15,849 research outputs found
PUK27 PSYCHOMETRIC VALIDATION OF THE UK ENGLISH INCONTINENCE-SPECIFIC QUALITY OF LIFE MEAURE (I-QOL)
Decoupling heavy sparticles in Effective SUSY scenarios: Unification, Higgs masses and tachyon bounds
Using two-loop renormalization group equations implementing the decoupling of
heavy scalars, Effective SUSY scenarios are studied in the limit in which there
is a single low energy Higgs field. Gauge coupling unification is shown to hold
with similar or better precision than in standard MSSM scenarios. b-tau
unification is examined, and Higgs masses are computed using the effective
potential, including two-loop contributions from scalars. A 125 GeV Higgs is
compatible with stops/sbottoms at around 300 GeV with non-universal boundary
conditions at the scale of the heavy sparticles if some of the trilinear
couplings at this scale take values of the order of 1-2 TeV; if more
constrained boundary conditions inspired by msugra or gauge mediation are set
at a higher scale, heavier colored sparticles are required in general. Finally,
since the decoupled RG flow for third-generation scalar masses departs very
significantly from the MSSM DR-bar one, tachyon bounds for light scalars are
revisited and shown to be relaxed by up to a TeV or more.Comment: 35 pages, 17 figures. v2: Updated some scans, allowing for changes in
sign of some parameters, minor improvements. v3: Typos corrected in formulae
in the appendices, added some clarifying remarks about flavor mixing being
ignore
A new small-bodied azhdarchoid pterosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of England and its implications for pterosaur anatomy, diversity and phylogeny
BACKGROUND: Pterosaurs have been known from the Cretaceous sediments of the Isle of Wight (southern England, United Kingdom) since 1870. We describe the three-dimensional pelvic girdle and associated vertebrae of a small near-adult pterodactyloid from the Atherfield Clay Formation (lower Aptian, Lower Cretaceous). Despite acknowledged variation in the pterosaur pelvis, previous studies have not adequately sampled or incorporated pelvic characters into phylogenetic analyses. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The new specimen represents the new taxon Vectidraco daisymorrisae gen. et sp. nov., diagnosed by the presence of a concavity posterodorsal to the acetabulum and the form of its postacetabular process on the ilium. Several characters suggest that Vectidraco belongs to Azhdarchoidea. We constructed a pelvis-only phylogenetic analysis to test whether the pterosaur pelvis carries a useful phylogenetic signal. Resolution in recovered trees was poor, but they approximately matched trees recovered from analyses of total evidence. We also added Vectidraco and our pelvic characters to an existing total-evidence matrix for pterosaurs. Both analyses recovered Vectidraco within Azhdarchoidea. CONCLUSIONS/ SIGNIFICANCE: The Lower Cretaceous strata of western Europe have yielded members of several pterosaur lineages, but Aptian pterosaurs from western Europe are rare. With a pelvis length of 40 mm, the new animal would have had a total length of c. 350 mm, and a wingspan of c. 750 mm. Barremian and Aptian pterodactyloids from western Europe show that small-bodied azhdarchoids lived alongside ornithocheirids and istiodactylids. This assemblage is similar in terms of which lineages are represented to the coeval beds of Liaoning, China; however, the number of species and specimens present at Liaoning is much higher. While the general phylogenetic composition of western European and Chinese communities appear to have been approximately similar, the differences may be due to different palaeoenvironmental and depositional settings. The western Europe pterodactyloid record may therefore be artificially low in diversity due to preservational factors
Responsibility modelling for civil emergency planning
This paper presents a new approach to analysing and understanding civil emergency planning based on the notion of responsibility modelling combined with HAZOPS-style analysis of information requirements. Our goal is to represent complex contingency plans so that they can be more readily understood, so that inconsistencies can be highlighted and vulnerabilities discovered. In this paper, we outline the framework for contingency planning in the United Kingdom and introduce the notion of responsibility models as a means of representing the key features of contingency plans. Using a case study of a flooding emergency, we illustrate our approach to responsibility modelling and suggest how it adds value to current textual contingency plans
Bone Marrow Stem Cell Treatment for Ischemic Heart Disease in Patients with No Option of Revascularization: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
PMCID: PMC3686792This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
Comparative efficacy, cognitive effects and acceptability of electroconvulsive therapies for the treatment of depression: Protocol for a systematic review and network meta-analysis
Introduction There have been important advances in the use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) to treat major depressive episodes. These include variations to the type of stimulus the brain regions stimulated, and the stimulus parameters (eg, stimulus duration/pulse width). Our aim is to investigate ECT types using a network meta-analysis (NMA) approach and report on comparative treatment efficacy, cognitive side effects and acceptability. Method We will conduct a systematic review to identify randomised controlled trials that compared two or more ECT protocols to treat depression. This will be done using the following databases: Embase, MEDLINE PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, PsycINFO, Cochrane CENTRAL and will be supplemented by personal contacts with researchers in the field. All authors will be contacted to provide missing information. Primary outcomes will be symptom severity on a validated continuous clinician-rated scale of depression, cognitive functioning measured using anterograde verbal recall, and acceptability calculated using all-cause drop-outs. Secondary outcomes will include response and remission rates, autobiographical memory following a course of ECT, and anterograde visuospatial recall. Bayesian random effects hierarchical models will compare ECT types. Additional meta-regressions may be conducted to determine the impact of effect modifiers and patient-specific prognostic factors if sufficient data are available. Discussion This NMA will facilitate clinician decision making and allow more sophisticated selection of ECT type according to the balance of efficacy, cognitive side effects and acceptability. Ethics This systematic review and NMA does not require research ethics approval as it will use published aggregate data and will not collect nor disclose individually identifiable participant data. PROSPERO registration number CRD42022357098
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Brief Report: The Role of Task Support in the Spatial and Temporal Source Memory of Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show intact recognition (supported procedure) but impaired recall (unsupported procedure) of incidentally-encoded context. Because this has not been demonstrated for temporal source, we compared the temporal and spatial source memory of adults with ASD and verbally matched typical adults. Because of difficulties with temporal processing in ASD, we predicted ASD adults would benefit from test support for location but not temporal occurrence of studied words. We found similar levels of recognition and source memory for both groups but there was a greater effect of support on memory for location source in the ASD group. The lack of an effect of support for temporal source may simply reflect a difficulty in operationalising temporal cues
Mass extinctions and supernova explosions
A nearby supernova (SN) explosion could have negatively influenced life on
Earth, maybe even been responsible for mass extinctions. Mass extinction poses
a significant extinction of numerous species on Earth, as recorded in the
paleontologic, paleoclimatic, and geological record of our planet. Depending on
the distance between the Sun and the SN, different types of threats have to be
considered, such as ozone depletion on Earth, causing increased exposure to the
Sun's ultraviolet radiation, or the direct exposure of lethal x-rays. Another
indirect effect is cloud formation, induced by cosmic rays in the atmosphere
which result in a drop in the Earth's temperature, causing major glaciations of
the Earth. The discovery of highly intensive gamma ray bursts (GRBs), which
could be connected to SNe, initiated further discussions on possible
life-threatening events in Earth's history. The probability that GRBs hit the
Earth is very low. Nevertheless, a past interaction of Earth with GRBs and/or
SNe cannot be excluded and might even have been responsible for past extinction
events.Comment: Chapter for forthcoming book: Handbook of Supernovae, P. Murdin and
A. Alsabeti (eds.), Springer International Publishing (in press
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