Towards a microscopic construction of flavour vacua from a space-time foam model

The effect on flavour oscillations of simple expanding background space-times, motivated by some D-particle foam models, is calculated for a toy-model of bosons with flavour degrees of freedom. The presence of D-particle defects in the space-time, which can interact non trivially (via particle capture) with flavoured particles in a flavour non-preserving way, generates mixing in the effective field theory of low-energy string excitations. Moreover, the recoil of the D-particle defect during the capture/scattering process implies Lorentz violation, which however may be averaged to zero in isotropic D-particle populations, but implies non-trivial effects in correlators. Both features imply that the flavoured mixed state sees a non-trivial flavour (Fock-space) vacuum of a type introduced earlier by Blasone and Vitiello in a generic context of theories with mixing. We discuss the orthogonality of the flavour vacua to the usual Fock vacua and the effect on flavour oscillations in these backgrounds. Furthermore we analyse the equation of state of the Flavour vacuum, and find that, for slow expansion rates induced by D particle recoil, it is equivalent to that of a cosmological constant. Some estimates of these novel non-perturbative contribution to the vacuum energy are made. The contribution vanishes if the mass difference and the mixing angle of the flavoured states vanish.Comment: 27 pages RevTex, 2 eps figures incorporate

Digital energy visualisations in the workplace: the e-Genie tool

Building management systems are designed for energy managers; there are few energy feedback systems designed to engage staff. A tool, known as e-Genie, was developed to engage workplace occupants with energy data and support them to take action to reduce energy use. Building on research insights within the field, e-Genie’s novel approach encourages users to make plans to meet energy saving goals, supports discussion, and considers social energy behaviours (e.g. discussing energy issues, taking part in campaigns) as well as individual actions. A field based study of e-Genie indicated that visualisations of energy data were engaging and that the discussion ‘Pinboard’ was particularly popular. Pre- and post survey (N = 77) evaluation of users indicated that people were significantly more concerned about energy issues and reported engaging more in social energy behaviour after ~two weeks of e-Genie being installed. Concurrently, objective measures of electricity use decreased over the same period, and continued decreasing over subsequent weeks. Indications are that occupant facing energy feedback visualisations can be successful in reducing energy use in the workplace; furthermore supporting social energy behaviour in the workplace is likely to be a useful direction for promoting action

Limits on a Composite Higgs Boson

Precision electroweak data are generally believed to constrain the Higgs boson mass to lie below approximately 190 GeV at 95% confidence level. The standard Higgs model is, however, trivial and can only be an effective field theory valid below some high energy scale characteristic of the underlying non-trivial physics. Corrections to the custodial isospin violating parameter T arising from interactions at this higher energy scale dramatically enlarge the allowed range of Higgs mass. We perform a fit to precision electroweak data and determine the region in the (m_H, Delta T) plane that is consistent with experimental results. Overlaying the estimated size of corrections to T arising from the underlying dynamics, we find that a Higgs mass up to 500 GeV is allowed. We review two composite Higgs models which can realize the possibility of a phenomenologically acceptable heavy Higgs boson. We comment on the potential of improvements in the measurements of m_t and M_W to improve constraints on composite Higgs models.Comment: 9 pages, 2 eps figures. Shortened for PRL; some references elminate

Tachyon-Dilaton-induced Inflation as an alpha'-resummed String Background

Within the framework of a novel functional method on the world-sheet of the string, we discuss simple but re-summed (in the Regge slope) inflationary scenarios in the context of closed Bosonic strings, living in four target-space dimensions, in the presence of non-trivial tachyon, dilaton and graviton cosmological backgrounds. The inflationary solutions are argued to guarantee the vanishing of the corresponding Weyl anomaly coefficients in a given world-sheet renormalization scheme, thereby ensuring conformal invariance of the corresponding sigma-model to all orders in the Regge slope. The key property is the requirement of "homogeneity" of the corresponding Weyl anomaly coefficients. Inflation entails appropriate relations between the dilaton and tachyon field configurations, whose form can lead to either a de Sitter vacuum, incompatible though (due to the cosmic horizons) with the perturbative string scattering amplitudes, or to cosmic space-times involving brief inflationary periods, interpolating smoothly between power-law and/or Minkowski Universes. The latter situation is characterized by well-defined scattering amplitudes, and is thus compatible with a perturbative string framework. It is this scenario that we consider a self-consistent ground state in our framework, which is based on local field redefinitions of background fields.Comment: 35 pages Latex, three eps figures incorporate

