Trends in HIV testing and recording of HIV status in the UK primary care setting: a retrospective cohort study 1995-2005

Objectives: To provide nationally representative data on trends in HIV testing in primary care and to estimate the proportion of diagnosed HIV positive individuals known to general practitioners (GPs). Methods: We undertook a retrospective cohort study between 1995 and 2005 of all general practices contributing data to the UK General Practice Research Database (GPRD), and data on persons accessing HIV care (Survey of Prevalent HIV Infections Diagnosed). We identified all practice-registered patients where an HIV test or HIV positive status is recorded in their general practice records. HIV testing in primary care and prevalence of recorded HIV positive status in primary care were estimated. Results: Despite 11-fold increases in male testing and 19-fold increases in non-pregnant female testing between 1995 and 2005, HIV testing rates remained low in 2005 at 71.3 and 61.2 tests per 100 000 person years for males and females, respectively, peaking at 162.5 and 173.8 per 100 000 person years at 25–34 years of age. Inclusion of antenatal tests yielded a 129-fold increase in women over the 10-year period. In 2005, 50.7% of HIV positive individuals had their diagnosis recorded with a lower proportion in London (41.8%) than outside the capital (60.1%). Conclusion: HIV testing rates in primary care remain low. Normalisation of HIV testing and recording in primary care in antenatal testing has not been accompanied by a step change in wider HIV testing practice. Recording of HIV positive status by GPs remains low and GPs may be unaware of HIV-related morbidity or potential drug interactions

Trends in sexually transmitted infections in general practice 1990-2000: population based study using data from the UK general practice research database

Objective: To describe the contribution of primary care to the diagnosis and management of sexually transmitted infections in the United Kingdom, 1990-2000, in the context of increasing incidence of infections in genitourinary medicine clinics. Design: Population based study. Setting: UK primary care. Participants: Patients registered in the UK general practice research database. Main outcome measures: Incidence of diagnosed sexually transmitted infections in primary care and estimation of the proportion of major such infections diagnosed in primary care. Results: An estimated 23.0% of chlamydia cases in women but only 5.3% in men were diagnosed and treated in primary care during 1998-2000, along with 49.2% cases of non-specific urethritis and urethral discharge in men and 5.7% cases of gonorrhoea in women and 2.9% in men. Rates of diagnosis in primary care rose substantially in the late 1990s. Conclusions: A substantial and increasing number of sexually transmitted infections are diagnosed and treated in primary care in the United Kingdom, with sex ratios differing from those in genitourinary medicine clinics. Large numbers of men are treated in primary care for presumptive sexually transmitted infections

Resolutions and Characters of Irreducible Representations of the N=2 Superconformal Algebra

We evaluate characters of irreducible representations of the N=2 supersymmetric extension of the Virasoro algebra. We do so by deriving the BGG-resolution of the admissible N=2 representations and also a new 3,5,7...-resolution in terms of twisted massive Verma modules. We analyse how the characters behave under the automorphisms of the algebra, whose most significant part is the spectral flow transformations. The possibility to express the characters in terms of theta functions is determined by their behaviour under the spectral flow. We also derive the identity expressing every $\hat{sl}(2)$ character as a linear combination of spectral-flow transformed N=2 characters; this identity involves a finite number of N=2 characters in the case of unitary representations. Conversely, we find an integral representation for the admissible N=2 characters as contour integrals of admissible $\hat{sl}(2)$ characters.Comment: LaTeX2e: amsart, 34pp. An overall sign error corrected in (4.33) and several consequent formulas, and the presentation streamlined in Sec.4.2.3. References added. To appear in Nucl. Phys.

Runaway Events Dominate the Heavy Tail of Citation Distributions

Statistical distributions with heavy tails are ubiquitous in natural and social phenomena. Since the entries in heavy tail have disproportional significance, the knowledge of its exact shape is very important. Citations of scientific papers form one of the best-known heavy tail distributions. Even in this case there is a considerable debate whether citation distribution follows the log-normal or power-law fit. The goal of our study is to solve this debate by measuring citation distribution for a very large and homogeneous data. We measured citation distribution for 418,438 Physics papers published in 1980-1989 and cited by 2008. While the log-normal fit deviates too strong from the data, the discrete power-law function with the exponent $\gamma=3.15$ does better and fits 99.955% of the data. However, the extreme tail of the distribution deviates upward even from the power-law fit and exhibits a dramatic "runaway" behavior. The onset of the runaway regime is revealed macroscopically as the paper garners 1000-1500 citations, however the microscopic measurements of autocorrelation in citation rates are able to predict this behavior in advance.Comment: 6 pages, 5 Figure

