Higgs boson and Top quark masses as tests of Electroweak Vacuum Stability

The measurements of the Higgs boson and top quark masses can be used to extrapolate the Standard Model Higgs potential at energies up to the Planck scale. Adopting a NNLO renormalization procedure, we: i) find that electroweak vacuum stability is at present allowed, discuss the associated theoretical and experimental errors and the prospects for its future tests; ii) determine the boundary conditions allowing for the existence of a shallow false minimum slightly below the Planck scale, which is a stable configuration that might have been relevant for primordial inflation; iii) derive a conservative upper bound on type I seesaw right-handed neutrino masses, following from the requirement of electroweak vacuum stability.Comment: v1: 22 pages, 9 figures; v2: 26 pages, 11 figures: improved text, added detailed comparison with previous literature results, version matching the PRD articl

Probing carrier dynamics in photo-excited graphene with time-resolved ARPES

The dynamics of photo-generated electron-hole pairs in solids are dictated by many-body interactions such as electron-electron and electron-phonon scattering. Hence, understanding and controlling these scattering channels is crucial for many optoelectronic applications, ranging from light harvesting to optical amplification. Here we measure the formation and relaxation of the photo-generated non-thermal carrier distribution in monolayer graphene with time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. Using sub 10fs pulses we identify impact ionization as the primary scattering channel, which dominates the dynamics for the first 25fs after photo-excitation. Auger recombination is found to set in once the carriers have accumulated at the Dirac point with time scales between 100 and 250fs, depending on the number of non-thermal carriers. Our observations help in gauging graphene's potential as a solar cell and TeraHertz lasing material.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Colorectal Cancer Screening Quality Improvement: A FITKit Mailing Initiative

According to the American Cancer Society, colorectal cancers are diagnosed in 1 in 22 men and 1 in 24 women in their lifetime. Despite the wide range of effective CRC screening options available in the US, the Hudson Headwaters Health Network (HHHN) has seen little improvement in its CRC screening rates of approximately 60-63% in recent years. This places HHHN, an FQHC in Upstate New York, well below the National Colorectal Cancer Round Table 2018 goal of 80% screening in eligible, average-risk adults. This quality improvement project sought to improve HHHN’s CRC screening rates through a new FITKit direct-mailing initiative. A literature search was conducted, informing the design of a pilot mailing initiative based on recent studies of direct-mailing FITKit outreach in comparable FQHC’s and safety net institutions. In mid-January, 2019, FITKits with return address labels and postage were mailed to 362 HHHN patients’ homes. The cohort represented a population that was age 50-75, currently failing the CRC screening measure, had not seen a PCP in the last calendar year, had BMI ≥ 30, and had 0-5 comorbidities per a network-wide EMR data search in December, 2018. These mailings were preceded by an introductory email and included a second introductory letter along with the network’s usual ‘FITKit Facts and FAQ’s’ sheet. Mailings were followed by two or more automated phone reminders to complete the screening. Only one month after mailings were released, the network received 26 completed FITKits for processing, representing a 7.14% early return rate for the initiative.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/fmclerk/1505/thumbnail.jp

EoR Foregrounds: the Faint Extragalactic Radio Sky

A wealth of new data from upgraded and new radio interferometers are rapidly improving and transforming our understanding of the faint extra-galactic radio sky. Indeed the mounting statistics at sub-mJy and uJy flux levels is finally allowing us to get stringent observational constraints on the faint radio population and on the modeling of its the various components. In this paper I will provide a brief overview of the latest results in areas that are potentially important for an accurate treatment of extra-galactic foregrounds in experiments designed to probe the Epoch of Reionization.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures. Invited review at IAU Symposium No. 333 "Peering towards Cosmic Dawn". This submission includes updated figures wrt the version published in the proceedings volume (where an error in the plotting routine produced wrong labels for the y- and x-axis

Your Best Shot at Surviving the Flu Season

Millions of individuals become ill from the influenza virus every year. As an existing public health issue, it is important for patients to understand that the best way to combat the influenza virus is through prevention. This article explores key aspects of the influenza vaccine and highlights its importance in the healthcare community

Perception of poverty .Individual, household and social enviromental determinants

People’s perception of their own well-being depends on, among other factors, the household level of income and wealth, the respondent’s socio-economic characteristics (sex, age, employment status, etc..) and social capital endowment of household place of residence (Sen A., 1985, The Standard of Living. The Tanner Lectures, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge). However, limited attention has been dedicated to understanding to what extent people’s perception of their own well-being is influenced by social capital endowment of household place of residence. Interest in this type of problem arises from the need to highlight to what extent subjective perception of well-being depends on individual and family socio-economic conditions and to what extent it depends on the characteristics of the local context of where the family lives. Such evidence would help the central and local authorities and economic operators to choose the appropriate socio-economic measures in order to improve household living conditions. Hence, this research aims to answer the following questions: i) To what extent subjective well-being is affected by respondent's socio-economic characteristics, by household economic conditions and by social capital endowment of household place of residence? ii) Which of the social capital components (Social Behaviour, Social Relationships, Social Engagement, Civic Responsibility, Territorial Characteristics) has a higher impact on subjective well-being and can be regarded as primary risk factor of family poverty status? In order to purse this aim , the ordered probit model will be used to analyse answers to the following question taken from the Survey on Household Income and Wealth (SHIW) of the Bank of Italy Considering your monthly disposable income, is your household able to make ends meet: (1) with great difficulty, (2) with difficulty, (3) with some difficulty, (4) without difficulty, (5) with ease, (6) with great ease? The explanatory variables x are grouped as following: 1. Respondent’s socio-economic characteristics; 2. Household socio-economic characteristics; 3. Social capital endowment of household place of residence. and we adopt the definition of social capital suggested by the World Bank Social Capital Initiative research group “The social capital […] includes the institutions, the relationships, the attitudes and values that govern interactions among people and contribute to economic and social development “ . ( See Grootaert, C. and van Bastelaer, T., 2002, Social capital from definition to measurement, in Grootaert, C. and van Bastelaer, T. (Eds.): Understanding and Measuring Social Capital. A Multidisciplinary Tool for Practitioners, The World Bank, Washington DC. and for measurement issues Santini I., 2008, Social capital and its impact on the production process, Int. J. Management and Decision Making, Vol. 9, n.5.) The model will be applied to the 2006 Survey on Household Income and Wealth (SHIW) of the Bank of Italy. The same model will be applied to previous Surveys on Household Income and Wealth (SHIW) of the Bank of Italy in order to highlight possible changes in the determinants of subjective well-being

On the long-time behavior of a continuous duopoly model with constant conjectural variation

The paper concerns a continuous model governed by a ODE system originated by a discrete duopoly model with bounded rationality, based on constant conjectural variation. The ultimately boundedness of the solutions (existence of an absorbing set in the phase space) is shown and conditions guaranteeing the nonlinear, global, asymptotic stability of solutions have been found using the Liapunov direct method