B Lifetimes and Mixing

The Tevatron experiments, CDF and D0, have produced a wealth of new B-physics results since the start of Run II in 2001. We've observed new B-hadrons, seen new effects, and increased many-fold the precision with which we know the properties of b-quark systems. In these proceedings, we will discuss two of the most fruitful areas in the Tevatron B-physics program: lifetimes and mixing. We'll examine the experimental issues driving these analyses, present a summary of the latest results, and discuss prospects for the future.Comment: Heavy Quarks and Leptons, Melbourne, 2008, references adde

Guía explicativa del tratado internacional sobre los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura

La entrada en vigor del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Agricultura y la Alimentación marca el compromiso de la comunidad internacional con un acuerdo independiente dirigido a abordar tanto las necesidades mundiales de seguridad alimentaria como los objetivos acordados a nivel internacional en relación con los conceptos de ”acceso y participación en los beneficios” plasmados en el Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica. Esta es la sexta de una serie de guías para la implementación de instrumentos y conceptos internacionales específicos, que aspira a promover una mayor comprensión del texto del Tratado, incluyendo algunos de los aspectos científicos, técnicos y jurídicos sobre los que se basa, y las posibles consecuencias

Nonprofit governance: Improving performance in troubled economic times

Nonprofit management is currently pressured to perform effectively in a weak economy. Yet, nonprofit governance continues to suffer from unclear conceptions of the division of labor between board of directors and executive directors. This online survey of 114 executive directors aims to provide clarification and recommendations for social administration

Dark current model for ILC main linac

In the ILC Main Linac, the dark current electrons, generated in SRF cavity can be accelerated to hundreds of MeV before being kicked out by quadrupoles and thus will originate electromagnetic cascade showers in the surrounding materials. Some of the shower secondaries can return back into vacuum and be re-accelerated again. The preliminary results of simulation of the dark current generation in ILC cavity, its dynamics in linac are discussing in this paper

LC scintillator-based muon detector tail-catcher R&D

Preliminary analysis of test beam data from strip scintillator planes read-out with multi-anode PMTs (MAPMTs) is presented along with a description of the independent systematic measurements of relative response for all channels of several MAPMTs used in the tests. Test beam measurements for the response of a scintillator strip, read out with Si photo-sensors, is also described

Fashioning Entitlements: A Comparative Law and Economic Analysis of the Judicial Role in Environmental Centralization in the U.S. and Europe

This paper identifies and evaluates, from an economic point of view, the role of the judiciary the steady shift of environmental regulatory authority to higher, more centralized levels of government in both the U.S. and Europe. We supply both a positive analysis of how the decisions made by judges have affected the incentives of both private and public actors to pollute the natural environment, and normative answers to the question of whether judges have acted so as to create incentives that move levels of pollution in an efficient direction, toward their optimal, cost-minimizing (or net-benefit-maximizing) levels. Highlights of the analysis include the following points: 1) Industrial-era local (state or national) legislation awarding entitlements to pollute was almost certainly inefficient due to a fundamental economic obstacle faced by those who suffer harm from the over-pollution of publicly owned natural resources: the inability to monetize and credibly commit to repay the future economic value of reducing pollution. 2) When industrial era pollution spilled across state lines in the US, the federal courts, in particular the Supreme Court, fashioned a federal common law of interstate nuisance that set up essentially the same sort of blurry, uncertain entitlements to pollute or be free of pollution that had been created by the state courts in resolving local pollution disputes. We argue that for the typical pollution problem, a legal regime of blurry interstate entitlements - with neither jurisdiction having a clear right either to pollute or be free of pollution from the other - is likely to generate efficient incentives for interjursidictional bargaining, even despite the public choice problems besetting majority-rule government. Interestingly, a very similar system of de facto entitlements arose and often stimulated interjursidictional bargaining in Europe as well as in the U.S. 3) The US federal courts have generally interpreted the federal environmental statutes in ways that give clear primacy to federal regulators. Through such judicial interpretation, state and local regulators face a continuing risk of having their decisions overridden by federal regulators. This reduces the incentives for regulatory innovation at the state and local level. Judicial authorization of federal overrides has thus weakened the economic rationale for cooperative federalism suggested by economic models of principal-agent relationships. As a result of the principle of attribution, there is less risk in Europe that (like in the US) courts would enlarge the federal purview and thereby limit the powers of the Member States. Despite this principle, the power of the European bureaucracy (that is, the European Commission) has steadily increased and led to a steady shift of environmental regulatory competencies to the European level. This shift is only sometimes normatively desirable, and yet there is little that the ECJ can or will do to slow it

