NMSGUT emergence and Trans-Unification RG flows

Consistency of trans-unification RG evolution is used to discuss the domain of definition of the New Minimal Supersymmetric SO(10) GUT (NMSGUT). We compute the 1-loop RGE $\beta$ functions, simplifying generic formulae using constraints of gauge invariance and superpotential structure. We also calculate the 2 loop contributions to the gauge coupling and gaugino mass and indicate how to get full 2 loop results for all couplings. Our method overcomes combinatorial barriers that frustrate computer algebra based attempts to calculate SO(10) $\beta$ functions involving large irreps. Use of the RGEs identifies a perturbative domain $Q < M_E$, where $M_E <M_{Planck}$ is the \emph{scale of emergence} where the NMSGUT, with GUT compatible soft supersymmetry breaking terms emerges from the strong UV dynamics associated with the Landau poles in gauge and Yukawa couplings. Due to the strength of the RG flows the Landau poles for gauge and Yukawa couplings lie near a cutoff scale $\Lambda_E$ for the perturbative dynamics of the NMSGUT which just above $M_E$. SO(10) RG flows into the IR are shown to facilitate small gaugino masses and generation of negative Non Universal Higgs masses squared needed by realistic NMSGUT fits of low energy data. Running the simple canonical theory emergent at $M_E$ through $M_X$ down to the electroweak scale enables tests of candidate scenarios such as supergravity based NMSGUT with canonical kinetic terms and NMSGUT based dynamical Yukawa unification.Comment: 36 pages, 1 Figure, 4 Tables, 77 equations, 42 references, RevTeX4 PDFLateX. Version published in Phys. Rev.

Baryon Stability on the Higgs Dissolution Edge : Threshold corrections and suppression of Baryon violation in the NMSGUT

Superheavy threshold corrections to the matching condition between matter Yukawa couplings of the effective Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) and the New Minimal Supersymmetric (SO(10)) GUT(NMSGUT) provide a novel and generic mechanism for reducing the long standing and generically problematic operator dimension 5 Baryon decay rates. In suitable regions of the parameter space strong wave function renormalization of the effective MSSM Higgs doublets due to the large number of heavy fields can take the wave function renormalization of the MSSM Higgs field close to the dissolution value ($Z_{H,\overline{H}}=0$). Rescaling to canonical kinetic terms lowers the SO(10) Yukawas required to match the MSSM fermion data. Since the same Yukawas determine the dimension 5 B violation operator coefficients, the associated rates can be suppressed to levels compatible with current limits. Including these threshold effects also relaxes the constraint $y_b-y_\tau\simeq y_s-y_\mu$ operative between $\textbf{10} -\textbf{120}$ plet generated tree level MSSM matter fermion Yukawas $y_f$. We exhibit accurate fits of the MSSM fermion mass-mixing data in terms of NMSGUT superpotential couplings and 5 independent soft Susy breaking parameters specified at $10^{16.25}\,$ GeV with the claimed suppression of Baryon decay rates. As before, our s-spectra are of the mini split supersymmetry type with large $|A_0|,\mu,m_{H,\overline H} > 100\,\,$ TeV, light gauginos and normal s-hierarchy. Large $A_0,\mu$ and soft masses allow significant deviation from the canonical GUT gaugino mass ratios and ensure vacuum safety. Even without optimization, prominent candidates for BSM discovery such as the muon magnetic anomaly, $b\rightarrow s\gamma$ and Lepto-genesis CP violation emerge in the preferred ball park.Comment: PdfLatex. 50 pages. Version accepted for publication in Nuclear Phys.B(2014). Available online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nuclphysb.2014.03.003. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1107.296

The impact of tuberculosis on pulmonary health in Maputo, Mozambique

Background Pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) is curable but is still a major health problem. PTB is associated to chronic lung impairment even after microbiological cure. The type, severity and risk factor for lung impairment (LI) are poorly described. The prevalence of LI and reference equations have not been established in Mozambican healthy population. Methods A cohort of PTB patients was followed for 52 weeks after TB diagnosis (2014 to 2016), spirometry and 6-Minute Walk Test was assessed at weeks 8, 26 and 52 of follow-up, in Mavalane, Maputo. Saint George Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) was evaluated during treatment. In 2017, the prevalence of lung impairment and 6-Minute Walk Test were evaluated in healthy volunteers from the same neighbourhood. Results The proportion of LI is 73,3% on week 8, declining to 67,7% at week 26 and 61,3% (26% of moderate-severe) at week 52 in PTB patients. On week 52 the mean Vital Capacity (FVC) is 2.65l (66.7% of predicted) in participants with LI versus 3.68l (90% of predicted) in participants without LI. All study participants suffered from pulmonary restriction (except one). Female sex (RRR = 5), higher CD4 in HIV positives (RRR: 7.33) were significantly associated with LI. The increase of haemoglobin was protective (RRR = 0.61). The PTB patients travelled a mean distance of 442 meters on week 52 and a mean total score of 5.58 in SGRQ. The proportion of LI in the Healthy volunteers was 20%, with 19,35% of restriction (one case of obstruction) mean FVC of 3.27l (89.4% of predicted) and FEV1 of 2.7l (93.80% of predicted). Conclusion Pulmonary restriction occurs in a fifth of healthy volunteers, it develops early during TB disease or treatment affecting more than half of the PTB patients. There is a need of more studies on lung outcome in PTB and to establish reference equation in healthy volunteers

