Linking Natural Supersymmetry to Flavour Physics

With the aim of linking natural supersymmetry to flavour physics, a model is proposed based on a family symmetry G \times U(1), where G is a discrete nonabelian subgroup of SU(2), with both F-term and (abelian) D-term supersymmetry breaking. A good fit to the fermion masses and mixing is obtained with the same U(1) charges for the left- and right- handed quarks of the first two families and the right-handed bottom quark, and with zero charge for the left-handed top-bottom doublet and the the right handed top. The model shows an interesting indirect correlation between the correct prediction for the V_{ub}/V_{cb} ratio and large right-handed rotations in the (s,b) sector, required to diagonalise the Yukawa matrix. For the squarks, one obtains almost degenerate first two generations. The main source of the FCNC and CP violation effects is the splitting between the first two families and the right-handed sbottom determined by the relative size of F-term and D-term supersymmetry breaking. The presence of the large right-handed rotation implies that the bounds on the masses of the first two families of squarks and the right handed sbottom are in a few to a few tens TeV range. The picture that emerges is light stops and left handed sbottom and much heavier other squarks.Comment: 29 pages, v2: Discussion on mu->e gamma modified, added some clarifications and references; published versio

A mezÅ‘gazdasági termelÅ‘k motivációi az állati termékek előállításában

A magyar állattenyésztés helyzete 2004 óta is folyamatosan romlik. A mezÅ‘gaz¬dasági kibocsátásból való részesedése több év óta 37-38 százalék körül stagnál, az állatállomány csökken. Mindez szorosan összefügg azzal, hogy a fontosabb ágazatok jövedelemhelyzete bizonytalan, és az évek közötti hullámzása is jelentÅ‘s. A felvásárlási árak gyakran nem fedezik a termékek költségeit, és csak az állami támogatásokkal jutnak minimális nyereséghez a gazdaságok. Az átlagos értékek hátterében eltérÅ‘ termelési színvonalon gazdálkodó vállalkozások húzódnak meg: versenyképesen és jövedelmezÅ‘en termelÅ‘k, és az eseményekkel sodródó, többnyire veszteségesen ter¬melÅ‘k. FÅ‘leg ez utóbbiakkal kapcsolatban jogosan merül fel a kérdés, hogy vajon mi motiválja tevékenységüket? Az AKI-ban termelÅ‘kkel folytatott interjúkra alapozott vizsgálat keretében kerestük a választ erre. A motivációk jelentÅ‘s része nem ágazatspecifikus, mert a vidéki ember állatszeretete mélyen gyökerezik, nehezen adja fel az állattartó életformát. Az alternatív munkalehetÅ‘ségek hiánya, a megélhetési nehézségek is sokakat tartanak a termelésben. A családi keretekben gazdálkodók döntÅ‘ többségénél a mezÅ‘gazdasági munka és ezen belül az állattartás kiegészítÅ‘ jövedelemszerzést szolgál. A nagyobb méretű üzemeknél sokszor a munkaerÅ‘ foglalkoztatása, megÅ‘rzése magyarázza az állattenyésztés fenntartását. Ez részben szociális hálóként is felfogható. EttÅ‘l viszont nehezen várható el, hogy egyben gazdaságos is legyen. A versenyképes üzemeknél fÅ‘ szempont a hatékony, gazdaságos termelés, és ezeket, ha tartósan (3-4 év) veszteséges az ágazat, felszámolják, de a felszámolásnak is komolyak a költségei. Az állatokat, még ha áron alul is, csak-csak el lehet adni, de az épületeket, berendezéseket nem, így azok amortizációja és állagmegÅ‘rzése terheli a gazdálkodókat. További költségeket jelentenek a korábban felvett hitelek, támogatások fejében vállalt kötelezettségek. A vizsgálatok egyik fontos megállapítása, hogy fÅ‘leg a kisméretű üzemeknél nem látható a folytatás, nincsen, aki átvegye a gazdaságot. A nagyméretű gazdaságok egy részének jövÅ‘je is bizonytalan, mert nem tudnak és esetenként nem is akarnak a szigorú egészségügyi és környezetvédelmi előírásoknak megfelelni. -------------------------------- Animal farming in Hungary has been on a constant decline since 2004. Its share in agricultural output has been at 37-38 per cent for years, and the number of animals is declining. This is closely related to the fact that revenues in the major branches of the industry are insecure and fluctuate significantly from one year to another. Purchase prices often do not cover product costs, farms rely on the governmental subsidies to make a minimal profit. Average values are derived from data obtained from businesses with varying quality of production: some are profitable and competitive, while others lack initiative and are usually unprofitable. One may justifiably wonder about why these businesses – especially the latter group – remain in existence. Our research was based on interviews conducted with farmers at the AKI to find the answer to this question. To a significant degree, motivations are not industry specific, as people living in the countryside have a deep love for animals and are reluctant to give up their lifestyle as animal farmers. Many remain in the industry due to the lack of alternative jobs and the pressure of family finances. In family businesses, agriculture, including animal husbandry, often serves as an additional source of income. In larger farms, animal husbandry operations are often sustained in order to retain existing employees. This may be seen as a welfare network of sorts – but then profitability is hardly an applicable requirement. The main criteria for competitive farms are efficiency and profitability of productions; if they are unprofitable for a longer period (3-4 years), they are wound up. Winding up a business, however, also has its costs. Animals can be sold, albeit at less then what they are worth; buildings and equipment, however, cannot, so farmers must bear the costs of amortisation and maintenance. Obligations resulting from earlier loans and subsidies are another source of costs. An important finding was that – especially with smaller farms – the future is insecure because they have nobody to take over and continue the farm. The future is insecure for many of the large farms as well because they are not able – and sometimes not willing – to meet the strict environmental and health requirements.állattartás, jövedelemhiány, jövÅ‘kép, termelÅ‘i motiváció, animal husbandry, lack of income, vision, motivation of producers, Farm Management, Livestock Production/Industries,

