Charged Fermions Below 100 GeV

How light can a fermion be if it has unit electric charge? We revisit the lore that LEP robustly excludes charged fermions lighter than about 100 GeV. We review LEP chargino searches, and find them to exclude charged fermions lighter than 90 GeV, assuming a higgsino-like cross section. However, if the charged fermion couples to a new scalar, destructive interference among production channels can lower the LEP cross section by a factor of 3. In this case, we find that charged fermions as light as 75 GeV can evade LEP bounds, while remaining consistent with constraints from the LHC. As the LHC collects more data, charged fermions in the 75-100 GeV mass range serve as a target for future monojet and disappearing track searches.Comment: 35 pages, 11 figures, 2 table

Wedding and Graduation Gifts

https://digitalcommons.salemstate.edu/books_pamphlets/1028/thumbnail.jp

The Effect of a Heel Insert Intervention on Achilles Tendon Loading during Running in Soccer

The use of heel inserts has been shown to reduce the risk of sustaining Achilles Tendon (AT) injury in soccer. Likewise, heel lifts have been positively used in the treatment of Achilles tendon injury. Despite this evidence however, the mechanism behind such findings is still unclear. Consequently, this study recruited nine amateur male soccer players (83.4 kg (±5.8), 23 years (±3.7), Achilles tendon radius 19.13 cm (±2.3), ankle width 0.072 cm (±0.005), forefoot width 0.10 cm (±0.005), size 10 feet) to collect kinetic and kinematic data during 10 running trials. Trials were performed on a third generation artificial turf whilst wearing a soccer boot with and without a 10 mm heel insert placed inside. From the data obtained, measures of Achilles tendon load and rate of loading were estimated. Paired t-tests with the combined participant data indicated that there were no overall effect of the heel-insert on peak Achilles tendon force (p=0.25), peak plantar flexion moment (p=0.68) or their corresponding loading rates (p=0.92) and p=0.97 respectively). Individual participant data did however show that for some the heel lift significantly reduced Achilles tendon loading, whilst others it was significantly increased. These findings therefore suggest that the response is highly individual. As such the application of heel lifts should be used with caution and the routine use of the inserts is not recommended

Understanding the Effect of High-Cut Shoes, Running Shoes and Prophylactic Supports on Ankle Stability When Performing a “V”-Cut Movement. Sports and Exercise Medicine Open Journal. 1(1), 1-7

Ankle inversion injury is extremely common in basketball, whereby rearfoot inversion and ankle plantar flexion is greater in those with injury. The current study analysed the response of recreational basketball players to three different footwear conditions; high-cut basketball shoe, low-cut running shoe and low-cut running shoe with ankle brace. Ten recreational male basketball players performed 45° “v”-cut movements at an approach speed of 4.5m/s. Dependent variables included peak initial rearfoot inversion and ankle plantar flexion. Peak impact force was also measured due to the potential difference in cushioning provided by the footwear. Repeated measures ANOVA were used to compare dependent variables with statistical significance accepted at p 0.05; Partial η2 = 0.25) and impact force (F = 3.189, p > 0.05, Partial η2 = 0.26).On the other hand, comparison of peak initial rearfoot inversion showed that there were significant differences between footwear conditions. Pairwise comparisons with Bonferroni adjustments showed significantly larger peak initial rearfoot inversion values for the high-cut basketball shoe compared to both the low-cut running shoe (p = 0.001) and the low-cut running shoe with brace condition (p = 0.001). Findings indicate the potential for using low-cut running shoes for recreational basketball without an increased injury risk

Optimal taxation and risk sharing data

This paper analyses the trade-off between the incentive effects of increased uncertainty and the welfare benefits of risk-sharing in the design of optimal tax schedules. We use numerical methods to characterise the tax schedule and to give comparative static results of changing risk aversion, uncertainty and the cost of effort. Increased uncertainty may increase effort for precautionary reasons, but leads to greater risk sharing in the optimal tax schedule. Similarly, a reduced cost of effort leads to greater risk sharing. Incentives to work are induced through punishment at low output realisations if risk aversion is high, and through reward of high output if risk aversion is low. We also consider introducing extra randomisation into the rax schedule to further incentivise individuals. This is only optimal if the form of the tax schedule is constrained, for example to be linear.

