Inflation comovements in advanced economies: Facts and drivers*

In this paper, we analyse inflation comovements and their macroeconomic drivers across a wide set of advanced economies. We find a high degree of inflation interdependence, which is highest for euro area countries, which show strong trade links and share a common monetary policy. In contrast, core inflation interdependence is very limited. We also find that inflation interconnectedness is a medium- to long-run phenomenon. Inflation comovements across countries are well explained by an open economy new Keynesian Phillips curve

Localized Tachyons and the g_cl conjecture

We consider C/Z_N and C^2/Z_N orbifolds of heterotic string theories and Z_N orbifolds of AdS_3. We study theories with N=2 worldsheet superconformal invariance and construct RG flows. Following Harvey, Kutasov, Martinec and Moore, we compute g_cl and show that it decreases monotonically along RG flows- as conjectured by them. For the heterotic string theories, the gauge degrees of freedom do not contribute to the computation of g_cl.Comment: Corrections and clarifications made, 19 page

Real Time Turbulent Video Perfecting by Image Stabilization and Super-Resolution

Image and video quality in Long Range Observation Systems (LOROS) suffer from atmospheric turbulence that causes small neighbourhoods in image frames to chaotically move in different directions and substantially hampers visual analysis of such image and video sequences. The paper presents a real-time algorithm for perfecting turbulence degraded videos by means of stabilization and resolution enhancement. The latter is achieved by exploiting the turbulent motion. The algorithm involves generation of a reference frame and estimation, for each incoming video frame, of a local image displacement map with respect to the reference frame; segmentation of the displacement map into two classes: stationary and moving objects and resolution enhancement of stationary objects, while preserving real motion. Experiments with synthetic and real-life sequences have shown that the enhanced videos, generated in real time, exhibit substantially better resolution and complete stabilization for stationary objects while retaining real motion.Comment: Submitted to The Seventh IASTED International Conference on Visualization, Imaging, and Image Processing (VIIP 2007) August, 2007 Palma de Mallorca, Spai

The CMBR ISW and HI 21-cm Cross-correlation Angular Power Spectrum

The late-time growth of large scale structures (LSS) is imprinted in the CMBR anisotropy through the Integrated Sachs Wolfe (ISW) effect. This is perceived to be a very important observational probe of dark energy. Future observations of redshifted 21-cm radiation from the cosmological neutral hydrogen (HI) distribution hold the potential of probing the LSS over a large redshift range. We have investigated the possibility of detecting the ISW through cross-correlations between the CMBR anisotropies and redshifted 21-cm observations. Assuming that the HI traces the dark matter, we find that the ISW-HI cross-correlation angular power spectrum at an angular multipole l is proportional to the dark matter power spectrum evaluated at the comoving wave number l/r, where r is the comoving distance to the redshift from which the HI signal originated. The amplitude of the cross-correlation signal depends on parameters related to the HI distribution and the growth of cosmological perturbations. However the cross-correlation is extremely weak as compared to the CMBR anisotropies and the predicted HI signal. As a consequence the cross-correlation signal is smaller than the cosmic variance, and a statistically significant detection is not very likely.Comment: 13 pages, 4 eps figures, submitte

Anomalies, Fayet-Iliopoulos terms and the consistency of orbifold field theories

We study the consistency of orbifold field theories and clarify to what extent the condition of having an anomaly-free spectrum of zero-modes is sufficient to guarantee it. Preservation of gauge invariance at the quantum level is possible, although at the price, in general, of introducing operators that break the 5d local parity. These operators are, however, perfectly consistent with the orbifold projection. We also clarify the relation between localized Fayet-Iliopoulos (FI) terms and anomalies. These terms can be consistently added, breaking neither local supersymmetry nor the gauge symmetry. In the framework of supergravity the localized FI term arises as the boundary completion of a bulk interaction term: given the bulk Lagrangian the FI is fixed by gauge invariance.Comment: 31 pages, 1 figure. v2: some typos corrected, references adde

R-mediation of Dynamical Supersymmetry Breaking

We propose a simple scenario of the dynamical supersymmetry breaking in four dimensional supergravity theories. The supersymmetry breaking sector is assumed to be completely separated as a sequestered sector from the visible sector, except for the communication by the gravity and U(1)_R gauge interactions, and the supersymmetry breaking is mediated by the superconformal anomaly and U(1)_R gauge interaction. Supersymmetry is dynamically broken by the interplay between the non-perturbative effect of the gauge interaction and Fayet-Iliopoulos D-term of U(1)_R which necessarily exists in supergravity theories with gauged U(1)_R symmetry. We construct an explicit model which gives phenomenologically acceptable mass spectrum of superpartners with vanishing (or very small) cosmological constant.Comment: 12 pages, to be published in Phys. Rev.

