Understorey plant community and light availability in conifer plantations and natural hardwood forests in Taiwan

Questions: What are the effects of replacing mixed species natural forests with Cryptomeria japonica plantations on understorey plant functional and species diversity? What is the role of the understorey light environment in determining understorey diversity and community in the two types of forest? Location: Subtropical northeast Taiwan. Methods: We examined light environments using hemispherical photography, and diversity and composition of understorey plants of a 35‐yr C. japonica plantation and an adjacent natural hardwood forest. Results: Understorey plant species richness was similar in the two forests, but the communities were different; only 18 of the 91 recorded understorey plant species occurred in both forests. Relative abundance of plants among different functional groups differed between the two forests. Relative numbers of shade‐tolerant and shade‐intolerant seedling individuals were also different between the two forest types with only one shade‐intolerant seedling in the plantation compared to 23 seedlings belonging to two species in the natural forest. In the natural forest 11 species of tree seedling were found, while in the plantation only five were found, and the seedling density was only one third of that in the natural forest. Across plots in both forests, understorey plant richness and diversity were negatively correlated with direct sunlight but not indirect sunlight, possibly because direct light plays a more important role in understorey plant growth. Conclusions: We report lower species and functional diversity and higher light availability in a natural hardwood forest than an adjacent 30‐yr C. japonica plantation, possibly due to the increased dominance of shade‐intolerant species associated with higher light availability. To maintain plant diversity, management efforts must be made to prevent localized losses of shade‐adapted understorey plants

Charmless Bs→PP,PV,VVB_s\to PP, PV, VV Decays Based on the six-quark Effective Hamiltonian with Strong Phase Effects II

We provide a systematic study of charmless $B_s \to PP, PV, VV$ decays ($P$ and $V$ denote pseudoscalar and vector mesons, respectively) based on an approximate six-quark operator effective Hamiltonian from QCD. The calculation of the relevant hard-scattering kernels is carried out, the resulting transition form factors are consistent with the results of QCD sum rule calculations. By taking into account important classes of power corrections involving "chirally-enhanced" terms and the vertex corrections as well as weak annihilation contributions with non-trivial strong phase, we present predictions for the branching ratios and CP asymmetries of $B_s$ decays into PP, PV and VV final states, and also for the corresponding polarization observables in VV final states. It is found that the weak annihilation contributions with non-trivial strong phase have remarkable effects on the observables in the color-suppressed and penguin-dominated decay modes. In addition, we discuss the SU(3) flavor symmetry and show that the symmetry relations are generally respected

Muon anomalous magnetic moment in the standard model with two Higgs doublets

The muon anomalous magnetic moment is investigated in the standard model with two Higgs doublets (S2HDM) motivated from spontaneous CP violation. Thus all the effective Yukawa couplings become complex. As a consequence of the non-zero phase in the couplings, the one loop contribution from the neutral scalar bosons could be positive and negative relying on the CP phases. The interference between one and two loop diagrams can be constructive in a large parameter space of CP-phases. This will result in a significant contribution to muon anomalous magnetic moment even in the flavor conserving process with a heavy neutral scalar boson ($m_h \sim$ 200 GeV) once the effective muon Yukawa coupling is large ($|\xi_\mu|\sim 50$). In general, the one loop contributions from lepton flavor changing scalar interactions become more important. In particular, when all contributions are positive in a reasonable parameter space of CP phases, the recently reported 2.6 sigma experiment vs. theory deviation can be easily explained even for a heavy scalar boson with a relative small Yukawa coupling in the S2HDM.Comment: 8 pages, RevTex file, 5 figures, published version Phys. Rev. D 54 (2001) 11501

Weak Phase γ\gamma and Strong Phase δ\delta from CP Averaged B→ππB\to \pi\pi and πK\pi K Decays

Assuming SU(3) symmetry for the strong phases in the four decay modes B\rarrow \pi^-\pi^+, \pi^0 \pi^+, \pi^- K^+, \pi^- \bar{K}^0 and ignoring the relative small electroweak penguin effects in those decays, the weak phase $\gamma$ and the strong phase $\delta$ can be determined in a model independent way by the CP-averaged branching ratios of the four decay modes. It appears that the current experimental data for $B\to \pi\pi$ and $\pi K$ decays prefer a negative value of $\cos\gamma\cos\delta$. By combining with the other constraints from $V_{ub}$, $B^{0}_{d,s}-\bar{B}^{0}_{d,s}$ mixings and indirect CP-violating parameter $\epsilon_K$ within the standard model, two favorable solutions for the phases $\gamma$ and $\delta$ are found to lie in the region: 35^{\circ}\alt\gamma\alt 62^{\circ} and 106^{\circ}\alt \delta \alt 180^{\circ} or 86^{\circ}\alt\gamma\alt 151^{\circ} and 0^{\circ}\alt\delta\alt 75^{\circ} within 1$\sigma$ standard deviation. It is noted that if allowing the standard deviation of the data to be more than 1$\sigma$, the two solutions could approach to one solution with a much larger region for the phases $\gamma$ and $\delta$. Direct CP asymme try $a_{\epsilon''}^{(\pi^- K^+)}$ in B\rarrow \pi^-K^+ decay can be as large as the present experimental upper bound. Direct CP asymmetry $a_{\epsilon''}^{(\pi^+\pi^-)}$ in B\rarrow \pi^-\pi^+ decay can reach up to about 40% at 1$\sigma$ level.Comment: 14 Pages, ReVTeX, 5 figures, one figure (Fig.3) is correcte

