Neutrino Mass Squared Differences in the Exact Solution of a 3-3-1 Gauge Model without Exotic Electric Charges

The mass splittings for the Majorana neutrinos in the exact solution of a particular 3-3-1 gauge model are computed here in detail. Since both $\sin^{2}\theta_{13}\simeq0$ and the mass splittings ratio $r_{\Delta}\simeq0.033$ are taken into account, the analytical calculations seem to predict an inverted mass hierarchy and a mixing matrix with a texture based on a very close approximation to the bi-maximal mixing. The resulting formulas for the mass squared differences can naturally accomodate the available data if the unique free parameter ($a$) gets very small values ($\sim10^{-15}$). Consequently, the smallness of the parameter requires (according to our method) a large breaking scale $\sim10^{6}-10^{7}$ TeV in the model. Hence, the results concerning the neutrino mass splittings may lead to a more precise tuning in the exact solution of the 3-3-1 model of interest, being able - at the same time - to recover all the Standard Model phenomenology and predict the mass spectrum of the new gauge bosons $Z^{\prime},X,Y$ in accordance with the actual data. The minimal absolute mass in the neutrino sector is also obtained - $m_{0}\simeq0.0035$ eV - in the case of our suitable approximation for the bi-maxcimal mixing.Comment: 10 pages, no figure

HIV/AIDS and Labour Productivity in Kenyan Manufacturing

The article investigates labour productivity effects of workers’ concerns about HIV/AIDS on firm revenues and wages. Using cross-sectional data from Kenyan manufacturing firms, the article demonstrates that firm expenditures on medical care improve the mental health of workers, as proxied by concerns about HIV/AIDS, and in turn, a reduction in concerns is associated with increased labour productivity. Policy implications of the study findings are highlighted.Keywords: health concerns; HIV/AIDS; labour productivity, firm performanceJEL Classification: I10, J24, L25

Translating best practice into real practice: Methods, results and lessons from a project to translate an English sexual health survey into four Asian languages

Background Migrants are underrepresented in population health surveys. Offering translated survey instruments has been shown to increase migrant representation. While ‘team translation’ represents current best practice, there are relatively few published examples describing how it has been implemented. The purpose of this paper is to document the process, results and lessons from a project to translate an English-language sexual health and blood-borne virus survey into Khmer, Karen, Vietnamese and Traditional Chinese. Methods The approach to translation was based on the TRAPD (Translation, Review, Adjudication, Pretesting, and Documentation) model. The English-language survey was sent to two accredited, independent translators. At least one bilingual person was chosen to review and compare the translations and preferred translations were selected through consensus. Agreed translations were pretested with small samples of individuals fluent in the survey language and further revisions made. Results Of the 51 survey questions, only nine resulted in identical independent translations in at least one language. Material differences between the translations related to: (1) the translation of technical terms and medical terminology (e.g. HIV); (2) variations in dialect; and (3) differences in cultural understandings of survey concepts (e.g. committed relationships). Conclusion Survey translation is time-consuming and costly and, as a result, deviations from TRAPD ‘best practice’ occurred. It is not possible to determine whether closer adherence to TRAPD ‘best practice’ would have improved the quality of the resulting translations. However, our study does demonstrate that even adaptations of the TRAPD method can identify issues that may not have been apparent had non-team-based or single-round translation approaches been adopted. Given the dearth of clear empirical evidence about the most accurate and feasible method of undertaking translations, we encourage future researchers to follow our example of making translation data publicly available to enhance transparency and enable critical appraisal

Soil and aquifer salinization: toward an integrated approach for salinity management of groundwater

Degradation of the quality of groundwater due to salinization processes is one of the key issues limiting the global dependence on groundwater in aquifers. As the salinization of shallow aquifers is closely related to root-zone salinization, the two must be considered together. This chapter initially describes the physical and chemical processes causing salinization of the root-zone and shallow aquifers, highlighting the dynamics of these processes and how they can be influenced by irrigation and drainage practices, thus illustrating the connectivity between soil and groundwater salinization. The processes leading to aquifer salinization in both inland and coastal areas are discussed. The roles of extractive resource industries, such as mining and coal bed methane operations, in causing aquifer salinization are also outlined. Hydrogeochemical changes occurring during salinization of aquifers are examined with the aid of Piper and Mixing Diagrams. The chapter then illustrates the extent of the problem of groundwater salinization as influenced by management and policy using two case studies. The first is representative of a developing country and explores management of salt-affected soils in the Indus Valley, Pakistan, while the second looks at a developed country, and illustrates how through monitoring we can deducecauses of shallow aquifer salinity in the Namoi Catchment of NSW, Australia. Finally, there is a section on integration and conclusions where we illustrate how management to mitigate salinization needs to be integrated with policy to diminish the threat to productivity that occurs with groundwater degradation

A many-analysts approach to the relation between religiosity and well-being

The relation between religiosity and well-being is one of the most researched topics in the psychology of religion, yet the directionality and robustness of the effect remains debated. Here, we adopted a many-analysts approach to assess the robustness of this relation based on a new cross-cultural dataset (N=10,535 participants from 24 countries). We recruited 120 analysis teams to investigate (1) whether religious people self-report higher well-being, and (2) whether the relation between religiosity and self-reported well-being depends on perceived cultural norms of religion (i.e., whether it is considered normal and desirable to be religious in a given country). In a two-stage procedure, the teams first created an analysis plan and then executed their planned analysis on the data. For the first research question, all but 3 teams reported positive effect sizes with credible/confidence intervals excluding zero (median reported β=0.120). For the second research question, this was the case for 65% of the teams (median reported β=0.039). While most teams applied (multilevel) linear regression models, there was considerable variability in the choice of items used to construct the independent variables, the dependent variable, and the included covariates

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