The COVID-19 pandemic poses a health threat that has dominated media coverage. However, not much is known about individual media use to acquire knowledge about COVID-19. To address this open research ...question, this study investigated how the perceived threat is linked to media use and how media use is associated with perceived and actual knowledge about COVID-19. In a German online survey conducted between April 16 and April 27, 2020,
= 952 participants provided information on their perceived threat and media use to inform themselves about COVID-19. In this process, they indicated how well they were informed about COVID-19 (perceived knowledge) and subsequently completed a COVID-19 knowledge test (actual knowledge). Results indicated that individuals who felt more threatened by COVID-19 used media more often to inform themselves (
= 0.20,
< 0.001) but focused on fewer different media channels (
= 0.01,
< 0.001). Further, frequent media use was associated with higher perceived knowledge (
= 0.47,
< 0.001), but not with higher actual knowledge about COVID-19 (
= -0.01,
= 0.938), reflecting an illusion of knowledge. Additionally, using fewer media channels was linked to higher perceived (
= 2.21,
< 0.001) and actual knowledge (
= 2.08,
= 0.008). Finally, explorative analyses on the use of different media channels revealed that an illusion of knowledge emerged for using social media, public television, and newspapers. Potential explanations for the findings and implications for future research are discussed.
Beyond formal education, continuing adult learning and education (ALE) is considered as successful means for supporting immigrants’ integration into the receiving society. Although recently,
...subjective
parameters of immigrants’ integration (e.g., life satisfaction) have received increasing academic attention, research on the impact of education on subjective integration indicators is still rare. To address this, the present study contributes to the literature by investigating the effect of ALE participation on life satisfaction in a longitudinal design. The study compares the effect for the group of immigrants with the group of natives in order to estimate whether the potential
education effect
on life satisfaction is equally strong for both groups or stronger for the group of immigrants (interaction effect). For this, the study uses seven waves of panel data from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) with
N
= 6386 individuals, of which
N
= 1002 individuals have a migration background. Methodologically, a Random Intercepts Cross-Lagged Panel Model is applied. This allows distinguishing within-person fluctuations from trait-like between-person differences. On the between-person level, we find a significant link between ALE participation and life satisfaction for both immigrants and natives. However, on the within-person level, no significant cross-lagged effects are observed. Moreover, we find no support for an immigrant-native gap in life satisfaction.
Education is often targeted as a key resource for integration of people with migration background. A silent assumption in many discussions is that beyond formal education, adult learning and ...education (ALE) also fosters integration, especially higher psychological identification with the receiving society. Still, empirical evidence testing this assumption is rare. To address this issue, the present study investigates the effect of ALE participation on national and ethnic identification of people with migration background in a longitudinal design. The study uses data from the adult starting cohort of the German National Educational Panel Study with a sample size of N = 799 individuals. Structural equation model consisting of true intra‐individual change models and a general propensity score are applied. We find no significant effect of ALE participation on neither national identification nor ethnic identification. However, we find a significant positive association between a change in national identification and a change in ethnic identification over time: An increase in national identification over time is associated with an increase in ethnic identification over time, supporting the idea of the integration strategy being pursued in Germany.
In Drosophila, glial cell development depends on the gene glial cells missing (gcm). gcm activates the expression of other transcription factors such as pointed and repo, which control subsequent ...glial differentiation. In order to better understand glial cell differentiation, we have screened for genes whose expression in glial cells depends on the activity of pointed. Using an enhancer trap approach, we have identified loco as such a gene. loco is expressed in most lateral CNS glial cells throughout development. Embryos lacking loco function have an normal overall morphology, but fail to hatch. Ultrastructural analysis of homozygous mutant loco embryos reveals a severe glial cell differentiation defect. Mutant glial cells fail to properly ensheath longitudinal axon tracts and do not form the normal glial-glial cell contacts, resulting in a disruption of the blood-brain barrier. Hypomorphic loco alleles were isolated following an EMS mutagenesis. Rare escapers eclose which show impaired locomotor capabilities. loco encodes the first two known Drosophila members of the family of Regulators of G-protein signalling (RGS) proteins, known to interact with the alpha subunits of G-proteins. loco specifically interacts with the Drosophila alphai-subunit. Strikingly, the interaction is not confined to the RGS domain. This interaction and the coexpression of LOCO and Galphai suggests a function of G-protein signalling for glial cell development.
We search for lepton-flavor-violating τ^{-}→e^{-}α and τ^{-}→μ^{-}α decays, where α is an invisible spin-0 boson. The search uses electron-positron collisions at 10.58 GeV center-of-mass energy with ...an integrated luminosity of 62.8 fb^{-1}, produced by the SuperKEKB collider and collected with the Belle II detector. We search for an excess in the lepton-energy spectrum of the known τ^{-}→e^{-}νover ¯_{e}ν_{τ} and τ^{-}→μ^{-}νover ¯_{μ}ν_{τ} decays. We report 95% confidence-level upper limits on the branching-fraction ratio B(τ^{-}→e^{-}α)/B(τ^{-}→e^{-}νover ¯_{e}ν_{τ}) in the range (1.1-9.7)×10^{-3} and on B(τ^{-}→μ^{-}α)/B(τ^{-}→μ^{-}νover ¯_{μ}ν_{τ}) in the range (0.7-12.2)×10^{-3} for α masses between 0 and 1.6 GeV/c^{2}. These results provide the most stringent bounds on invisible boson production from τ decays.
