Twisted semilocal strings in the MSSM

The standard electroweak model is extended by means of a second Brout-Englert-Higgs-doublet. The symmetry breaking potential is chosen is such a way that (i) the Lagrangian possesses a custodial symmetry, (ii) a stationary, axially symmetric ansatz of the bosonic fields consistently reduces the Euler-Lagrange equations to a set of differential equations. The potential involves, in particular, a direct interaction between the two doublets. Stationary, axially-symmetric solutions of the classical equations are constructed. Some of them can be assimilated to embedded Nielsen-Olesen strings. From these solutions there are bifurcations and new solutions appear which exhibit the characteristics of the recently constructed twisted semilocal strings. A special emphasis is set on "doubly-twisted" solutions for which the two doublets present different time-dependent phase factors. They are regular and have a finite energy which can be lower than the energy of the embedded twisted solution. Electric-type solutions, such that the fields oscillate asymptotically far from the symmetry-axis, are also reported.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures, discussion extended, new solutions obtaine

Federalization of the Law of Charity

To this day, the law of charity is often thought of as a matter for the states. In fact, the crucial law relating to charity is now almost always federal. For certain purposes, state law still determines whether a given entity is charitable. It also determines the propriety of a charitable fiduciary\u27s conduct when someone who has standing sues. But federal law determines whether an entity qualifies for various tax incentives, such as exemption from the federal income tax and eligibility to receive tax-deductible gifts, and qualification for these incentives generally determines whether the entity comes into existence and, if so, whether it survives. Federal law also wields a bewildering array of draconian penalties against both charities and their fiduciaries for failure to comply with federally specified rules of behavior. This Article examines both of these and other ways in which federal law has essentially taken over the law of charity. The point is not whether federalization of the law of charity is good or bad. The point is simply this: During the last century, Congress and the federal courts federalized the law of charity

A Phenomenological Investigation Of Counseling Students\u27 And Practicum Supervisors\u27 Experiences With The Counselor Competencies Scale

Counselor educators are charged with facilitating the development of counseling students towards becoming ethical and competent counselors (American Counseling Association [ACA], 2005; Council for Accreditation for Counseling and Related Educational Programs [CACREP], 2009). In addition, counselor educators serve as gatekeepers for the profession and deny entry to counseling students who demonstrate deficiency of necessary competencies (ACA, 2005; Association for Counselor Education and Supervision [ACES], 1993; CACREP, 2009). Numerous assessment tools utilized for the evaluation of counseling competencies have been developed, yet none has gained universal acceptance in the field of counselor education. The Counseling Competencies Scale© (CCS, UCF Counselor Education Faculty, 2009) is a 32 item counseling-student assessment tool developed to measure counselors-in-training counselor competencies (counseling skills, professional dispositions, and behaviors). The psychometric properties of the CCS have been investigated (Swank, 2010); however, questions related to perceptions, purposes, and uses of the CCS remained. Therefore, the purpose of this descriptive, exploratory phenomenology was to understand counseling students‘ and practicum supervisors‘ lived experiences with the CCS. The sample included counseling practicum students (N = 23 [individual student interviews only, n = 11; student focus group interviews only, n = 4, individual student interviews and student focus group participants, n = 8]) and practicum supervisors (N = 6) from a CACREP accredited counselor education program in the Southeastern United States. The data was collected through individual interviews and focus groups with practicum students and individual interviews with practicum supervisors. All data was recorded, transcribed, coded, and analyzed for themes (Creswell, 2007; Moustakas, 1994). The data analyses utilized a research key iv comprised of 34 meaning units (Devenish, 2002; Moustakas, 1994) and identified five themes within the data: (a) Cognitive understanding, (b) Emotional Understanding, (c) Feedback, (d) Trustworthiness, and (e) Gatekeeping. A visual metaphor was developed to illustrate the interaction of the five themes. Trustworthiness measures employed throughout the research included the use of (a) descriptions of researcher positionality, (b) a self-reflective field journal, (c) triangulation (student and supervisor individual interviews, student focus group interviews, and examination of the CCS document), (d) member checking, (e) peer debriefers, (f) an external auditor, (g) an extensive description of previous literature, and (h) an openness to disconfirming evidence (Creswell, 2007; Marshall & Rossman, 2006; Moustakas, 1994). The results supported that counseling students and their clinical supervisors identified the CCS as an appropriate and comprehensive supervisory tool; however, they acknowledged CCSrelated limitations including inconsistent application, problematic scoring system, pass/fail structure, and delivery by instructors and practicum supervisors who demonstrated minimal investment of time and effort. Implications for counselor educators include the importance of program and faculty members‘ engagement and consistency regarding the use of (a) evaluation and feedback tools, (b) remediation and gatekeeping processes, and (c) counseling student performance expectations. Replication of this study at diverse institutions is suggested. In addition, quantitative and qualitative investigations examining counseling student competencies and development (e.g., CCS) would contribute to the counselor education, counseling-student development, and counseling supervision literature. A discussion of the investigation‘s limitations is included

