Feynman rules for the rational part of the Electroweak 1-loop amplitudes

We present the complete set of Feynman rules producing the rational terms of kind R_2 needed to perform any 1-loop calculation in the Electroweak Standard Model. Our results are given both in the 't Hooft-Veltman and in the Four Dimensional Helicity regularization schemes. We also verified, by using both the 't Hooft-Feynman gauge and the Background Field Method, a huge set of Ward identities -up to 4-points- for the complete rational part of the Electroweak amplitudes. This provides a stringent check of our results and, as a by-product, an explicit test of the gauge invariance of the Four Dimensional Helicity regularization scheme in the complete Standard Model at 1-loop. The formulae presented in this paper provide the last missing piece for completely automatizing, in the framework of the OPP method, the 1-loop calculations in the SU(3) X SU(2) X U(1) Standard Model.Comment: Many thanks to Huasheng Shao for having recomputed, independently of us, all of the ${\rm R_2}$ effective vertices. Thanks to his help and by comparing with an independent computation we performed in a general $R_\xi$ gauge, we could fix, in the present version, the following formulae: the vertex $A l \bar l$ in Eq. (3.6), the vertex $Z \phi^+ \phi^-$ in Eq. (3.8), Eqs (3.16), (3.17) and (3.18

Dynamic critical behavior of the Chayes-Machta-Swendsen-Wang algorithm

We study the dynamic critical behavior of the Chayes-Machta dynamics for the Fortuin-Kasteleyn random-cluster model, which generalizes the Swendsen-Wang dynamics for the q-state Potts model to noninteger q, in two and three spatial dimensions, by Monte Carlo simulation. We show that the Li-Sokal bound z \ge \alpha/\nu is close to but probably not sharp in d=2, and is far from sharp in d=3, for all q. The conjecture z \ge \beta/\nu is false (for some values of q) in both d=2 and d=3.Comment: Revtex4, 4 pages including 4 figure

Neural network parametrization of the lepton energy spectrum in semileptonic B meson decays

We construct a parametrization of the lepton energy spectrum in inclusive semileptonic decays of B mesons, based on the available experimental information: moments of the spectrum with cuts, their errors and their correlations, together with kinematical constraints. The result is obtained in the form of a Monte Carlo sample of neural networks trained on replicas of the experimental data, which represents the probability density in the space of lepton energy spectra. This parametrization is then used to extract the b quark mass m_b^{1S} in a way that theoretical uncertainties are minimized, for which the value m_b^{1S}=4.84 \pm 0.14^{exp}\pm 0.05^{th} GeV is obtained.Comment: 32 pages, 22 figures, JHEP3 class. v4 version accepted for publication in JHE

Cognitive correlates in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a population-based study in Italy.

BACKGROUND:There is less data available regarding the characteristics of cognitive impairment in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in a population-based series. METHODOLOGY:Patients with ALS incident in Piemonte, Italy, between 2009 and 2011 underwent an extensive neuropsychological battery. Cognitive status was classified as follows: normal cognition, frontotemporal dementia (ALS-FTD), executive cognitive impairment (ALS-ECI), non-executive cognitive impairment (ALS-NECI), behavioural impairment (ALS-Bi), non-classifiable cognitive impairment. We also assessed 127 age-matched and gender-matched controls identified through patients' general practitioners. RESULTS:Out of the 281 incident patients, 207 (71.9%) underwent the neuropsychological testing; of these, 19 were excluded from the analysis due previous conditions affecting cognition. Ninety-one (49.7%) patients were cognitively normal, 23 (12.6%) had ALS-FTD, 36 (19.7%) ALS-ECI, 10 (5.5%) ALS-NECI, 11 (6.0%) ALS-Bi and 11 (6.0%) non-classifiable cognitive impairment, 1 had comorbid Alzheimer's disease. Patients with ALS-FTD were older, had a lower education level, and had a shorter survival than any other cognitive group. Of the nine cases with C9ORF72 mutation, six had ALS-FTD, two ALS-ECI and one was cognitively normal; one of the five patients with SOD1 mutations and one of the five patients with TARBDP mutations had ALS-Bi. CONCLUSIONS:About 50% of Italian patients with ALS had some degree of cognitive impairment, in keeping with a previous Irish study, despite the largely different genetic background of the two populations. The lower educational attainment in patients with ALS-FTD indicated a possible role of cognitive reserve in ALS-related cognitive impairment. ALS-ECI and ALS-NECI may represent discrete cognitive syndromes in the continuum of ALS and FTD

