Young people and political action: who is taking responsibility for positive social change?

A human rights perspective suggests that we are all responsible for ensuring the human rights of others, which in turn ensures that our own human rights are respected and protected. A convenience sample of 108 young people (41 males and 67 females) aged between 16 and 25 completed a questionnaire which asked about (a) levels of involvement in political activity and (b) sense of personal responsibility for ensuring that the human rights of marginalised groups (e.g. ethnic minorities, immigrants, lesbians and gay men) are protected. Findings showed that most respondents supported (in principle) the notion of human rights for all, but tended to engage in low key political activity (e.g. signing petitions; donating money or goods to charity) rather than actively working towards positive social change. Qualitative data collected in the questionnaire suggested three main barriers to respondents viewing themselves as agents of positive social change: (1) "It’s not my problem", (2) "It’s not my responsibility", and (3) a sense of helplessness. Suggestions for how political action might best be mobilised among young people are also discussed.</p

Indirect Bounds on Z-> mu e and Lepton Flavor Violation at Future Colliders

Motivated by the interest in lepton number violating processes, we study the connection between the rate of Z -> mu e decay and those of the low-energy processes mu ->3 e, and mu -> e conversion in nuclear field. We show that if the vector or axial Z form factors are dominant, Br(Z->mu e) is not observable, while if the Z dipole form factors are dominant, the relatively weak indirect bound Br(Z->mu e)<7 10^{-9} does not fully preclude a signal at future colliders, as TESLA. We finally comment on the relation of Z->mu e with Z->tau e and Z->tau mu decays, and suggest a simple scaling law for these three processes.Comment: 10 pages, references adde

Lepton Flavor Non-Conservation

In the present work we review the most prominent lepton flavor violating processes (\mu \ra e\gamma, \mu \ra 3e, $(\mu , e)$ conversion, $M-\bar M$ oscillations etc), in the context of unified gauge theories. Many currently fashionable extensions of the standard model are considered, such as: {\it i)} extensions of the fermion sector (right-handed neutrino); {\it ii)} minimal extensions involving additional Higgs scalars (more than one isodoublets, singly and doubly charged isosinglets, isotriplets with doubly charged members etc.); {\it iii)} supersymmetric or superstring inspired unified models emphasizing the implications of the renormalization group equations in the leptonic sector. Special attention is given to the experimentaly most interesting $(\mu - e)$ conversion in the presence of nuclei. The relevant nuclear aspects of the amplitudes are discussed in a number of fashionable nuclear models. The main features of the relevant experiments are also discussed, and detailed predictions of the above models are compared to the present experimental limits.Comment: (IOA-300/93, review article, 83p, 6 epsf figures , available upon request from [email protected])

A Novel Experience in Crime Narrative: Watching and Reading The Killing

This essay will consider the adaptation of series one of the Danish television serial Forbrydelsen / The Killing (2007) into David Hewson’s novel The Killing (2012). Considering the television show through theoretical paradigms of contemporary long-form television, I will examine the discourses of ‘the novel’ and the ‘novelistic’ as they relate to both texts. As I will argue, attributing ‘novelistic’ characteristics to television texts may be problematic, but it also provides a significant opportunity for rethinking dominant or fixed conceptions of the novel as a cultural form and product. Looking closely at Hewson’s novel, the paper will also aim to reconfigure the ‘convergence’ model of novelization, thinking instead about the novel adaptation as a form of interpretive process across media. In doing this, I will consider how such adaptations are informed by conceptions of novelistic form and style, which may work discursively to reconfigure or ‘legitimize’ the adapted text but also to disavow ‘low’ cultural connotations

Constraints on Low-Mass WIMP Interactions on 19F from PICASSO

Recent results from the PICASSO dark matter search experiment at SNOLAB are reported. These results were obtained using a subset of 10 detectors with a total target mass of 0.72 kg of 19F and an exposure of 114 kgd. The low backgrounds in PICASSO allow recoil energy thresholds as low as 1.7 keV to be obtained which results in an increased sensitivity to interactions from Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) with masses below 10 GeV/c^2. No dark matter signal was found. Best exclusion limits in the spin dependent sector were obtained for WIMP masses of 20 GeV/c^2 with a cross section on protons of sigma_p^SD = 0.032 pb (90% C.L.). In the spin independent sector close to the low mass region of 7 GeV/c2 favoured by CoGeNT and DAMA/LIBRA, cross sections larger than sigma_p^SI = 1.41x10^-4 pb (90% C.L.) are excluded.Comment: 23 pages, 7 figures, to be published in Phys. Lett.

Neurocognitive function in HIV infected patients on antiretroviral therapy

OBJECTIVE To describe factors associated with neurocognitive (NC) function in HIV-positive patients on stable combination antiretroviral therapy. DESIGN We undertook a cross-sectional analysis assessing NC data obtained at baseline in patients entering the Protease-Inhibitor-Monotherapy-Versus-Ongoing-Triple therapy (PIVOT) trial. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE NC testing comprised of 5 domains. Raw results were z-transformed using standard and demographically adjusted normative datasets (ND). Global z-scores (NPZ-5) were derived from averaging the 5 domains and percentage of subjects with test scores >1 standard deviation (SD) below population means in at least two domains (abnormal Frascati score) calculated. Patient characteristics associated with NC results were assessed using multivariable linear regression. RESULTS Of the 587 patients in PIVOT, 557 had full NC results and were included. 77% were male, 68% Caucasian and 28% of Black ethnicity. Mean (SD) baseline and nadir CD4+ lymphocyte counts were 553(217) and 177(117) cells/µL, respectively, and HIV RNA was <50 copies/mL in all. Median (IQR) NPZ-5 score was -0.5 (-1.2/-0) overall, and -0.3 (-0.7/0.1) and -1.4 (-2/-0.8) in subjects of Caucasian and Black ethnicity, respectively. Abnormal Frascati scores using the standard-ND were observed in 51%, 38%, and 81%, respectively, of subjects overall, Caucasian and Black ethnicity (p<0.001), but in 62% and 69% of Caucasian and Black subjects using demographically adjusted-ND (p = 0.20). In the multivariate analysis, only Black ethnicity was associated with poorer NPZ-5 scores (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS In this large group of HIV-infected subjects with viral load suppression, ethnicity but not HIV-disease factors is closely associated with NC results. The prevalence of abnormal results is highly dependent on control datasets utilised. TRIAL REGISTRY ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01230580