867 research outputs found
Black Holes at the LHC
If the scale of quantum gravity is near a TeV, the LHC will be producing one
black hole (BH) about every second. The BH decays into prompt, hard photons and
charged leptons is a clean signature with low background. The absence of
significant missing energy allows the reconstruction of the mass of the
decaying BH. The correlation between the BH mass and its temperature, deduced
from the energy spectrum of the decay products, can test experimentally the
higher dimensional Hawking evaporation law. It can also determine the number of
large new dimensions and the scale of quantum gravity.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to PRL. Results presented at the Les
Houches Workshop "Physics at the TeV Colliders" (May 30, 2001) and the
"Avatars of M-Theory" conference, ITP at Santa Barbara (June 7, 2001),
http://online.itp.ucsb.edu/online/mtheory_c01/dimopoulo
Using Intervention Mapping to Develop an Efficacious Multicomponent Systems-Based Intervention to Increase Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccination in a Large Urban Pediatric Clinic Network
Background: The CDC recommends HPV vaccine for all adolescents to prevent cervical, anal, oropharyngeal, vaginal, vulvar, and penile cancers, and genital warts. HPV vaccine rates currently fall short of national vaccination goals. Despite evidence-based strategies with demonstrated efficacy to increase HPV vaccination rates, adoption and implementation of these strategies within clinics is lacking. The Adolescent Vaccination Program (AVP) is a multicomponent systems-based intervention designed to implement five evidence-based strategies within primary care pediatric practices. The AVP has demonstrated efficacy in increasing HPV vaccine initiation and completion among adolescents 10-17 years of age. The purpose of this paper is to describe the application of Intervention Mapping (IM) toward the development, implementation, and formative evaluation of the clinic-based AVP prototype. Methods: Intervention Mapping (IM) guided the development of the Adolescent Vaccination Program (AVP). Deliverables comprised: a logic model of the problem (IM Step 1); matrices of behavior change objectives (IM Step 2); a program planning document comprising scope, sequence, theory-based methods, and practical strategies (IM Step 3); functional AVP component prototypes (IM Step 4); and plans for implementation (IM Step 5) and evaluation (IM Step 6). Results: The AVP consists of six evidence-based strategies implemented in a successful sequenced roll-out that (1) established immunization champions in each clinic, (2) disseminated provider assessment and feedback reports with data-informed vaccination goals, (3) provided continued medical and nursing education (with ethics credit) on HPV, HPV vaccination, message bundling, and responding to parent hesitancy, (4) electronic health record cues to providers on patient eligibility, and (5) patient reminders for HPV vaccine initiation and completion. Conclusions: IM provided a logical and systematic approach to developing and evaluating a multicomponent systems-based intervention to increase HPV vaccination rates among adolescents in pediatric clinics
Electric Field-induced Charge Transport in Redox-active Molecular Junctions
The formation of well-defined three-dimensional (3D) redox-active molecular
nanostructures at the electrode surfaces may open additional routes to achieve
higher conductance in molecular junctions (MJs). We report here experimental
and theoretical charge transport analysis on electroactive
ruthenium(II)-tri(phenanthroline) [Ru(Phen)3]-based molecular junctions
covalently grown on patterned ITO electrode. Thicknesses of the molecular
layers are varied between 4 to 13 nm, thanks to the potential-driven
electrochemical technique to achieve it. A thin layer of Al was deposited on
top contact over ITO/ Ru(Phen)3 to fabricate large-area solid-state molecular
junctions with a stacking configuration of ITO/[Ru(Phen)3]4nm, 10nm, 13nm/Al.
