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

Australian porcine clonal complex 10 (CC10) Escherichia coli belong to multiple sublineages of a highly diverse global CC10 phylogeny

© 2019 The Authors. We recently identified clonal complex 10 (CC10) Escherichia coli as the predominant clonal group in two populations of healthy Australian food-production pigs. CC10 are highly successful, colonizing humans, food-production animals, fresh produce and environmental niches. Furthermore, E. coli within CC10 are frequently drug resistant and increasingly reportedas human and animal extra-intestinal pathogens. In order to develop a high-resolution global phylogeny and determine the repertoire of antimicrobial-resistance genes, virulence-associated genes and plasmid types within this clonal group, we downloaded 228 publicly available CC10 short-read genome sequences for comparison with 20 porcine CC10 we have previously described. Core genome single nucleotide polymorphism phylogeny revealed a highly diverse global phylogeny consisting of multiple lineages that did not cluster by geography or source of the isolates. Australian porcine strains belonged to several of these divergent lineages, indicative that CC10 is present in these animals due to multiple colonizationevents. Differences in resistance gene and plasmid carriage between porcine strains and the global collection highlighted the role of lateral gene transfer in the evolution of CC10 strains. Virulence profiles typical of extra-intestinal pathogenicE. coli were present in both Australian porcine strains and the broader collection. As both the core phylogeny and accessorygene characteristics appeared unrelated to the geography or source of the isolates, it is likely that the global expansion ofCC10 is not a recent event and may be associated with faecal carriage in humans

Superpartner spectrum of minimal gaugino-gauge mediation

We evaluate the sparticle mass spectrum in the minimal four-dimensional construction that interpolates between gaugino and ordinary gauge mediation at the weak scale. We find that even in the hybrid case -- when the messenger scale is comparable to the mass of the additional gauge particles -- both the right-handed as well as the left-handed sleptons are lighter than the bino in the low-scale mediation regime. This implies a chain of lepton production and, consequently, striking signatures that may be probed at the LHC already in the near future.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures; V2: refs and a few comments added; V3 title change

Demographic drivers of decline and recovery in an Afro-Palaearctic migratory bird population

Across Europe, rapid population declines are ongoing in many Afro-Palaearctic migratory bird species, but the development of appropriate conservation actions across such large migratory ranges is severely constrained by lack of understanding of the demographic drivers of these declines. By constructing regional integrated population models (IPMs) for one of the suite of migratory species that is declining in the south-east of Britain but increasing in the north-west, we show that, while annual population growth rates in both regions vary with adult survival, the divergent regional trajectories are primarily a consequence of differences in productivity. Between 1994 and 2012, annual survival and productivity rates ranged over similar levels in both regions, but high productivity rates were rarer in the declining south-east population and never coincided with high survival rates. By contrast, population growth in the north-west was fuelled by several years in which higher productivity coincided with high survival rates. Simulated population trajectories suggest that realistic improvements in productivity could have reversed the decline (i.e. recovery of the population index to ≥ 1) in the south-east. Consequently, actions to improve productivity on European breeding grounds are likely to be a more fruitful and achievable means of reversing migrant declines than actions to improve survival on breeding, passage or sub-Saharan wintering grounds

The landscape of psoriasis provision in the UK.

Psoriasis remains one of the commonest conditions seen in dermatological practice, and its treatment is one of the greatest cost burdens for the UK National Health Service. Treatment of psoriasis is complex, with numerous overlapping lines and therapies used in combination. This complexity reflects the underlying pathophysiology of the disease as well as the heterogeneous population that it affects. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance for the treatment of psoriasis has been available since 2013, and has been the subject of three national audits conducted by the British Association of Dermatologists. This report synthesizes the results of the most recent of those exercises and places it in the context of the NICE guidance and previous audits. It clearly shows the significant burden of disease, issues with provision of services and long waiting times and the marked shift in therapies towards targeted biologic therapies

Dynamics of a molecular glass former: Energy landscapes for diffusion in ortho-terphenyl.

Relaxation times and transport processes of many glass-forming supercooled liquids exhibit a super-Arrhenius temperature dependence. We examine this phenomenon by computer simulation of the Lewis-Wahnström model for ortho-terphenyl. We propose a microscopic definition for a single-molecule cage-breaking transition and show that, when correlation behaviour is taken into account, these rearrangements are sufficient to reproduce the correct translational diffusion constants over an intermediate temperature range in the supercooled regime. We show that super-Arrhenius behaviour can be attributed to increasing negative correlation in particle movement at lower temperatures and relate this to the cage-breaking description. Finally, we sample the potential energy landscape of the model and show that it displays hierarchical ordering. Substructures in the landscape, which may correspond to metabasins, have boundaries defined by cage-breaking transitions. The cage-breaking formulation provides a direct link between the potential energy landscape and macroscopic diffusion behaviour.This work was supported by the University of Cambridge through a CHSS studentship to S.P.N., and by the European Research Council.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4954324

Bridge-specific fragility analysis: when is it really necessary?

In seismic assessment of bridges the research focus has recently shifted on the derivation of bridge-specific fragility curves that account for the effect of different geometry, structural system, component and soil properties, on the seismic behaviour. In this context, a new, component-based methodology for the derivation of bridge-specific fragility curves has been recently proposed by the authors, with a view to overcoming the inherent difficulties in assessing all bridges of a road network and the drawbacks of existing methodologies, which use the same group of fragility curves for bridges within the same typological class. The main objective of this paper is to critically assess the necessity of bridge-specific fragility analysis, starting from the effect of structure-specific parameters on component capacity (limit state thresholds), seismic demand, and fragility curves. The aforementioned methodology is used to derive fragility curves for all bridges within an actual road network, with a view to investigating the consistency of adopting generic fragility curves for bridges that fall within the same class and quantifying the degree of over- or under-estimation of the probability of damage when generic bridge classes are considered. Moreover, fragility curves for all representative bridges of the analysed concrete bridge classes are presented to illustrate the differentiation in bridge fragility for varying structural systems, bridge geometry, total bridge length and maximum pier height. Based on the above, the relevance of bridge-specific fragility analysis is assessed, and pertinent conclusions are drawn

Physicochemical characteristics of geophagic clayey soils from South Africa and Swaziland

Physicochemical properties of geophagic clayey soils from South Africa and Swaziland were determined in order to appreciate their capability to perform the functions for which they are consumed and possible consequences of the practice in humans. Tests conducted included colour, texture, pH, electrical conductivity (EC), water retention capacity (WRC), organic matter (OM) content and cation exchange capacity (CEC). The colour of the clayey soils ranged from grey to red. The soils varied texturally from loam to clay and had pH values of between 5.0 and 7.4. Values obtained for EC and OM content were generally low but those for WRC of the clayey soils were above 50% for all samples. These clayey soils, due to their colour are inferred to contain different forms of iron oxide minerals including haematite and goethite, which may help alleviate symptoms of iron deficiency anaemia. Their relatively high WRC may increase their effectiveness in the absorption of moisture in the gastrointestinal tract and therefore confirms the possibility of using these clays in the treatment of diarrhoea.Keywords: Soil pH, texture, cation exchange capacity, diarrhoea, water retention capacityAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 9(36), pp. 5929-5937, 6 September, 201