Kaehler forms and cosmological solutions in type II supergravities

We consider cosmological solutions to type II supergravity theories where the spacetime is split into a FRW universe and a K\"ahler space, which may be taken to be Calabi-Yau. The various 2-forms present in the theories are taken to be proportional to the K\"ahler form associated to the K\"ahler space.Comment: 6 pages, LaTeX2

Performance-based financing as a health system reform : mapping the key dimensions for monitoring and evaluation

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The FGK formalism for black p-branes in d dimensions

We present a generalization to an arbitrary number of spacetime (d) and worldvolume (p+1) dimensions of the formalism proposed by Ferrara, Gibbons and Kallosh to study black holes (p=0) in d=4 dimensions. We include the special cases in which there can be dyonic and self- or anti-self-dual black branes. Most of the results valid for 4-dimensional black holes (relations between temperature, entropy and non-extremality parameter, and between entropy and black-hole potential on the horizon) are straightforwardly generalized. We apply the formalism to the case of black strings in N=2,d=5 supergravity coupled to vector multiplets, in which the black-string potential can be expressed in terms of the dual central charge and work out an explicit example with one vector multiplet, determining supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric attractors and constructing the non-extremal black-string solutions that interpolate between them.Comment: 28 pages no figures; v2: some references adde

Type 0 T-Duality and the Tachyon Coupling

We consider the T-duality relations between Type 0A and 0B theories, and show that this constraints the possible couplings of the tachyon to the RR-fields. Due to the `doubling' of the RR sector in Type 0 theories, we are able to introduce a democratic formulation for the Type 0 effective actions, in which there is no Chern-Simons term in the effective action. Finally we discuss how to embed Type II solutions into Type 0 theories.Comment: some misprints corrected and a reference adde

A geometrical calibration method for the PIXSCAN micro-CT scanner

Reconstruction in Cone-Beam Tomography can suffer from artifacts due to geometrical misalignments of the source-detector system. They can be avoided by a complete and precise description of the system. We present a high precision method for the geometric calibration for the PIXSCAN, a small animal X-ray CT scanner demonstrator based on hybrid pixel detectors (XPAD2). The specificities of the XPAD2 detectors (dead pixels, tilts and gaps between modules...) made the calibration of the PIXSCAN quite difficult. The method uses a calibration object consisting of a hollow cylinder of polycarbonate on which we positioned four metallic balls. It requires 360 X-ray images (1° increments). An analytic expression of the 3 image ellipses has been derived. It is used for a least square regression of the 13 alignment parameters after a correction of the internal XPAD2 geometry. Our method is fast and completely automated, achieving a precision of about 30 μm

“I Wish I Had AIDS”: A qualitative study on access to health care services for HIV/AIDS and diabetic patients in Cambodia

Financially stricken Cambodian patients with diabetes and HIV/AIDS typically encounter multiple, serious barriers to effective care. This process may extend over many years and involve numerous rounds of diagnosis and treatment as the disease progresses from initial symptoms to longer term complications. Living with both the impact of the disease and this ongoing struggle for care can severely disrupt the everyday life of both sufferers and their families. Our retrospective study adopted qualitative research methods to collect data from HIV/AIDS and diabetic patients enrolled and not enrolled in treatment programs at varying institutions in urban and rural settings. Using purposive sampling techniques, a total of 25 HIV/AIDS and 45 diabetic patients were recruited. Semi-structured and open-ended interviews were used to collect information on patient experiences of different phases in the on-going process of seeking care and treatment. The findings indicate that both HIV/AIDS and diabetic patients encounter multiple supply- and demand-side barriers to care at different stages of their illness. More strikingly, our research findings suggest that supply-side barriers, for example rationing systems or targeting strategies that limit access to free treatment or social assistance, are substantially higher for diabetic patients. This perceived inequity had a profound impact on diabetic patients to the extent that some “wished they had HIV/AIDS”. These findings suggest that there is an urgent need to widen the focus of health care to address the substantial and increasing burden of disease resulting from diabetes and other serious chronic disorders in Cambodia and many other low/middle income countries.

Black holes and black strings of N=2, d=5 supergravity in the H-FGK formalism

We study general classes and properties of extremal and non-extremal static black-hole solutions of N=2, d=5 supergravity coupled to vector multiplets using the recently proposed H-FGK formalism, which we also extend to static black strings. We explain how to determine the integration constants and physical parameters of the black-hole and black-string solutions. We derive some model-independent statements, including the transformation of non-extremal flow equations to the form of those for the extremal flow. We apply our methods to the construction of example solutions (among others a new extremal string solution of heterotic string theory on K_3 \times S^1). In the cases where we have calculated it explicitly, the product of areas of the inner and outer horizon of a non-extremal solution coincides with the square of the moduli-independent area of the horizon of the extremal solution with the same charges.Comment: 33 pages. Revised version: references added. No other change