Rare meson decays into very light neutralinos

Results are presented for the two-body decays of mesons into light neutralinos and from the first complete calculation of the loop-induced decays of kaons to pions plus light neutralinos and of B mesons to kaons plus light neutralinos. The branching ratios are shown to be strongly suppressed within the MSSM with minimal flavor violation, and no bounds on the neutralino mass can be inferred from experimental data, i.e. a massless neutralino is allowed.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, submitted for the proceedings of the SUSY'09 conference, reporting work published in Phys.Rev.D80:035018,2009 (arXiv: 0905.2051 [hep-ph]

Pushing Elephants Uphill - Teaching Ethics. It Works!

Recent releases from the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) highlight the importance of ethics education. Academic institutions employ varying methods of teaching ethics and place varying levels of emphasis on ethics teaching during a business/accounting degree. This paper attempts to evaluate whether teaching ethics to final year accountancy students is beneficial. At the commencement of a semester one class of 155 students were given five ethical scenarios on which to make an ethical decision. During the semester they were subject to three different methods of teaching ethics, a traditional lecture/tutorial; use of a computer based interactive case study to work through an ethical dilemma; and, forming groups to complete a group written assignment solving another ethical dilemma. The subjects were subsequently given the original five ethical scenarios and asked to complete them again. In all five instances the mean responses were more ethical after the instruction methodologies (4 significantly so). When asked to evaluate the methodologies the subjects considered all three to have a positive effect on their ethical thinking and the combined effect was more positive than any individual method. Hence it appears teaching ethics can impact positively, the challenge is to find the optimal method(s)

Single B Production through R-Parity Violation

Supersymmetry without R-parity predicts tree level quark flavor violation. We present a potential signal of single bottom production at electron-positron colliders with energies in the range 6 to 20 GeV. Taking into account rare decay limits it should be detectable with the current BaBar and Belle data samples.Comment: 7 Pages, 6 figure

PHYSICIAN ASSISTED DYING: DEFINING THE ETHICALLY AMBIGUOUS

In states where Physician Assisted Dying (PAD) is legal, physicians occasionally receive requests for this form of end-of-life care. Here, I describe the ethically ambiguous sphere and why PAD falls into it. I argue that, given the ethical ambiguity of PAD, physicians should consider patient autonomy as the highest value in the four principles approach and act as informers and educators

Public-private tragedy: Stigma, victimisation and community identity

On 13 March 1996, Thomas Hamilton shot and killed 16 children and 1 teacher at Dunblane Primary School, Scotland. In the weeks and months that followed, intense and extensive media coverage focused on the victims, the community, the aftermath and the subsequent intense and emotional outpouring of grief for Dunblane that seemed to come from around the world. The impact of crime on indirect victims has generated a wealth of research; however, surprisingly little is known regarding the impact of ‘high-profile’ crime on a community living in a location that has become synonymous with the crime that took place there. Drawing on a unique set of interviews with members of the Dunblane community, this article explores the victimizing experiences and processes by which some build their sense of identity in the wake of such a high-profile crime. Empirical findings highlight the ways in which private tragedy becomes public property and how some community members are stigmatized by, manage (and are sometimes resilient to) the impact of wider societal reaction. The aftermath of events at Dunblane encouraged some to identify as victims, whilst others were more resilient to the stigmatizing effects of the crime that labelled them and their community with a ‘spoiled victim identity’

Empirical Evidence of Group Impact in the Context of Ethical Decision Making

Recent accounting scandals involving the collapse of large corporate firms have brought into question the adequacy of ethics education within accounting programs. This paper investigates the ethical decisions of accountancy students and in particular analyses the effect of group (as opposed to individual) decision-making on ethical decisions. Two classes of final year accountancy students were presented with five (5) ethical vignettes which they completed as individuals. The two classes were subsequently divided into groups of 3 participants and each group completed the same survey instrument. Group responses yielded a significantly more ethical attitude in three of the five scenarios, the other two displaying no significant difference. Evidence also exists however of groups restraining potential whistleblowing, suggesting group work can have both a positive and negative effect. The critical implication of this finding is in relation to how accounting educators attempt to convey the ethical message. Many accounting programs place emphasis on group work. Group work may enhance students’ abilities to work as a team and may be an effective means of producing the optimal decision in complex areas such as ethical decision-making but may on occasion retard highly ethical individual

A theoretical and experimental investigation into multilayered piezoelectric composite transducers

The behaviour of a number of 3-1 connectivity piezoelectric composite plate transducers is presented. The fundamental thickness mode resonance of such devices is found to be contaminated by lateral resonant activity; this is evidenced in the measured and predicted electrical impedance profile and the surface displacement data at the,fundamental thickness mode. Measurements taken on the 3-1 devices infer that they are not acting as true composites. In addition to this the finite element technique is applied to a number of stacked 3-1 and 1-3 connectivity devices to predict the mechanical Q-factor, and hence bandwidth, as a function of polymer filler properties

Change in the Rate and Pattern of Religious Intermarriage in the Republic of Ireland

Earlier attempts to estimate the rate and to establish the patterns of religious intermarriage in the Republic of Ireland have been limited by a lack of data. This paper presents new findings on intermarriage using previously unavailable Census of Population and survey data. In addition, it is argued that post-Vatican II changes in Roman Catholic Church teaching on intermarriage have had an observable impact on intermarriages with respect to the types of wedding ceremony and conversions.