Law of the leading digits and the ideological struggle for numbers

Benford's law states that the occurrence of significant digits in many data sets is not uniform but tends to follow a logarithmic distribution such that the smaller digits appear as first significant digits more frequently than the larger ones. We investigate here numerical data on the country-wise adherent distribution of seven major world religions i.e. Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Judaism and Baha'ism to see if the proportion of the leading digits occurring in the distribution conforms to Benford's law. We find that the adherent data of all the religions, except Christianity, excellently does conform to Benford's law. Furthermore, unlike the adherent data on Christianity, the significant digit distribution of the three major Christian denominations i.e. Catholicism, Protestantism and Orthodoxy obeys the law. Thus in spite of their complexity general laws can be established for the evolution of the religious groups.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures, 3 tables, title changed to "The law of the leading digits and the world religions" for journal version in publicatio

Simulating Physical Phenomena by Quantum Networks

Physical systems, characterized by an ensemble of interacting elementary constituents, can be represented and studied by different algebras of observables or operators. For example, a fully polarized electronic system can be investigated by means of the algebra generated by the usual fermionic creation and annihilation operators, or by using the algebra of Pauli (spin-1/2) operators. The correspondence between the two algebras is given by the Jordan-Wigner isomorphism. As we previously noted similar one-to-one mappings enable one to represent any physical system in a quantum computer. In this paper we evolve and exploit this fundamental concept in quantum information processing to simulate generic physical phenomena by quantum networks. We give quantum circuits useful for the efficient evaluation of the physical properties (e.g, spectrum of observables or relevant correlation functions) of an arbitrary system with Hamiltonian $H$.Comment: 44 pages, 15 psfigur

Ethnic and gender differences in applicants' decision-making processes: An application of the theory of reasoned action

Contains fulltext : 54483.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)11 p

Measurement of the B0-anti-B0-Oscillation Frequency with Inclusive Dilepton Events

The $B^0$-$\bar B^0$ oscillation frequency has been measured with a sample of 23 million \B\bar B pairs collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric B Factory at SLAC. In this sample, we select events in which both B mesons decay semileptonically and use the charge of the leptons to identify the flavor of each B meson. A simultaneous fit to the decay time difference distributions for opposite- and same-sign dilepton events gives $\Delta m_d = 0.493 \pm 0.012{(stat)}\pm 0.009{(syst)}$ ps$^{-1}$.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, submitted to Physical Review Letter

Measurement of the CP-Violating Asymmetry Amplitude sin2β\beta

We present results on time-dependent CP-violating asymmetries in neutral B decays to several CP eigenstates. The measurements use a data sample of about 88 million Y(4S) --> B Bbar decays collected between 1999 and 2002 with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy B Factory at SLAC. We study events in which one neutral B meson is fully reconstructed in a final state containing a charmonium meson and the other B meson is determined to be either a B0 or B0bar from its decay products. The amplitude of the CP-violating asymmetry, which in the Standard Model is proportional to sin2beta, is derived from the decay-time distributions in such events. We measure sin2beta = 0.741 +/- 0.067 (stat) +/- 0.033 (syst) and |lambda| = 0.948 +/- 0.051 (stat) +/- 0.017 (syst). The magnitude of lambda is consistent with unity, in agreement with the Standard Model expectation of no direct CP violation in these modes

Comparative Advertising Wars: An Historical Analysis of Their Causes and Consequences

This historical study contributes to the extensive literature on comparative advertising by examining the causes and consequences of comparative advertising wars; that is, when one advertiser responds to a direct or implied attack by another advertiser. Primary and secondary sources consist of articles published in historic and contemporary marketing and advertising trade journals, such as Printers’ Ink, Advertising & Selling, and Advertising Age. The findings reveal that well-publicized advertising wars occurred frequently between major U.S. advertisers throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, and that they most often occurred in product and service markets characterized by intense competition. Many, if not most, advertisers’ principal motive for responding to a comparative advertising attack has been emotional rather than rational. The findings also reveal that advertising wars often became increasingly hostile, leading to negative consequences for all combatants, as well as a broad and negative social consequence in the form of potentially misleading advertising.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

Phase Behavior of Aqueous Na-K-Mg-Ca-CI-NO3 Mixtures: Isopiestic Measurements and Thermodynamic Modeling

A comprehensive model has been established for calculating thermodynamic properties of multicomponent aqueous systems containing the Na{sup +}, K{sup +}, Mg{sup 2+}, Ca{sup 2+}, Cl{sup -}, and NO{sub 3}{sup -} ions. The thermodynamic framework is based on a previously developed model for mixed-solvent electrolyte solutions. The framework has been designed to reproduce the properties of salt solutions at temperatures ranging from the freezing point to 300 C and concentrations ranging from infinite dilution to the fused salt limit. The model has been parameterized using a combination of an extensive literature database and new isopiestic measurements for thirteen salt mixtures at 140 C. The measurements have been performed using Oak Ridge National Laboratory's (ORNL) previously designed gravimetric isopiestic apparatus, which makes it possible to detect solid phase precipitation. Water activities are reported for mixtures with a fixed ratio of salts as a function of the total apparent salt mole fraction. The isopiestic measurements reported here simultaneously reflect two fundamental properties of the system, i.e., the activity of water as a function of solution concentration and the occurrence of solid-liquid transitions. The thermodynamic model accurately reproduces the new isopiestic data as well as literature data for binary, ternary and higher-order subsystems. Because of its high accuracy in calculating vapor-liquid and solid-liquid equilibria, the model is suitable for studying deliquescence behavior of multicomponent salt systems

Measurement of the electron energy spectrum and its moments in inclusive B -> Xe nu decays

We report a measurement of the inclusive electron energy spectrum for semileptonic decays of B mesons in a data sample of 52 million Y(4S)-->B(B) over bar decays collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy B-meson factory at SLAC. We determine the branching fraction, first, second, and third moments of the spectrum for lower cutoffs on the electron energy between 0.6 and 1.5 GeV. We measure the partial branching fraction to be B(B-->Xenu,E-e>0.6 GeV)=[10.36+/-0.06(stat.)+/-0.23(sys.)]%