Effects of Supersymmetric Threshold Corrections on High-Scale Flavor Textures

Integration of superpartners out of the spectrum induces potentially large contributions to Yukawa couplings. These corrections, the supersymmetric threshold corrections, therefore influence the CKM matrix prediction in a non-trivial way. We study effects of threshold corrections on high-scale flavor structures specified at the gauge coupling unification scale in supersymmetry. In our analysis, we first consider high-scale Yukawa textures which qualify phenomenologically viable at tree level, and find that they get completely disqualified after incorporating the threshold corrections. Next, we consider Yukawa couplings, such as those with five texture zeroes, which are incapable of explaining flavor-changing proceses. Incorporation of threshold corrections, however, makes them phenomenologically viable textures. Therefore, supersymmetric threshold corrections are found to leave observable impact on Yukawa couplings of quarks, and any confrontation of high-scale textures with experiments at the weak scale must take into account such corrections.Comment: 25 pages, submitted to JHE

Low arthroplasty survival after treatment for proximal humerus fracture sequelae: 3,245 shoulder replacements from the Nordic Arthroplasty Register Association

Background and purpose - Proximal humerus fractures (PHF) may result in sequelae indicating arthroplasty. We report cumulative survival rates and reasons for revision after arthroplasty for proximal humerus fracture sequelae (PHFS). Patients and methods - Data were derived from the Nordic Arthroplasty Register Association. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to illustrate survival rates. A scaled Schoenfeld residual plot was used to report the risk of revision for men relative to women in patients who were treated with reverse shoulder arthroplasty (RSA). Revision was defined as removal or exchange of any component or the addition of a glenoid component. Results - 30,190 primary arthroplasties were reported from 2004 to 2016, of which 3,245 were for PHFS. The estimated 1-, 5-, and 10-year cumulative survival rates (95% CI) were 96% (95-97), 90% (89-92), and 86% (83-88) for stemmed hemiarthroplasty and 94% (92-95), 89% (87-91), and 86% (82-90) for RSA with a median time to revision of 18 months (IQR 9-44) and 3 months (IQR 0-17). The risk of revision for men relative to women in patients who were treated with RSA was 3.2 (1.9-5.1) 0-1 year after surgery and 1.9 (0.9-4.1) 1-8 years after surgery. The estimated 1-, 5-, and 10-year cumulative survival rates (95% CI) were 94% (92-96), 88% (85-90), and 80% (75-86) for men and 95% (94-96), 86% (84-89), and 81% (77-84) for young patients. Interpretation - Shoulder arthroplasty for PHFS was associated with lower survival rates, compared with previously published results of shoulder arthroplasty for acute PHF. The low arthroplasty survival rates for men and young patients especially are worrying

Endoscopic treatment of vesicoureteral reflux with polyacrylate polyalcohol copolymer and dextranomer/hyaluronic acid in adults

Purpose Aim of this study is to examine the effectiveness of dextranomer/hyaluronic acid copolymer and polyacrylate polyalcohol copolymer in endoscopic treatment of vesicoureteral reflux disease in adult patients with and without chronic renal failure. Materials and Methods Thirty two patients (12 female, 20 male) with a total of 50 renal units were treated for vesicoureteral reflux. There were 26 (81%) chronic renal failure patients. The success of treatment was evaluated by voiding cystouretrography at 3rd and 12th months after subureteric injection. The persistence of reflux was considered as failure. Patients were divided into two groups according to injected material. Age, sex, grade of reflux and treatment results were recorded and evaluated. Results Reflux was scored as grade 1 in seven (14%), grade 2 in 16 (32%), grade 3 in 21 (42%) and grade 4 in six (12%) renal units. There was not patient with grade 5 reflux. Fourteen renal units (28%) were treated with dextranomer/hyaluronic acid copolymer (group 1) and 36 renal units (72%) were treated with polyacrylate polyalcohol copolymer (group 2). The overall treatment success was achieved at 40 renal units (80%). The treatment was successful at 11 renal units (79%) in group 1 and 29 renal units (81%) in group 2 (p = 0.71). There was not statistically significant difference between two groups with patients with chronic renal failure in terms of treatment success (p = 1.00). Conclusions The effectiveness of two bulking agents was similar in treatment of vesicoureteral reflux disease in adult patients and patients with chronic renal failure

A New Peptide Ligand for Targeting Human Carbonic Anhydrase IX, Identified through the Phage Display Technology

Carbonic anhydrase IX (CAIX) is a transmembrane enzyme found to be overexpressed in various tumors and associated with tumor hypoxia. Ligands binding this target may be used to visualize hypoxia, tumor manifestation or treat tumors by endoradiotherapy

Neutron Majorana mass from exotic instantons

We show how a Majorana mass for the Neutron could result from non-perturbative quantum gravity effects peculiar to string theory. In particular, "exotic instantons" in un-oriented string compactifications with D-branes extending the (supersymmetric) standard model could indirectly produce an effective operator delta{m} n^t n+h.c. In a specific model with an extra vector-like pair of `quarks', acquiring a large mass proportional to the string mass scale (exponentially suppressed by a function of the string moduli fields), delta{m} can turn out to be as low as 10^{-24}-10^{-25} eV. The induced neutron-antineutron oscillations could take place with a time scale tau_{n\bar{n}} > 10^8 s, that could be tested by the next generation of experiments. On the other hand, proton decay and FCNC's are automatically strongly suppressed and are compatible with the current experimental limits. Depending on the number of brane intersections, the model may also lead to the generation of Majorana masses for R-handed neutrini. Our proposal could also suggest neutron-neutralino or neutron-axino oscillations, with implications in UCN, Dark Matter Direct Detection, UHECR and Neutron-Antineutron oscillations. This suggests to improve the limits on neutron-antineutron oscillations, as a possible test of string theory and quantum gravity.Comment: 35 pages, 11 figures. More comments on neutron-neutralino mixin

