Rare k-decays

This article reviews the current situation in the field of rare K decays: the relevant phenomenology, the present experimental situation, and prospects for the near future. Study of rare K decays can make a significant contribution in a number of different frontier areas of research in high-energy physics. In the area of CP violation, study of such rare decays as K(L)0 --> pi0e+e-, K(L)0 --> pi0mu+mu-, K(L)0 --> pi0nunuBAR, and muon polarization in K(L)0 --> mu+mu- can provide important complementary information to what has been learned from the decay K(L)0 --> pipi. Even though experiments with sufficient accuracy to make a meaningful study of CP violation are still a few years away, significant progress has been made in this general area during the last decade. A second major area of interest in the field of rare K decays is the search for processes forbidden in the Standard Model, e.g., K(L)0 --> mue and K+ --> pi+mu+e-. Various extensions of the Standard Model predict that these processes will occur with branching fractions in the range of 10(-10) to 10(-15). Experiments of the last decade have pushed the limits into the 10(-10) to 10(-11) range, and further improvements in sensitivity of one to two orders of magnitude can be expected in the next few years. K decays allow one also to study higher-order weak-interaction processes such as K(L)0 --> mu+mu-, K(L)0 --> e+e-, K+ --> pi+nunuBAR, which are forbidden to first order in the Standard Model. Because of strong suppression, these decay modes offer potential windows on new physics; in addition, they may offer the most reliable measurement of V(td), one of the elements of the weak mixing matrix in the quark sector. The studies of the mu+mu- channel have achieved data samples of close to 1000 events; the other two modes should be observed for the first time in the next few years. Finally, as a byproduct of these studies, one has been able to look simultaneously for new light particles into which the K meson could decay. Limits obtained for various hypothetical particles are summarized.Physic

Still the Wild West? A 10-Year Look at Campaign Finance Reform in Illinois

Kent Redfield used to tell a great story while on the speaking circuit in 1996. To describe a weakness in Illinois’ campaign finance laws, he explained that if a terrorist organization filed a routine semiannual report with the Illinois State Board of Elections and declared its purpose to be the assassination of public officials, the elections board’s only role would be to make certain that the group had filed the paperwork properly. That’s because the board had no authority to begin an investigation or to question what was in a candidate’s reports. Illinois laws regarding campaign finance disclosure had no teeth, and they had changed very little in the two decades since being enacted in 1974

Taxation—Federal Income Tax—Interest in Law Partnership as a Capital Asset

Swiven v. Commissioner, 183 F. 2d 656 (7th Cir. July 1950), cert. denied 340 U. S. 912, 71 S. Ct. 293 (Jan. 1951)

The Effects of Physical Activity Education on Exercise Self-Efficacy and Physical Activity: A Comparison Study Between Exercise Science and Physical Education Teacher Education

The purpose of this study was to understand the adjustment families undergo when a child is diagnosed with deafness as well as their adjustment to the child hearing after a cochlear implant is in place. The participants of the study were four hearing adults between the ages of 18-28 who have a younger sibling with a cochlear implant. The qualitative study used reports from four participants to reflect on how hearing loss and subsequent cochlear implantation impacted the family’s lives. Contrary to expecting findings, the themes did not change and all four reported nurturing and personal growth as key themes

Shorter Leukocyte Telomere Length in Relation to Presumed Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Mexican-American Men in NHANES 1999-2002.

Leukocyte telomere length is shorter in response to chronic disease processes associated with inflammation such as diabetes mellitus and coronary artery disease. Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 1999 to 2002 was used to explore the relationship between leukocyte telomere length and presumed NAFLD, as indicated by elevated serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels, obesity, or abdominal obesity. Logistic regression models were used to evaluate the relationship between telomere length and presumed markers of NAFLD adjusting for possible confounders. There was no relationship between elevated ALT levels, abdominal obesity, or obesity and telomere length in adjusted models in NHANES (OR 1.13, 95% CI 0.48-2.65; OR 1.17, 95% CI 0.52-2.62, resp.). Mexican-American men had shorter telomere length in relation to presumed NAFLD (OR 0.07, 95% CI 0.006-0.79) and using different indicators of NAFLD (OR 0.012, 95% CI 0.0006-0.24). Mexican origin with presumed NAFLD had shorter telomere length than men in other population groups. Longitudinal studies are necessary to evaluate the role of telomere length as a potential predictor to assess pathogenesis of NALFD in Mexicans

Vol. IX, Tab 41 - Ex. R - Wojcicki Deposition (Google Vice-President Product Management)

