Hadronic physics at KLOE

New KLOE results on scalar mesons, $\gamma\gamma$ physics and $\eta$ physics are presented.Comment: 4 pages, 5 postscript figures, contributed to the Proceedings of CIPANP 2009: 10th Conference on the Intersections of Particle and Nuclear Physics, San Diego, USA, 26-31 May, 200

A precise new KLOE measurement of ∣Fπ∣2|F_\pi|^2 with ISR events and determination of ππ\pi\pi contribution to aμa_\mu for 0.592<Mππ<0.9750.592 < M_{\pi\pi} < 0.975 GeV

The KLOE experiment at the DA$\Phi$NE $\phi$-factory has performed a new precise measurement of the pion form factor using Initial State Radiation events, with photons emitted at small polar angle. Results based on an integrated luminosity of 240 pb$^{-1}$ and extraction of the $\pi\pi$ contribution to $a_\mu$ in the mass range $0.35< M^2_{\pi\pi}<0.95$ GeV$^2$ are presented. The new value of $a^{\pi\pi}_\mu$ has smaller (30%) statistical and systematic error and is consistent with the KLOE published value (confirming the current disagreement between the standard model prediction for $a_\mu$ and the measured value).Comment: 5 pages, proceedings for the CIPANP 2009 conferenc

Adult Learning in Nonformal Settings: Cultural Festivals as Spaces for Socially Situated Cognition

Recent years have witnessed a renewed interest in the role of museums and cultural festivals in adult learning. Once considered the keepers of physical and cultural history, there was only limited concern for if and how adults learned from these settings. The conventional view held that museums provided knowledge, and it was an individual’s prerogative whether or not to seek it out. The past few decades, however, have seen both a resurgence of interest in visiting museums and festivals and a more concerted effort to understand their value in a rapidly evolving society. This study considers visitor experiences at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, a free two-week festival held each summer in Washington, D.C. Specific research questions addressed are: (a) what are study participants’ perceptions of their experiences during their festival visit? and (b) what do study participants perceive as outcomes of their visit? Data for this phenomenological study were gathered through in-depth interviews with five participants and researcher observations. Participants were asked to take photographs during their visit and these images were used to stimulate post visit interview recall and discussion. Study participants’ experiences and researcher observations are presented through individual and social themes. Individual themes include the role of sensory perceptions and of participant-specific characteristics and autobiography in visit behavior and meaning-making. Socially-oriented themes include the role of official festival demonstrators, fellow visitors, and the voice of the museum as communicated through interpretive signage. Comparisons are drawn to current museum visit theory with analysis suggesting that the Smithsonian Folklife Festival offers more than museum visits; it provides dynamic and authentic opportunities for cultural contact and socially situated cognition

Sediment characteristics around the Kenyon Island Group, Great Sacandaga Lake (NY): economic potential of dredging and land reclamation

The Kenyon Island Group lies within the Great Sacandaga Lake\u27s largest and most unnavigable shallow water shoal. The shoal measures approximately 5.0 mi2. The Kenyon Islands, including Mead and Deer Islands, occupy approximately 3/4 mi2 during the months of annual high lake level. During the late shallow water season of 1998, a NE to SW diagonal transect of nine core samples were collected by a Geoprobe coring device, with recoveries between 8\u27 and 16\u27 deep sections. In this study these cores were used to identify the stratigraphy, classify the sediment grain sizes, evaluate the abundance of economic minerals, and calculate the most cost effective and environmentally sound method of deepening the lakebed for navigation and recreational purposes and reconfiguring the new real property created. Here I present evidence for the existence of a previously unidentified large moraine field, of approximately 12 mi2, located between two different end moraines of the Pleistocene Epoch. Today, about 1/3 of that moraine field surrounds the Kenyon Island Group, within the shorelines of the Great Sacandaga Lake. The south and east end moraine is visible in an arcuate path which includes the two major Kenyon Islands and Deer Island. The south and east end moraine is approximately 3/4 mile wide and is confined by the valley walls of the Sacandaga Basin. This end moraine must have been at least 300 feet high during the Pleistocene Epoch. The north and west moraine was deposited before the south and east end moraine and is also visible in exposures around the lake. This forms moraine rock fields in arcuate bands, which are confined by the valley walls of the Sacandaga Basin. The north and west end moraine was originally 1/2 miles wide and must have stood at least 120 feet high. The moraine field contains all the classic landmarks including kames, kettle lakes, eskers, drumlins, flutes and fossil streambeds. The moraine field sediments that exist are no more than 45 feet thick beneath the lakebed and 45 to 120 feet thick outside the shorelines and above bedrock. The bedrock maybe Cambrian, including Little Falls Dolomite, Theresa Dolomite and/or Potsdam Sandstone. This thesis proposes a remedy involving dredging and earth-moving heavy equipment to permanently deepen part of the lakebed of the Great Sacandaga Lake that is currently of little use because the area is typically too shallow for regular lake navigation. If there are minerals within the sediments of the study area that are of current economic importance and have values significant enough to pay for a lakebed deepening, the geochemistry, mineralogy and mineral chemistry will reveal them. These minerals can then be identified and evaluated as the mechanism that will support the tremendous costs associated with such a major deepening effort. The long term outcome of a Great Sacandaga Lake deepening, beside improving the navigational, recreational, and fisheries of the lake will create room for an additional 200 billion gallons of water, which could be priceless in the next frontier. The moraine field sediment profile in the study area may be unique to the whole of the Great Sacandaga Lake. The question of dredging the lakebed versus simpler earth-moving heavy equipment to reconfigure the lakebed, anywhere else in the Great Sacandaga Lake, will most certainly require further research and could yield different results