Designing Hybrid Gifts

Hybrid gifting combines physical artefacts and experiences with digital interactivity to generate new kinds of gifts. Our review details how gifting is a complex social phenomenon and how digital gifting is less engaging than physical gifting for both givers and receivers. Employing a Research Through Design approach, we developed a portfolio of four hybrid gifting experiences: an augmented advent calendar; edible music tracks; personalised museum tours; and a narrated city walk. Our reflection addresses three concepts: hybrid wrapping where physical gifts become wrapped in digital media and vice versa; the importance of effortful interactions that are visible and pleasurable; and the need to consider social obligation, including opportunities for acknowledgement and reciprocation, dealing with embarrassment, and recognising the distinction between giving and sharing. Our concepts provide guidance to practitioners who wish to design future gifting experiences while helping HCI researchers engage with the concept of gifting in a nuanced way

The Role of Published Materials in Curriculum Development and Implementation for Secondary School Design and Technology in England and Wales

This is a postprint of an article whose final and definitive form has been published in the International Journal of Technology and Design Education. The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com.This paper discusses the ways in which teachers exploited a set of curriculum materials published as a vehicle for curriculum innovation, and the relationship between chosen modes of exploitation and teachers’ own perceptions of how the materials had ’added value’ to their teaching. The materials in question were developed by the Nuffield Design and Technology Project (’the Project’) to offer a pedagogy appropriate to the statutory curriculum for secondary school design and technology education in England and Wales (DFE/WO 1995). The Project had sought both to inform the statutory curriculum, and respond to its requirements. An earlier case study (Givens 1997) laid the foundations for the survey that is reported here. This paper focuses on the teaching of pupils aged 11–14. It finds that while most teachers made at least some use of all the various components of the publications, they were selective. While the Study Guide, which carries out a meta-cognitive dialogue with pupils, was generally underused, those teachers who did use it perceived greater value added by the materials as a whole to the quality of pupils’ work, their effectiveness in design and technology and their autonomy

Supermarket Healthy Eating for Life (SHELf): protocol of a randomised controlled trial promoting healthy food and beverage consumption through price reduction and skill-building strategies

Background: In the context of rising food prices, there is a need for evidence on the most effective approaches for promoting healthy eating. Individually-targeted behavioural interventions for increasing food-related skills show promise, but are unlikely to be effective in the absence of structural supports. Fiscal policies have been advocated as a means of promoting healthy eating and reducing obesity and nutrition-related disease, but there is little empirical evidence of their effectiveness. This paper describes the Supermarket Healthy Eating for LiFe (SHELf) study, a randomised controlled trial to investigate effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a tailored skill-building intervention and a price reduction intervention, separately and in combination, against a control condition for promoting purchase and consumption of healthy foods and beverages in women from high and low socioeconomic groups.Methods/design: SHELf comprises a randomised controlled trial design, with participants randomised to receive either (1) a skill-building intervention; (2) price reductions on fruits, vegetables and low-joule soft drink beverages and water; (3) a combination of skill-building and price reductions; or (4) a control condition. Five hundred women from high and low socioeconomic areas will be recruited through a store loyalty card program and local media. Randomisation will occur on receipt of informed consent and baseline questionnaire. An economic evaluation from a societal perspective using a cost-consequences approach will compare the costs and outcomes between intervention and control groups.Discussion: This study will build on a pivotal partnership with a major national supermarket chain and the Heart Foundation to investigate the effectiveness of intervention strategies aimed at increasing women&rsquo;s purchasing and consumption of fruits and vegetables and decreased purchasing and consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages. It will be among the first internationally to examine the effects of two promising approaches - skill-building and price reductions - on diet amongst women.<br /

Risk thresholds for alcohol consumption : combined analysis of individual-participant data for 599 912 current drinkers in 83 prospective studies

