695 research outputs found
Galactic secondary positron flux at the Earth
Secondary positrons are produced by spallation of cosmic rays within the
interstellar gas. Measurements have been typically expressed in terms of the
positron fraction, which exhibits an increase above 10 GeV. Many scenarios have
been proposed to explain this feature, among them some additional primary
positrons originating from dark matter annihilation in the Galaxy. The PAMELA
satellite has provided high quality data that has enabled high accuracy
statistical analyses to be made, showing that the increase in the positron
fraction extends up to about 100 GeV. It is therefore of paramount importance
to constrain theoretically the expected secondary positron flux to interpret
the observations in an accurate way. We find the secondary positron flux to be
reproduced well by the available observations, and to have theoretical
uncertainties that we quantify to be as large as about one order of magnitude.
We also discuss the positron fraction issue and find that our predictions may
be consistent with the data taken before PAMELA. For PAMELA data, we find that
an excess is probably present after considering uncertainties in the positron
flux, although its amplitude depends strongly on the assumptions made in
relation to the electron flux. By fitting the current electron data, we show
that when considering a soft electron spectrum, the amplitude of the excess
might be far lower than usually claimed. We provide fresh insights that may
help to explain the positron data with or without new physical model
ingredients. PAMELA observations and the forthcoming AMS-02 mission will allow
stronger constraints to be aplaced on the cosmic--ray transport parameters, and
are likely to reduce drastically the theoretical uncertainties.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures. The recent PAMELA data on the positron fraction
(arXiv:0810.4995) have been included and the ensuing discussion has been
extended. Accepted version in A&
Antimatter signals of singlet scalar dark matter
We consider the singlet scalar model of dark matter and study the expected
antiproton and positron signals from dark matter annihilations. The regions of
the viable parameter space of the model that are excluded by present data are
determined, as well as those regions that will be probed by the forthcoming
experiment AMS-02. In all cases, different propagation models are investigated,
and the possible enhancement due to dark matter substructures is analyzed. We
find that the antiproton signal is more easily detectable than the positron one
over the whole parameter space. For a typical propagation model and without any
boost factor, AMS-02 will be able to probe --via antiprotons-- the singlet
model of dark matter up to masses of 600 GeV. Antiprotons constitute,
therefore, a promising signal to constraint or detect the singlet scalar model.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figures. v2: minor improvements. Accepted for publication
in JCA
Treatment of Oncological Patient in Terminal Stage with Two Different Hemodialysis - Case Report
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Mrk 421, Mrk 501, and 1ES 1426+428 at 100 GeV with the CELESTE Cherenkov Telescope
We have measured the gamma-ray fluxes of the blazars Mrk 421 and Mrk 501 in
the energy range between 50 and 350 GeV (1.2 to 8.3 x 10^25 Hz). The detector,
called CELESTE, used first 40, then 53 heliostats of the former solar facility
"Themis" in the French Pyrenees to collect Cherenkov light generated in
atmospheric particle cascades. The signal from Mrk 421 is often strong. We
compare its flux with previously published multi-wavelength studies and infer
that we are straddling the high energy peak of the spectral energy
distribution. The signal from Mrk 501 in 2000 was weak (3.4 sigma). We obtain
an upper limit on the flux from 1ES 1426+428 of less than half that of the Crab
flux near 100 GeV. The data analysis and understanding of systematic biases
have improved compared to previous work, increasing the detector's sensitivity.Comment: 15 pages, 14 figures, accepted to A&A (July 2006) August 19 --
corrected error in author lis
Gender differences in vaccine therapy: where are we in Covid-19 pandemic?
