Constitutional Analogies in the International Legal System

This Article explores issues at the frontier of international law and constitutional law. It considers five key structural and systemic challenges that the international legal system now faces: (1) decentralization and disaggregation; (2) normative and institutional hierarchies; (3) compliance and enforcement; (4) exit and escape; and (5) democracy and legitimacy. Each of these issues raises questions of governance, institutional design, and allocation of authority paralleling the questions that domestic legal systems have answered in constitutional terms. For each of these issues, I survey the international legal landscape and consider the salience of potential analogies to domestic constitutions, drawing upon and extending the writings of international legal scholars and international relations theorists. I also offer some preliminary thoughts about why some treaties and institutions, but not others, more readily lend themselves to analysis in constitutional terms. And I distinguish those legal and political issues that may generate useful insights for scholars studying the growing intersections of international and constitutional law from other areas that may be more resistant to constitutional analogies

Androgen receptor-dependent and -independent mechanisms driving prostate cancer progression: Opportunities for therapeutic targeting from multiple angles.

Despite aggressive treatment for localized cancer, prostate cancer (PC) remains a leading cause of cancer-related death for American men due to a subset of patients progressing to lethal and incurable metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). Organ-confined PC is treated by surgery or radiation with or without androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), while options for locally advanced and disseminated PC include radiation combined with ADT, or systemic treatments including chemotherapy. Progression to CRPC results from failure of ADT, which targets the androgen receptor (AR) signaling axis and inhibits AR-driven proliferation and survival pathways. The exact mechanisms underlying the transition from androgen-dependent PC to CRPC remain incompletely understood. Reactivation of AR has been shown to occur in CRPC despite depletion of circulating androgens by ADT. At the same time, the presence of AR-negative cell populations in CRPC has also been identified. While AR signaling has been proposed as the primary driver of CRPC, AR-independent signaling pathways may represent additional mechanisms underlying CRPC progression. Identification of new therapeutic strategies to target both AR-positive and AR-negative PC cell populations and, thereby, AR-driven as well as non-AR-driven PC cell growth and survival mechanisms would provide a two-pronged approach to eliminate CRPC cells with potential for synthetic lethality. In this review, we provide an overview of AR-dependent and AR-independent molecular mechanisms which drive CRPC, with special emphasis on the role of the Jak2-Stat5a/b signaling pathway in promoting castrate-resistant growth of PC through both AR-dependent and AR-independent mechanisms

Challenging SO(10) SUSY GUTs with family symmetries through FCNC processes

We perform a detailed analysis of the SO(10) SUSY GUT model with D3 family symmetry of Dermisek and Raby (DR). The model is specified in terms of 24 parameters and predicts, as a function of them, the whole MSSM set of parameters at low energy scales. Concerning the SM subset of such parameters, the model is able to give a satisfactory description of the quark and lepton masses, of the PMNS matrix and of the CKM matrix. We perform a global fit to the model, including flavour changing neutral current (FCNC) processes Bs --> mu+ mu-, B --> Xs gamma, B --> Xs l+ l- and the B(d,s) - bar B(d,s) mass differences Delta M(d,s) as well as the flavour changing (FC) process B+ --> tau+ nu. These observables provide at present the most sensitive probe of the SUSY mass spectrum and couplings predicted by the model. Our analysis demonstrates that the simultaneous description of the FC observables in question represents a serious challenge for the DR model, unless the masses of the scalars are moved to regions which are problematic from the point of view of naturalness and probably beyond the reach of the LHC. We emphasize that this problem could be a general feature of SUSY GUT models with third generation Yukawa unification and weak-scale minimal flavour violation.Comment: 1 + 37 pages, 5 figures, 11 tables. v3: minor typos fixed. Matches JHEP published versio

Aspects of Axion Phenomenology in a slice of AdS_5

Motivated by multi-throat considerations, we study the phenomenological implications of a bulk axion in a slice of AdS_5 with a large extra dimension: k~0.01 eV, kR > 1. In particular, we compare axion physics with a warped geometry to axions in flat compactifications. As in flat compactification scenarios, we find that the mass of the axion can become independent from the underlying Peccei-Quinn scale. Surprisingly, we find that in warped extra dimensions the axion's invisibility, cosmological viability, and basic phenomenology remain essentially unaltered in comparison to axions in flat compactifications.Comment: 25 pages, 9 figure

Effect of genital herpes on cervicovaginal HIV shedding in women co-infected with HIV AND HSV-2 in Tanzania.

To compare the presence and quantity of cervicovaginal HIV among HIV seropositive women with clinical herpes, subclinical HSV-2 infection and without HSV-2 infection respectively; to evaluate the association between cervicovaginal HIV and HSV shedding; and identify factors associated with quantity of cervicovaginal HIV. Four groups of HIV seropositive adult female barworkers were identified and examined at three-monthly intervals between October 2000 and March 2003 in Mbeya, Tanzania: (1) 57 women at 70 clinic visits with clinical genital herpes; (2) 39 of the same women at 46 clinic visits when asymptomatic; (3) 55 HSV-2 seropositive women at 60 clinic visits who were never observed with herpetic lesions; (4) 18 HSV-2 seronegative women at 45 clinic visits. Associations of genital HIV shedding with HIV plasma viral load (PVL), herpetic lesions, HSV shedding and other factors were examined. Prevalence of detectable genital HIV RNA varied from 73% in HSV-2 seronegative women to 94% in women with herpetic lesions (geometric means 1634 vs 3339 copies/ml, p = 0.03). In paired specimens from HSV-2 positive women, genital HIV viral shedding was similar during symptomatic and asymptomatic visits. On multivariate regression, genital HIV RNA (log10 copies/mL) was closely associated with HIV PVL (β = 0.51 per log10 copies/ml increase, 95%CI:0.41-0.60, p<0.001) and HSV shedding (β = 0.24 per log10 copies/ml increase, 95% CI:0.16-0.32, p<0.001) but not the presence of herpetic lesions (β = -0.10, 95%CI:-0.28-0.08, p = 0.27). HIV PVL and HSV shedding were more important determinants of genital HIV than the presence of herpetic lesions. These data support a role of HSV-2 infection in enhancing HIV transmissibility

