Measurement of the B0-anti-B0-Oscillation Frequency with Inclusive Dilepton Events

The $B^0$-$\bar B^0$ oscillation frequency has been measured with a sample of 23 million \B\bar B pairs collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric B Factory at SLAC. In this sample, we select events in which both B mesons decay semileptonically and use the charge of the leptons to identify the flavor of each B meson. A simultaneous fit to the decay time difference distributions for opposite- and same-sign dilepton events gives $\Delta m_d = 0.493 \pm 0.012{(stat)}\pm 0.009{(syst)}$ ps$^{-1}$.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, submitted to Physical Review Letter

Differences in attitudes towards reading and other school‐related activities among boys and girls

Background Research illustrates that girls indicate more positive attitudes towards reading than boys. Gender differences are often presented in simplistic terms with ‘all boys’ represented as one homogenous group. Methods This study developed a survey to identify similarities and differences in boys' and girls' attitudes towards a range of school‐related activities, including reading, and among boys themselves. The survey of 296 (f = 137, m = 159) 8‐ to 10‐year‐olds attending elementary schools in Australia was designed to identify the way attitudes towards school‐related activities, including reading, may be interrelated. Cluster analysis identified nuances associated with socio‐economic background, reading frequency and reading outcomes. Results Results indicated that girls and boys were represented similarly in the cluster groups that indicated positive enjoyment for books. However, there were significantly more girls than boys who enjoyed the social aspects of reading. A main finding was that many boys indicated they personally enjoyed reading, in contrast to previous studies, however, they did not necessarily enjoy the social aspects of reading with this finding particularly evident for boys from lower socio‐economic backgrounds. Attitude towards reading was interrelated with the social aspects of reading and other school‐related activities such as competition sports. Conclusions Outcomes from the survey cluster groupings made visible the multiplicity of differences among boys' attitudes towards reading that are often left out of simplistic representations in educational policies, teaching literature and the popular media. Findings suggest the need to open up educational discussions about the ways that reading attitudes may be embedded within, and related to, socio‐economic location and other school‐based experiences

European trends in epilepsy surgery.

Resective surgery is effective in treating drug-resistant focal epilepsy, but it remains unclear whether improved diagnostics influence postsurgical outcomes. Here, we compared practice and outcomes over 2 periods 15 years apart. Sixteen European centers retrospectively identified 2 cohorts of children and adults who underwent epilepsy surgery in the period of 1997 to 1998 (n = 562) or 2012 to 2013 (n = 736). Data collected included patient (sex, age) and disease (duration, localization and diagnosis) characteristics, type of surgery, histopathology, Engel postsurgical outcome, and complications, as well as imaging and electrophysiologic tests performed for each case. Postsurgical outcome predictors were included in a multivariate logistic regression to assess the strength of date of surgery as an independent predictor. Over time, the number of operated cases per center increased from a median of 31 to 50 per 2-year period (p = 0.02). Mean disease duration at surgery decreased by 5.2 years (p < 0.001). Overall seizure freedom (Engel class 1) increased from 66.7% to 70.9% (adjusted p = 0.04), despite an increase in complex surgeries (extratemporal and/or MRI negative). Surgeries performed during the later period were 1.34 times (adjusted odds ratio; 95% confidence interval 1.02-1.77) more likely to yield a favorable outcome (Engel class I) than earlier surgeries, and improvement was more marked in extratemporal and MRI-negative temporal epilepsy. The rate of persistent neurologic complications remained stable (4.6%-5.3%, p = 0.7). Improvements in European epilepsy surgery over time are modest but significant, including higher surgical volume, shorter disease duration, and improved postsurgical seizure outcomes. Early referral for evaluation is required to continue on this encouraging trend

The BaBar detector: Upgrades, operation and performance

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