Unification of gravity, gauge fields, and Higgs bosons

We consider a diffeomorphism invariant theory of a gauge field valued in a Lie algebra that breaks spontaneously to the direct sum of the spacetime Lorentz algebra, a Yang-Mills algebra, and their complement. Beginning with a fully gauge invariant action -- an extension of the Plebanski action for general relativity -- we recover the action for gravity, Yang-Mills, and Higgs fields. The low-energy coupling constants, obtained after symmetry breaking, are all functions of the single parameter present in the initial action and the vacuum expectation value of the Higgs.Comment: 12 pages, no figures. v2 minor correction

Evaluation of the efficiency of fungicides in controlling foliage soybean diseases in Tucumán, Argentina

Las enfermedades de la soja [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] constituyen un factor limitante de la producción cuando el cultivo se desarrolla bajo sistemas de manejo y condiciones ambientales favorables al desarrollo y dispersión de patógenos que lo afectan. Este trabajo muestra los resultados de cuatro años de evaluación a campo de la eficiencia del control químico de las enfermedades de fin de ciclo y la roya asiática de la soja, utilizando diferentes ingredientes activos y momentos de aplicación. Los ensayos se realizaron sobre A 8000 RG, grupo de maduración VIII, en la localidad de Puesto del Medio, departamento Burruyacú (Tucumán), durante las campañas 2007/2008, 2008/2009, 2009/2010 y 2010/2011. Los ingredientes activos evaluados fueron: flutriafol, pyraclostrobin + epoxiconazole, trifloxistrobin + cyproconazole, azoxistrobina + cyproconazole, picoxistrobin + cyproconazole, metominostrobin + tebuconazole, carbendazim + tebuconazole y cyproconazole + difenoconazole. Se aplicaron en los estadios fenológicos R3, R5 o R3+R5. Los parámetros evaluados fueron: severidad de las enfermedades (en R6), persistencia foliar (a inicios de R7), rendimiento del cultivo (kg/ha), peso de 1000 semillas (g), emergencia radicular (%) y porcentaje de infección en semillas. En la campaña 2007/2008, todos los tratamientos superaron al testigo en rendimiento y peso de 1000 semillas, presentando también menores niveles de enfermedad. No se detectaron diferencias significativas en el rendimiento y peso de 1000 semillas entre los tratamientos durante la campaña 2008/2009. Para las campañas 2009/2010 y 2010/2011, el tratamiento azoxistrobina + cyproconazole en R5 se diferenció del testigo en el rendimiento; en peso de 1000 semillas, trifloxistrobin + cyproconazole (R3) y azoxistrobina + cyproconazole (R3 y R5) se diferenciaron estadísticamente del testigo en la campaña 2009/2010, pero no se observaron diferencias para la campaña 2010/2011. En conclusión, la aplicación de fungicidas disminuyó los porcentajes de patógenos en la semilla, mejoró la emergencia radicular e incrementó los rendimientos de los cultivos, confirmando que existen ingredientes activos eficaces para el manejo de dichas patologías.Diseases may severely restrain soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] production, especially when crops are grown under management systems and environmental conditions that favor the development and spread of pathogens. This paper reports the results of field trials which were conducted throughout four growing seasons, in order to evaluate the efficiency of different active ingredients and application timings in controlling diseases that affect soybean aerial parts, especially the late-season disease complex and Asian soybean rust. The trials were planted with A 8000 RG, a soybean cultivar from maturity group VIII, in Puesto del Medio, Burruyacú (Tucumán province), and were assessed during the 2007/2008, 2008/2009, 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 growing seasons. Evaluated active ingredients were flutriafol, pyraclostrobin + epoxiconazole, trifloxystrobin + cyproconazole, azoxystrobin + cyproconazole, picoxystrobin + cyproconazole, metominostrobin + tebuconazole, carbendazim + tebuconazole and cyproconazole + difenoconazole. Treatments were applied at R3, R5 or R3+R5 phenological states. Parameters assessed were: disease severity (at R6), foliar persistence (at early R7), crop yield (kg/ha), 1000-seed weight (g), seed emergence and seed infection (%). In the 2007/2008 season, all treatments were superior to the untreated control for disease control, crop yield, and 1000-seed weight. No statistically significant differences were found among treatments for yield and 1000-seed weight in the 2008/2009 season, whereas in the 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 seasons the only treatment that differed from the control in crop yield was the azoxystrobin + cyproconazole mix at R5. The trifloxystrobin + cyproconazole (at R3) and azoxystrobin + cyproconazole treatments (both at R3 and R5) differed from the control as regards 1000-seed weight in the 2009/2010 season, but no statistically significant differences were found among treatments in relation to this parameter in the 2010/2011 season. Fungicide applications generally decreased seed fungal infection, improved root emergence and increased crop yield, confirming that there are efficient active ingredients for the management of these diseases.Fil: Ploper, Leonardo Daniel. Gobierno de Tucumán. Ministerio de Desarrollo Productivo. Estación Experimental Agroindustrial Obispo Colombres; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Tucumán. Instituto de Tecnología Agroindustrial del Noroeste Argentino; Argentina; ArgentinaFil: González, Victoria. Gobierno de Tucumán. Ministerio de Desarrollo Productivo. Estación Experimental Agroindustrial Obispo Colombres; ArgentinaFil: Reznikov, Sebastian. Gobierno de Tucumán. Ministerio de Desarrollo Productivo. Estación Experimental Agroindustrial Obispo Colombres; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Tucumán. Instituto de Tecnología Agroindustrial del Noroeste Argentino; Argentina; ArgentinaFil: Hecker, Luis. Gobierno de Tucumán. Ministerio de Desarrollo Productivo. Estación Experimental Agroindustrial Obispo Colombres; ArgentinaFil: de Lisi, Vicente. Gobierno de Tucumán. Ministerio de Desarrollo Productivo. Estación Experimental Agroindustrial Obispo Colombres; ArgentinaFil: Henríquez, Diego D.. Gobierno de Tucumán. Ministerio de Desarrollo Productivo. Estación Experimental Agroindustrial Obispo Colombres; ArgentinaFil: Stegmayer, Carlos A.. Gobierno de Tucumán. Ministerio de Desarrollo Productivo. Estación Experimental Agroindustrial Obispo Colombres; ArgentinaFil: Devani, Mario R.. Gobierno de Tucumán. Ministerio de Desarrollo Productivo. Estación Experimental Agroindustrial Obispo Colombres; Argentin