Exhibits from the un-sealed joint appendix for Rosetta Stone Ltd., v. Google Inc., No. 10-2007, on appeal to the 4th Circuit. Issue presented: Under the Lanham Act, does the use of trademarked terms in keyword advertising result in infringement when there is evidence of actual confusion

Acculturative stress appraisal and acculturation attitudes

Part One : The term acculturation describes an array of cultural changes that occur when culturally different groups come into continuous, first hand contact (Redfield, Linton, & Herskovits, 1936). Acculturative stress describes a multitude of psychological or social problems that are often encountered by individuals experiencing acculturation (Berry, 1994). This article reviews the empirical literature on acculturation and factors influencing the outcomes of the acculturation experience from the perspective of the research framework proposed by Berry (1974, 1984, 1987, 1989, 1990). Methodological issues relevant to advancing this area of research are also addressed. In particular the influence of attitudes to acculturation on the level of acculturative stress has been investigated. Some research positions critical of Berry\u27s framework and some alternatives to Berry\u27s framework will also be briefly discussed. New multivariate models that examine the interplay of these variables arc now required to further understanding in this area. Part Two : The relationship between the type of acculturating group and the levels of acculturative stress encountered during the acculturative experience has been documented in the study of Berry and Kim (1%8) and replicated by others. However, there is not much evidence concerning the influence of the cultural compatibility between the acculturating group and the host nation on the level of acculturative stress. The aim of this study was to compare the level of acculturative stress between migrants of Asian (Singaporean Chinese) and European (Polish) origin using a group of white Anglo-Australians as a control. The main hypothesis was that people migrating to Australia from Europe will experience a lower level of acculturative stress than Asian migrants due to the greater similarity of the cultural background between Australia and Europe than between Australia and Asia

The double burden household in sub-Saharan Africa: maternal overweight and obesity and childhood undernutrition from the year 2000: results from World Health Organization Data (WHO) and Demographic Health Surveys (DHS)

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have characterized an increasing trend of double burden households, or households with individuals experiencing both undernutrition and obesity, in countries undergoing a nutrition transition. Although most prior studies indicate the prevalence of double burden households is highest in middle-income countries, there is some support for an increase in double burden households in sub-Saharan African countries as well. METHOD: Using data from the Demographic Health Surveys (DHS) and the World Health Organization (WHO), the prevalence of double burden households in sub-Saharan African countries was calculated and the associations between prevalence of overweight/obese adults and underweight, stunted and wasted children were evaluated at the country and household (DHS only) levels. Restricted analyses and frequencies were calculated using urban-only datasets. Surveys from 28 African countries were available using WHO data and 26 from the DHS surveys. Only surveys that were conducted after 2000 were included in analyses. RESULTS: Using the WHO datasets, there were inverse associations between the prevalence of overweight and obesity in adults and underweight, stunting and wasting in children. Correspondingly, there were positive associations between adult underweight and child underweight, stunting and wasting. These associations were not significant in a smaller sample size using urban-only surveys. The prevalence of double burden households in DHS datasets was low: under 5 percent for obese mothers and underweight, stunted or wasted child pairs with a slightly higher percentage for overweight mothers and children with undernutrition. Restricting the analysis to urban only populations did not increase the frequencies of double burden households significantly. CONCLUSION: There was a low prevalence of double burden households in recent data from sub-Saharan Africa. Countries that have a high prevalence of child undernutrition correspondingly have a high prevalence of adult underweight and low prevalence of adult overweight and obesity

Mega-Reward: Achieving Human-Level Play without Extrinsic Rewards

Intrinsic rewards were introduced to simulate how human intelligence works; they are usually evaluated by intrinsically-motivated play, i.e., playing games without extrinsic rewards but evaluated with extrinsic rewards. However, none of the existing intrinsic reward approaches can achieve human-level performance under this very challenging setting of intrinsically-motivated play. In this work, we propose a novel megalomania-driven intrinsic reward (called mega-reward), which, to our knowledge, is the first approach that achieves human-level performance in intrinsically-motivated play. Intuitively, mega-reward comes from the observation that infants' intelligence develops when they try to gain more control on entities in an environment; therefore, mega-reward aims to maximize the control capabilities of agents on given entities in a given environment. To formalize mega-reward, a relational transition model is proposed to bridge the gaps between direct and latent control. Experimental studies show that mega-reward (i) can greatly outperform all state-of-the-art intrinsic reward approaches, (ii) generally achieves the same level of performance as Ex-PPO and professional human-level scores, and (iii) has also a superior performance when it is incorporated with extrinsic rewards