TIKKUN OLAM A FAITH-BASED APPROACH FOR ASSISTING OLDER ADULTS IN HEALTH SYSTEM NAVIGATION

The complexity and lack of coordination of the U.S. health care system is especially challenging for older adults, many of whom have multiple chronic conditions. The faith community is a potential partner to assist them, due to strong religiosity of older adults and specific characteristics of faith communities. This study explores the knowledge and practices of faith community nurses (FCNs) in meeting care coordination needs of older adults and identifies a model of gap-filling by FCN practice. An approach combining both quantitative and qualitative approaches was used. A survey was distributed to all known FCNs in Kentucky. From the 60 respondents, 15 FCNs were selected for personal interviews, and six care recipients were also interviewed. Survey data revealed a relatively older workforce, M=57 years, with 73% in nursing for more than 20 years. All served as FCNs in their own congregations, mostly as volunteers. FCNs relied on informal rather than formal assessments, with little consistency in type of health-related information obtained from congregants. The combined interview data revealed themes including, strong grounding in faith, sense of congregational family, reliance on general nursing assessment skills, intentional empowerment, bridging expanses, trust, and continuity. Findings suggest that FCNs in Kentucky identify and fill significant gaps in health care for older adults. Spirituality and religious rituals were important for FCNs and those they served. Congregants sought out FCNs to answer questions, interpret medical information, and assist with health care interactions. The stability of the FCNs in the lives of congregations was regarded as important; congregants counted on FCNs presence through transitions in health. A model to explain FCN intervention was developed based on integration of a social ecological perspective with the WHO International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health. This model reflects contextual factors that occur throughout nested environments that surround each individual, including immediate family, congregational family, health and social care systems, and societal policies. FCNs serve as a bridge between and among these nested environments, connecting them and facilitating change within each level

On Isolated Conformal Fixed Points and Noncritical String Theory

We search for the gravity description of unidentified field theories at their conformal fixed points by studying the low energy effective action of six dimensional noncritical string theory. We find constant dilaton solutions by solving both the equations of motion and BPS equations. Our solutions include a free parameter provided by a stack of uncharged space filling branes. We find several AdS_p\times S^q solutions with constant radii for AdS_p and S^q. The curvature of the solutions are of the order of the string scale.Comment: 17 pages, Latex fil

On the pp-wave limit and the BMN structure of new Sasaki-Einstein spaces

We construct the pp-wave string associated with the Penrose limit of $Y^{p,q}$ and $L^{p,q,r}$ families of Sasaki-Einstein geometries. We identify in the dual quiver gauge theories the chiral and the non-chiral operators that correspond to the ground state and the first excited states. We present an explicit identification in a prototype model of $L^{1,7,3}$.Comment: 21 pages, JHEP format, 5 figures, acknowledgement correcte

Holographic technicolor models and their S-parameter

We study the Peskin-Takeuchi S-parameter of holographic technicolor models. We present the recipe for computing the parameter in a generalized holographic setup. We then apply it to several holographic models that include: (a) the Sakai-Sugimoto model and (b) its non-compactified cousin, (c) a non-critical analog of (a) based on near extremal AdS_6 background, (d) the KMMW model which is similar to model (a) but with D6 and anti-D6 flavor branes replacing the D8 and anti-D8 branes, (e) a model based on D5 branes compactified on two S^1s with D7 and anti-7 probe branes and (f) the conifold model with the same probe branes as in (e). The models are gravity duals of gauge theories with U(N_{TC}) gauge theory and with a breakdown of a flavor symmetry U(N_{TF})xU(N_{TF}) to U_V(N_{TF}). The models (a), (c),(d) and (e) are duals of a confining gauge theories whereas (b) and (f) associate with non confining models. The S-parameter was found to be S=sN_{TC} where s is given by 0.017\lambda_{TC}, 0.016\lambda_{TC}, 0.095, 0.50 and 0.043 for the (a),(b),(c),(d), (f) models respectively and for model (e) s is divergent. These results are valid in the large N_{TC} and large \lambda_{TC} limit. We further derive the dependence of the S-parameter on the "string endpoint" mass of the techniquarks for the various models. We compute the masses of the low lying vector technimesons.Comment: 37 pages, 2 figures V2: 2 coerrections in sectionss 4 and 5, reference adde

