Mineral reconnaissance at the Highland boundary with special reference to the Loch Lomond and Aberfoyle areas

Serpentinite bodies at the Highland Boundary in the Loch Lomond and Aberfoyle areas are extensively altered to magnesite-quartz and ferroan-dolomite-quartz rocks. Silicification was probably initiated before conversion to carbonate. Relict textures indicate that the serpentinites were derived from peridotitic precursors, but one unaltered ultrabasic sample comprises mainly chromian diopside. Chromite geochemistry and hornblende-schist mineralogy rein force the ophiolitic character of the serpentinite-spilite-blackshale- chcrt assemblage of the Highland Border. Magnetic and VLF traverses across the Highland Boundary fracture-zone near Helensburgh identified several anomalous zones. One may be due to a concealed serpentinitic sheet. The most mineralised serpentinite body showed chromium values in the range 1000 to 3035 ppm. Such concentrations arc not encouraging for the small serpentinites at Loch Lomond and Aberfoyle, but may be significant regarding larger serpentinites elsewhere at the Highland Border

Multidimensional family therapy reduces self-reported criminality among adolescents with a cannabis use disorder

Background. Multidimensional family therapy (MDFT) is an established treatment program for youth displaying multi-problem behavior. We examined if MDFT decreased criminal offending among cannabis abusing adolescents, as compared with individual psychotherapy (IP). Methods. In a Western-European randomized controlled trial comparing MDFT with IP, a sample of 169 adolescents with a cannabis disorder completed self-reports on criminal offending. Half indicated they had committed one or more criminal offenses in the 90 days before the baseline assessment. Follow-up assessments were at 6 and 12 months after randomization. Results. The proportion of adolescents reporting non-delinquency increased during the study period, most so in the MDFT condition. In addition, MDFT lowered the number of violent offenses more than IP. This difference was not seen for property crimes. Conclusions. In cannabis abusing adolescents, MDFT is an effective treatment to prevent and reduce criminal offending. MDFT outperforms individual psychotherapy for violent crimes.New methods for child psychiatric diagnosis and treatment outcome evaluatio

Elastic deformation of a fluid membrane upon colloid binding

When a colloidal particle adheres to a fluid membrane, it induces elastic deformations in the membrane which oppose its own binding. The structural and energetic aspects of this balance are theoretically studied within the framework of a Helfrich Hamiltonian. Based on the full nonlinear shape equations for the membrane profile, a line of continuous binding transitions and a second line of discontinuous envelopment transitions are found, which meet at an unusual triple point. The regime of low tension is studied analytically using a small gradient expansion, while in the limit of large tension scaling arguments are derived which quantify the asymptotic behavior of phase boundary, degree of wrapping, and energy barrier. The maturation of animal viruses by budding is discussed as a biological example of such colloid-membrane interaction events.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures, REVTeX style, follow-up on cond-mat/021242

Evidence of Final-State Suppression of High-p_T Hadrons in Au + Au Collisions Using d + Au Measurements at RHIC

Transverse momentum spectra of charged hadrons with ${p_{T} <}$ 6 GeV/c have been measured near mid-rapidity (0.2 $< \eta <$ 1.4) by the PHOBOS experiment at RHIC in Au + Au and d + Au collisions at ${\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}} = \rm {200 GeV}}$. The spectra for different collision centralities are compared to ${p + \bar{p}}$ collisions at the same energy. The resulting nuclear modification factor for central Au + Au collisions shows evidence of strong suppression of charged hadrons in the high-$p_{T}$ region (${>2}$ GeV/c). In contrast, the d + Au nuclear modification factor exhibits no suppression of the high-$p_{T}$ yields. These measurements suggest a large energy loss of the high-$p_{T}$ particles in the highly interacting medium created in the central Au + Au collisions. The lack of suppression in d + Au collisions suggests that it is unlikely that initial state effects can explain the suppression in the central Au + Au collisions.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures, International Europhysics Conference on High Energy Physics EPS (July 17th-23rd 2003) in Aachen, German

Multidimensional family therapy decreases the rate of externalising behavioural disorder symptoms in cannabis abusing adolescents: Outcomes of the INCANT trial

Background: US-based trials have shown that Multidimensional Family Therapy (MDFT) not only reduces substance abuse among adolescents, but also decreases mental and behavioural disorder symptoms, most notably externalising symptoms. In the INCANT trial, MDFT decreased the rate of cannabis dependence among Western European youth. We now focus on other INCANT outcomes, i.e., lessening of co-morbidity symptoms and improvement of family functioning.Methods: INCANT was a randomised controlled trial comparing MDFT with individual therapy (IP) at and across sites in Berlin, Brussels, Geneva, The Hague, and Paris. We recruited 450 boys and girls aged 13 up to 18 years with a cannabis use disorder, and their parent(s), and followed them for 12 months. Mental and behavioural characteristics (classified as 'externalising' or 'internalising') and family conflict and cohesion were assessed.Results: From intake through 12 months, MDFT and IP groups improved on all outcome measures. Models including treatment, site, and referral source showed that MDFT outperformed IP in reducing externalising symptoms.Adolescents were either self-referred to treatment (mostly on the initiative from people close to the teen) or referred under some measure of coercion by an external authority. These two groups reacted equally well to treatment.Conclusions: Both MDFT and IP reduced the rate of externalising and internalising symptoms and improved family functioning among adolescents with a cannabis use disorder. MDFT outperformed IP in decreasing the rate of externalising symptoms. Contrary to common beliefs among therapists in parts of Western Europe, the 'coerced' adolescents did at least as well in treatment as the self-referred adolescents.MDFT shows promise as a treatment for both substance use disorders and externalising symptoms

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

Search for a W' boson decaying to a bottom quark and a top quark in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

Results are presented from a search for a W' boson using a dataset corresponding to 5.0 inverse femtobarns of integrated luminosity collected during 2011 by the CMS experiment at the LHC in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV. The W' boson is modeled as a heavy W boson, but different scenarios for the couplings to fermions are considered, involving both left-handed and right-handed chiral projections of the fermions, as well as an arbitrary mixture of the two. The search is performed in the decay channel W' to t b, leading to a final state signature with a single lepton (e, mu), missing transverse energy, and jets, at least one of which is tagged as a b-jet. A W' boson that couples to fermions with the same coupling constant as the W, but to the right-handed rather than left-handed chiral projections, is excluded for masses below 1.85 TeV at the 95% confidence level. For the first time using LHC data, constraints on the W' gauge coupling for a set of left- and right-handed coupling combinations have been placed. These results represent a significant improvement over previously published limits.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters B. Replaced with version publishe