Inflation and dark matter in two Higgs doublet models

We consider the Higgs inflation in the extension of the Standard Model with two Higgs doublets coupled to gravity non-minimally. In the presence of an approximate global U(1) symmetry in the Higgs sector, both radial and angular modes of neutral Higgs bosons drive inflation where large non-Gaussianity is possible from appropriate initial conditions on the angular mode. We also discuss the case with single-field inflation for which the U(1) symmetry is broken to a Z_2 subgroup. We show that inflationary constraints, perturbativity and stability conditions restrict the parameter space of the Higgs quartic couplings at low energy in both multi- and single-field cases. Focusing on the inert doublet models where Z_2 symmetry remains unbroken at low energy, we show that the extra neutral Higgs boson can be a dark matter candidate consistent with the inflationary constraints. The doublet dark matter is always heavy in multi-field inflation while it can be light due to the suppression of the co-annihilation in single-field inflation. The implication of the extra quartic couplings on the vacuum stability bound is also discussed in the light of the recent LHC limits on the Higgs mass.Comment: (v1) 28 pages, 8 figures; (v2) 29 pages, a new subsection 3.3 added, references added and typos corrected, to appear in Journal of High Energy Physic

Effects of clinical pathways in the joint replacement: a meta-analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the use of clinical pathways for hip and knee joint replacements when compared with standard medical care. The impact of clinical pathways was evaluated assessing the major outcomes of in-hospital hip and knee joint replacement processes: postoperative complications, number of patients discharged at home, length of in-hospital stay and direct costs.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Medline, Cinahl, Embase and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials were searched. The search was performed from 1975 to 2007. Each study was assessed independently by two reviewers. The assessment of methodological quality of the included studies was based on the Jadad methodological approach and on the New Castle Ottawa Scale. Data analysis abided by the guidelines set out by The Cochrane Collaboration regarding statistical methods. Meta-analyses were performed using RevMan software, version 4.2.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Twenty-two studies met the study inclusion criteria and were included in the meta-analysis for a total sample of 6,316 patients. The aggregate overall results showed significantly fewer patients suffering postoperative complications in the clinical pathways group when compared with the standard care group. A shorter length of stay in the clinical pathway group was also observed and lower costs during hospital stay were associated with the use of the clinical pathways. No significant differences were found in the rates of discharge to home.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The results of this meta-analysis show that clinical pathways can significantly improve the quality of care even if it is not possible to conclude that the implementation of clinical pathways is a cost-effective process, because none of the included studies analysed the cost of the development and implementation of the pathways. Based on the results we assume that pathways have impact on the organisation of care if the care process is structured in a standardised way, teams critically analyse the actual organisation of the process and the multidisciplinary team is highly involved in the re-organisation. Further studies should focus on the evaluation of pathways as complex interventions to help to understand which mechanisms within the clinical pathways can really improve the quality of care. With the need for knee and hip joint replacement on the rise, the use of clinical pathways might contribute to better quality of care and cost-effectiveness.</p

Geodesy and metrology with a transportable optical clock

partially_open24openGrotti, Jacopo; Koller, Silvio; Vogt, Stefan; Häfner, Sebastian; Sterr, Uwe; Lisdat, Christian; Denker, Heiner; Voigt, Christian; Timmen, Ludger; Rolland, Antoine; Baynes, Fred N.; Margolis, Helen S.; Zampaolo, Michel; Thoumany, Pierre; Pizzocaro, Marco; Rauf, Benjamin; Bregolin, Filippo; Tampellini, Anna; Barbieri, Piero; Zucco, Massimo; Costanzo, Giovanni A.; Clivati, Cecilia; Levi, Filippo; Calonico, DavideGrotti, Jacopo; Koller, Silvio; Vogt, Stefan; Häfner, Sebastian; Sterr, Uwe; Lisdat, Christian; Denker, Heiner; Voigt, Christian; Timmen, Ludger; Rolland, Antoine; Baynes, Fred N.; Margolis, Helen S.; Zampaolo, Michel; Thoumany, Pierre; Pizzocaro, Marco; Rauf, Benjamin; Bregolin, Filippo; Tampellini, Anna; Barbieri, Piero; Zucco, Massimo; Costanzo, Giovanni A.; Clivati, Cecilia; Levi, Filippo; Calonico, David

