573 research outputs found
Constitutional Law - Self-Incrimination - Use of Confessions for Impeachment Purposes
The United States Supreme Court has held that the voluntary confessions of a criminally accused, made in the absence of full Miranda warnings, may be used to impeach his credibility.
Harris v. New York, 401 U.S. 222 (1971)
On the numerical closeness of the effective phenomenological electroweak mixing angle and the \MS parameter
It happens that and are equal with 0.1% accuracy, though
they are split by radiative corrections and a natural estimate for their
difference is 1%. This degeneracy occurs only for value close to
170\GeV, so no deep physical reason can be attributed to it. However, another
puzzle of the Standard Model, the degeneracy of s_\Eff^2 and , is not
independent of the previous one since a good physical reason exists for
s_\Eff^2 and degeneracy. We present explicit formulas which relate
these three angles.Comment: 10 pages, latex, 3 figures included; published on MPLA. A few
numerical estimates are improved; journal-ref is adde
Physics at the Linear Collider
The physics at the planned colliders is discussed around three main
topics corresponding to different manifestations of symmetry breaking:
physics in the no Higgs scenario, studies of the properties of the Higgs and
precision tests of SUSY. A comparison with the LHC is made for all these cases.
The mode of the linear collider will also be reviewed.Comment: 31 pages, 12 figures. Invited talk given at the Fifth Workshop on
High Energy Physics Phenomenology, Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and
Astrophysics, Pune, India, January 12 - 26, 199
Occurrence of Microplastics in Tap and Bottled Water: Current Knowledge
none5noA narrative review was carried out to describe the current knowledge related to the occurrence of MPs in drinking water. The reviewed studies (n = 21) showed the presence of microplastics (MPs) in tap (TW) and bottled (BW) water, increasing concerns for public health due to the possible toxicity associated with their polymeric composition, additives, and other compounds or microorganism adsorbed on their surface. The MP concentration increase by decreasing particles size and was higher in BW than in TW. Among BW, reusable PET and glass bottles showed a higher MP contamination than other packages. The lower MP abundance in TW than in natural sources indicates a high removal rate of MPs in drinking water treatment plants. This evidence should encourage the consumers to drink TW instead of BW, in order to limit their exposure to MPS and produce less plastic waste. The high variability in the results makes it difficult to compare the findings of different studies and build up a general hypothesis on human health risk. A globally shared protocol is needed to harmonize results also in view of the monitoring plans for the emerging contaminants, including MPs, introduced by the new European regulation.Gambino I.; Bagordo F.; Grassi T.; Panico A.; De Donno A.Gambino, I.; Bagordo, F.; Grassi, T.; Panico, A.; De Donno, A
Long-term impact of chemical and alternative fungicides applied to grapevine CV nebbiolo on berry transcriptome
Viticulture is one of the horticultural systems in which antifungal treatments can be extremely frequent, with substantial economic and environmental costs. New products, such as biofungicides, resistance inducers and biostimulants, may represent alternative crop protection strategies respectful of the environmental sustainability and food safety. Here, the main purpose was to evaluate the systemic molecular modifications induced by biocontrol products as laminarin, resistance inducers (i.e., fosetyl-Al and potassium phosphonate), electrolyzed water and a standard chemical fungicide (i.e., metiram), on the transcriptomic profile of ‘Nebbiolo’ grape berries at harvest. In addition to a validation of the sequencing data through real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), for the first-time the expression of some candidate genes in different cell-types of berry skin (i.e., epidermal and hypodermal layers) was evaluated using the laser microdissection approach. Results showed that several considered antifungal treatments do not strongly affect the berry transcriptome profile at the end of season. Although some treatments do not activate long lasting molecular defense priming features in berry, some compounds appear to be more active in long-term responses. In addition, genes differentially expressed in the two-cell type populations forming the berry skin were found, suggesting a different function for the two-cell type populations
Higher Order Power Corrections in Inclusive B Decays
We discuss order 1/m_b^4 and 1/m_b^5 corrections in inclusive semileptonic
decay of a meson. We identify relevant hadronic matrix elements of
dimension seven and eight and estimate them using the ground-state saturation
approximation. Within this approach the effects on the integrated rate and on
kinematic moments are estimated. The overall relative shift in V_{cb} turns out
about +0.4% as applied to the existing fits. Similar estimates are presented
for B -> X_s+\gamma decays.Comment: 30 pages, 16 figure
Long-term impact of chemical and alternative fungicides applied to grapevine CV nebbiolo on berry transcriptome
Effects of resveratrol on bone health in type 2 diabetic patients. A double-blind randomized-controlled trial
Abstract Objectives Patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) are at increased fracture risk. Resveratrol has shown beneficial effects on bone health in few studies. The aim of this trial was to investigate the effects of resveratrol on bone mineral density (BMD) and on calcium metabolism biomarkers in T2DM patients. Methods In this double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial 192 T2DM outpatients were randomized to receive resveratrol 500 mg/day (Resv500 arm), resveratrol 40 mg/day (Resv40 arm) or placebo for 6 months. BMD, bone mineral content (BMC), serum calcium, phosphorus, alkaline phosphatase, and 25-hydroxy vitamin D were measured at baseline and after 6 months. Results At follow-up, calcium concentrations increased in all patients, while within-group variations in alkaline phosphatase were higher in both resveratrol arms, and 25-hydroxy vitamin D increased in the Resv500 arm only, without between-group differences. Whole-body BMD significantly decreased in the placebo group, while whole-body BMC decreased in both the placebo and Resv40 arms. No significant changes in BMD and BMC values occurred in the Resv500 arm. The adjusted mean differences of change from baseline were significantly different in the Resv500 arm vs placebo for whole-body BMD (0.01 vs −0.03 g/cm2, p = 0.001), whole-body BMC (4.04 vs −58.8 g, p < 0.001), whole-body T-score (0.15 vs −0.26), and serum phosphorus (0.07 vs −0.01 µmol/L, p = 0.002). In subgroup analyses, in Resv500 treated-patients BMD values increased to higher levels in those with lower calcium and 25-hydroxy vitamin D values, and in alcohol drinkers. Conclusions Supplementation with 500 mg resveratrol prevented bone density loss in patients with T2DM, in particular, in those with unfavorable conditions at baseline
Expectations for LHC from Naturalness: Modified vs. SM Higgs Sector
Common lore has it that naturalness of electroweak breaking in the SM
requires new physics (NP) at Lambda < 2-3 TeV, hopefully within the reach of
LHC. Moreover the Higgs should be light (m_h < 219 GeV) to pass electroweak
precision tests (EWPT). However one should be prepared for "unexpected"
(although admittedly unpleasant) results at LHC, i.e. no NP and/or a heavy
Higgs. We revisit recent attempts to accommodate this by modifying the SM Higgs
sector (using 2-Higgs-doublet models). We find that these models do not improve
the naturalness of the SM, and so they do not change the expectations of
observing NP at LHC. We also stress that a heavy SM Higgs would not be evidence
in favour of a modified Higgs sector, provided certain higher order operators
influence EWPT. On the other hand, we show that NP can escape LHC detection
without a naturalness price, and with the pure SM as the effective theory valid
at LHC energies, simply if the cut-off for top loops is slightly lower than for
Higgs loops.Comment: 37 pages, LaTeX, 13 figure
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