Flipped Quartification: Product Group Unification with Leptoquarks.

The quartification model is an SU(3)4 extension with a bi-fundamental fermion sector of the well-known SU(3)3 bi-fundamentalfication model. An alternative "flipped" version of the quartification model is obtained by rearrangement of the particle assignments. The flipped model has two standard (bi-fundamentalfication) families and one flipped quartification family.

Predictive Factors for Concurrent Tegmen Dehiscence in Superior Canal Dehiscence Syndrome.

Objectives: To describe factors predictive of tegmen dehiscence in subjects with superior semicircular canal dehiscence syndrome (SCDS).

Study Design: Retrospective case series.

Setting: Tertiary referral center.

Are We Prescribing Enough HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis in Missouri?: A Cross-Sectional Study at University of Missouri Health Care.

Despite the proven efficacy and safety of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), it remains underutilized. PrEP use among Missouri providers has increased as the rate of new HIV infections grows statewide, but remains lower than the Midwest and United States (U.S.

Explaining the XENON1T Excess with Luminous Dark Matter.

We show that the excess in electron recoil events seen by the XENON1T experiment can be explained by a relatively low-mass luminous dark matter candidate. The dark matter scatters inelastically in the detector (or the surrounding rock) to produce a heavier dark state with a ∼2-3  keV mass splitting. This heavier state then decays within the detector, producing a peak in the electron recoil spectrum that is a good fit to the observed excess.

Inverse Primakoff Scattering as a Probe of Solar Axions at Liquid Xenon Direct Detection Experiments.

We show that XENON1T and future liquid xenon (LXe) direct detection experiments are sensitive to axions through the standard g_{aγ}aFF[over ˜] operators due to inverse-Primakoff scattering. This previously neglected channel significantly improves the sensitivity to the axion-photon coupling, with a reach extending to g_{aγ}∼10^{-10}  GeV^{-1} for axion masses up to a keV, thereby extending into the region of heavier QCD axion models. This result modifies the couplings required to explain the XENON1T excess in terms of solar axions, opening a large region of g_{aγ}-m_{a} parameter space that is not ruled out by the CAST helioscope experiment and reducing the tension with the astrophysical constraints.

New Directions for Axion Searches via Scattering at Reactor Neutrino Experiments.

Searches for pseudoscalar axionlike-particles (ALPs) typically rely on their decay in beam dumps or their conversion into photons in haloscopes and helioscopes. We point out a new experimental direction for ALP probes via their production by the intense gamma ray flux available from megawatt-scale nuclear reactors at neutrino experiments through Primakoff-like or Compton-like channels. Low-threshold detectors in close proximity to the core will have visibility to ALP decays and inverse Primakoff and Compton scattering, providing sensitivity to the ALP-photon and ALP-electron couplings.

Diagnostic value of CT contrast extravasation for major arterial injury after pelvic fracture: A meta-analysis.

Purpose: We conducted a meta-analysis to determine diagnostic performance of CT intravenous contrast extravasation (CE) as a sign of angiographic bleeding and need for angioembolization after pelvic fractures.

Materials And Methods: A systematic literature search combining the concepts of contrast extravasation, pelvic trauma, and CT yielded 206 potentially eligible studies. 23 studies provided accuracy data or sufficient descriptive data to allow 2x2 contingency table construction and provided 3855 patients for meta-analysis.

Hematopoietic lineage skewing and intestinal epithelia degeneration in aged mice with telomerase RNA component deletion.

A deletion of a telomerase RNA component (Terc(-/-)) in C57BL/6 (B6) mice resulted in hematopoietic lineage skewing with increased neutrophils and CD11b(+) myeloid cells and decreased red blood cells and CD45R(+) B lymphocytes when animals reach ages older than 12 months. There was no decline in bone marrow (BM) c-Kit(+)Sca-1(+)Lin(-) (KSL) cells in old Terc(-/-) mice, and the lineage skewing phenomenon was not transferred when BM cells from old Terc(-/-) donors were transplanted into young B6 recipients. Necropsy and histological examinations found minimal to no change in the lung, spleen and liver but detected severe epithelia degeneration, ulceration and infection in small and large intestines, leading to enteritis, typhlitis and colitis in old Terc(-/-) mice.

Higgs seesaw mechanism as a source for dark energy.

Motivated by the seesaw mechanism for neutrinos which naturally generates small neutrino masses, we explore how a small grand-unified-theory-scale mixing between the standard model Higgs boson and an otherwise massless hidden sector scalar can naturally generate a small mass and vacuum expectation value for the new scalar which produces a false vacuum energy density contribution comparable to that of the observed dark energy dominating the current expansion of the Universe. This provides a simple and natural mechanism for producing the correct scale for dark energy, even if it does not address the long-standing question of why much larger dark energy contributions are not produced from the visible sector. The new scalar produces no discernible signatures in existing terrestrial experiments so that one may have to rely on other cosmological tests of this idea.

Lateral cervical cysts: an Australian perspective.

Background: Correctly identifying the aetiology of lateral cervical cysts poses a diagnostic challenge commonly encountered by head and neck surgeons. The aim of this study was to ascertain the effectiveness of current investigatory techniques used in the diagnosis of these masses.

Methods: A retrospective analysis of all patients presenting to a single Sydney Head and Neck Unit between 2000 and 2010 with the diagnosis of a lateral cervical cyst was performed.

Late time behavior of false vacuum decay: possible implications for cosmology and metastable inflating states.

We describe here how the late time behavior of the quantum mechanical decay of unstable states, which is predicted to deviate from an exponential form, may have important cosmological implications. It may increase the likelihood of eternal inflation and may enhance the likelihood of observing a small vacuum energy at late times versus possible late time decay into a large negative energy (anti-de Sitter space) vacuum state. Open questions include the following: How can internal observations made impact upon the wave function of the Universe and hence upon its decay characteristics?