The electrified molecular junctions show LUMO-mediated electron-driven resonant
charge conduction with attenuation in conductance as a function of the length
of Ru(Phen)3 layers (\b{eta} = 0.48 to 0.60 nm-1). Molecular junctions
consisting of 4 nm Ru(Phen)3 layers follow quantum tunneling, while the thicker
junctions (10, and 13 nm) follow Poole-Frenkel and electric-field induced
charge conduction. Considering the energy level of frontier molecular orbitals,
Fermi energy of ITO, and Al contact, a mechanism of symmetric current-voltage
features with respect to the bias-polarity is predicted. The present work
describes a simple, controllable, low-cost, and versatile approach to
fabricating 3D molecular assembly for mimicking conventional electronic
functions.Comment: 13 pages, 5 Figure
Hematogenous infantile infection presenting as osteomyelitis and septic arthritis: a case report
The case of a 6-month old male infant presenting at the emergency department with fever and swelling at the left knee joint is discussed. Laboratory tests showed an inflammatory condition. Left knee plain radiograph demonstrated local soft tissue oedema. Percutaneous needle aspiration of articular fluid showed a positive culture for Staphylococcus aureus. The diagnosis of septic arthritis was confirmed. Because of inadequate response to treatment an MRI study was followed to evaluate possible abscesses. The presence of an abscess in the suprapatellar bursa was confirmed and an additional inflammatory process of the bone marrow was revealed, consistent with osteomyelitis. The pathophysiology, the imaging findings, the patient’s management and a review of septic arthritis and osteomyelitis coexistence are presented in this paper
Stabilization of Sub-Millimeter Dimensions: The New Guise of the Hierarchy Problem
A new framework for solving the hierarchy problem was recently proposed which
does not rely on low energy supersymmetry or technicolor. The fundamental
Planck mass is at a \tev and the observed weakness of gravity at long
distances is due the existence of new sub-millimeter spatial dimensions. In
this picture the standard model fields are localized to a -dimensional
wall or ``3-brane''. The hierarchy problem becomes isomorphic to the problem of
the largeness of the extra dimensions. This is in turn inextricably linked to
the cosmological constant problem, suggesting the possibility of a common
solution. The radii of the extra dimensions must be prevented from both
expanding to too great a size, and collapsing to the fundamental Planck length
\tev^{-1}. In this paper we propose a number of mechanisms addressing this
question. We argue that a positive bulk cosmological constant can
stabilize the internal manifold against expansion, and that the value of
is not unstable to radiative corrections provided that the
supersymmetries of string theory are broken by dynamics on our 3-brane. We
further argue that the extra dimensions can be stabilized against collapse in a
phenomenologically successful way by either of two methods: 1) Large,
topologically conserved quantum numbers associated with higher-form bulk U(1)
gauge fields, such as the naturally occurring Ramond-Ramond gauge fields, or
the winding number of bulk scalar fields. 2) The brane-lattice-crystallization
of a large number of 3-branes in the bulk. These mechanisms are consistent with
theoretical, laboratory, and cosmological considerations such as the absence of
large time variations in Newton's constant during and after primordial
nucleosynthesis, and millimeter-scale tests of gravity.Comment: Corrected referencing to important earlier work by Sundrum, errors
fixed, additional discussion on radion phenomenology, conclusions unchanged,
23 pages, LaTe
Implications of Low Energy Supersymmetry Breaking at the Tevatron
The signatures for low energy supersymmetry breaking at the Tevatron are
investigated. It is natural that the lightest standard model superpartner is an
electroweak neutralino, which decays to an essentially massless Goldstino and
photon, possibly within the detector. In the simplest models of gauge-mediated
supersymmetry breaking, the production of right-handed sleptons, neutralinos,
and charginos leads to a pair of hard photons accompanied by leptons and/or
jets with missing transverse energy. The relatively hard leptons and softer
photons of the single e^+e^- \gamma \gamma + \EmissT event observed by CDF
implies this event is best interpreted as arising from left-handed slepton pair
production. In this case the rates for l^{\pm} \gamma \gamma + \EmissT and
\gamma \gamma + \EmissT are comparable to that for l^+l^- \gamma \gamma +
\EmissT.Comment: 18 pages, Latex, tables correcte
Neutrino Masses from Large Extra Dimensions
Recently it was proposed that the standard model (SM) degrees of freedom
reside on a -dimensional wall or ``3-brane'' embedded in a
higher-dimensional spacetime. Furthermore, in this picture it is possible for
the fundamental Planck mass \mst to be as small as the weak scale \mst\simeq
O(\tev) and the observed weakness of gravity at long distances is due the
existence of new sub-millimeter spatial dimensions. We show that in this
picture it is natural to expect neutrino masses to occur in the 10^{-1} -
10^{-4}\ev range, despite the lack of any fundamental scale higher than
\mst. Such suppressed neutrino masses are not the result of a see-saw, but
have intrinsically higher-dimensional explanations. We explore two
possibilities. The first mechanism identifies any massless bulk fermions as
right-handed neutrinos. These give naturally small Dirac masses for the same
reason that gravity is weak at long distances in this framework. The second
mechanism takes advantage of the large {\it infrared} desert: the space in the
extra dimensions. Here, small Majorana neutrino masses are generated by
breaking lepton number on distant branes.Comment: 17 pages, late
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