Vacuum energy sequestering and conformal symmetry

In a series of recent papers Kaloper and Padilla proposed a mechanism to sequester standard model vacuum contributions to the cosmological constant. We study the consequences of embedding their proposal into a fully local quantum theory. In the original work, the bare cosmological constant $\Lambda$ and a scaling parameter $\lambda$ are introduced as global fields. We find that in the local case the resulting Lagrangian is that of a spontaneously broken conformal field theory where $\lambda$ plays the role of the dilaton. A vanishing or a small cosmological constant is thus a consequence of the underlying conformal field theory structure.Comment: Extended discussion on the conformal symmetry. Matches the published versio

Indecent Bodies in Early Modern Visual Culture

The life-like depiction of the body became a central interest and defining characteristic of the European Early Modern period that coincided with the establishment of which images of the body were to be considered ʻdecentʼ and representable, and which disapproved, censored, or prohibited. Simultaneously, artists and the public became increasingly interested in the depiction of specific body parts or excretions. This book explores the concept of indecency and its relation to the human body across drawings, prints, paintings, sculptures, and texts. The ten essays investigate questions raised by such objects about practices and social norms regarding the body, and they look at the particular function of those artworks within this discourse. The heterogeneous media, genres, and historical contexts north and south of the Alps studied by the authors demonstrate how the alleged indecency clashed with artistic intentions and challenges traditional paradigms of the historiography of Early Modern visual culture

My data, my choice?! The difference between fitness and stress data monitoring on employees’ perception of privacy

Besides the vast distribution in the private sector, employers begin to integrate wearables in occupational health management (OHM). Through the implementation of 'stress' and 'fitness monitoring', organizations are able to invest in employees' health and well-being. While employees' consent is mandatory for the implementation, these, in turn, might perceive monitoring as a risk instead of realizing the benefits going along. By conducting an experimental study, we compare employees' perceived privacy risks/costs (PRC) and benefits (PBE) regarding the two monitoring cases. According to our results, employees interpret their stress data as rather sensitive while rating the PBE of fitness monitoring higher. Further, fair communication practices towards employees plays an essential role in the successful implementation of OHM. The research article provides theoretical and practical implications and sheds light on paths for further research regarding actual use behavior, international aspects, and employers' interests

How one small step for occupational health management leads to many steps for employees – an experimental field study of incentive designs in a gamified mHealth app

Physical inactivity has become one of the leading health risk factors in today\u27s work environment, and in response, companies show increasing interest in digital health interventions to promote employees\u27 well-being. Tools such as mHealth apps use promising approaches to encourage people to be more physically active, for example, through gamification elements combined with financial incentives. However, there is a lack of research on how these technologies and incentives need to be designed to affect employees\u27 health behaviour positively. Based on prospect theory, this study examines the effect of gamified loss-oriented vs gain-oriented financial incentive systems with identical economic value to promote physical activity of employees. Our experiment\u27s results showed an overall positive effect in increasing employees\u27 physical activity (mean daily step count); more specifically, the advantage of a loss-oriented versus a gain-oriented incentive strategy compared to the control group

Legitimate to whom? Comparing national perspectives on the legitimacy of the European Union.

The thesis compares national perspectives on the legitimacy of the European Union. It develops a definition of legitimacy as a dual concept. Formal legitimacy describes the constitutional nature of a political system, whereas felt legitimacy is defined as the aggregate citizen beliefs about the legitimacy of their political system. Legitimacy is important for the EU because it is a necessary condition for its efficacy and long-term stability. The EU's need for legitimacy also increases in proportion to the degree of integration. The legitimacy of the EU is unusual in that it varies among the member state from whose perspective it is evaluated. That is because the EU's legitimacy is contingent on the constitutional structure and national identity of its member states. An empirical analysis of the legitimacy of the EU from the perspective of Britain and Germany reveals that the EU suffers from a legitimacy deficit relative to the British and German political systems. The nature and severity of the deficit depend on country-specific factors, but the single most significant cause from both countries' perspective is the lack of a European identity. Europeans do not regard themselves as one political community, and they feel limited attachment or trust towards each other. This diagnosis implies that the legitimacy deficit can only be remedied either by creating a European identity or by reducing the need for its creation. The legitimising potential of these two strategies differs between Britain and Germany, reflecting country-specific variations in their perspective on the legitimacy deficit of the EU. While the legitimacy deficit can in principle be resolved, the varying effectiveness of these two strategies, and the reluctance of political decision-makers in the EU to pursue either strategy, make an effective resolution of the legitimacy deficit unlikely to occur in the forseable future

Pesticide Flow Analysis to Assess Human Exposure in Greenhouse Flower Production in Colombia

Human exposure assessment tools represent a means for understanding human exposure to pesticides in agricultural activities and managing possible health risks. This paper presents a pesticide flow analysis modeling approach developed to assess human exposure to pesticide use in greenhouse flower crops in Colombia, focusing on dermal and inhalation exposure. This approach is based on the material flow analysis methodology. The transfer coefficients were obtained using the whole body dosimetry method for dermal exposure and the button personal inhalable aerosol sampler for inhalation exposure, using the tracer uranine as a pesticide surrogate. The case study was a greenhouse rose farm in the Bogota Plateau in Colombia. The approach was applied to estimate the exposure to pesticides such as mancozeb, carbendazim, propamocarb hydrochloride, fosetyl, carboxin, thiram, dimethomorph and mandipropamide. We found dermal absorption estimations close to the AOEL reference values for the pesticides carbendazim, mancozeb, thiram and mandipropamide during the study period. In addition, high values of dermal exposure were found on the forearms, hands, chest and legs of study participants, indicating weaknesses in the overlapping areas of the personal protective equipment parts. These results show how the material flow analysis methodology can be applied in the field of human exposure for early recognition of the dispersion of pesticides and support the development of measures to improve operational safety during pesticide management. Furthermore, the model makes it possible to identify the status quo of the health risk faced by workers in the study area

Lifetime of magnetic excitations in supported ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 Heisenberg chains

The lifetime of magnetic excitations in finite 1D-supported Heisenberg chains of magnetic atoms is studied theoretically for a model system formed of S = 1/2 spins. Both ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic cases are considered as well as open chains and rings of atoms. Different chain lengths are considered allowing extrapolation to infinite chains. All the excited magnetic states in the finite chains and rings are studied, not only the spin-wave mode. The magnetic excitations decay by electron-hole pair creation in the substrate. As the main result, for all the systems considered, the decay rate appears to vary approximately proportionally to the excitation energy of the state, with a proportionality constant independent of the strength of the Heisenberg exchange term. In certain finite systems, a stable state is evidenced at low energy, associated with a special spin coupling structure. © 2012 American Physical Society.Peer Reviewe