A 700-Word Palindrome

A palindrome of 700 words

Motivation and attitudes toward changing health (MATCH): A new patient-reported measure to inform clinical conversations.

ObjectiveTo identify and assess patient motivation to initiate or maintain behavior changes.MethodsAttitudinal statements were developed from structured patient interviews and translated into 18 survey items. Items were analyzed with exploratory factor analysis (EFA).ResultsAn EFA with 340 type 2 diabetes patients identified three areas of patient attitudes toward changing health behaviors: (1) willingness to make changes (3 items; α = 0.69), (2) perceived ability to make or maintain changes (3 items; α = 0.74), and (3) and feeling changes are worthwhile (3 items; α = 0.61). Greater perceived ability and feelings of worthwhileness were associated with positive psychosocial and behavioral management indicators. All three areas were associated with confidence and attitudes toward making a specific behavioral change (e.g., improve diet).ConclusionsMATCH is an internally consistent and valid 9-item scale that provides a profile of factors influencing motivation that can be used in clinical and research settings

Superheavy Supersymmetry from Scalar Mass--A Parameter Fixed Points

In supersymmetric models, the well-known tension between naturalness and experimental constraints is relieved if the squarks and sleptons of the first two generations are superheavy, with masses of order 10 TeV, and all other superpartners are light, with masses of order 1 TeV. We show that even if all scalar masses and trilinear A parameters are of order 10 TeV at some high scale, a mass-squared hierarchy of order 400 may be generated dynamically through renormalization group evolution. The required high energy relations are consistent with grand unification, or, alternatively, may be realized in moduli-dominated supersymmetry-breaking scenarios.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure

Minimal Supergravity with m_0^2 < 0

We extend the parameter space of minimal supergravity to negative values of m_0^2, the universal scalar mass parameter defined at the grand unified scale. After evolving to the weak scale, all scalars can be non-tachyonic with masses consistent with collider constraints. This region of parameter space is typically considered excluded by searches for charged dark matter, since the lightest standard model superpartner is a charged slepton. However, if the gravitino is the lightest supersymmetric particle, the charged slepton decays, and this region is allowed. This region provides qualitatively new possibilities for minimal supergravity, including spectra with light sleptons and very heavy squarks, and models in which the lightest slepton is the selectron. We show that the m_0^2 < 0 region is consistent with low energy precision data and discuss its implications for particle colliders. These models may provide signals of supersymmetry in even the first year of operation at the Large Hadron Collider.Comment: 16 page

Solving the Supersymmetric Flavor Problem with Radiatively Generated Mass Hierarchies

The supersymmetric flavor problem may be solved if the first and second generation scalars are heavy (with multi-TeV masses) and scalars with large Higgs couplings are light (with sub-TeV masses). We show that such an inverted spectrum may be generated radiatively; that is, from initial conditions where all scalar masses are multi-TeV at some high scale, those with large Higgs couplings may be driven asymptotically to the weak scale in the infra-red. The lightness of third generation scalars is therefore a direct consequence of the heaviness of third generation fermions, and fine-tuning is avoided even though the fundamental scale of the soft supersymmetry breaking parameters is multi-TeV. We investigate this possibility in the framework of the usual Yukawa quasi-fixed point solutions. The required high scale boundary conditions are found to be simple and highly predictive. This scenario also alleviates the supersymmetric CP and Polonyi problems.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figures; typos corrected, refs added, conforms to published versio

Effects of supersymmetric grand unification scale physics on Γ(b→sγ)\Gamma \left( b\to s\gamma\right)

Although calculations of the $b\rightarrow s\gamma$ rate in supersymmetric grand unified models have always either ignored the gluino mediated contribution or found it to be negligible, we show that taking universal supersymmetry breaking masses at the Planck scale, rather than at the gauge unification scale as is customary, leads to the gluino contribution being more significant and in fact sometimes even larger than the chargino mediated contributions when $\mu >0$ and $\tan{\beta}$ is of order 1. The impact is greatest felt when the gluinos are relatively light. Taking the universal boundary condition at the Planck scale also has an effect on the chargino contribution by increasing the effect of the wino and higgsino-wino mediated decays. The neutralino mediated contribution is found to be enhanced, but nevertheless it remains relatively insignificant.Comment: Title changed, final version as accepted for PRD, 12 pages, 6 Figures (Figs.2-6 included, uuencoded, epsf.tex

The strong coupling, unification, and recent data

The prediction of the strong coupling assuming (supersymmetric) coupling constant unification is reexamined. We find, using the new electroweak data, $\alpha_{s}(M_{Z}) \approx 0.129 \pm 0.010$. The implications of the large $\alpha_{s}$ value are discussed. The role played by the $Z$ beauty width is stressed. It is also emphasized that high-energy (but not low-energy) corrections could significantly diminish the prediction. However, unless higher-dimension operators are assumed to be suppressed, at present one cannot place strong constraints on the super-heavy spectrum. Non-leading electroweak threshold corrections are also discussed.Comment: 12 pages, LaTex + RevTex, uuencoded postscript file (including 13 figures) is attached. Also available at ftp://dept.physics.upenn.edu/pub/Ni