The GS String Action on AdS(3)xS(3) with Ramond-Ramond Charge

We derive the classical kappa-symmetric Type IIB string action on AdS(3) x S(3) by employing the SU(1,1|2)^2 algebra. We then gauge fix kappa-symmetry in the background adapted Killing spinor gauge and present the action in a very simple form.Comment: 19 pages, LaTe

Matter Fields in the Lagrangian Loop Representation: Scalar QED

We present the extension of the Lagrangian loop gauge invariant representation in such a way to include matter fields. The partition function of lattice compact U(1)-Higgs model is expressed as a sum over closed as much as open surfaces. We have simulated numerically the loop action equivalent to the Villain form of the action and mapped out the beta-gamma phase diagram of this model.Comment: 10 pages, LaTe

Adverse drug events associated with vitamin K antagonists: factors of therapeutic imbalance

Nancy El-Helou, Amal Al-Hajje, Rola Ajrouche, Sanaa Awada, Samar Rachidi, Salam Zein, Pascale SalamehClinical and Epidemiological Research Laboratory, Faculty of Pharmacy, Lebanese University, Beirut, LebanonBackground: Adverse drug events (ADE) occur frequently during treatment with vitamin K antagonists (AVK) and contribute to increase hemorrhagic risks.Methods: A retrospective study was conducted over a period of 2 years. Patients treated with AVK and admitted to the emergency room of a tertiary care hospital in Beirut were included. The aim of the study was to identify ADE characterized by a high international normalized ratio (INR) and to determine the predictive factors responsible for these events. Statistical analysis was performed with the SPSS statistical package.Results: We included 148 patients. Sixty-seven patients (47.3%) with an INR above the therapeutic range were identified as cases. The control group consisted of 81 patients (54.7%) with an INR within the therapeutic range. Hemorrhagic complications were observed in 53.7% of cases versus 6.2% of controls (P < 0.0001). No significant difference was noticed between cases and controls regarding the indication and the dose of AVK. Patients aged over 75 years were more likely to present an INR above the therapeutic range (58.2%, P = 0.049). Recent infection was present in 40.3% of cases versus 6.2% of controls (P < 0.0001) and hypoalbuminemia in 37.3% of cases versus 6.1% of controls (P < 0.0001). Treatment with antibiotics, amiodarone, and anti-inflammatory drugs were also factors of imbalance (P < 0.0001).Conclusion: Many factors may be associated with ADE related to AVK. Monitoring of INR and its stabilization in the therapeutic range are important for preventing these events.Keywords: adverse drug events, vitamin K antagonists, bleeding risks, therapeutic imbalanc

The association Between increase in Maternal Education and Child Behavioral and Academic Outcomes: The Mediating Role of the Home Learning Environment and Positive Parenting

Research on maternal educational attainment has shown associations between higher levels of maternal education and positive child outcomes, such as greater academic proficiency and fewer externalizing problems. Most studies examine maternal education as a stable construct, measuring it at one point in time; however, a sizeable minority of mothers pursue education after the birth of a child. As such, it is important to investigate whether an increase in maternal education is a protective or a risk factor for child outcomes. Further, few have explored the processes through which the association between increases in maternal education and child outcomes exist. The present study examined the association between increases in maternal education prior to their child entering kindergarten and child achievement and externalizing behavior at age 9. Further, this study examined home learning environment and positive parenting at age 5 as mediators. Baseline education was included as a moderator of the association between increases in maternal education and the mediator variables (i.e., home learning environment, positive parenting). Data was from Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), a longitudinal birth cohort study comprising 4,898 families. Data from birth year and child ages 1, 3, 5, and 9 were included. Using structural equation modeling, findings indicated that increases in maternal education were associated with greater child academic achievement but not child externalizing behavior at age 9. Increases in maternal education were not linked to home learning environment or positive parenting at age 5; however, higher levels of positive parenting and a better-quality home learning environment were both associated with higher levels of academic achievement and fewer child externalizing problems at age 9, even after controlling for various demographic covariates and earlier measures of child academic achievement and child externalizing behavior. Baseline education did not moderate the association between increases in maternal education and the home learning environment or positive parenting at age 5. Findings indicated that although increases in maternal education were associated with greater child academic skills, this association did not operate through a better-quality home learning environment or use of more positive parenting practices. However, a better-quality home learning environment and more positive parenting practices at age 5 were associated with greater academic achievement and fewer externalizing behaviors at age 9, suggesting the importance of cognitive stimulation in the environment and maternal responsiveness/warmth in the development of optimal child academic and behavioral outcomes. Implications and conclusions based on findings are discussed

Differential Mechanisms Linking Early Childhood Violence Exposure and Social/Environmental Deprivation to Adolescent Conduct Problems: Exploration of a Gene-By-Environment interaction

