Addendum to "Nonlinear quantum evolution with maximal entropy production"

The author calls attention to previous work with related results, which has escaped scrutiny before the publication of the article "Nonlinear quantum evolution with maximal entropy production", Phys.Rev.A63, 022105 (2001).Comment: RevTex-latex2e, 2pgs., no figs.; brief report to appear in the May 2001 issue of Phys.Rev.

Modified Paschos-Wolfenstein relation and extraction of weak mixing angle sin^2 theta_W

The NuTeV collaboration reported anomalously large weak mixing angle sin^2 theta_W in comparison with the standard model prediction. Neutrino and antineutrino charged- and neutral-current events are analyzed for extracting sin^2 theta_W. Although the Paschos-Wolfenstein relation is not directly used in the analysis, it plays an important role in the determination. Noting that the target nucleus, iron, is not an isoscalar nucleus, we derive a leading-order expression for a modified Paschos-Wolfenstein relation for nuclei, which may have neutron excess. Then, using charge and baryon-number conservations for nuclei, we discuss a nuclear correction in the sin^2 theta_W determination. It is noteworthy that nuclear modifications are different between valence up- and down-quark distributions. We show this difference effect on the NuTeV sin^2 theta_W deviation.Comment: 5 pages, REVTeX4.0, revtex4.cls, url.sty, natbib.sty, revsymb.sty, 10pt.rtx, aps.rtx, amssymb.sty, amsfonts.sty, 3 eps figures. Phys. Rev. D in press. Email: [email protected] See also http://hs.phys.saga-u.ac.j

Evaluating the Impact of Biofortification: A Meta-analysis of Community-level Studies on Quality Protein Maize (QPM)

Biofortification, or the genetic improvement of the nutritional quality of food crops, is a promising strategy to combat undernutrition, particularly among the rural poor in developing countries. However, traditional methods of impact assessment do not apply to biofortified crops as little or no yield increases are expected. Significant progress has been made to develop maize varieties with improved protein quality, collectively known as quality protein maize (QPM). Evidence for the impact of QPM at the community level, as demonstrated by randomized, controlled studies, was evaluated using meta-analysis. A new and generalizable effect size was proposed to quantify the impact of QPM on a key outcome, child growth. The results indicated that consumption of QPM instead of conventional maize leads to an 8% (95% CI: 4-12%) increase in the rate of growth in height and a 9% (95% CI: 4-12%) increase in the rate of growth in weight in infants and young children with mild to moderate undernutrition from populations in which maize is a significant part of the diet. These results are the first step in evaluating the potential economic impact of QPM by establishing and quantifying a link between use of the improved crop and nutritional outcomes. QPM can serve as a model for other biofortification efforts, and in particular, the conceptual framework and methodologies for impact assessment are directly applicable to other biofortified crops.Impact assessment, biofortification, meta-analysis, Crop Production/Industries, Food Security and Poverty,

Universal structure of subleading infrared poles at strong coupling

Recently a concise expression for the subleading infrared singularity of dimensional-regularized gauge theories has been proposed. For conformal theories, such relation involves a universal eikonal contribution plus a non-eikonal contribution, related to the subleading term in the anomalous dimension of twist two operators with large spin. In this note we make use of the AdS/CFT correspondence in order to check such conjecture at strong coupling for the case of N=4 SYM.Comment: 13 page

Ineffective Controls on Capital Inflows Under Sophisticated Financial Markets: Brazil in the Nineties

We analyze the Brazilian experience in the 1990s to assess the effectiveness of controls on capital inflows in restricting financial inflows and changing their composition towards long term flows. Econometric exercises (VARs) showed that controls on capital inflows were effective in deterring financial inflows for only a brief period, from two to six months. The hypothesis to explain the ineffectiveness of the controls is that financial institutions performed several operations aimed at avoiding capital controls. To check this hypothesis, we conducted interviews with market players. We collected several examples of the financial strategies engineered to avoid the capital controls and invest in the Brazilian fixed income market. The main conclusion is that controls on capital inflows, while they may be desirable, are of very limited effectiveness under sophisticated financial markets.

Solid-State Nuclear Spin Quantum Computer Based on Magnetic Resonance Force Microscopy

We propose a nuclear spin quantum computer based on magnetic resonance force microscopy (MRFM). It is shown that an MRFM single-electron spin measurement provides three essential requirements for quantum computation in solids: (a) preparation of the ground state, (b) one- and two- qubit quantum logic gates, and (c) a measurement of the final state. The proposed quantum computer can operate at temperatures up to 1K.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figure

Quantum Breaking Time Scaling in the Superdiffusive Dynamics

We show that the breaking time of quantum-classical correspondence depends on the type of kinetics and the dominant origin of stickiness. For sticky dynamics of quantum kicked rotor, when the hierarchical set of islands corresponds to the accelerator mode, we demonstrate by simulation that the breaking time scales as $\tau_{\hbar} \sim (1/\hbar)^{1/\mu}$ with the transport exponent $\mu > 1$ that corresponds to superdiffusive dynamics. We discuss also other possibilities for the breaking time scaling and transition to the logarithmic one $\tau_{\hbar} \sim \ln(1/\hbar)$ with respect to $\hbar$

Geometric Scaling and QCD Dynamics in DIS

DIS data from HERA show a striking regularity as \sigma^{\gamma^* p} is a function of the ratio \tau=Q^2/Q_s^2(x) only. The scaling function shows a break at \tau ~ 1, which has been taken as an indication for saturation. However, besides saturation also the transition between dominance of k_t-ordered (DGLAP) and k_t-non-ordered (BFKL) evolution contributes to a break around this value of \tau, as well as the suppression for small Q^2 due to finite quark masses and confinement. In this paper we use a dipole cascade model based on Mueller's dipole model, which also includes energy conservation and pomeron mergins, to investigate the contributions of these different effects to the scaling behaviour. As a result we predict that the scaling function for \tau 1 GeV^2 become available. We also investigate the scaling properties of the charm contribution and the impact parameter dependence of the saturation scale.Comment: references added, figures 2, 7 and 8 updated v3: reference added, some misprints correcte

The Porphyromonas gingivalis hemagglutinins HagB and HagC are major mediators of adhesion and biofilm formation

Porphyromonas gingivalis is a bacterium associated with chronic periodontitis that possesses a family of genes encoding hemagglutinins required for heme acquisition. In this study we generated ΔhagB and ΔhagC mutants in strain W83 and demonstrate that both hagB and hagC are required for adherence to oral epithelial cells. Unexpectedly, a double ΔhagB/ΔhagC mutant had less severe adherence defects than either of the single mutants, but was found to exhibit increased expression of the gingipain-encoding genes rgpA and kgp, suggesting that a ΔhagB/ΔhagC mutant is only viable in populations of cells that exhibit increased expression of genes involved in heme acquisition. Disruption of hagB in the fimbriated strain ATCC33277 demonstrated that HagB is also required for stable attachment of fimbriated bacteria to oral epithelial cells. Mutants of hagC were also found to form defective single and multi-species biofilms that had reduced biomass relative to biofilms formed by the wild-type strain. This study highlights the hitherto unappreciated importance of these genes in oral colonization and biofilm formation

Approximate NNLO Threshold Resummation in Heavy Flavour Decays

We present an approximate NNLO evaluation of the QCD form factor resumming large logarithmic perturbative contributions in semi-inclusive heavy flavour decays.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures, Latex; minor changes; 2 figures adde