A Chirally Symmetric Technifermion Sector

This thesis considers the low-energy effective field theory of a new technicolor extension. The extension preserves the Standard Model Higgs boson and introduces a chirally symmetric technifermion sector, in the framework of the gauged linear sigma model. In the nearly conformal limit, the considered extension leads to a common origin of the Higgs- and Technisigma vacuum expectation values, related to the technifermion condensate. In addition to this, the model stays within allowed boundaries of electroweak precision tests for the main part of the parameter space. The results presented in this thesis are a reproduction of the paper "Chiral-Symmetric Technicolor with Standard Model Higgs boson", published 2013 by R. Pasechnik et al. The thesis may serve as a guide to the results obtained in the original paper, as well as being an audit of the decisions and assumptions made there

The Barnes and Houdek Soils Their Morphology and Classification

Our purpose of this study is to compare the characteristic and soil forming factors of the Barnes and Houdek soils and to make a recommendation as to the best place they may be separated. A second purpose is to determine how the Barnes soils in Minnesota compare with those in North and South Dakota

Acute metritis in Swedish dairy cows : bacterial flora, antimicrobial resistance, treatment and fertility

Akut metrit drabbar kor 1-2 veckorna efter kalvning med symtom som feber ≥39,5º, nedsatt allmäntillstånd och illaluktande vaginala flytningar. Denna typ av livmoderinflammation står för 64% av den totala mängd antibiotika som används vid behandling av reproduktionsstörningar. Idag rekommenderas behandling med penicillin vid akut metrit baserat på klinisk erfarenhet, aktuell litteratur och branschens generella inställning till antibiotikaanvändning och resistensutveckling, men ingen fältstudie har tidigare gjorts i Sverige inom detta område. Bovint herpesvirus typ 4 (BHV-4) är internationellt känt för att ha påverkan på livmodern i samband med metrit. Viruset är spritt över stora delar av världen men har ännu ej påvisats i Sverige. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka bakteriefloran, antibiotikaresistens, antibiotikaval och tillfrisknande hos kor som av praktiserande veterinärer i fält diagnosticerats och behandlats för akut metrit samt att undersöka förekomsten av BHV-4 hos dessa kor. I studien provtogs 74 kor med symptom på akut metrit första veckan postpartum av veterinärer i fält anslutna till projektet. Både svabbar från livmodern och blodprover samlades för bakteriologisk- respektive virologisk undersökning. Bakteriologiska prover odlades och antibiotikaresistens bestämdes medan förekomst av BHV-4 undersöktes med serologi. Bakteriepanoramat i denna studie liknade de i tidigare experimentella studier gjorda i Sverige och resistensundersökningarna visade en låg frekvens förvärvad resistens. Korna i studien behandlades utefter veterinärens val vilket i 76% av fallen var penicillin. Antikroppar mot BHV-4 hittades hos 6 kor i Västergötland. Inget samband mellan val av antibiotikum och tillfrisknande kunde ses. Om behandling med antibiotika vid fall av akut metrit anses indicerat rekommenderas penicillin på grund av dess låga bidragande effekt till resistensutveckling. Misstänkt positiva BHV-4-prover behöver konfirmeras med annan metod.Acute metritis affects cows the first 1-2 weeks after calving with symptoms of fever ≥ 39.5º, poor general condition and smelly vaginal discharge. This type of uterine disease accounts for 64 % of the total amount of antibiotics used in the treatment of various reproductive disorders. Today, the recommended treatment of acute metritis is penicillin based on current literature, clinical experience, the general Swedish approach to antibiotic use and development of antibiotic resistance. However no field study has previously been done in Sweden in this area. Bovine herpes virus type 4 (BHV-4) is internationally suggested to be associated with metritis. The virus is spread over large parts of the world but has not yet been detected in Sweden. The aim of this study was to investigate the bacterial flora, antimicrobial susceptibility, antibiotic treatment and recovery in cows diagnosed and treated for acute metritis by practicing field veterinarians, and to investigate the prevalence of BHV-4 in the uterus. Practitioners involved in the study collected 74 samples from cows with symptoms of acute metritis during the first week post partum. Swabs from the uterus and blood samples were collected for bacteriological and virological examination. Bacteriological samples were cultured and isolated bacteria were tested for antimicrobial susceptibility. Blood samples were analyzed by serology for BHV-4. The bacteriological panorama in this study were similar to that in previous experimental studies carried out in Sweden and susceptibility testing revealed a low level of acquired resistance. The cows in the study were treated according to the practitioner's choice which in 73% of cases was penicillin. No association between choice of antibiotic and the recovery could be seen. Antibodies against BHV-4 were found in 6 cows in the province of Västergötland. Since there was no association between antibiotic drug used and recovery rate, penicillin is recommended as first choice of antibiotics in the treatment of acute metritis in Swedish cows. Penicillin has narrow antimicrobial spectrum and contributes less to antimicrobial resistance emergence than antibiotics with broad spectrum. Potential positive BHV-4- samples need to be confirmed by another method

Inequality in oral health related to early and later life social conditions: a study of elderly in Norway and Sweden

