Anomalous Higgs Yukawa Couplings

In the standard model, the Higgs boson $h$ couples to the quarks and charged leptons according to the well-known formula $(m_\psi/v) h \bar{\psi}\psi$, where $\psi$ = quark (q) or lepton (l) and $v$ = 246 GeV is its vacuum expectation value. Suppose $m_\psi$ is of radiative origin instead, then the effective $h \bar{\psi}\psi$ Yukawa coupling will not be exactly $m_\psi/v$. We show for the first time quantitatively how this may shift the observed branching fraction of $h \to \bar{b}b$ and $h \to \tau^+ \tau^-$ upward or downward. Thus the precision measurements of Higgs decay to fermions at the Large Hadron Collider, due to resume operation in 2015, could be the key to possible new physics.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, version to appear in EP

Scotogenic Inverse Seesaw Model of Neutrino Mass

A variation of the original 2006 radiative seesaw model of neutrino mass through dark matter is shown to realize the notion of inverse seesaw naturally. The dark-matter candidate here is the lightest of three real singlet scalars which may also carry flavor.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, version to appear in PL

Community Leadership Associated with Jail Diversion

In early 2004 a local county sheriff began recognizing the challenges that the county jail was facing with overcrowding and an increasing population with mental illness and substance use. The county sheriff, along with a local advocacy group, created a coalition to begin exploring jail diversion and getting those who needed treatment into treatment and keeping them out of the jail system. This research examines this coalition and looks at the coalition and how community leadership assisted in the formation and the success of the group

Effects of weight loss interventions for adults who are obese on mortality, cardiovascular disease and cancer : a systematic review and meta-analysis

We thank Associate Professor Andrew Grey for helping to resolve discrepancies in data extraction and interpretation for cardiovascular events and cancer events. We thank trialists from 16 studies for clarifying or providing additional information for this review [Andrews 2011, Aveyard 2016, Bennett 2012, de Vos 2014, Finnish Diabetes Prevention Study 2009, Goodwin 2014, Green 2015, Horie 2016, Hunt (FFIT) 2014, Katula 2013, Li (Da Qing) 2014, Logue 2005, Ma 2013, O’Neil 2016, Rejeski (CLIP) 2011, Uusitupa 1993] and also others who provided information, but their trials were later found not to fulfil our inclusion criteria. Funding: The Health Services Research Unit is funded by the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorate.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Clone Detection via Structural Abstraction

This paper describes the design, implementation, and application of a new algorithm to detect cloned code. It operates on the abstract syntax trees formed by many compilers as an intermediate representation. It extends prior work by identifying clones even when arbitrary subtrees have been changed. On a 440,000-line code corpus, 20- 50%of the clones it detected were missed by previous methods. The method also identifies cloning in declarations, so it is somewhat more general than conventional procedural abstraction

Effect of hydrocarbon presence and properties on the magnetic signature of the reservoir sediments of the Catcher Area Development (CAD) region, UK North Sea

This paper presents a detailed study investigating the effect of hydrocarbon presence on magnetic mineral diagenesis in sediments from the Catcher Area Development (CAD) region, UK North Sea, between 1,000 and 1,500 m (True Vertical Depth Sub-Sea). Magnetic analysis of core samples from hydrocarbon fields of the region and nearby dry-well sandstones (background) was carried out to determine if their signatures can serve as a proxy for understanding petroleum reservoir systems. From the background samples, nanometric and micron-sized magnetite, hematite and titano-iron oxides, were identified. Hydrocarbon presence in the reservoir sediments was found to diminish the iron-oxide signature and favour the precipitation of hexagonal pyrrhotite, siderite and potentially vivianite, lepidocrocite, greigite and paramagnetic iron sulphides. Hexagonal pyrrhotite was found at the oil-water transition zones. This relationship is possibly related to biodegradation at this interface. Siderite was found in increased abundance at shallower depths within the reservoir, which we attribute to hydrocarbon vertical migration and biodegradation. The interbedded shales also experienced significant magnetic mineral diagenesis that depended on its proximity to the hydrocarbon plume. These findings suggest that mineral magnetism can be applied to the identification of oil-water transition zones, reserve estimation, production planning and the determination of hydrocarbon migration pathways. It also suggests that mineral magnetic methods can be used to estimate the timing of hydrocarbon migration

Melting glaciers: A probable source of DDT to the Antarctic marine ecosystem

Persistent organic pollutants reach polar regions by long-range atmospheric transport and biomagnify through the food web accumulating in higher trophic level predators. We analyzed Adelie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) samples collected from 2004 to 2006 to evaluate current levels of Sigma DDT (p,p\u27-DDT + p,p\u27-DDE) in these birds, which are confined to Antarctica. Ratios of p,p\u27-DDT to p,p\u27-DDE in Adelie penguins have declined significantly since 1964 indicating current exposure to old rather than new sources of Sigma DDT. However, Sigma DDT has not declined in Adelie penguins from the Western Antarctic Peninsula for more than 30 years and the presence of p,p\u27-DDT in these birds indicates that there is a current source of DDT to the Antarctic marine food web. DDT has been banned or severely restricted since peak use in the 1970s, implicating glacier meltwater as a likely source for DDT contamination in coastal Antarctic seas. Our estimates indicate that 1-4 kg.y(-1) Sigma DDT are currently being released into coastal waters along the Western Antarctic Ice Sheet due to glacier ablation