Associated production of a light Higgs boson and a chargino pair in the MSSM at linear colliders

In the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM), we study the light Higgs-boson radiation off a light-chargino pair in the process e+e- -> h chi^+ chi^- at linear colliders with \sqs=500 GeV. We analyze cross sections in the regions of the MSSM parameter space where the process can not proceed via on-shell production and subsequent decay of either heavier charginos or the pseudoscalar Higgs boson A. Cross sections up to a few fb's are allowed, according to present experimental limits on the Higgs-boson, chargino and sneutrino masses. We also show how a measurement of the process production rate could provide a determination of the Higgs-boson couplings to charginos.Comment: 26 pages, 9 figures; figure misplacement fixed; to appear in Eur.Phys.J.

Quartic Anomalous Couplings in γγ\gamma\gamma Colliders

We study the constraints on the vertices $W^+W^- Z\gamma$, $W^+W^-\gamma\gamma$, and $ZZ\gamma\gamma$ that can be obtained from triple-gauge-boson production at the next generation of linear $e^+e^-$ colliders operating in the $\gamma\gamma$ mode. We analyze the processes $\gamma\gamma \to W^+W^-V$ ($V=Z$, or $\gamma$) and show that these reactions increase the potential of $e^+e^-$ machines to search for anomalous four-gauge-boson interactions.Comment: 15 pages, Latex file using ReVteX, 4 uufiled figures include

The visible effect of a very heavy magnetic monopole at colliders

If a heavy Dirac monopole exists, the light-to-light scattering below the monopole production threshold is enhanced due to strong coupling of monopoles to photons. At the next Linear Collider with electron beam energy 250 GeV this photon pair production could be observable at monopole masses less than 2.5-6.4 TeV in the $e^+e^-$ mode or 3.7-10 TeV in the $\gamma\gamma$ mode, depending on the monopole spin. At the upgraded Tevatron such an effect is expected to be visible at monopole masses below 1-2.5 TeV. The strong dependence on the initial photon polarizations allows to find the monopole spin in experiments at $e^+e^-$ and $\gamma\gamma$ colliders. We consider the $Z\gamma$ production and the $3\gamma$ production at $e^+e^-$ and $pp$ or $p\bar{p}$ colliders via the same monopole loop. The possibility to discover these processes is significantly lower than that of the $\gamma\gamma$ case.Comment: 18 pages, 2 figures, RevTe

Incidence of ANCA-associated vasculitis in a UK mixed ethnicity population

Objectives: We aimed to estimate the incidence of ANCA-associated vasculitis in the UK and how this varied by ethnic group. Methods: We identified incident cases of ANCA-associated vasculitis between March 2007 and June 2013 in the Nottingham–Derby urban area from medical records using multiple sources. We derived the denominator population from the 2011 census, and we calculated incidence rate ratios using Poisson regression. Results: Overall, we identified 107 cases of ANCA-associated vasculitis, giving an incidence of 23.1 per million person-years (95% CI: 18.9, 27.9). The incidence among the white population was 25.8 per million person-years (95% CI: 21.0, 31.3) and among the black and minority ethnic (BME) population 8.4 per million person-years (95% CI: 3.1, 18.3). After adjustment for age and sex, the difference between ethnic groups was not statistically significant (incidence rate ratio 0.7, 95% CI: 0.3, 1.5, P = 0.3). Conclusion: Overall, the incidence of ANCA-associated vasculitis was similar to other epidemiological studies. Crude incidence rates were lower in the BME than in the white population, but this was partly explained by the older age profile among the white compared with BME population

Detecting and Studying Higgs Bosons at a Photon-Photon Collider

We examine the potential for detecting and studying Higgs bosons at a photon-photon collider facility associated with a future linear collider. Our study incorporates realistic \gam\gam luminosity spectra based on the most probable available laser technology. Results include detector simulations. We study the cases of: a) a SM-like Higgs boson; b) the heavy MSSM Higgs bosons; c) a Higgs boson with no $WW/ZZ$ couplings from a general two Higgs doublet model.Comment: 52 pages, 26 figures, revised version with new appendi

Did female prisoners with mental disorders receive psychiatric treatment before imprisonment?

