Higgs Production via Gluon Fusion in a Six Dimensional Universal Extra Dimension Model on S^2/Z_2

We investigate Higgs boson production process via gluon fusion at LHC in our six dimensional universal extra dimension model compactified on a spherical orbifold S^2/Z_2. We find a striking result that Higgs production cross section in our model is predicted to be 30(10)% enhancement comparing to the predictions of the Standard Model (the minimal universal extra dimension model) for the compactification scale of order 1 TeV.Comment: 9 pages, 2 eps files, Final version to appear in EPJ

Colliders and Cosmology

Dark matter in variations of constrained minimal supersymmetric standard models will be discussed. Particular attention will be given to the comparison between accelerator and direct detection constraints.Comment: Submitted for the SUSY07 proceedings, 15 pages, LaTex, 26 eps figure

Size Doesn't Matter: Towards a More Inclusive Philosophy of Biology

notes: As the primary author, O’Malley drafted the paper, and gathered and analysed data (scientific papers and talks). Conceptual analysis was conducted by both authors.publication-status: Publishedtypes: ArticlePhilosophers of biology, along with everyone else, generally perceive life to fall into two broad categories, the microbes and macrobes, and then pay most of their attention to the latter. ‘Macrobe’ is the word we propose for larger life forms, and we use it as part of an argument for microbial equality. We suggest that taking more notice of microbes – the dominant life form on the planet, both now and throughout evolutionary history – will transform some of the philosophy of biology’s standard ideas on ontology, evolution, taxonomy and biodiversity. We set out a number of recent developments in microbiology – including biofilm formation, chemotaxis, quorum sensing and gene transfer – that highlight microbial capacities for cooperation and communication and break down conventional thinking that microbes are solely or primarily single-celled organisms. These insights also bring new perspectives to the levels of selection debate, as well as to discussions of the evolution and nature of multicellularity, and to neo-Darwinian understandings of evolutionary mechanisms. We show how these revisions lead to further complications for microbial classification and the philosophies of systematics and biodiversity. Incorporating microbial insights into the philosophy of biology will challenge many of its assumptions, but also give greater scope and depth to its investigations

Risk profiles and one-year outcomes of patients with newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation in India: Insights from the GARFIELD-AF Registry.

BACKGROUND: The Global Anticoagulant Registry in the FIELD-Atrial Fibrillation (GARFIELD-AF) is an ongoing prospective noninterventional registry, which is providing important information on the baseline characteristics, treatment patterns, and 1-year outcomes in patients with newly diagnosed non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF). This report describes data from Indian patients recruited in this registry. METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 52,014 patients with newly diagnosed AF were enrolled globally; of these, 1388 patients were recruited from 26 sites within India (2012-2016). In India, the mean age was 65.8 years at diagnosis of NVAF. Hypertension was the most prevalent risk factor for AF, present in 68.5% of patients from India and in 76.3% of patients globally (P < 0.001). Diabetes and coronary artery disease (CAD) were prevalent in 36.2% and 28.1% of patients as compared with global prevalence of 22.2% and 21.6%, respectively (P < 0.001 for both). Antiplatelet therapy was the most common antithrombotic treatment in India. With increasing stroke risk, however, patients were more likely to receive oral anticoagulant therapy [mainly vitamin K antagonist (VKA)], but average international normalized ratio (INR) was lower among Indian patients [median INR value 1.6 (interquartile range {IQR}: 1.3-2.3) versus 2.3 (IQR 1.8-2.8) (P < 0.001)]. Compared with other countries, patients from India had markedly higher rates of all-cause mortality [7.68 per 100 person-years (95% confidence interval 6.32-9.35) vs 4.34 (4.16-4.53), P < 0.0001], while rates of stroke/systemic embolism and major bleeding were lower after 1 year of follow-up. CONCLUSION: Compared to previously published registries from India, the GARFIELD-AF registry describes clinical profiles and outcomes in Indian patients with AF of a different etiology. The registry data show that compared to the rest of the world, Indian AF patients are younger in age and have more diabetes and CAD. Patients with a higher stroke risk are more likely to receive anticoagulation therapy with VKA but are underdosed compared with the global average in the GARFIELD-AF. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION-URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT01090362

Adaptive variation in coral geometry and the optimization of internal colony light climates

1. The ability of photosynthetic organisms to adjust their light climate has high adaptive significance because irradiance can vary spatially by orders of magnitude. Using a plating (foliaceous) coral species (Turbinaria mesenterina), we tested the hypothesis that plasticity of colony geometry optimizes internal irradiance distributions. 2. We developed a two-dimensional model to predict the internal irradiance distribution of a foliaceous colony as a function of its geometry. Field tests showed that the model explained 85% of the variation in irradiance within colonies of T. mesenterina with minimal bias. 3. Colony plate angle, plate spacing and range of tissue distributions into the colony were exponential functions of water depth. In shallow water plates tended to be nearly vertical, narrowly spaced, and had living tissue only near the growing edge of the plate. In deep water plates grew more horizontally, were more widely spaced, and had living tissue extending well into the colony interior. This pattern of phenotypic plasticity effectively evens out differences in within-colony irradiances. 4. We compared within-colony irradiance distributions across light habitats (depth), based on the observed variation in colony geometry with water depth. Despite fourfold differences in environmental irradiance, within-colony irradiances had a common mode of 100-200 mu mol m(-2) s(-1). This is near the hypothesized photosynthetic optimum defined by the upper limit of the subsaturation parameter (E-k) of the photosynthesis-irradiance curve. 5. Our study demonstrates that phenotypic plasticity of colony geometry is an important mechanism for regulating light capture during growth in T. mesenterina, and facilitates near-optimal internal irradiances across a wide range of environmental light regimes