Dna methylation changes in fibromyalgia suggest the role of the immune‐inflammatory response and central sensitization

Fibromyalgia (FM) has been explained as a result of gene‐environment interactions. The present study aims to verify DNA methylation differences in eleven candidate genome regions previously associated to FM, evaluating DNA methylation patterns as potential disease biomarkers. DNA methylation was analyzed through bisulfite sequencing, comparing 42 FM women and their 42 healthy sisters. The associations between the level of methylation in these regions were further explored through a network analysis. Lastly, a logistic regression model investigated the regions potentially associated with FM, when controlling for sociodemographic variables and depressive symptoms. The analysis highlighted significant differences in the GCSAML region methylation between patients and controls. Moreover, seventeen single CpGs, belonging to other genes, were significantly different, however, only one cytosine related to GCSAML survived the correction for multiple comparisons. The network structure of methylation sites was different for each group; GRM2 methylation represented a central node only for FM patients. Logistic regression revealed that depressive symptoms and DNA methylation in the GRM2 region were significantly associated with FM risk. Our study encourages better exploration of GCSAML and GRM2 functions and their possible role in FM affecting immune, inflammatory response, and central sensitization of pain

Urban forest invertebrates : how they shape and respond to the urban environment

Invertebrates comprise the most diversified animal group on Earth. Due to their long evolutionary history and small size, invertebrates occupy a remarkable range of ecological niches, and play an important role as "ecosystem engineers" by structuring networks of mutualistic and antagonistic ecological interactions in almost all terrestrial ecosystems. Urban forests provide critical ecosystem services to humans, and, as in other systems, invertebrates are central to structuring and maintaining the functioning of urban forests. Identifying the role of invertebrates in urban forests can help elucidate their importance to practitioners and the public, not only to preserve biodiversity in urban environments, but also to make the public aware of their functional importance in maintaining healthy greenspaces. In this review, we examine the multiple functional roles that invertebrates play in urban forests that contribute to ecosystem service provisioning, including pollination, predation, herbivory, seed and microorganism dispersal and organic matter decomposition, but also those that lead to disservices, primarily from a public health perspective, e.g., transmission of invertebrate-borne diseases. We then identify a number of ecological filters that structure urban forest invertebrate communities, such as changes in habitat structure, increased landscape imperviousness, microclimatic changes and pollution. We also discuss the complexity of ways that forest invertebrates respond to urbanisation, including acclimation, local extinction and evolution. Finally, we present management recommendations to support and conserve viable and diverse urban forest invertebrate populations into the future.Peer reviewe

Electroweak pinch technique to all orders

The generalization of the pinch technique to all orders in the electroweak sector of the Standard Model within the class of the renormalizable 't Hooft gauges, is presented. In particular, both the all-order PT gauge-boson-- and scalar--fermions vertices, as well as the diagonal and mixed gauge-boson and scalar self-energies are explicitly constructed. This is achieved through the generalization to the Standard Model of the procedure recently applied to the QCD case, which consist of two steps: (i) the identification of special Green's functions, which serve as a common kernel to all self-energy and vertex diagrams, and (ii) the study of the (on-shell) Slavnov-Taylor identities they satisfy. It is then shown that the ghost, scalar and scalar--gauge-boson Green's functions appearing in these identities capture precisely the result of the pinching action at arbitrary order. It turns out that the aforementioned Green's functions play a crucial role, their net effect being the non-trivial modification of the ghost, scalar and scalar--gauge-boson diagrams of the gauge-boson-- or scalar--fermions vertex we have started from, in such a way as to dynamically generate the characteristic ghost and scalar sector of the background field method. The pinch technique gauge-boson and scalar self-energies are also explicitly constructed by resorting to the method of the background-quantum identities.Comment: 48 pages, 8 figures; v2: typos correcte

The Standard Model Prediction of the Muon Anomalous Magnetic Moment

This article reviews and updates the Standard Model prediction of the muon g-2. QED, electroweak and hadronic contributions are presented, and open questions discussed. The theoretical prediction deviates from the present experimental value by 2-3 standard deviations, if e+e- annihilation data are used to evaluate the leading hadronic term.Comment: 30 pages, 8 figures. v2: Updated version to appear in J.Phys.G. Comments and references added, typo corrected in eq.(17