Background Low-risk limits recommended for alcohol consumption vary substantially across different national guidelines. To define thresholds associated with lowest risk for all-cause mortality and cardiovascular disease, we studied individual-participant data from 599 912 current drinkers without previous cardiovascular disease. Methods We did a combined analysis of individual-participant data from three large-scale data sources in 19 high-income countries (the Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration, EPIC-CVD, and the UK Biobank). We characterised dose-response associations and calculated hazard ratios (HRs) per 100 g per week of alcohol (12.5 units per week) across 83 prospective studies, adjusting at least for study or centre, age, sex, smoking, and diabetes. To be eligible for the analysis, participants had to have information recorded about their alcohol consumption amount and status (ie, non-drinker vs current drinker), plus age, sex, history of diabetes and smoking status, at least 1 year of follow-up after baseline, and no baseline history of cardiovascular disease. The main analyses focused on current drinkers, whose baseline alcohol consumption was categorised into eight predefined groups according to the amount in grams consumed per week. We assessed alcohol consumption in relation to all-cause mortality, total cardiovascular disease, and several cardiovascular disease subtypes. We corrected HRs for estimated long-term variability in alcohol consumption using 152 640 serial alcohol assessments obtained some years apart (median interval 5.6 years [5th-95th percentile 1.04-13.5]) from 71 011 participants from 37 studies. Findings In the 599 912 current drinkers included in the analysis, we recorded 40 310 deaths and 39 018 incident cardiovascular disease events during 5.4 million person-years of follow-up. For all-cause mortality, we recorded a positive and curvilinear association with the level of alcohol consumption, with the minimum mortality risk around or below 100 g per week. Alcohol consumption was roughly linearly associated with a higher risk of stroke (HR per 100 g per week higher consumption 1.14, 95% CI, 1.10-1.17), coronary disease excluding myocardial infarction (1.06, 1.00-1.11), heart failure (1.09, 1.03-1.15), fatal hypertensive disease (1.24, 1.15-1.33); and fatal aortic aneurysm (1.15, 1.03-1.28). By contrast, increased alcohol consumption was loglinearly associated with a lower risk of myocardial infarction (HR 0.94, 0.91-0.97). In comparison to those who reported drinking >0-100-200-350 g per week had lower life expectancy at age 40 years of approximately 6 months, 1-2 years, or 4-5 years, respectively. Interpretation In current drinkers of alcohol in high-income countries, the threshold for lowest risk of all-cause mortality was about 100 g/week. For cardiovascular disease subtypes other than myocardial infarction, there were no clear risk thresholds below which lower alcohol consumption stopped being associated with lower disease risk. These data support limits for alcohol consumption that are lower than those recommended in most current guidelines. Copyright (C) The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.Peer reviewe

Thresholds for adding degraded tropical forest to the conservation estate

Logged and disturbed forests are often viewed as degraded and depauperate environments compared with primary forest. However, they are dynamic ecosystems1 that provide refugia for large amounts of biodiversity2,3, so we cannot afford to underestimate their conservation value4. Here we present empirically defined thresholds for categorizing the conservation value of logged forests, using one of the most comprehensive assessments of taxon responses to habitat degradation in any tropical forest environment. We analysed the impact of logging intensity on the individual occurrence patterns of 1,681 taxa belonging to 86 taxonomic orders and 126 functional groups in Sabah, Malaysia. Our results demonstrate the existence of two conservation-relevant thresholds. First, lightly logged forests (68%) of their biomass removed, and these are likely to require more expensive measures to recover their biodiversity value. Overall, our data confirm that primary forests are irreplaceable5, but they also reinforce the message that logged forests retain considerable conservation value that should not be overlooked

The PREDICTS database: a global database of how local terrestrial biodiversity responds to human impacts

Biodiversity continues to decline in the face of increasing anthropogenic pressures such as habitat destruction, exploitation, pollution and introduction of alien species. Existing global databases of species’ threat status or population time series are dominated by charismatic species. The collation of datasets with broad taxonomic and biogeographic extents, and that support computation of a range of biodiversity indicators, is necessary to enable better understanding of historical declines and to project – and avert – future declines. We describe and assess a new database of more than 1.6 million samples from 78 countries representing over 28,000 species, collated from existing spatial comparisons of local-scale biodiversity exposed to different intensities and types of anthropogenic pressures, from terrestrial sites around the world. The database contains measurements taken in 208 (of 814) ecoregions, 13 (of 14) biomes, 25 (of 35) biodiversity hotspots and 16 (of 17) megadiverse countries. The database contains more than 1% of the total number of all species described, and more than 1% of the described species within many taxonomic groups – including flowering plants, gymnosperms, birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, beetles, lepidopterans and hymenopterans. The dataset, which is still being added to, is therefore already considerably larger and more representative than those used by previous quantitative models of biodiversity trends and responses. The database is being assembled as part of the PREDICTS project (Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems – www.predicts.org.uk). We make site-level summary data available alongside this article. The full database will be publicly available in 2015