Supersymmetric Flavor-Changing Sum Rules as a Tool for b -> s gamma

The search for supersymmetry (SUSY) and other classes of new physics will be tackled on two fronts, with high energy, direct detection machines, and in high precision experiments searching for indirect signatures. While each of these methods has its own strengths, even more can be gained by finding ways to combine their results. In this paper, we examine one way of bridging these two types of experiments by calculating sum rules which link physical squark masses to the flavor-violating squark mixings. These sum rules are calculated for minimally flavor-violating SUSY theories at both high and low tan(beta). We also explore how the sum rules could help to disentangle the relative strengths of different SUSY contributions to b -> s gamma, a favored channel for indirect searches of new physics. Along the way, we show that the gluino contributions to b -> s gamma can be very sizable at large tan(beta).Comment: 27 pages, 3 figure

Innovation growth clusters : Lessons from the industrial revolution

Over three centuries ago, a new technology suddenly increased the amount and frequency of available information. Might such «Big Data» have disrupted the causal relationships linking economic growth and innovation? Previous research has affirmed that a society’s economic success during the Industrial Revolution depended on its institutions. Here we examine the hypothesis that by allowing people to cooperate more easily with one another, language standardization raised a society’s rate of innovation. As a result, the region could attract the resources needed to grow more rapidly. Empirical tests with 117 innovations and 251 Western cities suggest that the presence of a standardized tongue helps to explain the burst of innovation and growth observed between 1700 and 1850. Moreover, once one has accounted for language standardization, institutional quality has little further power to explain economic progress

The growth impact of language standardization : Metcalfe’s Law and the industrial revolution

During the Industrial Revolution, did population growth stimulate innovation, or did causality run primarily from innovation to growth? Previous research fails to explain why between 1700 and 1850: (i) most innovation originated in three clusters of cities in Britain, northern France, and the USA; (ii) the rate of urbanization in these innovating regions was greater than it was elsewhere; (iii) the most important innovations involved cooperation between co-inventors with different areas of specialization. The key, we suggest, was the existence, for the first time in history, of rapidly expanding networks of people able to write and speak standardized languages. Metcalfe’s (2013) Law states that the value of a network grows as the square of the number of its users. We find that the presence in 1700 of a monolingual dictionary describing a language which considerable numbers of people were able to read and speak was significant in determining a city’s subsequent innovation. In turn, innovation – especially cooperative innovation – was significant in explaining a city’s population growth

Steinbach Public Transportation Study

report: 89 pp.; ill., digital file.This document constitutes the final report for the Steinbach Transportation Project Steering Committee (STPSC). This report includes a demographic profile of Steinbach; a literature review dealing with many of the relevant issues related to public transportation; several case studies of communities that that range from populations of 6,000 to 28,000; conclusions; and recommendations for pursuing future public transit initiatives for Steinbach. While this report is not a sustainable transportation strategy per se, it is a focused look at one aspect of it: public transportation in the context of small towns and rural areas. More small urban centers in the United States and Canada are now using, developing or considering public transportation solutions, and given its growth and considerable economic activity, Steinbach may be well situated to be included among them

Talking about Causing Events

Questions about the nature of the relationship between language and extralinguistic cognition are old, but only recently has a new view emerged that allows for the systematic investigation of claims about linguistic structure, based on how it is understood or utilized outside of the language system. Our paper represents a case study for this interaction in the domain of event semantics. We adopt a transparency thesis about the relationship between linguistic structure and extralinguistic cognition, investigating whether different lexico-syntactic structures can differentially recruit the visual causal percept. A prominent analysis of causative verbs like move suggests reference to two distinct events and a causal relationship between them, whereas non-causative verbs like push do not so refer. In our study, we present English speakers with simple scenes that either do or do not support the perception of a causal link, and manipulate (between subjects) a one-sentence instruction for the evaluation of the scene. Preliminary results suggest that competent speakers of English are more likely to judge causative constructions than non-causative constructions as true of a scene where causal features are present in the scene. Implications for a new approach to the investigation of linguistic meanings and future directions are discussed

Cultural Inheritance and Fertility Outcomes: An Analysis from Evolutionary and Interdisciplinary Perspectives

Taking evolutionary and interdisciplinary perspectives, this study views the reproductive result as an evolutionary outcome that may be affected by parental characteristics through cultural inheritance. We hypothesize that inheriting more cultural traits from parents leads to a greater resemblance between fertility outcomes of the offspring and their parents. In societies that experience a demographic transition, a greater resemblance can be indicated by a higher level of fertility of the offspring and a sooner transition from union formation to childbearing. We operationalize inheriting cultural traits from parents as reporting a religious affiliation the same as those of their parents. Through analyzing data from the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) Cycle 6, our results show that inheriting the same religious traits from parents does have an effect on one’s fertility. In particular, women who reported the same religious affiliations as those of their parents reported a greater number of children. They tend to have births inside, rather than outside, of marriage. Inside marriage, they are also more likely to give births sooner, rather than later. These findings support our hypotheses and help to build a theoretical framework that explains the changes in fertility outcomes from an interdisciplinary perspective

Oxygen cost of dynamic or isometric exercise relative to recruited muscle mass

BACKGROUND: Oxygen cost of different muscle actions may be influenced by different recruitment and rate coding strategies. The purpose of this study was to account for these strategies by comparing the oxygen cost of dynamic and isometric muscle actions relative to the muscle mass recruited via surface electrical stimulation of the knee extensors. METHODS: Comparisons of whole body pulmonary Δ [Formula: see text] O(2 )were made in seven young healthy adults (1 female) during 3 minutes of dynamic or isometric knee extensions, both induced by surface electrical stimulation. Recruited mass was quantified in T(2 )weighted spin echo magnetic resonance images. RESULTS: The Δ [Formula: see text] O(2 )for dynamic muscle actions, 242 ± 128 ml • min(-1 )(mean ± SD) was greater (p = 0.003) than that for isometric actions, 143 ± 99 ml • min(-1). Recruited muscle mass was also greater (p = 0.004) for dynamic exercise, 0.716 ± 282 versus 0.483 ± 0.139 kg. The rate of oxygen consumption per unit of recruited muscle ([Formula: see text]) was similar in dynamic and isometric exercise (346 ± 162 versus 307 ± 198 ml • kg(-1 )• min(-1); p = 0.352), but the [Formula: see text] calculated relative to initial knee extensor torque was significantly greater during dynamic exercise 5.1 ± 1.5 versus 3.6 ± 1.6 ml • kg(-1 )• Nm(-1 )• min(-1 )(p = 0.019). CONCLUSION: These results are consistent with the view that oxygen cost of dynamic and isometric actions is determined by different circumstances of mechanical interaction between actin and myosin in the sarcomere, and that muscle recruitment has only a minor role