Consumer Responses to Recent BSE Events

Recent bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, a.k.a. mad cow disease) discoveries in Canadian and U.S. beef cattle have garnered significant media attention, which may have changed consumers’ meat-purchasing behavior. Consumer response is hypothesized and tested within a meat demand system in which response is measured using single-period dummy variables, longer-term dummy variables, and media indices that count positive and negative meat-industry articles. Parameters are estimated using retail scanner data, and cross-species price elasticities are calculated. Results suggest that the BSE events negatively impacted ground beef and chuck roasts, while positively impacting center-cut pork chop demand. Dummy variables explained the variation in meat-budget shares better than did media indices.Consumer/Household Economics,

Full O(alpha) corrections to e+e- -> sf_i sf_j

We present a complete precision analysis of the sfermion pair production process e+e- -> sf_i sf_j (f = t, b, tau, nu_tau) in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. Our results extend the previously calculated weak corrections by including all one-loop corrections together with higher order QED corrections. We present the details of the analytical calculation and discuss the renormalization scheme. The numerical analysis shows the results for total cross-sections, forward-backward and left-right asymmetries. It is based on the SPS1a' point from the SPA project. The complete corrections are about 10% and have to be taken into account in a high precision analysis.Comment: 32 pages, 24 figures, RevTeX

A complete one-loop calculation of electroweak supersymmetric effects in tt-channel single top production at LHC

We have computed the complete one-loop electroweak effects in the MSSM for single top (and single antitop) production in the $t$-channel at hadron colliders, generalizing a previous analysis performed for the dominant $dt$ final state and fully including QED effects. The results are quite similar for all processes. The overall Standard Model one-loop effect is small, of the few percent size. This is due to a compensation of weak and QED contributions that are of opposite sign. The genuine SUSY contribution is generally quite modest in the mSUGRA scenario. The experimental observables would therefore only practically depend, in this framework, on the CKM $Wtb$ coupling.Comment: 25 pages, several eps figures. Update corresponding to published versio

Bone mineral content after renal transplantation

Forearm bone mineral content (BMC), as evaluated by photonabsorption densitometry, was measured in 28 cadaver kidney donor recipients who entered the study 8 weeks postoperatively and were followed up for 18 months. BMC decreased signifiantly (p<0.05) but marginally in placebo-treated patients (n=14) (initial BMC 1.09±0.25 g/cm; final BMC 1.05±0.24). Fourteen patients were prophylactically given 1,25(OH)2vitamin D3 in a dose which avoided hypercalcemia and hypercalciuria (sim0.25 µg/day); under 1,25(OH)2 vitamin D3 prophylaxis a significant decrease of forearm BMC was observed no longer (initial BMC 0.94±0.21 g/cm; final BMC 0.95±0.21), but the difference between placebo and 1,25(OH)2 vitamin D3 narrowly missed statistical significance (p=0.066). It is concluded that the decrease of forearm BMC is negligible in transplant recipients with low steroid regimens. The data suggest a trend for prophylaxis with 1,25(OH)2 vitamin D3 to slightly ameliorate forearm (cortical) BMC loss

Determination of Strong-Interaction Widths and Shifts of Pionic X-Rays with a Crystal Spectrometer

Pionic 3d-2p atomic transitions in F, Na, and Mg have been studied using a bent crystal spectrometer. The pionic atoms were formed in the production target placed in the external proton beam of the Space Radiation Effects Laboratory synchrocyclotron. The observed energies and widths of the transitions are E=41679(3) eV and Γ=21(8) eV, E=62434(18) eV and Γ=22(80) eV, E=74389(9) eV and Γ=67(35) eV, in F, Na, and Mg, respectively. The results are compared with calculations based on a pion-nucleus optical potential

Dependence of the K x-ray energy upon the mode of excitation

The energy of the Ta Kα x rays emitted after electron capture of 181W has been observed to be lower by 0.79±0.06 eV compared to the fluorescent Ta Kα x rays. Similarly, it was found that the Ta Kα x rays emitted after internal conversion following β decay of 181Hf were higher by 0.7±0.1 eV in energy compared to the same fluorescent Ta x rays. The observed effects cannot be explained by the known mechanisms of chemical shift, hyperfine effects, isomer shifts, and shake-off effects alone. Similar observations of the K-x-ray energy shifts in the electron-capture decays of 153Gd and 175Hf with the corresponding fluorescent x rays in Eu and Lu, respectively, can be accounted for by the hyperfine effects, isotope shifts, and chemical shifts

The reactions and ashes of thermonuclear explosions on neutron stars

This paper reports on the detailed rp-process reaction flow on an accreting neutron star and the resulting ashes of a type I X-ray burst. It is obtained by coupling a 298 isotope reaction network to a self-consistent one-dimensional model calculation with a constant accretion rate of dM/dt=1.0e17g/s (0.09 Eddington).Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, submitted to the INPC2004 proceeding

Topological conditions for discrete symmetry breaking and phase transitions

In the framework of a recently proposed topological approach to phase transitions, some sufficient conditions ensuring the presence of the spontaneous breaking of a Z_2 symmetry and of a symmetry-breaking phase transition are introduced and discussed. A very simple model, which we refer to as the hypercubic model, is introduced and solved. The main purpose of this model is that of illustrating the content of the sufficient conditions, but it is interesting also in itself due to its simplicity. Then some mean-field models already known in the literature are discussed in the light of the sufficient conditions introduced here