Measuring αs(Q2)\alpha_s(Q^2) in τ\tau Decays

The decay rate of the $\tau$ lepton into hadrons of invariant mass smaller than $Q\gg\Lambda_{\rm QCD}$ can be calculated in QCD using the OPE. Using experimental data on the hadronic mass distribution, the running coupling constant $\alpha_s(Q^2)$ is extracted in the range 0.85~\mbox{GeV}, where its value changes by about a factor~2. At $Q=m_\tau$, the result is $\alpha_s(m_\tau^2)=0.33\pm 0.03$, corresponding to $\alpha_s(m_Z^2)=0.119\pm 0.004$. The running of the coupling constant is in excellent agreement with the QCD prediction based on the three-loop $\beta$-function.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures appended, to appear in the Proceedings of Les Rencontres de Physique de la Vall\'ee d'Aoste (La Thuile, Italy, March 1996), and Second Workshop on Continuous Advances in QCD (Minneapolis, Minnesota, March 1996

THE PLEISTOCENE BATHYAL TELEOSTEAN FAUNA OF ARCHI (SOUTHERN ITALY): PALAEOECOLOGICAL AND PALAEOBIOGEOGRAPHIC IMPLICATIONS

The early-middle Pleistocene teleostean fauna of the Archi section, cropping out along the Calabrian side of the Messina Straits was studied.  The integrated approach, based on the palaeobathymetric method coupled with the palaeoecological approach, already used on deep circalittoral and epibathyal assemblages, was applied for the palaeoenvironmental reconstruction.  The otholith benthic and benthopelagic associations, strongly bathyal in their composition, suggest a deep bathyal palaeoenvironment, 500 to 1000 m deep, which is in agreement with the invertebrate benthic faunas. Compositional, structural, and taxonomic features of the teleostean assemblages indicate clearly Atlantic or more generally oceanic affinities.  The Archi teleostean fauna indicates a palaeoceanographic pattern with deep-water and near-bottom temperature lower than 8-10°C, quite different from the Recent mediterranean.  &nbsp

Using public relations techniques to market organic food: understanding consumer buying behavior

The purposes of this research were to determine which consumers tend to purchase fresh organic food and which consumers tend to purchase packaged organic food, which type of messaging organic food distributors rely on to entice customers and which messages work most effectively to promote organic food consumption, and which channels different organic consumers use to gain knowledge about organic food. Implications for organic food marketing are discussed

THE PLEISTOCENE BATHYAL TELEOSTEAN FAUNA OF ARCHI (SOUTHERN ITALY): PALAEOECOLOGICAL AND PALAEOBIOGEOGRAPHIC IMPLICATIONS

The early-middle Pleistocene teleostean fauna of the Archi section, cropping out along the Calabrian side of the Messina Straits was studied.  The integrated approach, based on the palaeobathymetric method coupled with the palaeoecological approach, already used on deep circalittoral and epibathyal assemblages, was applied for the palaeoenvironmental reconstruction.  The otholith benthic and benthopelagic associations, strongly bathyal in their composition, suggest a deep bathyal palaeoenvironment, 500 to 1000 m deep, which is in agreement with the invertebrate benthic faunas. Compositional, structural, and taxonomic features of the teleostean assemblages indicate clearly Atlantic or more generally oceanic affinities.  The Archi teleostean fauna indicates a palaeoceanographic pattern with deep-water and near-bottom temperature lower than 8-10°C, quite different from the Recent mediterranean.  &nbsp

WLCG Input to Pisa workshop on Resilience-Explicit Computing in Grids

This document summarizes the input from the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG) to the workshop held on Resilience-Explicit Computing in Grids in Pisa, July 14th 2008. The techniques on which WLCG services have been built have been described in numerous papers, including [1][2][3]. They are based on many years of experience in delivering reliable services, using knowledge gained from the LEP era and from other High Energy Physics experiments around the world

POOL File Catalog, Collection and Metadata Components

The POOL project is the common persistency framework for the LHC experiments to store petabytes of experiment data and metadata in a distributed and grid enabled way. POOL is a hybrid event store consisting of a data streaming layer and a relational layer. This paper describes the design of file catalog, collection and metadata components which are not part of the data streaming layer of POOL and outlines how POOL aims to provide transparent and efficient data access for a wide range of environments and use cases - ranging from a large production site down to a single disconnected laptops. The file catalog is the central POOL component translating logical data references to physical data files in a grid environment. POOL collections with their associated metadata provide an abstract way of accessing experiment data via their logical grouping into sets of related data objects.Comment: Talk from the 2003 Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics (CHEP03), La Jolla, Ca, USA, March 2003, 4 pages, 1 eps figure, PSN MOKT00