Hadronic Spectrum in Inclusive Semileptonic B Decays

We evaluate the inclusive semileptonic B decay spectrum as a function of the final-state hadrons energy to second order in the inverse quark mass expansion and tree level in $\alpha_{s}$. We argue that there is an energy interval below the $c$ production threshold that could be used to determine $V_{ub}$.Comment: 10 pages, UCLA/94/TEP/10. (LaTeX file, one uuencoded PostScript figure appended at the end.

La chirurgia delle cisti idatidee spleniche: contributo casistico

Nel periodo dal 1974 al 2003, in una serie di 339 pazienti trattati chirurgicamente per malattia idatidea a varia localizzazione, 5 erano portatori di una cisti a sede splenica. La formazione cistica, sempre unica, era solitaria in due casi, associata a una cisti epatica in 2 e a una cisti polmonare in 1; un paziente era stato operato in precedenza due volte per una cisti a localizzazione epatica. In 1 caso la malattia era asintomatica, in 2 pazienti si manifestava con dolore e in 3 con la presenza di una massa addominale. La diagnosi fu formulata preoperatoriamente in tutti i pazienti, sulla base dell’Echinotest in 1 e della TC in 5, e fu confermata successivamente dall’intervento chirurgico e dall’esame istologico. È stata eseguita la splenectomia in tutti i pazienti. Il decorso postoperatorio, della durata media di 17,5 giorni (range 7-31 giorni), è stato regolare in assenza di mortalità e di morbilità maggiore in 4 casi, mentre in un paziente esso è stato complicato dall’insorgenza di un ascesso subfrenico che ha richiesto il drenaggio chirurgico. Non sono state osservate recidive della malattia dopo un follow-up medio di 187 mesi (range 169-217 mesi). Gli Autori concludono affermando che la definizione diagnostica della malattia idatidea a localizzazione splenica è oggi più accurata grazie all’avvento delle tecniche per immagini e che la splenectomia è da preferire agli interventi conservativi perché è tecnicamente più semplice e mette al riparo da eventuali recidive

Scaling of variables and the relation between noncommutative parameters in Noncommutative Quantum Mechanics

We consider Noncommutative Quantum Mechanics with phase space noncommutativity. In particular, we show that a scaling of variables leaves the noncommutative algebra invariant, so that only the self-consistent effective parameters of the model are physically relevant. We also discuss the recently proposed relation of direct proportionality between the noncommutative parameters, showing that it has a limited applicability.Comment: Revtex4, 4 pages; version to match the published on

Taxonomy of asteroid families among the Jupiter Trojans: Comparison between spectroscopic data and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey colors

We present a comparative analysis of the spectral slope and color distributions of Jupiter Trojans, with particular attention to asteroid families. We use a sample of data from the Moving Object Catalogue of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, together with spectra obtained from several surveys. A first sample of 349 observations, corresponding to 250 Trojan asteroids, were extracted from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and we also extracted from the literature a second sample of 91 spectra, corresponding to 71 Trojans. The spectral slopes were computed by means of a least-squares fit to a straight line of the fluxes obtained from the Sloan observations in the first sample, and of the rebinned spectra in the second sample. In both cases the reflectance fluxes/spectra were renormalized to 1 at 6230 $\textrm{\AA}$. We found that the distribution of spectral slopes among Trojan asteroids shows a bimodality. About 2/3 of the objects have reddish slopes compatible with D-type asteroids, while the remaining bodies show less reddish colors compatible with the P-type and C-type classifications. The members of asteroid families also show a bimodal distribution with a very slight predominance of D-type asteroids, but the background is clearly dominated by the D-types. The L4 and L5 swarms show different distributions of spectral slopes, and bimodality is only observed in L4. These differences can be attributed to the asteroid families since the backgraound asteroids show the same slope distribtuions in both swarms. The analysis of individual families indicates that the families in L5 are taxonomically homogeneous, but in L4 they show a mixture of taxonomic types. We discuss a few scenarios that might help to interpret these results.Comment: 20 pages, 15 figures, 2 table

Perturbative and non-perturbative aspects of the proper time renormalization group