Self-relevant disgust and self-harm urges in patients with borderline personality disorder and depression: a pilot study with a newly designed psychological challenge.

BACKGROUND: Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a common psychiatric condition associated with self-harm. Self-harm is poorly understood and there is currently no treatment for acute presentations with self-harm urges. OBJECTIVES: By using a new task (Self-relevant Task; SRT), to explore emotions related to one's own person (PERSON task) and body (BODY task), to study the correlations of these emotions, specifically disgust, with self-harm urge level changes, and to test the task's potential to be developed into an experimental model of self-harming for treatment trials. METHODS: 17 BPD patients, 27 major depressive disorder (MDD) patients, and 25 healthy volunteers performed the SRT. Emotion labels were extracted from task narratives and disgust and self-harm urge level changes measured by visual analogue scales. We used validated rating scales to measure symptom severity. RESULTS: The SRT was effective at inducing negative emotions and self-harm urge changes. Self-harm urge changes correlated with borderline symptom severity. Post-task disgust levels on the visual analogue scales were higher in BPD patients than in healthy controls in the PERSON task, and higher than in both control groups in the BODY task. Changes in disgust levels during the task were significantly greater in the patient groups. Post-task disgust levels or changes in disgust were not associated with self-harm urge changes (except the latter in MDD in the PERSON task), but self-harm urge changes and disgust (but no other emotion) narrative labels were on a whole sample level. CONCLUSION: Although associations with the analogue scale measures were not significant, self-disgust reported in the narrative of patients may be associated with a higher probability of self-harm urges. Further research with larger sample sizes is needed to confirm this relationship and to examine whether reducing self-disgust could reduce self-harm urges. The SRT was effective and safe, and could be standardized for experimental studies.This work was partly funded by a Core Award from the Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust to the Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute (MRC Ref G1000183; WT Ref 093875/Z/10/Z). Sawsan Abdul-Hamid received a grant from the Evelyn Trust to help to cover the costs of her research placement with the research group. The Talisman Trust also supported the study with a grant.This is the final published version, which can also be found on the PLoS website here: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0099696#ac

