The Online Bingo Boom in the UK: A Qualitative Examination of Its Appeal

Online bingo has seen significant growth in recent years. This study sought to increase understanding of this growth by exploring the appeal of online bingo. Our aim was to examine the content of ten online bingo websites in the UK and analyse a qualitative secondary dataset of 12 female bingo players to investigate the appeal of online bingo. Using two distinct data sources allowed us to assess how the key messages online websites are trying to convey compare with actual players' motivation to play bingo. Our analysis of bingo websites found a common theme where websites were easy to navigate and structured to present a light-hearted, fun, reassuring, social image of gambling. In addition, the design decisions reflected in the bingo sites had the effect of positioning online bingo as a benign, child-like, homely, women-friendly, social activity. Comparison of the website content with our participants' reasons to play bingo showed congruence between the strategies used by the bingo websites and the motivations of bingo players themselves and the benefits which they seek; suggesting that bingo websites strive to replicate and update the sociability of traditional bingo halls. Online bingo differs from traditional forms of bingo in its ability to be played anywhere and at any time, and its capacity to offer a deeply immersive experience. The potential for this type of online immersion in gambling to lead to harm is only just being investigated and further research is required to understand how the industry is regulated, as well as the effects of online bingo on individual gambling ‘careers'

Search for natural and split supersymmetry in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV in final states with jets and missing transverse momentum

A search for supersymmetry (SUSY) is performed in final states comprising one or more jets and missing transverse momentum using data from proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The data were recorded with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC in 2016 and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb(-1). The number of signal events is found to agree with the expected background yields from standard model processes. The results are interpreted in the context of simplified models of SUSY that assume the production of gluino or squark pairs and their prompt decay to quarks and the lightest neutralino. The masses of bottom, top, and mass-degenerate light-flavour squarks are probed up to 1050, 1000, and 1325 GeV, respectively. The gluino mass is probed up to 1900, 1650, and 1650 GeV when the gluino decays via virtual states of the aforementioned squarks. The strongest mass bounds on the neutralinos from gluino and squark decays are 1150 and 575 GeV, respectively. The search also provides sensitivity to simplified models inspired by split SUSY that involve the production and decay of long-lived gluinos. Values of the proper decay length CT0 from 10(-3) to 10(5) mm are considered, as well as a metastable gluino scenario. Gluino masses up to 1750 and 900 GeV are probed for CT0 = 1mm and for the metastable state, respectively. The sensitivity is moderately dependent on model assumptions for CT0 greater than or similar to 1 m. The search provides coverage of the CT0 parameter space for models involving long-lived gluinos that is complementary to existing techniques at the LHC.Peer reviewe

Search for pair production of vector-like T and B quarks in single-lepton final states using boosted jet substructure in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

Peer reviewe

Evaluation of appendicitis risk prediction models in adults with suspected appendicitis

Background Appendicitis is the most common general surgical emergency worldwide, but its diagnosis remains challenging. The aim of this study was to determine whether existing risk prediction models can reliably identify patients presenting to hospital in the UK with acute right iliac fossa (RIF) pain who are at low risk of appendicitis. Methods A systematic search was completed to identify all existing appendicitis risk prediction models. Models were validated using UK data from an international prospective cohort study that captured consecutive patients aged 16–45 years presenting to hospital with acute RIF in March to June 2017. The main outcome was best achievable model specificity (proportion of patients who did not have appendicitis correctly classified as low risk) whilst maintaining a failure rate below 5 per cent (proportion of patients identified as low risk who actually had appendicitis). Results Some 5345 patients across 154 UK hospitals were identified, of which two‐thirds (3613 of 5345, 67·6 per cent) were women. Women were more than twice as likely to undergo surgery with removal of a histologically normal appendix (272 of 964, 28·2 per cent) than men (120 of 993, 12·1 per cent) (relative risk 2·33, 95 per cent c.i. 1·92 to 2·84; P < 0·001). Of 15 validated risk prediction models, the Adult Appendicitis Score performed best (cut‐off score 8 or less, specificity 63·1 per cent, failure rate 3·7 per cent). The Appendicitis Inflammatory Response Score performed best for men (cut‐off score 2 or less, specificity 24·7 per cent, failure rate 2·4 per cent). Conclusion Women in the UK had a disproportionate risk of admission without surgical intervention and had high rates of normal appendicectomy. Risk prediction models to support shared decision‐making by identifying adults in the UK at low risk of appendicitis were identified

