FIRMS, INCENTIVES, AND THE SUPPLY OF FOOD SAFETY: A FORMAL MODEL OF GOVERNMENT ENFORCEMENT

Recent instances of significant food safety breeches in both meat and biotechnology challenge traditional safety efforts. A formal model utilizing agency theory is used to explore the power relationships between the regulator and the firm. Fundamental issues effecting firms' supply of safety are demonstrated and alternative corrective mechanisms are discussed.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

FOOD SAFETY IN THE MEAT INDUSTRY: A REGULATORY QUAGMIRE

Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Livestock Production/Industries,

Signatures for doubly-charged Higgsinos at colliders

Several supersymmetric models with extended gauge structures predict light doubly-charged Higgsinos. Their distinctive signature at the large hadron collider is highlighted by studying their production and decay characteristics.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures, Latex. Submitted for SUSY 2008 proceeding

CP Asymmetry in Charged Higgs Decays to Chargino-Neutralino

We analyze the charge-parity (CP) asymmetry in the charged Higgs boson decays to chargino-neutralino pairs, H^- -> chargino_i + neutralino_j. We show first that these modes have a large branching ratio for m_H^- > 600 GeV. We use Cutkosky rules to obtain the analytical formulas needed for the evaluation of the asymmetry under consideration. We then calculate the CP asymmetry in chargino-neutralino decays by including supersymmetric mass bounds, as well as constraints from b -> s gamma, (g-2)_mu, Delta\rho and electric dipole moments. Finally, we discuss observability of the asymmetry at the LHC by calculating the number of required charged Higgs events to observe the asymmetry for each decay channel. We show that the inclusion of constraints considerably reduces the projected CP asymmetry, and that the optimal channel for observing the asymmetry is H^- -> chargino_1 + neutralino_2.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figures, one tabl

Quantal description of nucleon exchange in stochastic mean-field approach

Nucleon exchange mechanism is investigated in central collisions of symmetric heavy-ions in the basis of the stochastic mean-field approach. Quantal diffusion coefficients for nucleon exchange are calculated by including non-Markovian effects and shell structure. Variances of fragment mass distributions are calculated in central collisions of ${}^{40}$Ca + ${}^{40}$Ca, ${}^{48}$Ca + ${}^{48}$Ca and ${}^{56}$Ni + ${}^{56}$Ni systems

Rare Decay of the Top t -> cgg in the Standard Model

We calculate the one-loop flavor changing neutral current top quark decay t -> cgg in the Standard Model. We demonstrate that the rate for t -> cgg exceeds the rate for a single gluon emission t -> cg by about two orders of magnitude, while the rate for t -> cq barq (q=u) is slightly smaller than for t -> cg.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figures and 2 tables. Typo in Eq.2.1 corrected, text slightly modified, references added. Version to appear in Phys.Rev.

Effect of Roughness in the Development of an Adverse Pressure Gradient Turbulent Boundary Layer

An experimental study was conducted to examine the effect of surface roughness on the development of an adverse pressure gradient turbulent boundary layer. Hot-wire anemometry measurements were carried out using single and x-wire probes in the APG region of an open return type wind tunnel test section. The same experimental conditions (i.e. T∞, Uref, and Cp) are maintained between the smooth, k+= 0, and rough, k+= 41-60, cases. Results indicate that the mean velocity deficit and Reynolds stress profiles tend to increase with surface roughness. These effects of roughness were successfully removed from the outer mean velocity profiles using the Zagarola and Smits scaling, U∞δ*/δ. Using the integrated boundary layer equation, the skin friction was computed and showed a 58% increase due to the surface roughness effect. The effects of pressure gradient were found to be significant, of which, different profile trends with similar magnitudes were found for outer Reynolds normal stresses scaled with U∞

The Casimir Force in a Lorentz Violating Theory

We study the effects of the minimal extension of the standard model including Lorentz violation on the Casimir force between two parallel conducting plates in vacuum. We provide explicit solutions for the electromagnetic field using scalar field analogy, for both the cases in which the Lorentz violating terms come from the CPT-even or CPT-odd terms. We also calculate the effects of the Lorentz violating terms for a fermion field between two parallel conducting plates and analyze the modifications of the Casimir force due to the modifications of the Dirac equation. In all cases under consideration, the standard formulas for the Casimir force are modified by either multiplicative or additive correction factors, the latter case exhibiting different dependence on the distance between the plates.Comment: 20 pages, no figures, references added, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Systems Analysis Implicates WAVE2 Complex in the Pathogenesis of Developmental Left-Sided Obstructive Heart Defects.

Genetic variants are the primary driver of congenital heart disease (CHD) pathogenesis. However, our ability to identify causative variants is limited. To identify causal CHD genes that are associated with specific molecular functions, the study used prior knowledge to filter de novo variants from 2,881 probands with sporadic severe CHD. This approach enabled the authors to identify an association between left ventricular outflow tract obstruction lesions and genes associated with the WAVE2 complex and regulation of small GTPase-mediated signal transduction. Using CRISPR zebrafish knockdowns, the study confirmed that WAVE2 complex proteins brk1, nckap1, and wasf2 and the regulators of small GTPase signaling cul3a and racgap1 are critical to cardiac development

The Integrability of Pauli System in Lorentz Violating Background

We systematically analyze the integrability of a Pauli system in Lorentz violating background at the non-relativistic level both in two- and three-dimensions. We consider the non-relativistic limit of the Dirac equation from the QED sector of the so-called Standard Model Extension by keeping only two types of background couplings, the vector a_mu and the axial vector b_mu. We show that the spin-orbit interaction comes as a higher order correction in the non-relativistic limit of the Dirac equation. Such an interaction allows the inclusion of spin degree non-trivially, and if Lorentz violating terms are allowed, they might be comparable under special circumstances. By including all possible first-order derivative terms and considering the cases a\ne 0, b\ne 0, and b_0\ne 0 one at a time, we determine the possible forms of constants of motion operator, and discuss the existence or continuity of integrability due to Lorentz violating background.Comment: 19 page