Neutrino masses, cosmological bound and four zero Yukawa textures

Four zero neutrino Yukawa textures in a specified weak basis, combined with $\mu\tau$ symmetry and type-I seesaw, yield a highly constrained and predictive scheme. Two alternately viable $3\times3$ light neutrino Majorana mass matrices $m_{\nu A}/m_{\nu B}$ result with inverted/normal mass ordering. Neutrino masses, Majorana in character and predicted within definite ranges with laboratory and cosmological inputs, will have their sum probed cosmologically. The rate for $0\nu\beta\beta$ decay, though generally below the reach of planned experiments, could approach it in some parameter region. Departure from $\mu\tau$ symmetry due to RG evolution from a high scale and consequent CP violation, with a Jarlskog invariant whose magnitude could almost reach $6\times 10^{-3}$, are explored.Comment: Published versio

Debris cover and surface melt at a temperate maritime alpine glacier: Franz Josef Glacier, New Zealand

Melt rates on glaciers are strongly influenced by the presence of supraglacial debris, which can either enhance or reduce ablation relative to bare ice. Most recently, Franz Josef Glacier has entered into a phase of strong retreat and downwasting, with the increasing emergence of debris on the surface in the ablation zone. Previously at Franz Josef Glacier, melt has only been measured on bare ice. During February 2012, a network of 11 ablation stakes was drilled into locations of varying supraglacial debris thickness on the lower glacier. Mean ablation rates over 9 days varied over the range 1.2–10.1 cm d−1, and were closely related to debris thickness. Concomitant observations of air temperature allowed the application of a degree-day approach to the calculation of melt rates, with air temperature providing a strong indicator of melt. Degree-day factors (d f) varied over the range 1.1–8.1 mm d−1 °C−1 (mean of 4.4 mm d−1 °C−1), comparable with rates reported in other studies. Mapping of the current debris cover revealed 0.7 km2 of the 4.9 km2 ablation zone surface was debris-covered, with thicknesses ranging 1–50 cm. Based on measured debris thicknesses and d f, ablation on debris-covered areas of the glacier is reduced by a total of 41% which equates to a 6% reduction in melt overall across the entire ablation zone. This study highlights the usefulness of a short-term survey to gather representative ablation data, consistent with numerous overseas ablation studies on debris-covered glaciers

Multi-scale modeling study of the source contributions to near-surface ozone and sulfur oxides levels over California during the ARCTAS-CARB period

Chronic high surface ozone (O3) levels and the increasing sulfur oxides (SOx = SO2+SO4) ambient concentrations over South Coast (SC) and other areas of California (CA) are affected by both local emissions and long-range transport. In this paper, multi-scale tracer, full-chemistry and adjoint simulations using the STEM atmospheric chemistry model are conducted to assess the contribution of local emission sourcesto SC O3 and to evaluate the impacts of transported sulfur and local emissions on the SC sulfur budgetduring the ARCTAS-CARB experiment period in 2008. Sensitivity simulations quantify contributions of biogenic and fire emissions to SC O3 levels. California biogenic and fire emissions contribute 3–4 ppb to near-surface O3 over SC, with larger contributions to other regions in CA. During a long-range transport event from Asia starting from 22 June, high SOx levels (up to ~0.7 ppb of SO2 and ~1.3 ppb of SO4) is observed above ~6 km, but they did not affect CA surface air quality. The elevated SOx observed at 1–4 km is estimated to enhance surface SOx over SC by ~0.25 ppb (upper limit) on ~24 June. The near-surface SOx levels over SC during the flight week are attributed mostly to local emissions. Two anthropogenic SOx emission inventories (EIs) from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are compared and applied in 60 km and 12 km chemical transport simulations, and the results are compared withobservations. The CARB EI shows improvements over the National Emission Inventory (NEI) by EPA, but generally underestimates surface SC SOx by about a factor of two. Adjoint sensitivity analysis indicated that SO2 levels at 00:00 UTC (17:00 local time) at six SC surface sites were influenced by previous day maritime emissions over the ocean, the terrestrial emissions over nearby urban areas, and by transported SO2 from the north through both terrestrial and maritime areas. Overall maritime emissions contribute 10–70% of SO2 and 20–60% fine SO4 on-shore and over the most terrestrial areas, with contributions decreasing with in-land distance from the coast. Maritime emissions also modify the photochemical environment, shifting O3 production over coastal SC to more VOC-limited conditions. These suggest an important role for shipping emission controls in reducing fine particle and O3concentrations in SC

