Exotic Meson Decay Widths using Lattice QCD

A decay width calculation for a hybrid exotic meson h, with JPC=1-+, is presented for the channel h->pi+a1. This quenched lattice QCD simulation employs Luescher's finite box method. Operators coupling to the h and pi+a1 states are used at various levels of smearing and fuzzing, and at four quark masses. Eigenvalues of the corresponding correlation matrices yield energy spectra that determine scattering phase shifts for a discrete set of relative pi+a1 momenta. Although the phase shift data is sparse, fits to a Breit-Wigner model are attempted, resulting in a decay width of about 60 MeV when averaged over two lattice sizes.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, RevTex4, minor change to Fig.

Risks to North Sea Fish Stocks and Wildlife if Post-Brexit Fishery Negotiations Fail to Reach Agreement on Quotas and Access to UK Waters : Extended Technical Report

"Taking back control of fisheries" became one of the totemic issues uniting supporters of the campaign to leave the EU. Having left, the issue is again high on the agenda in the 'future relationship' negotiations. The UK Government has indicated that getting a better deal for UK fishermen is a "red line" in the negotiations. This includes increases in quota for UK vessels, and restrictions on access to UK waters by foreign vessels. However, the EU has linked access to UK waters and maintenance of quotas enshrined in the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) with securing tariff-free trade in fish and other products. This extended technical report focuses on the North Sea and provides an assessment of the risks to stock and ecosystem conservation associated with the post-Brexit fisheries negotiations. The report first sets out the history behind the allocation of quota shares (Relative Stability) and compares the UK shares with those under proposed alternative rules based on the distribution of fish ("zonal attachment"). Unless a negotiated agreement can be reached to resolve these different views on quota allocation there is a risk that unilateral actions will result in the combined catches by all states exceeding the levels required for long-term maximum sustainable yields. The report sets out a narrative for the impact of such unilateralism on harvesting rates, and then presents results from models which show the risks that these would pose for key fish stocks and wildlife

Risks to North Sea Fish Stocks and Wildlife if Post-Brexit Fishery Negotiations Fail to Reach Agreement on Quotas and Access to UK Waters : Summary Report

"Taking back control of fisheries" became one of the totemic issues uniting supporters of the campaign to leave the EU. Having left, the issue is again high on the agenda in the 'future relationship' negotiations. The UK Government has indicated that getting a better deal for UK fishermen is a "red line" in the negotiations. This includes increases in quota for UK vessels, and restrictions on access to UK waters by foreign vessels. However, the EU has linked access to UK waters and maintenance of quotas enshrined in the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) with securing tariff-free trade in fish and other products. This report focuses on the North Sea and provides an assessment of the risks to stock and ecosystem conservation associated with the post-Brexit fisheries negotiations. The report first sets out the history behind the allocation of quota shares (Relative Stability) and compares the UK shares with those under proposed alternative rules based on the distribution of fish ("zonal attachment"). Unless a negotiated agreement can be reached to resolve these different views on quota allocation there is a risk that unilateral actions will result in the combined catches by all states exceeding the levels required for long-term maximum sustainable yields. The report sets out a narrative for the impact of such unilateralism on harvesting rates, and then presents results from models which show the risks that these would pose for key fish stocks and wildlife

The Grand Jury: A Shield of a Different Sort

According to the Washington Post, 991 people were shot to death by police officers in the United States during calendar year 2015, and 957 people were fatally shot in 2016. A disproportionate percentage of the citizens killed in these police-civilian encounters were black. Events in Ferguson, Missouri; Chicago, Illinois; Charlotte, North Carolina; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and Staten Island, New York - to name but a few affected cities - have now exposed deep distrust between communities of color and law enforcement. Greater transparency is necessary to begin to heal this culture of distrust and to inform the debate going forward about police practices in America. The recent spate of deadly police-civilian encounters has generated enormous media coverage, national discourse, and a proliferation of recommended solutions. In this Essay, we will suggest three modest but important reforms to the grand jury process that we think will help increase transparency, reduce the legitimacy deficit, and restore public confidence in what are admittedly very difficult charging decisions involving the police use of deadly force. Part I examines grand jury secrecy rules in the context of externally created evidence (e.g., dash-cam and body-cam videos) and argues for a uniform, interpretive approach consistent with that followed by a majority of states. Part II discusses evidence presentation before the- grand jury and urges the adoption of a rule that mandates the recording of grand jury instructions. Finally, Part III argues that state criminal procedure rules should be amended to empower states\u27 attorneys to move the court for the public release of redacted grand jury minutes in instances when a no-bill is returned and it is in the public interest

