1,430 research outputs found
Geometrical Constraints on the Cosmological Constant
The cosmological constant problem is examined under the assumption that the
extrinsic curvature of the space-time contributes to the vacuum. A compensation
mechanism based on a variable cosmological term is proposed. Under a suitable
hypothesis on the behavior of the extrinsic curvature, we find that an
initially large rolls down rapidly to zero during the early stages
of the universe. Using perturbation analysis, it is shown that such vacuum
behaves essentially as a spin-2 field which is independent of the metric.Comment: [email protected], 17 pages, Latex, 2 figures obtained by reques
Black Hole Formation with an Interacting Vacuum Energy Density
We discuss the gravitational collapse of a spherically symmetric massive core
of a star in which the fluid component is interacting with a growing vacuum
energy density. The influence of the variable vacuum in the collapsing core is
quantified by a phenomenological \beta-parameter as predicted by dimensional
arguments and the renormalization group approach. For all reasonable values of
this free parameter, we find that the vacuum energy density increases the
collapsing time but it cannot prevent the formation of a singular point.
However, the nature of the singularity depends on the values of \beta. In the
radiation case, a trapped surface is formed for \beta<1/2 whereas for
\beta>1/2, a naked singularity is developed. In general, the critical value is
\beta=1-2/3(1+\omega), where the \omega-parameter describes the equation of
state of the fluid component.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure
Thermodynamics of Decaying Vacuum Cosmologies
The thermodynamic behavior of vacuum decaying cosmologies is investigated
within a manifestly covariant formulation. Such a process corresponds to a
continuous irreversible energy flow from the vacuum component to the created
matter constituents. It is shown that if the specific entropy per particle
remains constant during the process, the equilibrium relations are preserved.
In particular, if the vacuum decays into photons, the energy density and
average number density of photons scale with the temperature as and . The temperature law is determined and a generalized
Planckian type form of the spectrum, which is preserved in the course of the
evolution, is also proposed. Some consequences of these results for decaying
vacuum FRW type cosmologies as well as for models with ``adiabatic'' photon
creation are discussed.Comment: 21 pages, uses LATE
Exact Black Hole and Cosmological Solutions in a Two-Dimensional Dilaton-Spectator Theory of Gravity
Exact black hole and cosmological solutions are obtained for a special
two-dimensional dilaton-spectator () theory of gravity. We show how
in this context any desired spacetime behaviour can be determined by an
appropriate choice of a dilaton potential function and a ``coupling
function'' in the action. We illustrate several black hole solutions
as examples. In particular, asymptotically flat double- and multiple- horizon
black hole solutions are obtained. One solution bears an interesting
resemblance to the string-theoretic black hole and contains the same
thermodynamic properties; another resembles the Reissner-Nordstrom
solution. We find two characteristic features of all the black hole solutions.
First the coupling constants in must be set equal to constants of
integration (typically the mass). Second, the spectator field and its
derivative both diverge at any event horizon. A test particle with
``spectator charge" ({\it i.e.} one coupled either to or ),
will therefore encounter an infinite tidal force at the horizon or an
``infinite potential barrier'' located outside the horizon respectively. We
also compute the Hawking temperature and entropy for our solutions. In
cosmology, two non-singular solutions which resemble two exact solutions
in string-motivated cosmology are obtained. In addition, we construct a
singular model which describes the standard non-inflationary big bang
cosmology (). Motivated by the
similaritiesbetween and gravitational field equations in
cosmology, we briefly discuss a special dilaton-spectator action
constructed from the bosonic part of the low energy heterotic string action andComment: 34 pgs. Plain Tex, revised version contains some clarifying comments
concerning the relationship between the constants of integration and the
coupling constants
Primary Gastrointestinal Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma Presenting with Cold Agglutinin Disease