Multi-scale modeling study of the source contributions to near-surface ozone and sulfur oxides levels over California during the ARCTAS-CARB period

Chronic high surface ozone (O_3) levels and the increasing sulfur oxides (SO_x = SO_2 + SO_4) ambient concentrations over South Coast (SC) and other areas of California (CA) are affected by both local emissions and long-range transport. In this paper, multi-scale tracer, full-chemistry and adjoint simulations using the STEM atmospheric chemistry model are conducted to assess the contribution of local emission sourcesto SC O_3 and to evaluate the impacts of transported sulfur and local emissions on the SC sulfur budgetduring the ARCTAS-CARB experiment period in 2008. Sensitivity simulations quantify contributions of biogenic and fire emissions to SC O_3 levels. California biogenic and fire emissions contribute 3–4 ppb to near-surface O_3 over SC, with larger contributions to other regions in CA. During a long-range transport event from Asia starting from 22 June, high SO_x levels (up to ~0.7 ppb of SO_2 and ~1.3 ppb of SO_4) is observed above ~6 km, but they did not affect CA surface air quality. The elevated SO_x observed at 1–4 km is estimated to enhance surface SO_x over SC by ~0.25 ppb (upper limit) on ~24 June. The near-surface SO_x levels over SC during the flight week are attributed mostly to local emissions. Two anthropogenic SO_x emission inventories (EIs) from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are compared and applied in 60 km and 12 km chemical transport simulations, and the results are compared withobservations. The CARB EI shows improvements over the National Emission Inventory (NEI) by EPA, but generally underestimates surface SC SO_x by about a factor of two. Adjoint sensitivity analysis indicated that SO_2 levels at 00:00 UTC (17:00 local time) at six SC surface sites were influenced by previous day maritime emissions over the ocean, the terrestrial emissions over nearby urban areas, and by transported SO_2 from the north through both terrestrial and maritime areas. Overall maritime emissions contribute 10–70% of SO2 and 20–60% fine SO_4 on-shore and over the most terrestrial areas, with contributions decreasing with in-land distance from the coast. Maritime emissions also modify the photochemical environment, shifting O_3 production over coastal SC to more VOC-limited conditions. These suggest an important role for shipping emission controls in reducing fine particle and O_3 concentrations in SC

Health and lifestyle of Nepalese migrants in the UK

Background: The health status and lifestyle of migrants is often poorer than that of the general population of their host countries. The Nepalese represent a relatively small, but growing, immigrant community in the UK, about whom very little is known in term of public health. Therefore, our study examined the health and lifestyle of Nepalese migrants in the UK. Methods: A cross-sectional survey of Nepalese migrants in UK was conducted in early 2007 using a postal, self-administered questionnaire in England and Scotland (n = 312), and telephone interviews in Wales (n = 15). The total response rate was 68% (327 out of 480). Data were analyzed to establish whether there are associations between socio-economic and lifestyle factors. A multivariate binary logistic regression was applied to find out independent effect of personal factors on health status. Results: The majority of respondents was male (75%), aged between 30 and 45 (66%), married or had a civil partner (83%), had university education (47%) and an annual family income (69%) ranging from £5,035 to £33,300. More than one third (39%) of the respondents have lived in the UK for 1 to 5 years and approximately half (46%) were longer-term residents. Most (95%) were registered with a family doctor, but only 38% with a dentist. A low proportion (14%) of respondents smoked but more than half (61%) consumed alcohol. More than half (57%) did not do regular exercises and nearly one fourth (23%) of respondents rated their health as poor. Self reported 'good' health status of the respondents was independently associated with immigration status and doing regular exercise Conclusion: The self reported health status and lifestyle, health seeking behaviour of Nepalese people who are residing in UK appears to be good. However, the overall regular exercise and dentist registration was rather poor. Health promotion, especially aimed at Nepalese migrants could help encourage them to exercise regularly and assist them to register with a dentist

A Decision Support Tool for the Selection of Promoting Actions to Encourage Collaboration in Projects for the Agriculture Sector

