Self-Concept Clarity, Learned Helplessness and Fatigue Severity as Predictors of Psychoactive Drug Use and Abuse among Undergraduates

This research investigated self-concept clarity, learned helplessness and fatigue severity on psychoactive drug use and abuse among undergraduates of Benue State University, Makurdi. A cross-sectional survey design was used for the study. A total number of 400 participants consisted of 240 (60.0%) males and 160 (40.0%) females were used. A battery of standardized tests such as learned helplessness scale self-concept scale, fatigue severity scale and substance scale were used for data collection. Findings from the first hypothesis indicated that that self-concept clarity did not significantly predict psychoactive drug use and abuse among undergraduates of Benue State University, Makurdi. On the other hand, there was a significant relationship between learned helplessness and psychoactive drug use and abuse among undergraduates of Benue State University, Makurdi. In the same vein, there was a significant relationship between fatigue severity and psychoactive drug use and abuse among undergraduates of Benue State University, Makurdi. The result also indicated that there was significant joint relationship among self-concept clarity, learned helplessness, fatigue severity and psychoactive drug use and abuse among undergraduates of Benue State University, Makurdi. It was concluded that self-concept clarity, learned helplessness and fatigue severity have significant relationship with psychoactive drug use and abuse. It was recommended that students should not be pushed into situation that could lead them to learn to be helpless and as the same time too much stress should be avoided among students in order not to make them engage into drug use as a result of fatigue

The CP properties of the lightest Higgs boson with sbottom effects

In the framework of the recently proposed gluino-axion model, using the effective potential method and taking into account the top-stop as well as the bottom-sbottom effects, we discuss the CP--properties of the lightest Higgs boson, in particular its CP--odd composition, which can offer new opportunities at collider searches. It is found that although the CP-odd composition of the lightest Higgs increases slightly with the inclusion of the sbottom effects, it never exceeds %0.17 for all values of the renormalization scale Q ranging from top mass to TeV scaleComment: 24 pp, 12 eps fig

e+e−→bbˉudˉμ−νˉμe^+e^- \to b \bar{b} u \bar{d} \mu^- \bar{\nu}_\mu with a ttˉt\bar{t} production

The cross section of $e^+e^- \to b \bar{b} u \bar{d} \mu^- \bar{\nu}_\mu$ process with a complete set of tree diagrams, 232 diagrams in the unitary gauge, was calculated at the energy range of $\sqrt{s}$ = 340 - 500 GeV by using GRACE system. A main contribution to the cross section comes from $t\bar{t}$ production, where $t$ and $\bar{t}$ decay into $bu\bar{d}$ and $\bar{b} \mu^- \bar{\nu}_{\mu}$, respectively. It was found that the interference between the diagrams with $t\bar{t}$ production and those with single-$t$ through $WW$ pair production amounts to 10% at the $t \bar{t}$ threshold energy region. In the energy region above twice of the top quark mass, more than 95% of the cross section comes from the $t\bar{t}$ diagrams.Comment: 17 pages, 8 PostScript figures, LateX; To appear in Phys. Lett.

Measurement of the analyzing power of proton-carbon elastic scattering in the CNI region at RHIC

The single transverse spin asymmetry, A_N, of the p-carbon elastic scattering process in the Coulomb Nuclear Interference (CNI) region was measured using an ultra thin carbon target and polarized proton beam in the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). In 2004, data were collected to calibrate the p-carbon process at two RHIC energies (24 GeV, 100 GeV). A_N was obtained as a function of momentum transfer -t. The results were fit with theoretical models which allow us to assess the contribution from a hadronic spin flip amplitude.Comment: Contribution to the proceedings of the 16th International Spin Physics Symposium, spin2004 (Trieste

