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Measurement of light-by-light scattering and the Breit-Wheeler process, and search for axion-like particles in ultraperipheral PbPb collisions at √<sub>NN</sub> = 5.02 TeV
Get PDFA version of the article is available at arXiv:2412.15413v2 [nucl-ex] (https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.15413). Comments: Replaced with the published version. Added the journal reference and the DOI. All the figures and tables can be found at https://cms-results.web.cern.ch/cms-results/public-results/publications/HIN-21-015 (CMS Public Pages). Report number: CMS-HIN-21-015, CERN-EP-2024-284. Journal reference: JHEP 08 (2025) 006. Submission history: From: The CMS Collaboration: [v1] Thu, 19 Dec 2024 21:47:11 UTC (851 KB); [v2] Wed, 20 Aug 2025 21:08:50 UTC (850 KB).Data Availability Statement: Release and preservation of data used by the CMS Collaboration as the basis for publications is guided by the CMS data preservation, re-use and open access policy (https://doi.org/10.7483/OPENDATA.CMS.1BNU.8V1W).Code Availability Statement: The CMS core software is publicly available on GitHub (https://github.com/cms-sw/cmssw).Measurements of light-by-light scattering (LbL, γγ → γγ) and the Breit-Wheeler process (BW, γγ → e⁺e⁻) are reported in ultraperipheral PbPb collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of 5.02 TeV. The data sample, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.7 nb⁻¹, was collected by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC in 2018. Events with an exclusively produced γγ or e⁺e⁻ pair with invariant masses mγγ,ee > 5 GeV, along with other fiducial criteria, are selected. The measured BW fiducial production cross section,σfid(γγ → e⁺e⁻) = 263.5 ± 1.8(stat) ± 17.8(syst) μb, as well as the differential distributions for various kinematic observables, are in agreement with leading-order quantum electrodynamics predictions complemented with final-state photon radiation. The measured differential BW cross sections allow discrimination between different theoretical descriptions of the photon flux of the lead ion. In the LbL final state, 26 exclusive diphoton candidate events are observed compared with 12.0 ± 2.9 expected for the background. Combined with previous results, the observed significance of the LbL signal with respect to the background-only hypothesis is above five standard deviations. The measured fiducial LbL scattering cross section, σfid(γγ → γγ) = 107 ± 24(stat) ± 13(syst) nb, is in agreement with next- to-leading-order predictions. Limits on the production of axion-like particles coupled to photons are set over the mass range 5–100 GeV, including the most stringent limits to date in the range of 5–10 GeV.SCOAP³
The Relationship between Social Media, Exercise Motivation and Exercise Behaviour in Physically Active Men
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The datasets analysed during the current study are available in the Figshare repository: https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/Social_Media_Exercise_Motvation_study_data_repository_sav/27765639?file=50532885Fitness-based social media is growing in popularity, however its effects on exercise motivation and behaviour are underexplored in men. A cross-sectional design was used to investigate this in 224 male social media users (M Age = 32.76, range = 18–50, 81.8% White) in the UK. Questionnaires on social media use, (Overall, Platform and Fitness Social Media Use) and exercise (Motivation, Frequency and History) were completed. Results showed that Fitness Social Media Use was significantly positively associated with Exercise Frequency (number of exercise sessions per week) but not Exercise History (length of time consistently exercised for). Overall Social Media Use was significantly negatively associated with Exercise History. Fitness Social Media Use was more strongly associated with autonomous motivations (rather than controlled). Findings suggest fitness social media use may be associated with short-term, but not long-term exercise behaviour, but its links to exercise motivation are complex and likely bidirectional.The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article
Response to the public consultation of the UKIPO on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence
Get PDFWe welcome the UKIPO’s initiative of investigating the implications of Artificial Intelligence for copyright
law. Below, we address the issues of the public consultation with suggestions for amendments and proposals
in specific areas, relating to questions 5, 16, and 28-39.
