CP Violation: Recent Results from BABAR

We review recent time-dependent measurements in the B meson sector based on data collected between 1999 and 2002 by the BABAR detector, which correspond to approximately 88 million BB pairs.Comment: 8 pages - talk given on behalf of the BABAR Collaboration at the 38th Rencontres De Moriond On Electroweak Interactions And Unified Theories, 15-22 Mar 2003, Les Arcs, Franc

Output Regulation for Systems on Matrix Lie-group

This paper deals with the problem of output regulation for systems defined on matrix Lie-Groups. Reference trajectories to be tracked are supposed to be generated by an exosystem, defined on the same Lie-Group of the controlled system, and only partial relative error measurements are supposed to be available. These measurements are assumed to be invariant and associated to a group action on a homogeneous space of the state space. In the spirit of the internal model principle the proposed control structure embeds a copy of the exosystem kinematic. This control problem is motivated by many real applications fields in aerospace, robotics, projective geometry, to name a few, in which systems are defined on matrix Lie-groups and references in the associated homogenous spaces

Amplification of temporally modulated signal beams via two-wave mixing in Bi12SiO20

A theoretical analysis of two-wave mixing in a BSO crystal is developed in the undepleted-pump approximation for a modulated signal beam. It is shown that, for a modulation of high enough frequency, significant ac amplification is possible at three distinct values of pump-beam detuning. A signal beam that is amplitude modulated by a square wave is analyzed by means of the theory, and experimental results are presented in confirmation of the analysis. Finally, it is shown that in the presence of absorption the optimum detunings for dc and ac amplification are different

Two-Player Boundedness Counter Games

We consider two-player zero-sum games with winning objectives beyond regular languages, expressed as a parity condition in conjunction with a Boolean combination of boundedness conditions on a finite set of counters which can be incremented, reset to 0, but not tested. A boundedness condition requires that a given counter is bounded along the play. Such games are decidable, though with non-optimal complexity, by an encoding into the logic WMSO with the unbounded and path quantifiers, which is known to be decidable over infinite trees. Our objective is to give tight or tighter complexity results for particular classes of counter games with boundedness conditions, and study their strategy complexity. In particular, counter games with conjunction of boundedness conditions are easily seen to be equivalent to Streett games, so, they are CoNP-c. Moreover, finite-memory strategies suffice for Eve and memoryless strategies suffice for Adam. For counter games with a disjunction of boundedness conditions, we prove that they are in solvable in NP?CoNP, and in PTime if the parity condition is fixed. In that case memoryless strategies suffice for Eve while infinite memory strategies might be necessary for Adam. Finally, we consider an extension of those games with a max operation. In that case, the complexity increases: for conjunctions of boundedness conditions, counter games are EXPTIME-c

Control of convertible UAV with vectorized thrust

This paper is an addition to an article previously published by three of the authors that addresses the control of convertible fixed-wing aircraft with vectorized thrust. The control solution here developed extends the one presented in the former paper by complementing it with a strategy for the hovering flight and a control policy to handle the transition phase between low and high airspeed. An estimator of the air velocity required in all flight phases is also proposed. Realistic simulation results on a tri-tilt rotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) illustrate and assess the methodology.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, to appear in Proceedings of IFAC World Congress 202

Consolidating a gender perspective in the PROCOSI network

The Integral Health Coordination Program (Programa de Coordinación en Salud Integral, or PROCOSI) in Bolivia developed a program to certify service delivery and management support NGOs as gender-sensitive. The certification system is based on an initial self-assessment by teams consisting of staff from service delivery (clinical) or management support (administrative) NGOs, followed by the development and implementation of activities to improve the gaps found until a minimum of 80 percent of the designated quality and gender standards are met. At the project’s end, 14 of the 15 participating NGOs had reached compliance with at least 80 percent of the proposed standards, and their achievement was recognized in a public certification ceremony. The project succeeded in developing a cost-effective strategy to incorporate a gender perspective. Drawing from the lessons learned by implementing and evaluating this strategy, the report offers a number of recommendations concerning the program’s future utilization including ways to ensure the continuity of certification processes

Heavy Metal Concentrations in Feathers of the Adélie Penguin and the South-Polar Skua from Cape Royds, Ross Island

Using chemical analysis to detect traces of heavy metals is a popular technique in the science community. In this report, ICP-MS was used to analyse a sample of feathers from both Adélie Penguins and South-polar Skuas from Cape Royds, Ross Island. These two Antarctic bird species are important parts of the southern ocean ecosystem and food web, and understanding the heavy metal accumulation in these predators gives insight into the whole system of the Ross Sea. The results from this paper show that there was a significant difference in the concentrations of Al, Hg, As and Mn between the Adélie feathers and the Skua feathers (P<0.05). The higher trophic feeding level of the Skua explains the bioaccumulation of the Hg and As, but these two metals are also highly toxic to organisms in high levels. Aluminium levels were significantly higher in the Adélies and this is attributed to unsuccessful washing of the feathers and the fact that the Adélies spend more time on the ground were the Aluminium is able to stick to their feathers. Manganese is not as toxic as the other metals and is of less worry, but again, this was seen in higher levels in the Adélies and again could be attributed to possible higher levels in the soil of Cape Royds. Other metal results are compared to baseline data set in other papers in Antarctica and around the world for seabird

Assessment of revised patient reported outcome measures for improved readability.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to revise the wording of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) until they fell within the recommended readability levels for health-related materials. The subsequent scores of the revised PROMs were then to be compared to the original versions of the PROMs in order to assess the effect of the revisions. The revised scores were also to be compared with a second copy of the revised version in order to assess the consistency of the results. Method Three published PROMs were selected and were revised to within the recommended readability levels for health-related materials. The PROMs were revised until they met the recommended 6th reading grade level (RGL) according to the F-K readability formula. Three copies of the PROMs were distributed to participants in the United States of America in a random order (two revised versions and one original) and the results were compared. Results The results revealed that there was a much larger difference between the original and revised versions than there was between the two copies of the revised versions. However, the results also revealed that the study was overpowered, preventing the results from being statistically conclusive. Conclusion The results suggest that if PROMs are revised to within the recommended levels for health-related materials, then clients will give more clinically valid, consistent answers than what they do with the current versions. However, further research is required in order to corroborate these results