We present the first measurement of the ratio of branching fractions of inclusive semileptonic $B$-meson decays, $R(X_{e/\mu}) = \mathcal{B}(B\to X \, e \, \nu) / \mathcal{B}(B\to X \, \mu \, \nu)$, ...a precision test of electron-muon universality, using data corresponding to $189\,\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ from electron-positron collisions collected with the Belle II detector. In events where the partner $B$ meson is fully reconstructed, we use fits to the lepton momentum spectra above $1.3\,\mathrm{GeV}/c$ to obtain $R(X_{e/\mu}) = 1.007 \pm 0.009~(\mathrm{stat}) \pm 0.019~(\mathrm{syst})$, which is the most precise lepton-universality test of its kind and agrees with the standard-model expectation.
The L_{μ}-L_{τ} extension of the standard model predicts the existence of a lepton-flavor-universality-violating Z^{'} boson that couples only to the heavier lepton families. We search for such a ...Z^{'} through its invisible decay in the process e^{+}e^{-}→μ^{+}μ^{-}Z^{'}. We use a sample of electron-positron collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 10.58 GeV collected by the Belle II experiment in 2019-2020, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 79.7 fb^{-1}. We find no excess over the expected standard-model background. We set 90%-confidence-level upper limits on the cross section for this process as well as on the coupling of the model, which ranges from 3×10^{-3} at low Z^{'} masses to 1 at Z^{'} masses of 8 GeV/c^{2}.
The dark photon A^{'} and the dark Higgs boson h^{'} are hypothetical particles predicted in many dark sector models. We search for the simultaneous production of A^{'} and h^{'} in the dark ...Higgsstrahlung process e^{+}e^{-}→A^{'}h^{'} with A^{'}→μ^{+}μ^{-} and h^{'} invisible in electron-positron collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 10.58 GeV in data collected by the Belle II experiment in 2019. With an integrated luminosity of 8.34 fb^{-1}, we observe no evidence for signal. We obtain exclusion limits at 90% Bayesian credibility in the range of 1.7-5.0 fb on the cross section and in the range of 1.7×10^{-8}-200×10^{-8} on the effective coupling ϵ^{2}×α_{D} for the A^{'} mass in the range of 4.0 GeV/c^{2}<M_{A^{'}}<9.7 GeV/c^{2} and for the h^{'} mass M_{h^{'}}<M_{A^{'}}, where ϵ is the mixing strength between the standard model and the dark photon and α_{D} is the coupling of the dark photon to the dark Higgs boson. Our limits are the first in this mass range.
We report the first search for a nonstandard-model resonance decaying into τ pairs in e^{+}e^{-}→μ^{+}μ^{-}τ^{+}τ^{-} events in the 3.6-10 GeV/c^{2} mass range. We use a 62.8 fb^{-1} sample of ...e^{+}e^{-} collisions collected at a center-of-mass energy of 10.58 GeV by the Belle II experiment at the SuperKEKB collider. The analysis probes three different models predicting a spin-1 particle coupling only to the heavier lepton families, a Higgs-like spin-0 particle that couples preferentially to charged leptons (leptophilic scalar), and an axionlike particle, respectively. We observe no evidence for a signal and set exclusion limits at 90% confidence level on the product of cross section and branching fraction into τ pairs, ranging from 0.7 to 24 fb, and on the couplings of these processes. We obtain world-leading constraints on the couplings for the leptophilic scalar model for masses above 6.5 GeV/c^{2} and for the axionlike particle model over the entire mass range.
A
bstract
We report results from a study of
B
±
→ DK
±
decays followed by
D
decaying to the
CP
-even final state
K
+
K
−
and CP-odd final state
K
S
0
π
0
, where
D
is an admixture of
D
0
and
D
¯
0
...states. These decays are sensitive to the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa unitarity-triangle angle
ϕ
3
. The results are based on a combined analysis of the final data set of 772
×
10
6
B
B
¯
pairs collected by the Belle experiment and a data set of 198
×
10
6
B
B
¯
pairs collected by the Belle II experiment, both in electron-positron collisions at the Υ(4
S
) resonance. We measure the CP asymmetries to be
A
CP
+
= (+12.5
±
5.8
±
1.4)% and
A
CP−
= (
−
16.7
±
5.7
±
0.6)%, and the ratios of branching fractions to be
R
CP
+
= 1.164
±
0.081
±
0.036 and
R
CP−
= 1.151
±
0.074
±
0.019. The first contribution to the uncertainties is statistical, and the second is systematic. The asymmetries
A
CP
+
and
A
CP−
have similar magnitudes and opposite signs; their difference corresponds to 3.5 standard deviations. From these values we calculate 68.3% confidence intervals of (8.5
°
<
ϕ
3
< 16.5
°
) or (84.5
°
<
ϕ
3
< 95.5
°
) or (163.3
°
<
ϕ
3
< 171.5
°
) and 0.321 <
r
B
< 0.465.
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