Exploring the representation of women in leadership positions in metropolitan police departments

This study explores the representation of women in leadership positions in Metropolitan Police Departments (MPDs). Historically, the police career was male dominated and women were not allowed to work in the police. Democracy, changes in law, and societal beliefs opened policing as a career to women. Various legal frameworks provide for gender equality, therefore equal gender representation in the workplace is a developmental goal in South Africa. The Commission on Employment Equity (CEE, 2015) of South Africa reported that women comprised 44.8% of the economically active population, yet males were still in charge of senior management positions in South African companies. The 2015 South African Employment Equity Report indicates that women hold only 29.5% of top level management positions and 30.7% of senior management positions (CEE, 2015). These results are lower than the government’s mandated target of 44.4% management positions reserved for women. The MPDs (2017) indicated that, out of a sample of 600 women, 91 are in leadership positions. The current gender representation in MPDs’ leadership positions forms this study’s problem statement. This study is qualitative in nature. Twenty-five South African women from the Gauteng Province from Ekurhuleni, Tshwane, and Johannesburg MPDs were interviewed. The transformative approach was used to inquire on participants’ experiences and views about gender representation, as well as women’s advancement to leadership positions in the MPDs. Data were analysed using Atlas.ti™. The results showed that culture, stereotypes, and physical fitness were perceived as barriers that hindered the representation of women in leadership positions. Furthermore, sexual and verbal harassment, bullying, discrimination against female officers at the workplace, and unimplemented policies and procedures were also hindrances. The participants recommended that the South African MPDs review human resource practices and policies to promote a positive and constructive work environment for all employees.Police PracticeD. Litt. et Phil. (Police Science

The impact of tuberculosis on pulmonary health in Maputo, Mozambique

Background Pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) is curable but is still a major health problem. PTB is associated to chronic lung impairment even after microbiological cure. The type, severity and risk factor for lung impairment (LI) are poorly described. The prevalence of LI and reference equations have not been established in Mozambican healthy population. Methods A cohort of PTB patients was followed for 52 weeks after TB diagnosis (2014 to 2016), spirometry and 6-Minute Walk Test was assessed at weeks 8, 26 and 52 of follow-up, in Mavalane, Maputo. Saint George Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) was evaluated during treatment. In 2017, the prevalence of lung impairment and 6-Minute Walk Test were evaluated in healthy volunteers from the same neighbourhood. Results The proportion of LI is 73,3% on week 8, declining to 67,7% at week 26 and 61,3% (26% of moderate-severe) at week 52 in PTB patients. On week 52 the mean Vital Capacity (FVC) is 2.65l (66.7% of predicted) in participants with LI versus 3.68l (90% of predicted) in participants without LI. All study participants suffered from pulmonary restriction (except one). Female sex (RRR = 5), higher CD4 in HIV positives (RRR: 7.33) were significantly associated with LI. The increase of haemoglobin was protective (RRR = 0.61). The PTB patients travelled a mean distance of 442 meters on week 52 and a mean total score of 5.58 in SGRQ. The proportion of LI in the Healthy volunteers was 20%, with 19,35% of restriction (one case of obstruction) mean FVC of 3.27l (89.4% of predicted) and FEV1 of 2.7l (93.80% of predicted). Conclusion Pulmonary restriction occurs in a fifth of healthy volunteers, it develops early during TB disease or treatment affecting more than half of the PTB patients. There is a need of more studies on lung outcome in PTB and to establish reference equation in healthy volunteers

Investigating the effect of context-based teaching approach on learner interest and performance in science

The findings of the TIMMS study show that “South African learners have a very poor self-concept in Mathematics and Science compared to pupils internationally” (Howie, 2001, p. 37). This implies that South African learners perceive themselves as not talented enough to do well in either of the subjects, that the two subjects are difficult and that they cannot find any joy in learning them. Research has shown that the notion of self-concept has an influence on attitudes towards learning (Young, 1998). This study aimed at investigating whether the use of context-based teaching methodology in the teaching of Science is able to assist learners in developing interest and positive attitudes towards the learning of Science, and whether these could lead to improvement in the performance of learners in Science. The study further looked at the kinds of difficulties that could be faced by educators attempting to use the context-based approach in their daily teaching. The latter was investigated because it is difficult to examine how learning takes place in the classroom in isolation from teaching. The results of the study indicate that learners seem to become more interested in Science learning when learning is based on everyday contexts. They seem also to enjoy participation in different types of group work in the classroom. The level of enthusiasm in the classroom, as observed during the course of the study as well as the interviews held with learners at the end of the intervention, also indicates the willingness (which could be perceived as a change in attitude) that was generated on the side of the learners to participate in Science learning activities, such as practical work. The performance of learners in the test given after the intervention also improved slightly compared to their performance in the test given just before the intervention