The renormalization group flow equation obtained by means of a proper time regulator is used to calculate the two loop beta function and anomalous dimension eta of the field for the O(N) symmetric scalar theory. The standard perturbative analysis of the flow equation does not yield the correct results for both beta and eta. We also show that it is still possible to extract the correct beta and eta from the flow equation in a particular limit of the infrared scale. A modification of the derivation of the Exact Renormalization Group flow, which involves a more general class of regulators, to recover the proper time renormalization group flow is analyzed.Comment: 26 pages.Latex.Version accepted for publicatio

Noncommutativity and Lorentz Violation in Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions

The experimental detection of the effects of noncommuting coordinates in electrodynamic phenomena depends on the magnitude of |\theta B|, where \theta is the noncommutativity parameter and B a background magnetic field. With the present upper bound on \theta, given by \theta_{\rm bound} \simeq 1/(10 {\rm TeV})^2, there was no large enough magnetic field in nature, including those observed in magnetars, that could give visible effects or, conversely, that could be used to further improve \theta_{\rm bound}. On the other hand, recently it has been proposed that intense enough magnetic fields should be produced at the beginning of relativistic heavy ion collisions. We discuss here lepton pair production by free photons as one kind of signature of noncommutativity and Lorentz violation that could occur at RHIC or LHC. This allows us to obtain a more stringent bound on \theta, given by 10^{-3} \theta_{\rm bound}, if such "exotic" events do not occur.Comment: Five pages, no figures

Testing the comet nature of main belt comets. The spectra of 133P/Elst-Pizarro and 176P/LINEAR

We present the visible spectrum of MBCs 133P/Elst-Pizarro and 176P/LINEAR, as well as three Themis family asteroids: (62) Erato, (379), Huenna and (383) Janina, obtained in 2007 using three telescopes at "El Roque de los Muchachos"' Observatory, in La Palma, Spain, and the 8m Kueyen (UT2) VLT telescope at Cerro Paranal, Chile. The spectra of 133P and 176P resemble best those of B-type asteroid and are very similar to those of Themis family members and are significantly different from the spectrum of comet 162P/Siding-Spring and most of the observed cometary nuclei. CN gas emission is not detected in the spectrum of 133P. We determine an upper limit for the CN production rate Q(CN) = $= 2.8 \times 10^{21}$ mol/s, three orders of magnitude lower than the Q(CN) of Jupiter family comets observed at similar heliocentric distances. The spectra of 133P/Elst-Pizarro and 176P/LINEAR confirm that they are likely members of the Themis family of asteroids, fragments that probably retained volatiles, and unlikely have a cometary origin in the trans-neptunian belt or the Oort cloud.Comment: Paper sumbmited to A&A. 7 pages and 6 figure

Completeness and consistency of renormalisation group flows

We study different renormalisation group flows for scale dependent effective actions, including exact and proper-time renormalisation group flows. These flows have a simple one loop structure. They differ in their dependence on the full field-dependent propagator, which is linear for exact flows. We investigate the inherent approximations of flows with a non-linear dependence on the propagator. We check explicitly that standard perturbation theory is not reproduced. We explain the origin of the discrepancy by providing links to exact flows both in closed expressions and in given approximations. We show that proper-time flows are approximations to Callan-Symanzik flows. Within a background field formalism, we provide a generalised proper-time flow, which is exact. Implications of these findings are discussed.Comment: 33 pages, 15 figures, revtex, typos corrected, to be published in Phys.Rev.

The changing landscape of disaster volunteering: opportunities, responses and gaps in Australia

There is a growing expectation that volunteers will have a greater role in disaster management in the future compared to the past. This is driven largely by a growing focus on building resilience to disasters. At the same time, the wider landscape of volunteering is fundamentally changing in the twenty-first century. This paper considers implications of this changing landscape for the resilience agenda in disaster management, with a focus on Australia. It first reviews major forces and trends impacting on disaster volunteering, highlighting four key developments: the growth of more diverse and episodic volunteering styles, the impact of new communications technology, greater private sector involvement and growing government expectations of and intervention in the voluntary sector. It then examines opportunities in this changing landscape for the Australian emergency management sector across five key strategic areas and provides examples of Australian responses to these opportunities to date. The five areas of focus are: developing more flexible volunteering strategies, harnessing spontaneous volunteering, building capacity to engage digital (and digitally enabled) volunteers, tapping into the growth of employee and skills-based volunteering and co-producing community-based disaster risk reduction. Although there have been considerable steps taken in Australia in some of these areas, overall there is still a long way to go before the sector can take full advantage of emerging opportunities. The paper thus concludes by identifying important research and practice gaps in this area