Rare semileptonic decay of χc1(1p)\chi_{c1}(1p) meson In QCD

The rare semileptonic $\chi_{c1}(1p)\rightarrow D_{s}^{+}e\bar{\nu }$ decay is analyzed, by using the three-point QCD sum rules. Taking into account the two-gluon condensate contributions, the transition form factors related to this decay are calculated and are used to determine the total decay width and branching fraction. Our findings may be approved by future experiments.Comment: 15,

Toward a Multi-disciplinary Business Architecture Reference Model for SMEs

Competing in a global, open and dynamic ecosystem of firms, SMEs require a strategic management tool to manage co-evolution with dynamic environments. To sustain their competitive advantages, SMEs must enhance the capacity of orchestrating and integrating resources/capabilities to adopt/shape their chosen ecosystem and meet the emergent market needs. Drawing from existing literature and preliminary interviews it has been found that SMEs need a simple but holistically comprehensive strategic management tool to help the executives implement entrepreneurial practices that have the capacity to quickly identify new resource configuration to align with the changing environments. In particular we develop a multi-disciplinary Business Architecture Reference Model (BARM) for SMEs to help SMEs create value in an open and dynamic ecosystem. Derived from SMEs’ internal and external strategic requirements, we revisit conceptual model for the SME BARM by integrating diverse but interrelated disciplines including; IS, strategic management, organization, architecture and service sciences. Theoretically grounded from these diverse disciplines, the BARM provides SMEs with a new holistic approach to orchestrate their socio-technical resources/capabilities and manage their co-evolution within the dynamic ecosystem. The proposed BARM for SMEs comprises architectural components and metamodel that helps SMEs plan, articulate and execute their business strategies, resulting in a business-aligned configuration of resources to attain evolutionary fitness with the competitive environments. By incorporating organisation and strategic management theories in the BARM conceptual model, the paper also contributes to the theoretical foundation of architecture sci-ence – accentuating the socio-technical (capability-based) nature of architecture. The preliminary BARM’s efficacy and usability has been validated through interviews with industry experts and SME executives

Developing Business Architecture for SMEs: A Strategic Tool for Capability Orchestration and Managing Dynamisms

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly faced with competitive pressure due to swift and constant change to the dynamic and highly interconnected environment in which they operate. Competing in this dynamic ecosystem, SMEs need a strategic tool for managing co-evolution with the dynamic environment in order to create sustained value. Drawing from the specific SME characteristics operating in a collaborative network ecosystem of firms, this paper elicits the specific strategic management requirements that need to be satisfied by a Business Architecture. Extensive exploratory literature review and semi-structured interviews are used to explicate the underlying drivers of SME’s requirements for business architecture that need to be addressed by the requisite BA practice. The paper finds that, the BA practice must possess the capabilities to guide and assist the SMEs to adapt with the dynamic collaborative ecosystem of firms and sense, leverage and orchestrate the network of resources and ICT capabilities to create sustained value. This paper concludes with some guidelines for developing the business architecture-enabled journey toward creating sustained value within the said dynamic ecosystem

Coupling constants of bottom (charmed) mesons with pion from three point QCD sum rules

In this article, the three point QCD sum rules is used to compute the strong coupling constants of vertices containing the strange bottomed ( charmed ) mesons with pion. The coupling constants are calculated, when both the bottom ( charm ) and pion states are off-shell. A comparison of the obtained results of coupling constants with the existing predictions is also made. Key words: strong coupling constant, meson, QCD sum rules, bottom, charm.Comment: 17pages, Latex. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1104.2864, arXiv:1103.0943, arXiv:hep-ph/0304193 by other author

Semileptonic Dq→K1ℓνD_{q}\to K_{1}\ell \nu and nonleptonic D→K1πD\to K_1 \pi decays in three--point QCD sum rules and factorization approach

We analyze the semileptonic $D_{q}\to K_1 \ell\nu$ transition with $q=u, d, s$, in the framework of the three--point QCD sum rules and the nonleptonic $D\to K_1 \pi$ decay within the QCD factorization approach. We study $D_{q}$ to $K_1(1270)$ and $K_1(1400)$ transition form factors by separating the mixture of the $K_1(1270)$ and $K_1(1400)$ states. Using the transition form factors of the $D\to K_1$, we analyze the nonleptonic $D\to K_1 \pi$ decay. We also present the decay amplitude and decay width of these decays in terms of the transition form factors. The branching ratios of these channel modes are also calculated at different values of the mixing angle $\theta_{K_1}$ and compared with the existing experimental data for the nonleptonic case.Comment: 28 Pages, 20 Figures and 9 Table

Business architecture reference model (BARM) for small and medium enterprises (SMEs)

