A Soft-Wall Dilaton

We study the properties of the dilaton in a soft-wall background using two solutions of the Einstein equations. These solutions contain an asymptotically AdS metric with a nontrivial scalar profile that causes both the spontaneous breaking of conformal invariance and the generation of a mass gap in the particle spectrum. We first present an analytic solution, using the superpotential method, that describes a CFT spontaneously broken by a finite dimensional operator in which a light dilaton mode appears in the spectrum. This represents a tuning in the vanishing of the quartic coupling in the effective potential that could be naturally realised from an underlying supersymmetry. Instead, by considering a generalised analytic scalar bulk potential that quickly transitions at the condensate scale from a walking coupling in the UV to an order-one $\beta$-function in the IR, we obtain a naturally light dilaton. This provides a simple example for obtaining a naturally light dilaton from nearly-marginal CFT deformations in the more realistic case of a soft-wall background.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figures; v2: version published in JHE

HOW DO DIRECT-TO-CONSUMER DRUG ADVERTISEMENTS MEASURE UP?

poster abstractPrior to the 1980's, it was illegal for prescription drug manufacturers in the United States to advertise directly to consumers. Instead, these compa-nies only advertised to medical professionals. Several prescription drug companies began direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising during the 1980s. However, this advertising faced strict limitations from the Food and Drug Administration. However, in 1997, the FDA relaxed some of these limita-tions, and DTC advertising began to grow rapidly. By 2009, drug companies' expenditures on DTC advertising had grown to $4.5 billion. Nonetheless, DTC advertisements continue to face criticism. One criticism of direct-to-consumer advertisements is that product benefit and risk information is of-ten not communicated clearly to consumers, e.g., that the ads contain inad-equate information regarding risks, or vague descriptions of medication ben-efits. The present study seeks to assess the merits of these criticisms. This research is being conducted in two stages. First, secondary research is being conducted to determine what other researchers have concluded re-garding the representation of risk and benefit information in direct-to-consumer advertisements. Past studies have examined several aspects of DTC ads, including the balance between benefit and risk information, and the specificity of the information expressed. Second, primary research will be conducted, in which current DTC advertisements will be content-analyzed. This research will involve collecting DTC advertisements, develop-ing a system of coding the information in these ads, and assessing and cri-tiquing the ways in which product benefits and risks are presented to con-sumers through such advertisements

A review of the research literature relating to ICT and attainment

Summary of the main report, which examined current research and evidence for the impact of ICT on pupil attainment and learning in school settings and the strengths and limitations of the methodologies used in the research literature

DOSE-RESPONSE THRESHOLDS FOR PROGRESSIVE DISEASES

Many diseases, including cancers, heart diseases, and lung diseases, can usefully be viewed as arising from disruption of feedback control systems that normally maintain homeostasis of tissues and cell populations. Excessive exposure can destabilize feedback control loops, leading to sustained elevation of variables to saturated levels and clinical consequences such as chronic unresolved inflammation, destruction of tissue (as in emphysema), proliferation of cell populations (as in lung cancer), and increases in reac- tive oxygen species and protease levels (as in coronary heart diseases and chronic obstruc- tive lung disease). We propose a framework for understanding how exposure can destabi- lize normally homeostatic feedback control systems and create sustained imbalances and elevated levels of disease-related variables, by creating a new, locally stable, alternative equilibrium for the dynamic system, in addition to its normal (homeostatic) equilibrium. The resulting model, which we call alternative-equilibria (AE) theory, implies the existence of an exposure threshold below which transition to the alternative equilibrium (potential disease) state will not occur. Once this threshold is exceeded, progression to the alternative equilibrium continues spontaneously, even without further exposure. These predictions may help to explain patterns observed in experimental and epidemiological data for diseases such as COPD, silicosis, and inflammation-mediated lung cancer

The 'Antibiotic Apocalypse' - scaremongering or scientific reporting?

Antimicrobial resistance is dominating scientific media. We are warned of an impending 'antibiotic apocalypse', where mankind faces its biggest threat, untreatable microbes. However, the world is not ending. Scientists are responding to the threat; new knowledge and chemotherapeutics are being created to safeguard our future. The future is bright, not gloomy

The M31 Velocity Vector. III. Future Milky Way-M31-M33 Orbital Evolution, Merging, and Fate of the Sun

We study the future orbital evolution and merging of the MW-M31-M33 system, using a combination of collisionless N-body simulations and semi-analytic orbit integrations. Monte-Carlo simulations are used to explore the consequences of varying the initial phase-space and mass parameters within their observational uncertainties. The observed M31 transverse velocity implies that the MW and M31 will merge t = 5.86 (+1.61-0.72) Gyr from now, after a first pericenter at t = 3.87 (+0.42-0.32) Gyr. M31 may (probability p=41%) make a direct hit with the MW (defined here as a first-pericenter distance less than 25 kpc). Most likely, the MW and M31 will merge first, with M33 settling onto an orbit around them. Alternatively, M33 may make a direct hit with the MW first (p=9%), or M33 may get ejected from the Local Group (p=7%). The MW-M31 merger remnant will resemble an elliptical galaxy. The Sun will most likely (p=85%) end up at larger radius from the center of the MW-M31 merger remnant than its current distance from the MW center, possibly further than 50 kpc (p=10%). The Sun may (p=20%) at some time in the next 10 Gyr find itself moving through M33 (within 10 kpc), but while dynamically still bound to the MW-M31 merger remnant. The arrival and possible collision of M31 (and possibly M33) with the MW is the next major cosmic event affecting the environment of our Sun and solar system that can be predicted with some certainty. (Abridged)Comment: 58 pages, 16 figures, to be published in ApJ. Version with high resolution figures and N-body movies available at http://www.stsci.edu/~marel/M31 . Press materials, graphics, and visualizations available at http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2012/2

TEMPERATURE, NOT FINE PARTICULATE MATTER (PM2.5), IS CAUSALLY ASSOCIATED WITH SHORT-TERM ACUTE DAILY MORTALITY RATES: RESULTS FROM ONE HUNDRED UNITED STATES CITIES

Exposures to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in air (C) have been suspected of con- tributing causally to increased acute (e.g., same-day or next-day) human mortality rates (R). We tested this causal hypothesis in 100 United States cities using the publicly available NMMAPS database. Although a significant, approximately linear, statistical C-R association exists in simple statistical models, closer analysis suggests that it is not causal. Surprisingly, conditioning on other variables that have been extensively considered in previous analyses (usually using splines or other smoothers to approximate their effects), such as month of the year and mean daily temperature, suggests that they create strong, nonlinear con- founding that explains the statistical association between PM2.5 and mortality rates in this data set. As this finding disagrees with conventional wisdom, we apply several different techniques to examine it. Conditional independence tests for potential causation, nonparametric classification tree analysis, Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA), and Granger- Sims causality testing, show no evidence that PM2.5 concentrations have any causal impact on increasing mortality rates. This apparent absence of a causal C-R relation, despite their statistical association, has potentially important implications for managing and communicating the uncertain health risks associated with, but not necessarily caused by, PM2.5 exposures