263 research outputs found
Internal and external threat in relationship with right-wing attitudes
Objective
Previous studies on the relationship between threat and right-wing attitudes have tended to focus on either internal threat, emanating from one's private life, or external threat, originating from society. However, these studies failed to examine whether these types of threats constitute two distinctive dimensions and which of these threats is most closely related to right-wing attitudes.
Method
In order to explore the dimensions underlying threat, a factor analysis on a variety of threat scales was conducted (Study 1; N?=?300). Furthermore, in a meta-analysis (Study 2; total N?=?22,086) and a questionnaire study in a large representative sample (Study 3, N?=?800) the strength of the relationships of internal and external threat with right-wing attitudes were investigated.
Results
The present studies revealed that internal and external threat can be considered as two distinct dimensions underlying threat. Moreover, whereas external threat yielded strong relationships with right-wing attitudes, internal threat only explained a minor part of the variance in these attitudes.
Conclusions
External rather than internal threat underlies the relationship between threat and right-wing attitudes
Are avian predators effective biological control agents for rodent pest management in agricultural systems?
Worldwide rodent pests are of significant economic and health importance. Controlling rodent pests will, therefore, not only benefit food security but also human and animal health. While rodent pests are most often chemically controlled, there is increased interest in biological control through avian predation. A rich body of research has addressed the impact of avian predators on wild rodent populations, but little is known about the effectiveness of avian predators as biological control agents of rodent pests in agricultural systems. In this study, we systematically reviewed research that investigated different aspects of avian predation on rodent pest populations in order to increase our understanding of the impact and effectiveness of avian predation on rodent pests. Several avian predators (Tyto alba, Elanus axillaris Falco tinnunculus, F. cenchroides, Bubo bengalensis, Buteo rufinus) were commonly cited in the biological control of rodents; however, barn owls (T. alba) are the most cited species (86% of studies). We found some support that the use of avian predators produced positive, measurable effects where increased presence of avian predators tended to lower rodent pest numbers, resulting in lower crop damage. However, our review highlighted several shortcomings related to research on avian predation of rodent pests. First, research concerning rodent pest control through avian predation was limited (1.86 articles per year). Secondly, we found that studies lack statistical rigor to detect and measure change in rodent pest species abundance. Finally, the majority of studies were short term and therefore not able to evaluate long term sustainable rodent pest population suppression. We suggest that current shortcomings could be adequately addressed with control-treatment studies that quantitatively investigate the effects of avian predation on rodent pest populations and agricultural impact. Such research could help develop recommendations regarding the use of avian predators in rodent pest management
Measurement and Interpretation of Fermion-Pair Production at LEP energies above the Z Resonance
This paper presents DELPHI measurements and interpretations of
cross-sections, forward-backward asymmetries, and angular distributions, for
the e+e- -> ffbar process for centre-of-mass energies above the Z resonance,
from sqrt(s) ~ 130 - 207 GeV at the LEP collider. The measurements are
consistent with the predictions of the Standard Model and are used to study a
variety of models including the S-Matrix ansatz for e+e- -> ffbar scattering
and several models which include physics beyond the Standard Model: the
exchange of Z' bosons, contact interactions between fermions, the exchange of
gravitons in large extra dimensions and the exchange of sneutrino in R-parity
violating supersymmetry.Comment: 79 pages, 16 figures, Accepted by Eur. Phys. J.
A Determination of the Centre-of-Mass Energy at LEP2 using Radiative 2-fermion Events
Using e+e- -> mu+mu-(gamma) and e+e- -> qqbar(gamma) events radiative to the
Z pole, DELPHI has determined the centre-of-mass energy, sqrt{s}, using energy
and momentum constraint methods. The results are expressed as deviations from
the nominal LEP centre-of-mass energy, measured using other techniques. The
results are found to be compatible with the LEP Energy Working Group estimates
for a combination of the 1997 to 2000 data sets.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures, Accepted by Eur. Phys. J.
Study of Tau-pair Production in Photon-Photon Collisions at LEP and Limits on the Anomalous Electromagnetic Moments of the Tau Lepton
Tau-pair production in the process e+e- -> e+e-tau+tau- was studied using
data collected by the DELPHI experiment at LEP2 during the years 1997 - 2000.
The corresponding integrated luminosity is 650 pb^{-1}. The values of the
cross-section obtained are found to be in agreement with QED predictions.
Limits on the anomalous magnetic and electric dipole moments of the tau lepton
are deduced.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures, Accepted by Eur. Phys. J.
