On the heavy quark mass expansion for the operator Qbar gamma_5 Q and the charm content of eta, eta'

Recently in the context of studies of the intrinsic charm content of the nucleon and of the eta' meson two groups have arrived at different results for the 1/m^3 term of the heavy quark expansion for operator $\bar Q\gamma_5Q$ differing by the factor of six. We show that the form of both results violates certain general conditions. Using the expression for the axial anomaly with the finite Pauli-Villars regularization we obtain a new expression for 1/m^3 term of the heavy quark expansion for $\bar Q\gamma_5 Q$. With this new result we obtain an estimate for the constant f_{\eta'}^{(c)}=-2 MeV.Comment: 4 page

Assessing Patient Adherence and Satisfaction: Clinical Services Beyond the Pharmacy Counter

Medication adherence is a bigger problem than many of us are willing to admit. If patients do not take their medications as prescribed, they will not get the full therapeutic benefits and will put themselves at risk if serious harm. An estimated 125,000 deaths occur in the United States annually due to non-adherence. The objective of this study is to establish a pharmacy intervention model that best provides patient satisfaction and improved medication adherence through the use of home visits and follow-up calls by pharmacists and pharmacy interns at Clark’s Pharmacy. In order to do this, patients receiving home visits from pharmacists or pharmacy interns will receive phone calls 90 days after every visit. These will be patients that have recently been discharged from skilled nursing facilities and other health care centers. In the calls, survey questions will be asked in order to measure their adherence and satisfaction with the pharmacy. Satisfaction will be measured in addition to adherence because studies show that there is a positive correlation between it and adherence. The questions will be formulated in consultation with a pharmacist who has used a similar survey over the phone before. We will need to use convenience sampling, since only patients of Clark’s Pharmacy already being visited at home will qualify to participate. This will be a cross-sectional study. Once data has been collected, SPSS will be used to run descriptive statistics, as well as a Chi-squared test. Data collection will take place from the spring of 2015 until the fall of 2016

Soft end-point and mass corrections to the eta' g*g* vertex function

Power-suppressed corrections arising from end-point integration regions to the space-like vertex function of the massive eta'-meson virtual gluon transition eta' - g*g* are computed. Calculations are performed within the standard hard-scattering approach (HSA) and the running coupling method supplemented by the infrared renormalon calculus. Contributions to the vertex function from the quark and gluon contents of the eta' -meson are taken into account and the Borel resummed expressions for F_{eta' g*g*}(Q2,\omega ,\eta), as well as for F_{eta' g g*}}(Q^{2},\omega =\pm 1,\eta) and F_{eta' g*g*}(Q^{2},\omega =0,\eta) are obtained. It is demonstrated that the power-suppressed corrections \sim (\Lambda ^{2}/Q^{2})^{n}, in the explored range of the total gluon virtuality 1 <Q2 < 25 GeV2, considerably enhance the vertex function relative to the results found in the framework of the standard HSA with a fixed coupling. Modifications generated by the eta ' -meson mass effects are discussed

Metastable states in the Blume-Emery-Griffiths spin glass model

We study the Blume-Emery-Griffiths spin glass model in presence of an attractive coupling between real replicas, and evaluate the effective potential as a function of the density overlap. We find that there is a region, above the first order transition of the model, where metastable states with a large density overlap exist. The line where these metastable states appear should correspond to a purely dynamical transition, with a breaking of ergodicity. Differently from what happens in p-spin glasses, in this model the dynamical transition would not be the precursor of a 1-step RSB transition, but (probably) of a full RSB transition.Comment: RevTeX, 4 pages, 2 fig

Semi-inclusive B Decays and Direct CP Violation in QCD Factorization

We have systematically investigated the semi-inclusive B decays B->MX, which are manifestations of the quark decay b->Mq, within the framework of QCD-improved factorization. These decays are theoretically clean and have distinctive experimental signatures. We focus on a class of these that do not require any form factor information and therefore may be especially suitable for extracting information on the angles $\alpha$ and $\gamma$ of the unitarity triangle. The nonfactorizable effects, such as vertex-type and penguin-type corrections to the two-body b decay and hard spectator corrections to the 3-body decay are calculable in the heavy quark limit. QCD factorization is applicable when the emitted meson is a light meson or a charmonium. We discuss the issue of the CPT constraint on partial rate asymmetries. The strong phase coming from final-state rescattering due to hard gluon exchange between the final states can induce large rate asymmetries for tree-dominated color-suppressed modes $(\pi^0,\rho^0,\omega)X_{\bar s}$. The nonfactorizable hard spectator interactions in the 3-body decay, though phase-space suppressed, are extremely important for the tree-dominated modes $(\pi^0,\rho^0,\omega)X_{\bar s}, \phi X$, $J X_s,J X$ and the penguin-dominated mode $\omega X_{s\bar s}$. In fact, they are dominated by the hard spectator corrections. Our result for ${\cal B} (B\to J/\psi X_s)$ is in agreement with experiment. The semi-inclusive decay modes: $B^0_s\to (\pi^0,\rho^0,\omega)X_{\bar s}$, $\rho^0X_{s\bar s}$, $B^0\to(K^-X,K^{*-}X)$ and $B^-\to (K^0X_s,K^{*0}X_s)$ are the most promising ones in searching for direct CP violation. In fact, they have branching ratios of order $10^{-6}-10^{-4}$ and CP rate asymmetries of order $(10-40)$.Comment: 28 page