Dr Paula Westenberger responded to questions 5, 16, 28, 29; Dr Francesca Mazzi responded to questions
30-37; and Dr Zoi Krokida responded to questions 38-39.
Views are our own as individual researchers, and do not intend to reflect those of any institutions,
colleagues, research participants or project partners. The views and opinions on each question are those of
the researcher who prepared the corresponding answer. Researchers who have not contributed to a
particular answer do not take a view on that specific point
Host-directed therapy in diabetes and tuberculosis comorbidity toward global tuberculosis elimination
Get PDF...Host-directed therapy could potentially revolutionise tuberculosis control, as adjunct to traditional antibiotics for the treatment of tuberculosis disease, and as a strategy to prevent disease progression following Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. The growing type 2 diabetes pandemic is hampering tuberculosis control worldwide, as people with diabetes have an increased risk of developing tuberculosis disease as well as worse treatment outcomes. Pulmonary tuberculosis is characterised by an inflammatory response which can cause alveolar tissue destruction and cavitation, and this inflammation is exacerbated in people with tuberculosis-diabetes comorbidity. Thus, the reduction of the inflammatory response is a key goal of host-directed therapy to dampen immunopathology, but it is vital that the inflammatory response is not suppressed too much or the immune system will not be able to react to Mycobacterium tuberculosis and mycobacterial replication will intensify. Furthermore, the type I interferon response and host cell metabolism are further dysregulated in tuberculosis-diabetes comorbidity, likely contributing to poor treatment outcomes. Achieving the right balance in terms of modulating the inflammatory and immune responses, both quantitatively and temporally, is more complex in tuberculosis diabetes comorbidity and this population should be included specifically in clinical trials of new regimen. In this regard, mathematical modelling has a key role in elucidating which biological pathways should be targeted in different people. Host-directed therapy for people with tuberculosis-diabetes comorbidity will reduce immunopathology and post-tuberculosis lung disease, as well as boost microbiological cure and treatment outcomes, and thus help in the fight towards global tuberculosis elimination.No Funding
Physician associate (PA) students’ perceptions of team-based learning (TBL) for teaching in Geriatric medicine
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The survey results are provided within the supplementary material section (Supplementary material, Figure S2).Supplementary Information is available online at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12909-025-06787-7#Sec15 .Background:
Physician Associates have recently been introduced to the UK healthcare workforce. Their curriculum includes important topics in Geriatric medicine. As they undertake a 2-year intensive postgraduate course we wanted to explore if Team-based Learning is an effective and efficient learning strategy. In addition, we wanted to know how this approach compares to their current learning methods, namely Problem-based learning and lectures.
Methods:
This was a qualitative study of Physician associate student perceptions of Team-Based Learning. After introducing four TBL sessions in the specialty of Geriatric medicine we sent students anonymous questionnaires asking them about their TBL experience and how it compared to PBL and lectures. We then undertook a thematic analysis of the responses.
Results:
Twenty students responded to our online questionnaire. The thematic analysis utilised themes from previous studies as well as emergent ones. The key themes were that TBL requires more preparation, TBL is effective, TBL is preferred to PBL and lectures, but students did not want TBL to replace all their teaching.