Antidepressants for treating depression in dementia

BackgroundThe use of antidepressants in dementia accompanied by depressive symptoms is widespread, but their clinical efficacy is uncertain. This review updates an earlier version, first published in 2002.ObjectivesTo determine the efficacy and safety of any type of antidepressant for patients who have been diagnosed as having dementia of any type and depression as defined by recognised criteria.Search methodsWe searched ALOIS, the Cochrane Dementia and Cognitive Improvement Group’s Specialised Register, on 16 August 2017. ALOIS contains information on trials retrieved from databases and from a number of trial registers and grey literature sources.Selection criteriaWe included all relevant double‐blind, randomised trials comparing any antidepressant drug with placebo, for patients diagnosed as having dementia and depression.Data collection and analysisTwo review authors selected studies for inclusion and extracted data independently. We assessed risk of bias in the included studies using the Cochrane 'Risk of bias' tool. Where clinically appropriate, we pooled data for treatment periods up to three months and from three to nine months. We used GRADE methods to assess the overall quality of the evidence.Main resultsWe included ten studies with a total of 1592 patients. Eight included studies reported sufficiently detailed results to enter into analyses related to antidepressant efficacy. We split one study which included two different antidepressants and therefore had nine groups of patients treated with antidepressants compared with nine groups receiving placebo treatment. Information needed to make 'Risk of bias' judgements was often missing.We found high‐quality evidence of little or no difference in scores on depression symptom rating scales between the antidepressant and placebo treated groups after 6 to 13 weeks (standardised mean difference (SMD) ‐0.10, 95% confidence interval (CI) ‐0.26 to 0.06; 614 participants; 8 studies). There was probably also little or no difference between groups after six to nine months (mean difference (MD) 0.59 point, 95% CI ‐1.12 to 2.3, 357 participants; 2 studies; moderate‐quality evidence). The evidence on response rates at 12 weeks was of low quality, and imprecision in the result meant we were uncertain of any effect of antidepressants (antidepressant: 49.1%, placebo: 37.7%; odds ratio (OR) 1.71, 95% CI 0.80 to 3.67; 116 participants; 3 studies). However, the remission rate was probably higher in the antidepressant group than the placebo group (antidepressant: 40%, placebo: 21.7%; OR 2.57, 95% CI 1.44 to 4.59; 240 participants; 4 studies; moderate‐quality evidence). The largest of these studies continued for another 12 weeks, but because of imprecision of the result we could not be sure of any effect of antidepressants on remission rates after 24 weeks. There was evidence of no effect of antidepressants on performance of activities of daily living at weeks 6 to 13 (SMD ‐0.05, 95% CI ‐0.36 to 0.25; 173 participants; 4 studies; high‐quality evidence) and probably also little or no effect on cognition (MD 0.33 point on the Mini‐Mental State Examination, 95% CI ‐1.31 to 1.96; 194 participants; 6 studies; moderate‐quality evidence).Participants on antidepressants were probably more likely to drop out of treatment than those on placebo over 6 to 13 weeks (OR 1.51, 95% CI 1.07 to 2.14; 836 participants; 9 studies). The meta‐analysis of the number of participants suffering at least one adverse event showed a significant difference in favour of placebo (antidepressant: 49.2%, placebo: 38.4%; OR 1.55, 95% CI 1.21 to 1.98, 1073 participants; 3 studies), as did the analyses for participants suffering one event of dry mouth (antidepressant: 19.6%, placebo: 13.3%; OR 1.80, 95% CI 1.23 to 2.63, 1044 participants; 5 studies), and one event of dizziness (antidepressant: 19.2%, placebo: 12.5%; OR 2.00, 95% CI 1.34 to 2.98, 1044 participants; 5 studies). Heterogeneity in the way adverse events were reported in studies presented a major difficulty for meta‐analysis, but there was some evidence that antidepressant treatment causes more adverse effects than placebo treatment does.Authors' conclusionsThe available evidence is of variable quality and does not provide strong support for the efficacy of antidepressants for treating depression in dementia, especially beyond 12 weeks. On the only measure of efficacy for which we had high‐quality evidence (depression rating scale scores), antidepressants showed little or no effect. The evidence on remission rates favoured antidepressants but was of moderate quality, so future research may find a different result. There was insufficient evidence to draw conclusions about individual antidepressant drugs or about subtypes of dementia or depression. There is some evidence that antidepressant treatment may cause adverse events

