Strange-Beauty Meson Production at ppˉp\bar p Colliders

The production rates and transverse momentum distributions of the strange-beauty mesons $B_s$ and $B_s^*$ at $p\bar p$ colliders are calculated assuming fragmentation is the dominant process. Results are given for the Tevatron in the large transverse momentum region, where fragmentation is expected to be most important.Comment: Minor changes in the discussion section. Also available at http://www.ph.utexas.edu/~cheung/paper.htm

The decay constants of pseudoscalar mesons in a relativistic quark model

The decay constants of pseudoscalar mesons are calculated in a relativistic quark model which assumes that mesons are made of a valence quark antiquark pair and of an effective vacuum like component. The results are given in terms of quark masses and of some free parameters entering the expression of the internal wave functions of the mesons. By using the pion and kaon decay constants $F_{\pi^+}=130.7~MeV,~F_{K^+}=159.8~MeV$ to fix the parameters of the model one gets $60~MeV\leq F_{D^+}\leq 185~MeV,~95~MeV\leq F_{D_s}\leq230~MeV,~80~MeV\leq F_{B^+}\leq205~MeV$ for the light quark masses $m_u=5.1~MeV,~m_d=9.3~MeV,~m_s=175~MeV$ and the heavy quark masses in the range: $1.~GeV\leq m_c\leq1.6~GeV,~4.1~GeV\leq m_b\leq4.5~GeV$. In the case of light neutral mesons one obtains with the same set of parameters $F_{\pi^0}\approx 138~MeV,~F_\eta\approx~130~MeV,F_{\eta'} \approx~78~MeV$. The values are in agreement with the experimental data and other theoretical results.Comment: 11 pages, LaTe

Narratives of Industry Responses to Cyberbullying: Perspectives on Self-regulation From and About the Industry

In this chapter, we provide an overview of narratives about online inter- mediaries’ responses to cyberbullying from the perspectives of policy makers and the companies, as well as children and parents. Relevant self-regulatory and self- organisational efforts are discussed aswell as the rationales for their adoption; includ- ing how the effectiveness of these efforts is seen from the perspectives of various stakeholders. We draw attention to the relative paucity of data on effectiveness of companies’ mechanisms, particularly from the perspective of any benefits received by children as a result of these interventions and support

A Brief Etymology of the Collateral Circulation

It is well known that the protective capacity of the collateral circulation falls short in many individuals with ischemic disease of the heart, brain and lower extremities. In the past fifteen years, opportunities created by molecular and genetic tools, together with disappointing outcomes in many “angiogenic” trials, has led to a significant increase in the number of studies that focus on: 1) understanding the basic biology of the collateral circulation; 2) identifying the mechanisms that limit the collateral circulation’s capacity in many individuals; 3) devising methods to measure collateral extent, which has been found to vary widely among individuals; and 4) developing treatments to increase collateral blood flow in obstructive disease. Unfortunately, accompanying this increase in reports has been a proliferation of vague terms used to describe the disposition and behavior of this unique circulation, as well as the increasing miss-use of well-ensconced ones by new (and old) students of the collateral circulation. With this in mind, we provide a brief glossary of readily understandable terms to denote the formation, adaptive growth, and mal-adaptive rarefaction of the collateral circulation. We also propose terminology for several newly discovered processes that occur in the collateral circulation. Finally, we include terms used to describe vessels that are sometimes confused with collaterals, as well as terms describing processes active in the general arterial-venous circulation when ischemic conditions engage the collateral circulation. We hope this brief review will help unify the terminology used in collateral research

Het 'pluis/niet-pluis' gevoel van de huisarts: Focusgroepenstudie van concept en determinanten

Background: General practitioners (GPs) are often faced with complicated, vague problems in situations of uncertainty that they have to solve at short notice. In such situations, gut feelings seem to play a substantial role in their diagnostic process. Qualitative research distinguished a sense of alarm and a sense of reassurance. However, not every GP trusted their gut feelings, since a scientific explanation is lacking. Objective: This paper explains how gut feelings arise and function in GPs' diagnostic reasoning. Approach: The paper reviews literature from medical, psychological and neuroscientific perspectives. Conclusions: Gut feelings in general practice are based on the interaction between patient information and a GP's knowledge and experience. This is visualized in a knowledge-based model of GPs' diagnostic reasoning emphasizing that this complex task combines analytical and non-analytical cognitive processes. The model integrates the two well-known diagnostic reasoning tracks of medical decision-making and medical problem-solving, and adds gut feelings as a third track. Analytical and non-analytical diagnostic reasoning interacts continuously, and GPs use elements of all three tracks, depending on the task and the situation. In this dual process theory, gut feelings emerge as a consequence of non-analytical processing of the available information and knowledge, either reassuring GPs or alerting them that something is wrong and action is required. The role of affect as a heuristic within the physician's knowledge network explains how gut feelings may help GPs to navigate in a mostly efficient way in the often complex and uncertain diagnostic situations of general practice. Emotion research and neuroscientific data support the unmistakable role of affect in the process of making decisions and explain the bodily sensation of gut feelings. The implications for health care practice and medical education are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved) (journal abstract