Burnout syndrome in Cypriot physiotherapists: a national survey

Background. Burnout in the healthcare workers is formally defined as a state of physical, emotional and mental exhaustion caused by long-term involvement in situations that are emotionally demanding. Methods. Using a random stratified sampling method and taking into account geographical location, specialty and type of employment, 172 physiotherapists working both in the private and public sectors completed an anonymous questionnaire that included several aspects related to burnout; the MBI scale, questions related to occupational stress, and questions pertaining to self image. Results. Almost half (46%) of the 172 participants believed that their job is stressful. Approximately 57% of the physiotherapists who worked in the public sector and 40% of those who worked in the private sector (p = 0.038) reported that their job is stressful. In total, 21.1% of participants met Maslach's criteria for burnout. The point prevalence of burnout was as follows: (1) 13.8% of those who worked in the public sector and 25.5% of those in the private sector (2) 22.2% of males and 20% of females (3) 21.6% who were married, 18% who were single and 33.3% who were separated. Gender was found to be associated with the level of personal accomplishment (chi-squared test; p = 0.049), as 17.8% of men compared with 24.3% of women reported high personal accomplishment. The number of years of working as a physiotherapist correlated negatively (r = -0.229, p = 0.004) with the total depersonalization score. Regression analysis showed that the perception that the job is stressful (p < 0.001) and the low salary (p = 0.016) were significant predictors of high emotional exhaustion scores, while age group (p = 0.027) predicted high scores of depersonalization and the employment sector (p = 0.050) as well as the low salary predicted high personal accomplishment scores. Conclusions. Burnout levels in physiotherapists in Cyprus ranged from low to moderate

X-ray emission from the Sombrero galaxy: discrete sources

We present a study of discrete X-ray sources in and around the bulge-dominated, massive Sa galaxy, Sombrero (M104), based on new and archival Chandra observations with a total exposure of ~200 ks. With a detection limit of L_X = 1E37 erg/s and a field of view covering a galactocentric radius of ~30 kpc (11.5 arcminute), 383 sources are detected. Cross-correlation with Spitler et al.'s catalogue of Sombrero globular clusters (GCs) identified from HST/ACS observations reveals 41 X-rays sources in GCs, presumably low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs). We quantify the differential luminosity functions (LFs) for both the detected GC and field LMXBs, whose power-low indices (~1.1 for the GC-LF and ~1.6 for field-LF) are consistent with previous studies for elliptical galaxies. With precise sky positions of the GCs without a detected X-ray source, we further quantify, through a fluctuation analysis, the GC LF at fainter luminosities down to 1E35 erg/s. The derived index rules out a faint-end slope flatter than 1.1 at a 2 sigma significance, contrary to recent findings in several elliptical galaxies and the bulge of M31. On the other hand, the 2-6 keV unresolved emission places a tight constraint on the field LF, implying a flattened index of ~1.0 below 1E37 erg/s. We also detect 101 sources in the halo of Sombrero. The presence of these sources cannot be interpreted as galactic LMXBs whose spatial distribution empirically follows the starlight. Their number is also higher than the expected number of cosmic AGNs (52+/-11 [1 sigma]) whose surface density is constrained by deep X-ray surveys. We suggest that either the cosmic X-ray background is unusually high in the direction of Sombrero, or a distinct population of X-ray sources is present in the halo of Sombrero.Comment: 11 figures, 5 tables, ApJ in pres

Synthesis of Aqueous CdTe/CdS/ZnS Core/shell/shell Quantum Dots by a Chemical Aerosol Flow Method

This work described a continuous method to synthesize CdTe/CdS/ZnS core/shell/shell quantum dots. In an integrated system by flawlessly combining the chemical aerosol flow system working at high temperature (200–300°C) to generate CdTe/CdS intermediate products and an additional heat-up setup at relatively low temperature to overcoat the ZnS shells, the CdTe/CdS/ZnS multishell structures were realized. The as-synthesized CdTe/CdS/ZnS core/shell/shell quantum dots are characterized by photoluminescence spectra, X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy-dispersive X-ray spectra (EDS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). Fluorescence and XRD results confirm that the obtained quantum dots have a core/shell/shell structure. It shows the highest quantum yield above 45% when compared to the rhodamine 6G. The core/shell/shell QDs were more stable via the oxidation experiment by H2O2

Performance of the CMS Cathode Strip Chambers with Cosmic Rays

The Cathode Strip Chambers (CSCs) constitute the primary muon tracking device in the CMS endcaps. Their performance has been evaluated using data taken during a cosmic ray run in fall 2008. Measured noise levels are low, with the number of noisy channels well below 1%. Coordinate resolution was measured for all types of chambers, and fall in the range 47 microns to 243 microns. The efficiencies for local charged track triggers, for hit and for segments reconstruction were measured, and are above 99%. The timing resolution per layer is approximately 5 ns