Linking HIV/AIDS, Confict and National Security A Colombian Case Study

AbstractAn estimated 33 million people are today infected with HIV. The majority of these people live in developing countries, and many in countries experiencing armed conflict or instability. This paper examines the linkages between HIV/AIDS, conflict and national security applying existing theories to the Colombian context and asking whether HIV/AIDS should be securitized in order to reduce the negative cause and effect relationship. It finds that the linkages are definitely present in Colombia and concludes that HIV/AIDS should be politicised at the national level and securitized at internationallevel.****ResumenAproximadamente 33 millones personas están hoy en día infectadas con el VIH. La mayoría de ellos viven en países en vía de desarrollo y muchos de estos países están sufriendo conflictos armados o inestabilidades políticas. En el presente documento se examina los vínculos entre VIH/SIDA, conflicto y seguridad nacional, aplicando las teorías existentes al contexto colombiano y haciendo la pregunta si se debería tratar el VIH/SIDA como una cuestión de seguridad nacional para reducir la relación causa y efecto negativa. En el documento se descubre que estos vínculos están presentes en Colombia y concluye que a nivel nacional se debería buscar un reconocimiento político del tema VIH/SIDA, mientras a nivel internacional sería pertinente tratarlo como una cuestión de seguridad.

Scalar Meson Decay Constants and the Nature of the a_0(980)

The a_0(980), a_0(1450) and K_0(1430) decay constants are determined using a form of QCD sum rules known to produce a very accurate determination of the rho decay constant. The ratio of a_0(980) to K_0(1430) decay constants is shown to be ~0.6, ruling out both the ``loosely-bound-K\bar{K}-molecule'' and Gribov minion scenarios for the a_0(980). Solutions for the isovector scalar spectral function obtained in the literature from sum rule analyses employing a more restrictive single-resonance-plus-continuum form of the input spectral ansatz, are also investigated. These solutions, which suggest, in contrast to the present results, negligible coupling of the a_0(980) to the isovector scalar density are shown to produce a poor quality match between the OPE and hadronic sides of the sum rules employed here, and hence to be strongly disfavored relative to the present solution.Comment: Presented to the International Conference on Quark Nuclear Physics, Adelaide, Feb. 21-25, 200

Breaking Flavour Symmetry Spontaneously

A new mechanism for spontaneous breaking of flavour symmetry is demonstrated. An exactly flavour symmetric model with degenerate bare nonets and with sufficiently strong tri-linear meson couplings is shown to lead to self-consistency equations which are unstable. Instead there exists a stable solution, which break flavour symmetry spontaneously in the mass spectrum. For a C-degenerate meson spectrum the stable mass spectrum obeys the Okubo-Zweig-Iizuka (OZI) rule and the approximate equal spacing rule.Comment: Major revisions in text, 12 pages, RevTeX, 5 Figure

Mixing the Strong and E-W Higgs Sectors

After noting the well known similarity of the minimal electro-weak Higgs sector with the linear sigma model for the pion and the sigma, it is found that a small mixing term between the two models generates a pion mass. Although the custodial SU(2)L x SU(2)R, and the gauged SU(2)L x U(1) symmetry for the whole model remains intact, the mixing breaks the relative chiral symmetry between the two sectors. The mixing should be calculable from light quark masses as a quantum correction. This simple mechanism of "relative symmetry breaking" is believed to have applications for other forms of symmetry breaking.Comment: Version to appear in PLB. Referencess added. Acknowledgement support corrected. Minor improvements in tex

Heavy quark spin selection rule and the properties of the X(3872)

The properties of the resonance X(3872) are discussed under the assumption that this resonance is dominantly a `molecular' $J^{PC}=1^{++}$ state of neutral $D$ and $D^*$ mesons. It is argued that in these properties should dominate the states with the total spin of the charmed quark-antiquark pair equal to one. As a practical application of this observation the ratio of the rates of the decays $X \to \pi^0 \chi_{cJ}$ for different $J$ is predicted. It is also pointed out that the total rate of these decays is likely to be comparable to that of the observed transitions $X \to \pi^+ \pi^- J\psi$ and $X \to \pi^+ \pi^- \pi^0 J\psi$. The decays of the X into light hadrons and its production in hadronic processes are also briefly discussed.Comment: 7 page

Predicting D -> sigma pi

We examine the D -> sigma pi amplitude through a constituent quark-meson model, incorporating heavy quark and chiral symmetries, finding a good agreement with the recent E791 data analysis of D -> 3 pi via sigma.Comment: 6 pages, RevTex, One new contribution added, typos correcte

Hadronic molecules: meson-baryon hybrids

The existence of hadronic molecular-type hybrids consisting of a baryon and a meson is argued. Long-range interactions due to one-pion exchange is shown to be strong enough to produce a loosely bound state. Specific features of a molecular hybrid are discussed.Comment: 7 pages in RevTeX plus 1 figure (available upon request

Protein Adductomics: Methodologies for Untargeted Screening of Adducts to Serum Albumin and Hemoglobin in Human Blood Samples.

The reaction products of electrophiles in vivo can be measured as adducts to the abundant proteins, hemoglobin (Hb), and human serum albumin (HSA), in human blood samples. During the last decade, methods for untargeted screening of such adducts, called adductomics, have used liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry to detect large numbers of previously unknown Hb and HSA adducts. This review presents methodologies that were developed and used in our laboratories for Hb and HSA adductomics, respectively. We discuss critical aspects regarding choice of target protein, sample preparation, mass spectrometry, data evaluation, and strategies for identification of detected unknown adducts. With this review we give an overview of these two methodologies used for protein adductomics and the precursor electrophiles that have been elucidated from the adducts

Isospin breaking of the narrow charmonium state of Belle at 3872 MeV as a deuson

The narrow charmonium state near 3872 MeV reported by the Belle collaboration and confirmedby CDF lies almost exactly at the neutral D anti-D* threshold. As was predicted many years ago it can be a deuteronlike meson-meson state called a deuson. If so, it should be an axial, or possibily a pseudoscalar state with C=0, and isospin predominantly 0. Large isospin breaking is expected because of the isospin mass splitting between the neutral and charged D (D*) mesons. Because of this large isospin breaking the decay X(3872) to J/psi rho would be allowed, while J/psi sigma would be forbidden by C-parity, as indicated by the present data.Comment: 7 latex pages 5 figures. This report supercedes the unpublished reminder hep-ph/0308277. Version 2 to appear in Physics Letters B, one reference added and minor improvement