Cold agglutinin disease (CAD) is an autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA) generally caused by IgM autoantibodies which exhibit maximal reactivity at 4°C. CAD can be idiopathic or secondary to some diseases and/or conditions. Only a minority of cases of secondary AIHA in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) are associated with cold antibodies. Diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the most common subtype of NHLs with a proportion of nearly 30% of all adult cases. 40% of patients with DLBCL have an extranodal disease or at least disease initially confined to extranodal sites. The most common extranodal site is the gastrointestinal tract. We present a patient with primary gastrointestinal DLBCL who presented with CAD and was treated with a CHOP-Rituximab regimen
The Operator Product Expansion of the Lowest Higher Spin Current at Finite N
For the N=2 Kazama-Suzuki(KS) model on CP^3, the lowest higher spin current
with spins (2, 5/2, 5/2,3) is obtained from the generalized GKO coset
construction. By computing the operator product expansion of this current and
itself, the next higher spin current with spins (3, 7/2, 7/2, 4) is also
derived. This is a realization of the N=2 W_{N+1} algebra with N=3 in the
supersymmetric WZW model. By incorporating the self-coupling constant of lowest
higher spin current which is known for the general (N,k), we present the
complete nonlinear operator product expansion of the lowest higher spin current
with spins (2, 5/2, 5/2, 3) in the N=2 KS model on CP^N space. This should
coincide with the asymptotic symmetry of the higher spin AdS_3 supergravity at
the quantum level. The large (N,k) 't Hooft limit and the corresponding
classical nonlinear algebra are also discussed.Comment: 62 pages; the footnotes added, some redundant appendices removed, the
presentations in the whole paper improved and to appear in JHE
Responding to Young People's Health Risks in Primary Care: A Cluster Randomised Trial of Training Clinicians in Screening and Motivational Interviewing.
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of a complex intervention implementing best practice guidelines recommending clinicians screen and counsel young people across multiple psychosocial risk factors, on clinicians' detection of health risks and patients' risk taking behaviour, compared to a didactic seminar on young people's health.
DESIGN: Pragmatic cluster randomised trial where volunteer general practices were stratified by postcode advantage or disadvantage score and billing type (private, free national health, community health centre), then randomised into either intervention or comparison arms using a computer generated random sequence. Three months post-intervention, patients were recruited from all practices post-consultation for a Computer Assisted Telephone Interview and followed up three and 12 months later. Researchers recruiting, consenting and interviewing patients and patients themselves were masked to allocation status; clinicians were not.
SETTING: General practices in metropolitan and rural Victoria, Australia.
PARTICIPANTS: General practices with at least one interested clinician (general practitioner or nurse) and their 14-24 year old patients.
INTERVENTION: This complex intervention was designed using evidence based practice in learning and change in clinician behaviour and general practice systems, and included best practice approaches to motivating change in adolescent risk taking behaviours. The intervention involved training clinicians (nine hours) in health risk screening, use of a screening tool and motivational interviewing; training all practice staff (receptionists and clinicians) in engaging youth; provision of feedback to clinicians of patients' risk data; and two practice visits to support new screening and referral resources. Comparison clinicians received one didactic educational seminar (three hours) on engaging youth and health risk screening.
OUTCOME MEASURES: Primary outcomes were patient report of (1) clinician detection of at least one of six health risk behaviours (tobacco, alcohol and illicit drug use, risks for sexually transmitted infection, STI, unplanned pregnancy, and road risks); and (2) change in one or more of the six health risk behaviours, at three months or at 12 months. Secondary outcomes were likelihood of future visits, trust in the clinician after exit interview, clinician detection of emotional distress and fear and abuse in relationships, and emotional distress at three and 12 months. Patient acceptability of the screening tool was also described for the intervention arm. Analyses were adjusted for practice location and billing type, patients' sex, age, and recruitment method, and past health risks, where appropriate. An intention to treat analysis approach was used, which included multilevel multiple imputation for missing outcome data.
