Nationwide status study of the integrated course in physical science.

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston Universit

Strange stars at finite temperature

We calculate strange star properties, using large N_c approximation with built-in chiral symmetry restoration (CSM). We used a relativistic Hartree Fock mean field approximation method, using a modified Richardson potential with two scale parameters \Lambda and \Lambda^\prime, to find a new set of equation of states for strange quark matter. We take the effect of temperature (T) on gluon mass, in addition to the usual density dependence, and find that the transition T from hadronic matter to strange matter is 80 MeV. Therefore formation of strange stars may be the only signal for formation of QGP with asymptotic freedom and CSM.Comment: To be published in the proceedings of The Third 21COE Symposium, held at Department of Physics, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan, September 1-3, 200

Life expectancy among LDS and Non-LDS in Utah

This paper compares life expectancy between members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS or Mormons) and non-LDS in Utah. It examines the extent to which tobacco-related deaths explain variation in life expectancy between LDS and non-LDS. Complete life table estimates were derived using conventional methods and cross-sectional data for white males and females from 1994-1998. Life expectancy was 77.3 for LDS males, 70.0 for non-LDS males, 82.2 for LDS females, and 76.4 for non-LDS females. For those alive at age 80, the remaining years of life expected were 8.2 for LDS males, 6.5 for non-LDS males, 10.3 for LDS females, and 7.1 for non-LDS females. Years of life expected increased more so among non-LDS after we removed deaths associated with tobacco use from the life table. A comparison between LDS and non-LDS of the adjusted life expectancy estimates indicates that although differential tobacco use explains some of the higher life expectancy in LDS, it only accounts for about 1.5 years of the 7.3 year difference for males and 1.2 years of the 5.8 year difference for females. Higher life expectancy experienced among LDS not explained by tobacco-related deaths may be due to factors associated with religious activity in general, such as better physical health, better social support, and healthier lifestyle behaviors. Religious activity may also have an independent protective effect against mortality.life style, life tables, Mormons, religion, risk factors, Utah

Tangential Structures on Toric Manifolds, and Connected Sums of Polytopes

We extend work of Davis and Januszkiewicz by considering {\it omnioriented} toric manifolds, whose canonical codimension-2 submanifolds are independently oriented. We show that each omniorientation induces a canonical stably complex structure, which is respected by the torus action and so defines an element of an equivariant cobordism ring. As an application, we compute the complex bordism groups and cobordism ring of an arbitrary omnioriented toric manifold. We consider a family of examples $B_{i,j}$, which are toric manifolds over products of simplices, and verify that their natural stably complex structure is induced by an omniorientation. Studying connected sums of products of the $B_{i,j}$ allows us to deduce that every complex cobordism class of dimension >2 contains a toric manifold, necessarily connected, and so provides a positive answer to the toric analogue of Hirzebruch's famous question for algebraic varieties. In previous work, we dealt only with disjoint unions, and ignored the relationship between the stably complex structure and the action of the torus. In passing, we introduce a notion of connected sum # for simple $n$-dimensional polytopes; when $P^n$ is a product of simplices, we describe P^n# Q^n by applying an appropriate sequence of {\it pruning operators}, or hyperplane cuts, to $Q^n$.Comment: 22 pages, LaTeX2e, to appear in Internat. Math. Research Notices (2001

Policy and Practice Brief: Effect of Defaulted Student Loans on Return to Work Efforts

This brief describes types of student loans that exist and effects or defaulted student loans on individuals benefits. Reviewed are increased efforts to collect on defaulted student loans as well as remedies to take a loan out of default

Observation of thermo-mechanical equilibration in the presence of a solid 4He conduit

We observe a thermo-mechanical effect when a chemical potential difference is created by a temperature difference imposed between two liquid reservoirs connected to each other through Vycor rods in series with solid hcp 4He. By creating a temperature difference, $\Delta T$, between the two reservoirs, we induce a rate-limited growth of a pressure difference between the two reservoirs, $\Delta P$. In equilibrium $\Delta P {\it vs.} \Delta T$ is in quantitative agreement with the thermo-mechanical effect in superfluid helium. These observations confirm that below $\sim$ 600 mK a flux-limited flow exists through the solid helium.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure