Perturbative reliability of the Higgs-boson coupling in the standard electroweak model

We apply Pade summation to the \beta(\lambda) function for the quartic Higgs coupling \lambda in the standard electroweak model. We use the \beta function calculated to five loops in the minimal subtraction scheme to demonstrate the improvement resulting from the summation, and then apply the method to the more physical on-mass-shell renormalization scheme where \beta is known to three loops. We conclude that the OMS \beta function and the running coupling \lambda(\mu) are reliably known over the range of energies and Higgs-boson masses of current interest.Comment: 14 pages, RevTeX, 6 figure

Para-infectious brain injury in COVID-19 persists at follow-up despite attenuated cytokine and autoantibody responses

To understand neurological complications of COVID-19 better both acutely and for recovery, we measured markers of brain injury, inflammatory mediators, and autoantibodies in 203 hospitalised participants; 111 with acute sera (1–11 days post-admission) and 92 convalescent sera (56 with COVID-19-associated neurological diagnoses). Here we show that compared to 60 uninfected controls, tTau, GFAP, NfL, and UCH-L1 are increased with COVID-19 infection at acute timepoints and NfL and GFAP are significantly higher in participants with neurological complications. Inflammatory mediators (IL-6, IL-12p40, HGF, M-CSF, CCL2, and IL-1RA) are associated with both altered consciousness and markers of brain injury. Autoantibodies are more common in COVID-19 than controls and some (including against MYL7, UCH-L1, and GRIN3B) are more frequent with altered consciousness. Additionally, convalescent participants with neurological complications show elevated GFAP and NfL, unrelated to attenuated systemic inflammatory mediators and to autoantibody responses. Overall, neurological complications of COVID-19 are associated with evidence of neuroglial injury in both acute and late disease and these correlate with dysregulated innate and adaptive immune responses acutely

Causes and Consequences of Behavioral Interference between Species

Behavioral interference between species, such as territorial aggression, courtship, and mating, is widespread in animals. While aggressive and reproductive forms of interspecific interference have generally been studied separately, their many parallels and connections warrant a unified conceptual approach. Substantial evidence exists that aggressive and reproductive interference have pervasive effects on species coexistence, range limits, and evolutionary processes, including divergent and convergent forms of character displacement. Alien species invasions and climate change-induced range shifts result in novel interspecific interactions, heightening the importance of predicting the consequences of species interactions, and behavioral interference is a fundamental but neglected part of the equation. Here, we outline priorities for further theoretical and empirical research on the ecological and evolutionary consequences of behavioral interference. Aggressive and reproductive forms of behavioral interference between species are widespread in animals and share many parallels in their underlying causes and their ecological and evolutionary effects.Behavioral interference can determine whether species coexist and, thus, affects species ranges, the persistence of native species, and the spread of invasive species.As species ranges shift under environmental change and new interspecific interactions arise, it will be important to incorporate knowledge of behavioral interference into ecological forecasts and conservation planning.Behavioral interference can drive both divergent and convergent character displacement processes and thereby contribute to phenotypic diversity and speciation.Evidence is accumulating that behavioral interference has shaped large-scale ecological and evolutionary patterns

Late Glacial to Holocene paleoenvironmental change on the northwestern Pacific seaboard, Kamchatka Peninsula (Russia)

We used a new sedimentary record from a small kettle wetland to reconstruct the Late Glacial and Holocene vegetation and fire history of the Krutoberegovo-Ust Kamchatsk region in eastern Kamchatka Peninsula (Russia). Pollen and charcoal data suggest that the Late Glacial landscape was dominated by a relatively fire-prone Larix forest-tundra during the Greenland Interstadial complex (GI 1) and a subarctic steppe during the Younger Dryas (GS1). The onset of the Holocene is marked by the reappearance of trees (mainly Alnus incana) within a fern and shrub dominated landscape. The Holocene Thermal Maximum (HTM) features shifting vegetational communities dominated by Alnus shrubs, diverse forb species, and locally abundant aquatic plants. The HTM is further defined by the first appearance of stone birch forests (Betula ermanii) – Kamchatka's most abundant modern tree species. The Late Holocene is marked by shifts in forest dynamics and forest-graminoid ratio and the appearance of new non-arboreal taxa such as bayberry (Myrica) and meadow rue (Filipendula). Kamchatka is one of Earth's most active volcanic regions. During the Late Glacial and Holocene, Kamchatka's volcanoes spread large quantities of tephra over the study region. Thirty-four tephra falls have been identified at the site. The events represented by most of these tephra falls have not left evidence of major impacts on the vegetation although some of the thicker tephras caused expansion of grasses (Poaceae) and, at least in one case, forest die-out and increased fire activity

Ratios of Peroxyacetyl Nitrate to Active Nitrogen Observed During Aircraft Flights Over the Eastern Pacific Ocean and Continental United States

During August and September 1986, 11 aircraft flights were made over the eastern Pacific Ocean and continental United States. The suite of observations included simultaneous measurements of peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN) and active nitrogen (NOx=NO+NO2). At altitudes of 4.5–6.1 km in the middle free troposphere, PAN was usually 5–6 times NOx in maritime air masses and 2–4 times NOx in continental air masses. In air masses of tropical origin, or in the marine boundary layer, both PAN and NOx were typically less than 20–30 parts per trillion by volume, and the PAN to NOx ratio was less than one. The observations show that PAN can be a major component of the odd nitrogen budget in the middle free troposphere and strongly reinforce earlier views that the abundance is mainly governed by long-range transport processes including formation during transport and continental boundary layer to free tropospheric exchange of PAN and its precursors. Unlike reservoir HNO3, PAN can be transformed to active nitrogen and peroxy radicals by a variety of physical atmospheric processes that lead to air mass warming. Since NOx plays a critical role in determining photochemical O3 production, which in turn determines the oxidative power of the atmosphere, the observed large ratios of reservoir PAN to active NOx imply an important photochemical and dynamical role for PAN in the eastern Pacific remote free troposphere

Deleterious Variation in BRSK2 Associates with a Neurodevelopmental Disorder

Contains fulltext : 202785.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access