Dark Forces Research Articles

"Your Ovaries Are Expired, Like an Old Lady" Metaphor Analysis of Saudi Arabian Women's Descriptions of Breast Cancer: A Qualitative Study.

BackgroundAssessing and understanding the language that women use to express physical, emotional, and social concerns of breast cancer experiences can often be overlooked, even though there is evidence that effective communication between cancer patients and health care providers improves quality of life. This study aims to assess the use of metaphors in conceptualizing breast cancer experience lived by Saudi Arabian women.Materials and MethodsThis is an interpretative phenomenological qualitative study, a purposeful sample of 18 breast cancer patients at an oncology outpatient’s clinic in Saudi Arabia were invited to engage in face-to-face interviews. Data was analyzed using Metaphor Identification Procedure (MIP).ResultsFour themes were constructed: dark hidden force, battling imminent death, dreaming and awakening calls, and inner and outer transformation.ConclusionIdentifying metaphors may be beneficial toward improving communication between health care providers and breast cancer patients, who often experience difficulties expressing their needs.

Gauge enhanced quantum criticality beyond the standard model

Standard lore ritualizes our quantum vacuum in the four-dimensional spacetime (4D) governed by one of the candidate Standard Models (SMs), while lifting towards some grand unification-like structure (GUT) at higher energy scales. In contrast, in our work, we introduce an alternative view that the SM is a low energy quantum vacuum arising from various neighbor vacua competition in an immense quantum phase diagram. In general, we can regard the SM arising near the gapless quantum criticality (either critical points or critical regions) between the competing neighbor vacua. In particular detail, we demonstrate how the $su(3)\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}su(2)\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}u(1)$ SM with 16n Weyl fermions arises near the quantum criticality between the GUT competition of Georgi-Glashow $su(5)$ and Pati-Salam $su(4)\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}su(2)\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}su(2)$. We propose two enveloping toy models. Model I is the conventional $so(10)$ GUT with a Spin(10) gauge group plus GUT-Higgs potential inducing various Higgs transitions. Model II modifies model I by adding a new 4D discrete torsion class of Wess-Zumino-Witten-like term built from GUT-Higgs field [which matches a nonperturbative global mixed gauge-gravity anomaly captured by a 5D invertible topological field theory ${w}_{2}{w}_{3}(TM)={w}_{2}{w}_{3}({V}_{\mathrm{SO}(10)})$], which manifests a beyond-Landau-Ginzburg quantum criticality between Georgi-Glashow and Pati-Salam models, with extra beyond the Standard Model excitations emerging near a hypothetical quantum critical region. If the internal symmetries were treated as global symmetries (or weakly coupled to probe background fields), we suggest a particular low-energy realization of model II as an analogous gapless 4D deconfined quantum criticality with new beyond the SM fractionalized fragmentary excitations of color-flavor separation, and gauge enhancement including a dark gauge force sector, altogether requiring a double fermionic Spin structure named DSpin. If the internal symmetries are dynamically gauged (as they are in our quantum vacuum), we suggest the model II's 4D criticality as a boundary criticality such that only appropriately gauge enhanced dynamical GUT gauge fields can propagate into an extradimensional 5D bulk. The phenomena may be regarded as SM deformation or ``morphogenesis.'' Although our derivation is based on kinematics and global anomaly matching constraints between UV parent and various candidate IR field theories, the constraints are still highly subtle and suggestive. Future verifications on the IR dynamics will be desirable.

Lessons for Left-Wing Populism from the 2010s Austerity Wave in Europe

Lessons for Left-Wing Populism from the 2010s Austerity Wave in Europe

Combination effect of silymarin, quercetin, and hesperidin on anxiety and depression in 3 nitropropionic acid-induced rat model of huntington’s disease

