Hints for the existence of hexaquark states in the baryon-antibaryon sector

The discovery of some baryon-antibaryon resonances has led us to consider 3q~3\bar{q} systems as possible candidates. We predict their spectrum in the framework of a constituent model, where the chromo-magnetic interaction plays the main role. The relevant parameters are fixed by the present knowledge on tetraquarks. The emerging scenario complies well with experiment. Besides the description of the baryon-antibaryon resonances, we find evidence for new tetraquark states, namely the a0(Y) in the hidden strangeness sector and, in the cs\bar{c}\bar{s} sector, the Y(4140) and the X(4350). A detailed account of the spectra and the decay channels is provided for future comparisons with data.Comment: 17 page

Neutrino masses and mixings in SO(10)

Assuming a Zee-like matrix for the right-handed neutrino Majorana masses in the see-saw mechanism, one gets maximal mixing for vacuum solar oscillations, a very small value for $U_{e3}$ and an approximate degeneracy for the two lower neutrino masses. The scale of right-handed neutrino Majorana masses is in good agreement with the value expected in a SO(10) model with Pati-Salam SU(4)\ts SU(2)\ts SU(2) intermediate symmetry.Comment: 11 pages, no figures. References adde

Including Children with Disabilities in Primary School: the case of Mashonaland, Zimbabwe

This paper summarises the school-based information gathered on girls and boys with disabilities in schools in four districts in Mashonaland West Province (MWP), a large province in the north of Zimbabwe, as well as the main results derived from a survey on knowledge, attitudes and practices of their parents or caregivers, teachers and head teachers. This research forms part of a three-year project led by Leonard Cheshire Disability Zimbabwe Trust to promote the provision of inclusive primary education for children with disabilities in that province. The first part of the paper outlines the current state of education for children with disabilities in 268 schools in the four selected districts in MWP; including disaggregation of numbers of children in school by age, gender and impairment. It also provides an overview of the numbers of teachers as well as pupil/teacher ratios. The second part examines findings from a survey on disability and Inclusive Education (IE), administered to 67 head teachers, 183 teachers and 186 parents/caregivers of children with disabilities. Findings highlighted a lack of training in special education needs/IE, and the need for further training emerges as a pressing issue. Overall, the attitudes and beliefs of respondents were positive, but amongst the major perceived barriers preventing children with disabilities from going to school by respondents was the lack of assistive devices. Other major barriers include distance to school and lack of transportation. Parents reported that the direct and indirect costs for schooling their children with disabilities are too high. Head teachers and teachers identified human resource allocation and financial administration as potential critical issues. This survey contributes to the limited literature that examines knowledge, attitudes and practices of teachers and families, as well as well as barriers and challenges

Associated WH production at hadron colliders: a fully exclusive QCD calculation at NNLO

We consider QCD radiative corrections to Standard Model Higgs boson production in association with a W boson in hadron collisions. We present a fully exclusive calculation up to next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in QCD perturbation theory. To perform this NNLO computation, we use a recently proposed version of the subtraction formalism. Our calculation includes finite-width effects, the leptonic decay of the W boson with its spin correlations, and the decay of the Higgs boson into a bbbar pair. We present selected numerical results at the Tevatron and the LHC.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure

Learning Linear Non-Gaussian Polytree Models

In the context of graphical causal discovery, we adapt the versatile framework of linear non-Gaussian acyclic models (LiNGAMs) to propose new algorithms to efficiently learn graphs that are polytrees. Our approach combines the Chow--Liu algorithm, which first learns the undirected tree structure, with novel schemes to orient the edges. The orientation schemes assess algebraic relations among moments of the data-generating distribution and are computationally inexpensive. We establish high-dimensional consistency results for our approach and compare different algorithmic versions in numerical experiments

The qT subtraction method: electroweak corrections and power suppressed contributions