Оценка устойчивости системы аварийного водоснабжения на предприятии ООО «ВОДСНАБ»

Целью данной работы, является: разработка комплекса мер по повышению устойчивости функционирования предприятия ООО "ВОДСНАБ" в случае аварии. В ходе выполнения работы был проанализирован уровень развития систем водоснабжения. Были выявлены проблемы связанные с износом оборудования. Был произведен расчет и разработка схемы насосной станции первого подъема.The purpose of this work is: development of a set of measures to improve the sustainability of the operation of the enterprise LLC "VODSNAB" in the event of an accident. In the course of the work, the level of development of water supply systems was analyzed. Problems related to equipment wear were identified. The calculation and development of the scheme of the first lift pumping station was carried out

Evading the CKM Hierarchy: Intrinsic Charm in B Decays

We show that the presence of intrinsic charm in the hadrons' light-cone wave functions, even at a few percent level, provides new, competitive decay mechanisms for B decays which are nominally CKM-suppressed. For example, the weak decays of the B-meson to two-body exclusive states consisting of strange plus light hadrons, such as B\to\pi K, are expected to be dominated by penguin contributions since the tree-level b\to s u\bar u decay is CKM suppressed. However, higher Fock states in the B wave function containing charm quark pairs can mediate the decay via a CKM-favored b\to s c\bar c tree-level transition. Such intrinsic charm contributions can be phenomenologically significant. Since they mimic the amplitude structure of ``charming'' penguin contributions, charming penguins need not be penguins at all.Comment: 28 pages, 6 figures, published version. References added, minor change

The use of tumour necrosis factor alpha-blockers in daily routine. An Austrian consensus project

To define relevant disease parameters and their respective limits indicating the initiation of TNF-α-blockers in individual patients. Subsequently, to analyze retrospectively patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriatic arthritis (PsA) or ankylosing spondylitis (AS), who started TNF-α inhibition in 2006. Points to consider, regarded relevant for individual treatment decisions as well as their assessment methods, were ascertained by experts’ consensus applying the Delphi technique. Subsequently, these parameters’ thresholds with respect to the initiation of a TNF-α-blocker were identified. Thereafter, the rheumatologists representing 12 centres all over Austria agreed to retrospectively analyze their patients started on a TNF-α-blocker in 2006. Experts’ opinion regarding disease parameters relevant to initiate TNF-α-blockers in RA patients only slightly differed from those applied in clinical trials, but the parameters’ threshold values were considerably lower. For PsA patients, some differences and for AS patients, considerable differences between experts’ opinion and clinical studies appeared, which held also true for decisive parameters’ means and thresholds. Six hundred and fifty patients, started on TNF-blockers in 2006, could be analyzed retrospectively, 408 RA patients (53.3 years mean, 340 females), 93 PsA patients (48.9 years mean, 59 males) and 149 AS patients AS (42.2 years mean, 108 males), representing approximately 25% of all Austrian patients initiated on a TNF-blocker in this respective year. Far more individualized, patient-oriented treatment approaches, at least in part, are applied in daily routine compared with those derived from clinical trials or recommendations from investigative rheumatologists

Deletion of the Pichia pastoris KU70 Homologue Facilitates Platform Strain Generation for Gene Expression and Synthetic Biology

Targeted gene replacement to generate knock-outs and knock-ins is a commonly used method to study the function of unknown genes. In the methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris, the importance of specific gene targeting has increased since the genome sequencing projects of the most commonly used strains have been accomplished, but rapid progress in the field has been impeded by inefficient mechanisms for accurate integration. To improve gene targeting efficiency in P. pastoris, we identified and deleted the P. pastoris KU70 homologue. We observed a substantial increase in the targeting efficiency using the two commonly known and used integration loci HIS4 and ADE1, reaching over 90% targeting efficiencies with only 250-bp flanking homologous DNA. Although the ku70 deletion strain was noted to be more sensitive to UV rays than the corresponding wild-type strain, no lethality, severe growth retardation or loss of gene copy numbers could be detected during repetitive rounds of cultivation and induction of heterologous protein production. Furthermore, we demonstrated the use of the ku70 deletion strain for fast and simple screening of genes in the search of new auxotrophic markers by targeting dihydroxyacetone synthase and glycerol kinase genes. Precise knock-out strains for the well-known P. pastoris AOX1, ARG4 and HIS4 genes and a whole series of expression vectors were generated based on the wild-type platform strain, providing a broad spectrum of precise tools for both intracellular and secreted production of heterologous proteins utilizing various selection markers and integration strategies for targeted or random integration of single and multiple genes. The simplicity of targeted integration in the ku70 deletion strain will further support protein production strain generation and synthetic biology using P. pastoris strains as platform hosts