Search for new phenomena in final states with two opposite-charge, same-flavor leptons, jets, and missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at root s=13TeV

Search results are presented for physics beyond the standard model in final states with two opposite-charge, same-flavor leptons, jets, and missing transverse momentum. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb−1 of proton-proton collisions at s√=13 TeV collected with the CMS detector at the LHC in 2016. The analysis uses the invariant mass of the lepton pair, searching for a kinematic edge or a resonant-like excess compatible with the Z boson mass. The search for a kinematic edge targets production of particles sensitive to the strong force, while the resonance search targets both strongly and electroweakly produced new physics. The observed yields are consistent with the expectations from the standard model, and the results are interpreted in the context of simplified models of supersymmetry. In a gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking (GMSB) model of gluino pair production with decay chains including Z bosons, gluino masses up to 1500–1770 GeV are excluded at the 95% confidence level depending on the lightest neutralino mass. In a model of electroweak chargino-neutralino production, chargino masses as high as 610 GeV are excluded when the lightest neutralino is massless. In GMSB models of electroweak neutralino-neutralino production, neutralino masses up to 500-650 GeV are excluded depending on the decay mode assumed. Finally, in a model with bottom squark pair production and decay chains resulting in a kinematic edge in the dilepton invariant mass distribution, bottom squark masses up to 980–1200 GeV are excluded depending on the mass of the next-to-lightest neutralino

Search for new phenomena in final states with two opposite-charge, same-flavor leptons, jets, and missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at root s=13TeV

Search results are presented for physics beyond the standard model in final states with two opposite-charge, same-flavor leptons, jets, and missing transverse momentum. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb−1 of proton-proton collisions at s√=13 TeV collected with the CMS detector at the LHC in 2016. The analysis uses the invariant mass of the lepton pair, searching for a kinematic edge or a resonant-like excess compatible with the Z boson mass. The search for a kinematic edge targets production of particles sensitive to the strong force, while the resonance search targets both strongly and electroweakly produced new physics. The observed yields are consistent with the expectations from the standard model, and the results are interpreted in the context of simplified models of supersymmetry. In a gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking (GMSB) model of gluino pair production with decay chains including Z bosons, gluino masses up to 1500–1770 GeV are excluded at the 95% confidence level depending on the lightest neutralino mass. In a model of electroweak chargino-neutralino production, chargino masses as high as 610 GeV are excluded when the lightest neutralino is massless. In GMSB models of electroweak neutralino-neutralino production, neutralino masses up to 500-650 GeV are excluded depending on the decay mode assumed. Finally, in a model with bottom squark pair production and decay chains resulting in a kinematic edge in the dilepton invariant mass distribution, bottom squark masses up to 980–1200 GeV are excluded depending on the mass of the next-to-lightest neutralino

Search for new phenomena in final states with two opposite-charge, same-flavor leptons, jets, and missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at root s=13TeV

Search results are presented for physics beyond the standard model in final states with two opposite-charge, same-flavor leptons, jets, and missing transverse momentum. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV collected with the CMS detector at the LHC in 2016. The analysis uses the invariant mass of the lepton pair, searching for a kinematic edge or a resonant-like excess compatible with the Z boson mass. The search for a kinematic edge targets production of particles sensitive to the strong force, while the resonance search targets both strongly and electroweakly produced new physics. The observed yields are consistent with the expectations from the standard model, and the results are interpreted in the context of simplified models of supersymmetry. In a gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking (GMSB) model of gluino pair production with decay chains including Z bosons, gluino masses up to 1500-1770 GeV are excluded at the 95% confidence level depending on the lightest neutralino mass. In a model of electroweak chargino-neutralino production, chargino masses as high as 610 GeV are excluded when the lightest neutralino is massless. In GMSB models of electroweak neutralino-neutralino production, neutralino masses up to 500-650 GeV are excluded depending on the decay mode assumed. Finally, in a model with bottom squark pair production and decay chains resulting in a kinematic edge in the dilepton invariant mass distribution, bottom squark masses up to 980-1200 GeV are excluded depending on the mass of the next-to-lightest neutralino.Comment: Replaced with the published version. Added the journal reference and the DOI. All the figures and tables, including additional supplementary figures and tables, can be found at http://cms-results.web.cern.ch/cms-results/public-results/publications/SUS-16-034/ (CMS Public Pages