Building upon the formulation of transverse-momentum resummation for heavy-quark hadroproduction, we present the first application of the qT subtraction formalism to the computation of electroweak corrections to massive lepton pairs through the Drell–Yan mechanism. We then study the power suppressed contributions to the qT subtraction formula in the parameter rcut, defined as the minimum transverse momentum of the lepton pair normalised to its invariant mass. We analytically compute the leading power correction from initial and final-state radiation to the inclusive cross section. In the case of initial-state radiation the power correction is quadratic in rcut and our analytic result is consistent with results previously obtained in the literature. Final-state radiation produces linear contributions in rcut that may challenge the efficiency of the qT subtraction procedure. We explicitly compute the linear power correction in the case of the inclusive cross section and we discuss the extension of our calculation to differential distributions

Selective asymmetry of ocular vestibular-evoked myogenic potential in patients with acute utricular macula loss

OBJECTIVES: We retrospectively evaluated a chart review of 3,525 patients evaluated for any acute disturbance. A total of 1,504 patients with acute vestibular syndrome (AVS) received an instrumental vestibular assessment within 72 h from the onset of the symptoms evaluated using simultaneously a combination of ocular vestibular-evoked myogenic potential (oVEMPs), cervical vestibular-evoked myogenic potential (cVEMPs), video head-impulse test (vHIT), and subjective visual vertical (SVV) were included in this study. MATERIALS and METHODS: A total of 41 patients with AVS that showed a normal horizontal canal function tested with vHIT, a normal cVEMP function, unilaterally reduced or absent oVEMP n10, and an altered SVV were enrolled. RESULTS: We found that although these patients referred acute vertigo and presented spontaneous nystagmus, they showed physiological values of vHIT and a normal saccular function, as shown by symmetrical cVEMPs. CONCLUSION: Our findings support the hypothesis that a percentage of patients evaluated during an AVS using an instrumental vestibular assessment could present selective utricular macula dysfunction

Editorial: Gaze and postural stability rehabilitation

Proprioceptive, Visual, Vestibular, and Cognitive systems interact in a continuous sensorial re-weighting, ensuring gaze and postural control (1, 2). The central nervous system integrates the information originating from these systems into a continuous sensorial re-weighting that ensures postural control in both static and dynamic conditions (3, 4). The contribution of each sensory system changes depending on environmental conditions and the motor task performed by the person (5–7). To tailor a rehabilitative program for patients with gaze and postural stability disorders, a multidimensional assessment is required. A wide range of both clinical and instrumental evaluations could be performed before the rehabilitative approach in order to obtain quantitative and qualitative information about the patient's balance and gait disorders, supporting the rehabilitative staff in designing the most suitable therapeutic intervention. Instrumental assessment of the vestibular system has made significant progress in recent years. Two protocol tests are available in the clinical practice to evaluate the Vestibular Ocular Reflex (VOR) function through the use of Video Head Impulse Test (vHIT): Head Impulse Paradigm (HIMP) and Suppression Head Impulse Paradigm (SHIMP) (8–10). The head turn stimulus and the eye movement recording are identical. All that is changed are the instructions—from “look at that fixed target on the wall” to “look at the moving target.” At the same time, vestibular-evoked myogenic potentials are the most suitable test to evaluate otolith functions in patients with unilateral vestibular hypofunction in the acute and sub-acute phase

Effect of affective priming on prosocial orientation through mobile application: Differences between digital immigrants and natives

Digital revolution has drastically changed people’s lives in the last three decades inspiring scholars to deepen the role of technologies in thinking and information processing (Baranyi et al., 2015). Prensky (2001) has developed the notion of digital generation, differentiating between natives and immigrants. Digital natives are characterised by their highly automatic and quick response in hyper-textual environment. Digital immigrants are characterised by their main focus on textual elements and a greater proneness to reflection. The main goal of the present research is to investigate the effect of affective priming on prosocial orientation in natives and immigrants by using a mobile application. A quasi-experimental study has been conducted to test whether and how the manipulation of the priming, through positively and negatively connoted images, influences prosocial orientation. The results attested that negative affective priming elicited by app influences negatively prosocial orientation, while positive affective priming influences it positively prosocial orientation. However, this effect is true mainly for digital natives. Overall, findings underline the relevance of taking into account the effects of affective priming in technological environment, especially in the case of digital natives