Brain structural signatures of negative symptoms in depression and schizophrenia.

Negative symptoms occur in several major mental health disorders with undetermined mechanisms and unsatisfactory treatments; identification of their neural correlates might unveil the underlying pathophysiological basis and pinpoint the therapeutic targets. In this study, participants with major depressive disorder (n = 24), schizophrenia (n = 22), and healthy controls (n = 20) were assessed with 10 frequently used negative symptom scales followed by principal component analysis (PCA) of the scores. A linear model with the prominent components identified by PCA was then regressed on gray and white-matter volumes estimated from T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging. In depressed patients, negative symptoms such as blunted affect, alogia, withdrawal, and cognitive impairment, assessed mostly via clinician-rated scales were inversely associated with gray matter volume in the bilateral cerebellum. In patients with schizophrenia, anhedonia, and avolition evaluated via self-rated scales inversely related to white-matter volume in the left anterior limb of internal capsule/anterior thalamic radiation and positively in the left superior longitudinal fasiculus. The pathophysiological mechanisms underlying negative symptoms might differ between depression and schizophrenia. These results also point to future negative symptom scale development primarily focused on detecting and monitoring the corresponding changes to brain structure or function.This work was supported by Brain and Behavior Research Foundation (NARSAD) and Medical Research Council (MRC) awards to GKM, and by the Wellcome Trust/MRC Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge. We thank Dr. Zheng Ye for her help with image analysis and technical support, Niels Reinders and staff at the Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre for help with data collection, and staff at IAPT, CAMEO and the Rehabilitation and Recovery Service in the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust for help with recruitment. The study was supported by infrastructure provided by the Wellcome Trust/MRC Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute at the University of Cambridge.This is the final version published by Frontiers here: http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyt.2014.00116/abstract

Reduction in ventral striatal activity when anticipating a reward in depression and schizophrenia: a replicated cross-diagnostic finding.

In the research domain framework (RDoC), dysfunctional reward expectation has been proposed to be a cross-diagnostic domain in psychiatry, which may contribute to symptoms common to various neuropsychiatric conditions, such as anhedonia or apathy/avolition. We used a modified version of the Monetary Incentive Delay (MID) paradigm to obtain functional MRI images from 22 patients with schizophrenia, 24 with depression and 21 controls. Anhedonia and other symptoms of depression, and overall positive and negative symptomatology were also measured. We hypothesized that the two clinical groups would have a reduced activity in the ventral striatum when anticipating reward (compared to anticipation of a neutral outcome) and that striatal activation would correlate with clinical measures of motivational problems and anhedonia. Results were consistent with the first hypothesis: two clusters in both the left and right ventral striatum were found to differ between the groups in reward anticipation. Post-hoc analysis showed that this was due to higher activation in the controls compared to the schizophrenia and the depression groups in the right ventral striatum, with activation differences between depression and controls also seen in the left ventral striatum. No differences were found between the two patient groups, and there were no areas of abnormal cortical activation in either group that survived correction for multiple comparisons. Reduced ventral striatal activity was related to greater anhedonia and overall depressive symptoms in the schizophrenia group, but not in the participants with depression. Findings are discussed in relation to previous literature but overall are supporting evidence of reward system dysfunction across the neuropsychiatric continuum, even if the specific clinical relevance is still not fully understood. We also discuss how the RDoC approach may help to solve some of the replication problems in psychiatric fMRI research.Supported by the Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund [097814/Z/11], a MRC Clinician Scientist [G0701911], a Brain and Behavior Research Foundation Young Investigator, and an Isaac Newton Trust award to Dr Murray; an award to Dr Segarra from the Secretary for Universities and Research of the Ministry of Economy and Knowledge of the Government of Catalonia and the European Union; by the University of Cambridge Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, funded by a joint award from the Medical Research Council [G1000183]and Wellcome Trust [093875/Z/10/Z]; by awards from the Wellcome Trust [095692] and the Bernard Wolfe Health Neuroscience Fund to Dr. Fletcher, and by the Cambridge NIHR Biomedical Research Centre.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Frontiers via http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.0128

