Heavy-Light Meson Semileptonic Decays with Staggered Light Quarks

We report on exploratory studies of heavy-light meson semileptonic decays using Asqtad light quarks, NRQCD heavy quarks and Symanzik improved glue on coarse quenched lattices. Oscillatory contributions to three-point correlators coming from the staggered light quarks are found to be handled well by Bayesian fitting methods. B meson decays to both the Goldstone pion and to one of the point-split non-Goldstone pions are investigated. One-loop perturbative matching of NRQCD/Asqtad heavy-light currents is incorporated.Comment: 3 pages, 3 postscript figures, Lattice2003(heavy

The convergence, divergence and changing geography of regulation in the UK's private rented sector

The role of the private rented sector (PRS) has grown in many parts of Europe in recent years, both as an increasing component of housing systems and as the effects of the global financial crisis become apparent. In the UK, the role of the sector has deepened and is increasingly relied upon to house growing and diverse proportions of the population for longer periods of time. This has renewed interest in the regulation of the sector in order to improve its suitability and desirability for tenants. There has been increasing convergence in regulatory approaches between some jurisdictions of the UK, such as Scotland and Wales, and divergence between others, such as England where regulation remains a residual policy concern. Using examples of tenure security, landlord regulation and affordability, this policy review seeks to highlight the emerging differences in the way the PRS is regulated within the UK. It argues that the likely consequence of these differences is that there may be increased variation in the effects and experience of renting in the PRS, in relation to eviction protections and landlord management standards. The paper shows how jurisdictions in Scotland, and to a lesser extent Wales and Northern Ireland, are moving towards models of regulation that more closely mirror those used in Western European countries, with England becoming an outlier in the way in which it regulates private renting

Equation of State for Parallel Rigid Spherocylinders

The pair distribution function of monodisperse rigid spherocylinders is calculated by Shinomoto's method, which was originally proposed for hard spheres. The equation of state is derived by two different routes: Shinomoto's original route, in which a hard wall is introduced to estimate the pressure exerted on it, and the virial route. The pressure from Shinomoto's original route is valid only when the length-to-width ratio is less than or equal to 0.25 (i.e., when the spherocylinders are nearly spherical). The virial equation of state is shown to agree very well with the results of numerical simulations of spherocylinders with length-to-width ratio greater than or equal to 2

The B_s and D_s decay constants in 3 flavor lattice QCD

Capitalizing on recent advances in lattice QCD, we present a calculation of the leptonic decay constants f_{B_s} and f_{D_s} that includes effects of one strange sea quark and two light sea quarks. The discretization errors of improved staggered fermion actions are small enough to simulate with 3 dynamical flavors on lattices with spacings around 0.1 fm using present computer resources. By shedding the quenched approximation and the associated lattice scale ambiguity, lattice QCD greatly increases its predictive power. NRQCD is used to simulate heavy quarks with masses between 1.5 m_c and m_b. We arrive at the following results: f_{B_s} = 260 \pm 7 \pm 26 \pm 8 \pm 5 MeV and f_{D_s} = 290 \pm 20 \pm 29 \pm 29 \pm 6 MeV. The first quoted error is the statistical uncertainty, and the rest estimate the sizes of higher order terms neglected in this calculation. All of these uncertainties are systematically improvable by including another order in the weak coupling expansion, the nonrelativistic expansion, or the Symanzik improvement program.Comment: 4 page

Model-Based Ultrasonic NDE System Qualification Methodology

The use of computer models of ultrasonic NDE inspections is a convenient and cost-effective alternative and/or companion to experimental reliability trials used for qualifying the detection reliability of a given inspection system applied to a given inspection task. In addition, the use of such models permits qualification of ultrasonic inspection of new component designs even before such components exist. This paper presents the current status of the implementation of a model-based software package for these system qualification applications. A brief overview of the model elements and assumptions will be followed by a discussion of the detection system qualification methodology and, finally, by model-predicted qualification results with associated experimental data

Fluids of hard ellipsoids: Phase diagram including a nematic instability from Percus-Yevick theory

An important aspect of molecular fluids is the relation between orientation and translation parts of the two-particle correlations. Especially the detailed knowledge of the influence of orientation correlations is needed to explain and calculate in detail the occurrence of a nematic phase. The simplest model system which shows both orientation and translation correlations is a system of hard ellipsoids. We investigate an isotropic fluid formed of hard ellipsoids with Percus-Yevick theory. Solving the Percus-Yevick equations self-consistently in the high density regime gives a clear criterion for a nematic instability. We calculate in detail the equilibrium phase diagram for a fluid of hard ellipsoids of revolution. Our results compare well with Monte Carlo Simulations and density functional theory.Comment: 7 pages including 4 figure