Non-supersymmetric Conifold

We find a new family of non-supersymmetric numerical solutions of IIB supergravity which are dual to the N=1 cascading "conifold" theory perturbed by certain combinations of relevant single trace and marginal double trace operators with non infinitesimal couplings. The SUSY is broken but the resulting ground states, and their gravity duals, remain stable, at least perturbatively.Despite the complicated field theory dynamics the gravity solutions have a simple structure. They feature the Ricci-flat non-Kahler metric on the deformed conifold and the imaginary self-dual three-form flux accompanied by a constant dilaton.Comment: 27 pages, 6 figures; v2: minor corrections; v3: comments adde

Non-critical holography and four-dimensional CFT's with fundamentals

We find non-critical string backgrounds in five and eight dimensions, holographically related to four-dimensional conformal field theories with N=0 and N=1 supersymmetries. In the five-dimensional case we find an AdS_5 background metric for a string model related to non-supersymmetric, conformal QCD with large number of colors and flavors and discuss the conjectured existence of a conformal window from the point of view of our solution. In the eight-dimensional string theory, we build a family of solutions of the form AdS_5 x \tilde{S}^3 with \tilde{S}^3 a squashed three-sphere. For a special value of the ratio N_f/N_c, the background can be interpreted as the supersymmetric near-horizon limit of a system of color and flavor branes on R^{1,3} times a known four-dimensional generalization of the cigar. The N=1 dual theory with fundamental matter should have an IR fixed point only for a fixed ratio N_f/N_c. General features of the string/gauge theory correspondence for theories with fundamental flavors are also addressed.Comment: 38 pages, 3 figures; JHEP class. Minor corrections, references adde

Cascading Quivers from Decaying D-branes

We use an argument analogous to that of Kachru, Pearson and Verlinde to argue that cascades in L^{a,b,c} quiver gauge theories always preserve the form of the quiver, and that all gauge groups drop at each step by the number M of fractional branes. In particular, we demonstrate that an NS5-brane that sweeps out the S^3 of the base of L^{a,b,c} destroys M D3-branes.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure; v2: references adde

Non-critical, near extremal AdS_6 background as a holographic laboratory of four dimensional YM theory

We study certain properties of the low energy regime of a theory which resembles four dimensional YM theory in the framework of a non-critical holographic gravity dual. We use for the latter the near extremal $AdS_6$ non-critical SUGRA. We extract the glueball spectra that associates with the fluctuations of the dilaton, one form and the graviton and compare the results to those of the critical near extremal $D4$ model and lattice simulations. We show an area law behavior for the Wilson loop and screening for the 't Hooft loop. The Luscher term is found to be $-{3/24}\frac {\pi}{L}$. We derive the Regge trajectories of glueballs associated with the spinning folded string configurations.Comment: 25 pages, JHEP styl

Glueballs, symmetry breaking and axionic strings in non-supersymmetric deformations of the Klebanov-Strassler background

We obtain an analytic solution for an axionic non-supersymmetric deformation of the warped deformed conifold. This allows us to study D-strings in the infrared limit of non-supersymmetric deformations of the Klebanov-Strassler background. They are interpreted as axionic strings in the dual field theory. Following the arguments of [hep-th/0405282], the axion is a massless pseudo-scalar glueball which is present in the supergravity fluctuation spectrum and it is interpreted as the Goldstone boson of the spontaneously broken U(1) baryon number symmetry, being the gauge theory on the baryonic branch. Besides, we briefly discuss about the Pando Zayas-Tseytlin solution where the SU(2) \times SU(2) global symmetry is spontaneously broken. This background has been conjectured to be on the mesonic branch of the gauge theory.Comment: 30 pages; V2: minor corrections; V3: section 3 corrected and misprints corrected to match version published in JHE

Holography and Thermodynamics of 5D Dilaton-gravity

The asymptotically-logarithmically-AdS black-hole solutions of 5D dilaton gravity with a monotonic dilaton potential are analyzed in detail. Such theories are holographically very close to pure Yang-Mills theory in four dimensions. The existence and uniqueness of black-hole solutions is shown. It is also shown that a Hawking-Page transition exists at finite temperature if and only if the potential corresponds to a confining theory. The physics of the transition matches in detail with that of deconfinement of the Yang-Mills theory. The high-temperature phase asymptotes to a free gluon gas at high temperature matching the expected behavior from asymptotic freedom. The thermal gluon condensate is calculated and shown to be crucial for the existence of a non-trivial deconfining transition. The condensate of the topological charge is shown to vanish in the deconfined phase.Comment: LaTeX, 61 pages (main body) + 58 pages (appendix), 25 eps figures. Revised version, published in JHEP. Two equations added in Section 7.4; typos corrected; references adde