1,008 research outputs found
Antiproton and Positron Signal Enhancement in Dark Matter Mini-Spikes Scenarios
The annihilation of dark matter (DM) in the Galaxy could produce specific
imprints on the spectra of antimatter species in Galactic cosmic rays, which
could be detected by upcoming experiments such as PAMELA and AMS02. Recent
studies show that the presence of substructures can enhance the annihilation
signal by a "boost factor" that not only depends on energy, but that is
intrinsically a statistical property of the distribution of DM substructures
inside the Milky Way. We investigate a scenario in which substructures consist
of "mini-spikes" around intermediate-mass black holes. Focusing on
primary positrons and antiprotons, we find large boost factors, up to a few
thousand, that exhibit a large variance at high energy in the case of positrons
and at low energy in the case of antiprotons. As a consequence, an estimate of
the DM particle mass based on the observed cut-off in the positron spectrum
could lead to a substantial underestimate of its actual value.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, minor changes, version accepted for publication
in PR
Beyond Comparative Anecdotalism: Lessons In Civil Society And Participation From Sao Paulo, Brazil
Clinician experiences on training and awareness of sexual orientation in NHS Talking Therapies Services for Anxiety and Depression
Previous research that explored sexual minority service users’ experiences of accessing NHS Talking Therapies
for Anxiety and Depression Services highlighted the need for specific sexual orientation training. Inconsistent or lack of training may contribute to disparities in treatment outcomes between sexual minority service users and heterosexual service users. The aim of the study was to explore clinicians’ competencies working with sexual minority service users, their experiences of sexual orientation training, their view of current gaps intraining provision, and ways to improve training. Self-reported sexual orientation competency scales and open ended
questions were used to address the aims of the study. Participants (n=83) included Psychological
Wellbeing Practitioners (PWPs) and high-intensity CBT therapists (HITs). Responses on competency scales
were analysed using Kruskal–Wallis tests and thematic analysis was used to analyse qualitative responses.
Participants who identified as 25–29 years old had higher scores on the knowledge scale than 45+-year-olds.Bisexual participants also had higher scores on the knowledge subscale than heterosexual participants. Threeover-arching themes were identified: (a) training received on sexual minority issues by Talking Therapies
clinicians, (b) clinicians’ experiences of accessing and receiving sexual minority training, and (c) perceived gaps in current sexual minority training and ways to improve training. Findings were linked to previous literature and recommendations to stakeholders are made throughout the Discussion section with the view of improving sexual orientation training
'Datafication': Making sense of (big) data in a complex world
This is a pre-print of an article published in European Journal of Information Systems. The definitive publisher-authenticated version is available at the link below. Copyright @ 2013 Operational Research Society Ltd.No abstract available (Editorial
Associations and the exercise of citizenship in new democracies : evidence from São Paulo and Mexico City
A well-established body of democratic theory suggests that associations are the
schools of democracy and, because they produce civic and active citizens, are vital
to the quality of democracy. In this paper we find that this may not be the case in
newer democracies with authoritarian legacies. Survey research in the large urban
centers of São Paulo and Mexico City reveals that citizens who participate in
associations are more likely to actively pursue a range of rights and entitlements, but
this participation does not improve the quality of their relations with government.
Participation in associations does not make it more likely that an individual has the
type of direct relations to government that approximate the democratic ideal, and
that suggests that public officials treat citizens as legal equals and carriers of rights
and entitlements. Instead, associations are as likely to reinforce the detached,
brokered, or contentious relations to government that are common in newer
democracies and vary in their distance from the democratic ideal. Rather than
focus on voting behaviour or partisan activities, we explore the civil component of
active citizenship that operates when citizens’ seek access to the public goods
necessary for enjoyment of the rights and entitlements constitutive of contemporary
citizenship.
Keywords: associations; citizenship; citizens; democratic theory; inequality; rule of
law; political participatio
In whose name? : political representation and civil organisations in Brazil
There is now considerable evidence that civil organisations have become de facto and de jure representatives
of particular segments of the population and interests in the design, implementation, and monitoring of
public policy. This paper explores two questions that are becoming increasingly important in the debate
on the role of “civil society” in contemporary democracy: Who do civil organisations represent when they
act as representatives in the polity; and, in what terms is this representation constructed? The role of civil
organisations in political representation has received little or no attention in the research agendas on the
reconfiguration of representation or on the democratising of democracy. Furthermore, there are no wellestablished
theoretical models beyond the classic electoral or membership ones which set out how civil
organisations could establish their representativeness. The vast majority of civil organisations in middleand
low-income countries, however, are not membership based and few make use of electoral procedures
to authorise a mandate or establish accountability.
