Evaluation of Formal posterior distributions via Markov chain arguments

We consider evaluation of proper posterior distributions obtained from improper prior distributions. Our context is estimating a bounded function $\phi$ of a parameter when the loss is quadratic. If the posterior mean of $\phi$ is admissible for all bounded $\phi$, the posterior is strongly admissible. We give sufficient conditions for strong admissibility. These conditions involve the recurrence of a Markov chain associated with the estimation problem. We develop general sufficient conditions for recurrence of general state space Markov chains that are also of independent interest. Our main example concerns the $p$-dimensional multivariate normal distribution with mean vector $\theta$ when the prior distribution has the form $g(\|\theta\|^2) d\theta$ on the parameter space $\mathbb{R}^p$. Conditions on $g$ for strong admissibility of the posterior are provided.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/07-AOS542 the Annals of Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aos/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

New Production Mechanism of Neutral Higgs Bosons with Right scalar tau neutrino as the LSP

Motived by the neutrino oscillation data, we consider the lightest tau sneutrino $\tilde \nu_{\tau_1}$ (which is mostly the right tau sneutrino) to be the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) in the framework of the minimal supersymmetric Standard Model. Both the standard and the non-standard trilinear scalar coupling terms are included for the right tau sneutrino interactions. The decay branching ratio of $\tilde \nu_{\tau_2} \to \tilde \nu_{\tau_1}+ h^0$ can become so large that the production rate of the lightest neutral Higgs boson ($h^0$) can be largely enhanced at electron or hadron colliders, either from the direct production of $\tilde \nu_{\tau_2}$ or from the decay of charginos, neutralinos, sleptons, and the cascade decay of squarks and gluinos, etc. Furthermore, because of the small LSP annihilation rate, $\tilde \nu_{\tau_1}$ can be a good candidate for cold dark matter.Comment: 11 pages, RevTex, 3 eps figures. We clarify the theoretical framework of this study, with a note added in the end, and correct an equation, with updated figure

Maternal and infant infections stimulate a rapid leukocyte response in breastmilk

Breastmilk protects infants against infections; however, specific responses of breastmilk immune factors to different infections of either the mother or the infant are not well understood. Here, we examined the baseline range of breastmilk leukocytes and immunomodulatory biomolecules in healthy mother/infant dyads and how they are influenced by infections of the dyad. Consistent with a greater immunological need in the early postpartum period, colostrum contained considerable numbers of leukocytes (13–70% out of total cells) and high levels of immunoglobulins and lactoferrin. Within the first 1–2 weeks postpartum, leukocyte numbers decreased significantly to a low baseline level in mature breastmilk (0–2%) (P\u3c0.001). This baseline level was maintained throughout lactation unless the mother and/or her infant became infected, when leukocyte numbers significantly increased up to 94% leukocytes out of total cells (P\u3c0.001). Upon recovery from the infection, baseline values were restored. The strong leukocyte response to infection was accompanied by a more variable humoral immune response. Exclusive breastfeeding was associated with a greater baseline level of leukocytes in mature breastmilk. Collectively, our results suggest a strong association between the health status of the mother/infant dyad and breastmilk leukocyte levels. This could be used as a diagnostic tool for assessment of the health status of the lactating breast as well as the breastfeeding mother and infant

Eta-nucleon coupling constant in QCD with SU(3) symmetry breaking

We study the $\eta$NN coupling constant using the method of QCD sum rules starting from the vacuum-to-eta correlation function of the interpolating fields of two nucleons. The matrix element of this correlation has been taken with respect to nucleon spinors to avoid unwanted pole contribution. The SU(3)-flavor symmetry breaking effects have been accounted for via the $\eta$-mass, s-quark mass and eta decay constant to leading order. Out of the four sum rules obtained by taking the ratios of the two sum rules in conjunction with the two sum rules in nucleon mass, three are found to give mutually consistent results. We find the SU(3) breaking effects significant, as large as 50% of the SU(3) symmetric part.Comment: 13 pages, 12 figure

Collider Inclusive Jet Data and the Gluon Distribution

Inclusive jet production data are important for constraining the gluon distribution in the global QCD analysis of parton distribution functions. With the addition of recent CDF and D0 Run II jet data, we study a number of issues that play a role in determining the up-to-date gluon distribution and its uncertainty, and produce a new set of parton distributions that make use of that data. We present in detail the general procedures used to study the compatibility between new data sets and the previous body of data used in a global fit. We introduce a new method in which the Hessian matrix for uncertainties is ``rediagonalized'' to obtain eigenvector sets that conveniently characterize the uncertainty of a particular observable.Comment: Published versio

Erratum: Next-to-leading order supersymmetric QCD predictions for associated production of gauginos and gluinos [Phys. Rev. D 62, 095014 (2000)]

Errors in the published version of the paper are corrected, and new figures are provided.Comment: 3 pages, latex, 4 figure

Fluctuations of Entropy Production in Partially Masked Electric Circuits: Theoretical Analysis

In this work we perform theoretical analysis about a coupled RC circuit with constant driven currents. Starting from stochastic differential equations, where voltages are subject to thermal noises, we derive time-correlation functions, steady-state distributions and transition probabilities of the system. The validity of the fluctuation theorem (FT) is examined for scenarios with complete and incomplete descriptions.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur