438 research outputs found
The Colombian conflict: a description of a mental health program in the Department of Tolima.
Colombia has been seriously affected by an internal armed conflict for more than 40 years affecting mainly the civilian population, who is forced to displace, suffers kidnapping, extortion, threats and assassinations. Between 2005 and 2008, Médecins Sans Frontières-France provided psychological care and treatment in the region of Tolima, a strategic place in the armed conflict. The mental health program was based on a short-term multi-faceted treatment developed according to the psychological and psychosomatic needs of the population. Here we describe the population attending during 2005-2008, in both urban and rural settings, as well as the psychological treatment provided during this period and its outcomes.We observed differences between the urban and rural settings in the traumatic events reported, the clinical expression of the disorders, the disorders diagnosed, and their severity. Although the duration of the treatment was limited due to security reasons and access difficulties, patient condition at last visit improved in most of the patients. These descriptive results suggest that further studies should be conducted to examine the role of short-term psychotherapy, adapted specifically to the context, can be a useful tool to provide psychological care to population affected by an armed conflict
Higgs-Boson Mass Limits and Precise Measurements beyond the Standard Model
The triviality and vacuum stability bounds on the Higgs-boson mass (\mh)
were revisited in presence of weakly-coupled new interactions parameterized in
a model-independent way by effective operators of dimension 6. The constraints
from precision tests of the Standard Model were taken into account. It was
shown that for the scale of new physics in the region \Lambda \simeq 2 \div 50
\tev the Standard Model triviality upper bound remains unmodified whereas it
is natural to expect that the lower bound derived from the requirement of
vacuum stability is substantially modified depending on the scale \La and
strength of coefficients of effective operators. A natural generalization of
the standard triviality condition leads also to a substantial reduction of the
allowed region in the (\Lambda,\mh) space.Comment: 18 pages 3 eps figures. The discussion in the appendix was modified
slightly and some typographical errors were correcte
Paper-based ZnO self-powered sensors and nanogenerators by plasma technology
Nanogenerators and self-powered nanosensors have shown the potential to power
low-consumption electronics and human-machine interfaces, but their practical
implementation requires reliable, environmentally friendly and scalable,
processes for manufacturing and processing. This article presents a plasma
synthesis approach for the fabrication of piezoelectric nanogenerators (PENGs)
and self-powered sensors on paper substrates. Polycrystalline ZnO nanocolumnar
thin films are deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition on
common paper supports using a microwave electron cyclotron resonance reactor
working at room temperature yielding high growth rates and low structural and
interfacial stresses. Applying Kinetic Monte Carlo simulation, we elucidate the
basic shadowing mechanism behind the characteristic microstructure and porosity
of the ZnO thin films, relating them to an enhanced piezoelectric response to
periodic and random inputs. The piezoelectric devices are assembled by
embedding the ZnO films in PMMA and using Au electrodes in two different
configurations: laterally and vertically contacted devices. We present the
response of the laterally connected devices as a force sensor for low-frequency
events with different answers to the applied force depending on the impedance
circuit, i.e. load values range, a behaviour that is theoretically analyzed.
The vertical devices reach power densities as high as 80 nW/cm2 with a mean
power output of 20 nW/cm2. We analyze their actual-scenario performance by
activation with a fan and handwriting. Overall, this work demonstrates the
advantages of implementing plasma deposition for piezoelectric films to develop
robust, flexible, stretchable, and enhanced-performance nanogenerators and
self-powered piezoelectric sensors compatible with inexpensive and recyclable
supportsComment: 30 pages, 8 figures in main tex
Altered protein expression and protein nitration pattern during d-galactosamine-induced cell death in human hepatocytes: a proteomic analysis
BACKGROUND/AIMS:
Hepatic injury by d-galactosamine (d-GalN) is a suitable experimental model of hepatocellular injury. The induction of oxidative and nitrosative stress participates during d-GalN-induced cell death in cultured rat hepatocytes. This study aimed to identify protein expression changes during the induction of apoptosis and necrosis by d-GalN in cultured human hepatocytes.
METHODS:
A proteomic approach was used to identify the proteins involved and those altered by tyrosine nitration. A high dose of d-GalN (40 mM) was used to induce apoptosis and necrosis in primary culture of human hepatocytes. Cellular lysates prepared at different times after addition of d-GalN were separated by two-dimensional electrophoresis. Gel spots with an altered expression and those matching nitrotyrosine-immunopositive proteins were excised and analyzed by mass spectrometry.
RESULTS:
d-GalN treatment upregulated microsomal cytochrome b5, fatty acid binding protein and manganese superoxide dismutase, and enhanced annexin degradation. d-GalN increased tyrosine nitration of four cytosolic (Hsc70, Hsp70, annexin A4 and carbonyl reductase) and three mitochondrial (glycine amidinotransferase, ATP synthase beta chain, and thiosulfate sulfurtransferase) proteins in human hepatocytes.