Sequencing of prostate cancers identifies new cancer genes, routes of progression and drug targets

Prostate cancer represents a substantial clinical challenge because it is difficult to predict outcome and advanced disease is often fatal. We sequenced the whole genomes of 112 primary and metastatic prostate cancer samples. From joint analysis of these cancers with those from previous studies (930 cancers in total), we found evidence for 22 previously unidentified putative driver genes harboring coding mutations, as well as evidence for NEAT1 and FOXA1 acting as drivers through noncoding mutations. Through the temporal dissection of aberrations, we identified driver mutations specifically associated with steps in the progression of prostate cancer, establishing, for example, loss of CHD1 and BRCA2 as early events in cancer development of ETS fusion-negative cancers. Computational chemogenomic (canSAR) analysis of prostate cancer mutations identified 11 targets of approved drugs, 7 targets of investigational drugs, and 62 targets of compounds that may be active and should be considered candidates for future clinical trials

Cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, and diabetes mortality burden of cardiometabolic risk factors from 1980 to 2010: A comparative risk assessment

Background: High blood pressure, blood glucose, serum cholesterol, and BMI are risk factors for cardiovascular diseases and some of these factors also increase the risk of chronic kidney disease and diabetes. We estimated mortality from cardiovascular diseases, chronic kidney disease, and diabetes that was attributable to these four cardiometabolic risk factors for all countries and regions from 1980 to 2010. Methods: We used data for exposure to risk factors by country, age group, and sex from pooled analyses of population-based health surveys. We obtained relative risks for the effects of risk factors on cause-specific mortality from meta-analyses of large prospective studies. We calculated the population attributable fractions for each risk factor alone, and for the combination of all risk factors, accounting for multicausality and for mediation of the effects of BMI by the other three risks. We calculated attributable deaths by multiplying the cause-specific population attributable fractions by the number of disease-specific deaths. We obtained cause-specific mortality from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors 2010 Study. We propagated the uncertainties of all the inputs to the final estimates. Findings: In 2010, high blood pressure was the leading risk factor for deaths due to cardiovascular diseases, chronic kidney disease, and diabetes in every region, causing more than 40% of worldwide deaths from these diseases; high BMI and glucose were each responsible for about 15% of deaths, and high cholesterol for more than 10%. After accounting for multicausality, 63% (10·8 million deaths, 95% CI 10·1-11·5) of deaths from these diseases in 2010 were attributable to the combined effect of these four metabolic risk factors, compared with 67% (7·1 million deaths, 6·6-7·6) in 1980. The mortality burden of high BMI and glucose nearly doubled from 1980 to 2010. At the country level, age-standardised death rates from these diseases attributable to the combined effects of these four risk factors surpassed 925 deaths per 100 000 for men in Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia, but were less than 130 deaths per 100 000 for women and less than 200 for men in some high-income countries including Australia, Canada, France, Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore, South Korea, and Spain. Interpretation: The salient features of the cardiometabolic disease and risk factor epidemic at the beginning of the 21st century are high blood pressure and an increasing effect of obesity and diabetes. The mortality burden of cardiometabolic risk factors has shifted from high-income to low-income and middle-income countries. Lowering cardiometabolic risks through dietary, behavioural, and pharmacological interventions should be a part of the global response to non-communicable diseases. Funding: UK Medical Research Council, US National Institutes of Health. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd

Observation of the diphoton decay of the Higgs boson and measurement of its properties

Peer reviewe

Search for Dark Matter and Supersymmetry with a Compressed Mass Spectrum in the Vector Boson Fusion Topology in Proton-Proton Collisions at root s=8 TeV

Peer reviewe

QCD and strongly coupled gauge theories : challenges and perspectives

We highlight the progress, current status, and open challenges of QCD-driven physics, in theory and in experiment. We discuss how the strong interaction is intimately connected to a broad sweep of physical problems, in settings ranging from astrophysics and cosmology to strongly coupled, complex systems in particle and condensed-matter physics, as well as to searches for physics beyond the Standard Model. We also discuss how success in describing the strong interaction impacts other fields, and, in turn, how such subjects can impact studies of the strong interaction. In the course of the work we offer a perspective on the many research streams which flow into and out of QCD, as well as a vision for future developments.Peer reviewe