A Measurement of the Tau Hadronic Branching Ratios
The exclusive and semi-exclusive branching ratios of the tau lepton hadronic
decay modes (h- v_t, h- pi0 v_t, h- pi0 pi0 v_t, h- \geq 2pi0 v_t, h- \geq 3pi0
v_t, 2h- h+ v_t, 2h- h+ pi0 v_t, 2h- h+ \geq 2pi0 v_t, 3h- 2h+ v_t and 3h- 2h+
\geq 1pi0 v_t) were measured with data from the DELPHI detector at LEP.Comment: 53 pages, 18 figures, Accepted by Eur. Phys. J.
Study of Leading Hadrons in Gluon and Quark Fragmentation
The study of quark jets in e+e- reactions at LEP has demonstrated that the
hadronisation process is reproduced well by the Lund string model. However, our
understanding of gluon fragmentation is less complete. In this study enriched
quark and gluon jet samples of different purities are selected in three-jet
events from hadronic decays of the Z collected by the DELPHI experiment in the
LEP runs during 1994 and 1995. The leading systems of the two kinds of jets are
defined by requiring a rapidity gap and their sum of charges is studied. An
excess of leading systems with total charge zero is found for gluon jets in all
cases, when compared to Monte Carlo Simulations with JETSET (with and without
Bose-Einstein correlations included) and ARIADNE. The corresponding leading
systems of quark jets do not exhibit such an excess. The influence of the gap
size and of the gluon purity on the effect is studied and a concentration of
the excess of neutral leading systems at low invariant masses (<~ 2 GeV/c^2) is
observed, indicating that gluon jets might have an additional hitherto
undetected fragmentation mode via a two-gluon system. This could be an
indication of a possible production of gluonic states as predicted by QCD.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures, Accepted by Phys. Lett.
Evidence for an Excess of Soft Photons in Hadronic Decays of Z^0
Soft photons inside hadronic jets converted in front of the DELPHI main
tracker (TPC) in events of qqbar disintegrations of the Z^0 were studied in the
kinematic range 0.2 < E_gamma < 1 GeV and transverse momentum with respect to
the closest jet direction p_T < 80 MeV/c. A clear excess of photons in the
experimental data as compared to the Monte Carlo predictions is observed. This
excess (uncorrected for the photon detection efficiency) is (1.17 +/- 0.06 +/-
0.27) x 10^{-3} gamma/jet in the specified kinematic region, while the expected
level of the inner hadronic bremsstrahlung (which is not included in the Monte
Carlo) is (0.340 +/- 0.001 +/- 0.038) x 10^{-3} gamma/jet. The ratio of the
excess to the predicted bremsstrahlung rate is then (3.4 +/- 0.2 +/- 0.8),
which is similar in strength to the anomalous soft photon signal observed in
fixed target experiments with hadronic beams.Comment: 37 pages, 9 figures, Accepted by Eur. Phys. J.
Determination of the b quark mass at the M_Z scale with the DELPHI detector at LEP
An experimental study of the normalized three-jet rate of b quark events with
respect to light quarks events (light= \ell \equiv u,d,s) has been performed
using the CAMBRIDGE and DURHAM jet algorithms. The data used were collected by
the DELPHI experiment at LEP on the Z peak from 1994 to 2000. The results are
found to agree with theoretical predictions treating mass corrections at
next-to-leading order. Measurements of the b quark mass have also been
performed for both the b pole mass: M_b and the b running mass: m_b(M_Z). Data
are found to be better described when using the running mass. The measurement
yields: m_b(M_Z) = 2.85 +/- 0.18 (stat) +/- 0.13 (exp) +/- 0.19 (had) +/- 0.12
(theo) GeV/c^2 for the CAMBRIDGE algorithm. This result is the most precise
measurement of the b mass derived from a high energy process. When compared to
other b mass determinations by experiments at lower energy scales, this value
agrees with the prediction of Quantum Chromodynamics for the energy evolution
of the running mass. The mass measurement is equivalent to a test of the
flavour independence of the strong coupling constant with an accuracy of 7
permil.Comment: 24 pages, 10 figures, Accepted by Eur. Phys. J.
CP asymmetry in in a general two-Higgs-doublet model with fourth-generation quarks
We discuss the time-dependent CP asymmetry of decay in an
extension of the Standard Model with both two Higgs doublets and additional
fourth-generation quarks. We show that although the Standard Model with
two-Higgs-doublet and the Standard model with fourth generation quarks alone
are not likely to largely change the effective from the decay of
, the model with both additional Higgs doublet and
fourth-generation quarks can easily account for the possible large negative
value of without conflicting with other experimental
constraints. In this model, additional large CP violating effects may arise
from the flavor changing Yukawa interactions between neutral Higgs bosons and
the heavy fourth generation down type quark, which can modify the QCD penguin
contributions. With the constraints obtained from processes
such as and , this model can lead to the
effective to be as large as in the CP asymmetry of .Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, references added, to appear in Eur.Phys.J.
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