883 research outputs found
Right-Handed New Physics Remains Strangely Beautiful
Current data on CP violation in B_d -> eta' K_S and B_d -> phi K_S, taken
literally, suggest new physics contributions in b -> s transitions. Despite a
claim to the contrary, we point out that right-handed operators with a single
weak phase can account for both deviations thanks to the two-fold ambiguity in
the extraction of the weak phase from the corresponding CP-asymmetry. This
observation is welcome since large mixing in the right-handed sector is favored
by many GUT models and frameworks which address the flavor puzzle. There are
also interesting correlations with the B_s system which provide a way to test
this scenario in the near future.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figures; published version: added 1 reference and 1
clarificatio
Radiative corrections to hard spectator scattering in decays
We present the calculation of the next-to-leading corrections to the tree
amplitudes which appear in the description of non-leptonic B-decays in the
factorization approach. These corrections, together with radiative corrections
to the jet functions, represent the full next-to-leading contributions to the
dominant hard spectator scattering term generated by operators in the
decay amplitudes. Using obtained analytical results we estimate
branchings fractions in the physical (or BBNS) factorization scheme. We have
also found that the imaginary part generated in the hard spectator scattering
term is rather large compared to the imaginary part of the vertex contribution.Comment: text is improved and typos are corrected, accepted for publication in
JHE
Health seeking behaviour and health services utilization trends in national health survey of Pakistan: what needs to be done?
In developing countries, health seeking behaviours and health care services utilization patterns have been studied and the determinants have been classified in physical, socio-economic, cultural and political contexts. This paper is based on a systematic review of peer-reviewed literature on the relationship of factors affecting health service utilization and the focus has been on Pakistan. For this purpose, National Health Survey (NHS) of Pakistan, conducted in 1990-1994, has been critically reviewed. The review reveals specific behaviours following gender differences, socio-cultural milieu, disease patterns, household economics etc. Thus it becomes imperative to design evidence based policies by developing the understanding of health behaviours and health care utilization trends and to give enough credence to all determinants in the background. Health sector reforms therefore necessitate developing mechanisms to deliver more need based and quality services, considering thoughtfully users\u27 concerns and perspectives. The advent of decentralization in Pakistan provides a unique opportunity for tackling multi-faceted issues by multisectoral approaches
Stalling HIV through social marketing: prospects in Pakistan
Over the last two decades HIV/AIDS has evolved from a series of interesting case-reports to a growing epidemic that threatens the entire world. It is feared to cause devastation among large pockets of populations and may roll back more than thirty years of public health achievements. This killer disease has been more amenable to behavioral change than by provision of curative services and attempts are being made to educate the public about this threat. Various techniques of promotion have been tried through out the world including television dramas/soaps, mass media and school curricula. Social marketing is an evolving strategy used to influence human behavior and choices. By using the principles of marketing and promoting behavior as a product, social marketers attempt to understand the dynamics of human behaviour and devise messages and products to change, modify, accept or reject unsafe behaviors or practices. Thus, social marketers provide an effective force to combat the spread of HIV and may serve to be invaluable allies in health promotion efforts. In a complex and diversified cultural milieu of Pakistan, social marketing can have a significant impact on health determinants and the conditions that will facilitate the adoption of health-oriented behaviors and practices. This paper gives an account of the elements needed for the success of a health promotion strategy adopted in a developing country and makes a case for social marketing to be adopted as the lead strategy for stalling HIV/AIDS in Pakistan
Health seeking behaviour and health service utilization in Pakistan: challenging the policy makers
There is a growing literature on health seeking behaviours and the determinants of health services utilization especially in the context of developing countries. However, very few focused studies have been seen in Pakistan in this regard. This paper presents an extensive literature review of the situation in developing countries and relates the similar factors responsible for shaping up of a health seeking behaviour and health service utilization in Pakistan. The factors determining the health behaviours may be seen in various contexts: physical, socio-economic, cultural and political. Therefore, the utilization of a health care system, public or private, formal or non-formal, may depend on socio-demographic factors, social structures, level of education, cultural beliefs and practices, gender discrimination, status of women, economic and political systems environmental conditions, and the disease pattern and health care system itself. Policy makers need to understand the drivers of health seeking behaviour of the population in an increasingly pluralistic health care system. Also a more concerted effort is required for designing behavioural health promotion campaigns through inter-sectoral collaboration focusing more on disadvantaged segments of the population
Constraining the Unitarity Triangle with B -> V gamma
We discuss the exclusive radiative decays , , and in QCD factorization within the Standard
Model. The analysis is based on the heavy-quark limit of QCD. Our results for
these decays are complete to next-to-leading order in QCD and to leading order
in the heavy-quark limit. Special emphasis is placed on constraining the
CKM-unitarity triangle from these observables. We propose a theoretically clean
method to determine CKM parameters from the ratio of the decay
spectrum to the branching fraction of . The method is based on
the cancellation of soft hadronic form factors in the large energy limit, which
occurs in a suitable region of phase space. The ratio of the
and branching fractions determines the side of the
standard unitarity triangle with reduced hadronic uncertainties. The recent
Babar bound on implies , with the
limiting uncertainty coming only from the SU(3) breaking form factor ratio
. This constraint is already getting competitive with the constraint from
- mixing. Phenomenological implications from
isospin-breaking effects are briefly discussed.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figure
Phenomenological Constraints on Extended Quark Sectors
We study the flavor physics in two extensions of the quark sector of the
Standard Model (SM): a four generation model and a model with a single
vector--like down--type quark (VDQ). In our analysis we take into account the
experimental constraints from tree--level charged current processes, rare Kaon
decay processes, rare B decay processes, the decay, ,
and mass differences, and the CP violating parameters \frac
\epsilon^\prime}{\epsilon}, and . All the constraints
are taken at two sigma. We find bounds on parameters which can be used to
represent the New Physics contributions in these models (, and in the
four--generation model, and , and in the VDQ model)
due to all the above constraints. In both models the predicted ranges for
(the CP asymmetry in semi-leptonic decays), ,
, and can be significantly higher than the predictions of the
SM, while the allowed ranges for and for are
consistent with the SM prediction.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figures (v3: added a reference, updated a reference,
added missing units
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