Quark Condensates: Flavour Dependence

We determine the q-bar q condensate for quark masses from zero up to that of the strange quark within a phenomenologically successful modelling of continuum QCD by solving the quark Schwinger-Dyson equation. The existence of multiple solutions to this equation is the key to an accurate and reliable extraction of this condensate using the operator product expansion. We explain why alternative definitions fail to give the physical condensate.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, uses appolb.cls, LaTeX. Talk presented by R. Williams at the EURIDICE Final Meeting, August 24-27th, 2006, Kazimierz, Polan

The effects of bilingualism on speakers who stutter during late childhood

Objectives: To examine stuttering by children speaking an alternative language exclusively (LE) or with English (BIL) and to study onset of stuttering, school performance and recovery rate relative to monolingual speakers who stutter (MONO). Design: Clinical referral sample with supplementary data obtained from speech recordings and interviews. Setting: South-East England, 1999–2007. Participants: Children aged 8–12 plus who stuttered (monolingual and bilingual) and fluent bilingual controls (FB). Main outcome measures: Participants’ stuttering history, SATS scores, measures of recovery or persistence of stuttering. Results: 69 (21.8%) of 317 children were bilingual. Of 38 children who used a language other than English at home, 36 (94.7%) stuttered in both languages. Fewer LE (15/38, 39.5%) than BIL (23/38, 60.5%) children stuttered at first referral to clinic, but more children in the fluent control sample were LE (28/38, 73.7%) than BIL (10/38, 26.3%). The association between stuttering and bilingual group (LE/BIL) was significant by x2 test; BIL speakers have more chance of stuttering than LE speakers. Age at stuttering onset and male/female ratio for LE, BIL and MONO speakers were similar (4 years 9 months, 4 years 10 months and 4 years 3 months, and 4.1:1, 4.75:1 and 4.43:1, respectively). Educational achievement was not affected by bilingualism relative to the MONO and FB groups. The recovery rate for the LE and MONO controls together (55%) was significantly higher by x2 test than for the BIL group (25%). Conclusions: BIL children had an increased risk of stuttering and a lower chance of recovery from stuttering than LE and MONO speakers

Vertical drop test of a transport fuselage center section including the wheel wells

A Boeing 707 fuselage section was drop tested to measure structural, seat, and anthropomorphic dummy response to vertical crash loads. The specimen had nominally zero pitch, roll and yaw at impact with a sink speed of 20 ft/sec. Results from this drop test and other drop tests of different transport sections will be used to prepare for a full-scale crash test of a B-720

A Bait Attractant Study of the Nitidulidae (Coleoptera) at Shawnee State Forest in Southern Ohio

Four baits were tested for efficacy in attracting sap beetles (Nitidulidae) at two sites in the Shawnee State Forest over two collection periods in 1992. Species taken were categorized into three groups: abundant, moderate, and uncommon. At Site 1, nitidulids displayed a strong preference for whole wheat bread dough, followed by fermenting brown sugar, and fermenting malt/molasses solution, and vinegar, respectively. Site 2 collections showed a similar trend to Site 1, but the order of preference was switched for brown sugar and malt/molasses solution. Of the 20 species collected, six species were abundant, seven species were moderate, and seven species were locally uncommon

Coupling of phonons to a helium atom adsorbed on graphite

We compute the self-energy for a ^4He atom adsorbed on graphite to second order in the phonon coupling. The phonon contributions amount to several degrees Kelvin. The imaginary part corresponds to a lifetime of some 10^(-11) s

Interactive cutting path analysis programs

The operation of numerically controlled machine tools is interactively simulated. Four programs were developed to graphically display the cutting paths for a Monarch lathe, Cintimatic mill, Strippit sheet metal punch, and the wiring path for a Standard wire wrap machine. These programs are run on a IMLAC PDS-ID graphic display system under the DOS-3 disk operating system. The cutting path analysis programs accept input via both paper tape and disk file

Corrosion resistant coating

A method of coating a substrate with an amorphous metal is described. A solid piece of the metal is bombarded with ions of an inert gas in the presence of a magnetic field to provide a vapor of the metal which is deposited on the substrate at a sufficiently low gas pressure so that there is formed on the substrate a thin, uniformly thick, essentially pinhole-free film of the metal

Environmental concentrations of anti-androgenic pharmaceuticals do not impact sexual disruption in fish alone or in combination with steroid oestrogens

This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Sexual disruption in wild fish has been linked to the contamination of river systems with steroid oestrogens, including the pharmaceutical 17α-ethinylestradiol, originating from domestic wastewaters. As analytical chemistry has advanced, more compounds derived from the human usage of pharmaceuticals have been identified in the environment and questions have arisen as to whether these additional pharmaceuticals may also impact sexual disruption in fish. Indeed, pharmaceutical anti-androgens have been shown to induce such effects under laboratory conditions. These are of particular interest since anti-androgenic biological activity has been identified in the aquatic environment and is potentially implicated in sexual disruption alone and in combination with steroid oestrogens. Consequently, predictive modelling was employed to determine the concentrations of two anti-androgenic human pharmaceuticals, bicalutamide and cyproterone acetate, in UK sewage effluents and river catchments and their combined impacts on sexual disruption were then assessed in two fish models. Crucially, fish were also exposed to the anti-androgens in combination with steroid oestrogens to determine whether they had any additional impact on oestrogen induced feminisation. Modelling predicted that the anti-androgenic pharmaceuticals were likely to be widespread in UK river catchments. However, their concentrations were not sufficient to induce significant responses in plasma vitellogenin concentrations, secondary sexual characteristics or gross indices in male fathead minnow or intersex in Japanese medaka alone or in combination with steroid oestrogens. However, environmentally relevant mixtures of oestrone, 17β-oestradiol and 17α-ethinylestradiol did induce vitellogenin and intersex, supporting their role in sexual disruption in wild fish populations. Unexpectedly, a male dominated sex ratio (100% in controls) was induced in medaka and the potential cause and implications are briefly discussed, highlighting the potential of non-chemical modes of action on this endpoint