Form factor in K+ --> pi+ pi0 gamma: interference versus direct emission

We analyze the effect of a form factor in the magnetic contribution to K+ --> pi+ pi0 gamma. We emphasize how this can show up experimentally: in particular we try to explore the difference between a possible interference contribution and a form factor in the magnetic part. The form factor used for K+ --> pi+ pi0 gamma is analogous to the one for KL --> pi+ pi- gamma, experimentally well established.Comment: 9 pages revtex, 10 eps figures; improved presentation of theoretical and experimental status; refs. adde

Precision Measurement of KS Meson Lifetime with the KLOE detector

Using a large sample of pure, slow, short lived K0 mesons collected with KLOE detector at DaFne, we have measured the KS lifetime. From a fit to the proper time distribution we find tau = (89.562 +- 0.029_stat +- 0.043_syst) ps. This is the most precise measurement today in good agreement with the world average derived from previous measurements. We observe no dependence of the lifetime on the direction of the Ks.Comment: 5 pages, 7 figure

Modelling and Control of a Knuckle Boom Crane

Cranes come in various sizes and designs to perform different tasks. Depending on their dynamic properties, they can be classified as gantry cranes and rotary cranes. In this paper we will focus on the so called 'knuckle boom' cranes which are among the most common types of rotary cranes. Compared with the other kinds of cranes (e.g. boom cranes, tower cranes, overhead cranes, etc), the study of knuckle cranes is still at an early stage and very few control strategies for this kind of crane have been proposed in the literature. Although fairly simple mechanically, from the control viewpoint the knuckle cranes present several challenges. A first result of this paper is to present for the first time a complete mathematical model for this kind of crane where it is possible to control the three rotations of the crane (known as luff, slew, and jib movement), and the cable length. The only simplifying assumption of the model is that the cable is considered rigid. On the basis of this model, we propose a nonlinear control law based on energy considerations which is able to perform position control of the crane while actively damping the oscillations of the load. The corresponding stability and convergence analysis is carefully proved using the LaSalle's invariance principle. The effectiveness of the proposed control approach has been tested in simulation with realistic physical parameters and in the presence of model mismatch.Comment: This paper has been accepted to International Journal of Control on March 29th 2021. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2103.0250

Noninvasive ventilation: a decade of progress

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Revisiting Charmless Hadronic B_{u,d} Decays in QCD Factorization

Within the framework of QCD factorization (QCDF), we consider two different types of power correction effects in order to resolve the CP puzzles and rate deficit problems with penguin-dominated two-body decays of B mesons and color-suppressed tree-dominated $\pi^0\pi^0$ and $\rho^0\pi^0$ modes: penguin annihilation and soft corrections to the color-suppressed tree amplitude. We emphasize that the electroweak penguin solution to the $B\to K\pi$ CP puzzle via New Physics is irrelevant for solving the CP and rate puzzles related to tree-dominated decays. While some channels e.g. $K^-\pi^+,K^-\rho^0,\pi^+\pi^-,\rho^\pm\pi^\mp$ need penguin annihilation to induce the correct magnitudes and signs for their CP violation, some other decays such as $B^-\to K^-\pi^0,\pi^-\eta, K^-\eta$ and $\bar B^0\to \bar K^{*0}\eta,\pi^0\pi^0$ require the presence of both power corrections to account for the measured CP asymmetries. In general, QCDF predictions for the branching fractions and direct CP asymmetries of $\bar B\to PP,VP,VV$ decays are in good agreement with experiment. The predictions of pQCD and soft-collinear effective theory are included for comparison.Comment: 51 pages, 1 figur