New constraints on neutrino physics from Boomerang data

We have performed a likelihood analysis of the recent data on the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR) anisotropy taken by the Boomerang experiment. We find that this data places a strong upper bound on the radiation density present at recombination. Expressed in terms of the equivalent number of neutrino species the $2\sigma$ bound is N_nu < 13, and the standard model prediction, N_nu = 3.04, is completely consistent the the data. This bound is complementary to the one found from Big Bang nucleosynthesis considerations in that it applies to any type of radiation, i.e. it is not flavour sensitive. It also applies to the universe at a much later epoch, and as such places severe limits on scenarios with decaying neutrinos. The bound also yields a firm upper limit on the lepton asymmetry in the universe.Comment: 4 pages, 2 postscript figures, matches version to appear in PR

Rectal atresia and rectal stenosis:the ARM-Net Consortium experience

Purpose: To assess the number, characteristics, and functional short-, and midterm outcomes of patients with rectal atresia (RA) and stenosis (RS) in the ARM-Net registry. Methods: Patients with RA/RS were retrieved from the ARM-Net registry. Patient characteristics, associated anomalies, surgical approach, and functional bowel outcomes at 1 and 5-year follow-up were assessed. Results: The ARM-Net registry included 2619 patients, of whom 36 (1.3%) had RA/RS. Median age at follow-up was 7.0 years (IQR 2.3–9.0). Twenty-three patients (63.9%, RA n = 13, RS n = 10) had additional anomalies. PSARP was the most performed reconstructive surgery for both RA (n = 9) and RS (n = 6) patients. At 1-year follow-up, 11/24 patients with known data (45.8%, RA n = 5, RS n = 6) were constipated, of whom 9 required stool softeners and/or laxatives. At 5-year follow-up, 8/9 patients with known data (88.9%, RA n = 4, RS n = 4) were constipated, all requiring laxatives and/or enema. Conclusion: RA and RS are rare types of ARM, representing 1.3% of patients in the ARM-Net registry. Additional anomalies were present in majority of patients. Different surgical approaches were performed as reconstructive treatment, with constipation occurring in 46% and 89% of the patients at 1 and 5-year follow-up. However, accurate evaluation of long-term functional outcomes remains challenging.</p