Sneutrino Mass Measurements at e+e- Linear Colliders

It is generally accepted that experiments at an e+e- linear colliders will be able to extract the masses of the selectron as well as the associated sneutrinos with a precision of ~ 1% by determining the kinematic end points of the energy spectrum of daughter electrons produced in their two body decays to a lighter neutralino or chargino. Recently, it has been suggested that by studying the energy dependence of the cross section near the production threshold, this precision can be improved by an order of magnitude, assuming an integrated luminosity of 100 fb^-1. It is further suggested that these threshold scans also allow the masses of even the heavier second and third generation sleptons and sneutrinos to be determined to better than 0.5%. We re-examine the prospects for determining sneutrino masses. We find that the cross sections for the second and third generation sneutrinos are too small for a threshold scan to be useful. An additional complication arises because the cross section for sneutrino pair to decay into any visible final state(s) necessarily depends on an unknown branching fraction, so that the overall normalization in unknown. This reduces the precision with which the sneutrino mass can be extracted. We propose a different strategy to optimize the extraction of m(\tilde{\nu}_\mu) and m(\tilde{\nu}_\tau) via the energy dependence of the cross section. We find that even with an integrated luminosity of 500 fb^-1, these can be determined with a precision no better than several percent at the 90% CL. We also examine the measurement of m(\tilde{\nu}_e) and show that it can be extracted with a precision of about 0.5% (0.2%) with an integrated luminosity of 120 fb^-1 (500 fb^-1).Comment: RevTex, 46 pages, 15 eps figure

A Clinically Relevant Method of Analyzing Continuous Change in Robotic Upper Extremity Chronic Stroke Rehabilitation

Background. Robots designed for rehabilitation of the upper extremity after stroke facilitate high rates of repetition during practice of movements and record precise kinematic data, providing a method to investigate motor recovery profiles over time. Objective. To determine how motor recovery profiles during robotic interventions provide insight into improving clinical gains. Methods. A convenience sample (n = 22), from a larger randomized control trial, was taken of chronic stroke participants completing 12 sessions of arm therapy. One group received 60 minutes of robotic therapy (Robot only) and the other group received 45 minutes on the robot plus 15 minutes of translation-to-task practice (Robot + TTT). Movement time was assessed using the robot without powered assistance. Analyses (ANOVA, random coefficient modeling [RCM] with 2-term exponential function) were completed to investigate changes across the intervention, between sessions, and within a session. Results. Significant improvement (P < .05) in movement time across the intervention (pre vs post) was similar between the groups but there were group differences for changes between and within sessions (P < .05). The 2-term exponential function revealed a fast and slow component of learning that described performance across consecutive blocks. The RCM identified individuals who were above or below the marginal model. Conclusions. The expanded analyses indicated that changes across time can occur in different ways but achieve similar goals and may be influenced by individual factors such as initial movement time. These findings will guide decisions regarding treatment planning based on rates of motor relearning during upper extremity stroke robotic interventions

Direct Higgs production and jet veto at the Tevatron and the LHC in NNLO QCD

We consider Higgs boson production through gluon--gluon fusion in hadron collisions, when a veto is applied on the transverse momenta of the accompanying hard jets. We compute the QCD radiative corrections to this process at NLO and NNLO. The NLO calculation is complete. The NNLO calculation uses the recently evaluated NNLO soft and virtual QCD contributions to the inclusive cross section. We find that the jet veto reduces the impact of the NLO and NNLO contributions, the reduction being more sizeable at the LHC than at the Tevatron.Comment: 22 pages, 12 postscript figure

Modeling Submicron Particles Collec-tion in Laminar Forced Convection Gas Flow by a Rectangular Venturi Scrubber

Abstract Venturi scrubbers are usually used for large particles cleaning in turbulent gaseous flow. In this work, submicron particles scrubbing in laminar forced convection dusty air flow in a rectangular venturi scrubber have been numerically simulated. Hydrodynamics effects and scrubbing process are investigated in detail. Results are presented as flow velocity, axial pressure, streamlines pattern, particles and droplets mass fraction profile, and collect efficiency. They show that venturi scrubbers can be efficient for submicron particles scrubbing. In fact, a better collect efficiency is obtained at high particles-droplets residence time, high ratio droplets concentration/particles concentration, low venturi diameter ratioand low Reynolds numbers. There is a critical Reynolds number value for which the collect efficiency becomes very low and tends to be constant

Implications of a possible 115 GeV supersymmetric Higgs boson on detection and cosmological abundance of relic neutralinos

We show that a supersymmetric neutral Higgs boson with a mass of about 115 GeV and with the other prerequisites required by the LEP Higgs events would be compatible with the detection of relic neutralinos in current set-ups for WIMP direct search. Thus this putative Higgs would fit remarkably well in an interpretation in terms of relic neutralinos of the annual-modulation effect recently measured in a WIMP direct experiment. We also show that the cosmological abundance of the relevant neutralinos reaches values of cosmological interest.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, typeset with ReVTeX. The new version containes extended analysis. In order to reduce size, the version on the archive has low-resolution figures. The paper with high-resolution figures can be found at http://www.to.infn.it/~fornengo/papers