1,206 research outputs found

    From mental disorder to shared understanding: a non-categorical approach to support individuals with distress in primary care.

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    This article argues that, rather than aiming for a psychiatric diagnosis, generalist professionals such as those working in primary care, as well as in other hospital and community settings, should use a non-diagnostic framework when encountering distress. The conceptual and empirical limitations of the psychiatric diagnostic system and evidence that psychological phenomena are dimensional suggest the need for an alternative approach; one that might also address problems of overdiagnosis and overmedication.1 There are three key problems with the current Diagnostic Statistical Manual (DSM) and International Classification of Diseases (ICD) systems of psychiatric classification. The process can be stigmatising; diagnoses are not adequate representations of reality; and they are inadequate for informing an individualised management plan. The current categorical diagnostic system encourages the patient to understand their distress as a disease, rather than as an understandable response to current problems, genetic inheritance, and past experience of trauma, loss, and problematic attachments. Although some patients are comforted by labels, we propose that a more scientifically valid and individualised assessment can provide a deeper understanding, a sense of being understood, and access to specialised services and benefits if required

    The electoral geography of provisional ballot in North Carolina by county: 2008 U.S. Presidential election

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    The geography of provisional ballots is a realm of electoral geography that is increasingly important as a key component of shaping election outcomes, yet has been considerably under-researched. This purpose of this dissertation is to identify the geographic significance and the overall impact of the 52,000 provisional ballots cast during the 2008 Presidential election in North Carolina as well as conduct the first comprehensive analysis of the spatial distribution of provisional ballots in North Carolina in both absolute and relative terms during the 2008 Presidential Election. The first phase of the research conducted an inventory of the geography of absolute provisional ballots whereas the second phase of the research used stepwise multiple regression modeling to highlight the links that existed between three dependent variables; provisional ballots cast, ineligible provisional ballots and eligible provisional ballots and a number of independent predictor variables (e.g. race, age, education, etc.). The research found that counties with older, more educated, white populations with traditional political ideologies cast provisional ballots at a lower rate and have their provisional ballots deemed eligible at a lower rate than other counties. Finally, counties with larger minority populations, specifically Native Americans, and younger populations appear to cast provisional ballots and have those ballots counted at a higher rate than other counties less diverse older populations

    Measurements of two-particle correlations in e+e−e^+e^- collisions at 91 GeV with ALEPH archived data

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    Measurements of two-particle angular correlations of charged particles emitted in hadronic ZZ decays are presented. The archived e+e−e^+e^- annihilation data at a center-of-mass energy of 91 GeV were collected with the ALEPH detector at LEP between 1992 and 1995. The correlation functions are measured over a broad range of pseudorapidity and full azimuth as a function of charged particle multiplicity. No significant long-range correlation is observed in either the lab coordinate analysis or the thrust coordinate analysis, where the latter is sensitive to a medium expanding transverse to the color string between the outgoing qqˉq\bar{q} pair from ZZ boson decays. The associated yield distributions in both analyses are in better agreement with the prediction from the PYTHIA v6.1 event generator than from HERWIG v7.1.5. They provide new insights to showering and hadronization modeling. These results serve as an important reference to the observed long-range correlation in proton-proton, proton-nucleus, and nucleus-nucleus collisions.Comment: Replaced with the published version. Added the journal reference and the DO

    First measurement of anti-kT_\mathrm{T} jet spectra and jet substructure using the archived ALEPH e+e−e^+e^- data at 91.2 GeV

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    We present the first anti-kT_{T} jet spectrum and substructure measurements using the archived ALEPH e+e−e^+e^- data taken in 1994 at a center of mass energy of s=91.2\sqrt{s} = 91.2 GeV. Jets are reconstructed with the anti-kT_{T} algorithm with a resolution parameter of 0.4. It is the cleanest test of jets and QCD without the complication of hadronic initial states. The fixed center-of-mass energy also allows the first direct test of pQCD calculation. We present both the inclusive jet energy spectrum and the leading dijet energy spectra, together with a number of substructure observables. They are compared to predictions from PYTHIA6, PYTHIA8, Sherpa, HERWIG, VINCIA, and PYQUEN. None of the models fully reproduce the data. The data are also compared to two perturbative QCD calculations at NLO and with NLL'+R resummation. The results can also serve as reference measurements to compare to results from hadronic colliders. Future directions, including testing jet clustering algorithms designed for future electron-ion collider experiments, will also be discussed

    Long-range near-side correlation in e+e−e^+e^- Collisions at 183-209 GeV with ALEPH Archived Data

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    The first measurement of two-particle angular correlations for charged particles produced in e+e−e^+e^- annihilation up to s=209\sqrt{s} = 209 GeV with LEP-II data is presented. Hadronic e+e−e^+e^- data, archived at center-of-mass energies ranging from 183 to 209 GeV, were collected using the ALEPH detector at LEP. The angular correlation functions have been measured across a wide range of pseudorapidities and the full azimuth in bins of charged particle multiplicity. Results for e+e−e^+e^- data at high energies, which allow for higher event multiplicities reaching approximately 50 than LEP-I at Z pole energy, are presented for the first time. A long-range near-side excess in the correlation function has been identified in the analysis when calculating particle kinematic variables with respect to the thrust axis. Moreover, the two-particle correlation functions were decomposed using a Fourier series, and the resulting Fourier coefficients vnv_n were compared with event generator outputs. In events with high multiplicity featuring more than 50 particles, the extracted v2v_2 magnitude from the data are compared to those from the Monte Carlo reference.Comment: Updated Figure 3 with ALICE publication To be submitted to PR