Testing the principle of equivalence by supernova neutrinos

We study the possible impact of the neutrino oscillation which could be induced by a tiny violation of equivalence principle (VEP) for neutrinos emitted from supernova driven by gravitational collapse. Due to the absence of any significant indication of neutrino oscillation in the SN1987A data, we obtain sever bounds on relevant VEP parameters \delta \gamma\lsim O(10^{-31}) for massless or degenerated neutrinos and \delta \gamma \lsim O(10^{-16})\times [\Delta m^2/10^{-5} eV^2] for massive neutrinos.Comment: Revtex, 16 pages, 4 figure

Mastectomy rates are decreasing in the era of service screening: a population-based study in Italy (1997-2001)

We enrolled all 2162 in situ and 21 148 invasive cases of breast cancer in 17 areas of Italy, diagnosed in 1997-2001. Rates of early cancer increased by 13.7% in the screening age group (50-69 years), and breast conserving surgery by 24.6%. Advanced cancer rates decreased by 19.4%, and mastectomy rates by 24.2%. Service screening did not increase mastectomy rates in the study population

Light Sterile Neutrino from extra dimensions and Four-Neutrino Solutions to Neutrino Anomalies

We propose a four-neutrino model which can reconcile the existing data coming from underground experiments in terms of neutrino oscillations, together with the hint from the LSND experiment and a possible neutrino contribution to the hot dark matter of the Universe. It applies the idea that extra compact dimensions, probed only by gravity and possibly gauge-singlet fields, can lower the fundamental scales such as the Planck, string or unification scales. Our fourth light neutrino $\nu_s$ ($s$ for sterile) is identified with the zero mode of the Kaluza-Klein states. To first approximation \nu_sterile combines with the nu_mu in order to form a Dirac neutrino with mass in the eV range leaving the other two neutrinos massless. The smallness of this mass scale (suitable for LSND and Hot Dark Matter) arises without appealing neither to a see-saw mechanism nor to a radiative mechanism, but from the volume factor associated with the canonical normalization of the wave-function of the bulk field in the compactified dimensions. % On the other hand the splitting between \nm and \nu_sterile (atmospheric scale) as well as the mass of the two other neutrinos (solar mass scale) arise from the violation of the fermion number on distant branes. We also discuss alternative scenarios involving flavour-changing interactions. In one of them \ne can be in the electron-volt range and therefore be probed in beta decay studies.Comment: 12 pages, latex, no figures, title changed, final version to be published in Phys Rev

Constraining neutrino oscillation parameters with current solar and atmospheric data

We analyze the impact of recent solar, atmospheric and reactor data in the determination of the neutrino oscillation parameters, taking into account that both the solar nu_e and the atmospheric nu_mu may convert to a mixture of active and sterile neutrinos. We use the most recent global solar neutrino data, including the 1496-day Super-K neutrino data sample, and we investigate in detail the impact of the SNO neutral current, spectral and day/night data by performing also an analysis using only the charged current rate from SNO. The implications of the first 145.1 days of KamLAND data on the determination of the solar neutrino parameters are also discussed in detail. We confirm the clear preference of solar+reactor data for the pure active LMA-MSW solution of the solar neutrino problem, and obtain that the LOW, VAC, SMA and Just-So^2 solutions are disfavored with a Delta_chi^2 = 22, 22, 36, 44, respectively. Furthermore, we find that the global solar data constrains the admixture of a sterile neutrino to be less than 43% at 99% CL. By performing an improved fit of the atmospheric data, we also update the corresponding regions of oscillation parameters. We find that the recent atmospheric Super-K (1489-day) and MACRO data have a strong impact on constraining a sterile component in atmospheric oscillations: if the nu_mu is restricted to the atmospheric mass states only a sterile admixture of 16% is allowed at 99% CL, while a bound of 35% is obtained in the unconstrained case. Pure sterile oscillations are disfavored with a Delta_chi^2 = 34.6 compared to the pure active case.Comment: 28 pages, LaTeX file using RevTEX4, 12 figures and 3 tables included. Improved version including the new KamLAND dat