Searches for neutrinoless double beta decay

Neutrinoless double beta decay is a lepton number violating process whose observation would also establish that neutrinos are their own anti-particles. There are many experimental efforts with a variety of techniques. Some (EXO, Kamland-Zen, GERDA phase I and CANDLES) started take data in 2011 and EXO has reported the first measurement of the half life for the double beta decay with two neutrinos of $^{136}$Xe. The sensitivities of the different proposals are reviewed.Comment: 8 pages, prepared for TAUP 201

Searches for neutrinoless double beta decay

Neutrinoless double beta decay is a lepton number violating process whose observation would also establish that neutrinos are their own anti-particles. There are many experimental efforts with a variety of techniques. Some (EXO, Kamland-Zen, GERDA phase I and CANDLES) started take data in 2011 and EXO has reported the first measurement of the half life for the double beta decay with two neutrinos of $^{136}$Xe. The sensitivities of the different proposals are reviewed.Comment: 8 pages, prepared for TAUP 201

Searches for neutrinoless double beta decay

Neutrinoless double beta decay is a lepton number violating process whose observation would also establish that neutrinos are their own anti-particles. There are many experimental efforts with a variety of techniques. Some (EXO, Kamland-Zen, GERDA phase I and CANDLES) started take data in 2011 and EXO has reported the first measurement of the half life for the double beta decay with two neutrinos of $^{136}$Xe. The sensitivities of the different proposals are reviewed.Comment: 8 pages, prepared for TAUP 201

Mobile Zoos and Other Itinerant Animal Handling Events: Current Status and Recommendations for Future Policies

Mobile zoos are events in which non-domesticated (exotic) and domesticated species are transported to venues such as schools, hospitals, parties, and community centres, for the purposes of education, entertainment, or social and therapeutic assistance. We conducted literature searches and surveyed related government agencies regarding existing provisions within laws and policies, number of mobile zoos, and formal guidance issued concerning operation of such events in 74 countries or regions. We also examined governmental and non-governmental guidance standards for mobile zoos, as well as websites for mobile zoo operations, assessed promotional or educational materials for scientific accuracy, and recorded the diversity of species in use. We used the EMODE (Easy, Moderate, Difficult, or Extreme) algorithm, to evaluate identified species associated with mobile zoos for their suitability for keeping. We recorded 14 areas of concern regarding animal biology and public health and safety, and 8 areas of false and misleading content in promotional or educational materials. We identified at least 341 species used for mobile zoos. Mobile zoos are largely unregulated, unmonitored, and uncontrolled, and appear to be increasing. Issues regarding poor animal welfare, public health and safety, and education raise several serious concerns. Using the precautionary principle when empirical evidence was not available, we advise that exotic species should not be used for mobile zoos and similar itinerant events

A novel technique to achieve atomic macro-coherence as a tool to determine the nature of neutrinos

The photon spectrum in macro-coherent atomic deexcitation via radiative emission of neutrino pairs has been proposed as a sensitive probe of the neutrino mass spectrum, capable of competing with conventional neutrino experiments. In this paper, we revisit this intriguing possibility, presenting an alternative method for inducing large coherence in a target based on adiabatic techniques. More concretely, we propose the use of a modified version of coherent population return (CPR), namely two-photon CPR, that turns out to be extremely robust with respect to the experimental parameters and capable of inducing a coherence close to 100 % in the target.This work was supported by Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Spain) Projects FIS2014-53371-C4-3-R and FIS2014-53371-C4-1-R

