The Effects of Regular Yoga Practice on Psychophysiological Measures in College Students

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that 12 weeks of a regular yoga practice (150 minutes/week) would improve measures of cardiovascular and psychological health in college students. METHODS: Twenty-two college students (211.2 yrs; 21 female) participated in this study. Height, weight, waist/hip circumference, resting blood pressure and heart rate, fasting blood glucose and cholesterol, and psychological health (STAI form Y-1 and Y-2) were assessed prior to the end of the third week of the semester (PRE). Subjects participated in their Yoga I class throughout Fall semester. After the 12th week of class, participants reported to the laboratory for follow up testing (POST). RESULTS: A significant improvement in trait anxiety (Y-2), assessing participants’ disposition to develop anxiety as a part of their personality, was observed after 12 weeks of a regular yoga program (PRE: 392 vs POST: 341.8; p=0.002). There was no change in state anxiety (Y-1), assessing participants’ levels of anxiety “in the moment” (PRE: 341.7 vs POST: 331.9; p=0.96). There was also no change in weight, waist/hip circumference, resting heart rate, resting blood pressure, fasting blood glucose, or cholesterol measurements from PRE to POST testing. CONCLUSION: 12 weeks of regular attendance to a beginner yoga program improved measures of (personality) trait-anxiety in college students

Combining exclusive semi-leptonic and hadronic B decays to measure |V_ub|

The Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix element |V_ub| can be extracted from the rate for the semi-leptonic decay B -> pi + l + antineutrino_l, with little theoretical uncertainty, provided the hadronic form factor for the B -> pi transition can be measured from some other B decay. In here, we suggest using the decay B -> pi J\psi. This is a color suppressed decay, and it cannot be properly described within the usual factorization approximation; we use instead a simple and very general phenomenological model for the b d J\psi vertex. In order to relate the hadronic form factors in the B -> pi J\psi and B -> pi + l + antineutrino_l decays, we use form factor relations that hold for heavy-to-light transitions at large recoil.Comment: Latex, 7 pages, no figure

The Cherenkov Correlated Timing Detector: Beam Test Results from Quartz and Acrylic Bars

Several prototypes of a Cherenkov Correlated Timing (CCT) Detector have been tested at the KEK-PS test beam line. We describe the results for Cherenkov light yields and timing characteristics from quartz and acrylic bar prototypes. A Cherenkov angle resolution is found to be 15 mrad at a propagation distance of 100 cm with a 2 cm thick quartz bar prototype.Comment: Presented at the RICH95 workshop, Uppsala, Sweden, June/95. H. Kichimi corresponding author. 5 pages with 9 figures. LaTex source files and postscript figures compressed and uuencoded belo

Distinct p53 acetylation cassettes differentially influence gene-expression patterns and cell fate

The activity of the p53 gene product is regulated by a plethora of posttranslational modifications. An open question is whether such posttranslational changes act redundantly or dependently upon one another. We show that a functional interference between specific acetylated and phosphorylated residues of p53 influences cell fate. Acetylation of lysine 320 (K320) prevents phosphorylation of crucial serines in the NH2-terminal region of p53; only allows activation of genes containing high-affinity p53 binding sites, such as p21/WAF; and promotes cell survival after DNA damage. In contrast, acetylation of K373 leads to hyperphosphorylation of p53 NH2-terminal residues and enhances the interaction with promoters for which p53 possesses low DNA binding affinity, such as those contained in proapoptotic genes, leading to cell death. Further, acetylation of each of these two lysine clusters differentially regulates the interaction of p53 with coactivators and corepressors and produces distinct gene-expression profiles. By analogy with the “histone code” hypothesis, we propose that the multiple biological activities of p53 are orchestrated and deciphered by different “p53 cassettes,” each containing combination patterns of posttranslational modifications and protein–protein interactions

Measurement of VubV_{ub}

The most recent experimental measurements of the weak mixing angle $V_{ub}$ are summarized. Inclusive and exclusive analysis techniques are described, including a new exclusive analysis by the CLEO collaboration measuring the $B\rightarrow \pi\ell\nu$ branching ratio. Future prospects are discussed.Comment: 7 pages with four postscript figures. LaTeX using revtex. Presented at the 6'th International Symposium on Heavy Flavor Physics, June 1995, Pisa Ital

Studies of the decays D^0 \rightarrow K_S^0K^-\pi^+ and D^0 \rightarrow K_S^0K^+\pi^-

The first measurements of the coherence factor R_{K_S^0K\pi} and the average strong--phase difference \delta^{K_S^0K\pi} in D^0 \to K_S^0 K^\mp\pi^\pm decays are reported. These parameters can be used to improve the determination of the unitary triangle angle \gamma\ in B^- \rightarrow $\widetilde{D}K^-$ decays, where $\widetilde{D}$ is either a D^0 or a D^0-bar meson decaying to the same final state, and also in studies of charm mixing. The measurements of the coherence factor and strong-phase difference are made using quantum-correlated, fully-reconstructed D^0D^0-bar pairs produced in e^+e^- collisions at the \psi(3770) resonance. The measured values are R_{K_S^0K\pi} = 0.70 \pm 0.08 and \delta^{K_S^0K\pi} = (0.1 \pm 15.7)$^\circ$ for an unrestricted kinematic region and R_{K*K} = 0.94 \pm 0.12 and \delta^{K*K} = (-16.6 \pm 18.4)$^\circ$ for a region where the combined K_S^0 \pi^\pm invariant mass is within 100 MeV/c^2 of the K^{*}(892)^\pm mass. These results indicate a significant level of coherence in the decay. In addition, isobar models are presented for the two decays, which show the dominance of the K^*(892)^\pm resonance. The branching ratio {B}(D^0 \rightarrow K_S^0K^+\pi^-)/{B}(D^0 \rightarrow K_S^0K^-\pi^+) is determined to be 0.592 \pm 0.044 (stat.) \pm 0.018 (syst.), which is more precise than previous measurements.Comment: 38 pages. Version 3 updated to include the erratum information. Errors corrected in Eqs (25), (26), 28). Fit results updated accordingly, and external inputs updated to latest best known values. Typo corrected in Eq(3)- no other consequence

Updated Measurement of the Strong Phase in D0 --> K+pi- Decay Using Quantum Correlations in e+e- --> D0 D0bar at CLEO

We analyze a sample of 3 million quantum-correlated D0 D0bar pairs from 818 pb^-1 of e+e- collision data collected with the CLEO-c detector at E_cm = 3.77 GeV, to give an updated measurement of \cos\delta and a first determination of \sin\delta, where \delta is the relative strong phase between doubly Cabibbo-suppressed D0 --> K+pi- and Cabibbo-favored D0bar --> K+pi- decay amplitudes. With no inputs from other experiments, we find \cos\delta = 0.81 +0.22+0.07 -0.18-0.05, \sin\delta = -0.01 +- 0.41 +- 0.04, and |\delta| = 10 +28+13 -53-0 degrees. By including external measurements of mixing parameters, we find alternative values of \cos\delta = 1.15 +0.19+0.00 -0.17-0.08, \sin\delta = 0.56 +0.32+0.21 -0.31-0.20, and \delta = (18 +11-17) degrees. Our results can be used to improve the world average uncertainty on the mixing parameter y by approximately 10%.Comment: Minor revisions, version accepted by PR