University of Technology Sydney. Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology.As Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) compete in a dynamic ecosystem of firms, their businesses continuously face the challenge of creating sustained value by managing socio-technical resources/capabilities and aligning them with changing market needs. Accelerating technological changes, rapidly changing market demands and growing globalized collaborative ecosystem of organisations, in addition to SMEs’ inherent resource limitations and constraints, underscore the SMEs’ critical need for strategic developments and execution. The SME’s combined internal and external challenges and requirements call for the support of a Business Architecture (BA) – a strategic management tool to facilitate the development and configuration of socio-technical resources/capabilities and capitalise on the ecosystem and market opportunities. Using the Design Science methodology this research aims to develop and evaluate a simple but holistically comprehensive Business Architecture (BA) that shall ideally help SMEs implement entrepreneurial practices that have the capacity to articulate and execute their business strategies to align with the changing environments. In particular using extensive exploratory literature review I identify underlying drivers of SME requirements for a BA practice. Then I explicate the research problem and BA practice requirements using a semi-structured interview of SME managers/executives and E/BA experts. Derived from identified SMEs’ internal and external strategic requirements, I develop the conceptual model for the SMEs’ Business Architecture Reference Model (BARM) by integrating diverse but interrelated disciplines including; IS, strategic management, organization, architecture and service sciences. Theoretically grounded from these diverse disciplines, the BARM provides SMEs with a new holistic approach to orchestrate their socio-technical resources/capabilities and manage their co-evolution within the dynamic ecosystem. The validity of resultant constructs has been evaluated in two parts. First, the BARM efficacy and usability has been desk-validated through interviews with industry experts and SME’s executives. Second, the applicability of BARM is tested through its implementation and in depth study in three different small organisations. I examined how well the BARM was utilized by the case studies. The final evaluation was conducted through a qualitative method of analysing the solutions and artefacts and the use of open interviews. In addition to its contribution to the specification of a BA practice to facilitate SME value co-creation, this research also contributes to theoretically advancing architecture science. It extends the current theoretical model of BA by incorporating diverse strategic management, organisation, IS, and service sciences theories to make the proposed BARM applicable to SMEs. This research makes a significant contribution to the practical application of BA to SMEs’ strategic development and execution by providing clarity and direction in ICT investment, creating a capability-based and strategy-driven business culture, and facilitating customer-aligned value proposition execution

High-Oleic Ground Beef and Risk Factors for Cardiovascular Disease in Men and Postmenopausal Women

About half of all deaths in developed countries are caused by cardiovascular disease. It is well known that cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk can be influenced by diet, but optimal dietary content of fatty acids continues to be debated. The effect of fatty acid composition of ground beef on selected cardiovascular disease risk indicators was evaluated with two primary goals. The first goal was to document effects of ground beef fatty acid composition on plasma lipoprotein concentrations, whereas the second goal was to determine the effects of ground beef fatty acid composition on gene expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). In both studies the results were compared between men and women. Twelve men and women over age of 45 out of initially 15 completed a two-way crossover design. Subjects consumed five, 114-g ground beef patties per week for 5-wk periods separated by a 3-wk washout period. Patties contained on average 20% fat and monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA): saturated fatty acid (SFA) of 0.8 and 1.1 for low- MUFA (conventional) ground beef high-MUFA (premium) ground beef patties, respectively. Blood was collected from each subject before and at the end of each diet period. Overall, the ground beef interventions decreased total plasma cholesterol, triacylglycerol, and very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) cholesterol. Plasma concentrations of high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol decreased and increased, respectively with premium ground beef consumption. The change in HDL cholesterol was significant in women but not in men suggesting that premium ground beef consumption had a greater impact on women than in men. For the second goal PBMC were isolated and the expression of selected genes was quantified by real-time PCR. ATP-binding cassette A1, ATP-binding cassette G1, and low-density lipoprotein receptor relative expression was increased with premium ground beef consumption. A significant increase was seen in stearoyl-Coenzyme-A desaturase 1 expression after premium ground beef treatment. With the exception of stearoyl-Coenzyme-A desaturase 1, all these genes were down-regulated with conventional ground beef consumption. Both sterol regulatory element binding transcription factor 1 and mediator complex subunit 1 were down-regulated after each beef patty treatment, but the effect was significant after consuming conventional ground beef. This suggests that genes involved in cholesterol metabolism were down-regulated with conventional ground beef consumption; whereas genes related to lipogenesis were up-regulated with premium ground beef consumption. From these data we concluded that different ground beef dietary interventions have different impacts on the PBMC gene expression that is related to cholesterol metabolism, inflammation and liver X receptor pathways

Semileptonic Bc−→D∗0ℓνB_{c}^{-}\to D^{*0}\ell\nu transition in three--point QCD sum rules and HQET with gluon condensate corrections

Taking into account the gluon condensate contributions, the form factors of the semileptonic $B_c^- \to D^{*0}\ell\nu$ transition with $l=\tau, e$ are calculated in the framework of the three point QCD sum rules. The heavy quark effective theory limit of the form factors are also computed. The relevant total decay width as well as the branching ratio are evaluated and compared with the predictions of the other non-perturbative approaches.Comment: 27 Pages, 4 Figures and 4 Table