Bounds to unitary evolution

Upper and lower bounds are established for the survival probability ∣⟨ψ(0)∣ψ(t)⟩∣2 of a quantum state, in terms of the energy moments ⟨ψ(0)∣Hn∣ψ(0)⟩. Introducing a cutoff in the energy generally enables considerable improvement in these bounds and allows the method to be used where the exact energy moments do not exist

Changing Behavior and Renewing the Brain: A Study of College Students

The field of neuroscience and religion continues to explode as researchers seek to understand religious experiences in the brain. Studies in religious experience, called neurotheology, attempt to draw conclusions about the truth of these religious experiences from the study of biological brain events. Given the substantial research on the science of religion, this article explores the physiological changes of college students engaged in regular spiritual practices. Students were asked to engage in intentional spiritual formational practices, such as prayer, meditation, Scripture reading, and contemplation, to see if these practices impacted their physiological activities, including brain wave, heart rate, skin response (sweat), and reaction time changes. A variety of neuropsychological measures such as the Beck Depression Inventory, State/Trait Anxiety Scale, heart beats per minute, galvanic skin response, and electrophysiological encephalography measures were gathered at the beginning and the end of the course to measure physiological activity. The purpose was to discover whether students’ physiological measures changed as a result of spiritual formation practices. This study has implications for Christian educators: As persons engage in regular contemplative practices, this can result in behavioral changes in the brain

Bounds to unitary evolution

Upper and lower bounds are established for the survival probability $||^{2}$ of a quantum state, in terms of the energy moments $$. Introducing a cut-off in the energy generally enables considerable improvement in these bounds and allows the method to be used where the exact energy moments do not exist.Comment: 5 pages, 8 figure

Household Food Security in the United States, 2004

Eighty-eight percent of American households were food secure throughout the entire year in 2004, meaning that they had access, at all times, to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members. The remaining households were food insecure at least some time during that year. The prevalence of food insecurity rose from 11.2 percent of households in 2003 to 11.9 percent in 2004, and the prevalence of food insecurity with hunger rose from 3.5 percent to 3.9 percent. This report, based on data from the December 2004 food security survey, provides the most recent statistics on the food security of U.S. households, as well as on how much they spent for food and the extent to which food-insecure households participated in Federal and community food assistance programs. Survey responses indicate that the typical food-secure household in the United States spent 31 percent more on food than the typical food-insecure household of the same size and household composition. Just over half of all food-insecure households participated in one or more of the three largest Federal food assistance programs during the month prior to the survey. About 20 percent of food-insecure households3.5 percent of all U.S. households obtained emergency food from a food pantry at some time during the year.Food security, food insecurity, hunger, food spending, food pantry, soup kitchen, emergency kitchen, material well-being, Food Stamp Program, National School Lunch Program, WIC, Food Security and Poverty,

Instabilities of Spherical Solutions with Multiple Galileons and SO(N) Symmetry

The 4-dimensional effective theory arising from an induced gravity action for a co-dimension greater than one brane consists of multiple galileon fields pi^I, I=1...N, invariant under separate Galilean transformations for each scalar, and under an internal SO(N) symmetry. We study the viability of such models by examining spherically symmetric solutions. We find that for general, non-derivative couplings to matter invariant under the internal symmetry, such solutions exist and exhibit a Vainshtein screening effect. By studying perturbations about such solutions, we find both an inevitable gradient instability and fluctuations propagating at superluminal speeds. These findings suggest that more general, derivative couplings to matter are required for the viability of SO(N) galileon theories.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, comments and references added, version appearing in PR