Conclusions:
TBL is an effective learning strategy that can be used alongside other teaching methods. While Physician Associate students preferred TBL over PBL and lectures, they wanted to have TBL alongside lectures at least. This information is important when planning teaching for an intensive 2-year course.Open access agreement was provided by Brunel University London
The empirical status of implicit emotion regulation in mood and anxiety disorders: A meta-analytic review
Get PDFSupplementary data are available online at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165032725004665?via%3Dihub#s0115 .Strategies to successfully regulate negative emotions may be hindered by maladaptive implicit emotion processing tendencies, and while implicit emotion regulation is known to be impaired in many psychiatric disorders, contradictory findings exist within the empirical literature. Therefore, a meta-analysis of implicit emotion regulation in mood and anxiety disorders (major depressive disorder [MDD], bipolar disorder, generalised anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD]) was performed. Systematic literature searches were conducted in Web of Science, PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, and BrainMap for articles published between 2011 and 2024, and inclusion criteria included internationally recognised diagnostic measures (i.e., DSM-5). A total of 23 clinical studies were identified and using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale, 21 studies were of excellent quality. Small to medium effect sizes were reported in patients across measures of accuracy (patients [n = 428] vs. controls [n = 412], standardised mean difference [SMD] -0.39, 95 % CI [−0.57 to −0.21], p < .0001) and response latency (patients [n = 477] vs. controls [n = 428], SMD 0.38, 95 % CI [0.22 to 0.54], p < .0001). The pooled effects of reduced accuracy and longer reaction times in patients were confirmed by separate sub-group analyses for mood and anxiety disorders, with MDD and PTSD reporting the largest effects. Regarding publication bias, Egger's regression test did not indicate funnel plot asymmetry. Recommendations for future research include investigation of dysfunctional implicit emotion regulation as a transdiagnostic characteristic of psychiatric disorders within the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) framework.This research was done as part of a PhD thesis and did not receive any specific funding from agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. Stefan Daniel Paul Dalton is supported by the Brunel University London, College of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences Doctoral Research Fund and no other financial support was received during the research and/or the preparation of the manuscript
Advanced Fault Diagnosis Method for DC-DC Converters: Leveraging the Temporal Continuity of Electrical Signals
Get PDFThis article focuses on the crucial role of reliable dc–dc converter operation for the stability of modern power electronic devices. Addressed is a common issue in the fault diagnosis of dc–dc converters: the tendency to rely on local feature fitting while the temporal continuity of electrical signals is neglected. An innovative diagnostic method that utilizes an adaptive wavelet transform from a data processing perspective is proposed. This technique can dynamically adjust the scale and translation parameters to adapt to the continuous changes in electrical signals caused by varying circuit conditions. From the standpoint of model improvement, the extended convolutional capsule network model is designed. Through multiscale feature extraction, integration of global-local attention mechanisms, and global vector analysis, this model effectively diagnoses fault features. It is demonstrated that our method is effective in extracting the time-continuity features of electrical signals, and exhibits significant advantages in diagnostic accuracy, performance metrics, and application generalization capability. Consequently, this study presents a holistic and effective approach for fault diagnosis in dc–dc converters.10.13039/501100001809-National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Number: 62103205);
Jiangsu Province Scientific and Technological Achievements Transformation Project of China (Grant Number: BA2022026
Corporate wrongdoing and whistleblower regimes: Evaluation and suggestions for reform
Get PDFThis thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonMorality makes stupid. – Custom represents the experiences of men of earlier times as to what they supposed useful and harmful - but the sense for custom (morality) applies, not to these experiences as such, but to the age, the sanctity, the indiscussability of the custom. And so this feeling is a hindrance to the acquisition of new experiences and the correction of customs: that is to say, morality is a hindrance to the creation of new and better customs: it makes stupid.