Leptonic widths of high excitations in heavy quarkonia

Agreement with the measured electronic widths of the $\psi(4040)$, $\psi(4415)$, and $\Upsilon (11019)$ resonances is shown to be reached if two effects are taken into account: a flattening of the confining potential at large distances and a total screening of the gluon-exchange interaction at r\ga 1.2 fm. The leptonic widths of the unobserved $\Upsilon(7S)$ and $\psi(5S)$ resonances: $\Gamma_{e^+e^-}(\Upsilon (7S))=0.11$ keV and $\Gamma(\psi(5S))\approx 0.54$ keV are predicted.Comment: 11 pages revtex

Infarct-related chronic total coronary occlusion and the risk of ventricular tachyarrhythmic events in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survivors

Introduction: Chronic total coronary occlusion (CTO) has been identified as a risk factor for ventricular arrhythmias, especially a CTO in an infarct-related artery (IRA). This study aimed to evaluate the effect of an IRA-CTO on the occurrence of ventricular tachyarrhythmic events (VTEs) in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survivors without ST-segment elevation. Methods: We conducted a post hoc analysis of the COACT trial, a multicentre randomised controlled trial. Patients were included when they survived index hospitalisation after cardiac arrest and demonstrated coronary artery disease on coronary angiography. The primary endpoint was the occurrence of a VTE, defined as appropriate implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) therapy, sustained ventricular tachyarrhythmia or sudden cardiac death. Results: A total of 163 patients from ten centres were included. Unrevascularised IRA-CTO in a main vessel was present in 43 patients (26%). Overall, 61% of the study population received an ICD for secondary prevention. During a follow-up of 1 year, 12 patients (7.4%) experienced at least one VTE. The cumulative incidence rate of VTEs was higher in patients with an IRA-CTO compared to patients without an IRA-CTO (17.4% vs 5.6%, log-rank p = 0.03). However, multivariable analysis only identified left ventricular ejection fraction < 35% as an independent factor associated with VTEs (adjusted hazard ratio 8.7, 95% confidence interval 2.2–35.4). A subanalysis focusing on CTO, with or without an infarct in the CTO territory, did not change the results. Conclusion: In out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survivors with coronary artery disease without ST-segment elevation, an IRA-CTO was not an independent factor associated with VTEs in the 1st year after the index event

The annihilation decay B_c \to eta' l \nu

We first investigate the semileptonic annihilation decay B_c \to \eta' l\nu in QCD. We find that the $\eta'$ momentum distribution is peaked within its small recoil region due to the loop effects. The branching ratio is estimated to be $Br(B_c \to \eta' l\nu)=1.6\times 10^{-4}$ for $l=\mu,e$, which is accessible at CERN LHC.Comment: Typo corrected. To be published in PR

Long-term creep behavior of the intervertebral disk: comparison between bioreactor data and numerical results

The loaded disk culture system is an intervertebral disk (IVD)-oriented bioreactor developed by the VU Medical Center (VUmc, Amsterdam, The Netherlands), which has the capacity of maintaining up to 12 IVDs in culture, for approximately 3 weeks after extraction. Using this system, eight goat IVDs were provided with the essential nutrients and submitted to compression tests without losing their biomechanical and physiological properties, for 22 days. Based on previous reports (Paul et al., 2012, 2013; Detiger et al., 2013), four of these IVDs were kept in physiological condition (control) and the other four were previously injected with chondroitinase ABC (CABC), in order to promote degenerative disk disease (DDD). The loading profile intercalated 16 h of activity loading with 8 h of loading recovery to express the standard circadian variations. The displacement behavior of these eight IVDs along the first 2 days of the experiment was numerically reproduced,using an IVD osmo-poro-hyper-viscoelastic and fiber-reinforced finite element (FE) model. The simulations were run on a custom FE solver (Castro et al., 2014). The analysis of the experimental results allowed concluding that the effect of the CABC injection was only significant in two of the four IVDs. The four control IVDs showed no signs of degeneration, as expected. In what concerns to the numerical simulations, the IVD FE model was able to reproduce the generic behavior of the two groups of goat IVDs (control and injected). However, some discrepancies were still noticed on the comparison between the injected IVDs and the numerical simulations, namely on the recovery periods. This may be justified by the complexity of the pathways for DDD, associated with the multiplicity of physiological responses to each direct or indirect stimulus. Nevertheless, one could conclude that ligaments, muscles, and IVD covering membranes could be added to the FE model,in order to improve its accuracy and properly describe the recovery periods.FCT - Ph.D. grant SFRH/BD/63882/200