Moduli Stabilization with Long Winding Strings

Stabilizing all of the modulus fields coming from compactifications of string theory on internal manifolds is one of the outstanding challenges for string cosmology. Here, in a simple example of toroidal compactification, we study the dynamics of the moduli fields corresponding to the size and shape of the torus along with the ambient flux and long strings winding both internal directions. It is known that a string gas containing states with non-vanishing winding and momentum number in one internal direction can stabilize the radius of this internal circle to be at self-dual radius. We show that a gas of long strings winding all internal directions can stabilize all moduli, except the dilaton which is stabilized by hand, in this simple example.Comment: title changed, improved presentation; reference added. 18 pages, JHEP styl

The overlap between autistic spectrum conditions and borderline personality disorder

BACKGROUND: Both people with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) and borderline personality disorder (BPD) are significantly challenged in terms of understanding and responding to emotions and in interpersonal functioning. AIMS: To compare ASC, BPD, and comorbid patients in terms of autistic traits, empathy, and systemizing. METHODS: 624 ASC, 23 BPD, and 16 comorbid (ASC+BPD) patients, and 2,081 neurotypical controls (NC) filled in the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ), the Empathy Quotient (EQ) and the Systemizing Quotient-Revised (SQ-R). RESULTS: On the AQ, the ASC group scored higher than the BPD group, who in turn scored higher than the comorbid group, who scored higher than controls. On the EQ, we found the comorbid and ASC groups scored lower than the BPD group, who were not different from controls. Finally, on the SQ-R, we found the ASC and BPD group both scored higher than controls. CONCLUSIONS: Similar to ASC, BPD patients have elevated autistic traits and a strong drive to systemize, suggesting an overlap between BPD and ASC.The authors were supported by the Autism Research Trust and the MRC during the period of this work. The research was also supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care East of England at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

Supersymmetric Models with Higher Dimensional Operators

In 4D renormalisable theories, integrating out massive states generates in the low energy effective action higher dimensional operators (derivative or otherwise). Using a superfield language it is shown that a 4D N=1 supersymmetric theory with higher derivative operators in either the Kahler or the superpotential part of the Lagrangian and with an otherwise arbitrary superpotential, is equivalent to a 4D N=1 theory of second order (i.e. without higher derivatives) with additional superfields and renormalised interactions. We provide examples where a free theory with trivial supersymmetry breaking provided by a linear superpotential becomes, in the presence of higher derivatives terms and in the second order version, a non-trivial interactive one with spontaneous supersymmetry breaking. The couplings of the equivalent theory acquire a threshold correction through their dependence on the scale of the higher dimensional operator(s). The scalar potential in the second order theory is not necessarily positive definite, and one can in principle have a vanishing potential with broken supersymmetry. We provide an application to MSSM and argue that at tree-level and for a mass scale associated to a higher derivative term in the TeV range, the Higgs mass can be lifted above the current experimental limits.Comment: 36 pages; some clarifications and references adde