Effectiveness of exercise interventions to improve postural control in older adults:A systematic review and meta-analyses of centre of pressure measurements

Background. Previous reviews have shown balance in older adults to be improved with exercise. However, it is currently unclear whether postural control, indicated by centre of pressure (COP) measurement, can be improved in older adults and thus whether postural control could be a mechanism to improve balance. Objectives. The purpose of this systematic review was to assess the effectiveness of force platform COP variables to identify changes in postural control following exercise interventions in older adults. In addition, a secondary purpose was to determine whether the exercise types (balance, resistance or multi-component exercise interventions) are equally effective to improve postural control. Methods. Randomised controlled trials were identified using searches of databases and reference lists (PROSPERO registration number CRD42014010617). Trials performing exercise interventions, reporting force platform COP measurements, in participants with a mean age of ≥60 years were included. Risk of bias assessments were performed following the Cochrane guidelines. Data were pooled in meta-analyses, and standardised mean differences (SMDs) with 95 % confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated. Results. Twenty-three trials met the inclusion criteria for the systematic review. Twenty-two trials could be defined as either utilising a balance, resistance or multi-component exercise intervention. These 22 trials were used in the meta-analyses. All trials reported measurements of double leg stance; eight trials reported additional stance conditions. The meta-analyses of double leg stance showed that balance exercise interventions significantly decreased total sway path length/velocity [SMD −1.13, 95 % CI −1.75 to −0.51 (eyes open); SMD −0.79, 95 % CI −1.33 to −0.26 (eyes closed)] and anterior-posterior sway path length/velocity [SMD −1.02, 95 % CI −2.01 to −0.02 (eyes open); SMD −0.82, 95 % CI −1.46 to −0.17 (eyes closed)] in both eyes open and eyes closed conditions. Balance exercise interventions also decreased sway area in eyes closed conditions (SMD −0.57, 95 % CI −1.01 to −0.13) and medio-lateral sway path length/velocity in eyes open conditions (SMD −0.8, 95 % CI −1.48 to −0.12). In contrast, neither resistance nor multi-component exercise interventions affected any of the included COP measurements. Conclusions. Postural control is improved by balance exercise interventions. In contrast, strength or multi-component exercise interventions did not influence postural control measurements in older adults. In addition, a lack of standardisation in collection protocol and COP variables calculated across trials was identified

Anisotropic Acoustic Plasmons in Black Phosphorus

Recently, it was demonstrated that a graphene/dielectric/metal configuration can support acoustic plasmons, which exhibit extreme plasmon confinement an order of magnitude higher than that of conventional graphene plasmons. Here, we investigate acoustic plasmons supported in a monolayer and multilayers of black phosphorus (BP) placed just a few nanometers above a conducting plate. In the presence of a conducting plate, the acoustic plasmon dispersion for the armchair direction is found to exhibit the characteristic linear scaling in the mid- and far-infrared regime while it largely deviates from that in the long wavelength limit and near-infrared regime. For the zigzag direction, such scaling behavior is not evident due to relatively tighter plasmon confinement. Further, we demonstrate a new design for an acoustic plasmon resonator that exhibits higher plasmon confinement and resonance efficiency than BP ribbon resonators in the mid-infrared and longer wavelength regime. Theoretical framework and new resonator design studied here provide a practical route toward the experimental verification of the acoustic plasmons in BP and open up the possibility to develop novel plasmonic and optoelectronic devices that can leverage its strong in-plane anisotropy and thickness-dependent band gap

Higher-order Comparisons of Sentence Encoder Representations

Representational Similarity Analysis (RSA) is a technique developed by neuroscientists for comparing activity patterns of different measurement modalities (e.g., fMRI, electrophysiology, behavior). As a framework, RSA has several advantages over existing approaches to interpretation of language encoders based on probing or diagnostic classification: namely, it does not require large training samples, is not prone to overfitting, and it enables a more transparent comparison between the representational geometries of different models and modalities. We demonstrate the utility of RSA by establishing a previously unknown correspondence between widely-employed pretrained language encoders and human processing difficulty via eye-tracking data, showcasing its potential in the interpretability toolbox for neural modelsComment: EMNLP 201

Associations of Adiponectin with Adiposity, Insulin Sensitivity, and Diet in Young, Healthy, Mexican Americans and Non-Latino White Adults.

Low circulating adiponectin levels may contribute to higher diabetes risk among Mexican Americans (MA) compared to non-Latino whites (NLW). Our objective was to determine if among young healthy adult MAs have lower adiponectin than NLWs, independent of differences in adiposity. In addition, we explored associations between adiponectin and diet. This was an observational, cross-sectional study of healthy MA and NLW adults living in Colorado (U.S.A.). We measured plasma total adiponectin, adiposity (BMI, and visceral adipose tissue), insulin sensitivity (IVGTT), and self-reported dietary intake in 43 MA and NLW adults. Mean adiponectin levels were 40% lower among MA than NLW (5.8 ± 3.3 vs. 10.7 ± 4.2 µg/mL, p = 0.0003), and this difference persisted after controlling for age, sex, BMI, and visceral adiposity. Lower adiponectin in MA was associated with lower insulin sensitivity (R² = 0.42, p < 0.01). Lower adiponectin was also associated with higher dietary glycemic index, lower intake of vegetables, higher intake of trans fat, and higher intake of grains. Our findings confirm that ethnic differences in adiponectin reflect differences in insulin sensitivity, but suggest that these are not due to differences in adiposity. Observed associations between adiponectin and diet support the need for future studies exploring the regulation of adiponectin by diet and other environmental factors