Parametric Proportional Hazard Models with Applications in Survival Analysis

Proportional hazard (PH) models can be formulated with or without assuming a probability distribution for survival times. The former assumption leads to parametric models, whereas the latter leads to the semi-parametric Cox model which is by far the most popular in survival analysis. However, a parametric model may lead to more efficient estimates than the Cox’s model under certain conditions. Only a few parametric models are closed under PH assumption, the most common of which is the Weibull that accommodates only monotone hazard functions. The main objective of this thesis is to develop flexible and parsimonious parametric models which are capable of adequately describing different shapes of hazard function. In particular, we propose a generalization of the log-logistic distribution that belongs to the PH family. It has properties similar to those of log-logistic, and approaches the Weibull in the limit. These features enable it to handle both monotone and unimodal (inverse U-shape) hazard functions. Applications to four data sets and a simulation study revealed that the model could potentially be very useful in adequately describing different types of time-to-event data. The generalized log-logistic PH model naturally accommodates monotone decreasing and unimodal hazard functions, and has the ability to model increasing hazard shapes satisfactorily. However, it is not flexible enough to deal with bathtub-shaped hazard functions. This type of shape is widely used to describe data in medical research and reliability engineering. Motivated by this, we propose a more general parametric proportional hazards model by modifying the Kumaraswamy Weibull (MKumW) distribution. The model is parsimonious and flexible in the sense that it accommodates all four standard shapes of the hazard function at the small cost of estimating only three distributional parameters. We also consider two commonly encountered problems in survival analysis which require further extension of the standard PH models. More specifically, we propose methods for recurrent event data analysis and joint modeling as described below. In biomedical studies and clinical trials, the individuals under study may experience multiple events over time. Such processes are called recurrent event processes, and the data generated by such processes are called recurrent event data. We propose a parametric recurrent event model, formulated using our MKumW distribution. Specifically, we consider the Poisson process formulation, with the baseline intensity function modeled parametrically. Another problem considered in this study is joint modeling. In many longitudinal studies, a longitudinal response is observed along with an observation of the time to the occurrence of an event; the event can be timed from the beginning of an observation period, resulting in survival or time-to-event data. A typical goal in such studies is to investigate the effects of the longitudinal response (internal covariate for the event process) on the development of the event. The motivating idea behind the joint modeling techniques is to couple the time-to-event model with the longitudinal model through shared random effects. Although the Cox PH model is appealing to analyze standard survival data mainly due to its robustness property, the use of the Cox PH in joint modeling usually leads to an underestimation of the standard errors of the parameter estimates. Therefore, most methods for joint modeling are based on parametric response distributions. We propose a joint modeling framework based on our MKumW distribution. The novelty lies in formulating a hierarchical model based on the MKumW distribution, proposing a Bayesian approach for statistical inference, and computationally intensive Bayesian implementation of the methodology in the statistical software WinBUGS. In this thesis, we propose two parametric PH models for time-to-event data, and develop theory for statistical inference. As demonstrated, the proposed models are fairly flexible and parsimonious, and can be valuable in survival analysis theory and applications. Perhaps the most important contribution of this thesis involves further extension of one of the proposed models to recurrent event data analysis and joint modeling of longitudinal and time-to-event data. We have published one article based on the generalized log-logistic PH model in the Journal of Statistical Distributions and Applications. We intend to publish at least two more articles out of this thesis: the focus of one article will be on statistical methodologies for recurrent event and joint modeling based on the MKumW distribution, and another article could be on the software implementation of the proposed models, possibly in a journal in computational statistics

Australian defence almanac 2011-2012

This publication that brings together information across the full-range of Defence activity in a single,&nbsp; reference source. Chapters cover: Defence and strategy&nbsp;looking at the&nbsp;constitutional and legislative basis for Defence, the military justice system, Australian strategic policy and Australia\u27s place in the world. Australian Defence Force which&nbsp;covers ADF command arrangements, order of battle, equipment, small arms and light weapons, ordnance, platform activity levels, comparative military strength, Defence facilities, establishments and bases. Department of Defence which looks at the organisation, Defence outcomes and&nbsp;programs and the Strategic Reform Program. People which&nbsp;covers personnel issues such as&nbsp;personnel numbers, ranks, recruiting activity, enlistments, Reserve, separations and salaries. Money provides Defence funding, comparative regional defence spending, comparative Commonwealth spending, top 30 Defence projects and top 30 Defence contractors. Australia and the World considers significant treaties, conventions and agreements, Australian membership of intergovernmental bodies and international organisations, ADF overseas deployments and international engagement. Counter-terrorism covers counter-terrorism arrangements, governance structures for counter-terrorism, national terrorist situation, budget appropriations for agencies, agencies\u27 CT roles, terrorist organisations in Australia and regional terrorist incidents. &nbsp