On the Ricci tensor in type II B string theory

Let $\nabla$ be a metric connection with totally skew-symmetric torsion \T on a Riemannian manifold. Given a spinor field $\Psi$ and a dilaton function $\Phi$, the basic equations in type II B string theory are \bdm \nabla \Psi = 0, \quad \delta(\T) = a \cdot \big(d \Phi \haken \T \big), \quad \T \cdot \Psi = b \cdot d \Phi \cdot \Psi + \mu \cdot \Psi . \edm We derive some relations between the length ||\T||^2 of the torsion form, the scalar curvature of $\nabla$, the dilaton function $\Phi$ and the parameters $a,b,\mu$. The main results deal with the divergence of the Ricci tensor \Ric^{\nabla} of the connection. In particular, if the supersymmetry $\Psi$ is non-trivial and if the conditions \bdm (d \Phi \haken \T) \haken \T = 0, \quad \delta^{\nabla}(d \T) \cdot \Psi = 0 \edm hold, then the energy-momentum tensor is divergence-free. We show that the latter condition is satisfied in many examples constructed out of special geometries. A special case is $a = b$. Then the divergence of the energy-momentum tensor vanishes if and only if one condition \delta^{\nabla}(d \T) \cdot \Psi = 0 holds. Strong models (d \T = 0) have this property, but there are examples with \delta^{\nabla}(d \T) \neq 0 and \delta^{\nabla}(d \T) \cdot \Psi = 0.Comment: 9 pages, Latex2

What motivates academic dishonesty in students? A reinforcement sensitivity theory explanation

BACKGROUND: Academic dishonesty (AD) is an increasing challenge for universities worldwide. The rise of the Internet has further increased opportunities for students to cheat. AIMS: In this study, we investigate the role of personality traits defined within Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (RST) as potential determinants of AD. RST defines behaviour as resulting from approach (Reward Interest/reactivity, goal-drive, and Impulsivity) and avoidance (behavioural inhibition and Fight-Flight-Freeze) motivations. We further consider the role of deep, surface, or achieving study motivations in mediating/moderating the relationship between personality and AD. SAMPLE: A sample of UK undergraduates (N = 240). METHOD: All participants completed the RST Personality Questionnaire, a short-form version of the study process questionnaire and a measure of engagement in AD, its perceived prevalence, and seriousness. RESULTS: Results showed that RST traits account for additional variance in AD. Mediation analysis suggested that GDP predicted dishonesty indirectly via a surface study approach while the indirect effect via deep study processes suggested dishonesty was not likely. Likelihood of engagement in AD was positively associated with personality traits reflecting Impulsivity and Fight-Flight-Freeze behaviours. Surface study motivation moderated the Impulsivity effect and achieving motivation the FFFS effect such that cheating was even more likely when high levels of these processes were used. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that motivational personality traits defined within RST can explain variance in the likelihood of engaging in dishonest academic behaviours

OH Zeeman Magnetic Field Detections Toward Five Supernova Remnants Using the VLA

We have observed the OH (1720 MHz) line in five galactic SNRs with the VLA to measure their magnetic field strengths using the Zeeman effect. We detected all 12 of the bright ($S_{\nu} > 200$ mJy) OH (1720 MHz) masers previously detected by Frail et al. (1996) and Green et al. (1997) and measured significant magnetic fields (i.e. $> 3\sigma$) in ten of them. Assuming that the ``thermal'' Zeeman equation can be used to estimate $\mid\vec{B}\mid$ for OH masers, our estimated fields range from 0.2 to 2 mG. These magnetic field strengths are consistent with the hypothesis that ambient molecular cloud magnetic fields are compressed via the SNR shock to the observed values. Magnetic fields of this magnitude exert a considerable influence on the properties of the cloud with the magnetic pressures ($10^{-7} - 10^{-9}$ erg cm$^{-3}$) exceeding the pressure in the ISM or even the thermal pressure of the hot gas interior to the remnant. This study brings the number of galactic SNRs with OH (1720 MHz) Zeeman detections to ten.Comment: 23 pages, 14 figures, accepted to ApJ, for higher resolution images of Figs 4,11, and 12 see http://www.pa.uky.edu/~brogan/brog_publ.htm

Multidimensional Isotropic and Anisotropic Q-Oscillator Models

q-oscillator models are considered in two and higher dimensions and their symmetries are explored. New symmetries are found for both isotropic and anisotropic cases. Applications to the spectra of triatomic molecules and superdeformed nuclei are discussed.Comment: 12 Pages, LATEX, no figures, (Submitted to J. PHYS. A