The Decay Properties of the 1^{-+} Hybrid State

Within the framework of the QCD sum rules, we consider the three-point correlation function, work at the limit q^2 -> 0 and m_\pi -> 0, and pick out the singular term ~ {1\over q^2} to extract the pionic coupling constants of the 1^{-+} hybrid meson. Then we calculate the decay widths of different modes. The decay width of the S-wave modes b_1 \pi, f_1\pi increases quickly as the hybrid meson mass and decay momentum increase. But for the low mass hybrid meson around 1.6 GeV, the P-wave decay mode \rho \pi is very important and its width is around 180 MeV, while the widths of \eta \pi and \eta^\prime \pi are strongly suppressed. We suggest the experimental search of \pi_1(1600) through the decay chains at BESIII: e^+e^- -> J/\psi(\psi') -> \pi_1 +\gamma or e^+e^- -> J/\psi(\psi') -> \pi_1 +\rho where the \pi_1 state can be reconstructed through the decay modes \pi_1 -> \rho\pi -> \pi^+\pi^-\pi^0 or \pi_1 -> f_1(1285)\pi^0. It is also interesting to look for \pi_1 using the available BELLE/BABAR data through the process e^+e^- -> \gamma^\ast -> \rho\pi_1, b_1\pi_1, \gamma \pi_1 etc.Comment: one reference correcte

Diffusion of Lexical Change in Social Media

Computer-mediated communication is driving fundamental changes in the nature of written language. We investigate these changes by statistical analysis of a dataset comprising 107 million Twitter messages (authored by 2.7 million unique user accounts). Using a latent vector autoregressive model to aggregate across thousands of words, we identify high-level patterns in diffusion of linguistic change over the United States. Our model is robust to unpredictable changes in Twitter's sampling rate, and provides a probabilistic characterization of the relationship of macro-scale linguistic influence to a set of demographic and geographic predictors. The results of this analysis offer support for prior arguments that focus on geographical proximity and population size. However, demographic similarity -- especially with regard to race -- plays an even more central role, as cities with similar racial demographics are far more likely to share linguistic influence. Rather than moving towards a single unified "netspeak" dialect, language evolution in computer-mediated communication reproduces existing fault lines in spoken American English.Comment: preprint of PLOS-ONE paper from November 2014; PLoS ONE 9(11) e11311

Structure-Aware Dynamic Scheduler for Parallel Machine Learning

Training large machine learning (ML) models with many variables or parameters can take a long time if one employs sequential procedures even with stochastic updates. A natural solution is to turn to distributed computing on a cluster; however, naive, unstructured parallelization of ML algorithms does not usually lead to a proportional speedup and can even result in divergence, because dependencies between model elements can attenuate the computational gains from parallelization and compromise correctness of inference. Recent efforts toward this issue have benefited from exploiting the static, a priori block structures residing in ML algorithms. In this paper, we take this path further by exploring the dynamic block structures and workloads therein present during ML program execution, which offers new opportunities for improving convergence, correctness, and load balancing in distributed ML. We propose and showcase a general-purpose scheduler, STRADS, for coordinating distributed updates in ML algorithms, which harnesses the aforementioned opportunities in a systematic way. We provide theoretical guarantees for our scheduler, and demonstrate its efficacy versus static block structures on Lasso and Matrix Factorization

Scale Setting Using the Extended Renormalization Group and the Principle of Maximum Conformality: the QCD Coupling Constant at Four Loops

