QCD sum rules study of the J(PC)=1(- -) charmonium Y mesons

We use QCD sum rules to test the nature of the recently observed mesons Y(4260), Y(4350) and Y(4660), assumed to be exotic four-quark (c (c) over barq (q) over bar) or (c (c) over bars (s) over bar) states with J(PC)= 1(--). We work at leading order in alpha(s), consider the contributions of higher dimension condensates and keep terms which are linear in the strange quark mass m(s). We find for the (c (c) over bars (s) over bar) state a mass in m(Y) = (4.65 +/- 0.10) GeV which is compatible with the experimental candidate Y (4660), while for the (c (c) over barq (q) over bar) state we find a mass in m(Y) = (4.49 +/- 0.11) GeV, which is still consistent with the mass of the experimental candidate Y(4350). With the tetraquark structure we are working we cannot explain the Y(4260) as a tetraquark state. We also consider molecular D(s0)(D) over bar (s)* and D(0)(D) over bar* states. For the D(s0)(D) over bar (s)* molecular state we get m(Ds0 (D) over bars*) = (4.42 +/- 0.10) GeV which is consistent, considering the errors, with the mass of the meson Y(4350) and for the D(0)(D) over bar* molecular state we get m(D0 (D) over bar*) = (4.27 +/- 0.10) GeV in excellent agreement with the mass of the meson Y(4260). (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

QCD sum rules study of the meson Z(+)(4430)

We use QCD sum rules to study the recently observed meson Z(+)(4430), considered as a D*D-1 molecule with J(P) = 0(-). We consider the contributions of condensates up to dimension eight and work at leading order in alpha(s). We get m(Z) = (4.40 +/- 0.10) GeV in a very good agreement with the experimental value. We also make predictions for the analogous mesons Z(s) and Z(bb) considered as D-s*D-1 and B*B-1 molecules, respectively. For Z(s) we predict mZ(s) = (4.70 +/- 0.06) GeV, which is above the D-s* D-1 threshold, indicating that it is probably a very broad state and, therefore, difficult to observe experimentally. For Z(bb) we predict m(Zbb) = (10.74 +/- 0.12) GeV, in agreement with quark model predictions. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

rho D*D* vertex from QCD sum rules

We calculate the form factors and the coupling constant in the rho D*D* vertex in the framework of QCD sum rules. We evaluate the three point correlation functions of the vertex considering both rho and D* mesons off-shell. The form factors obtained are very different but give the same coupling constant: g rho D*D* = 6.60 +/- 0.31. This number is 50% larger than what we would expect from SU(4) estimates. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

"I like being under those rules here": Students Using the College Library

This presentation was offered as part of the CUNY Library Assessment Conference, Reinventing Libraries: Reinventing Assessment, held at the City University of New York in June 2014.

Fuzzy logic for decision support in chronic care

Computerized clinical guidelines can provide significant benefits in terms of health outcomes and costs, however, their effective computer implementation presents significant problems. Vagueness and ambiguity inherent in natural language (textual) clinical guidelines makes them problematic for formulating automated alerts or advice. Fuzzy logic allows us to formalize the treatment of vagueness in a decision support architecture. In care plan on-line (CPOL), an intranet-based chronic disease care planning system for general practitioners (GPs) in use in South Australia, we formally treat fuzziness in interpretation of quantitative data, formulation of recommendations and unequal importance of clinical indicators. We use expert judgment on cases, as well as direct estimates by experts, to optimize aggregation operators and treat heterogeneous combinations of conjunction and disjunction that are present in the natural language decision rules formulated by specialist teams.

Importance of administrative transparency in the correctional context : knowing the rules

As a class, prisoners are vulnerable to numerous privations while in custody. In particular, prisoners are at a distinct disadvantage in terms of being able to control the central features of their daily lives. The lives of prisoners are circumscribed by numerous rules and regulations and their administration by correctional administrators. It is important that prisoners are aware of the content of the rules that govern their existence and the precise basis upon which power is exercised over them. In a recent freedom of information application in Victoria, a prisoner sought a personal copy of the rules that would govern his life in that particular institution. The prison authorities refused that request. The prisoner then appealed that decision to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal and was unsuccessful. It is contended that the analysis used in that case was flawed through the misreading of the nature of correctional environment and the fundamental importance of transparency in such a context.

An optimal strategy for extracting probabilistic rules by combining rough sets and genetic algorithm

This paper proposes an optimal strategy for extracting probabilistic rules from databases. Two inductive learning-based statistic measures and their rough set-based definitions: accuracy and coverage are introduced. The simplicity of a rule emphasized in this paper has previously been ignored in the discovery of probabilistic rules. To avoid the high computational complexity of rough-set approach, some rough-set terminologies rather than the approach itself are applied to represent the probabilistic rules. The genetic algorithm is exploited to find the optimal probabilistic rules that have the highest accuracy and coverage, and shortest length. Some heuristic genetic operators are also utilized in order to make the global searching and evolution of rules more efficiently. Experimental results have revealed that it run more efficiently and generate probabilistic classification rules of the same integrity when compared with traditional classification methods.

Rules and resources: a structuration approach to understanding the coordination of childrens`s inpatient health care

Aim. This paper presents findings from a multi-method study exploring the process of care coordination in children's inpatient health care.

Background. Existing work on care coordination is typified by 'black-box' type studies that measure inputs to and outcomes of care coordination roles and practices, without addressing the process of coordination.

Method. Using questionnaires, interviews and observation to collect data in multiple sites in the United Kingdom and Denmark between 1999 and 2005, the study gathered the perceptions of staff and compared these with observed practice. Giddens' structuration theory was used to provide an analytical and explanatory framework.

Findings. Current care coordination practice is diverse and inconsistent. It involves a wide range of clinical and non-clinical staff, many of whom perceive a lack of clarity about who should perform specific coordination activities. Staff draw upon a wide range of different material and non-material resources in coordinating care, the use of which is governed by largely tacit and informal rules.

Conclusions. Care coordination can be usefully conceptualized as a 'structurated' process – one that is continually produced and reproduced by staff using rules and resources to 'instantiate' or bring about care coordination through action. Potentially negative implications of this are manifested in diversity and inconsistency in care coordination practice. However, positive aspects such as the opportunity this provides to tailor care to the needs of the individual patient can be realized.

Using immune genetic algorithm to optimize the reactive power

A novel algorithm, immune genetic algorithm (IGA) is proposed for reactive power optimization of power system. While retaining excellent characteristics of genetic algorithm (GA), through imitating the biological immune system, the algorithm evaluates and selects the optimal solutions by the affinities between antigens and antibodies. With the regulation of the activating and suppressing of antibodies, IGA can achieve the dynamic balance between individual diversity and population convergence, and avoid getting into the local optimal solution. The proposed IGA is applied to the IEEE 30-bus system, and the results show that it is superior to the GA with good population convergence and fast computing speed.