Remembering Our Heritage: Studies in Friends Beliefs

The material in this booklet was first written by Charles S. Ball in the form of eight articles for The Collegiate Contact, the monthly publication for college students in California Yearly Meeting of the Friends Church. At the time of publication, collegians received the articles with considerable appreciation for their relevance, lucidity and scholarly tone. In response to many requests that the articles be made available for a wider circulation, the Board of Christian Education of California Yearly Meeting has authorized this reprinting. It is our hope that this material may be of great value as resource material for membership classes, study groups, Sunday School teachers and all who may be interested in acquainting themselves more fully with Friends beliefs. In their original intent these essays were particularly oriented to relate Friends beliefs to the basic doctrines of Protestantism at large. Topics were selected for their relevance to the college community, and the brevity of the articles was dictated by the format of The Collegiate Contact. Charles S. Ball is a birthright Friend who was recorded as a minister by Ohio Yearly Meeting, Damascus, Ohio. After serving as pastor in Ohio, he headed the Friends Bible College and Academy of Haviland, Kansas, taught in the Bible Department of Friends University, and was president of William Penn College, Oskaloosa, Iowa, for eight years before becoming pastor of the East Whittier Friends Church in Whittier, California.https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/quakerbooks/1075/thumbnail.jp

Alcohol consumption among university students in the night-time economy in the UK: A three-wave longitudinal study

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via the DOI in this recordBackground. Excessive alcohol consumption is commonly reported in university/college students, and contributes to emerging peer-group relations. Purpose. This study aimed to provide up-to-date longitudinal data on students’ alcohol consumption patterns, and predictors of this, across a single academic year. Methods. A 3-wave study was conducted at a university in the UK. Participants reported their alcohol consumption patterns, along with perceptions of the social norms and behavioral expectations associated with attending licensed venues where alcohol is sold (the “night time economy”). Participants also reported their social identification with this environment. Results. Around half of participants overall fell into the three higher alcohol-risk categories (moderate, high or hazardous drinking). A modest reduction in consumption was observed across the study. At each assessment point, males reported greater alcohol consumption in the preceding two months than females, while Year 4 students and those on graduate-entry programs reported the lowest consumption. Excessive alcohol consumption was regarded as largely normative within the night time economy, both descriptively (“what others do”) and injunctively (“what others approve of”). Social identification and norm perceptions, along with gender, year group, and intoxication and socialising expectations, were significantly associated with higher alcohol consumption at baseline. However, baseline consumption was the only variable significantly associated with alcohol use at the end of the academic year. Conclusions. Many students drink alcohol at potentially harmful levels, and norms and expectations supporting this consumption are prominent and stable. The findings support a targeted approach to intervention that accounts for heterogeneity in the student population.Drinkaware TrustNational Institute for Health Research (NIHR

Heavy to Light Meson Exclusive Semileptonic Decays in Effective Field Theory of Heavy Quark

We present a general study on exclusive semileptonic decays of heavy (B, D, B_s) to light (pi, rho, K, K^*) mesons in the framework of effective field theory of heavy quark. Transition matrix elements of these decays can be systematically characterized by a set of wave functions which are independent of the heavy quark mass except for the implicit scale dependence. Form factors for all these decays are calculated consistently within the effective theory framework using the light cone sum rule method at the leading order of 1/m_Q expansion. The branching ratios of these decays are evaluated, and the heavy and light flavor symmetry breaking effects are investigated. We also give comparison of our results and the predictions from other approaches, among which are the relations proposed recently in the framework of large energy effective theory.Comment: 18 pages, ReVtex, 5 figures, added references and comparison of results, and corrected signs in some formula

Semileptonic B Decays and Determination of |Vub|

Semileptonic decays of the B mesons provide an excellent probe for the weak and strong interactions of the bottom quark. The large data samples collected at the B Factories have pushed the experimental studies of the semileptonic B decays to a new height and stimulated significant theoretical developments. I review recent progresses in this fast-evolving field, with an emphasis on the determination of the magnitude of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix element |Vub|.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures, accepted by Mod. Phys. Lett.

Predictions on B→πlˉνlB \to \pi \bar{l} \nu_l, D→πlˉνlD \to \pi \bar{l} \nu_l and D→KlˉνlD\to K \bar{l} \nu_l from QCD Light-Cone Sum Rules

The $f^+$ form factors of the $B\to \pi$, $D\to \pi$ and $D\to K$ transitions are calculated from QCD light-cone sum rules (LCSR) and used to predict the widths and differential distributions of the exclusive semileptonic decays $B\to \pi \bar{l}\nu_l$, $D \to\pi \bar{l}\nu_l$ and $D \to K \bar{l}\nu_l$, where $l=e,\mu$. The current theoretical uncertainties are estimated. The LCSR results are found to agree with the results of lattice QCD calculations and with experimental data on exclusive semileptonic D decays. Comparison of the LCSR prediction on $B\to \pi \bar{l} \nu_l$ with the CLEO measurement yields a value of |V_{ub}| in agreement with other determinations.Comment: 24 pages, 12 figures, Latex, epsfig, some additional remarks on the two-pole parameterization, prediction on the $B\to K$ form factor added, version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Two-loop Corrections to the B to pi Form Factor from QCD Sum Rules on the Light-Cone and |V(ub)|

We calculate the leading-twist O(alphas^2 beta0) corrections to the B to pi transition form factor f+(0) in light-cone sum rules. We find that, as expected, there is a cancellation between the O(alphas^2 beta0) corrections to fB f+(0) and the large corresponding corrections to fB, calculated in QCD sum rules. This suggests the insensitivity of the form factors calculated in the light-cone sum rules approach to this source of radiative corrections. We further obtain an improved determination of the CKM matrix element |V(ub)|, using latest results from BaBar and Belle for f+(0)|V(ub)|.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figure