100 research outputs found
Phenomenological constraints on SUSY SU(5) GUTs with non-universal gaugino masses
We study phenomenological aspects of supersymmetric SU(5) grand unified
theories with non-universal gaugino masses. For large tan beta, we investigate
constraints from the requirement of successful electroweak symmetry breaking,
the positivity of stau mass squared and the b to s gamma decay rate. In the
allowed region, the nature of the lightest supersymmetric particle is
determined. Examples of mass spectra are given. We also calculate loop
corrections to the bottom mass due to superpartners.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures (8 eps files), uses REVTeX. Replaced to match the
version to be published in PRD: minor corrections and addition
Higgs sector and R-parity breaking couplings in models with broken U(1)_B-L gauge symmetry
Four different supersymmetric models based on SU(2)_L X U(1)_R X U(1)_B-L and
SU(2)_L X SU(2)_R X U(1)_B-L gauge symmetry groups are studied. U(1)_B-L
symmetry is broken spontaneously by a vacuum expectation value (VEV) of a
sneutrino field. The right-handed gauge bosons may obtain their mass solely by
sneutrino VEV. The physical charged lepton and neutrino are mixtures of
gauginos, higgsinos and lepton interaction eigenstates. Explicit formulae for
masses and mixings in the physical lepton fields are found. The spontaneous
symmetry breaking mechanism fixes the trilinear R-parity breaking couplings.
Only some special R-parity breaking trilinear couplings are allowed. There is a
potentially large trilinear lepton number breaking coupling - which is unique
to left-right models - that is proportional to the SU(2)_R gauge coupling g_R.
The couplings are parametrized by few mixing angles, making the spontaneous
R-parity breaking a natural ``unification framework'' for R-parity breaking
couplings in SUSYLR models.Comment: 19 pages, no figures, uses REVTeX. To be published in PR
Fragmentation Function and Hadronic Production of the Heavy Supersymmetric Hadrons
The light top-squark \sto may be the lightest squark and its lifetime may
be `long enough' in a kind of SUSY models which have not been ruled out yet
experimentally, so colorless `supersymmetric hadrons (superhadrons)' (\sto
\bar{q}) ( is a quark except -quark) may be formed as long as the light
top-squark \sto can be produced. Fragmentation function of \sto to heavy
`supersymmetric hadrons (superhadrons)' (\sto \bar{Q}) ( or
) and the hadronic production of the superhadrons are investigated
quantitatively. The fragmentation function is calculated precisely. Due to the
difference in spin of the SUSY component, the asymptotic behavior of the
fragmentation function is different from those of the existent ones. The
fragmentation function is also applied to compute the production of heavy
superhadrons at hadronic colliders Tevatron and LHC under the so-called
fragmentation approach. The resultant cross-section for the heavy superhadrons
is too small to observe at Tevatron, but great enough at LHC, even when all the
relevant parameters in the SUSY models are taken within the favored region for
the heavy superhadrons. The production of `light superhadrons' (\sto \bar{q})
() is also roughly estimated. It is pointed out that the production
cross-sections of the light superhadrons (\sto \bar{q}) may be much greater
than those of the heavy superhadrons, so that even at Tevatron the light
superhadrons may be produced in great quantities.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figure
The ABC130 barrel module prototyping programme for the ATLAS strip tracker
For the Phase-II Upgrade of the ATLAS Detector, its Inner Detector,
consisting of silicon pixel, silicon strip and transition radiation
sub-detectors, will be replaced with an all new 100 % silicon tracker, composed
of a pixel tracker at inner radii and a strip tracker at outer radii. The
future ATLAS strip tracker will include 11,000 silicon sensor modules in the
central region (barrel) and 7,000 modules in the forward region (end-caps),
which are foreseen to be constructed over a period of 3.5 years. The
construction of each module consists of a series of assembly and quality
control steps, which were engineered to be identical for all production sites.
In order to develop the tooling and procedures for assembly and testing of
these modules, two series of major prototyping programs were conducted: an
early program using readout chips designed using a 250 nm fabrication process
(ABCN-25) and a subsequent program using a follow-up chip set made using 130 nm
processing (ABC130 and HCC130 chips). This second generation of readout chips
was used for an extensive prototyping program that produced around 100
barrel-type modules and contributed significantly to the development of the
final module layout. This paper gives an overview of the components used in
ABC130 barrel modules, their assembly procedure and findings resulting from
their tests.Comment: 82 pages, 66 figure
Association between convalescent plasma treatment and mortality in COVID-19: a collaborative systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials.
Funder: laura and john arnold foundationBACKGROUND: Convalescent plasma has been widely used to treat COVID-19 and is under investigation in numerous randomized clinical trials, but results are publicly available only for a small number of trials. The objective of this study was to assess the benefits of convalescent plasma treatment compared to placebo or no treatment and all-cause mortality in patients with COVID-19, using data from all available randomized clinical trials, including unpublished and ongoing trials (Open Science Framework, https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/GEHFX ). METHODS: In this collaborative systematic review and meta-analysis, clinical trial registries (ClinicalTrials.gov, WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform), the Cochrane COVID-19 register, the LOVE database, and PubMed were searched until April 8, 2021. Investigators of trials registered by March 1, 2021, without published results were contacted via email. Eligible were ongoing, discontinued and completed randomized clinical trials that compared convalescent plasma with placebo or no treatment in COVID-19 patients, regardless of setting or treatment schedule. Aggregated mortality data were extracted from publications or provided by investigators of unpublished trials and combined using the Hartung-Knapp-Sidik-Jonkman random effects model. We investigated the contribution of unpublished trials to the overall evidence. RESULTS: A total of 16,477 patients were included in 33 trials (20 unpublished with 3190 patients, 13 published with 13,287 patients). 32 trials enrolled only hospitalized patients (including 3 with only intensive care unit patients). Risk of bias was low for 29/33 trials. Of 8495 patients who received convalescent plasma, 1997 died (23%), and of 7982 control patients, 1952 died (24%). The combined risk ratio for all-cause mortality was 0.97 (95% confidence interval: 0.92; 1.02) with between-study heterogeneity not beyond chance (I2 = 0%). The RECOVERY trial had 69.8% and the unpublished evidence 25.3% of the weight in the meta-analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Convalescent plasma treatment of patients with COVID-19 did not reduce all-cause mortality. These results provide strong evidence that convalescent plasma treatment for patients with COVID-19 should not be used outside of randomized trials. Evidence synthesis from collaborations among trial investigators can inform both evidence generation and evidence application in patient care
Retrospective evaluation of whole exome and genome mutation calls in 746 cancer samples
Funder: NCI U24CA211006Abstract: The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) curated consensus somatic mutation calls using whole exome sequencing (WES) and whole genome sequencing (WGS), respectively. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium, which aggregated whole genome sequencing data from 2,658 cancers across 38 tumour types, we compare WES and WGS side-by-side from 746 TCGA samples, finding that ~80% of mutations overlap in covered exonic regions. We estimate that low variant allele fraction (VAF < 15%) and clonal heterogeneity contribute up to 68% of private WGS mutations and 71% of private WES mutations. We observe that ~30% of private WGS mutations trace to mutations identified by a single variant caller in WES consensus efforts. WGS captures both ~50% more variation in exonic regions and un-observed mutations in loci with variable GC-content. Together, our analysis highlights technological divergences between two reproducible somatic variant detection efforts
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