Huntington’s disease is an autosomal-dominant, progressive neurodegenerative disorder with chorea, incoordination, cognitive decline, and behavioral difficulties, whereas bioflavonoids have the potential to promote anxiety and depression. The aim of this study was to investigate and summarize the synergistic effect of silymarin, quercetin, and hesperidin on anxiety and depression in 3-nitropropionic acid (3-NP)-induced rat model of Huntington’s disease. We divided animals into eight groups (n = 6) for different combination treatment with said bioflavonoids along with 3-NP. Anxiety and depression such as symptoms were assessed on 21st day post-treatment with elevated plus maze, light, and dark model and force swim test. Dopamine and serotonin level in the brain striatum were also measured after completion of behavioral analysis as these neurotransmitters are involved in anxiety and depression like behavior. We found that intraperitoneal administration of 3-NP (10 mg/kg B/W) for 21 days leads to anxiety and depression such as symptoms in male Wistar rats, whereas combinations of bioflavonoids ameliorate the symptoms. At the end of the study, we concluded that combination of silymarin, quercetin, and hesperidin is more effective in ameliorating anxiety and depression as compared to mono therapy.

Noise, Fake News, and Tenacious Bayesians.

A modeling framework, based on the theory of signal processing, for characterizing the dynamics of systems driven by the unraveling of information is outlined, and is applied to describe the process of decision making. The model input of this approach is the specification of the flow of information. This enables the representation of (i) reliable information, (ii) noise, and (iii) disinformation, in a unified framework. Because the approach is designed to characterize the dynamics of the behavior of people, it is possible to quantify the impact of information control, including those resulting from the dissemination of disinformation. It is shown that if a decision maker assigns an exceptionally high weight on one of the alternative realities, then under the Bayesian logic their perception hardly changes in time even if evidences presented indicate that this alternative corresponds to a false reality. Thus, confirmation bias need not be incompatible with Bayesian updating. By observing the role played by noise in other areas of natural sciences, where noise is used to excite the system away from false attractors, a new approach to tackle the dark forces of fake news is proposed.

Muonic vs electronic dark forces: a complete EFT treatment for atomic spectroscopy

Precision atomic spectroscopy provides a solid model independent bound on the existence of new dark forces among the atomic constituents. We focus on the keV-GeV region investigating the sensitivity to such dark sectors of the recent measurements on muonic atoms at PSI. To this end we develop for the first time, the effective field theory that describes the leading effect of a new (pseudo-)vector or a (pseudo-)scalar particle of any mass at atomic energies. We identify in the Lamb Shift measurement in muonic deuterium (μD) and the 2s Hyperfine Splitting (HFS) in muonic hydrogen (μH) the most promising measurements to probe respectively spin-independent and spin-dependent new forces. Furthermore, we evaluate the expression of the vector force HFS finding that a future measurement of the 2s HFS in regular hydrogen could provide the strongest atomic bound for such a force for masses above 100 MeV.

The Last Christmas (La Última Navidad)

The Last Christmas (La Última Navidad)

Review: Religion and Violence, Rights and Reconciliation, edited by Daniel H. Levine

This volume reprints articles devoted to violence and religion in Latin America that were first published in 2020 in MDPI’s open access journal Religions. Although only a single chapter addresses the “reconciliation” in the title (Soledad Contoggio’s article on forensic investigations in Argentina after the “Dirty War”), all chapters deal with the issue of human rights. They also cover the complicated relationship between church and state, such as the complicity and resistance of the Catholic Church during the Pinochet regime in Chile (Ruderer) and the conflicts over creation of the proper social and political order that beset Mexico in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (Hensel). Often Catholic laypeople, women and men religious, and clergy found themselves caught in the middle, as in the case of the 20-year war with the Shining Path in Peru, where they became the targets of revolutionaries and the military alike (Tovar Samanez).Of special interest to Nova Religio readers would be the chapter on the growth of Dominion Theology in Central America and Brazil due to the Evangelical and Pentecostal upsurge (Garrard). The development of the New Apostolic Reformation, a loose network of “apostles,” has created celebrity evangelists, or “prayer warriors,” who engage in what they call a cosmic struggle against the forces of darkness at work in society. Also of interest, but taking a different stance, is the article detailing the attacks on practitioners of Afro-Brazilian religions in Rio de Janeiro by drug traffickers (Boaz). It is conversion to Evangelical Christianity that prompts the traffickers to expel devotees from various areas, destroy shrines and places of worship, and threaten priests because they are supposedly worshipping the devil. Boaz argues, however, that this should not been seen as spiritual warfare but, rather, as a clearcut case of human rights violations.As the book’s editor, Daniel H. Levine, observes, although the cases come from Latin America the issues they raise are global. Many of the problems the articles address are hidden in plain sight. This book illuminates what the problems are and where they are to be found.

