Establishing the Isolated Standard Model

The goal of this article is to initiate a discussion on what it takes to claim "there is no new physics at the weak scale," namely that the Standard Model (SM) is "isolated." The lack of discovery of beyond the SM (BSM) physics suggests that this may be the case. But to truly establish this statement requires proving all "connected" BSM theories are false, which presents a significant challenge. We propose a general approach to quantitatively assess the current status and future prospects of establishing the isolated SM (ISM), which we give a reasonable definition of. We consider broad elements of BSM theories, and show many examples where current experimental results are not sufficient to verify the ISM. In some cases, there is a clear roadmap for the future experimental program, which we outline, while in other cases, further efforts -- both theoretical and experimental -- are needed in order to robustly claim the establishment of the ISM in the absence of new physics discoveries.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, 1 tabl

Clinical study to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the Aesculap Activ-L™ artificial disc in the treatment of degenerative disc disease

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The objective of this clinical study is to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the Activ-L Artificial Disc for treatment of single-level degenerative disc disease of the lumbar spine in patients who have been unresponsive to at least six months of prior conservative care. The hypothesis of the study is that the Activ-L Disc is non-inferior to the control (the Charité^®Artificial Disc [DePuy Spine] or ProDisc-L^®Total Disc Replacement [Synthes Spine]) with respect to the rate of individual subject success at 24 months. Individual subject success is a composite of effectiveness and safety.</p> <p>Methods/Design</p> <p>The study proposed is a prospective, randomized, single-masked, controlled, multi-center clinical trial consisting of an estimated 414 subjects with single-level DDD of the lumbar spine (L4/L5, or L5/S1) who have failed to improve with conservative treatment for at least six months prior to enrollment. After enrollment, subjects will be randomized in a 2:1 ratio to either the Activ-L Disc (investigational device) or the control (Charité or ProDisc-L). Radiographic endpoints will be evaluated by an independent reviewer at an imaging core laboratory. Each subject will be followed for 5 years post-treatment.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>The safety and effectiveness of the Activ-L Artificial Disc for treatment of single-level degenerative disc disease of the lumbar spine will be equivalent to Charité^®Artificial Disc [DePuy Spine] or ProDisc-L^®Total Disc Replacement [Synthes Spine] at 24 months.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p>Current Controlled Trials NCT00589797.</p

Rigid‐body motion correction of the liver in image reconstruction for golden‐angle stack‐of‐stars DCE MRI

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/141403/1/mrm26782_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/141403/2/mrm26782.pd

Abdominal DCE‐MRI reconstruction with deformable motion correction for liver perfusion quantification

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146361/1/mp13118_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146361/2/mp13118.pd