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Friedrich Nietzsche, Daybreak, 1881.1
When considering this Preface, I thought of what its most valuable contribution to this Thesis could be, and concluded that it would be to address the two common concerns brought up when discussing whether to pay whistleblowers to aid law enforcement. The first line of concern argues that rewards are not in tune with our legal culture, are legally reprehensible, and point out that the Nazis and the Soviet Union used informants extensively. This argument typically appeals to intuitions about sound legal principles and argues that monetary incentives run counter to the spirit of the current legal culture. The second concern is that economic incentives provide a wrong reason to do something that should be done out of duty or selflessness, and that providing financial incentives would taint the reputation of all whistleblowers. There is an aversion toward ‘unclean’ motivations introduced by rewards and a distaste for catering to lesser motivations. The same persons frequently make these two points together, occurring in different variations from the schematic outlined here. An illustrative example of how they are often expressed together comes from a 1998 statement by US Senator Harry Reid:
‘What I want to prohibit the [Internal Revenue Service] from doing in the future is continuing with a program that I refer to as the ‘Reward for Rats Program.’ This is a program where the IRS, in effect, has a contingent fee, much like a lawyer gets in a personal injury case. They say, ‘If you have somebody who will snitch on a neighbor, an ex-wife, or business partner, and this will lead to our collecting money, then we will give you part of that money.’ I believe anyone who owes money to the Internal Revenue Service should pay it. But I think it should be collected in a way that is in keeping with the American system, not go into people’s personal lives, where you have a wife—former wife or former husband who just completed a long divorce, and the IRS contacts one of them and says, ‘Hey, if you can give us a little information on your ex-spouse, then we will give you part of the money we collect.’ […] Such informants, most of the time, are not acting in some sense of civic duty. They don’t act from a selfless interest in the Nation’s well-being.’2
Reid is not alone in this sentiment. In 2013, Public Concern at Work conducted a study that assessed UK employees’ attitudes toward rewarding whistleblowers and found that they were predominantly negative. The concerns raised were summarised under six headings: one related to ‘inconsistent with the culture and philosophy of the UK’,3 three reasons related to the moral character and credibility of paid whistleblowers, including ‘undermines the moral stance of a genuine whistleblower,’ ‘could undermine credibility of witnesses in future criminal or civil proceedings,’ ‘could result in the negative portrayal of whistleblowers’. One concern was more general about culture/legal culture: ‘would be inconsistent with current compensatory regime in the UK.’4 More recently, an impact assessment by the EU Commission before the introduction of the EU Whistleblowing Directive noted that providing rewards may make whistleblowing ‘appear as a commercial transaction, which may discredit whistleblowers in general’.5 It also noted that the stakeholders that had been consulted, including whistleblowers themselves, were also against rewards at the EU level ‘taking into account also the particularly negative perceptions of whistleblowers in some national contexts, which date back to social and political circumstances resulting in distrust towards ‘informers’’.6 The impact assessment also alluded to the fact that such rewards ‘might be considered as running counter to ECtHR case law’.7 I have heard objections along the two lines mentioned above at conferences, on Zoom calls, in person, expressed by academics, prosecutors, enforcement agency staff, family, and whistleblower advocates. A preface is unlikely to revert these entrenched intuitions, but, if anything, this Thesis hopes to show the value of so doing. It aims to show that the morality, as expressed above, is a hindrance to the creation of new and better customs. The remainder of this preface makes some points to blunt these intuitions.
Concerning the first line of concern, this is typically not as straightforward as is often suggested. Incentives are utilised to elicit information frequently, even from guilty persons, such as under plea bargaining. Bounties are put on the heads of terrorists, which does not engender much criticism. More importantly, the UK has used informant rewards in enforcement since the 8th century, which was only discontinued in 1951, making the ‘legal culture’ argument less striking. Rewards were also used in the Roman empire, have always been used in the US to some extent, and were even endorsed by Abraham Lincoln. This ‘legal culture’ argument appears to stem from a concern of creating an informant society, akin to those in many authoritarian regimes. We must distinguish, however, the tool from the purposes it is used for. The Soviet and the Nazi regimes, like contemporary democracies, also had tax collectors, police, and public bureaucrats that brutally suppressed opposition and were designed to serve the purposes of those regimes. That does not mean that tax collectors or police are inherently flawed. There are also significant differences between informing in a democratic society and informing under a dictatorship. First, under the former, laws are democratically enacted and (at least in theory) supported by a majority of the population. Law-making is also constrained by constitutions and fundamental rights of individuals who enjoy due process and legal representation. Second, punishment is proportional if you are informed on, unlike under authoritarian regimes where simply not tolling the party line could lead to a death sentence or life imprisonment. The reward programmes discussed in this Thesis are not indiscriminate carte blanche regimes as they typically are in authoritarian states; instead, they are designed for specific regulatory areas and apply only to severe wrongdoing. What should be asked, instead, is why almost every authoritarian state relied significantly on informants and how such systems can be structured to serve the aims of democratic societies while preserving judicial safety.