In the name of the Gothic father: François Truffaut’s L’Histoire d’Adèle H. (1975)

ABSTRACT The reception of François Truffaut’s 1975 film L’Histoire d’Adèle H., dealing with the obsession and descent into madness of the daughter of Victor Hugo, has recurrently focused on its critical engagement with Romantic melodrama, as well as its literary and ‘romanesque’ dimensions. This article argues that the term ‘romanesque’ has camouflaged the film’s active engagement with both cinematic and literary Gothic heritage. This engagement is shown to be inextricably linked to dynamic tensions of paternal influence. Both Truffaut as director and Adèle Hugo as film character actively renegotiate the Father’s artistic heritage of violent passions and dark metaphysical forces, with differing results. The article proposes a double analysis: (a) a close reading of the film’s Gothic tropes, shedding light on Truffaut’s intertextual dialogue with Hitchcock, his favourite ‘Gothic’ father and (b) an examination of the character Adèle H.’s intertextual performance, in which she contends with the powerful Gothico-Romantic myth embodied by the literary patriarch Victor Hugo. This will lead to extended insight into Truffaut’s brand of filmic Gothic as a vehicle of haunted intensity and on his distinctive exploration of the torments of female subjectivity, haunting and neurosis.

Flavor and CP violation from a QCD-like hidden sector

Confining hidden sectors at the GeV scale are well motivated by asymmetric dark matter and naturalness considerations and can also give interesting collider signatures. Here we study such sectors connected to the Standard Model by a TeV scale mediator charged under both QCD and the dark force. Such a mediator admits a Yukawa coupling between quarks and dark quarks which is generically flavour and CP violating. We show that in contrast to expectation, electric dipole moments do not place a strong constraint on this scenario even with O(1) CP-violating phases. We also quantitatively explore constraints from ∆F = 1, 2 processes as a function of the number of dark quark flavours. Finally, we describe the reach of upcoming measurements at Belle-II and KOTO, and we propose new CP-odd observables in rare meson decays that may be sensitive to the CP-violating nature of the dark sector.

SU(4) flavorful portal matter

In this paper, we present a model which attempts to unify a new dark sector force with a local $SU(3)$ flavor symmetry. Dark matter (DM) and its potential interactions with the Standard Model (SM) continue to present a rich framework for model building. In the case of thermal DM of a mass between a few MeV and a few GeV, a compelling and much-explored framework is that of a dark photon/vector portal, which posits a new $U(1)$ ``dark photon'' which only couples to the SM via small kinetic mixing (KM) with the SM hypercharge. This mixing can be mediated at the one-loop level by portal matter (PM) fields which are charged under both the dark $U(1)$ and the SM gauge group. In earlier work, one of the authors has noted that models with appropriate portal matter content to produce finite and calculable kinetic mixing can arise from nonminimal dark sectors, in which the dark $U(1)$ is a subgroup of a larger gauge symmetry under which SM particles might have nontrivial representations. We expand on this idea here by constructing a model in which in which the dark $U(1)$ is unified with another popular extension to the SM gauge group, a local $SU(3)$ flavor symmetry. The full dark/flavor symmetry group is $SU(4{)}_{F}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}U(1{)}_{F}$, incorporating the local $SU(3)$ flavor symmetry with PM appearing as a vectorlike ``fourth generation'' to supplement the three generations of the SM. To ensure finite contributions to KM, the SM gauge group is arranged into Pati-Salam multiplets. The new extended dark gauge group presents a variety of interesting experimental signatures, including nontrivial consequences of the flavor symmetry being unified with the dark sector.

