The effect of macrofaunal disturbance on Cerastoderma edule post-larvae

Populations of the Common European cockle (Cerastoderma edule) often have highly patchy distributions and variable recruitment success. One of the proposed reasons is that high densities of filter feeders and/or bioturbators are thought to reduce the success of larval settlement and post-settlement survival, but the direct causal processes driving these observations are not clearly identified and validated. Through combined field and laboratory experiments, we test the hypothesis that macrofauna cause decreases in post-larval density through feeding and movement activities. The effect of excluding the bioturbating lugworm Arenicola marina and filter-feeding adult cockles on post-larval cockle densities was estimated in separate field experiments at two locations from the time of initial larval settlement in May 2012 to late summer August 2012. Lugworm exclusion led to a significant increase in cockle post-larval densities whereas the opposite was true for adult cockles, where exclusion led to a reduction in C. edule post-larval density. Although clear effects were observed in the field, experiments conducted in the laboratory failed to detect changes in mortality or byssus drifting of post-larvae as a consequence of macrofaunal activity. This study demonstrates that the presence of macrofauna can have both positive and negative effects on post-settlement density of C. edule post-larvae. Thus the density, distribution and identity of macrofauna have significant effects on the density and spatial distribution of C. edule post-larvae during the post-settlement period. These observations have implications for conservation and fishery management of this species

Aspects of Nucleon Compton Scattering

We consider the spin-averaged nucleon forward Compton scattering amplitude in heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory including all terms to order ${\cal O} (q^4)$. The chiral prediction for the spin-averaged forward Compton scattering amplitude is in good agreement with the data for photon energies $\omega \le 110$ MeV. We also evaluate the nucleon electric and magnetic Compton polarizabilities to this order and discuss the uncertainties of the various counter terms entering the chiral expansion of these quantities.Comment: 17 pp, TeX, 7 figures available from the authors, preprint CRN-93/5

Isgur-Wise Functions from the Mit Bag Model

The Isgur-Wise functions for the ground state to ground state semileptonic decays involving $b \rightarrow c$ transitions are calculated from the (modified) MIT bag model. It is checked that the results for the decays $\overline{B} \rightarrow D l \overline\nu$ and $\overline{B} \rightarrow D^* l \overline\nu$ agree well with experiment. Predictions for the decays $\Lambda_b \rightarrow \Lambda_c l \overline\nu$, $\overline{B}_s \rightarrow D_s l \overline\nu$ and $\overline{B}_s \rightarrow D^*_s l \overline\nu$ are given and discussed.Comment: 12 pages (3 figures available upon request), LaTeX, TPJU - 9/9

Chiral Behaviour of the Rho Meson in Lattice QCD

In order to guide the extrapolation of the mass of the rho meson calculated in lattice QCD with dynamical fermions, we study the contributions to its self-energy which vary most rapidly as the quark mass approaches zero; from the processes $\rho \to \omega \pi$ and $\rho \to \pi \pi$. It turns out that in analysing the most recent data from CP-PACS it is crucial to estimate the self-energy from $\rho \to \pi \pi$ using the same grid of discrete momenta as included implicitly in the lattice simulation. The correction associated with the continuum, infinite volume limit can then be found by calculating the corresponding integrals exactly. Our error analysis suggests that a factor of 10 improvement in statistics at the lowest quark mass for which data currently exists would allow one to determine the physical rho mass to within 5%. Finally, our analysis throws new light on a long-standing problem with the J-parameter.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures. Full analytic forms of the self-energies are included and a correction in the omega-pi self-energ

The Two-Nucleon Potential from Chiral Lagrangians

Chiral symmetry is consistently implemented in the two-nucleon problem at low-energy through the general effective chiral lagrangian. The potential is obtained up to a certain order in chiral perturbation theory both in momentum and coordinate space. Results of a fit to scattering phase shifts and bound state data are presented, where satisfactory agreement is found for laboratory energies up to about 100 Mev.Comment: Postscript file; figures available by reques

Nonfactorizable contributions in B decays to charmonium: the case of B−→K−hcB^- \to K^- h_c

Nonleptonic $B$ to charmonium decays generally show deviations from the factorization predictions. For example, the mode $B^- \to K^- \chi_{c0}$ has been experimentally observed with sizeable branching fraction while its factorized amplitude vanishes. We investigate the role of rescattering effects mediated by intermediate charmed meson production in this class of decay modes, and consider $B^- \to K^- h_c$ with $h_c$ the $J^{PC}=1^{+-}$ $\bar c c$ meson. Using an effective lagrangian describing interactions of pairs of heavy-light $Q{\bar q}$ mesons with a quarkonium state, we relate this mode to the analogous mode with $\chi_{c0}$ in the final state. We find ${\cal B}(B^- \to K^- h_c)$ large enough to be measured at the $B$ factories, so that this decay mode could be used to study the poorly known $h_c$.Comment: RevTex, 16 pages, 2 eps figure