Small-x QCD studies with CMS at the LHC

The capabilities of the CMS experiment to study the low-x parton structure and QCD evolution in the proton and the nucleus at LHC energies are presented through four different measurements, to be carried out in Pb-Pb at sqrt(s_NN) = 5.5 TeV: (i) the charged hadron rapidity density $dN_{ch}/d\eta$ and (ii) the ultraperipheral (photo)production of Upsilon; and in p-p at sqrt(s) = 14 TeV: (iii) inclusive forward jets and (iv) Mueller-Navelet dijets (separated by $Delta\eta\gtrsim$ 8).Comment: Quark Matter'06 Proceedings. To appear in J.Phys.

Neutralino-Nucleon Cross Section and Charge and Colour Breaking Constraints

We compute the neutralino-nucleon cross section in several supersymmetric scenarios, taking into account all kind of constraints. In particular, the constraints that the absence of dangerous charge and colour breaking minima imposes on the parameter space are studied in detail. In addition, the most recent experimental constraints, such as the lower bound on the Higgs mass, the $b\to s\gamma$ branching ratio, and the muon $g-2$ are considered. The astrophysical bounds on the dark matter density are also imposed on the theoretical computation of the relic neutralino density, assuming thermal production. This computation is relevant for the theoretical analysis of the direct detection of dark matter in current experiments. We consider first the supergravity scenario with universal soft terms and GUT scale. In this scenario the charge and colour breaking constraints turn out to be quite important, and \tan\beta\lsim 20 is forbidden. Larger values of $\tan\beta$ can also be forbidden, depending on the value of the trilinear parameter $A$. Finally, we study supergravity scenarios with an intermediate scale, and also with non-universal scalar and gaugino masses where the cross section can be very large.Comment: Final version to appear in JHE

Obtaining CKM Phase Information from B Penguin Decays

We discuss a method for extracting CP phases from pairs of B decays which are related by flavor SU(3). One decay (B0 -> M1 M2) receives a significant bbar -> dbar penguin contribution. The second (B' -> M1' M2') has a significant bbar -> sbar penguin contribution, but is dominated by a single amplitude. CP phase information is obtained using the fact that the B' -> M1' M2' amplitude is related by SU(3) to a piece of the B0 -> M1 M2 amplitude. The leading-order SU(3)-breaking effect (~25%) responsible for the main theoretical error can be removed. For some decay pairs, it can be written in terms of known decay constants. In other cases, it involves a ratio of form factors. However, this form-factor ratio can either be measured experimentally, or eliminated by considering a double ratio of amplitudes. In all cases, one is left only with a second-order effect, ~5%. We find twelve pairs of B decays to which this method can be applied. Depending on the decay pair, we estimate the total theoretical error in relating the B' -> M1' M2' and B0 -> M1 M2 amplitudes to be between 5% and 15%. The most promising decay pairs are Bd -> pi+ pi- and Bu+ -> K0 pi+, and Bd -> D+ D- and Bd -> Ds+ D- or Bu+ -> Ds+ D0bar.Comment: 38 pages, JHEP format, no figures. Comments added to text regarding most promising decay pairs; references added; conclusions unchange

Prospects for the direct detection of neutralino dark matter in orbifold scenarios

We analyse the phenomenology of orbifold scenarios from the heterotic superstring, and the resulting theoretical predictions for the direct detection of neutralino dark matter. In particular, we study the parameter space of these constructions, computing the low-energy spectrum and taking into account the most recent experimental and astrophysical constraints, as well as imposing the absence of dangerous charge and colour breaking minima. In the remaining allowed regions the spin-independent part of the neutralino-proton cross section is calculated and compared with the sensitivity of dark matter detectors. In addition to the usual non universalities of the soft terms in orbifold scenarios due to the modular weight dependence, we also consider D-term contributions to scalar masses. These are generated by the presence of an anomalous U(1), providing more flexibility in the resulting soft terms, and are crucial in order to avoid charge and colour breaking minima. Thanks to the D-term contribution, large neutralino detection cross sections can be found, within the reach of projected dark matter detectors.Comment: 51 pages, 25 figure

Supersymmetric probes on the conifold

We study the supersymmetric embeddings of different D-brane probes in the AdS_5 x T^{1,1} geometry. The main tool employed is kappa symmetry and the cases studied include D3-, D5- and D7-branes. We find a family of three-cycles of the T^{1,1} space over which a D3-brane can be wrapped supersymmetrically and we determine the field content of the corresponding gauge theory duals. Supersymmetric configurations of D5-branes wrapping a two-cycle and of spacetime filling D7-branes are also found. The configurations in which the entire T^{1,1} space is wrapped by a D5-brane (baryon vertex) and a D7-brane are also studied. Some other embeddings which break supersymmetry but are nevertheless stable are also determined.Comment: 44 pages, LaTeX; v2: typos corrected, references added, discussion of D5-brane embeddings improve