Unexpected death of a ventilator-dependent amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patient

Background: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal, progressive, neurodegenerative disease and most patients affected die of respiratory compromise and/or pneumonia within 2â3 years of diagnosis. As ALS progresses, ventilator assistance is required. In the end stages of the disease, patients suffer from respiratory failure and may become ventilator-dependent. Deaths due to malfunction of mechanical ventilators are reported but there are very few forensic autopsy records. We report the case of a 69-year-old ALS female ventilator-dependent, trachostomised patient who was found dead by her husband, with the ventilator in âstand-byâ mode. Method: A forensic autopsy was performed. Samples of internal organs were taken for histological and toxicological examination. The ventilator internal memory was also analysed and tested in order to find possible malfunction. Results: Gross examination did not reveal any sign of trauma but showed brain and lung congestion. Pulmonary histological examination revealed thickening of peribronchial interstitial space, alveolar over-distension, break of inter-alveolar walls and diffuse alveolar haemorrhages. Focal microhemorrhages were also detected in other organs. Analysis of the ventilator internal memory showed that during the night of death, there had been several voltage drops. Specific tests revealed malfunction of the internal battery which was unable to provide the necessary voltage, as a consequence the ventilator switched off, stopping ventilation. Battery malfunction reduced the volume of the ventilator alarm, which was not heard by the caregiver. Conclusion: Histological pattern, with acute pulmonary emphysema and focal polivisceral haemorrhages, is strongly suggestive of a death due to âacuteâ asphyxia. The authors also discuss the need for strict supervision and follow up of these ventilatory dependent patients and their devices. Resumo: Introdução: A Esclerose Lateral Amiotrófica (ELA) é uma doença fatal, progressiva e neurodegenerativa e a maioria dos doentes afectados morrerão de falha respiratória e/ou pneumonia 2 ou 3 anos após o diagnóstico. à medida que a ELA progride torna-se necessária a assistência ventilatória. Nos estágios finais da doença, os doentes sofrem de insuficiência respiratória e podem tornar-se dependentes do ventilador. São conhecidas mortes devido ao mau funcionamento de ventiladores mecânicos mas existem poucos registos forenses de tal situação. Relatamos o caso de uma doente de 69 anos com ELA, traqueostomizada e dependente do ventilador, que foi encontrada morta pelo seu marido com o ventilador em modo de espera («stand-by»). Método: Foi realizada uma autópsia forense. Foram recolhidas amostras dos órgãos internos para exame toxicológico e histológico. A memória interna do ventilador foi também analisada e testada de modo a descobrir uma possível avaria. Resultados: O exame macroscópico não revelou qualquer sinal de trauma mas indicou congestão cerebral e pulmonar. O exame pulmonar histológico revelou o espessamento do espaço intersticial peribrônquico, sobredistensão alveolar, quebra de paredes interalveolares e hemorragias alveolares difusas. Foram detetadas micro-hemorragias focais noutros órgãos. A análise da memória interna do ventilador mostrou que, durante a noite da morte, houve diversas quedas de tensão. Testes específicos revelaram o mau funcionamento da bateria interna que não conseguiu fornecer a tensão necessária, consequentemente o ventilador desligou-se, parando a ventilação. O mau funcionamento da bateria reduziu o volume do alarme do ventilador, que não foi ouvido pelo prestador de cuidados. Conclusão: O padrão histológico, com enfisema pulmonar agudo e hemorragias focais poliviscerais, é fortemente indicador de morte devido a asfixia «aguda». Os autores discutem também a necessidade de uma supervisão rigorosa e seguimento destes doentes dependentes do ventilador e dos seus equipamentos. Keywords: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Acute respiratory failure, Home mechanical ventilation, Palavras-chave: Esclerose lateral amiotrófica, Insuficiência respiratória aguda, Ventilação mecânica doméstic