Discrete Gauge Symmetries in Discrete MSSM-like Orientifolds

Motivated by the necessity of discrete Z_N symmetries in the MSSM to insure baryon stability, we study the origin of discrete gauge symmetries from open string sector U(1)'s in orientifolds based on rational conformal field theory. By means of an explicit construction, we find an integral basis for the couplings of axions and U(1) factors for all simple current MIPFs and orientifolds of all 168 Gepner models, a total of 32990 distinct cases. We discuss how the presence of discrete symmetries surviving as a subgroup of broken U(1)'s can be derived using this basis. We apply this procedure to models with MSSM chiral spectrum, concretely to all known U(3)xU(2)xU(1)xU(1) and U(3)xSp(2)xU(1)xU(1) configurations with chiral bi-fundamentals, but no chiral tensors, as well as some SU(5) GUT models. We find examples of models with Z_2 (R-parity) and Z_3 symmetries that forbid certain B and/or L violating MSSM couplings. Their presence is however relatively rare, at the level of a few percent of all cases.Comment: 47 pages. References adde

Measurement of Hadron and Lepton-Pair Production at 130GeV < \sqrt{s} < 189 GeV at LEP

We report on measurements of e+e- annihilation into hadrons and lepton pairs. The data have been collected with the L3 detector at LEP at centre-of-mass energies between 130 and 189 GeV. Using a total integrated luminosity of 243.7 pb^-1, 25864 hadronic and 8573 lepton-pair events are selected for the measurement of cross sections and leptonic forward-backward asymmetries. The results are in good agreement with Standard Model predictions

Measurement of the Tau Branching Fractions into Leptons

Using data collected with the L3 detector near the Z resonance, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 150pb-1, the branching fractions of the tau lepton into electron and muon are measured to be B(tau->e nu nu) = (17.806 +- 0.104 (stat.) +- 0.076 (syst.)) %, B(tau->mu nu nu) = (17.342 +- 0.110 (stat.) +- 0.067 (syst.)) %. From these results the ratio of the charged current coupling constants of the muon and the electron is determined to be g_mu/g_e = 1.0007 +- 0.0051. Assuming electron-muon universality, the Fermi constant is measured in tau lepton decays as G_F = (1.1616 +- 0.0058) 10^{-5} GeV^{-2}. Furthermore, the coupling constant of the strong interaction at the tau mass scale is obtained as alpha_s(m_tau^2) = 0.322 +- 0.009 (exp.) +- 0.015 (theory)

Higgs Candidates in e+e- Interactions at root(s) = 206.6 GeV

In a search for the Standard Model Higgs boson, carried out on 212.5 pb-1 of data collected by the L3 detector at the highest LEP centre-of-mass energies, including 116.5 pb-1 above root(s) = 206GeV, an excess of candidates for the process e+e- -> Z* -> HZ is found for Higgs masses near 114.5GeV. We present an analysis of our data and the characteristics of our strongest candidates.Comment: Footnote added, matches the version to be published in Physics Letters

Search for Manifestations of New Physics in Fermion-Pair Production at LEP

The measurements of hadron and lepton-pair production cross sections and leptonic forward-backward asymmetries performed with the L3 detector at centre-of-mass energies between 130 GeV and 189 GeV are used to search for new physics phenomena such as: contact interactions, exchange of virtual leptoquarks, scalar quarks and scalar neutrinos, effects of TeV strings in models of quantum gravity with large extra dimensions and non-zero sizes of the fermions. No evidence for these phenomena is found and new limits on their parameters are set

Measurement of the Lifetime of the Tau Lepton

The tau lepton lifetime is measured with the L3 detector at LEP using the complete data taken at centre-of-mass energies around the Z pole resulting in tau_tau = 293.2 +/- 2.0 (stat) +/- 1.5 (syst) fs. The comparison of this result with the muon lifetime supports lepton universality of the weak charged current at the level of six per mille. Assuming lepton universality, the value of the strong coupling constant, alpha_s is found to be alpha_s(m_tau^2) = 0.319 +/- 0.015(exp.) +/- 0.014 (theory)