5,034 research outputs found
Evaluation of the NAS-ILAB Matrix for Monitoring International Labor Standards: Project Report
The Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) engaged the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to recommend a method to monitor and evaluate labor conditions in a given country. The method focuses on 5 labor standards: freedom of association and collective bargaining, forced or compulsory labor, child labor, discrimination, and acceptable conditions of work
Screening for Parkinson’s Disease with Response Time Barriers: A Pilot Study
Background: Although significant response time deficits (both reaction time and movement time) have been identified in numerous studies of patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD), few attempts have been made to evaluate the use of these measures in screening for PD.
Methods: Receiver operator characteristic curves were used to identify cutoff scores for a unitweighted composite of two choice response tasks in a sample of 40 patients and 40 healthy participants. These scores were then cross-validated in an independent sample of 20 patients and 20 healthy participants.
Results: The unit-weighted movement time composite demonstrated high sensitivity (90%) and specificity (90%) in the identification of PD. Movement time was also significantly correlated (r = 0.59, p \u3c 0.025) with the motor score of the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS).
Conclusions: Measures of chronometric speed, assessed without the use of biomechanically complex movements, have a potential role in screening for PD. Furthermore, the significant correlation between movement time and UPDRS motor score suggests that movement time may be useful in the quantification of PD severity
Neutrino mass hierarchy and octant determination with atmospheric neutrinos
The recent discovery by the Daya-Bay and RENO experiments, that \theta_{13}
is nonzero and relatively large, significantly impacts existing experiments and
the planning of future facilities. In many scenarios, the nonzero value of
\theta_{13} implies that \theta_{23} is likely to be different from \pi/4.
Additionally, large detectors will be sensitive to matter effects on the
oscillations of atmospheric neutrinos, making it possible to determine the
neutrino mass hierarchy and the octant of \theta_{23}. We show that a 50 kT
magnetized liquid argon neutrino detector can ascertain the mass hierarchy with
a significance larger than 4 sigma with moderate exposure times, and the octant
at the level of 2-3 sigma with greater exposure.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Version published in Phys. Rev. Let
SUSY dark matter and lepton flavor violation
We study lepton flavor-violating (LFV) processes within a supersymmetric
type-I seesaw framework with flavor-blind universal boundary conditions,
properly accounting for the effect of the neutrino sector on the dark matter
relic abundance. We consider several possibilities for the neutrino Yukawa
coupling matrix and show that in regions of SUSY parameter space that yield the
correct neutralino relic density, LFV rates can differ from naive estimates by
up to two orders of magnitude. Contrary to common belief, we find that current
LFV limits do not exclude neutrino Yukawa couplings larger than top Yukawa
couplings. We introduce the ISAJET-M program that was used for the
computations.Comment: 37 pages, 9 figures, 6 tables. Version to appear in PR
Production Technology and Competitiveness In the Hungarian Manufacturing Industry
Following the big transformations of the 1990s, enterprise structure and technological level seem to
have become stabilised in Hungary. Under these circumstances it is especially interesting to identify
the elements responsible for competitiveness in general, and the role technology plays in development
in particular, according to managers experienced in production and marketing. This empirical
study – based on in-depth interviews and field research – summarises characteristics of the technological
level in the sectors examined, role of technology and labour in production, effects of foreign
direct investment, relations between competition and firm-level factors determining competitiveness,
and concludes by summing up those most frequently mentioned proposals that should be incorporated
into economic policy according to managers. Main findings indicate that more qualified,
more intensive and cheaper labour can be substituted for high technology. The competitiveness of an
enterprise is not determined by technology alone, but rather by a combination of technology, the parameters
of available labour and the costs of investment increasing productivity. The insufficiency
of inter-company relations, together with a shortage of available assets necessary for investment
constitute the major threat undermining the competitiveness of enterprises in present-day Hungary
Higgs Sector in Extensions of the MSSM
Extensions of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) with
additional singlet scalar fields solve the important mu-parameter fine tuning
problem of the MSSM. We compute and compare the neutral Higgs boson mass
spectra, including one-loop corrections, of the following MSSM extensions:
Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (NMSSM), the nearly-Minimal
Supersymmetric Standard Model (nMSSM), and the U(1)'-extended Minimal
Supersymmetric Standard Model (UMSSM) by performing scans over model
parameters. We find that the Secluded U(1)'-extended Minimal Supersymmetric
Standard Model (sMSSM) is identical to the nMSSM if three of the additional
scalars decouple. The dominant part of the one-loop corrections are
model-independent since the singlet field does not couple to MSSM particles
other than the Higgs doublets. Thus, model-dependent parameters enter the
masses only at tree-level. We apply constraints from LEP bounds on the Standard
Model and MSSM Higgs boson masses and the MSSM chargino mass, the invisible Z
decay width, and the Z-Z' mixing angle. Some extended models permit a Higgs
boson with mass substantially below the SM LEP limit or above theoretical
limits in the MSSM. Ways to differentiate the models via masses, couplings,
decays and production of the Higgs bosons are discussed.Comment: 65 pages, 15 figures. Figure replaced and typos corrected. Version to
appear in Phys. Rev.
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