Transformation of the Stereotypical Image of the Cat in Modern Folklore (Based on the Genre of the Riddle)

This article discusses the stereotypical image of the cat in the traditional riddle as well as the features of the transformation of the image in the modern riddle. In the study, the authors employ methods of ethnolinguistic description combined with content analysis. Also, they verify the data obtained through textual research along with a series of psycholinguistic experiments using the methods of comparison and quantitative calculations. A comparison of the obtained data is made to establish the similarities and differences in the ways of representing and perceiving the stereotypical image of the cat in traditional and modern riddles. It also facilitates the identification of the relevant features of the image under study for modern consciousness. The study confirms the assumption that the stability of the general principles of developing the image of the cat is revealed in accordance with the requirements of the genre in traditional and modern riddles. However, modern texts, in comparison with traditional texts, reveal several differences in the semantic content of the image. Here, the image under study is represented in relation to its functional properties. It is connected mainly with hunting for mice and the performance of the mythological function associated with protecting the house from dark evil forces. The image of the cat in modern texts demonstrates basically its external and behavioural characteristics. The authors reveal the perception of the cat as a wayward pet in modern culture. Such a discrepancy in the realisation of features is mainly due to the focus of the riddle on the reflection of the most significant and relevant information of the period. The shift in the representation of the image in modern texts is caused by the need to reflect the reality in relation to changes in the sociocultural environment.

Geometrization of light bending and its application to SdS w spacetime

The mysterious dark energy remains one of the greatest puzzles of modern science. Current detections for it are mostly indirect. The spacetime effects of dark energy can be locally described by the SdS w metric. Understanding these local effects exactly is an essential step toward the direct probe of dark energy. From first principles, we prove that dark energy can exert a repulsive dark force on astrophysical scales, different from the Newtonian attraction of both visible and dark matter. One way of measuring local effects of dark energy is through the gravitational deflection of light. We geometrize the bending of light in any curved static spacetime. First of all, we define a generalized deflection angle, referred to as the Gaussian deflection angle, in a mathematically strict and conceptually clean way. Basing on the Gauss–Bonnet theorem, we then prove that the Gaussian deflection angle is equivalent to the surface integral of the Gaussian curvature over a chosen lensing patch. As an application of the geometrization, we study the problem of whether dark energy affects the bending of light and provide a strict solution to this problem in the SdS w spacetime. According to this solution, we propose a method to overcome the difficulty of measuring local dark energy effects. Exactly speaking, we find that the lensing effect of dark energy can be enhanced by 14 orders of magnitude when properly choosing the lensing patch in certain cases. It means that we can probe the existence and nature of dark energy directly in our Solar System. This points to an exciting direction to help unraveling the great mystery of dark energy.

When Worlds Collide: Y. Hurgin’s Tales of the Great War

Yaʿaqov Ḥurgin is one of the Hebrew authors in Erets Yisraʾel to have represented World War I in the Middle East arena in his works, particularly the novella, Bein harerei Efrayim. His works dwell less on the war itself than on microcosmic, interpersonal conflicts among individuals as a mirror of the wider conflict. It is as if he were pointing to the cosmic phenomenon of ongoing tensions and conflicts among elements in creation, concrete or abstract. As part of this observation, Ḥurgin experiments, much like writers that follow, with the possibility of a junction of diverse cultural, religious, and ethnic values. His work challenges the Orientalist notion of bringing progress to so-called lesser civilizations, for the very same dark forces lurk beneath the surface of their own superficial culture.

Searching for dark photons with existing haloscope data

The dark (or hidden) photon is a massive U(1) gauge boson theorized as a dark force mediator and as a dark matter candidate. Dark photons can be detected with axion cavity haloscopes by probing for a power excess caused by the dark photon's kinetic mixing with Standard Model photons. Haloscope axion exclusion limits may therefore be converted into competitive dark photon parameter limits via the calculation of a corresponding dark photon to photon coupling factor. This calculation allows for an improvement in sensitivity of around four orders of magnitude relative to other dark photon exclusions and may be attained using existing data. We present how one converts haloscope axion search limits and a summary of relevant experimental parameters from published searches. In addition, we have included the code that can be used to generate our dark photon exclusion limits for the cases described in this paper. Finally, we present limits on the kinetic mixing coefficient between dark photons and the Standard Model photons based on existing haloscope axion searches.

