Systematic Review of Household Water Conservation Interventions Using the Information–Motivation–Behavioral Skills Model

Increasing droughts and water shortages are intensifying the need for residential water conservation. We identify and classify 24 water conservation studies using the information–motivation–behavioral skills (IMB) model by categorizing interventions based on content and water conservation effectiveness. This synthesis revealed several insights. First, all of the interventions used information, motivation, and/or behavioral skills, suggesting that water conservation interventions can be interpreted within the IMB framework. Second, interventions with two or more IMB components led to reductions in water usage, but the average effect sizes between different types of interventions were similar and there was a considerable range around these averages. To the extent that intervention effectiveness is driven by populations lacking specific IMB components, more elicitation research to identify gaps in specific populations could support greater effectiveness. Designing interventions explicitly with the IMB model would facilitate comparability across studies and could support a better understanding of water conservation interventions

The MSSM fine tuning problem: a way out

As is well known, electroweak breaking in the MSSM requires substantial fine-tuning, mainly due to the smallness of the tree-level Higgs quartic coupling, lambda_tree. Hence the fine tuning is efficiently reduced in supersymmetric models with larger lambda_tree, as happens naturally when the breaking of SUSY occurs at a low scale (not far from the TeV). We show, in general and with specific examples, that a dramatic improvement of the fine tuning (so that there is virtually no fine-tuning) is indeed a very common feature of these scenarios for wide ranges of tan(beta) and the Higgs mass (which can be as large as several hundred GeV if desired, but this is not necessary). The supersymmetric flavour problems are also drastically improved due to the absence of RG cross-talk between soft mass parameters.Comment: 28 pages, 9 PS figures, LaTeX Published versio

Temperature Dependence of Hall Response in Doped Antiferromagnets

Using finite-temperature Lanczos method the frequency-dependent Hall response is calculated numerically for the t-J model on the square lattice and on ladders. At low doping, both the high-frequency RH* and the d.c. Hall coefficient RH0 follow qualitatively similar behavior at higher temperatures: being hole-like for T > Ts~1.5J and weakly electron-like for T < Ts. Consistent with experiments on cuprates, RH0 changes, in contrast to RH*, again to the hole-like sign below the pseudogap temperature T*, revealing a strong temperature variation for T->0.Comment: LaTeX, 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PR

Suppressed supersymmetry breaking terms in the Higgs sector

We study the little hierarchy between mass parameters in the Higgs sector and other SUSY breaking masses. This type of spectrum can relieve the fine-tuning problem in the MSSM Higgs sector. Our scenario can be realized by superconformal dynamics. The spectrum in our scenario has significant implications in other phenomenological aspects like the relic abundance of the lightest neutralino and relaxation of the unbounded-from-below constraints.Comment: 14 pages, late

The effect of chirality phenotype and genotype on the fecundity and viability of Partula suturalis and Lymnaea stagnalis: Implications for the evolution of sinistral snails

Why are sinistral snails so rare? Two main hypotheses are that selection acts against the establishment of new coiling morphs, because dextral and sinistral snails have trouble mating, or else a developmental constraint prevents the establishment of sinistrals. We therefore used an isolate of the snail Lymnaea stagnalis, in which sinistrals are rare, and populations of Partula suturalis, in which sinistrals are common, as well as a mathematical model, to understand the circumstances by which new morphs evolve. The main finding is that the sinistral genotype is associated with reduced egg viability in L. stagnalis, but in P. suturalis individuals of sinistral and dextral genotype appear equally fecund, implying a lack of a constraint. As positive frequency-dependent selection against the rare chiral morph in P. suturalis also operates over a narrow range (&lt; 3%), the results suggest a model for chiral evolution in snails in which weak positive frequency-dependent selection may be overcome by a negative frequency-dependent selection, such as reproductive character displacement. In snails, there is not always a developmental constraint. As the direction of cleavage, and thus the directional asymmetry of the entire body, does not generally vary in other Spiralia (annelids, echiurans, vestimentiferans, sipunculids and nemerteans), it remains an open question as to whether this is because of a constraint and/or because most taxa do not have a conspicuous external asymmetry (like a shell) upon which selection can act

Sublocalization, superlocalization, and violation of standard single parameter scaling in the Anderson model

We discuss the localization behavior of localized electronic wave functions in the one- and two-dimensional tight-binding Anderson model with diagonal disorder. We find that the distributions of the local wave function amplitudes at fixed distances from the localization center are well approximated by log-normal fits which become exact at large distances. These fits are consistent with the standard single parameter scaling theory for the Anderson model in 1d, but they suggest that a second parameter is required to describe the scaling behavior of the amplitude fluctuations in 2d. From the log-normal distributions we calculate analytically the decay of the mean wave functions. For short distances from the localization center we find stretched exponential localization ("sublocalization") in both, 1d and 2d. In 1d, for large distances, the mean wave functions depend on the number of configurations N used in the averaging procedure and decay faster that exponentially ("superlocalization") converging to simple exponential behavior only in the asymptotic limit. In 2d, in contrast, the localization length increases logarithmically with the distance from the localization center and sublocalization occurs also in the second regime. The N-dependence of the mean wave functions is weak. The analytical result agrees remarkably well with the numerical calculations.Comment: 12 pages with 9 figures and 1 tabl

Stability of the Scalar Potential and Symmetry Breaking in the Economical 3-3-1 Model

A detailed study of the criteria for stability of the scalar potential and the proper electroweak symmetry breaking pattern in the economical 3-3-1 model, is presented. For the analysis we use, and improve, a method previously developed to study the scalar potential in the two-Higgs-doublet extension of the standard model. A new theorem related to the stability of the potential is stated. As a consequence of this study, the consistency of the economical 3-3-1 model emerges.Comment: to be published in EPJ C, 13 page