Measures of fine tuning

Fine-tuning criteria are frequently used to place upper limits on the masses of superpartners in supersymmetric extensions of the standard model. However, commonly used prescriptions for quantifying naturalness have some important shortcomings. Motivated by this, we propose new criteria for quantifying fine tuning that can be used to place upper limits on superpartner masses with greater fidelity. In addition, our analysis attempts to make explicit the assumptions implicit in quantifications of naturalness. We apply our criteria to the minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model, and we find that the scale of supersymmetry breaking can be larger than previous methods indicate.Comment: 15 pages, LaTex, 5 figures uuencoded, gz-compressed file. Minor revisions bring the archived manuscript into agreement with published versio

Acuerdo de asociación Centroamérica-Unión Europea: evaluación utilizando equilibrio general computable y equilibrio parcial

Incluye Bibliografí

A Fresh Catch of Massive Binaries in the Cygnus OB2 Association

Massive binary stars may constitute a substantial fraction of progenitors to supernovae and gamma-ray bursts, and the distribution of their orbital characteristics holds clues to the formation process of massive stars. As a contribution to securing statistics on OB-type binaries, we report the discovery and orbital parameters for five new systems as part of the Cygnus OB2 Radial Velocity Survey. Four of the new systems (MT070, MT174, MT267, and MT734 (a.k.a. VI Cygni #11) are single-lined spectroscopic binaries while one (MT103) is a double-lined system (B1V+B2V). MT070 is noteworthy as the longest period system yet measured in Cyg OB2, with P=6.2 yr. The other four systems have periods ranging between 4 and 73 days. MT174 is noteworthy for having a probable mass ratio q<0.1, making it a candidate progenitor to a low-mass X-ray binary. These measurements bring the total number of massive binaries in Cyg OB2 to 25, the most currently known in any single cluster or association.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

Els fars davanters a ull de càmara

La contínua innovació en els sistemes d'il·luminació dels automòbils comporta també una millora en els sistemes d'avaluació. Aquests estan basats en la comparació dinàmica, és a dir, que siguin els propis experts o usuaris qui comprovin la qualitat dels fars durant una sèrie de proves de conducció. L'inconvenient d'aquesta mena d'avaluació és que resulta força costós, i la capacitat de retenció visual a curt termini de les persones no assegura uns resultats definitius. Per això, el departament de Desenvolupament Elèctric, Il·luminació i Senyalització del Centre Tècnic de SEAT, a Martorell, i el Centre de Visió per Computador de la UAB han ideat un sistema de gravació, del que després es podran visionar els fotogrames i fer-ne la comparació. És necessari però, sincronització i alineació espacial entre els fotogrames per ajustar correctament els resultats a la realitat de la conducció.La continua innovación en los sistemas de iluminación de los automóviles comporta también una mejora en los sistemas de evaluación. Éstos están basados en la comparación dinámica, es decir, que sean los propios expertos o usuarios quienes comprueben la calidad de los faros durante una serie de pruebas de conducción. El inconveniente de este tipo de evaluación es que resulta bastante costoso, y la capacidad de retención visual a corto plazo de las personas no asegura unos resultados definitivos. Por eso, el departamento de Desarrollo Eléctrico, Iluminación y Señalización del Centro Técnico de SEAT, en Martorell, i el Centro de Visión por Computador de la UAB han ideado un sistema de grabación, del que después se podrán visionar los videos y realizar la comparación. Es necesario sin embargo, sincronización y alineación espacial entre los fotogramas para ajustar correctamente los resultados a la realidad de la conducción.Continuous innovation in headlamp systems also implies an improvement in how they are assessed. These assessment systems are based on dynamic comparison, i.e., experts or users themselves assess the quality of headlamps by means of different driving tests. The disadvantages of this type of assessment are the elevated cost and the fact that short-term visual retention does not guarantee definitive results. For this reason, the Department of Electrical, Lighting and Signal Development at SEAT's Technical Centre in Martorell, and Computer Vision Centre of UAB have created a recording system. The frames from these recordings will later be viewed and compared. However, first they will have to be spatially synchronised and aligned in order to adjust the results to real driving situations

Large Scale dynamics of Brown trout populations across Navarra Rivers (North Spain)

Most studies on the population dynamics of stream-living salmonids have attempted to elucidate the causes of variation in demographic traits or population abundance by analyzing population time series vis-á-vis environmental data. In order to express the results on a scale compatible with fishery management strategies, most studies have been done at the scale of a stream reach, a stream or a river basin with few studies focused on the population dynamics at larger geographic scales. Our goal is to determine the extent to which the effects of both, exogenous and endogenous factors actually describe the variations in abundance of brown trout populations inhabiting separated river basins across a large and environmentally heterogeneous territory. We tested whether the trout abundance across a large territory involving distinct populations could be described by determining the extent to which exogenous and endogenous drivers underlie the per capita population growth rate estimated from long-term time series in a way similar to that previously assessed at smaller geographical scales. We have developed a simple multivariate linear model that synthetically combines an index of large-scale climate variation with mean population abundance. This model has been built on the basis of a data set encompassing 18-year quantifications of abundance at 68 sampling stations. The results of our simulation model predict mean trout abundance with less than 10% error