Electric dipole moments as a test of supersymmetric unification

In a class of supersymmetric grand unified theories, including those based on the gauge group $SO(10)$, there are new contributions to the electric dipole moments of the neutron and electron, which arise as a heavy top quark effect. These contributions arise from CKM-like phases, not from phases of the supersymmetry breaking operators, and can be reliably computed in terms of the parameters of the weak scale supersymmetric theory. For the expected ranges of these parameters, the electric dipole moments of the neutron and the electron are predicted to be close to present experimental limits.Comment: 16 page

Lepton Flavor Violating Processes and Muon g-2 in Minimal Supersymmetric SO(10) Model

In the recently proposed minimal supersymmetric SO(10) model, the neutrino Dirac Yukawa coupling matrix, together with all the other fermion mass matrices, is completely determined once free parameters in the model are appropriately fixed so as to accommodate the recent neutrino oscillation data. Using this unambiguous neutrino Dirac Yukawa couplings, we calculate the lepton flavor violating (LFV) processes and the muon g-2 assuming the minimal supergravity scenario. The resultant rates of the LFV processes are found to be large enough to well exceed the proposed future experimental bound, while the magnitude of the muon g-2 can be within the recent result by Brookhaven E821 experiment. Furthermore, we find that there exists a parameter region which can simultaneously realize the neutralino cold dark matter abundance consistent with the recent WMAP data.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures. The version to be published in Phys. Rev.

Prevalence of iron deficiency anaemia and risk factors in 1,010 adolescent girls from rural Maharashtra, India: a cross-sectional survey

Objective: Iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) is the most common nutritional disorder observed in adolescent girls in India. Our aim was to investigate the prevalence and risk factors associated with IDA in rural Maharashtra, India to address current evidence gaps. Study Design: Cross sectional survey Methods: The study recruited 13 to 17 year old adolescent girls living in 34 villages of Osmanabad district. Data were collected on individual health, dietary, sociodemographic factors, and anthropometric measurements were taken. Haemoglobin (Hb) levels were measured using Sahli’s hemometer. Logistic and linear regressions were used to identify risk factors associated with IDA and Hb level respectively. Results: Among 1,010 adolescent girls (response rate 97.5%), the mean Hb was 10.1 g/dl (standard deviation=1.3), and 87% had anaemia (Hb<12 g/dl). The prevalence of mild (11.0-11.9 g/dl), moderate (8.0-10.9 g/dl) and severe (Hb≤ 7.9 g/dl) anaemia was 17%, 65% and 5% respectively. Anaemia likelihood increased significantly with age (odds ratio (OR): 1.41 per year, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.17 to 1.70). Factors associated with decreased anaemia risk were mid upper arm circumference (MUAC) ≥22 cm (OR: 0.51, 95% CI: 0.31 to 0.82), ≥3 days/week consumption of fruit (OR: 0.35, 95% CI: 0.23 to 0.54) or rice (OR: 0.39, 95% CI: 0.17 to 0.91), and incomplete schooling (OR: 0.47, 95% CI: 0.24 to 0.91). In the final model lower age, MUAC and fruit consumption were significantly associated with Hb level. Conclusion: Anaemia prevalence was extremely high among adolescent girls in rural areas of Maharashtra. Whilst we identified risk factors that could be used for targeting interventions, there is urgent need of comprehensive preventative interventions for the whole adolescent girl population

Detecting Microscopic Black Holes with Neutrino Telescopes

If spacetime has more than four dimensions, ultra-high energy cosmic rays may create microscopic black holes. Black holes created by cosmic neutrinos in the Earth will evaporate, and the resulting hadronic showers, muons, and taus may be detected in neutrino telescopes below the Earth's surface. We simulate such events in detail and consider black hole cross sections with and without an exponential suppression factor. We find observable rates in both cases: for conservative cosmogenic neutrino fluxes, several black hole events per year are observable at the IceCube detector; for fluxes at the Waxman-Bahcall bound, tens of events per year are possible. We also present zenith angle and energy distributions for all three channels. The ability of neutrino telescopes to differentiate hadrons, muons, and possibly taus, and to measure these distributions provides a unique opportunity to identify black holes, to experimentally constrain the form of black hole production cross sections, and to study Hawking evaporation.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figure