A Phenomenological Analysis of Heavy Hadron Lifetimes

A phenomenological analysis of lifetimes of bottom and charmed hadrons within the framework of the heavy quark expansion is performed. The baryon matrix element is evaluated using the bag model and the nonrelativistic quark model. We find that bottom-baryon lifetimes follow the pattern $\tau(\Omega_b)\simeq\tau(\Xi_b^-)>\tau(\Lambda_b)\simeq\tau(\Xi_b^0)$. However, neither the lifetime ratio $\tau(\Lambda_b)/\tau( B_d)$ nor the absolute decay rates of the $\Lambda_b$ baryon and $B$ mesons can be explained. One way of solving both difficulties is to allow the presence of linear $1/m_Q$ corrections by scaling the inclusive nonleptonic width with the fifth power of the hadron mass $m_{H_Q}$ rather than the heavy quark mass $m_Q$. The hierarchy of bottom baryon lifetimes is dramatically modified to $\tau(\Lambda_b)>\tau(\Xi_b^-)>\tau(\Xi_b^0)>\tau( \Omega_b)$: The longest-lived $\Omega_b$ among bottom baryons in the OPE prescription now becomes shortest-lived. The replacement of $m_Q$ by $m_{H_Q}$ in nonleptonic widths is natural and justified in the PQCD-based factorization approach formulated in terms of hadron-level kinematics. For inclusive charmed baryon decays, we argue that since the heavy quark expansion does not converge, local duality cannot be tested in this case. We show that while the ansatz of substituting the heavy quark mass by the hadron mass provides a much better description of the charmed-baryon lifetime {\it ratios}, it appears unnatural and unpredictive for describing the {\it absolute} inclusive decay rates of charmed baryons, contrary to the bottom case.Comment: 35 pages, to appear in Phys. Rev. The CDF result on the lifetime ratio of Lambda_b and B_d is discusse

Predictive powers of chiral perturbation theory in Compton scattering off protons

We study low-energy nucleon Compton scattering in the framework of baryon chiral perturbation theory (B$\chi$PT) with pion, nucleon, and $\Delta$(1232) degrees of freedom, up to and including the next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO). We include the effects of order $p^2$, $p^3$ and $p^4/\varDelta$, with $\varDelta\approx 300$ MeV the $\Delta$-resonance excitation energy. These are all "predictive" powers in the sense that no unknown low-energy constants enter until at least one order higher (i.e, $p^4$). Estimating the theoretical uncertainty on the basis of natural size for $p^4$ effects, we find that uncertainty of such a NNLO result is comparable to the uncertainty of the present experimental data for low-energy Compton scattering. We find an excellent agreement with the experimental cross section data up to at least the pion-production threshold. Nevertheless, for the proton's magnetic polarizability we obtain a value of $(4.0\pm 0.7)\times 10^{-4}$ fm$^3$, in significant disagreement with the current PDG value. Unlike the previous $\chi$PT studies of Compton scattering, we perform the calculations in a manifestly Lorentz-covariant fashion, refraining from the heavy-baryon (HB) expansion. The difference between the lowest order HB$\chi$PT and B$\chi$PT results for polarizabilities is found to be appreciable. We discuss the chiral behavior of proton polarizabilities in both HB$\chi$PT and B$\chi$PT with the hope to confront it with lattice QCD calculations in a near future. In studying some of the polarized observables, we identify the regime where their naive low-energy expansion begins to break down, thus addressing the forthcoming precision measurements at the HIGS facility.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figures, RevTeX4, revised version published in EPJ

Cold atmospheric plasma-activated composite hydrogel for an enhanced and on-demand delivery of antimicrobials

We present the concept of a versatile drug-loaded composite hydrogel that can be activated using an argon-based cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) jet to deliver both a drug and CAP-generated molecules, concomitantly, in a tissue target. To demonstrate this concept, we utilized the antibiotic gentamicin that is encapsulated in sodium polyacrylate (PAA) particles, which are dispersed within a poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) hydrogel matrix. The final product is a gentamicin-PAA-PVA composite hydrogel suitable for an on-demand triggered release using CAP. We show that by activating using CAP, we can effectively release gentamicin from the hydrogel and also eradicate the bacteria effectively, both in the planktonic state and within a biofilm. Besides gentamicin, we also successfully demonstrate the applicability of the CAP-activated composite hydrogel loaded with other antimicrobial agents such as cetrimide and silver. This concept of a composite hydrogel is potentially adaptable to a range of therapeutics (such as antimicrobials, anticancer agents, and nanoparticles) and activatable using any dielectric barrier discharge CAP device

Quark contributions to baryon magnetic moments in full, quenched, and partially quenched QCD

The chiral nonanalytic behavior of quark-flavor contributions to the magnetic moments of octet baryons is determined in full, quenched and partially quenched QCD, using an intuitive and efficient diagrammatic formulation of quenched and partially quenched chiral perturbation theory. The technique provides a separation of quark-sector magnetic-moment contributions into direct sea-quark loop, valence-quark, indirect sea-quark loop and quenched valence contributions, the latter being the conventional view of the quenched approximation. Both meson and baryon mass violations of SU(3)-flavor symmetry are accounted for. Following a comprehensive examination of the individual quark-sector contributions to octet baryon magnetic moments, numerous opportunities to observe and test the underlying structure of baryons and the nature of chiral nonanalytic behavior in QCD and its quenched variants are discussed. In particular, the valence u-quark contribution to the proton magnetic moment provides the optimal opportunity to directly view nonanalytic behavior associated with the meson cloud of full QCD and the quenched meson cloud of quenched QCD. The u quark in Σ+ provides the best opportunity to display the artifacts of the quenched approximation.Derek B. Leinwebe