[EN] Development and innovation agencies promote consortiums of agricultural stakeholders to collaborate in the proposal of projects for public calls. To achieve this partnerships, these agencies should select between different promoting actions to be performed with two objectives: maximize the number of project proposals presented and minimize the resources invested. To support agencies with these decisions, a computer tool based on a multi-objective integer linear programming model is proposed. To deal with the two objectives the weighting sum method is implemented. The model is validated in different scenarios by means a realistic case of an agency in Brittany (France). The results show the conflict between the two objectives considered and the dependency of the solutions on the scenarios defined. As a conclusion it can be stated that: 1) decision-makers should be careful in defining the weights of each objective and 2) the impact of the different promoting actions on the level of stakeholders¿ participation should be precisely estimated.The authors acknowledge the support of the project 691249, RUCAPS: "Enhancing and implementing knowledge based ICT solutions within high risk and uncertain conditions for agriculture production systems", funded by the European Union¿s research and innovation programme under the H2020 Marie Sk¿odowska-Curie Actions.Alemany Díaz, MDM.; Alarcón Valero, F.; Pérez Perales, D.; Guyon, C. (2020). A Decision Support Tool for the Selection of Promoting Actions to Encourage Collaboration in Projects for the Agriculture Sector. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology. 598:534-545. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62412-5_44S534545598European Comission Funded Programs. https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020Zoie, C., Radulescu, M.: Decision analysis for the project selection problem under risk. IFAC Proc. 34(8), 445–450 (2001)Sadi-Nezhad, S.: A state-of-art survey on project selection using MCDM techniques. J. Project Manage. 2, 1–10 (2017)Caballero, H.C., Chopra, S., Schmidt, E.K.: Project portfolio selection using mathematical programming and optimization methods. In: Paper presented at PMI® Global Congress 2012–North America, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Newtown Square, PA, Project Management Institute (2012)Ahmad, B., Haq, I.: Project selection techniques, relevance and applications in Pakistan. Int. J. Technol. Res. 4, 52–60 (2016)Inuiguchi, M., Ramı́k, J.: Possibilistic linear programming: a brief review of fuzzy mathematical programming and a comparison with stochastic programming in portfolio selection problem. Fuzzy Sets Syst. 111(1), 3–28 (2000)Stewart, R., Mohamed, S.: IT/IS projects selection using multi-criteria utility theory. Log. Inf. Manage. 15(4), 254–270 (2002)Alzober, W., Yaakub, A.R.: Integrated model for MCDM: selection contractor in Malaysian construction industry. In: Applied Mechanics and Materials 548, pp. 1587–1595. Trans Tech Publications (2014)Adhikary, P., Roy, P.K., Mazumdar, A.: Optimal renewable energy project selection: a multi-criteria optimization technique approach. Global J. Pure Appl. Math. 11(5), 3319–3329 (2015)Strang, K.D.: Portfolio selection methodology for a nuclear project. Project Manage. J. 42(2), 81–93 (2011)Benjamin, C.O.: A linear goal-programming model for public-sector project selection. J. Oper. Res. Soc. 36(1), 13–23 (1985)Coronado, J.R., Pardo-Mora, E.M., Valero, M.: A multi-objective model for selection of projects to finance new enterprise SMEs in Colombia. J. Ind. Eng. Manage. 4(3), 407–417 (2011)Mat, N.A.C., Cheung, Y.: Partner selection: criteria for successful collaborative network. In: 20th Australian Conference on Information Systems, pp. 631–641 (2009)Camarinha-Matos, L.M., Afsarmanesh, H.: Collaborative Networks. In: Wang, K., Kovacs, G.L., Wozny, M., Fang, M. (eds.) PROLAMAT 2006. IIFIP, vol. 207, pp. 26–40. Springer, Boston, MA (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-34403-9_4Paixão, M., Sbragia, R., Kruglianskas, I.: Factors for selecting partners in innovation projects–evidences from alliances in the Brazilian petrochemical leader. Rev. Admin. Innov. São Paulo 11(2), 241–272 (2014)Duisters, D., Duysters, G., de Man, A.P.: The partner selection process: steps, effectiveness, governance. Ann. Hematol. 2, 7–25 (2011)Zhang, X.: Criteria for selecting the private-sector partner in public-private partnerships. J. Constr. Eng. Manage. 131(6), 631–644 (2005