© 2015 Mundt et al.; licensee BioMed Central. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.BackgroundThroughout the world, high prevalence rates of mental disorders have been found in prison populations, especially in females. It has been suggested that these populations do not access psychiatric treatment. The aim of this study was to establish rates of psychiatric in- and outpatient treatments prior to imprisonment in female prisoners and to explore reasons for discontinuation of such treatments.Methods150 consecutively admitted female prisoners were interviewed in Berlin, Germany. Socio-demographic characteristics, mental disorders, and previous psychiatric in- and outpatient treatments were assessed by trained researchers. Open questions were used to explore reasons for ending previous psychiatric treatment.ResultsA vast majority of 99 prisoners (66%; 95% CI: 58¿73) of the total sample reported that they had previously been in psychiatric treatment, 80 (53%; 95 CI: 45¿61) in inpatient treatment, 62 (41%; 95 CI: 34¿49) in outpatient treatment and 42 (29%; 21¿39) in both in- and outpatient treatments. All prisoners with psychosis and 72% of the ones with any lifetime mental health disorder had been in previous treatment. The number of inpatient treatments and imprisonments were positively correlated (rho¿=¿0.27; p¿<¿0.01). Inpatient treatment was described as successfully completed by 56% (N¿=¿41) of those having given reasons for ending such treatment, whilst various reasons were reported for prematurely ending outpatient treatments.ConclusionThe data do not support the notion of a general `mental health treatment gap¿ in female prisoners. Although inpatient care is often successfully completed, repeated inpatient treatments are not linked with fewer imprisonments. Improved transition from inpatient to outpatient treatment and services that engage female prisoners to sustained outpatient treatments are needed

Prevalence Rates of Mental Disorders in Chilean Prisons

PMCID: PMC371883

An improved method for statistical studies of the internal kinematics of HII regions: the case of M 83

We present the integrated Halpha emission line profile for 157 HII regions in the central 3.4' x 3.4' of the galaxy M 83 (NGC 5236). Using the Fabry-Perot interferometer GHaFaS, on the 4.2 m William Herschel on La Palma, we show the importance of a good characterization of the instrumental response function for the study of line profile shapes. The luminosity-velocity dispersion relation is also studied, and in the log(L)-log(sigma) plane we do not find a linear relation, but an upper envelope with equation log(L)=0.9 *log(sigma)+38.1. For the adopted distance of 4.5 Mpc, the upper envelope appears at the luminosity L=10^38.5 ergs, in full agreement with previous studies of other galaxies, reinforcing the idea of using HII regions as standard candles.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

The Low Energy π π\pi\,\pi Amplitude to One and Two Loops

The low-energy $\pi\pi$ amplitude is computed explicitly to two-loop accuracy in the chiral expansion. It depends only on six independent (combinations of) low-energy constants which are not fixed by chiral symmetry. Four of these constants are determined {\it via} sum rules which are evaluated using $\pi\pi$ scattering data at higher energies. Dependence of the low-energy phase shifts and of the threshold parameters on the remaining two constants (called $\alpha$ and $\beta$) are discussed and compared to the existing data from $K_{l4}$ experiments. Using generalised $\chi$PT, the constants $\alpha$ and $\beta$ are related to fundamental QCD parameters such as the quark condensate $\langle 0|\bar{q}q|0\rangle$ and the quark mass ratio $m_s/\widehat{m}$. It is shown that forthcoming accurate low-energy $\pi\pi$ data can be used to provide, for the first time, experimental evidence in favour of or against the existence of a large quark-antiquark condensate in the QCD vacuum.Comment: 61 pages, LaTeX, 10 figures in separate tarred, compressed and uuencoded Postscript fil