An Investigation of the Soft Pion Relation in Quenched Lattice QCD

A lattice determination of the form factor and decay constants for the semileptonic decay of heavy pseudoscalar (PS) mesons at zero recoil is presented from which the soft pion relation is satisfied. Chiral extrapolation of the form factor is performed at constant $q^2$. Pole dominance is used to extrapolate the form factor in heavy quark mass. At the B mass, the form factor at zero recoil lies somewhat below the ratio of decay constants; the relation remains satisfied within error.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figure

Exploring nonconscious behaviour change interventions on mobile devices

Modern cognitive psychology theories such as Dual Process Theory suggest that the source of much habitual behaviour is the nonconscious. Despite this, most behaviour change interventions using technology (BCITs) focus on conscious strategies to change people’s behaviour. We propose an alternative avenue of research, which focuses on understanding how best to directly target the nonconscious via mobile devices in real-life situations to achieve behaviour change

Acute and Genetic Toxicity of Municipal Landfill Leachate

Municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills have been found to contain many of the same hazardous constituents as found in hazardous waste landfills. Because of the large number of MSW landfills, these sites pose a serious environmental threat to groundwater quality. This study was conducted to assess the environmental hazards that materials leaching from four MSW landfills pose to groundwater supplies. Four leachate and one upgradient groundwater samples were collected from landfills selected to be representative of landfills of differing ages and types of wastes. Each sample was tested through three genetic toxicity bioassays (The Aspergillus diploid assay, the Bacillus DNA repair assay and the Salmonella/microsome assay) to measure the ability of each sample to induce mutations in bacteria, bind to microbial DNA, or cause chromosome damage in diploid fungi. Genetically toxic chemicals may cause cancer, genetic disease, sterility, abortions, heart disease or a variety of other chronic effects. These chronic effects can be subtle and may not appear for decades after exposure. In addition to the three genetic toxicity assays, each sample was tested in the Microtox test to measure acute toxicity. This assay is a measure of the ability of the sample to cause cell death. Organisms exposed to elevated levels of acute toxins may express the toxic effects through organ disfunction or the complete death of the organism. Each sample was chemically analyzed using GC/MS techniques and the chemical concentrations were used to calculate a chemical based risk assessment which is an estimate of the potential carcinogenic health effects associated with the mixture of chemicals in the sample. All four leachate samples exhibited acute toxicity in the Microtox test. Leachate from landfills representative of both an old unlined landfill which received residential waste and a new operating landfill receiving residential waste contained concentrations of some priority pollutants in excess of promulgated standards for drinking water. Chemical based risk assessments for these same two leachates showed them to have mean and 98th percentile cancer risks of 1 in a thousand (10-3) which is greater than both leachate from a Superfund landfill and leachate from the Love Canal landfill. The results of the acute and genetic toxicity bioassays, combined with the chemical analyses and associated cancer risk assessment clearly showed that leachate from municipal solid waste landfills is just as toxic as that which leaches from landfills where residential and hazardous wastes were codisposed

The WFC3 Galactic Bulge Treasury Program: Relative Ages of Bulge Stars of High and Low Metallicity

Indexación: Scopus.The Hubble Space Telescope/WFC3 multiband photometry spanning from the UV to the near-IR of four fields in the Galactic bulge, together with that for six template globular and open clusters, are used to photometrically tag the metallicity [Fe/H] of stars in these fields after proper-motion rejecting most foreground disk contaminants. Color-magnitude diagrams and luminosity functions (LF) are then constructed, in particular for the most metal-rich and most metal-poor stars in each field. We do not find any significant difference between the I-band and H-band LFs, hence turnoff luminosity and age of the metal-rich and metal-poor components therefore appear essentially coeval. In particular, we find that no more than ∼3% of the metal-rich component can be ∼5 Gyr old, or younger. Conversely, theoretical LFs match well to the observed ones for an age of ∼10 Gyr. Assuming this age is representative for the bulk of bulge stars, we then recall the observed properties of star-forming galaxies at 10 Gyr lookback time, i.e., at z ∼ 2, and speculate about bulge formation in that context. We argue that bar formation and buckling instabilities leading to the observed boxy/peanut, X-shaped bulge may have arisen late in the history of the Milky Way Galaxy, once its gas fraction had decreased compared to the high values typical of high-redshift galaxies. This paper follows the public release of the photometric and astrometric catalogs of the measured stars in the four fields. © 2018. The American Astronomical Society

