open a map of Durham and the northern parts would just pop out at us. We never found such a map, so we began to create our own through interviews, focus groups, and visits to Durham. Despite all the time we have spent in Durham and despite all we have learned in our community diagnosing work, our map of North Durham is still a bit of a fiction. It is not a fiction in the sense of it being false or inaccurate, it is a fiction in the sense that our map, our notion of North Durham is made up. It is made up from our experiences in Durham, it is made up from the individual experiences and social backgrounds that the six of us brought to our work, and it is made up from our interviews and conversations with Durham residents and service providers. Being made up in such a fashion does not make community diagnosis irrelevant or less important, it does, however, mean that we as students and researchers must be willing to recognize the partiality of the picture of North Durham that we are able to present to the reader in the following pages. Partiality may describe the picture of Durham found in this report, but it does not describe the effort or enthusiasm that we brought to our work in North Durham. It was an effort governed by our concern to conduct only ethical community-based work and it was an enthusiasm fueled by our desire to help make a difference. Our work in North Durham has come to an end but we hope not the friendships that have resulted. It has been a real learning experience for us and we would like to thank everyone in North Durham and Old North Durham for their time, energy, and patience. We would also like to thank our preceptor Wendy Brown and Triangle Residential Options for Substance Abusers (TROSA) for all the time and energy that they gave to making our community diagnosis work in North Durham the success that it was. We would also like to thank our instructors Geni Eng and Sara Ackerman for their support, enthusiasm, and patience with all the questions and curves that were a part of work in North Durham.Master of Public Healt