313 research outputs found
Young people’s perspectives of inequitable urban change in Lebanese towns affected by mass displacement
This paper assesses the planning processes which shape urban change in the Beqaa Valley, Lebanon, from the perspectives of adults working in planning, and young residents. Beginning with the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War in 2011, the towns of Bar Elias, Marj and Majdal Anjar have grown rapidly, as tens of thousands of people have been displaced there. Young Syrians and Lebanese residents’ experiences of urban change point to the role that planning processes play in inequitable urban change. Inequitable urban change negatively impacts Lebanese as well as Syrian residents. Post-2011 planning policies addressing the Syrian Refugee Crisis do not effectively address the planning processes which create and enable inequalities. They risk obscuring this source of common struggles and exacerbating inequalities
The extinct tree fern Tempskya Corda from the Albian of Spain: Palaeophytogeographical and palaeoenvironmental implications
New evidence of the extinct tree fern of the genus Tempskya Corda from Albian deposits in western Eurasia (northeastern Spain) is presented. These plant fossil remains consist of several silicified false trunks measuring up to 1.20m long, some of which still preserve the apex. Rhizomes and petioles are more abundant in the apical zone of the false trunk. Some false trunks preserve charcoalified tissues that can be interpreted as evidence that palaeo-wildfires affected the false trunks several times from mostly the same direction. Sedimentological evidence suggests that the fern habitat was close to coastal, tidally influenced environments. These new fossils from the Albian of Spain fill the chronological and distributional gap of Tempskya that existed in Eurasia during the Early Cretaceous. Temporal and spatial changes in Tempskya distributions are proposed on several palaeogeographical maps
Resilience as a communal concept: Understanding adolescent resilience in the context of the Syrian refugee crisis in Bar Elias, Lebanon
Background: The conflict in Syria has led to the displacement of 1.5 million refugees into the neighboring country of Lebanon, with a majority that have yet to return to their homeland. Syrian adolescents in the town of Bar Elias in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon have lived and grown in the face of resource-limited environments, restricted movement, and a longing for return. Resilience is manifested in the adaptation to such circumstances through close supportive relationships, social engagement, employment, and religion. There is a communal aspect to resilience that is important to the adolescent refugee experience and to the efforts supporting these communities. /
Methods: Fifteen one-to-one interviews and two focus groups, with a total of eighteen Syrian adolescents, were analyzed using an inductive thematic analysis informed by grounded theory principles. Participants were recruited through partnering non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the area, and ethical approval was granted through UCL and the American University in Beirut (AUB). /
Results: Syrian adolescents highlighted supportive relationships, communal activities and spaces, memories of home, employment, and shared environments as integral elements to their personal adaptation. Methods of resilience involved social cohesion and establishing stability for one's family and close community. Adaptation to the present is intertwined with facing the consequences of displacement in this new context and maintaining aspirations for a bright future. Engaging with the environments they share and help create is an important facet of resilience and occurs through group gatherings , hobbies, and online communication. Additionally, inner strength can be derived from religious activities and empowers individual processing. /
Conclusion: This study illuminates the elements and mechanisms embodied in these adolescents’ communities and relationships that allow for adaptation to life in Bar Elias. These factors strengthen their approach to overcome social barriers and practice resilience. These communal aspects of the adolescents’ lives also connect to their memories of home, current environment, and future aspirations
Searching for Bottom Squarks at Luminosity Upgrades of the Fermilab Tevatron
Because of their Yukawa interactions, third generation squarks may be
substantially lighter than those of the first two generations. Assuming that
\tb_1 \to b\tz_1 and \tz_1 escapes experimental detection, we show that
experiments at the Main Injector upgrade (integrated luminosity of )
of the Tevatron should be sensitive to -squark masses up to 210 GeV for
m_{\tz_1} \leq 120 GeV. For integrated luminosities of (25
) the sbottom mass reach increases by 20 GeV (35 GeV). If the channel
\tb_1 \to b\tz_2 is also accessible, the reach becomes model-dependent and
may be degraded relative to the case where only the decay to \tz_1 is
allowed. In models with gaugino mass unification and much larger than
gaugino masses, we argue that this degradation is unlikely to be larger than
30-40 GeV.Comment: 10 page Revtex file plus 2 PS figure
Feeding the Worlth Healthily: the Challenge of Measuring the effects of Agriculture on Health
