206 research outputs found
Bridging the gap: Increasing awareness of sex differences in opioid addiction using social media platforms
HONORABLE MENTION
Background: Current efforts to combat the opioid epidemic in the United States do not take into account the sex differences in opioid response, prescription, use, and addiction. There is a need for medical professionals and the general public to understand these differences to properly prevent, address, and treat opioid addiction. Healthcare professionals and patients often use the Internet and social networking websites to access and share medical information. These platforms provide an innovative way to educate these groups on various topics in medicine. The American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA) created the Opioid Addiction in Women Task Force to positively impact care for women with opioid addiction.
Objectives: Increase health literacy surrounding sex differences in opioid addiction in the general public and healthcare providers via social media platforms
Methods/Research: The AMWA Opioid Task Force consists of physicians and medical students across the country who meet virtually each month. With guidance from supervising physicians, educational infographics, pamphlets, and videos are created to facilitate the dissemination of complex scientiffc data in a simple and engaging manner. Information is subsequently shared via social media platforms, such as Instagram, Twitter and YouTube, where they can be easily accessed by healthcare providers, medical students, and the public.
Conclusions/Impact: This is one of the few organizations with national exposure that highlights sex and gender differences in the opioid crisis and aims to increase health literacy for both the general public and health care providers. We have successfully distributed information regarding sex differences in opioid addiction during Women’s Health Week 2020 on the national AMWA website, Instagram, and Twitter. Our future plans include producing and sharing videos on YouTube about opioids, addiction, and pain management, especially in women. We hope to encourage current and future physicians to initiate discussions surrounding sex/gender-speciffc health, speciffcally in opioid addiction.https://jdc.jefferson.edu/sexandgenderhealth/1003/thumbnail.jp
A Comparison of Supersymmetry Breaking and Mediation Mechanisms
We give a unified treatment of different models of supersymmetry breaking and
mediation from a four dimensional effective field theory standpoint. In
particular a comparison between GMSB and various gravity mediated versions of
SUSY breaking shows that, once the former is embedded within a SUGRA framework,
there is no particular advantage to that mechanism from the point of view of
FCNC suppression. We point out the difficulties of all these scenarios - in
particular the cosmological modulus problem. We end with a discussion of
possible string theory realizations.Comment: Added clarifications and references, 20 page
Neutralino dark matter in mSUGRA/CMSSM with a 125 GeV light Higgs scalar
The minimal supergravity (mSUGRA or CMSSM) model is an oft-used framework for
exhibiting the properties of neutralino (WIMP) cold dark matter (CDM). However,
the recent evidence from Atlas and CMS on a light Higgs scalar with mass
m_h\simeq 125 GeV highly constrains the superparticle mass spectrum, which in
turn constrains the neutralino annihilation mechanisms in the early universe.
We find that stau and stop co-annihilation mechanisms -- already highly
stressed by the latest Atlas/CMS results on SUSY searches -- are nearly
eliminated if indeed the light Higgs scalar has mass m_h\simeq 125 GeV.
Furthermore, neutralino annihilation via the A-resonance is essentially ruled
out in mSUGRA so that it is exceedingly difficult to generate
thermally-produced neutralino-only dark matter at the measured abundance. The
remaining possibility lies in the focus-point region which now moves out to
m_0\sim 10-20 TeV range due to the required large trilinear soft SUSY breaking
term A_0. The remaining HB/FP region is more fine-tuned than before owing to
the typically large top squark masses. We present updated direct and indirect
detection rates for neutralino dark matter, and show that ton scale noble
liquid detectors will either discover mixed higgsino CDM or essentially rule
out thermally-produced neutralino-only CDM in the mSUGRA model.Comment: 17 pages including 9 .eps figure
Minimum length effects in black hole physics
We review the main consequences of the possible existence of a minimum
measurable length, of the order of the Planck scale, on quantum effects
occurring in black hole physics. In particular, we focus on the ensuing minimum
mass for black holes and how modified dispersion relations affect the Hawking
decay, both in four space-time dimensions and in models with extra spatial
dimensions. In the latter case, we briefly discuss possible phenomenological
signatures.Comment: 29 pages, 12 figures. To be published in "Quantum Aspects of Black
Holes", ed. X. Calmet (Springer, 2014
Dark Radiation and Dark Matter in Large Volume Compactifications
We argue that dark radiation is naturally generated from the decay of the
overall volume modulus in the LARGE volume scenario. We consider both
sequestered and non-sequestered cases, and find that the axionic superpartner
of the modulus is produced by the modulus decay and it can account for the dark
radiation suggested by observations, while the modulus decay through the
Giudice-Masiero term gives the dominant contribution to the total decay rate.