CONCLUSIONS:
The results provide evidences that oxidative stress and nitric oxide-derived reactive oxygen intermediates induce specific alterations in protein expression that may be critical for the induction of apoptosis and necrosis by d-GalN in cultured human hepatocytes
Association of neurexin 3 polymorphisms with smoking behavior.
The Neurexin 3 gene (NRXN3) has been associated with dependence on various addictive substances, as well as with the degree of smoking in schizophrenic patients and impulsivity among tobacco abusers. To further evaluate the role of NRXN3 in nicotine addiction, we analyzed single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and a copy number variant (CNV) within the NRXN3 genomic region. An initial study was carried out on 157 smokers and 595 controls, all of Spanish Caucasian origin. Nicotine dependence was assessed using the Fagerstrom index and the number of cigarettes smoked per day. The 45 NRXN3 SNPs genotyped included all the SNPs previously associated with disease, and a previously described deletion within NRXN3. This analysis was replicated in 276 additional independent smokers and 568 controls. Case-control association analyses were performed at the allele, genotype and haplotype levels. Allelic and genotypic association tests showed that three NRXN3 SNPs were associated with a lower risk of being a smoker. The haplotype analysis showed that one block of 16 Kb, consisting of two of the significant SNPs (rs221473 and rs221497), was also associated with lower risk of being a smoker in both the discovery and the replication cohorts, reaching a higher level of significance when the whole sample was considered [odds ratio = 0.57 (0.42-0.77), permuted P = 0.0075]. By contrast, the NRXN3 CNV was not associated with smoking behavior. Taken together, our results confirm a role for NRXN3 in susceptibility to smoking behavior, and strongly implicate this gene in genetic vulnerability to addictive behaviors
The PAU Survey: Photometric redshifts using transfer learning from simulations
In this paper we introduce the \textsc{Deepz} deep learning photometric
redshift (photo-) code. As a test case, we apply the code to the PAU survey
(PAUS) data in the COSMOS field. \textsc{Deepz} reduces the
scatter statistic by 50\% at compared to existing algorithms.
This improvement is achieved through various methods, including transfer
learning from simulations where the training set consists of simulations as
well as observations, which reduces the need for training data. The redshift
probability distribution is estimated with a mixture density network (MDN),
which produces accurate redshift distributions. Our code includes an
autoencoder to reduce noise and extract features from the galaxy SEDs. It also
benefits from combining multiple networks, which lowers the photo- scatter
by 10 percent. Furthermore, training with randomly constructed coadded fluxes
adds information about individual exposures, reducing the impact of photometric
outliers. In addition to opening up the route for higher redshift precision
with narrow bands, these machine learning techniques can also be valuable for
broad-band surveys.Comment: Accepted versio
Supersymmetric contributions to and decays in SCET
We study the decay modes and using Soft Collinear Effective Theory. Within Standard Model and
including the error due to the SU(3) breaking effect in the SCET parameters we
find that BR and BR
corresponding to
solution 1 and solution 2 of the SCET parameters respectively.For the decay
mode , we find that BR and BR corresponding to solution 1 and
solution 2 of the SCET parameters respectively. We extend our study to include
supersymmetric models with non-universal A-terms where the dominant
contributions arise from diagrams mediated by gluino and chargino exchanges. We
show that gluino contributions can not lead to an enhancement of the branching
ratios of and . In
addition, we show that SUSY contributions mediated by chargino exchange can
enhance the branching ratio of by about 14% with
respect to the SM prediction. For the branching ratio of , we find that SUSY contributions can enhance its value by about 1% with
respect to the SM prediction.Comment: 25 pages,5 figures, version accepted for publicatio
Accidental Inflation in String Theory
We show that inflation in type IIB string theory driven by the volume modulus
can be realized in the context of the racetrack-based Kallosh-Linde model (KL)
of moduli stabilization. Inflation here arises through the volume modulus
slow-rolling down from a flat hill-top or inflection point of the scalar
potential. This situation can be quite generic in the landscape, where by
uplifting one of the two adjacent minima one can turn the barrier either to a
flat saddle point or to an inflection point supporting eternal inflation. The
resulting spectral index is tunable in the range of 0.93 < n_s < 1, and there
is only negligible production of primordial gravitational waves r < 10^{-6}.
The flatness of the potential in this scenario requires fine-tuning, which may
be justified taking into account the exponential reward by volume factors
preferring the regions of the universe with the maximal amount of slow-roll
inflation. This consideration leads to a tentative prediction of the spectral
index or depending on whether the
potential has a symmetry phi -> - phi or not.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, LaTeX, uses RevTex
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