On the non-vanishing of the Collins mechanism for single spin asymmetries

The Collins mechanism provides a non-perturbative explanation for the large single spin asymmetries found in hard semi-inclusive reactions involving a transversely polarized nucleon. However, there are seemingly convincing reasons to suspect that the mechanism vanishes, and indeed it does vanish in the naive parton model where a quark is regarded as an essentially 'free' particle. We give an intuitive analysis which highlights the difference between the naive picture and the realistic one, and shows how the Collins mechanism arises when the quark is described as an off-shell particle by a field in interaction. A typographical error is corrected in this version.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figure

Reconsideration of Weighting and Updating Procedures in the US CPI

Production capital and technology (i.e., total factor productivity) in U.S. manufacturing are fundamental for understanding output and productivity growth of the U.S. economy but are unobserved at this level of aggregation and must be estimated before being used in empirical analysis. Previously, we developed a method for estimating production capital and technology based on an estimated dynamic structural economic model and applied the method using annual SIC data for 1947-1997 to estimate production capital and technology in U.S. total manufacturing. In this paper, we update this work by reestimating the model and production capital and technology using annual SIC data for 1949-2001 and partly overlapping NAICS data for 1987-2005.Aggregation, Consumer Price Index, CPI, Index Number

Reply to the comment by C. Capan and K. Behnia on "Nernst effect in poor conductors and in the cuprate superconductors" (cond-mat/0501288)

The comment criticisms (cond-mat/0501288) are completely out of line with the context of the commented theory (Phys. Rev. Lett. v.93, 217002 (2004)). The comment neglected essential parts of the theory, which actually addressed all relevant experimental observations. I argue that the coexistence of the large Nernst signal and the insulating-like in-plane resistivity in underdoped cuprates rules out the vortex scenario, but agrees remarkably well with our theory.Comment: 1 page, 1 figur

Food Pricing Policy and Rural Poverty: Insights from Maize in Kenya

This study estimates the effects on poverty resulting from maize price changes associated with the operations of the maize marketing board in Kenya. We consider both supply and demand responses and the accompanying adjustments in rural labor markets in estimating a second order approximation to equilibrium income changes. We then use stochastic dominance techniques to generate poverty rankings between the distribution of income with the effects of the government marketing operations and the distribution of counterfactual incomes. This approach effectively addresses concerns regarding the sensitivity of poverty estimates to the type of poverty measure used. Results indicate that the price-elevating effects of government maize marketing operations have exacerbated rural poverty in all regions of the country except the region from which the largest part of surplus maize originates.Kenya, income transfers, maize policy, Crop Production/Industries, Food Security and Poverty, C22, O2, Q13, Q18,

Ecodriving and Carbon Footprinting: Understanding How Public Education Can Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Fuel Use

Ecodriving is a collection of changes to driving behavior and vehicle maintenance designed to impact fuel consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in existing vehicles. Because of its promise to improve fuel economy within the existing fleet, ecodriving has gained increased attention in North America. One strategy to improve ecodriving is through public education with information on how to ecodrive. This report provides a review and study of ecodriving from several angles. The report offers a literature review of previous work and programs in ecodriving across the world. In addition, researchers completed interviews with experts in the field of public relations and public message campaigns to ascertain best practices for public campaigns. Further, the study also completed a set of focus groups evaluating consumer response to a series of websites that displayed ecodriving information. Finally, researchers conducted a set of surveys, including a controlled stated-response study conducted with approximately 100 University of California, Berkeley faculty, staff, and students, assessing the effectiveness of static ecodriving web-based information as well as an intercept clipboard survey in the San Francisco Bay Area. The stated-response study consisted of a comparison of the experimental and control groups. It found that exposure to ecodriving information influenced people’s driving behavior and some maintenance practices. The experimental group’s distributional shift was statistically significant, particularly for key practices including: lower highway cruising speed, driving behavior adjustment, and proper tire inflation. Within the experimental group (N = 51), fewer respondents significantly changed their maintenance practices (16%) than the majority that altered some driving practices (71%). This suggests intentionally altering driving behavior is easier than planning better maintenance practices. While it was evident that not everyone modifies their behavior as a result of reviewing the ecodriving website, even small shifts in behavior due to inexpensive information dissemination could be deemed cost effective in reducing fuel consumption and emissions

Timing in trace conditioning of the nictitating membrane response of the rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) : scalar, nonscalar, and adaptive features

Using interstimulus intervals (ISIs) of 125, 250, and 500 msec in trace conditioning of the rabbit nictitating membrane response, the offset times and durations of conditioned responses (CRs) were collected along with onset and peak latencies. All measures were proportional to the ISI, but only onset and peak latencies conformed to the criterion for scalar timing. Regarding the CR’s possible protective overlap of the unconditioned stimulus (US), CR duration increased with ISI, while the peak’s alignment with the US declined. Implications for models of timing and CR adaptiveness are discussed

DScent Final Report

DScent was a joint project between five UK universities combining research theories in the disciplines of computational inference, forensic psychology and expert decision-making in the area of counter-terrorism. This document discusses the work carried out by Leeds Metropolitan University which covers the research, design and development work of an investigator support system in the area of deception using artificial intelligence. For the purposes of data generation along with system and hypothesis testing the project team devised two closed world games, the Cutting Corners Board Game and the Location Based Game. DScentTrail presents the investigator with a ‘scent trail’ of a suspect’s behaviour over time, allowing the investigator to present multiple challenges to a suspect from which they may prove the suspect guilty outright or receive cognitive or emotional clues of deception (Ekman 2002; Ekman & Frank 1993; Ekman & Yuille 1989; Hocking & Leathers 1980; Knapp & Comadena 1979). A scent trail is a collection of ordered, relevant behavioural information over time for a suspect. There are links into a neural network, which attempts to identify deceptive behavioural patterns of individuals. Preliminary work was carried out on a behavioural based AI module which would work separately alongside the neural network, with both identifying deception before integrating their results to update DScentTrail. Unfortunately the data that was necessary to design such a system was not provided and therefore, this section of research only reached its preliminary stages. To date research has shown that there are no specific patterns of deceptive behaviour that are consistent in all people, across all situations (Zuckerman 1981). DScentTrail is a decision support system, incorporating artificial intelligence (AI), which is intended to be used by investigators and attempts to find ways around the problem stated by Zuckerman above

Smallholder Farming Under Increasingly Difficult Circumstances: Policy and Public Investment Priorities for Africa

Agricultural and Food Policy,

Determination of Polarized PDFs from a QCD Analysis of Inclusive and Semi-inclusive Deep Inelastic Scattering Data

A new combined next to leading order QCD analysis of the polarized inclusive and semi-inclusive deep inelastic lepton-hadron scattering (DIS) data is presented. In contrast to previous combined analyses, the $1/Q^2$ terms (kinematic - target mass corrections, and dynamic - higher twist corrections) in the expression for the nucleon spin structure function $g_1$ are taken into account. The new COMPASS data are included in the analysis. The impact of the semi-inclusive data on the polarized parton densities (PDFs) and on the higher twist corrections is discussed. The new results for the PDFs are compared to our (Leader, Sidorov, Stamenov) LSS'06 PDFs, obtained from the fit to the inclusive DIS data alone, and to those obtained from the de Florian, Sassot, Stratmann, and Vogelsang global analysis.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, a version to be published in Phys. Rev.