Quark masses without Yukawa hierarchies

A model based on the local gauge group SU(3)_c x SU(3)_L x U(1)_X without particles with exotic electric charges is shown to be able to provide the quark mass spectrum and their mixing, by means of universal see-saw mechanisms, avoiding a hierarchy in the Yukawa coupling constants.Comment: 7 pages, 1 eps figure. Published in Europhysics Letter

Trump-induced anxiety among Latina/os

During the 2016 election, Donald Trump castigated unauthorized immigrants as “murderers and rapists.” During his presidency, he continued the use of this rhetoric, explicitly linking unauthorized migrants to threatening narratives. Here, we consider three questions: Did Donald Trump and his immigration positions serve as an “anxiety trigger” for Latina/os? Are individuals with contextually stigmatized attributes especially sensitive to Trump and his policy proposals? Is Spanish language itself, an attribute negatively stigmatized in the context of the immigration issue, sufficient to increase deportation anxiety? Utilizing survey experiments of Latina/os, we demonstrate that exposure to a Trump immigration cue is sufficient to increase anxiety about deportation. We also demonstrate that stigmatized attributes predict anxiety, but do not moderate the effect of the Trump cue. Lastly, we provide evidence that survey language affects anxiety among Latina/os. In Studies 1 (n = 736) and 2 (n = 1,040), we show that exposure to information about Trump’s immigration agenda significantly increases reports about deportation anxiety. In Study 3 (n = 1,734), we show that the Trump exposure condition induces heightened anxiety but that Latina/o attributes (language proficiency and use, immigration status, assessed phenotype) and identity strength have an independent effect on deportation anxiety. In Study 4 (n = 775), we randomized bilingual respondents into Spanish or English language survey protocols and found that comparable bilinguals exposed to Spanish language report higher levels of anxiety compared to English-language survey takers

On Charge Quantization and Abelian Gauge Horizontal Symmetries

Under the assumption that there exists a local gauge horizontal symmetry $G_H$ wich allows only for a top quark mass at tree level, we look for the constraints that charge quatization and the family structure of the standard model imposes on that symmetry.Comment: 13 pages, LaTeX, Acepted in Physics Letters

Light propagation through optical media using metric contact geometry

In this work, we show that the orthogonality between rays and fronts of light propagation in a medium is expressed in terms of a suitable metric contact structure of the optical medium without boundaries. Moreover, we show that considering interfaces (modeled as boundaries) orthogonality is no longer fulfilled, leading to optical aberrations and in some cases total internal reflection. We present some illustrative examples of this latter point.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure

Participatory Militias: An Analysis of an Armed Movement's Online Audience

Armed groups of civilians known as "self-defense forces" have ousted the powerful Knights Templar drug cartel from several towns in Michoacan. This militia uprising has unfolded on social media, particularly in the "VXM" ("Valor por Michoacan," Spanish for "Courage for Michoacan") Facebook page, gathering more than 170,000 fans. Previous work on the Drug War has documented the use of social media for real-time reports of violent clashes. However, VXM goes one step further by taking on a pro-militia propagandist role, engaging in two-way communication with its audience. This paper presents a descriptive analysis of VXM and its audience. We examined nine months of posts, from VXM's inception until May 2014, totaling 6,000 posts by VXM administrators and more than 108,000 comments from its audience. We describe the main conversation themes, post frequency and relationships with offline events and public figures. We also characterize the behavior of VXM's most active audience members. Our work illustrates VXM's online mobilization strategies, and how its audience takes part in defining the narrative of this armed conflict. We conclude by discussing possible applications of our findings for the design of future communication technologies.Comment: Participatory Militias: An Analysis of an Armed Movement's Online Audience. Saiph Savage, Andres Monroy-Hernandez. CSCW: ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work 201

Degradación de la Clorofila Presente en (Spirogyra spp.) como Indicator Socio Ambiental de la Presencia de Plaguicidas organofosforados

En la presente investigación se estudió la alteración de la clorofila presente en Spirogyra spp. como indicador de la presencia de tres plaguicidas organofosforados: Curacrón, Malatión y Acefato, a través de ensayos realizados a diferentes concentraciones de los plaguicidas durante un lapso de 72 horas de exposición. Transcurrida la etapa experimental se pudo observar la pérdida de la coloración verde de las algas como resultado de la alteración de su pigmentación natural. El análisis de varianza realizado a los resultados de la medición de la absorbancia de las muestras demuestra una disminución de la concentración de clorofila, en comparación con las muestras testigo de los ensayos. La sensibilidad de las algas al ser expuestas a los plaguicidas organofosforados es una manifestación del alto potencial bioindicador de Spirogyra spp. Este estudio brinda a los agricultores de la comunidad de San Antonio la posibilidad de detectar de manera temprana la presencia de plaguicidas en sus fuentes de agua y abre las puertas a la investigación para posteriores aplicaciones. The alteration of the chlorophyll present in Spirogyra spp. was studied as an indicator of the presence of three organophosphorus pesticides, Curacron, Malathion and Acephate, with tests carried out at different concentrations of the pesticides during a period of 72 hours of exposure. After the experimental stage, it was possible to observe the loss of the green coloration of the algae as a result of the alteration of their natural pigmentation. The analysis of variance based on the results of the measurement of the absorbance of the samples demonstrated a decrease in the concentration of chlorophyll compared to the control samples from the trials. The sensitivity of algae to being exposed to organophosphorus pesticides is a manifestation of the high bioindicator potential of Spirogyra spp., which provides farmers in the community of San Antonio the possibility of early detection of the presence of pesticides in their sources of water, and it also opens the doors to research for subsequent applications