Solid rocket technology advancements for space tug and IUS applications

In order for the shuttle tug or interim upper stage (IUS) to capture all the missions in the current mission model for the tug and the IUS, an auxiliary or kick stage, using a solid propellant rocket motor, is required. Two solid propellant rocket motor technology concepts are described. One concept, called the 'advanced propulsion module' motor, is an 1800-kg, high-mass-fraction motor, which is single-burn and contains Class 2 propellent. The other concept, called the high energy upper stage restartable solid, is a two-burn (stop-restartable on command) motor which at present contains 1400 kg of Class 7 propellant. The details and status of the motor design and component and motor test results to date are presented, along with the schedule for future work

Numerical Solutions of Matrix Differential Models using Cubic Matrix Splines II

This paper presents the non-linear generalization of a previous work on matrix differential models. It focusses on the construction of approximate solutions of first-order matrix differential equations Y'(x)=f(x,Y(x)) using matrix-cubic splines. An estimation of the approximation error, an algorithm for its implementation and illustrative examples for Sylvester and Riccati matrix differential equations are given.Comment: 14 pages; submitted to Math. Comp. Modellin

The longitudinal interplay between negative and positive symptom trajectories in patients under antipsychotic treatment: a post hoc analysis of data from a randomized, 1-year pragmatic trial

BACKGROUND: Schizophrenia is a highly heterogeneous disorder with positive and negative symptoms being characteristic manifestations of the disease. While these two symptom domains are usually construed as distinct and orthogonal, little is known about the longitudinal pattern of negative symptoms and their linkage with the positive symptoms. This study assessed the temporal interplay between these two symptom domains and evaluated whether the improvements in these symptoms were inversely correlated or independent with each other. METHODS: This post hoc analysis used data from a multicenter, randomized, open-label, 1-year pragmatic trial of patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder who were treated with first- and second-generation antipsychotics in the usual clinical settings. Data from all treatment groups were pooled resulting in 399 patients with complete data on both the negative and positive subscale scores from the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Individual-based growth mixture modeling combined with interplay matrix was used to identify the latent trajectory patterns in terms of both the negative and positive symptoms. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated to examine the relationship between the changes of these two symptom domains within each combined trajectory pattern. RESULTS: We identified four distinct negative symptom trajectories and three positive symptom trajectories. The trajectory matrix formed 11 combined trajectory patterns, which evidenced that negative and positive symptom trajectories moved generally in parallel. Correlation coefficients for changes in negative and positive symptom subscale scores were positive and statistically significant (P < 0.05). Overall, the combined trajectories indicated three major distinct patterns: (1) dramatic and sustained early improvement in both negative and positive symptoms (n = 70, 18%), (2) mild and sustained improvement in negative and positive symptoms (n = 237, 59%), and (3) no improvement in either negative or positive symptoms (n = 82, 21%). CONCLUSIONS: This study of symptom trajectories over 1 year shows that changes in negative and positive symptoms were neither inversely nor independently related with each other. The positive association between these two symptom domains supports the notion that different symptom domains in schizophrenia may depend on each other through a unified upstream pathological disease process

On the Existence of Energy-Preserving Symplectic Integrators Based upon Gauss Collocation Formulae

We introduce a new family of symplectic integrators depending on a real parameter. When the paramer is zero, the corresponding method in the family becomes the classical Gauss collocation formula of order 2s, where s denotes the number of the internal stages. For any given non-null value of the parameter, the corresponding method remains symplectic and has order 2s-2: hence it may be interpreted as an order 2s-2 (symplectic) perturbation of the Gauss method. Under suitable assumptions, we show that the free parameter may be properly tuned, at each step of the integration procedure, so as to guarantee energy conservation in the numerical solution. The resulting symplectic, energy conserving method shares the same order 2s as the generating Gauss formula.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figures; Sections 1, 2, and 6 sliglthly modifie