Bringing Isolated Dark Matter Out of Isolation: Late-time Reheating and Indirect Detection

In standard cosmology, the growth of structure becomes significant following matter-radiation equality. In non-thermal histories, where an effectively matter-dominated phase occurs due to scalar oscillations prior to Big Bang Nucleosynthesis, a new scale at smaller wavelengths appears in the matter power spectrum. Density perturbations that enter the horizon during the matter-dominated phase grow linearly with the scale factor prior to the onset of radiation domination, which leads to enhanced inhomogeneity on small scales if dark matter thermally and kinetically decouples during the matter-dominated phase. The microhalos that form from these enhanced perturbations significantly boost the self-annihilation rate for dark matter. This has important implications for indirect detection experiments: the larger annihilation rate will result in observable signals from dark matter candidates that are usually deemed untestable. As a proof of principle, we consider Binos in heavy supersymmetry with an intermediate extended Higgs sector and all other superpartners decoupled. We find that these isolated Binos, which lie under the neutrino floor, can account for the dark matter relic density while also leading to observable predictions for Fermi-LAT. Current limits on the annihilation cross section from Fermi-LAT's observations of dwarf spheroidal galaxies may already constrain Bino dark matter up to masses $\mathcal{O}(300)$ GeV, depending on the internal structure of the microhalos. More extensive constraints are possible with improved gamma-ray bounds and boost calculations from $N$-body simulations

Number Counts and Non-Gaussianity

We describe a general procedure for using number counts of any object to constrain the probability distribution of the primordial fluctuations, allowing for generic weak non-Gaussianity. We apply this procedure to use limits on the abundance of primordial black holes and dark matter ultracompact minihalos (UCMHs) to characterize the allowed statistics of primordial fluctuations on very small scales. We present constraints on the power spectrum and the amplitude of the skewness for two different families of non-Gaussian distributions, distinguished by the relative importance of higher moments. Although primordial black holes probe the smallest scales, ultracompact minihalos provide significantly stronger constraints on the power spectrum and so are more likely to eventually provide small-scale constraints on non-Gaussianity.Comment: 19 pages; v2 is published PRD versio

A Formative Evaluation with Extension Educators: Exploring Implementation Approaches Using Web-based Methods

The article describes the formative evaluation of a bullying prevention program called Be SAFE from the perspective of Extension educators. Twelve regional and county educators from Family and Child Development and 4-H Youth Development participated in our study. We used a web-based, mixed methods approach, utilizing both Qualtrics, an online survey software platform, and Scopia, a video conferencing application, to collect survey data and do a focus group. The results of the survey show that three activities, Clear Mind, Mud Mind, Take a Stand, and The Relationship Continuum, were perceived as garnering the most participation from students. However, focus group data indicated that while there was often a high level of participation, the subject matter of the curriculum was too advanced for students in the fifth grade and that classroom size affected how well educators could teach lessons. Furthermore, school access was not an implementation challenge, but the amount of days available to implement the full curriculum was sometimes limited. The data collected through this formative evaluation were used to improve implementation efforts. The process outlined in this article can be used as a model to help program leaders who are interested in using web-based tools to evaluate implementation processes

Ecological Transcriptomics of Lake-Type and Riverine Sockeye Salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka)

Background: There are a growing number of genomes sequenced with tentative functions assigned to a largeproportion of the individual genes. Model organisms in laboratory settings form the basis for the assignment ofgene function, and the ecological context of gene function is lacking. This work addresses this shortcoming byinvestigating expressed genes of sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) muscle tissue. We compared morphologyand gene expression in natural juvenile sockeye populations related to river and lake habitats. Based on previouslydocumented divergent morphology, feeding strategy, and predation in association with these distinctenvironments, we expect that burst swimming is favored in riverine population and continuous swimming isfavored in lake-type population. In turn we predict that morphology and expressed genes promote burstswimming in riverine sockeye and continuous swimming in lake-type sockeye.Results: We found the riverine sockeye population had deep, robust bodies and lake-type had shallow,streamlined bodies. Gene expression patterns were measured using a 16K microarray, discovering 141 genes withsignificant differential expression. Overall, the identity and function of these genes was consistent with ourhypothesis. In addition, Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analyses with a larger set of differentially expressed genesfound the “biosynthesis” category enriched for the riverine population and the “metabolism” category enriched forthe lake-type population.Conclusions: This study provides a framework for understanding sockeye life history from a transcriptomicperspective and a starting point for more extensive, targeted studies determining the ecological context of genes

Insurance Coverage and Completion of Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Series Among Hispanic Girls

