A canadian field test of finnish ayrshires: growth and reproductive performance

International audienc

Workshop to identify critical windows of exposure for children's health: cardiovascular and endocrine work group summary.

The work group on cardiovascular and endocrine effects was asked to review the current state of knowledge about children's windows of vulnerability to developmental toxicants and to recommend how that information may be used to improve risk assessment and public health. We considered differences between structural defects, where periods of vulnerability are rather well defined, and functional defects, where periods of vulnerability are quite elusive

Measuring Invisible Particle Masses Using a Single Short Decay Chain

We consider the mass measurement at hadron colliders for a decay chain of two steps, which ends with a missing particle. Such a topology appears as a subprocess of signal events of many new physics models which contain a dark matter candidate. From the two visible particles coming from the decay chain, only one invariant mass combination can be formed and hence it is na\"ively expected that the masses of the three invisible particles in the decay chain cannot be determined from a single end point of the invariant mass distribution. We show that the event distribution in the $\log(E_{1T}/E_{2T})$ vs. invariant mass-squared plane, where $E_{1T}$, $E_{2T}$ are the transverse energies of the two visible particles, contains the information of all three invisible particle masses and allows them to be extracted individually. The experimental smearing and combinatorial issues pose challenges to the mass measurements. However, in many cases the three invisible particle masses in the decay chain can be determined with reasonable accuracies.Comment: 45 pages, 32 figure

Diagnosing Spin at the LHC via Vector Boson Fusion

We propose a new technique for determining the spin of new massive particles that might be discovered at the Large Hadron Collider. The method relies on pair-production of the new particles in a kinematic regime where the vector boson fusion production mechanism is enhanced. For this regime, we show that the distribution of the leading jets as a function of their relative azimuthal angle can be used to distinguish spin-0 from spin-1/2 particles. We illustrate this effect by considering the particular cases of (i) strongly-interacting, stable particles and (ii) supersymmetric particles carrying color charge. We argue that this method should be applicable in a wide range of new physics scenarios.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Extraction of visual motion information for the control of eye and head movement during head-free pursuit

We investigated how effectively briefly presented visual motion could be assimilated and used to track future target motion with head and eyes during target disappearance. Without vision, continuation of eye and head movement is controlled by internal (extra-retinal) mechanisms, but head movement stimulates compensatory vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) responses that must be countermanded for gaze to remain in the direction of target motion. We used target exposures of 50–200 ms at the start of randomised step-ramp stimuli, followed by >400 ms of target disappearance, to investigate the ability to sample target velocity and subsequently generate internally controlled responses. Subjects could appropriately grade gaze velocity to different target velocities without visual feedback, but responses were fully developed only when exposure was >100 ms. Gaze velocities were sustained or even increased during target disappearance, especially when there was expectation of target reappearance, but they were always less than for controls, where the target was continuously visible. Gaze velocity remained in the direction of target motion throughout target extinction, implying that compensatory (VOR) responses were suppressed by internal drive mechanisms. Regression analysis revealed that the underlying compensatory response remained active, but with gain slightly less than unity (0.85), resulting in head-free gaze responses that were very similar to, but slightly greater than, head-fixed. The sampled velocity information was also used to grade head velocity, but in contrast to gaze, head velocity was similar whether the target was briefly or continuously presented, suggesting that head motion was controlled by internal mechanisms alone, without direct influence of visual feedback

Aidnogenesis via Leptogenesis and Dark Sphalerons

We discuss aidnogenesis, the generation of a dark matter asymmetry via new sphaleron processes associated to an extra non-abelian gauge symmetry common to both the visible and the dark sectors. Such a theory can naturally produce an abundance of asymmetric dark matter which is of the same size as the lepton and baryon asymmetries, as suggested by the similar sizes of the observed baryonic and dark matter energy content, and provide a definite prediction for the mass of the dark matter particle. We discuss in detail a minimal realization in which the Standard Model is only extended by dark matter fermions which form "dark baryons" through an SU(3) interaction, and a (broken) horizontal symmetry that induces the new sphalerons. The dark matter mass is predicted to be approximately 6 GeV, close to the region favored by DAMA and CoGeNT. Furthermore, a remnant of the horizontal symmetry should be broken at a lower scale and can also explain the Tevatron dimuon anomaly.Comment: Minor changes, discussion of present constraints expanded. 16 pages, 2 eps figures, REVTeX