RESULTS: 42 practices were randomly allocated to intervention or comparison arms. Two intervention practices withdrew post allocation, prior to training, leaving 19 intervention (53 clinicians, 377 patients) and 21 comparison (79 clinicians, 524 patients) practices. 69% of patients in both intervention (260) and comparison (360) arms completed the 12 month follow-up. Intervention clinicians discussed more health risks per patient (59.7%) than comparison clinicians (52.7%) and thus were more likely to detect a higher proportion of young people with at least one of the six health risk behaviours (38.4% vs 26.7%, risk difference [RD] 11.6%, Confidence Interval [CI] 2.93% to 20.3%; adjusted odds ratio [OR] 1.7, CI 1.1 to 2.5). Patients reported less illicit drug use (RD -6.0, CI -11 to -1.2; OR 0.52, CI 0.28 to 0.96), and less risk for STI (RD -5.4, CI -11 to 0.2; OR 0.66, CI 0.46 to 0.96) at three months in the intervention relative to the comparison arm, and for unplanned pregnancy at 12 months (RD -4.4; CI -8.7 to -0.1; OR 0.40, CI 0.20 to 0.80). No differences were detected between arms on other health risks. There were no differences on secondary outcomes, apart from a greater detection of abuse (OR 13.8, CI 1.71 to 111). There were no reports of harmful events and intervention arm youth had high acceptance of the screening tool.
CONCLUSIONS: A complex intervention, compared to a simple educational seminar for practices, improved detection of health risk behaviours in young people. Impact on health outcomes was inconclusive. Technology enabling more efficient, systematic health-risk screening may allow providers to target counselling toward higher risk individuals. Further trials require more power to confirm health benefits.
TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN.com ISRCTN16059206
Tunneling in Decaying Cosmologies and the Cosmological Constant Problem
The tunneling rate, with exact prefactor, is calculated to first order in
for an empty closed Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) universe with
decaying cosmological term ( is the scale factor and
is a parameter ). This model is equivalent to a cosmology
with the equation of state . The calculations are
performed by applying the dilute-instanton approximation on the corresponding
Duru-Kleinert path integral.
It is shown that the highest tunneling rate occurs for corresponding to
the cosmic string matter universe. The obtained most probable cosmological
term, like one obtained by Strominger, accounts for a possible solution to the
cosmological constant problem.Comment: 21 pages, REVTEX, The section 3 is considerably completed including
some physical mechanisms supporting the time variation of the cosmological
constant, added references for the section 3. Accepted to be published in
Phys. Rev.
Evaluation of the impact of a school gardening intervention on children's fruit and vegetable intake: a randomised controlled trial.
Background: Current academic literature suggests that school gardening programmes can provide an interactive environment with the potential to change childrenâs fruit and vegetable intake. This is the first cluster randomised controlled trial (RCT) designed to evaluate whether a school gardening programme can have an effect on childrenâs fruit and vegetable intake.
Methods: The trial included children from 23 schools; these schools were randomised into two groups, one to receive the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS)-led intervention and the other to receive the less involved Teacher-led intervention. A 24-hour food diary (CADET) was used to collect baseline and follow-up dietary intake 18 months apart. Questionnaires were also administered to evaluate the intervention implementation.
Results: A total of 641 children completed the trial with a mean age of 8.1 years (95% CI: 8.0, 8.4). The unadjusted results from multilevel regression analysis revealed that for combined daily fruit and vegetable intake the Teacher-led group had a higher daily mean change of 8 g (95% CI: â19, 36) compared to the RHS-led group -32 g (95% CI: â60, â3). However, after adjusting for possible confounders this difference was not significant (intervention effect: â40 g, 95% CI: â88, 1; pâ=â0.06). The adjusted analysis of process measures identified that if schools improved their gardening score by 3 levels (a measure of school gardening involvement - the scale has 6 levels from 0 âno gardenâ to 5 âcommunity involvementâ), irrespective of group allocation, children had, on average, a daily increase of 81 g of fruit and vegetable intake (95% CI: 0, 163; pâ=â0.05) compared to schools that had no change in gardening score.
Conclusions: This study is the first cluster randomised controlled trial designed to evaluate a school gardening intervention. The results have found very little evidence to support the claims that school gardening alone can improve childrenâs daily fruit and vegetable intake. However, when a gardening intervention is implemented at a high level within the school it may improve childrenâs daily fruit and vegetable intake by a portion. Improving childrenâs fruit and vegetable intake remains a challenging task
Another exact inflationary solution
A new closed-form inflationary solution is given for a hyperbolic interaction
potential. The method used to arrive at this solution is outlined as it appears
possible to generate additional sets of equations which satisfy the model. In
addition a new form of decaying cosmological constant is presented.Comment: 10 pages, 0 figure
- âŠ