Study of e+e- -> H+H- at a 800 GeV Linear Collider

The production and decay of heavy charged Higgs bosons at a 800 GeV e+e- linear collider have been studied. The analysis of the H+H- -> tb tb, expected to be dominant in the MSSM, and H+H- -> W+h0 W-h0 decay modes leading to the same final state consisting of two W bosons and four b quarks, provides with a determination of the boson mass to 1 GeV and of the production cross section with 10% accuracy for 500 fb-1 of data.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, to appear in the Proceedings of the 5th Linear Collider Workshop Fermilab, October 200

”Se oli vuoden paras uutinen”:diskurssianalyyttinen tutkielma psykologian oppiaineen saapumisesta Oulun yliopistoon

Tiivistelmä. Kandidaatintutkielmassani tutkin, miten psykologian opiskelijat merkityksellistävät psykologian oppiaineen saapumista Oulun yliopistoon sekä eristän opiskelijoiden vastauksissa aktivoituvat diskurssit. Lisäksi pyrin kartoittamaan sitä, onko koulutusvastuulla vaikutusta psykologien työllistymiseen ja Pohjois-Suomen psykologipulaan vastaajien mielestä. Kohderyhmääni ovat sellaiset henkilöt, jotka opiskelevat psykologiaa pää- tai sivuaineenaan tai suorittavat opintoja avoimessa yliopistossa tai joilla on johonkin psykologian kokonaisuuteen opiskeluoikeus. Aineisto on kerätty kyselylomakkeella lokakuussa 2021. Kandidaatintutkielmani lähtökohta on diskurssianalyysissa sekä Norman Faircloughin analyysimallissa, jota sovellan analyysissa tarkastelemalla aineistossa toistuvia kielellisiä ilmauksia ja piirteitä, jotka aktivoivat diskurssia. Oma tutkimukseni pohjaa siihen diskurssintutkimuksen taustaoletukseen, että tutkimuksen kohteena ovat ne tavat, joilla toimijat ilmiötä kuvailevat ja kielentävät. Tällainen merkityksellistäminen rakentaa aiheeni sosiaalisen todellisuuden. Olen analysoinut kuuden kyselylomakkeen kysymyksen vastauksia, joista neljästä olen eristänyt diskursseja. Eniten diskursseja aktivoitui ”Miksi hait opiskelemaan psykologiaa?” -kysymyksen vastauksissa, ja diskursseja yhdistää se, että ne itsessään ovat perusteluita hakemiselle. Erityisesti näiden diskurssien välinen lomittaisuus on runsasta. Oppiaineen saapumiseen liittyvissä vastauksissa linjattiin selkeästi se, että oppiaineen saapuminen on enemmän positiivinen kuin negatiivinen asia. Kaksi kysymystä, joista en eristänyt diskursseja, liittyivät vastaajien näkemyksiin koulutusvastuun mahdollisista vaikutuksista Pohjois-Suomen työllistymiseen. Vastaajista valtaosa oli sitä mieltä, että oppiaineen saapumisella on vaikutuksia Pohjois-Suomen psykologien työllistymiseen, ja enemmistö haluaa jäädä Pohjois-Suomeen töihin

Sleep apnoea is a risk factor for severe COVID-19

Background Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is associated with higher body mass index (BMI), diabetes, older age and male gender, which are all risk factors for severe COVID-19. We aimed to study if OSA is an independent risk factor for COVID-19 infection or for severe COVID-19. Methods OSA diagnosis and COVID-19 infection were extracted from the hospital discharge, causes of death and infectious diseases registries in individuals who participated in the FinnGen study (n=260 405). Severe COVID-19 was defined as COVID-19 requiring hospitalisation. Multivariate logistic regression model was used to examine association. Comorbidities for either COVID-19 or OSA were selected as covariates. We performed a meta-analysis with previous studies. Results We identified 445 individuals with COVID-19, and 38 (8.5%) of them with OSA of whom 19 out of 91 (20.9%) were hospitalised. OSA associated with COVID-19 hospitalisation independent from age, sex, BMI and comorbidities (p-unadjusted=5.13x10(-5), OR-adjusted=2.93 (95% CI 1.02 to 8.39), p-adjusted=0.045). OSA was not associated with the risk of contracting COVID-19 (p=0.25). A meta-analysis of OSA and severe COVID-19 showed association across 15 835 COVID-19 positive controls, and n=1294 patients with OSA with severe COVID-19 (OR=2.37 (95% 1.14 to 4.95), p=0.021). Conclusion Risk for contracting COVID-19 was the same for patients with OSA and those without OSA. In contrast, among COVID-19 positive patients, OSA was associated with higher risk for hospitalisation. Our findings are in line with earlier works and suggest OSA as an independent risk factor for severe COVID-19.Peer reviewe

Associated production of H^{\pm} and W^{\mp} in high-energy e+e- collisions in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model

We study the associated production of the charged Higgs boson and W^{\pm} gauge boson in high energy e+e- collisions in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). This associated production, which first arises at the one loop level, offers the possibility of producing the charged Higgs boson at the e+e- collider with mass more than half the center-of-mass energy, when the charged Higgs pair production is kinematically forbidden. We present analytic and numerical results for the cross section for e+e- --> W+ H- in the full MSSM, taking into account the previously uncalculated contributions from supersymmetric (SUSY) particles. We find that the contributions of the SUSY particles enhance the cross section over most of SUSY parameter space, especially when the SUSY particles are light, ~200 GeV. With favorable SUSY parameters, at small tan beta, this process can yield more than ten W^{\pm}H^{\mp} events for m_{H^{\pm}} <~ 350 GeV in 500 fb-1 at a 500 GeV e+e- collider, or m_{H^{\pm}} <~ 600 GeV in 1000 fb-1 at a 1000 GeV collider. 80% left-handed polarization of the e- beam improves these reaches to m_{H^{\pm}} <~ 375 GeV and m_{H^{\pm}} <~ 670 GeV, respectively.Comment: v2: 21 pages, 9 figures, comments on Higgs search bounds and new references added, and minor changes; v3: 23 pages, 11 figures, review of literature moved from introduction to new Sec.5 and 2 plots added, references added, typos corrected; v4: bug fixed in nu nubar H0 cross section (Fig.11), version to appear in PR

Genetic risk factors have a substantial impact on healthy life years

The impact of genetic variation on overall disease burden has not been comprehensively evaluated. We introduce an approach to estimate the effect of genetic risk factors on disability-adjusted life years (DALYs; 'lost healthy life years'). We use genetic information from 735,748 individuals and consider 80 diseases. Rare variants had the highest effect on DALYs at the individual level. Among common variants, rs3798220 (LPA) had the strongest individual-level effect, with 1.18 DALYs from carrying 1 versus 0 copies. Being in the top 10% versus the bottom 90% of a polygenic score for multisite chronic pain had an effect of 3.63 DALYs. Some common variants had a population-level effect comparable to modifiable risk factors such as high sodium intake and low physical activity. Attributable DALYs vary between males and females for some genetic exposures. Genetic risk factors can explain a sizable number of healthy life years lost both at the individual and population level.Peer reviewe