Constraints on Supersymmetric Theories from μ→e,γ\mu\to e,\gamma

In the absence of any additional assumption it is natural to conjecture that sizeable flavour-mixing mass entries, $\Delta m^2$, may appear in the mass matrices of the scalars of the MSSM, i.e. $\Delta m^2\sim O(m^2)$. This flavour violation can still be reconciled with the experiment if the gaugino mass, $M_{1/2}$, is large enough, leading to a {\em gaugino dominance} framework (i.e. $M_{1/2}^2\gg m^2$), which permits a remarkably model--independent analysis. We study this possibility focussing our attention on the $\mu\rightarrow e,\gamma$ decay. In this way we obtain very strong and general constraints, in particular \frac{M_{1/2}^2}{\Delta m}\simgt 34\ {\rm TeV}. On the other hand, we show that our analysis and results remain valid for values of $m^2$ much larger than $\Delta m^2$, namely for \frac{\Delta m^2}{m^2}\simgt \frac{m^2} {10\ {\rm TeV^2}}, thus extending enormously their scope of application. Finally, we discuss the implications for superstring scenarios.Comment: 12 pages, Latex, 5 figures as uuencoded compressed postscript files, uses psfig.st

The effect of non-thermal plasma on the lipid oxidation and microbiological quality of sushi

The study examined the effect of non-thermal plasma (NTP) on the total viable count and lipid oxidation of two common sushi products: nigiri and hosomaki. Sushi samples were treated with NTP using a dielectric barrier discharge system with 70 and 80kV of potential differences for 5min. The samples were stored at 4°C for 11days and analysed for total aerobic count, moisture and protein content, TBA index and fatty acids composition. Although the effect of NTP on the total aerobic counts was not statistically significant, a tendency in log reduction could be observed, with 1–1.5logcfu/g reduction. Moisture and protein content, as well as fatty acids composition of sushi was not affected by the treatment. The TBA index of treated samples increased significantly by 0.4–1.5mg/kg, with hosomaki reaching higher TBA index than nigiri. Although NTP in the studied conditions can, to a limited degree, increase the microbiological quality of the sushi samples, it also increases the oxidation rate

Structure and thermodynamics of a ferrofluid bilayer

We present extensive Monte Carlo simulations for the thermodynamic and structural properties of a planar bilayer of dipolar hard spheres for a wide range of densities, dipole moments and layer separations. Expressions for the stress and pressure tensors of the bilayer system are derived. For all thermodynamic states considered the interlayer energy is shown to be attractive and much smaller than the intralayer contribution to the energy. It vanishes at layer separations of the order of two hard sphere diameters. The normal pressure is negative and decays as a function of layer separation $h$ as $-1/h^5$. Intralayer and interlayer pair distribution functions and angular correlation functions are presented. Despite the weak interlayer energy strong positional and orientational correlations exist between particles in the two layers.Comment: 45 pages, 4 Tables, 9 Figure

Predicting out of intensive care unit cardiopulmonary arrest or death using electronic medical record data

BACKGROUND: Accurate, timely and automated identification of patients at high risk for severe clinical deterioration using readily available clinical information in the electronic medical record (EMR) could inform health systems to target scarce resources and save lives. METHODS: We identified 7,466 patients admitted to a large, public, urban academic hospital between May 2009 and March 2010. An automated clinical prediction model for out of intensive care unit (ICU) cardiopulmonary arrest and unexpected death was created in the derivation sample (50% randomly selected from total cohort) using multivariable logistic regression. The automated model was then validated in the remaining 50% from the total cohort (validation sample). The primary outcome was a composite of resuscitation events, and death (RED). RED included cardiopulmonary arrest, acute respiratory compromise and unexpected death. Predictors were measured using data from the previous 24 hours. Candidate variables included vital signs, laboratory data, physician orders, medications, floor assignment, and the Modified Early Warning Score (MEWS), among other treatment variables. RESULTS: RED rates were 1.2% of patient-days for the total cohort. Fourteen variables were independent predictors of RED and included age, oxygenation, diastolic blood pressure, arterial blood gas and laboratory values, emergent orders, and assignment to a high risk floor. The automated model had excellent discrimination (c-statistic=0.85) and calibration and was more sensitive (51.6% and 42.2%) and specific (94.3% and 91.3%) than the MEWS alone. The automated model predicted RED 15.9 hours before they occurred and earlier than Rapid Response Team (RRT) activation (5.7 hours prior to an event, p=0.003) CONCLUSION: An automated model harnessing EMR data offers great potential for identifying RED and was superior to both a prior risk model and the human judgment-driven RRT