A new parametrization of the neutrino mixing matrix for neutrino oscillations

In this paper we study three active neutrino oscillations, favored by recent data from SuperK and SNO, using a new parametrization of the lepton mixing matrix $V$ constructed from a linear combination of the unit matrix $I$, and a hermitian unitary matrix $U$, that is, $V = \cos\theta I + i\sin \theta U$. There are only three real parameters in $V$ including the parameter $\theta$. It is interesting to find that experimental data on atmospheric neutrino dictates the angle $\theta$ to be $\pi/4$ such that the $\nu_\mu$ and $\nu_\tau$ mixing is maximal. The solar neutrino problem is solved via the MSW effect with a small mixing angle, with $U$ depending on one small parameter $\epsilon$. The resulting mixing matrix with just two parameters ($\theta$ and $\epsilon$) predicts that the oscillating probabilities for $\nu_e\to \nu_\mu$ and $\nu_e \to \nu_\tau$ to be equal and of the order $2\epsilon^2 = (0.25\sim 2.5)\times 10^{-3}$. The measurement of CP asymmetries at the proposed Neutrino Factories would also provide a test of our parametrization.Comment: 10 pages, Retex, no figure

Associations of sleep-related outcomes with behavioral and emotional functioning in children with overweight/obesity

Objective To evaluate the associations of parent-reported sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) and deviceassessed sleep behaviors with behavioral and emotional functioning in pediatric patients with overweight/ obesity. Study design A total of 109 children with overweight/obesity (mean age, 10.0 (±) 1.1 years) were included in this cross-sectional study. We used the Spanish version of the Pediatric Sleep Questionnaire (PSQ) to assess SDB and its subscales (ie, snoring, daytime sleepiness, and inattention/hyperactivity). Device-assessed sleep behaviors (ie, wake time, sleep onset time, total time in bed, total sleep time, and waking after sleep onset) were estimated using wrist-worn accelerometers. We used the Behavior Assessment System for Children, second edition to assess behavioral and emotional functioning (ie, clinical scale: aggressiveness, hyperactivity, behavior problems, attention problems, atypicality, depression, anxiety, retreat, and somatization; adaptive scale: adaptability, social skills, and leadership). Results SDB was positively associated with all clinical scale variables (all b > 0.197, P ≤ .041) and with lower adaptability and leadership (all b 0.196, P ≤ .045) and lower adaptability (b = 0.246, P = .011). The inattention/hyperactivity subscale was significantly associated with the entire clinical and adaptive scales (all b > |0.192|, P ≤ .046) except for somatization. The snoring subscale and device-assessed sleep behaviors were not related to any behavioral or emotional functioning variables. Conclusions Our study suggests that SDB symptoms, but not deviceassessed sleep behaviors, are associated with behavioral and emotional functioning in children with overweight/obesity. Specifically, daytime sleepiness, a potential SDB symptom, was related to higher attention problems, depression, anxiety, and retreat and lower adaptability. (J Pediatr 2022;246:170-8).The ActiveBrains project was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (DEP2013-47540, DEP2016-79512-R, DEP2017-91544-EXP, and RYC-2011-09011). L.V.T.-L. is supported by a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (FPU17/04802). C.C.-S. is supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (FJC2018-037925-I). J.H.M. is supported by a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sport (FPU15/02645). Additional support was provided by the University of Granada, Plan Propio de Investigación 2016, Excellence actions: Units of Excellence, Scientific Excellence Unit on Exercise and Health, by the Junta de Andalucía, Consejería de Conocimiento, Investigación y Universidades, and European Regional Development Fund (SOMM17/6107/UGR). Funding was also provided by the SAMID III network, RETICS , funded by the PNI + D + I 2017-2021 (Spain), ISCIII Sub-Directorate General for Research Assessment and Promotion, the European Regional Development Fund (RD16/0022 ), the EXERNET Research Network on Exercise and Health ( DEP2005-00046/ACTI ; 09/UPB/19; 45/UPB/20; 27/UPB/21), the European Union's 2020 Research and Innovation Program under Grant Agreement 667302, and the HL-PIVOT network Healthy Living for Pandemic Event Protection . Additional funding was obtained from the Andalusian Operational Programme supported with European Regional Development Fund (project B-CTS-355-UGR18)