Measuring Strong and Weak Phases in Time-Independent B Decays

Flavor SU(3) symmetry implies certain relations among $B$-decay amplitudes to $\pi\pi$, $\pi K$ and $K {\bar K}$ final states, when annihilation-like diagrams are neglected. Using three triangle relations, we show how to measure the weak CKM phases $\alpha$ and $\gamma$ using time-independent rate measurements only. In addition, one obtains all the strong final-state phases and the magnitudes of individual terms describing tree (spectator), color-suppressed and penguin diagrams. Many independent measurements of these quantities can be made with this method, which helps to eliminate possible discrete ambiguities and to estimate the size of SU(3)-breaking effects.Comment: 2 figures available from the authors upon request, 12 pages,UdeM-LPN-TH-94-19

Academic Primer Series: Five Key Papers for Consulting Clinician Educators.

INTRODUCTION: Clinician educators are often asked to perform consultations for colleagues. Invitations to consult and advise others on local problems can help foster great collaborations between centers, and allows for an exchange of ideas between programs. In this article, the authors identify and summarize several key papers to assist emerging clinician educators with the consultation process. METHODS: A consensus-building process was used to generate a list of key papers that describe the importance and significance of educational consulting, informed by social media sources. A three-round voting methodology, akin to a Delphi study, determined the most impactful papers from the larger list. RESULTS: Summaries of the five most highly rated papers on education consultation are presented in this paper. These papers were determined by a mixed group of junior and senior faculty members, who have summarized these papers with respect to their relevance for their peer groups. CONCLUSION: Five key papers on the educational consultation process are presented in this paper. These papers offer background and perspective to help junior faculty gain a grasp of consultation processes

Vermont Price Variation Analysis

This analysis documents price variations across the state and suggests a process and methodology that the Vermont Green Mountain Care Board could use to set standard rates. The report determined that inpatient prices among Vermont\u27s 14 hospitals and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire vary from 71 to 130 percent of the state average. The analysis identified a number of factors that explain some variation in professional prices among providers and also showed there is no consistency in the share of variation explained by each factor across health services

Ariel - Volume 2 Number 1

Editors Delvun C. Case, Jr. Paul M. Fernhoff Associate Editors Donald Bergman Daniel B. Gould Richard Bonanno Ronald Hoffman Lay-Out Editor Carol Dolinskas Sports Editor James Nocon Business Manager Nick Grego Contributing Editors Michael J. Blecker Stephen P. Flynn Lin Sey Edwards Jack Guralnik W. Cherry Ligh

Improving Bounds on Penguin Pollution in B -> pi pi

In the presence of penguin contributions, the indirect CP asymmetry in B0(t) -> pi+ pi- measures sin(2\alpha + 2\theta), where 2\theta parametrizes the size of the penguin ``pollution.'' We derive a new upper bound on |2\theta|, requiring the measurement of of BR(B+ -> pi+ pi0) and an upper bound on B00 \equiv {1\over 2} [BR(B0 -> pi0 pi0) + BR(B0bar -> pi0 pi0)]. The new bound is stronger than those previously discussed in the literature. We also present a lower bound on B00. Current data may suggest that it is not very small, in which case \theta can be determined using a complete isospin analysis.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX, 3 figures. Abstract modified slightly. Submitted to Physics Letter

Tonic Inhibition Enhances Fidelity of Sensory Information Transmission in the Cerebellar Cortex

Tonic inhibition is a key regulator of neuronal excitability and network function in the brain, but its role in sensory information processing remains poorly understood. The cerebellum is a favorable model system for addressing this question as granule cells, which form the input layer of the cerebellar cortex, permit high-resolution patch-clamp recordings in vivo, and are the only neurons in the cerebellar cortex that express the α6δ-containing GABA(A) receptors mediating tonic inhibition. We investigated how tonic inhibition regulates sensory information transmission in the rat cerebellum by using a combination of intracellular recordings from granule cells and molecular layer interneurons in vivo, selective pharmacology, and in vitro dynamic clamp experiments. We show that blocking tonic inhibition significantly increases the spontaneous firing rate of granule cells while only moderately increasing sensory-evoked spike output. In contrast, enhancing tonic inhibition reduces the spike probability in response to sensory stimulation with minimal effect on the spontaneous spike rate. Both manipulations result in a reduction in the signal-to-noise ratio of sensory transmission in granule cells and of parallel fiber synaptic input to downstream molecular layer interneurons. These results suggest that under basal conditions the level of tonic inhibition in vivo enhances the fidelity of sensory information transmission through the input layer of the cerebellar cortex