Spin structure functions

We review the study of the internal spin structure of the proton and neutron. High-energy scattering of polarized leptons by polarized protons, neutrons, and deuterons provides a measurement of the nucleon spin structure functions. These structure functions give information on the polarized quark contributions to the spin of the proton and the neutron and allow tests of the quark-parton model and quantum chromodynamics. We discuss the formalism of deep inelastic scattering of polarized leptons on polarized nucleons, the past decade of experimental progress, and future programs to measure the polarized gluon contribution to the proton spin

Forward Neutral Pion Production in p + p and d + Au Collisions at √s_(NN) = 200 GeV

Measurements of the production of forward π^0 mesons from p + p and d + Au collisions at √s_(NN) = 200  GeV are reported. The p + p yield generally agrees with next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations. The d + Au yield per binary collision is suppressed as η increases, decreasing to ~30% of the p + p yield at =4.00, well below shadowing expectations. Exploratory measurements of azimuthal correlations of the forward π^0 with charged hadrons at η ≈ 0 show a recoil peak in p + p that is suppressed in d + Au at low pion energy. These observations are qualitatively consistent with a saturation picture of the low-x gluon structure of heavy nuclei

The energy dependence of p_t angular correlations inferred from mean-p_t fluctuation scale dependence in heavy ion collisions at the SPS and RHIC

We present the first study of the energy dependence of pt angular correlations inferred from event-wisemean transverse momentum (pt) fluctuations in heavy ion collisions. We compare our large-acceptancemeasurements at CM energies √^sNN = 19.6, 62.4, 130 and 200 GeV to SPS measurements at 12.3 and 17.3 GeV. p_t angular correlation structure suggests that the principal source of p_t correlations and fluctuations is minijets (minimum-bias parton fragments). We observe a dramatic increase in correlations and fluctuations from SPS to RHIC energies, increasing linearly with ln √^sNN from the onset of observable jet-related (p_t) fluctuations near 10 GeV

Two-particle correlations on transverse momentum and momentum dissipation in Au–Au collisions at √sNN = 130 GeV

Measurements of two-particle correlations on transverse momentum p_t for Au–Au collisions at √^sNN = 130 GeV are presented. Significant largemomentum-scale correlations are observed for charged primary hadrons with 0.15 ≤ p_t ≤ 2 GeV/c and pseudorapidity |η| ≤ 1.3. Such correlations were not observed in a similar study at lower energy and are not predicted by theoretical collision models. Their direct relation to mean-p_t fluctuations measured in the same angular acceptance is demonstrated. Positive correlations are observed for pairs of particles which have large pt values while negative correlations occur for pairs in which one particle has large p_t and the other has much lower p_t . The correlation amplitudes per final state particle increase with collision centrality. The observed correlations are consistent with a scenario in which the transverse momentum of hadrons associated with initial-stage semi-hard parton scattering is dissipated by the medium to lower p_t

Directed flow in Au + Au collisions at √s_(NN) = 62.4 GeV

We present the directed flow (v1) measured in Au+Au collisions at √s_(NN) = 62.4 GeV in the midpseudorapidity region |η| < 1.3 and in the forward pseudorapidity region 2.5 < |η| < 4.0. The results are obtained using the three-particle cumulant method, the event plane method with mixed harmonics, and for the first time at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, the standard method with the event plane reconstructed from spectator neutrons. Results from all three methods are in good agreement. Over the pseudorapidity range studied, charged particle directed flow is in the direction opposite to that of fragmentation neutrons

Perceptual-gestural (mis)mapping in serial short-term memory: The impact of talker variability

The mechanisms underlying the poorer serial recall of talker-variable lists (e.g., alternating female–male voices) as compared with single-voice lists were examined. We tested the novel hypothesis that this talker variability effect arises from the tendency for perceptual organization to partition the list into streams based on voice such that the representation of order maps poorly onto the formation of a gestural sequence-output plan assembled in support of the reproduction of the true temporal order of the items. In line with the hypothesis, (a) the presence of a spoken lead-in designed to further promote by-voice perceptual partitioning accentuates the effect (Experiments 1 and 2); (b) the impairment is larger the greater the acoustic coherence is between nonadjacent items: Alternating-voice lists are more poorly recalled than four-voice lists (Experiment 3); and (c) talker variability combines nonadditively with phonological similarity, consistent with the view that both variables disrupt sequence output planning (Experiment 4). The results support the view that serial short-term memory performance reflects the action of sequencing processes embodied within general-purpose perceptual input-processing and gestural output-planning systems

Winning the Workforce Challenge: A Report on New Jersey's Knowledge Economy

An economic and policy analysis of the New Jersey workforce. The report describes challenges facing workers and policymakers in closing the skills gap, addressing long-term unemployment, ensuring broad-scale economic opportunity, and strengthening government programs

Retrieval from memory: Vulnerable or inviolable?

We show that retrieval from semantic memory is vulnerable even to the mere presence of speech. Irrelevant speech impairs semantic fluency—namely, lexical retrieval cued by a semantic category name—but only if it is meaningful (forward speech compared to reversed speech or words compared to nonwords). Moreover, speech related semantically to the retrieval category is more disruptive than unrelated speech. That phonemic fluency—in which participants are cued with the first letter of words they are to report—was not disrupted by the mere presence of meaningful speech, only by speech in a related phonemic category, suggests that distraction is not mediated by executive processing load. The pattern of sensitivity to different properties of sound as a function of the type of retrieval cue is in line with an interference-by-process approach to auditory distraction