61,111 research outputs found
Dual consent? Donors' and recipients' views about involvement in decision-making on the use of embryos created by gamete donation in research
Background Reasonable disagreement about the role awarded to gamete donors in decision-making on the use of embryos created by gamete donation (EGDs) for research purposes emphasises the importance of considering the implementation of participatory, adaptive, and trustworthy policies and guidelines for consent procedures. However, the perspectives of gamete donors and recipients about decision-making regarding research with EGDs are still under-researched, which precludes the development of policies and guidelines informed by evidence. This study seeks to explore the views of donors and recipients about who should take part in consent processes for the use of EGDs in research. Methods From July 2017 to June 2018, 72 gamete donors and 175 recipients completed a self-report structured questionnaire at the Portuguese Public Bank of Gametes (response rate: 76%). Agreement with dual consent was defined as the belief that the use of EGDs in research should be consented by both donors and recipients. Results The majority of participants (74.6% of donors and 65.7% of recipients) were willing to donate embryos for research. Almost half of the donors (48.6%) and half of the recipients (46.9%) considered that a dual consent procedure is desirable. This view was more frequent among employed recipients (49.7%) than among non-employed (21.4%). Donors were less likely to believe that only recipients should be involved in giving consent for the use of EGDs in research (25.0% vs. 41.7% among recipients) and were more frequently favourable to the idea of exclusive donors' consent (26.4% vs. 11.4% among recipients). Conclusions Divergent views on dual consent among donors and recipients indicate the need to develop evidence-based and ethically sustainable policies and guidelines to protect well-being, autonomy and reproductive rights of both stakeholder groups. More empirical research and further theoretical normative analyses are needed to inform people-centred policy and guidelines for shared decision-making concerning the use of EGDs for research
Spontaneous CP violation in the 3-3-1 model with right-handed neutrinos
We implement the mechanism of spontaneous CP violation in the 3-3-1 model
with right-handed neutrinos and recognize their sources of CP violation. Our
main result is that the mechanism works already in the minimal version of the
model and new sources of CP violation emerges as an effect of new physics at
energies higher than the electroweak scale.Comment: Major changes in the quark sector, electronic dipole moment of the
neutron was evaluated, accepted for publication in the physical review
Majorana Dark Matter in Minimal Higgs Portal Models after LUX
We consider the Singlet Majorana fermion dark matter model, in which the
standard model particles interact with the dark sector through the mixing of a
singlet scalar and the Higgs boson. In this model both the dark matter and the
singlet scalar carry lepton number, the latter being a bilepton. We suppose the
existence of a symmetry, remnant of some high energy local symmetry
breaking, that stabilizes the Majorana fermion. We analyzed the parameter space
of this model and found that the lepton number symmetry breaking scale, drove
by the singlet scalar, is constrained to be within hundreds to thousands of
GeV, so as to conform with the observed dark matter relic density. Finally, we
address the direct detection and invisible Higgs decay complementarity,
confronting our model with recent LUX and LHC constraints, as well as XENON1T
prospects.Comment: 20 pages, 12 figure
Neutrino Mixing and the Minimal 3-3-1 Model
In the minimal 3-3-1 model charged leptons come in a non-diagonal basis.
Moreover the Yukawa interactions of the model lead to a non-hermitian charged
lepton mass matrix. In other words, the minimal 3-3-1 model presents a very
complex lepton mixing. In view of this we check rigorously if the possible
textures of the lepton mass matrices allowed by the minimal 3-3-1 model can
lead or not to the neutrino mixing required by the recent experiments in
neutrino oscillation.Comment: two references add, minor chages, accepted for publication in MPL
Realizing the supersymmetric inverse seesaw model in the framework of R-parity violation
If, on one hand, the inverse seesaw is the paradigm of TeV scale seesaw
mechanism, on the other it is a challenge to find scenarios capable of
realizing it. In this work we propose a scenario, based on the framework of
R-parity violation, that realizes minimally the supersymmetric inverse seesaw
mechanism. In it the energy scale parameters involved in the mechanism are
recognized as the vacuum expectation values of the scalars that compose the
singlet superfields and . We develop also the scalar sector
of the model and show that the Higgs mass receives a new tree-level
contribution that, when combined with the standard contribution plus loop
correction, is capable of attaining GeV without resort to heavy stops.Comment: Minor modification of the text. Final version to be published in PL
Inverse type II seesaw mechanism and its signature at the LHC and ILC
The advent of the LHC, and the proposal of building future colliders as the
ILC, both programmed to explore new physics at the TeV scale, justifies the
recent interest in studying all kind of seesaw mechanisms whose signature lies
on such energy scale. The natural candidate for this kind of seesaw mechanism
is the inverse one. The conventional inverse seesaw mechanism is implemented in
an arrangement involving six new heavy neutrinos in addition to the three
standard ones. In this paper we develop the inverse seesaw mechanism based on
Higgs triplet model and probe its signature at the LHC and ILC. We argue that
the conjoint analysis of the LHC together with the ILC may confirm the
mechanism and, perhaps, infer the hierarchy of the neutrino masses.Comment: 24 pages, 22 figure
- …