One agricultural holiday lost in time and space

In the study of cultural history issues, some importance is attached to the study of ancient beliefs. Among such issues are the days-holidays of the folk agrarian calendar. Handicrafts in agriculture were the main source of material prosperity for the people, the prosperity of the country and the barracks. People used various means to protect Chirnakhuli, including spells. Their discussion shows that one of the ways in which our ancestors fought evil was to suppress the Avsuls, because they believed that failure in agriculture was caused by dark forces. Only the church continues the tradition and blesses the seeds to be sown in the field on the day of commemoration of Theodore Tyrone, unfortunately this is just a ritual that devastated agriculture can no longer use in practice.

Brutal Aesthetics: Dubuffet, Bataille, Jorn, Paolozzi, Oldenburg

Brutal Aesthetics: Dubuffet, Bataille, Jorn, Paolozzi, Oldenburg

Neutrino as the dark force

We point out a novel role for the Standard Model neutrino in dark matter phenomenology where the exchange of neutrinos generates a long-range potential between dark matter particles. The resulting dark matter self interaction could be sufficiently strong to impact small-scale structure formation, without the need of any dark force carrier. This is a generic feature of theories where dark matter couples to the visible sector through the neutrino portal. It is highly testable with improved decay rate measurements at future $Z$, Higgs, and $\tau$ factories, as well as precision cosmology.

From COVID-19 to COVID-666: Quasi-religious mentality and ideologies in Nigerian coronavirus pandemic discourse

In response to the global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, different religious-immune conspiracy theories emerged to explain the increasing scary situation in Nigeria. Emerging multifarious narratives of the contagion, which are embedded in peculiar Nigerian socio-religiosity and religious economy, reconstructed the discourses into two complexities: corona disease is an invention of the devil and other dark evil forces, and corona disease is a sign of the end of times. The obvious fabrications escalated uncertainties surrounding the pandemic as well as generated anxiety and fears among potential believers who sermonize spiritual vigilance for the ‘final battle and journey’. Drawing insights from critical discourse analysis, moral panic and frame theory, this study explores discursive means through which the pandemic is represented and reconstructed as long-awaited ‘doomsday’ warning in Nigerian online communities. Findings reveal instances of varying descriptive names, lexical derivations and discursive frames that reflect counter belief and quasi-religious ideologies. The study argues that complex religious doctrines rooted in antichrist or mark of the beast view, socio-religious ideologies of dominionism and overcommernism, cultural and personal linguistic processes have all contributed in shaping and institutionalizing the viral ‘apocalyptic’ world-view of the outbreak.

THE TREASURE IN TRADITIONAL HUTSUL’S BELIEFS OF HISTORICAL-ETHNOGRAPHICAL TRANSCARPATHIA (BY THE FIELD MATERIALS)

In this article, based on the significant quantities collected by author filed materials, archive and literary sources in traditional hutsul’s beliefs the treasure of historical-ethnographical Transcarpatia is considered. The traditional submission was revealed and the motive of a treasure finding and its main displays traced. The attention was focused on existence of two types of treasures “clear” in folk tradition, that is hidden without an appropriate charming, anyone could take them without harm to yourself and «unclear», which are under unclear force’ protection. The methods of protection and charms from possible harmful consequences of obtaining the ordered treasure were considered. Found out that the main of such beliefs dating back to antiquity and remnants of the archaic world-view of hutsuls with a set of different in meaning and origin of the phenomena of ancient and modern tradition. A dark force guards the traditional beliefs disclosed, which are disseminated in the Carpathians for the treasure. In particular, among hutsuls of historical-ethnographical Transcarpathia, the owner instructs to guard the treasure he buried in the ground for the domestic and demonic character. The current status of preservation and living traditional submission about treasure and related with it magical actions have been studied. The legends widespread in Transcarpathian Hutsulschyna are still spread today, as evidenced by the stories of first-person informants. Even today, the traditional beliefs hutsuls of Transcarpathia are characterized by apparent identity and conservatism due to the natural and geographical conditions, remote from urban centers.