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection and the leading cause of cervical cancer in the United States. Women from racial and ethnic minorities with genital HPV are 2 to 3 times more likely to develop cervical cancer. Vaccines are currently available to prevent HPV infections; however, despite their effectiveness, national completion rates for these vaccines remain low among Hispanic adolescents compared to non-Hispanic White adolescents. The reasons for this racial/ethnic disparity are not fully understood. In this quantitative, cross-sectional study, which was guided by the socioecological framework, the extent to which insurance coverage and having a source of health care influenced completion of the HPV vaccine series among Hispanic adolescent girls was examined. Nationally representative data from the 2016 National Immunization Survey-Teen was analyzed. Results of multiple logistic regression showed that gaps in insurance coverage did not adversely affect completing the HPV vaccine series. Hispanic girls with continuous health insurance coverage (p \u3c .001) and girls who experienced gaps in health insurance coverage (p \u3c .001) were significantly more likely to complete the HPV vaccine series compared to Hispanic girls who were uninsured. These results can be used to guide effective strategies to increase HPV vaccination among Hispanic adolescents. Increasing the HPV vaccine series completion rate among Hispanic adolescents has important implications for positive social change, including decreasing their risk of infections, reducing the prevalence of cervical cancers later in life, and decreasing the economic burden associated with HPV infections among Hispanic women

Biased efficacy estimates in phase-III dengue vaccine trials due to heterogeneous exposure and differential detectability of primary infections across trial arms.

Vaccine efficacy (VE) estimates are crucial for assessing the suitability of dengue vaccine candidates for public health implementation, but efficacy trials are subject to a known bias to estimate VE toward the null if heterogeneous exposure is not accounted for in the analysis of trial data. In light of many well-characterized sources of heterogeneity in dengue virus (DENV) transmission, our goal was to estimate the potential magnitude of this bias in VE estimates for a hypothetical dengue vaccine. To ensure that we realistically modeled heterogeneous exposure, we simulated city-wide DENV transmission and vaccine trial protocols using an agent-based model calibrated with entomological and epidemiological data from long-term field studies in Iquitos, Peru. By simulating a vaccine with a true VE of 0.8 in 1,000 replicate trials each designed to attain 90% power, we found that conventional methods underestimated VE by as much as 21% due to heterogeneous exposure. Accounting for the number of exposures in the vaccine and placebo arms eliminated this bias completely, and the more realistic option of including a frailty term to model exposure as a random effect reduced this bias partially. We also discovered a distinct bias in VE estimates away from the null due to lower detectability of primary DENV infections among seronegative individuals in the vaccinated group. This difference in detectability resulted from our assumption that primary infections in vaccinees who are seronegative at baseline resemble secondary infections, which experience a shorter window of detectable viremia due to a quicker immune response. This resulted in an artefactual finding that VE estimates for the seronegative group were approximately 1% greater than for the seropositive group. Simulation models of vaccine trials that account for these factors can be used to anticipate the extent of bias in field trials and to aid in their interpretation

Leaving Elementary School with a Sense of Order in Nature

Ninth graders in Arizona high schools have just left their elementary, general science education and are at the start of more specialized secondary science education. They are beginning a course of study that will form the foundation for tertiary education and employment after high school graduation. The research asked, Who are these kids entering high school science courses? The researchers noted that one of the key objectives of elementary education is to foster in children the concept that nature is inherently orderly and thus amenable to scientific investigation. Since the concept of order or disorder is fundamental in one’s perception of reality, the researchers reasoned that the qualitative worldview interviews on nature would be revealing of these concepts. The research led to this assertion: After nine years of schooling, ninth graders show no consistent understanding of the order in nature on which science is predicated. Instead, students often name drop school science topics such as the ozone layer, rain forests, or the big bang theory

The Different Worlds of High School Biology and Physical Science Teachers

A science teacher not only presents scientific concepts, but tacitly creates a context in which scientific concepts are presented to the class. This context can be strongly influenced by teacher beliefs or worldview. In the current research, teacher worldviews with respect to the essence of nature were examined. Two biology and two physical science teachers individually sat for qualitative interviews. The same interview protocols were used in a concurrent study involving ninth graders at their high school. The analysis led to three assertions: (1) When compared with their students, the science teachers had a much more focused and less diverse conceptualization of the natural world. The students were much more likely to speak of aesthetic and spiritual elements of nature in contrast to their teachers who focused more on what one could know about nature. Teachers also spoke more in-depth on topics rather than the “name dropping” typical of the students. (2) The most interesting finding was that the physical science and biology teachers had considerably different conceptualizations of nature. The physical science teachers talked much more about all that scientists do know about nature and how successful science has been. (3) The biology teachers were much less sanguine about science, yet clearly enthusiastic. They showed greater concern about the environment and were more likely to speak of the aesthetics of nature

Variables Predicting the Social Validity of Treatment

The purpose of this investigation was to determine which aspects of a client’s speech corresponded to rater judgments about the quality of her speech. Raters judged speech samples of a woman with apraxia with varying levels of correctness, number of errors, and rate. Judgments were made on the understandability, ease of production, naturalness, and overall quality of speech. Naïve listeners appeared to perceive struggle behaviors as negative, increased speech output (including repetitions and empty speech) as positive, faster speech (closer to a normal speaker’s average word per minute) preferable to slow speech, and more understandable speech as better quality speech