The dimensional model of adversity and psychopathology (DMAP) posits dimensions of childhood adversity (i.e., deprivation, violence exposure) differentially predict child neurobiological outcomes and behavioral correlates of these neurobiological outcomes. Both deprivation and violence exposure are associated with higher child conduct problems. Genetic and environmental vulnerability factors often interact to increase or decrease risk for developing adolescent conduct problems. One gene of particular interest is COMT, which is implicated in the dopaminergic system. The present study explored whether dimensions of childhood adversity during the child’s first five years of life interacted with COMT genotype to differentially confer cognitive (i.e., executive dysfunction) and affective (i.e., emotional dysregulation) risk (measured at child age nine) of developing child conduct problems at child age 15. Data was from Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), a longitudinal birth cohort study comprising 4,898 families. Three structural equation models were conducted. The first model examined direct effects of dimensions of adversity on adolescent conduct problems at age 15. The second model examined whether cognitive and affective outcomes at age nine mediated the association between dimensions of adversity and adolescent conduct problems at age 15. The last model examined a multigroup model to explore how these pathways differed based on COMT genotype. The lavaan package in R was utilized for all analyses. Findings indicated that higher deprivation was associated with lower EF and higher emotional dysregulation. Higher violence exposure was associated with higher emotional dysregulation. Higher dysregulation, but not EF, was associated with higher adolescent conduct problems. Indirect effects suggested associations between violence exposure and child conduct problems operated through higher dysregulation. No gene environment interactions were identified

Holography in asymptotically flat space-times and the BMS group

In a previous paper (hep-th/0306142) we have started to explore the holographic principle in the case of asymptotically flat space-times and analyzed in particular different aspects of the Bondi-Metzner-Sachs (BMS) group, namely the asymptotic symmetry group of any asymptotically flat space-time. We continue this investigation in this paper. Having in mind a S-matrix approach with future and past null infinity playing the role of holographic screens on which the BMS group acts, we connect the IR sectors of the gravitational field with the representation theory of the BMS group. We analyze the (complicated) mapping between bulk and boundary symmetries pointing out differences with respect to the AdS/CFT set up. Finally we construct a BMS phase space and a free hamiltonian for fields transforming w.r.t BMS representations. The last step is supposed to be an explorative investigation of the boundary data living on the degenerate null manifold at infinity.Comment: 31 pages, several changes in section 3 and 7 and references update

Couplings of self-dual tensor multiplet in six dimensions

The (1,0) supersymmetry in six dimensions admits a tensor multiplet which contains a second-rank antisymmetric tensor field with a self-dual field strength and a dilaton. We describe the fully supersymmetric coupling of this multiplet to Yang-Mills multiplet, in the absence of supergravity. The self-duality equation for the tensor field involves a Chern-Simons modified field strength, the gauge fermions, and an arbitrary dimensionful parameter.Comment: 17 pages, latex, no figure

Universality of Sypersymmetric Attractors

The macroscopic entropy-area formula for supersymmetric black holes in N=2,4,8 theories is found to be universal: in d=4 it is always given by the square of the largest of the central charges extremized in the moduli space. The proof of universality is based on the fact that the doubling of unbroken supersymmetry near the black hole horizon requires that all central charges other than Z=M vanish at the attractor point for N=4,8. The ADM mass at the extremum can be computed in terms of duality symmetric quartic invariants which are moduli independent. The extension of these results for d=5, N=1,2,4 is also reported. A duality symmetric expression for the energy of the ground state with spontaneous breaking of supersymmetry is provided by the power 1/2 (2/3) of the black hole area of the horizon in d=4 (d=5). It is suggested that the universal duality symmetric formula for the energy of the ground state in supersymmetric gravity is given by the modulus of the maximal central charge at the attractor point in any supersymmetric theory in any dimension.Comment: few misprints removed, version to appear in Phys. Rev. 20 pages, 1 figur

Consistent truncation of d = 11 supergravity on AdS_4 x S^7

We study the system of equations derived twenty five years ago by B. de Wit and the first author [Nucl. Phys. B281 (1987) 211] as conditions for the consistent truncation of eleven-dimensional supergravity on AdS_4 x S^7 to gauged N = 8 supergravity in four dimensions. By exploiting the E_7(7) symmetry, we determine the most general solution to this system at each point on the coset space E_7(7)/SU(8). We show that invariants of the general solution are given by the fluxes in eleven-dimensional supergravity. This allows us to both clarify the explicit non-linear ansatze for the fluxes given previously and to fill a gap in the original proof of the consistent truncation. These results are illustrated with several examples.Comment: 41 pages, typos corrected, published versio