Gluon contributions to the pion mass and light cone momentum fraction

We calculate the matrix elements of the gluonic contributions to the energy-momentum tensor for a pion of mass 600 < Mpi < 1100 MeV in quenched lattice QCD. We find that gluons contribute (37 +/- 8 +/- 12)% of the pion's light cone momentum. The bare matrix elements corresponding to the trace anomaly contribution to the pion mass are also obtained. The discretizations of the energy-momentum tensor we use have other promising applications, ranging from calculating the origin of hadron spin to QCD thermodynamics.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Initial Experiences of Building Secure Access to Patient Confidential Data via the Internet

A project to enable health care professionals (GPs, practice nurses and diabetes nurse specialists) to access, via the Internet, confidential patient data held on a secondary care (hospital) diabetes information system, has been implemented. We describe the application that we chose to distribute (a diabetes register); the security mechanisms we used to protect the data (a public key infrastructure with strong encryption and digitally signed messages, plus a firewall); the reasons for the implementation decisions we made; the validation testing that we performed and the preliminary results of the pilot implementation

Estate Taxes, Life Insurance, and Small Business

One criticism of the estate tax is that it prevents the owners of family businesses from passing their enterprises to their children. The problem is that it may be difficult to pay estate taxes without liquidating the business. A natural question is why individuals with such concerns do not purchase enough life insurance to meet their estate tax liabilities. This paper examines whether and how people use life insurance to deal with the estate tax. We find that, other things being the same, business owners purchase more life insurance than other individuals. However, on the margin, their insurance purchases are less responsive to estate tax considerations and they are less likely to have the wherewithal to meet estate tax liabilities out of liquid assets plus insurance.

Economic Effects of Added Growing Season Rainfall on North Dakota Agriculture

Farm Management, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Involvement of deprivation and environmental lead in neural tube defects:a matched case-control study.

OBJECTIVE. To analyse the prevalence of neural tube defects in small geographical areas and seek to explain any spatial variations with reference to environmental lead and deprivation. SETTING. The Fylde of Lancashire in the north west of England. DESIGNCases were ascertained as part of a prospective survey of major congenital malformations in babies born in the Fylde to residents there between 1957 and 1981. A matched case-control analysis used infants with cardiovascular system, alimentary tract, and urinary system malformations as controls. Conditional logistic regression was used to assess the effects of more than 10 µg/l lead in drinking water and the Townsend deprivation score. RESULTS. The prevalence of neural tube defects in 1957-73 was higher in Blackpool, Fleetwood, and North Fylde, whereas the three control groups showed no significant spatial variation. In 1957-81 mothers living in electoral wards with either a higher proportion of houses with more than 10 µg/l lead in the water or a higher deprivation score had a greater risk of having a baby with a neural tube defect. For spina bifida and cranium bifidum alone, this was also true. For anencephaly, deprivation was less important although the effect of lead was still seen. In some neural tube defects, lead may act independently of other possible factors associated with deprivation. It seemed unlikely that lead levels changed significantly during the survey. The percentage of houses with 10 µg/l or more of lead in the water in 1984-5 was similar to that found in Great Britain 10 years previously. CONCLUSION. There is evidence to suggest that lead is one cause of neural tube defects, especially anencephaly. This could link the known preventive actions of hard water and folic acid. Calcium is a toxicological antagonist of lead. One cause of a deficiency of folic acid is impaired absorption secondary to zinc deficiency, which may be produced or exacerbated by lead

The Impact of a Continuing Energy Crisis: Changing Attitudes and Behaviors Regarding Thermostat Setback

A sample of Akron, Ohio SMSA households are utilized to examine thermostat setback as an energy conservation strategy. Socio-economic differences between adopting households are evaluated using discriminant analysis. The results constitute the bases on which our recommendations for future increased use of the thermostat setback strategy are made

TCP Programmer for FPXs

Reconfigurable hardware platforms are the key to extensible high speed networks. They provide flexibility without hindering performance through the internet. Current development of the Field-programmable Port Extender (FPX), a reconfigurable hardware platform allows reconfiguration through an ATM network. However, majority of the internet today is based on the highly popular TCP/IP protocol. The contribution of this work will allow modular components to be reprogrammed via TCP/I

Herpetofauna of Sylamore Ranger District, Ozark National Forest, Arkansas: Preliminary Report

A survey of the amphibians and reptiles of the Sylamore Ranger District, Ozark National Forest, Arkansas, was conducted from May 1969 through May 1972. The district is composed of 170,000 acres and includes parts of Stone, Baxter, Marion, and Searcy Counties. A total of 533 specimens was collected during the study. An additional 72 specimens in the collections of Memphis State University and Arkansas State University were examined. Forty-nine species were recorded from the study area. These consisted of 8 salamanders, 12 frogs and toads, 4 turtles, 6 lizards, and 19 snakes. Two species collected during the study, Scaphiopus holbrooki and Rana sylatica, were not previously indicated by published range maps and range descriptions as occurring in north-central Arkansas