2,414 research outputs found
TERMS OF REFERENCE QUESTION 1.1.............................................................................................................6 1. THE ALLEGATION OF IGNORING POTENTIAL PROBLEMS IN DEDUCING PALAEOTEMPERATURES FROM TREE RING DATA THAT MIGHT UN
The influence of micronutrients on oral and general health
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Objective</p> <p>The aim of the present clinical pilot study was to examine the influence of a combination of micronutrients on individuals with high stress experience.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>40 healthy students (28 female, 12 male) with a mean age of 27.1 ± 3.0 years, experiencing high examination stress, were chosen. After approval of the ethics commission, one group of students (n = 19) took a combination of micronutrients (Orthomol vital m/f) for three months, whereas other students (n = 21) served as control group. All participants underwent at the beginning and at the end of the trial a dental examination, a determination of 10 periodontal pathogens, a salivary and a blood analysis. In addition, the participants filled in a questionnaire on nutrition, quality of life and degree of stress experienced during their final examinations.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The evaluation of the results, obtained at the end of the trial period, showed that for all students a slight worsening of oral hygiene and an increased consumption of unhealthy food could be observed. The intake of the micronutrients led to a slight improvement of the degree of gingival inflammation in comparison to the control group. The blood analysis showed an increase in vitamin (vitamin C, vitamin E) and zinc concentrations, and a lower increase in CRP. In the male subjects, a decrease in the serum concentrations of triglycerides (p = 0.073) and LDL (p = 0.048) was observed.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This pilot study shows that micronutrients, taken during periods of high stress experience, had a beneficial effect on inflammatory processes and helped reduce the level of some of the plasma lipids in males, and thus can be recommended for supplementing the diet. However, additional studies with a higher number of subjects, also suffering from periodontal disease, are necessary to show the effect of a micronutrient supplementation more clearly.</p
Beyond MFV in family symmetry theories of fermion masses
Minimal Flavour Violation (MFV) postulates that the only source of flavour
changing neutral currents and CP violation, as in the Standard Model, is the
CKM matrix. However it does not address the origin of fermion masses and mixing
and models that do usually have a structure that goes well beyond the MFV
framework. In this paper we compare the MFV predictions with those obtained in
models based on spontaneously broken (horizontal) family symmetries, both
Abelian and non-Abelian. The generic suppression of flavour changing processes
in these models turns out to be weaker than in the MFV hypothesis. Despite
this, in the supersymmetric case, the suppression may still be consistent with
a solution to the hierarchy problem, with masses of superpartners below 1 TeV.
A comparison of FCNC and CP violation in processes involving a variety of
different family quantum numbers should be able to distinguish between various
family symmetry models and models satisfying the MFV hypothesis.Comment: 34 pages, no figure
Seeking the Real Adam Smith and Milton Friedman
In this paper we will analyze the relationship between free market principles and ethics through an exploration of how too many business managers often approach the ideas of Adam Smith and Milton Friedman. In doing so, we aim to provide a thoughtful foundation for future discussions of how we ought to navigate this intersection. We briefly examine questions such as: What is the relationship between the âbestâ economy in terms of efficiency and the common good for society? Is pursuing oneâs individual economic advantage the same as promoting the general interest? As we analyze and discuss these questions, specifically in the context of Smith and Friedman, we also make some alternative normative assertions, grounded in social welfare, about adopting a broader societal perspective for the purpose of business
Response to âComment on âSeagrass Viviparous Propagules as a Potential Long-Distance Dispersal Mechanismâ by A. C. G. Thomson et alâ
Effects of Supersymmetric Threshold Corrections on High-Scale Flavor Textures
Integration of superpartners out of the spectrum induces potentially large
contributions to Yukawa couplings. These corrections, the supersymmetric
threshold corrections, therefore influence the CKM matrix prediction in a
non-trivial way. We study effects of threshold corrections on high-scale flavor
structures specified at the gauge coupling unification scale in supersymmetry.