Agricultural production, food systems and population health are intimately linked. While there is a strong evidence base to inform our knowledge of what constitutes a healthy human diet, we know little about actual food production or consumption in many populations and how developments in the food and agricultural system will affect dietary intake patterns and health. The paucity of information on food production and consumption is arguably most acute in low- and middle-income countries, where it is most urgently needed to monitor levels of under-nutrition, the health impacts of rapid dietary transition and the increasing ‘double burden’ of nutrition-related disease. Food availability statistics based on food commodity production data are currently widely used as a proxy measure of national-level food consumption, but using data from the UK and Mexico we highlight the potential pitfalls of this approach. Despite limited resources for data collection, better systems of measurement are possible. Important drivers to improve collection systems may include efforts to meet international development goals and partnership with the private sector. A clearer understanding of the links between the agriculture and food system and population health will ensure that health becomes a critical driver of agricultural change
Probing R-parity violating models of neutrino mass at the Tevatron via top Squark decays
We have estimated the limiting branching ratio of the R-parity violating
(RPV) decay of the lighter top squark, \tilde t_1 \ar l^+ d ( or
and d is a down type quark of any flavor), as a function of top squark
mass(\MST) for an observable signal in the di-lepton plus di-jet channel at
the Tevatron RUN-II experiment with 2 fb luminosity. Our simulations
indicate that the lepton number violating nature of the underlying decay
dynamics can be confirmed via the reconstruction of \MST. The above decay is
interesting in the context of RPV models of neutrino mass where the RPV
couplings () driving the above decay are constrained to be
small (\lsim 10^{-3} - 10^{-4} ). If is the next lightest super
particle - a theoretically well motivated scenario - then the RPV decay can
naturally compete with the R-parity conserving (RPC) modes which also have
suppressed widths. The model independent limiting BR can delineate the
parameter space in specific supersymmetric models, where the dominating RPV
decay is observable and predict the minimum magnitude of the RPV coupling that
will be sensitive to Run-II data. We have found it to be in the same ballpark
value required by models of neutrino mass, for a wide range of \MST. A
comprehensive future strategy for linking top squark decays with models of
neutrino mass is sketched.Comment: 28 pages, 14 Figure
Searching for a Light Stop at the Tevatron
We describe a method to help the search for a light stop squark [M(stop) +
M(LSP) < M(top)] at the Fermilab Tevatron. Traditional search methods rely upon
a series of stringent background-reducing cuts which, unfortunately, leave very
few signal events given the present data set. To avoid this difficulty, we
instead suggest using a milder set of cuts, combined with a "superweight,"
whose purpose is to discriminate between signal and background events. The
superweight consists of a sum of terms, each of which are either zero or one.
The terms are assigned event-by-event depending upon the values of various
observables. We suggest a method for choosing the observables as well as the
criteria used to assign the values such that the superweight is "large" for the
supersymmetric signal and "small" for the standard model background. For
illustration, we mainly consider the detection of stops coming from top decay,
making our analysis especially relevant to the W+2 jets top sample.Comment: 45 pages, revtex, 15 figures included. Final version, as will appear
in Phys. Rev. D. Contains an expanded introduction plus a few additional
reference
Selective culture enrichment and sequencing of feces to enhance detection of antimicrobial resistance genes in third-generation cephalosporin resistant Enterobacteriaceae
Metagenomic sequencing of fecal DNA can usefully characterise an individual’s intestinal resistome but is limited by its inability to detect important pathogens that may be present at low abundance, such as carbapenemase or extended-spectrum beta-lactamase producing Enterobacteriaceae. Here we aimed to develop a hybrid protocol to improve detection of resistance genes in Enterobacteriaceae by using a short period of culture enrichment prior to sequencing of DNA extracted directly from the enriched sample. Volunteer feces were spiked with carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae and incubated in selective broth culture for 6 hours before sequencing. Different DNA extraction methods were compared, including a plasmid extraction protocol to increase the detection of plasmid-associated resistance genes. Although enrichment prior to sequencing increased the detection of carbapenemase genes, the differing growth characteristics of the spike organisms precluded accurate quantification of their concentration prior to culture. Plasmid extraction increased detection of resistance genes present on plasmids, but the effects were heterogeneous and dependent on plasmid size. Our results demonstrate methods of improving the limit of detection of selected resistance mechanisms in a fecal resistome assay, but they also highlight the difficulties in using these techniques for accurate quantification and should inform future efforts to achieve this goa
Search for the Supersymmetric Partner of the Top-Quark in Collisions at
We report on a search for the supersymmetric partner of the top quark (stop)
produced in events using of
collisions at recorded with the Collider Detector at
Fermilab. In the case of a light stop squark, the decay of the top quark into
stop plus the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) could have a significant
branching ratio. The observed events are consistent with Standard Model production and decay. Hence, we set limits on the branching ratio of
the top quark decaying into stop plus LSP, excluding branching ratios above 45%
for a LSP mass up to 40 {\rm GeV/c}.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure
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