How to Host a Data Competition: Statistical Advice for Design and Analysis of a Data Competition

Data competitions rely on real-time leaderboards to rank competitor entries and stimulate algorithm improvement. While such competitions have become quite popular and prevalent, particularly in supervised learning formats, their implementations by the host are highly variable. Without careful planning, a supervised learning competition is vulnerable to overfitting, where the winning solutions are so closely tuned to the particular set of provided data that they cannot generalize to the underlying problem of interest to the host. This paper outlines some important considerations for strategically designing relevant and informative data sets to maximize the learning outcome from hosting a competition based on our experience. It also describes a post-competition analysis that enables robust and efficient assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of solutions from different competitors, as well as greater understanding of the regions of the input space that are well-solved. The post-competition analysis, which complements the leaderboard, uses exploratory data analysis and generalized linear models (GLMs). The GLMs not only expand the range of results we can explore, they also provide more detailed analysis of individual sub-questions including similarities and differences between algorithms across different types of scenarios, universally easy or hard regions of the input space, and different learning objectives. When coupled with a strategically planned data generation approach, the methods provide richer and more informative summaries to enhance the interpretation of results beyond just the rankings on the leaderboard. The methods are illustrated with a recently completed competition to evaluate algorithms capable of detecting, identifying, and locating radioactive materials in an urban environment.Comment: 36 page

Some identities for Jacobsthal and Jacobsthal-Lucas numbers satisfying higher order recurrence relations

The Jacobsthal recurrence relation is extended to higher order recurrence relations and the basic list of identities provided by A. F. Horadam [10] is expanded and extended to several identities for some of the higher order cases. Keywords: sequences, recurrence relation

Successful use of neck snares to live-capture red foxes

Box traps and foot-hold snares are common methods to live-capture study animals. However, these methods are frequently ineffective due to factors such as weather constraints, food availability, and target animal behavior. During a study of red fox (Vulpes vulpes) behavior, we examined the use of neck snares to live-trap study animals. We modified the neck snare using swivel cam-locks, deer stops to minimize damage to the animal. Additionally, we utilized our knowledge of red-fox behavior to set traps in a way that would reduce trauma to the captured animals. We snared 21 red foxes during the 3-year study with only 2 fatal injuries. Sixteen of these animals were followed with radio-telemetry for 3 to 28 months. With the data we collected during the radio-telemetry, we calculated home ranges. Home range size estimates calculated during the first few months for each fox were not different than those collected during the rest of the season. Most of the estimated home ranges for these red foxes did not encompass the snare location, suggesting either avoidance of the trap location or that the foxes were caught while investigating the status of another territory. Because captured red foxes were active the evening immediately after capture and all captured females reared young that spring, we determined that neck snares did not greatly affect their behavior. Thus, this method is a successful alternative way to live-capture red foxes for radio-telemetry studies

Testing for the Presence of Financial Constraints in US Agricultural Cooperatives: An Investment Behaviour Approach

Includes bibliographical references.This study examines the presence of financial constraints in US agricultural cooperatives. We test the cooperative capital constraint hypothesis with a panel data econometric analysis of agricultural cooperatives' investment behaviour. Regression results suggest that agricultural cooperatives' capital expenditures are significantly affected by the availability of internal funds. Results also indicate that the sensitivity of investment to cash flow is correlated with cooperative structural characteristics