A key problem in making precise perturbative QCD predictions is to set the proper renormalization scale of the running coupling. The extended renormalization group equations, which express the invariance of physical observables under both the renormalization scale- and scheme-parameter transformations, provide a convenient way for estimating the scale- and scheme-dependence of the physical process. In this paper, we present a solution for the scale-equation of the extended renormalization group equations at the four-loop level. Using the principle of maximum conformality (PMC) / Brodsky-Lepage-Mackenzie (BLM) scale-setting method, all non-conformal $\{\beta_i\}$ terms in the perturbative expansion series can be summed into the running coupling, and the resulting scale-fixed predictions are independent of the renormalization scheme. Different schemes lead to different effective PMC/BLM scales, but the final results are scheme independent. Conversely, from the requirement of scheme independence, one not only can obtain scheme-independent commensurate scale relations among different observables, but also determine the scale displacements among the PMC/BLM scales which are derived under different schemes. In principle, the PMC/BLM scales can be fixed order-by-order, and as a useful reference, we present a systematic and scheme-independent procedure for setting PMC/BLM scales up to NNLO. An explicit application for determining the scale setting of $R_{e^{+}e^-}(Q)$ up to four loops is presented. By using the world average $\alpha^{\bar{MS}}_s(M_Z) =0.1184 \pm 0.0007$, we obtain the asymptotic scale for the 't Hooft associated with the $\bar{MS}$ scheme, $\Lambda^{'tH}_{\bar{MS}}= 245^{+9}_{-10}$ MeV, and the asymptotic scale for the conventional $\bar{MS}$ scheme, $\Lambda_{\bar{MS}}= 213^{+19}_{-8}$ MeV.Comment: 9 pages, no figures. The formulas in the Appendix are correcte

More Straightforward Extraction of the Fundamental Lepton Mixing Parameters from Long-Baseline Neutrino Oscillations

We point out the simple reversibility between the fundamental neutrino mixing parameters in vacuum and their effective counterparts in matter. The former can therefore be expressed in terms of the latter, allowing more straightforward extraction of the genuine lepton mixing quantities from a variety of long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments. In addition to the parametrization-independent results, we present the formulas based on the standard parametrization of the lepton flavor mixing matrix and give a typical numerical illustration.Comment: RevTex 10 pages. Minor changes. Phys. Rev. D in printin

Supercritical fluid coating of API on excipient enhances drug release

A process to coat particles of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) onto microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) excipient shows promise as a new way to dosage forms showing enhanced drug release. The process consists of a fluidized bed operated at elevated pressure in which API particles are precipitated from a Supercritical Anti-Solvent process (SAS). MCC particles were used as an excipient in the fluidized bed and collect the SAS-generated API particles. Naringin was selected as the model API to coat onto MCC. A number of operational parameters of the process were investigated: fluidization velocity, coating pressure, temperature, concentration of drug solution, drug solution flow rate, drug mass, organic solvent, MCC mass and size and CO2-to-organic solution ratio. SEM and SPM analyses showed that the MCC particle surfaces were covered with near-spherical nanoparticles with a diameter of approximately 100–200 nm, substantially smaller than the as-received API material. XRD showed that naringin changed from crystalline to amorphous during processing. The coated particles resulting from the SAS fluidized bed process have a higher loading of API, gave faster release rates and higher release ratios in comparison with those produced using a conventional fluidized bed coating process. The approach could be transferred to other industries where release is important such as agrochemical, cosmetic and food

Phases and Transitions in Phantom Nematic Elastomer Membranes

Motivated by recently discovered unusual properties of bulk nematic elastomers, we study a phase diagram of liquid-crystalline polymerized phantom membranes, focusing on in-plane nematic order. We predict that such membranes should enerically exhibit five phases, distinguished by their conformational and in-plane orientational properties, namely isotropic-crumpled, nematic-crumpled, isotropic-flat, nematic-flat and nematic-tubule phases. In the nematic-tubule phase, the membrane is extended along the direction of {\em spontaneous} nematic order and is crumpled in the other. The associated spontaneous symmetries breaking guarantees that the nematic-tubule is characterized by a conformational-orientational soft (Goldstone) mode and the concomitant vanishing of the in-plane shear modulus. We show that long-range orientational order of the nematic-tubule is maintained even in the presence of harmonic thermal luctuations. However, it is likely that tubule's elastic properties are ualitatively modified by these fluctuations, that can be studied using a nonlinear elastic theory for the nematic tubule phase that we derive at the end of this paper.Comment: 12 pages, 4 eps figures. To appear in PR