Heterogeneity within the Asian American community

BACKGROUND: Educational interventions are grounded on scientific data and assumptions about the community to be served. While the Pan Asian community is composed of multiple, ethnic subgroups, it is often treated as a single group for which one health promotion program will be applicable for all of its cultural subgroups. Compounding this stereotypical view of the Pan Asian community, there is sparse data about the cultural subgroups' similarities and dissimilarities. The Asian Grocery Store based cancer education program evaluation data provided an opportunity to compare data collected under identical circumstances from members of six Asian American cultural groups. METHODS: A convenience sample of 1,202 Asian American women evaluated the cultural alignment of a cancer education program, completing baseline and follow-up surveys that included questions about their breast cancer knowledge, attitudes, and screening behaviors. Participants took part in a brief education program that facilitated adherence to recommended screening guidelines. RESULTS: Unique recruitment methods were needed to attract participants from each ethnic group. Impressions gained from the aggregate data revealed different insights than the disaggregate data. Statistically significant variations existed among the subgroups' breast cancer knowledge, attitudes, and screening behaviors that could contribute to health disparities among the subgroups and within the aggregate Pan Asian community. CONCLUSION: Health promotion efforts of providers, educators, and policy makers can be enhanced if cultural differences are identified and taken into account when developing strategies to reduce health disparities and promote health equity

Exploring novel correlations in trilepton channels at the LHC for the minimal supersymmetric inverse seesaw model

We investigate signatures of the minimal supersymmetric inverse seesaw model at the large hadron collider (LHC) with three isolated leptons and large missing energy (3\ell + \mET or 2\ell + 1\tau + \mET, with \ell=e,\mu) in the final state. This signal has its origin in the decay of chargino-neutralino (\chpm1\ntrl2) pair, produced in pp collisions. The two body decays of the lighter chargino into a charged lepton and a singlet sneutrino has a characteristic decay pattern which is correlated with the observed large atmospheric neutrino mixing angle. This correlation is potentially observable at the LHC by looking at the ratios of cross sections of the trilepton + \mET channels in certain flavour specific modes. We show that even after considering possible leading standard model backgrounds these final states can lead to reasonable discovery significance at the LHC with both 7 TeV and 14 TeV center-of-mass energy.Comment: 28 pages, 9 .eps figures. 3 new figures and discussions on LHC observables added, minor modifications in text and in the abstract, 23 new references added, matches with the published version in JHE

The Cosmology of Composite Inelastic Dark Matter

Composite dark matter is a natural setting for implementing inelastic dark matter - the O(100 keV) mass splitting arises from spin-spin interactions of constituent fermions. In models where the constituents are charged under an axial U(1) gauge symmetry that also couples to the Standard Model quarks, dark matter scatters inelastically off Standard Model nuclei and can explain the DAMA/LIBRA annual modulation signal. This article describes the early Universe cosmology of a minimal implementation of a composite inelastic dark matter model where the dark matter is a meson composed of a light and a heavy quark. The synthesis of the constituent quarks into dark mesons and baryons results in several qualitatively different configurations of the resulting dark matter hadrons depending on the relative mass scales in the system.Comment: 31 pages, 4 figures; references added, typos correcte

Electroweak Baryogenesis and Dark Matter with an approximate R-symmetry

It is well known that R-symmetric models dramatically alleviate the SUSY flavor and CP problems. We study particular modifications of existing R-symmetric models which share the solution to the above problems, and have interesting consequences for electroweak baryogenesis and the Dark Matter (DM) content of the universe. In particular, we find that it is naturally possible to have a strongly first-order electroweak phase transition while simultaneously relaxing the tension with EDM experiments. The R-symmetry (and its small breaking) implies that the gauginos (and the neutralino LSP) are pseudo-Dirac fermions, which is relevant for both baryogenesis and DM. The singlet superpartner of the U(1)_Y pseudo-Dirac gaugino plays a prominent role in making the electroweak phase transition strongly first-order. The pseudo-Dirac nature of the LSP allows it to behave similarly to a Dirac particle during freeze-out, but like a Majorana particle for annihilation today and in scattering against nuclei, thus being consistent with current constraints. Assuming a standard cosmology, it is possible to simultaneously have a strongly first-order phase transition conducive to baryogenesis and have the LSP provide the full DM relic abundance, in part of the allowed parameter space. However, other possibilities for DM also exist, which are discussed. It is expected that upcoming direct DM searches as well as neutrino signals from DM annihilation in the Sun will be sensitive to this class of models. Interesting collider and Gravity-wave signals are also briefly discussed.Comment: 50 pages, 10 figure