Metastable Vacua in Warped Throats at Non-Isolated Singularities

We study the existence of metastable vacua in cascades based on fractional brane configurations at non-isolated singularities preserving N = 1 supersymmetry. We find that in a large class of models the extra moduli typically generated along such cascades may be stabilized by utilizing special monopole points found recently. We illustrate this in detail for cascades based on the SPP singularity. The supergravity interpretation of these constructions in terms of warped throats with supersymmetry breaking localized near their tips as well as applications to string compactification is discussed. Our constructions are designed to realize a large class of warped throats with supersymmetry breaking localized inside of a highly curved tip region.Comment: 18 pages, added clarifications, published version; 1 figur

Osteoporosis in patients with stroke: A cross-sectional study

Stroke-related impairments and inactivity contribute to the accelerated development of bone mass removal. However, the extent of decrease in bone mineral density (BMD) after stroke and all factors that influence such rapid bone loss are still not sufficiently explored. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent of BMD reduction in patients after stroke and to identify risk factors for osteoporosis. This research was designed as a cross-sectional study that included patients after a first stroke (≤1.5 years from a stroke; N = 40), who went through in-hospital rehabilitation treatment. Data were gathered by the means of anamnesis and available medical documentation. For statistical analysis, we used the statistical program International Business Machines (IBM) Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Statistics 22.0. Results were presented using standard statistical measures of central tendency and range of results. To determine the difference between variables, T-test for independent samples was used. Our study provides additional evidence that the reduction in BMD is one of the major complications of a stroke. Given that the incidence of fractures in this population is large, there is a need to perform routine DXA examinations.NI

Hemodialysis and Peritoneal Dialysis in Germany from a Health Economic View-A Propensity Score Matched Analysis.

BACKGROUND Hemodialysis (HD) and peritoneal dialysis (PD) are deemed medically equivalent for therapy of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and reimbursed by the German statutory health insurance (SHI). However, although the home dialysis modality PD is associated with higher patient autonomy than HD, for unknown reasons, PD uptake is low in Germany. Hence, we compared HD with PD regarding health economic outcomes, particularly costs, as potentially relevant factors for the predominance of HD. METHODS Claims data from two German health insurance funds were analysed in a retrospective cohort study regarding the prevalence of HD and PD in 2013-2016. Propensity score matching created comparable HD and PD groups (n = 436 each). Direct annual health care costs were compared. A sensitivity analysis included a comparison of different matching techniques and consideration of transportation costs. Additionally, hospitalisation and survival were investigated using Poisson regression and Kaplan-Meier curves. RESULTS Total direct annual average costs were higher for HD (€47,501) than for PD (€46,235), but not significantly (p = 0.557). The additional consideration of transportation costs revealed an annual cost advantage of €7000 for PD. HD and PD differed non-significantly in terms of hospitalisation and survival rates (p = 0.610/p = 0.207). CONCLUSIONS PD has a slight non-significant cost advantage over HD, especially when considering transportation costs

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements