HEDONIC PRICE ESTIMATION FOR COMMODITIES: AN APPLICATION TO COTTON

A model of hedonic prices – implicit prices of embodied quality attributes – was developed for cotton lint and the relative importance of various quality attributes were estimated with regression analysis from sample data on observed sales of cotton. Results indicated that producer prices were sensitive to variations in fiber length, micronaire, and trash content. Results also revealed differences in relative importance and sensitivity between years.Crop Production/Industries, Demand and Price Analysis,

Attitudes of Religious Leaders Toward Integrating Psychology and Church Ministry

Although psychology and religion deal with overlapping subject matter, the relationship between psychology and the church has a tumultuous history. The current study examined religious leaders’ attitudes toward integrating psychological science into church ministry. Religious leaders (N = 394) completed measures of (a) congregants’ mental health and social concerns, (b) attitudes toward psychological science (i.e., perceived barriers of integration, compatibility with church ministry), and (c) hypothesized predictors of attitudes toward the integration of psychology and church ministry (i.e., political conservatism, intratextual fundamentalism, religious intellectual humility, emotional intelligence). Overall, religious leaders expressed both positive and negative attitudes toward psychology. Conservative political orientation and intratextual fundamentalism were associated with negative attitudes toward integration, whereas religious intellectual humility and emotional intelligence were associated with positive attitudes. We conclude by discussing limitations, suggestions for future research, and practical applications for psychologists and church leaders

New limits for neutrinoless tau decays

Neutrinoless 3-prong tau lepton decays into a charged lepton and either two charged particles or one neutral meson have been searched for using 4.79fb^(-1) of data collected with the CLEO II detector at Cornell Electron Storage Ring. This analysis represents an update of a previous study and the addition of six decay channels. In all channels the numbers of events found are compatible with background estimates and branching fraction upper limits are set for 28 different decay modes. These limits are either more stringent than those set previously or represent the first attempt to find these decays

Exclusive and inclusive semileptonic decays of B mesons to D mesons

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.43.651

Electronic branching ratio of the τ lepton

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.45.3976.Using data accumulated by the CLEO I detector operating at the Cornell Electron Storage Ring, we have measured the ratio R=Γ(τ→eν¯(e)ν(τ)) / Γ(1) where Γ(1) is the τ decay rate to final states with one charged particle. We find R=0.2231±0.0044±0.0073 where the first error is statistical and the second is systematic. Together with the measured topological one-charged-particle branching fraction, this yields the branching fraction of the τ lepton to electrons, Be=0.192±0.004±0.006

Experiencing Grace: A Review of the Empirical Literature

Positive psychologists have used science to understand many virtues but have only just started to study grace, recently defined as ‘ . . . the gift of acceptance given unconditionally and voluntarily to an undeserving person by an unobligated giver’. The purpose of the current article is to provide a systematic review of all empirical studies (published and unpublished) on grace. Broadly, the empirical study of grace has focused on what people believe and how people experience both divine and human grace. Additionally, empirical attention has shifted to explore outcomes of grace-based interventions (e.g., congregation-wide interventions, marital interventions). In general, beliefs and experiences of grace were associated with (a) positive mental health outcomes, (b) religiosity, (c) virtue development, and (d) interpersonal functioning. Human grace has not been extensively explored and divine grace has been studied mostly among Christians; future studies should address these limitations and explore causal relationships

Analysis of hadronic transitions in Υ(3S) decays

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.49.40.Using the CLEO II detector, we have measured the branching fractions for Υ(3S)→ππΥ(1S), Υ(3S)→ππΥ(2S), and the cascade Υ(3S)→Υ(2S)+X, Υ(2S)→π+π−Υ(1S), analyzing the exclusive mode where the daughter Υ state decays to a e(+)e(−) or μ(+)μ(−) pair, as well as the inclusive π(+)π(−) transitions where the final Υ state decays into hadrons. Properties of the ππ system are analyzed. Searches for the cascade decay Υ(3S)→π+π−h(b), h(b)→γη(b) and Υ(3S)→π0h(b) were also performed

An individualized approach to sustained inflation duration at birth improves outcomes in newborn preterm lambs

A sustained first inflation (SI) at birth may aid lung liquid clearance and aeration, but the impact of SI duration relative to the volume-response of the lung is poorly understood. We compared three SI strategies: 1) variable duration defined by attaining volume equilibrium using real-time electrical impedance tomography (EIT; SIplat); 2) 30 s beyond equilibrium (SIlong); 3) short 30-s SI (SI30); and 4) positive pressure ventilation without SI (no-SI) on spatiotemporal aeration and ventilation (EIT), gas exchange, lung mechanics, and regional early markers of injury in preterm lambs. Fifty-nine fetal-instrumented lambs were ventilated for 60 min after applying the allocated first inflation strategy. At study completion molecular and histological markers of lung injury were analyzed. The time to SI volume equilibrium, and resultant volume, were highly variable; mean (SD) 55 (34) s, coefficient of variability 59%. SIplat and SIlong resulted in better lung mechanics, gas exchange and lower ventilator settings than both no-SI and SI30. At 60 min, alveolar-arterial difference in oxygen was a mean (95% confidence interval) 130 (13, 249) higher in SI30 vs. SIlong group (two-way ANOVA). These differences were due to better spatiotemporal aeration and tidal ventilation, although all groups showed redistribution of aeration towards the nondependent lung by 60 min. Histological lung injury scores mirrored spatiotemporal change in aeration and were greatest in SI30 group (P < 0.01, Kruskal-Wallis test). An individualized volume-response approach to SI was effective in optimizing aeration, homogeneous tidal ventilation, and respiratory outcomes, while an inadequate SI duration had no benefit over positive pressure ventilation alone

Experimental tests of lepton universality in τ decay

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.55.2559.The branching fractions for τ→eνν(τ), μνν(τ), and hν(τ) are measured using data collected with the CLEO detector at the CESR e(+)e(-) collider: Be=0.1776±0.0006±0.0017, Bμ=0.1737±0.0008±0.0018, and B(h)=0.1152±0.0005±0.0012, where the first error is statistical, the second systematic, and h refers to either a charged π or K. Also measured is the τ mass, mτ=(1778.2±1.4) MeV. Lepton universality is affirmed by the relative branching fractions (B(μ)/B(e)=0.9777±0.0063±0.0087, B(h)/B(e)=0.6484±0.0041±0.0060) and the charged-current gauge coupling-constant ratios (g(μ)/g(e)=1.0026±0.0055, g(τ)/g(μ)=0.9990±0.0098). The τ mass result may be recast as a τ neutrino mass limit, m(ν)(τ)<60 MeV at 95% C.L