Concerning the second line of concern, this Thesis shows how appealing to purer motivations has not worked to a satisfying degree in combating corporate wrongdoing and that people typically don’t engage in self-harming behaviour, which whistleblowing mostly is. When whistleblowers are recognised in statute as important to enforcement, the legislative response has more typically been to protect them if they suffer retaliation. Yet, experience and prior legislation have shown this is, in most cases, insufficient for employees to come forward. Wrongdoers have a range of carrots and sticks that can be leveraged to dissuade whistleblowing under a protection regime, and these regimes have also failed in practice to remedy whistleblowers effectively
ESG performance and beyond: Exploring leadership, organizational psychological capital, and narcissistic reporting
Get PDFThis thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonEnvironmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance has emerged as a critical focus for businesses, driven by global challenges such as climate change, social inequality, and corporate misconduct. This thesis examines the dimensions of ESG performance through three essays, exploring the roles of corporate leadership, intangible organizational resources, and corporate communication strategies. Using a systematic literature review (SLR) and empirical analyses, this thesis provides novel insights into the effect of leadership and psychological resources in shaping ESG outcomes. The empirical analyses employ a dataset of 1,659 firm-year observations from UK companies listed on the FTSE 350 Index between 2012 and 2021 and employing advanced Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques.
The first essay presents a comprehensive SLR on the CEO–environmental sustainability relationship, synthesizing 139 studies to provide a robust framework for understanding the field. It identifies critical gaps in the literature, such as the limited exploration of CEO psychological traits and the qualitative dimensions of environmental disclosures, including tone, specificity, and readability. By mapping CEO attributes to environmental outcomes, this review highlights the importance of integrating psychological and demographic factors in future sustainability research. Recommendations for future studies include cross-country comparisons, industry-specific analyses, and an exploration of underrepresented regions.
The second essay investigates the influence of Organizational Psychological Capital (OPC) on ESG performance and examines the moderating role of CEO power. The findings reveal a significant positive relationship between OPC and ESG performance, underscoring the importance of intangible resources. However, the study also shows that CEO power negatively moderates this relationship, indicating that leadership dynamics play a critical role in shaping the effectiveness of psychological resources in achieving sustainability outcomes. The analysis further highlights the dual strategic importance of OPC as a driver of both ESG and financial performance, contributing to the literature on resource-based and leadership theories.
The third essay explores the relationship between ESG performance and the use of narcissistic rhetoric in corporate disclosures, with a specific focus on the moderating role of board gender diversity. The study finds that firms with stronger ESG performance employ more narcissistic rhetoric to project legitimacy and enhance stakeholder perceptions. However, this relationship is tempered by board gender diversity, with more gender-diverse boards fostering balanced and transparent communication. The findings contribute to the literature by linking ESG performance with corporate narrative strategies and demonstrating the role of internal governance mechanisms in shaping disclosure practices.
This thesis makes significant contributions to the academic discourse on corporate governance, sustainability, and organizational behavior. First, it offers the first SLR on the CEO–environmental sustainability relationship, addressing critical gaps in the literature and providing a research framework guides future research. Second, it is the first study introduces OPC as a key intangible resource driving ESG performance, expanding resource-based theory and integrating it with upper echelons theory. Third, it enriches the disclosure literature by being the first to link ESG performance with a relatively understudied disclosure strategy—narcissistic rhetoric— and integrates legitimacy theory and gender socialization theory to explore how governance structures shape corporate narratives. Finally, the thesis employs advanced methodological approaches, including NLP techniques, to analyze qualitative dimensions of ESG disclosures, setting a precedent for future research in corporate sustainability practices and communication strategies
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