Consistency of the proposed additive measures of revealed comparative advantage

The recently proposed additive measures of revealed comparative advantage (RCA) have been argued as better alternatives to the Balassa Index. This note builds on those suggestions and provides a framework to assess their applicability by means of their consistency across the dimensions and inferences that the indices' informational content allow. A formal empirical investigation supports the presented arguments that the proposed additive constructs of RCA possess certain inconsistencies that may obscure comparative analyses based on them, whereas alternative additive measures proposed here are shown to be more consistent over space and time, and hence may serve as better instruments in related quantitative research.Revealed comparative advantage

Exclusive Baryonic B Decays Circa 2005

The status of exclusive two-body and three-body baryonic B decays is reviewed. The threshold enhancement effect in the dibaryon invariant mass and the angular distributions in the dibaryon rest frame are stressed and explained. Weak radiative baryonic B decays mediated by the electromagnetic penguin process $b\to s\gamma$ are discussed. Puzzles with the correlation observed in $B^-\to p\bar pK^-$ decay and the unexpectedly large rate observed for $B\to\Lambda_c\bar\Lambda_cK$ are examined. The former may indicate that the $p\bar p$ system is produced through some intermediate states, while the latter implies the failure of naive factorization for $\Lambda\bar\Lambda K$ modes and may hint at the importance of final-state rescattering effects.Comment: 21 pages, 9 figures, talk presented at 3rd International Conference on Flavor Physics, Oct 3-8, 2005, National Central Univ. Chung-li, Taiwa

Radiative πρ\pi \rho and πω\pi \omega transition form factors in a light-front constituent quark model

The form factors of the $\pi \rho$ and $\pi \omega$ radiative transitions are evaluated within a light-front constituent quark model, using for the first time the eigenfunctions of a light-front mass operator reproducing the meson mass spectrum and including phenomenological Dirac and Pauli quark form factors in the one-body electromagnetic current operator. The sensitivity of the transition form factors both to the meson wave functions and to the constituent quark form factors is illustrated. It is shown that the measurement of the $\pi \rho$ and $\pi \omega$ radiative transitions could help in discriminating among various models of the meson structure.Comment: 9 pages, latex, 4 figures available as separate .uu file, to appear in Phys. Lett.

Thermochemical properties of binary liquid systems N-alcohol/cyclohexane determined by an acoustic method

The results of ultrasonic and volumetric measurements were used to obtain the excess molar enthalpies for binary liquid mixtures containing cyclohexane, as the common component, and primary aliphatic alcohols (n-propanol, n-butanol and n-pentanol) at 293.15 K. The excess molar enthalpies of those systems are positive in the whole concentrations range and show evidently different concentration dependences. The excess internal pressure of the liquid mixtures, determined in a few different ways, are negative for all the systems. The behaviour of those excesses are discussed in terms of intermolecular interactions in the binaries and the self-association potential of the alcohols

Vector Meson Dominance as the first order of a sequence of Pade Approximants

The use of Pade Approximants for the analysis of the pion vector form-factor is discussed and justified in this talk. The method is tested first in a theoretical model and applied then on real experimental data. It is shown how the Pade Approximants provide a convenient and reliable framework to incorporate both low and high energy information in the euclidean region, leading to improved determinations of the low energy parameters such as, e.g., the quadratic radius ^pi_V.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, espcrc2 style. To appear in the proceedings of the 14th International QCD Conference, QCD 08, 7-12 July 2008, Montpellier (France

Kreuze in den neuzeitlichen Gräbern der Pfarrkirche der hl. Maria Magdalena in Čazma

Arheološkim istraživanjima crkve Sv. Marije Magdalene u Čazmi dobiveno je obilje podataka o novovjekovnim običajima pokapanja pokojnika. Svetačke medaljice, krunice i križevi najzanimljiviji su predmeti pronađeni u grobovima. U ovom radu je naglasak stavljen na interpretaciju križeva te potrebu za što češćim objavljivanjem novovjekovnih nalaza.Im Laufe der archäologischen Ausgrabungen der Kirche der hl. Maria Magdalena in Čazma konnte eine Reihe von Hinweisen über neuzeitliche Bestattungsbräuche gewonnen werden. Heiligenmedaillons, Rosenkränze und Kreuze sind die interessantesten in den Gräbern vorgefundenen Gegenstände. Im Mittelpunkt dieses Artikels stehen die Interpretation der Kreuze sowie das Erfordernis einer möglichst häufi gen Veröff entlichung der neuzeitlichen Funde

Hard Constituent Quarks and Electroweak Properties of Pseudoscalar Mesons

The high momentum components generated in the wave function of pseudoscalar mes* by the one-gluon-exchange interaction are investigated within a relativistic constituent quark model. Adopting the light-cone formalism, the sensitivity of the weak decay constant and the charge form factor to hard constituent quarks is illustrated.Comment: 11 pages and 5 figs. (to be requested), LaTeX, INFN-ISS 94/3. To appear in Physics Lett.

Explaining Math Achievement;Personality, Motivation, and Trust

This study investigated the statistical significance of student trust next to the well-tested constructs of personality and motivation to determine whether trust is a significant predictor of course achievement in college math courses. Participants were 175 students who were taking undergraduate math courses in an urban public university. The Mini-Markers (Saucier, 1994), an adapted Student Trust Survey (Barnes, Adams & Forsyth, 2004, April), and the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (Pintrich, Smith, Garcia & McKeachie, 1991) were used to measure students\u27 Big-Five personality factors, trust in their math instructor, and motivational beliefs and strategies for their learning and performance in one of the math courses they were taking during Spring 2009. Students reported their semester in college, gender and ethnicity their final math grades and math class size information were collected from the university at the end of the semester and their math course group was determined based on the categorization made by the university\u27s math department. The data were analyzed using bivariate correlations, independent samples t-tests, and hierarchical multiple regression models. The Conscientiousness factor correlated significantly with students\u27 final math grades, explaining 6 unique variance in students\u27 grades. Students\u27 trust in their math instructor also correlated significantly with their final math grades, contributing another 6 unique variance to the prediction of students\u27 grades. Students\u27 task value, self-efficacy beliefs, test anxiety, and effort regulation were all significantly correlated with their final math grades, and when these were added in the final prediction model, the significant effects of the Conscientiousness factor and student trust on students\u27 grades became non-significant. This showed that students\u27 motivated strategies for learning completely mediated the relationship between students\u27 Conscientiousness factor, trust, and their final math grades. The final prediction mod