This paper examines which organisations define themselves as political representatives and the forms
of representation they are constructing. It also explores some of the possible consequences of different
forms of representation for democracy. The paper draws on findings of a survey of civil organisations –
that is, neighbourhood or community associations, membership organisations, NGOs, and coordinators
of networks of these organisations – in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. We find that organisations that
publicly claim to be representatives of particular publics in fact do engage in extensive representation
activities; and, that the dynamics of representation among civil organisations are closely related to those of
traditional political channels of representation. Furthermore, we find that the congruency arguments civil
organisations make publicly to support their representativeness are crystallising around a small number of
notions of representation. The most common are mediation, proximity, and services. The least common
are identity, electoral, and membership
Who participates? : civil society and the new democratic politics in São Paulo, Brazil
This paper explores the participation of collective civil society actors in institutional spaces for direct citizen participation in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. The data was produced by a unique survey of civil society actors who work for, or with, sectors of the lower-middle class, the working class, and the urban poor. The paper identifies factors that influence the propensity of civil society actors to participate in three types of institutions: the participatory budget, the constitutionally mandated policy councils, and other local participatory councils and programmes. Many political leaders, policy-makers and researchers believe that such forms of direct citizen participation can help democratise and rationalise the state, as well as provide politically marginalised populations with a say in policy. Whether these hopes materialise depends in part on the answer(s) to a question the literatures on civil society, citizen participation and empowered participation have not addressed – Who Participates? Contrary to the focus on autonomy in much of the work on civil society, the statistical findings support the claim that collective actors with relations to institutional actors, and the Workers’ Party and State actors in particular, have the highest propensity to participate. The findings also support the idea that the institutional design of participatory policy-making spaces has a significant impact on who participates, and that this impact varies by type of civil society actor. Unlike what has been found in research on individual citizen participation, there is no evidence that the “wealth” of collective actors influences participation
Galactic secondary positron flux at the Earth
Secondary positrons are produced by spallation of cosmic rays within the
interstellar gas. Measurements have been typically expressed in terms of the
positron fraction, which exhibits an increase above 10 GeV. Many scenarios have
been proposed to explain this feature, among them some additional primary
positrons originating from dark matter annihilation in the Galaxy. The PAMELA
satellite has provided high quality data that has enabled high accuracy
statistical analyses to be made, showing that the increase in the positron
fraction extends up to about 100 GeV. It is therefore of paramount importance
to constrain theoretically the expected secondary positron flux to interpret
the observations in an accurate way. We find the secondary positron flux to be
reproduced well by the available observations, and to have theoretical
uncertainties that we quantify to be as large as about one order of magnitude.
We also discuss the positron fraction issue and find that our predictions may
be consistent with the data taken before PAMELA. For PAMELA data, we find that
an excess is probably present after considering uncertainties in the positron
flux, although its amplitude depends strongly on the assumptions made in
relation to the electron flux. By fitting the current electron data, we show
that when considering a soft electron spectrum, the amplitude of the excess
might be far lower than usually claimed. We provide fresh insights that may
help to explain the positron data with or without new physical model
ingredients. PAMELA observations and the forthcoming AMS-02 mission will allow
stronger constraints to be aplaced on the cosmic--ray transport parameters, and
are likely to reduce drastically the theoretical uncertainties.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures. The recent PAMELA data on the positron fraction
(arXiv:0810.4995) have been included and the ensuing discussion has been
extended. Accepted version in A&
Antimatter signals of singlet scalar dark matter
We consider the singlet scalar model of dark matter and study the expected
antiproton and positron signals from dark matter annihilations. The regions of
the viable parameter space of the model that are excluded by present data are
determined, as well as those regions that will be probed by the forthcoming
experiment AMS-02. In all cases, different propagation models are investigated,
and the possible enhancement due to dark matter substructures is analyzed. We
find that the antiproton signal is more easily detectable than the positron one
over the whole parameter space. For a typical propagation model and without any
boost factor, AMS-02 will be able to probe --via antiprotons-- the singlet
model of dark matter up to masses of 600 GeV. Antiprotons constitute,
therefore, a promising signal to constraint or detect the singlet scalar model.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figures. v2: minor improvements. Accepted for publication
in JCA
Cosmic-ray antiproton constraints on light dark matter candidates
Some direct detection experiments have recently collected excess events that
could be interpreted as a dark matter (DM) signal, pointing to particles in the
10 GeV mass range. We show that scenarios in which DM can self-annihilate
with significant couplings to quarks are likely excluded by the cosmic-ray (CR)
antiproton data, provided the annihilation is S-wave dominated when DM
decouples in the early universe. These limits apply to most of supersymmetric
candidates, eg in the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) and in the
next-to-MSSM (NMSSM), and more generally to any thermal DM particle with
hadronizing annihilation final states.Comment: Contribution to the proceedings of TAUP-2011 (Munich, 5-9 IX 2011). 4
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