    The nuclear star cluster of the Milky Way: proper motions and mass

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    Nuclear star clusters (NSCs) are located at the photometric and dynamical centers of the majority of galaxies. They are among the densest star clusters in the Universe. The NSC in the Milky Way is the only object of this class that can be resolved into individual stars. We measured the proper motions of more than 6000 stars within ~1.0 pc of the supermassive black hole Sgr A*. The full data set is provided in this work. We largely exclude the known early-type stars with their peculiar dynamical properties from the dynamical analysis. The cluster is found to rotate parallel to Galactic rotation, while the velocity dispersion appears isotropic (or anisotropy may be masked by the cluster rotation). The Keplerian fall-off of the velocity dispersion due to the point mass of Sgr A* is clearly detectable only at R <~ 0.3 pc. Nonparametric isotropic and anisotropic Jeans models are applied to the data. They imply a best-fit black hole mass of 3.6 (+0.2/-0.4) x 10^6 solar masses. Although this value is slightly lower than the current canonical value of 4.0x10^6 solar masses, this is the first time that a proper motion analysis provides a mass for Sagittarius A* that is consistent with the mass inferred from orbits of individual stars. The point mass of Sagittarius A* is not sufficient to explain the velocity data. In addition to the black hole, the models require the presence of an extended mass of 0.5-1.5x10^6 solar masses in the central parsec. This is the first time that the extended mass of the nuclear star cluster is unambiguously detected. The influence of the extended mass on the gravitational potential becomes notable at distances >~0.4 pc from Sgr A*. Constraints on the distribution of this extended mass are weak. The extended mass can be explained well by the mass of the stars that make up the cluster.Comment: accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics; please contact first author for higher quality figure

    Star Formation and Dynamics in the Galactic Centre

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    The centre of our Galaxy is one of the most studied and yet enigmatic places in the Universe. At a distance of about 8 kpc from our Sun, the Galactic centre (GC) is the ideal environment to study the extreme processes that take place in the vicinity of a supermassive black hole (SMBH). Despite the hostile environment, several tens of early-type stars populate the central parsec of our Galaxy. A fraction of them lie in a thin ring with mild eccentricity and inner radius ~0.04 pc, while the S-stars, i.e. the ~30 stars closest to the SMBH (<0.04 pc), have randomly oriented and highly eccentric orbits. The formation of such early-type stars has been a puzzle for a long time: molecular clouds should be tidally disrupted by the SMBH before they can fragment into stars. We review the main scenarios proposed to explain the formation and the dynamical evolution of the early-type stars in the GC. In particular, we discuss the most popular in situ scenarios (accretion disc fragmentation and molecular cloud disruption) and migration scenarios (star cluster inspiral and Hills mechanism). We focus on the most pressing challenges that must be faced to shed light on the process of star formation in the vicinity of a SMBH.Comment: 68 pages, 35 figures; invited review chapter, to be published in expanded form in Haardt, F., Gorini, V., Moschella, U. and Treves, A., 'Astrophysical Black Holes'. Lecture Notes in Physics. Springer 201

    Search for third-generation scalar leptoquarks in the tτ channel in proton-proton collisions at √s = 8 TeV

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    A search for pair production of third-generation scalar leptoquarks decaying to top quark and τ lepton pairs is presented using proton-proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of √s = 8 TeV collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 fb[superscript −1]. The search is performed using events that contain an electron or a muon, a hadronically decaying τ lepton, and two or more jets. The observations are found to be consistent with the standard model predictions. Assuming that all leptoquarks decay to a top quark and a τ lepton, the existence of pair produced, charge −1/3, third-generation leptoquarks up to a mass of 685 GeV is excluded at 95% confidence level. This result constitutes the first direct limit for leptoquarks decaying into a top quark and a τ lepton, and may also be applied directly to the pair production of bottom squarks decaying predominantly via the R-parity violating coupling λ [subscript 333] â€Č.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio

    Search for Pair-Produced Resonances Decaying to Quark Pairs in Proton-Proton Collisions at √s = 13  TeV

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    A general search for the pair production of resonances, each decaying to two quarks, is reported. The search is conducted separately for heavier resonances (masses above 400 GeV), where each of the four final-state quarks generates a hadronic jet resulting in a four-jet signature, and for lighter resonances (masses between 80 and 400 GeV), where the pair of quarks from each resonance is collimated and reconstructed as a single jet resulting in a two-jet signature. In addition, a b-tagged selection is applied to target resonances with a bottom quark in the final state. The analysis uses data collected with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9  fb⁻Âč, from proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The mass spectra are analyzed for the presence of new resonances, and are found to be consistent with standard model expectations. The results are interpreted in the framework of R-parity-violating supersymmetry assuming the pair production of scalar top quarks decaying via the hadronic coupling λâ€Čâ€Č312 or λâ€Čâ€Č323 and upper limits on the cross section as a function of the top squark mass are set. These results probe a wider range of masses than previously explored at the LHC, and extend the top squark mass limits in the ˜t→qqâ€Č scenario

    Search for electroweak production of charginos and neutralinos in multilepton final states in proton-proton collisions at √s = 13 TeV

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    Results are presented from a search for the direct electroweak production of charginos and neutralinos in signatures with either two or more leptons (electrons or muons) of the same electric charge, or with three or more leptons, which can include up to two hadronically decaying tau leptons. The results are based on a sample of proton-proton collision data collected at s√=13 TeV, recorded with the CMS detector at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb⁻Âč. The observed event yields are consistent with the expectations based on the standard model. The results are interpreted in simplified models of supersymmetry describing various scenarios for the production and decay of charginos and neutralinos. Depending on the model parameters chosen, mass values between 180 GeV and 1150 GeV are excluded at 95% CL. These results significantly extend the parameter space probed for these particles in searches at the LHC. In addition, results are presented in a form suitable for alternative theoretical interpretations
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