Vaccination is one of the greatest achievements of public health. Vaccination programs have contributed to the decline in mortality and morbidity of various infectious diseases. This review aims to investigate the impact of sex/gender on the vaccine acceptance, responses, and outcomes. The studies were identified by using PubMed, until 30th June 2020. The search was performed by using the following keywords: SARS-CoV-2, Covid-19, gender, sex, vaccine, adverse reaction. Clinical trials, retrospective and prospective studies were included. Studies written in languages other than English were excluded. Three authors (TC, EB and IA) reviewed all study abstracts. Studies were included if gender differences in response to vaccination trials were reported. All selected studies were qualitatively analyzed. Innate recognition and response to viruses, as well as, adaptive immune responses during viral infections, differ between females and males. Unfortunately, a majority of vaccine trials have focused on healthy people, with ages between 18 to 65 years, excluding the elderly, pregnant women, post-menopausal female and children. In conclusion, it is apparent that the design of vaccines and vaccine strategies should be sex-specific, to reduce adverse reactions in females and increase immunogenicity in males. It should be mandatory to examine sex-related variables in pre-clinical and clinical vaccine trials, such as their crucial role for successful prevention of pandemic Covid-19
Big data-savvy teams’ skills, big data-driven actions and business performance
Prior studies on big data analytics have emphasized the importance of specific big data skills and capabilities for organizational success; however, they have largely neglected to investigate the use of cross-functional teams’ skills and its links to the role played by relevant data-driven actions and business performance. Drawing on the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm and on the data collected from big data experts working in global agrifood networks, we examine the links between the use of big data-savvy (BDS) teams’ skills, big data-driven (BDD) actions and business performance. BDS teams depend on multidisciplinary skills (e.g., computing, mathematics, statistics, machine learning, and business domain knowledge) that help them to turn their traditional business operations into modern data-driven insights (e.g., knowing real time price changes and customer preferences), leading to BDD actions that enhance business performance. Our results, raised from structural equation modelling, indicate that BDS teams' skills that produce valuable insights are the key determinants for BDD actions, which ultimately contribute to business performance. We further demonstrate that those organisations that emphasise BDD actions perform better compared to those that do not focus on such applications and relevant insights
Scalar Multiplet Dark Matter
We perform a systematic study of the phenomenology associated to models where
the dark matter consists in the neutral component of a scalar SU(2)_L n-uplet,
up to n=7. If one includes only the pure gauge induced annihilation
cross-sections it is known that such particles provide good dark matter
candidates, leading to the observed dark matter relic abundance for a
particular value of their mass around the TeV scale. We show that these values
actually become ranges of values -which we determine- if one takes into account
the annihilations induced by the various scalar couplings appearing in these
models. This leads to predictions for both direct and indirect detection
signatures as a function of the dark matter mass within these ranges. Both can
be largely enhanced by the quartic coupling contributions. We also explain how,
if one adds right-handed neutrinos to the scalar doublet case, the results of
this analysis allow to have altogether a viable dark matter candidate,
successful generation of neutrino masses, and leptogenesis in a particularly
minimal way with all new physics at the TeV scale.Comment: 43 pages, 20 figure
Topological spin excitations of Heisenberg antiferromagnets in two dimensions
In this paper we discuss the construction and the dynamics of vortex-like
topological spin excitations in the Schwinger-boson description of Heisenberg
antiferromagnets in two dimensions. The topological spin excitations are Dirac
fermions (with gap) when spin value is a half-integer. Experimental and
theoretical implications of these excitations are being investigated.Comment: Latex file, no figur
Supersymmetry in models with strong on-site Coulomb repulsion - application to t-J model
A supersymmetric way of imposing the constraint of no double occupancy in
models with strong on-site Coulomb repulsion is presented in this paper. In
this formulation the physical operators in the constrainted Hilbert space are
invariant under local unitary transformations mixing boson and fermion
representations. As an illustration the formulation is applied to the
model. The model is studied in the mean-field level in the J=0 limit where we
show how both the slave-boson and slave-fermion formulations are included
naturally in the present approach and how further results beyond both
approaches are obtained.Comment: 12 pages, Latex file, 1 figur
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