Abstract Background: A life course perspective recognizes influences of socially patterned exposures on oral health across the life span. This study assessed the influence of early and later life social conditions on tooth loss and oral impacts on daily performances (OIDP) of people aged 65 and 70 years. Whether social inequalities in oral health changed after the usual age of retirement was also examined. In accordance with "the latent effect life course model", it was hypothesized that adverse early-life social conditions increase the risk of subsequent tooth loss and impaired OIDP, independent of later-life social conditions. Methods: Data were obtained from two cohorts studies conducted in Sweden and Norway. The 2007 and 2012 waves of the surveys were used for the present study. Early-life social conditions were measured in terms of gender, education and country of birth, and later-life social conditions were assessed by working status, marital status and size of social network. Logistic regression and Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) were used to analyse the data. Inverse probability weighting (IPW) was used to adjust estimates for missing responses and loss to follow-up. Results: Early-life social conditions contributed to tooth loss and OIDP in each survey year and both countries independent of later-life social conditions. Lower education correlated positively with tooth loss, but did not influence OIDP. Foreign country of birth correlated positively with oral impacts in Sweden only. Later-life social conditions were the strongest predictors of tooth loss and OIDP across survey years and countries. GEE revealed significant interactions between social network and survey year, and between marital status and survey year on tooth loss. Conclusion: The results confirmed the latent effect life course model in that early and later life social conditions had independent effects on tooth loss and OIDP among the elderly in Norway and Sweden. Between age 65 and 70, inequalities in tooth loss related to marital status declined, and inequalities related to social network increased

Экспериментальные исследования и расчет эффективности применения солнечной батареи в условиях Республики Беларусь

Материалы XIV Междунар. науч.-техн. конф. студентов, аспирантов и молодых ученых, Гомель, 24–25 апр. 2014 г

Scale hierarchies, symmetry breaking and particle spectra in SU(3)-family extended SUSY trinification

A unification of left-right \rm{SU}(3)_\rm{L}\times \rm{SU}(3)_\rm{R}, colour \rm{SU}(3)_\rm{C} and family \rm{SU}(3)_\rm{F} symmetries in a maximal rank-8 subgroup of ${\rm{E}}_8$ is proposed as a landmark for future explorations beyond the Standard Model (SM). We discuss the implications of this scheme in a supersymmetric (SUSY) model based on the trinification gauge $\left[\rm{SU}(3)\right]^3$ and global \rm{SU}(3)_\rm{F} family symmetries. Among the key properties of this model are the unification of SM Higgs and lepton sectors, a common Yukawa coupling for chiral fermions, the absence of the $\mu$-problem, gauge couplings unification and proton stability to all orders in perturbation theory. The minimal field content consistent with a SM-like effective theory at low energies is composed of one $\mathrm{E}_6$ $27$-plet per generation as well as three gauge and one family $\rm{SU}(3)$ octets inspired by the fundamental sector of ${\rm{E}}_8$. The details of the corresponding (SUSY and gauge) symmetry breaking scheme, multi-scale gauge couplings' evolution, and resulting effective low-energy scenarios are discussed.publishe

Social and ethical implications of data and technology use on farms: a qualitative study of Swedish dairy and pig farmers

IntroductionLivestock farmers are being increasingly encouraged to adopt digital health technologies on their farms. Digital innovations may have unintended consequences, but there tends to be a pro-innovation bias in previous literature. This has led to a movement towards “responsible innovation,” an approach that questions the social and ethical challenges of research and innovation. This paper explores the social and ethical issues of data and technologies on Swedish dairy and pig farms from a critical perspective.MethodsSix focus groups were conducted with thirteen dairy and thirteen pig farmers. The data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis and a digital critical health lens, which focuses on concepts of identity and power.Results and discussionThe analysis generated four themes: extending the self, sense of agency, quantifying animals, and managing human labour. The findings suggest that technologies can change and form the identities of farmers, their workers, and animals by increasing the visibility of behaviours and bodies through data collection. Technologies can also facilitate techniques of power such as conforming to norms, hierarchical surveillance, and segregation of populations based on data. There were many contradictions in the way that technology was used on farms which suggests that farmers cannot be dichotomised into those who are opposed to and those that support adoption of technologies. Emotions and morality played an important role in the way animals were managed and technologies were used by farmers. Thus, when developing innovations, we need to consider users’ feelings and attachments towards the technologies. Technologies have different impacts on farmers and farm workers which suggests that we need to ensure that we understand the perspectives of multiple user groups when developing innovations, including those that might be least empowered

Reviving trinification models through an E6-extended supersymmetric GUT

We present a supersymmetric (SUSY) model based on trinification [SU(3)]^3 and family SU(3)_F symmetries embedded into a maximal subgroup of E8, where the sectors of light Higgs bosons and leptons are unified into a single chiral supermultiplet. The common origin of gauge trinification and of the family symmetry from E8 separates the model from other trinification-based GUTs, as it protects, in particular, the Standard Model fermions from gaining mass until the electroweak symmetry is broken. Furthermore, it allows us to break the trinification symmetry via vacuum expectation values in SU(3)-adjoint scalars down to a left-right symmetric theory. Simultaneously, it ensures the unification of the gauge and Yukawa couplings as well as proton stability. Although the low-energy regime (e.g., mass hierarchies in the scalar sector determined by a soft SUSY-breaking mechanism) is yet to be established, these features are one key to revive the once very popular trinification-based GUTs