Transformation of β-Ni(OH)2to NiO nano-sheets via surface nanocrystalline zirconia coating: Shape and size retention

Shape and size of the synthesized NiO nano-sheets were retained during transformation of sheet-like β-Ni(OH)2to NiO at elevated temperatures via nano-sized zirconia coating on the surface of β-Ni(OH)2. The average grain size was 6.42 nm after 600 °C treatment and slightly increased to 10 nm after 1000 °C treatment, showing effective sintering retardation between NiO nano-sheets. The excellent thermal stability revealed potential application at elevated temperatures, especially for high temperature catalysts and solid-state electrochemical devices

A New Prediction for Direct CP Violation \epsilon'/\epsilon and \Delta I = 1/2 Rule

The low energy dynamics of QCD is investigated with special attention paid to the matching between QCD and chiral perturbation theory(ChPT), and also to some useful algebraic chiral operator relations which survive even when we include chiral loop corrections. It then allows us to evaluate the hadronic matrix elements below the energy scale $\Lambda_{\chi} \simeq 1$ GeV. Based on the new analyzes, we present a consistent prediction for both direct CP-violating parameter $\epsilon'/\epsilon$ and $\Delta I =1/2$ rule in the kaon decays. In the leading $1/N_c$ approximation, the isospin amplitudes $A_0$ and $A_2$ are found to agree well with the data, and the direct CP-violating parameter $\epsilon'/\epsilon$ is predicted to be large, which also confirms our early conclusion. Its numerical value is $\epsilon'/\epsilon = 23.6^{+12.4}_{-7.8}\times 10^{-4}(Im\lambda_t/1.2\times 10^{-4})$ which is no longer sensitive to the strange quark mass due to the matching conditions. Taking into account a simultaneous consistent analysis on the isospin amplitudes $A_0$ and $A_2$, the ratio $\epsilon'/\epsilon$ is in favor of the values $\epsilon'/\epsilon = (20\pm 9)\times 10^{-4}$.Comment: 19 pages, ReVtex, no figures, the corrected version to be published in Phys. Rev. D . A more favorable and consistent prediction for direct CP violation is found: epsilon'(prime) /epsilon = (20 \pm 9) x 10^-4, here the contributions from finite meson masses and new isospin symmetry breaking effects have been included. The uncertainties from QCD (or low energy) scale have been considered. More references are adde

BESII Detector Simulation

A Monte Carlo program based on Geant3 has been developed for BESII detector simulation. The organization of the program is outlined, and the digitization procedure for simulating the response of various sub-detectors is described. Comparisons with data show that the performance of the program is generally satisfactory.Comment: 17 pages, 14 figures, uses elsart.cls, to be submitted to NIM

Search for the Rare Decays J/Psi --> Ds- e+ nu_e, J/Psi --> D- e+ nu_e, and J/Psi --> D0bar e+ e-

We report on a search for the decays J/Psi --> Ds- e+ nu_e + c.c., J/Psi --> D- e+ nu_e + c.c., and J/Psi --> D0bar e+ e- + c.c. in a sample of 5.8 * 10^7 J/Psi events collected with the BESII detector at the BEPC. No excess of signal above background is observed, and 90% confidence level upper limits on the branching fractions are set: B(J/Psi --> Ds- e+ nu_e + c.c.)<4.8*10^-5, B(J/Psi --> D- e+ nu_e + c.c.) D0bar e+ e- + c.c.)<1.1*10^-5Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Study of J/psi decays to Lambda Lambdabar and Sigma0 Sigma0bar

The branching ratios and Angular distributions for J/psi decays to Lambda Lambdabar and Sigma0 Sigma0bar are measured using BESII 58 million J/psi.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure

Measurements of J/psi Decays into 2(pi+pi-)eta and 3(pi+pi-)eta

Based on a sample of 5.8X 10^7 J/psi events taken with the BESII detector, the branching fractions of J/psi--> 2(pi+pi-)eta and J/psi-->3(pi+pi-)eta are measured for the first time to be (2.26+-0.08+-0.27)X10^{-3} and (7.24+-0.96+-1.11)X10^{-4}, respectively.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figure