In our analysis, we first consider high-scale Yukawa textures which qualify
phenomenologically viable at tree level, and find that they get completely
disqualified after incorporating the threshold corrections. Next, we consider
Yukawa couplings, such as those with five texture zeroes, which are incapable
of explaining flavor-changing proceses. Incorporation of threshold corrections,
however, makes them phenomenologically viable textures. Therefore,
supersymmetric threshold corrections are found to leave observable impact on
Yukawa couplings of quarks, and any confrontation of high-scale textures with
experiments at the weak scale must take into account such corrections.Comment: 25 pages, submitted to JHE
On the upstream mobility scheme for two-phase flow in porous media
When neglecting capillarity, two-phase incompressible flow in porous media is
modelled as a scalar nonlinear hyperbolic conservation law. A change in the
rock type results in a change of the flux function. Discretizing in
one-dimensional with a finite volume method, we investigate two numerical
fluxes, an extension of the Godunov flux and the upstream mobility flux, the
latter being widely used in hydrogeology and petroleum engineering. Then, in
the case of a changing rock type, one can give examples when the upstream
mobility flux does not give the right answer.Comment: A preprint to be published in Computational Geoscience
Naturalness and Fine Tuning in the NMSSM: Implications of Early LHC Results
We study the fine tuning in the parameter space of the semi-constrained
NMSSM, where most soft Susy breaking parameters are universal at the GUT scale.
We discuss the dependence of the fine tuning on the soft Susy breaking
parameters M_1/2 and m0, and on the Higgs masses in NMSSM specific scenarios
involving large singlet-doublet Higgs mixing or dominant Higgs-to-Higgs decays.
Whereas these latter scenarios allow a priori for considerably less fine tuning
than the constrained MSSM, the early LHC results rule out a large part of the
parameter space of the semi-constrained NMSSM corresponding to low values of
the fine tuning.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures, bounds from Susy searches with ~1/fb include
Tuning supersymmetric models at the LHC: A comparative analysis at two-loop level
We provide a comparative study of the fine tuning amount (Delta) at the
two-loop leading log level in supersymmetric models commonly used in SUSY
searches at the LHC. These are the constrained MSSM (CMSSM), non-universal
Higgs masses models (NUHM1, NUHM2), non-universal gaugino masses model (NUGM)
and GUT related gaugino masses models (NUGMd). Two definitions of the fine
tuning are used, the first (Delta_{max}) measures maximal fine-tuning wrt
individual parameters while the second (Delta_q) adds their contribution in
"quadrature". As a direct result of two theoretical constraints (the EW minimum
conditions), fine tuning (Delta_q) emerges as a suppressing factor (effective
prior) of the averaged likelihood (under the priors), under the integral of the
global probability of measuring the data (Bayesian evidence p(D)). For each
model, there is little difference between Delta_q, Delta_{max} in the region
allowed by the data, with similar behaviour as functions of the Higgs, gluino,
stop mass or SUSY scale (m_{susy}=(m_{\tilde t_1} m_{\tilde t_2})^{1/2}) or
dark matter and g-2 constraints. The analysis has the advantage that by
replacing any of these mass scales or constraints by their latest bounds one
easily infers for each model the value of Delta_q, Delta_{max} or vice versa.
For all models, minimal fine tuning is achieved for M_{higgs} near 115 GeV with
a Delta_q\approx Delta_{max}\approx 10 to 100 depending on the model, and in
the CMSSM this is actually a global minimum. Due to a strong (
exponential) dependence of Delta on M_{higgs}, for a Higgs mass near 125 GeV,
the above values of Delta_q\approx Delta_{max} increase to between 500 and
1000. Possible corrections to these values are briefly discussed.Comment: 23 pages, 46 figures; references added; some clarifications (section
2
The Messenger Sector of SUSY Flavour Models and Radiative Breaking of Flavour Universality
The flavour messenger sectors and their impact on the soft SUSY breaking
terms are investigated in SUSY flavour models. In the case when the flavour
scale M is below the SUSY breaking mediation scale M_S, the universality of
soft terms, even if assumed at M_S, is radiatively broken. We estimate this
effect in a broad class of models. In the CKM basis that effect gives flavour
off-diagonal soft masses comparable to the tree-level estimate based on the
flavour symmetry.Comment: 24 pages, 3 figures. v3: minor changes in the text, typos corrected,
version accepted for publication in JHE
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