In the sequestered case, the lightest supersymmetric particles produced by the
modulus decay can naturally account for the observed dark matter density. In
the non-sequestered case, on the other hand, the supersymmetric particles are
not produced by the modulus decay, since the soft masses are of order the heavy
gravitino mass. The QCD axion will then be a plausible dark matter candidate.Comment: 27 pages, 4 figures; version 3: version published in JHE
Genetic Evidence Highlights Potential Impacts of By-Catch to Cetaceans
Incidental entanglement in fishing gear is arguably the most serious threat to many populations of small cetaceans, judging by the alarming number of captured animals. However, other aspects of this threat, such as the potential capture of mother-offspring pairs or reproductive pairs, could be equally or even more significant but have rarely been evaluated. Using a combination of demographic and genetic data we provide evidence that i) Franciscana dolphin pairs that are potentially reproductive and mother-offspring pairs form temporal bonds, and ii) are entangled simultaneously. Our results highlight potential demographic and genetic impacts of by-catch to cetacean populations: the joint entanglement of mother-offspring or reproductive pairs, compared to random individuals, might exacerbate the demographic consequences of by-catch, and the loss of groups of relatives means that significant components of genetic diversity could be lost together. Given the social nature of many odontocetes (toothed cetaceans), we suggest that these potential impacts could be rather general to the group and therefore by-catch could be more detrimental than previously considered
Physics, Astrophysics and Cosmology with Gravitational Waves
Gravitational wave detectors are already operating at interesting sensitivity
levels, and they have an upgrade path that should result in secure detections
by 2014. We review the physics of gravitational waves, how they interact with
detectors (bars and interferometers), and how these detectors operate. We study
the most likely sources of gravitational waves and review the data analysis
methods that are used to extract their signals from detector noise. Then we
consider the consequences of gravitational wave detections and observations for
physics, astrophysics, and cosmology.Comment: 137 pages, 16 figures, Published version
<http://www.livingreviews.org/lrr-2009-2
Kinetically-Enhanced Anomaly Mediation
We investigate a modification of anomaly-mediated supersymmetry breaking
(AMSB) with an exotic U(1)_x gauge sector that can solve the tachyonic slepton
problem of minimal AMSB scenarios. The new U(1)_x multiplet is assumed to
couple directly to the source of supersymmetry breaking, but only indirectly to
the minimal supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) through kinetic mixing with
hypercharge. If the MSSM sector is also sequestered from the source of
supersymmetry breaking, the contributions to the MSSM soft terms come from both
AMSB and the U(1)_x kinetic coupling. We find that this arrangement can give
rise to a flavour-universal, phenomenologically viable, and distinctive
spectrum of MSSM superpartners. We also investigate the prospects for discovery
and the most likely signatures of this scenario at the Large Hadron Collider
(LHC).Comment: 29 pages, 10 figures; Added references, corrected ctau plot in Fig.
4, same general conclusion
Clusters of galaxies : observational properties of the diffuse radio emission
Clusters of galaxies, as the largest virialized systems in the Universe, are
ideal laboratories to study the formation and evolution of cosmic
structures...(abridged)... Most of the detailed knowledge of galaxy clusters
has been obtained in recent years from the study of ICM through X-ray
Astronomy. At the same time, radio observations have proved that the ICM is
mixed with non-thermal components, i.e. highly relativistic particles and
large-scale magnetic fields, detected through their synchrotron emission. The
knowledge of the properties of these non-thermal ICM components has increased
significantly, owing to sensitive radio images and to the development of
theoretical models. Diffuse synchrotron radio emission in the central and
peripheral cluster regions has been found in many clusters. Moreover
large-scale magnetic fields appear to be present in all galaxy clusters, as
derived from Rotation Measure (RM) studies. Non-thermal components are linked
to the cluster X-ray properties, and to the cluster evolutionary stage, and are
crucial for a comprehensive physical description of the intracluster medium.
They play an important role in the cluster formation and evolution. We review
here the observational properties of diffuse non-thermal sources detected in
galaxy clusters: halos, relics and mini-halos. We discuss their classification
and properties. We report published results up to date and obtain and discuss
statistical properties. We present the properties of large-scale magnetic
fields in clusters and in even larger structures: filaments connecting galaxy
clusters. We summarize the current models of the origin of these cluster
components, and outline the improvements that are expected in this area from
future developments thanks to the new generation of radio telescopes.Comment: Accepted for the publication in The Astronomy and Astrophysics
Review. 58 pages, 26 figure
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