Semi-leptonic decays of heavy mesons and the Isgur-Wise function in quenched lattice QCD

The form factors for the semi-leptonic B->D and B->D* decays are evaluated in quenched lattice QCD at two different values of the coupling, beta=6.0 and 6.2. The action and the operators are fully O(a) non-perturbatively improved. The slope of the Isgur-Wise function is evaluated, and found to be rho^2=0.83^{+15+24}_{-11-1} (quoted errors are statistical and systematic respectively). Ratios of form factors are evaluated and compared to experimental determinations.Comment: 21 pages, 10 figure

Performance and reliability of a smartphone digits-in-noise test in the sound field

PURPOSE : This study compared the speech reception thresholds (SRTs) and test–retest reliability of the smartphone digits-in-noise (DIN) test coupled to various sound-field transducers. METHOD : Fifty normal-hearing participants (bilateral pure- tone thresholds 0.5–8kHz ≤ 15dB HL) between the ages of 18 and 25 years (M = 20, SD = ±1.9) were recruited. The study used a repeated measure counterbalanced Latin square design to compare the SRTs of the smartphone DIN test recorded with earphones, 2 smartphone speakers, and 2 external loudspeakers in a sound booth. Test–retest reliability across sound field conditions was also determined. RESULTS : Mean SRTs across earphone and different sound field transducers ranged from −11.3 (SD = 0.8) to −11.7 (SD = 1.2). SRTs across the 4 different loudspeaker transducers and earphones were not significantly different (p > .05) between test and retest sessions. CONCLUSION : The smartphone DIN test is reliable and can be conducted using various sound field transducers in a sound booth. To allow home-based testing without earphones, with special application to aided performance for speech-in-noise testing, the smartphone DIN test should be evaluated in home environments.This article is part of the Special Issue: Select Papers From the Hearing Across the Lifespan (HEAL) 2018 Conference.The National Research Foundationhttps://pubs.asha.org/journal/ajahj2020Speech-Language Pathology and Audiolog

Hot Nuclear Matter in Asymmetry Chiral Sigma Model

In the frame work of SU(2) chiral sigma model, the nuclear matter properties at zero and finite temperature have been investigated. We have analyzed the nuclear matter equation of state by varying different parameters, which agrees well with the one derived from the heavy-ion collision experiment at extreme densities and reliable realistic(DBHF) model at low density region. We have then calculated the temperature dependent asymmetric nuclear matter, also investigated the critical temperature of liquid gas phase transition and compared with the experimental data. We found that the critical temperature in our model is in the range of 14-20 MeV.Comment: 21 pages, 10 figures, to be published in Nuclear Physics

Pilot protocol for the Parent and Infant Inter (X)action Intervention (PIXI) feasibility study

This paper provides the detailed protocol for a pilot study testing the feasibility, acceptability, and initial efficacy of a targeted two-phase, remotely delivered early intervention program for infants with neurogenetic conditions (NGC) and their caregivers. The Parent and Infant Inter(X)action Intervention (PIXI) is designed to support parents and infants with a NGC diagnosed in the first year of life. PIXI is implemented in two phases, with the first phase focusing on psychoeducation, parent support, and how to establish routines for supporting infant development. Phase II helps parents learn targeted skills to support their infant's development as symptoms may begin to emerge. The proposed non-randomized feasibility pilot study will establish the feasibility of a year-long virtually implemented intervention program to support new parents of an infant diagnosed with an NGC

Robotics in total hip arthroplasty: current concepts

This current concepts article reviews the literature pertaining to the use of robot-assisted systems in total hip arthroplasty (THA). The bulk of the literature is regarding the MAKO (currently the most used system worldwide) and the historic ROBODOC robotic systems. There is a paucity of literature available on other systems, with several still in pilot-phase development. Whilst the evidence shows improved radiological outcomes with robotic THA, functional outcomes are equivocal between conventional and robotic techniques. Acceptance of robotic THA worldwide is limited by its accessibility including cost, and by already exceptional results with the conventional technique. It is, however, a rapidly developing area of orthopaedic surgery. This article discusses the history of robotics in THA, current surgical techniques, functional and radiological outcomes, and ongoing avenues for development