The Social Context of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Control in Texas: Foundations for Effective Risk Communication

The introduction of FMD into the US would have serious economic and societal effects on the livelihoods and sustainability of affected livestock producers. Livestock producers serve as an important line of defense in both detecting an introduction of FMD as well, helping to prevent disease spread. However, due to the complexity of moral, social, and economic issues surrounding the control of highly contagious diseases, producer cooperation during an outbreak may not be assured. This study was conducted using a mixed-methods approach, including qualitative analysis of interviews and quantitative analysis of a postal survey, in order to explore the factors likely to influence producer cooperation in FMD detection and control in Texas. Reporting of cattle with clinical signs of FMD in the absence of an outbreak was related to producers´ beliefs about the consequences of reporting, beliefs about what other producers would do, trust in agricultural agencies, and their perception of the risk posed by FMD. During a hypothetical outbreak, intentions to report were determined by beliefs about the consequences of reporting, and perception of the risk posed by FMD. Intentions to gather and hold cattle when requested during an outbreak were determined by beliefs about the consequences of gathering and holding, beliefs about barriers to gathering and holding, trust in other producers, and perception of the risk posed by FMD. Compliance with animal movement restrictions was determined by experiential attitudes, beliefs about the availability of feed, space, and disinfection procedures, beliefs about what other producers would do, and perception of the risk posed by FMD. Recommendations for improving producer cooperation include targeting specific beliefs in both planning and communication, increasing transparency in the post-reporting process, planning for and communicating plans for maintaining business continuity in order to better inform risk perception, and partnering with organizations to ensure sustained and meaningful communication that supports trust between producers within the affected agricultural community

Relationships Between Self-regulation and use of Parenting Strategies for Eating and Physical Activity Behaviors Among Mexican-Heritage Mothers

It is important to understand theoretically based support behaviors that can promote healthy eating and active living among Mexican-heritage mothers. This study examined the relationship between maternal self-regulation (the capacity to plan, guide, and monitor one’s behavior flexibly in the face of changing circumstances) and use of parenting strategies among mothers residing along the Texas-Mexico border. Mothers (n = 116) were recruited from three geographic regions within Hidalgo County, Texas. A 21-item survey was administered to measure self-regulation through goal setting and limit setting. The Parenting Strategies for Eating and Activity Scale (PEAS) was used to measure parenting strategies such as limit setting, discipline, monitoring, and control. Pearson correlations and multiple linear regression analyses were used to identify relationships between self-regulation (goal setting and impulse control) and parenting strategies. Sociodemographic characteristics of mothers are also reported. On average mothers were 36 years old (SD = 7.44), married (82%), identified as Mexican (90%), and had fewer than 9 years of education (68%). Pearson correlations revealed goal setting to be positively associated with limit setting (r = .246, p \u3c .001), control (r = .203, p = .03), and monitoring (r = .336, p \u3c .001). Regression analyses revealed limit setting (β = .246, p \u3c .001), control (β = .203, p = .03), and monitoring (β = .336, p \u3c .001) as parenting strategies that were associated with goal setting (R2 = 0.12). Findings suggest that programs should include goal setting to facilitate use of parenting strategies to support healthy behaviors that promote healthy eating and physical activity. Emphasizing malleable behaviors rather than deficits in parenting strategies could allow for higher receptivity to behaviors that can promote health in a family context

Azimuthal anisotropy of charged particles at high transverse momenta in PbPb collisions at sqrt(s[NN]) = 2.76 TeV

The azimuthal anisotropy of charged particles in PbPb collisions at nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of 2.76 TeV is measured with the CMS detector at the LHC over an extended transverse momentum (pt) range up to approximately 60 GeV. The data cover both the low-pt region associated with hydrodynamic flow phenomena and the high-pt region where the anisotropies may reflect the path-length dependence of parton energy loss in the created medium. The anisotropy parameter (v2) of the particles is extracted by correlating charged tracks with respect to the event-plane reconstructed by using the energy deposited in forward-angle calorimeters. For the six bins of collision centrality studied, spanning the range of 0-60% most-central events, the observed v2 values are found to first increase with pt, reaching a maximum around pt = 3 GeV, and then to gradually decrease to almost zero, with the decline persisting up to at least pt = 40 GeV over the full centrality range measured.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Measurement of the cross-section and charge asymmetry of WW bosons produced in proton-proton collisions at s=8\sqrt{s}=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents measurements of the $W^+ \rightarrow \mu^+\nu$ and $W^- \rightarrow \mu^-\nu$ cross-sections and the associated charge asymmetry as a function of the absolute pseudorapidity of the decay muon. The data were collected in proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC and correspond to a total integrated luminosity of 20.2~\mbox{fb^{-1}}. The precision of the cross-section measurements varies between 0.8% to 1.5% as a function of the pseudorapidity, excluding the 1.9% uncertainty on the integrated luminosity. The charge asymmetry is measured with an uncertainty between 0.002 and 0.003. The results are compared with predictions based on next-to-next-to-leading-order calculations with various parton distribution functions and have the sensitivity to discriminate between them.Comment: 38 pages in total, author list starting page 22, 5 figures, 4 tables, submitted to EPJC. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/STDM-2017-13

Combined search for the quarks of a sequential fourth generation

Results are presented from a search for a fourth generation of quarks produced singly or in pairs in a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5 inverse femtobarns recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2011. A novel strategy has been developed for a combined search for quarks of the up and down type in decay channels with at least one isolated muon or electron. Limits on the mass of the fourth-generation quarks and the relevant Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix elements are derived in the context of a simple extension of the standard model with a sequential fourth generation of fermions. The existence of mass-degenerate fourth-generation quarks with masses below 685 GeV is excluded at 95% confidence level for minimal off-diagonal mixing between the third- and the fourth-generation quarks. With a mass difference of 25 GeV between the quark masses, the obtained limit on the masses of the fourth-generation quarks shifts by about +/- 20 GeV. These results significantly reduce the allowed parameter space for a fourth generation of fermions.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Search for squarks and gluinos in events with isolated leptons, jets and missing transverse momentum at s√=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The results of a search for supersymmetry in final states containing at least one isolated lepton (electron or muon), jets and large missing transverse momentum with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider are reported. The search is based on proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy s√=8 TeV collected in 2012, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20 fb−1. No significant excess above the Standard Model expectation is observed. Limits are set on supersymmetric particle masses for various supersymmetric models. Depending on the model, the search excludes gluino masses up to 1.32 TeV and squark masses up to 840 GeV. Limits are also set on the parameters of a minimal universal extra dimension model, excluding a compactification radius of 1/R c = 950 GeV for a cut-off scale times radius (ΛR c) of approximately 30

Search for new physics with same-sign isolated dilepton events with jets and missing transverse energy

A search for new physics is performed in events with two same-sign isolated leptons, hadronic jets, and missing transverse energy in the final state. The analysis is based on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.98 inverse femtobarns produced in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC. This constitutes a factor of 140 increase in integrated luminosity over previously published results. The observed yields agree with the standard model predictions and thus no evidence for new physics is found. The observations are used to set upper limits on possible new physics contributions and to constrain supersymmetric models. To facilitate the interpretation of the data in a broader range of new physics scenarios, information on the event selection, detector response, and efficiencies is provided.Comment: Published in Physical Review Letter