Vacuum Stability, Perturbativity, EWPD and Higgs-to-diphoton rate in Type II Seesaw Models

We study constraints from perturbativity and vacuum stability as well as the EWPD in the type II seesaw model. As a result, we can put stringent limits on the Higgs triplet couplings depending on the cut-off scale. The EWPD tightly constrain the Higgs triplet mass splitting to be smaller than 40 GeV. Analyzing the Higgs-to-diphoton rate in the allowed parameter region, we show a possible enhancement by up to 100 % and 50 % for the cut-off scale of 100 TeV and $10^{19}$ GeV, respectively, if the doubly charged Higgs boson mass is as low as 100 GeV.Comment: Figs modified, reference added, matches with published versio

Leptogenesis driven by majoron

We propose a leptogenesis scenario where baryon asymmetry generation is assisted by the kinetic motion of the majoron, $J$, in the process of lepton-number violating inverse decays of a right-handed neutrino, $N$. We investigate two distinct scenarios depending on the sources of majoron kinetic motion: 1) the misalignment mechanism, and 2) the kinetic misalignment mechanism. The former case can naturally generate the observed baryon asymmetry for the majoron mass $m_J \gtrsim \,{\rm TeV}$ and the right-handed neutrino's mass $M_{N} \gtrsim 10^{11}\,{\rm GeV}$. However, an additional decay channel of the majoron is required to avoid the overclosure problem of the majoron oscillation. The later scenario works successfully for $m_J \lesssim 100\,{\rm keV}$, and $M_{N} \lesssim 10^9\,{\rm GeV}$ while $M_N$ can be even far below the temperature of the electroweak phase transition as long as sufficiently large kinetic misalignment is provided. We also find that a sub-$100\,{\rm keV}$ majoron is a viable candidate for dark matter.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Effects of a supportive program on uncertainty, anxiety, and maternal-fetal attachment in women with high-risk pregnancy

Purpose The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of a supportive program on uncertainty, anxiety, and maternal-fetal attachment in high-risk pregnant women. Methods The participants were 59 high-risk pregnant women admitted to the maternal-fetal intensive care unit. The control group (n=30) received usual treatment and antenatal care, while the experimental group (n=29) received an additional supportive program. Uncertainty, anxiety, and maternal-fetal attachment were measured in both groups prior to the intervention and at 3 days and 10 days after the intervention (or at discharge). Data were analyzed with the t-test, chi-square test, repeated-measures analysis of covariance, and the Greenhouse-Geisser correction in SPSS version 23.0. Results A supportive program including information provision, nutritional care, emotional care, and exercise care was developed from the literature. All variables except women’s length of stay were found to be homogeneous the between experimental and control groups in the pre-test. Length of stay was calculated as a covariate for testing hypotheses. There was a significant difference in state anxiety over time between the two groups, while there were no differences in uncertainty or maternal-fetal attachment. Conclusion This supportive program was identified as an effective nursing intervention on state anxiety in high-risk pregnant women during their stay in the maternal-fetal intensive care unit. It is suggested that nurses could apply this program to alleviate high-risk pregnant women’s state anxiety, and that this program could be modified to be more effective on uncertainty and maternal-fetal attachment in high-risk pregnant women

Genome sequence of the chromate-resistant bacterium Leucobacter salsicius type strain M1-8T

Leucobacter salsicius M1-8(T) is a member of the Microbacteriaceae family within the class Actinomycetales. This strain is a Gram-positive, rod-shaped bacterium and was previously isolated from a Korean fermented food. Most members of the genus Leucobacter are chromate-resistant and this feature could be exploited in biotechnological applications. However, the genus Leucobacter is poorly characterized at the genome level, despite its potential importance. Thus, the present study determined the features of Leucobacter salsicius M1-8(T), as well as its genome sequence and annotation. The genome comprised 3,185,418 bp with a G+C content of 64.5%, which included 2,865 protein-coding genes and 68 RNA genes. This strain possessed two predicted genes associated with chromate resistance, which might facilitate its growth in heavy metal-rich environments.

Discriminating Pathological and Non-pathological Internet Gamers Using Sparse Neuroanatomical Features

Internet gaming disorder (IGD) is often diagnosed on the basis of nine underlying criteria from the latest version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). Here, we examined whether such symptom-based categorization could be translated into computation-based classification. Structural MRI (sMRI) and diffusion-weighted MRI (dMRI) data were acquired in 38 gamers diagnosed with IGD, 68 normal gamers diagnosed as not having IGD, and 37 healthy non-gamers. We generated 108 features of gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM) structure from the MRI data. When regularized logistic regression was applied to the 108 neuroanatomical features to select important ones for the distinction between the groups, the disordered and normal gamers were represented in terms of 43 and 21 features, respectively, in relation to the healthy non-gamers, whereas the disordered gamers were represented in terms of 11 features in relation to the normal gamers. In support vector machines (SVM) using the sparse neuroanatomical features as predictors, the disordered and normal gamers were discriminated successfully, with accuracy exceeding 98%, from the healthy non-gamers, but the classification between the disordered and normal gamers was relatively challenging. These findings suggest that pathological and non-pathological gamers as categorized with the criteria from the DSM-5 could be represented by sparse neuroanatomical features, especially in the context of discriminating those from non-gaming healthy individuals

Bubble-assisted Leptogenesis

We explore the possibility of embedding thermal leptogenesis within a first-order phase transition (FOPT) such that RHNs remain massless until a FOPT arises. Their sudden and violent mass gain allows the neutrinos to become thermally decoupled, and the lepton asymmetry generated from their decay can be, in principle, free from the strong wash-out processes that conventional leptogenesis scenarios suffer from, albeit at the cost of new washout channels. To quantify the effect of this enhancement, we consider a simple setup of a classically scale-invariant $B-L$ potential, which requires three RHNs with similar mass scales, in the ``strong-washout'' regime of thermal leptogenesis. Here we find that parameter space which requires $M_N\sim 10^{11}\text{ GeV}$ without bubble assistance is now predicted at $M_N \sim 5\times 10^9 \text{ GeV}$ suggesting a sizeable reduction from bubble effects. We numerically quantify to what extent such a framework can alleviate strong-washout effects and we find the lower bound on the RHN mass, $M_N \sim 10^{7}\text{ GeV}$, below which bubble-assisted leptogenesis cannot provide an enhancement. We also study the signature possibly observable at GW terrestrial interferometers and conclude that bubble-assisted leptogenesis models with relatively light masses, $M_N \lesssim 5\times 10^9 \text{ GeV}$ may be probable.Comment: 27 pages, 8 figures, published version, references added, discussion slightly change