The Tree Biodiversity Network (BIOTREE-NET): prospects for biodiversity research and conservation in the Neotropics

Biodiversity research and conservation efforts in the tropics are hindered by the lack of knowledge of the assemblages found there, with many species undescribed or poorly known. Our initiative, the Tree Biodiversity Network (BIOTREE-NET), aims to address this problem by assembling georeferenced data from a wide range of sources, making these data easily accessible and easily queried, and promoting data sharing. The database (GIVD ID NA-00-002) currently comprises ca. 50,000 tree records of ca. 5,000 species (230 in the IUCN Red List) from \u3e2,000 forest plots in 11 countries. The focus is on trees because of their pivotal role in tropical forest ecosystems (which contain most of the world\u27s biodiversity) in terms of ecosystem function, carbon storage and effects on other species. BIOTREE-NET currently focuses on southern Mexico and Central America, but we aim to expand coverage to other parts of tropical America. The database is relational, comprising 12 linked data tables. We summarise its structure and contents. Key tables contain data on forest plots (including size, location and date(s) sampled), individual trees (including diameter, when available, and both recorded and standardised species name), species (including biological traits of each species) and the researchers who collected the data. Many types of queries are facilitated and species distribution modelling is enabled. Examining the data in BIOTREE-NET to date, we found an uneven distribution of data in space and across biomes, reflecting the general state of knowledge of the tropics. More than 90% of the data were collected since 1990 and plot size varies widely, but with most less than one hectare in size. A wide range of minimum sizes is used to define a \u27tree\u27. The database helps to identify gaps that need filling by further data collection and collation. The data can be publicly accessed through a web application at http://portal.biotreenet.com. Researchers are invited and encouraged to contribute data to BIOTREE-NET

Measurement of the atmospheric muon charge ratio at TeV energies with MINOS

The 5.4 kton MINOS far detector has been taking charge-separated cosmic ray muon data since the beginning of August, 2003 at a depth of 2070 m.w.e. in the Soudan Underground Laboratory, Minnesota, USA. The data with both forward and reversed magnetic field running configurations were combined to minimize systematic errors in the determination of the underground muon charge ratio. When averaged, two independent analyses find the charge ratio underground to be N{sub {mu}}+/N{sub {mu}}-=1.374{+-}0.004(stat)-0.010{sup +0.012}(sys). Using the map of the Soudan rock overburden, the muon momenta as measured underground were projected to the corresponding values at the surface in the energy range 1-7 TeV. Within this range of energies at the surface, the MINOS data are consistent with the charge ratio being energy independent at the 2 standard deviation level. When the MINOS results are compared with measurements at lower energies, a clear rise in the charge ratio in the energy range 0.3-1.0 TeV is apparent. A qualitative model shows that the rise is consistent with an increasing contribution of kaon decays to the muon charge ratio

The Boundaries of Justice: The Challenges of Environmental Justice Assessments for Transportation Projects

Over recent decades, federal guidelines for transportation projects have required increasing attention to impacts on communities. Executive Order 12898 requires federal agencies to conduct environmental justice (EJ) assessments to determine if negative effects from projects will fall disproportionately on minority or low-income populations. Yet transportation agencies have not given specific guidance on the method for conducting such assessments. Therefore practitioners and researchers apply a variety of analytical techniques. This paper uses a case study of a planned road widening project in Daytona Beach, Florida, to compare the various methods currently used in EJ assessments. The choice of reference area and of method for determining the decision threshold for a finding of disproportionality are shown to have important implications for the outcome of an assessment. Because the spatial distribution of racial/ethnic and low-income groups will vary widely from place to place, practitioners and transportation agencies should not decide on the precise method, but carefully consider the characteristics and distribution of the data being used and select the method that most fairly represents the data distribution. Conducting genuine EJ assessments is not only required by federal regulations, but can head off conflicts, better reveal the true costs of projects, and allow for more equitable distribution of costs and benefits by better targeting mitigation efforts. Thus rather than shying away from EJ assessments, transportation agencies and practitioners should continue to explore methods and approaches.Master of City and Regional Plannin