Why Do People Act Like the Proverbial Ostrich? Investigating the Reasons That People Provide for Not Monitoring Their Goal Progress

Two studies examined peoples' reasons for not monitoring their progress toward their personal goals-a phenomenon that has been termed "the ostrich problem" (Webb et al., 2013). Study 1 used factor analysis to organize the reasons that people gave for not monitoring their goal progress, resulting in 10 factors. The most strongly endorsed reasons were: (a) that information on goal progress would demand a change in beliefs, or (b) undesired action; (c) that progress was poor, and (d) that thinking about and/or working on the goal was associated with negative emotions. Study 2 adopted a prospective design and investigated whether the reasons identified in Study 1 predicted: (a) the likelihood that participants would decline an opportunity to monitor their goal progress, and (b) the frequency with which participants monitored their goal progress. We found evidence that some of the most strongly endorsed reasons from Study 1 also predicted the avoidance of monitoring in Study 2; however, the belief that information about goal progress was likely to be inaccurate and not useful, and perceived control over goal attainment also reliably predicted the avoidance of monitoring in Study 2. Taken together, the findings explain why people do not monitor their goal progress and point to potential avenues for intervention

Non-Newtonian effects in the peristaltic flow of a Maxwell fluid

We analyzed the effect of viscoelasticity on the dynamics of fluids in porous media by studying the flow of a Maxwell fluid in a circular tube, in which the flow is induced by a wave traveling on the tube wall. The present study investigates novelties brought about into the classic peristaltic mechanism by inclusion of non-Newtonian effects that are important, for example, for hydrocarbons. This problem has numerous applications in various branches of science, including stimulation of fluid flow in porous media under the effect of elastic waves. We have found that in the extreme non-Newtonian regime there is a possibility of a fluid flow in the direction {\it opposite} to the propagation of the wave traveling on the tube wall.Comment: to Appear in Phys. Rev. E., 01 September 2001 issu

Quantum circuits for spin and flavor degrees of freedom of quarks forming nucleons

We discuss the quantum-circuit realization of the state of a nucleon in the scope of simple symmetry groups. Explicit algorithms are presented for the preparation of the state of a neutron or a proton as resulting from the composition of their quark constituents. We estimate the computational resources required for such a simulation and design a photonic network for its implementation. Moreover, we highlight that current work on three-body interactions in lattices of interacting qubits, combined with the measurement-based paradigm for quantum information processing, may also be suitable for the implementation of these nucleonic spin states.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, RevTeX4; Accepted for publication in Quantum Information Processin

Effective Field Theory for Layered Quantum Antiferromagnets with Non-Magnetic Impurities

We propose an effective two-dimensional quantum non-linear sigma model combined with classical percolation theory to study the magnetic properties of site diluted layered quantum antiferromagnets like La$_{2}$Cu$_{1-x}$M$_x$O$_{4}$ (M$=$Zn, Mg). We calculate the staggered magnetization at zero temperature, $M_s(x)$, the magnetic correlation length, $\xi(x,T)$, the NMR relaxation rate, $1/T_1(x,T)$, and the N\'eel temperature, $T_N(x)$, in the renormalized classical regime. Due to quantum fluctuations we find a quantum critical point (QCP) at $x_c \approx 0.305$ at lower doping than the two-dimensional percolation threshold $x_p \approx 0.41$. We compare our results with the available experimental data.Comment: Final version accepted for publication as a Rapid Communication on Physical Review B. A new discussion on the effect of disorder in layered quantum antiferromagnets is include

Tomato: a crop species amenable to improvement by cellular and molecular methods

Tomato is a crop plant with a relatively small DNA content per haploid genome and a well developed genetics. Plant regeneration from explants and protoplasts is feasable which led to the development of efficient transformation procedures. In view of the current data, the isolation of useful mutants at the cellular level probably will be of limited value in the genetic improvement of tomato. Protoplast fusion may lead to novel combinations of organelle and nuclear DNA (cybrids), whereas this technique also provides a means of introducing genetic information from alien species into tomato. Important developments have come from molecular approaches. Following the construction of an RFLP map, these RFLP markers can be used in tomato to tag quantitative traits bred in from related species. Both RFLP's and transposons are in the process of being used to clone desired genes for which no gene products are known. Cloned genes can be introduced and potentially improve specific properties of tomato especially those controlled by single genes. Recent results suggest that, in principle, phenotypic mutants can be created for cloned and characterized genes and will prove their value in further improving the cultivated tomato.

Measurement of Hadron and Lepton-Pair Production at 130GeV < \sqrt{s} < 189 GeV at LEP

We report on measurements of e+e- annihilation into hadrons and lepton pairs. The data have been collected with the L3 detector at LEP at centre-of-mass energies between 130 and 189 GeV. Using a total integrated luminosity of 243.7 pb^-1, 25864 hadronic and 8573 lepton-pair events are selected for the measurement of cross sections and leptonic forward-backward asymmetries. The results are in good agreement with Standard Model predictions

Measurement of the Tau Branching Fractions into Leptons

Using data collected with the L3 detector near the Z resonance, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 150pb-1, the branching fractions of the tau lepton into electron and muon are measured to be B(tau->e nu nu) = (17.806 +- 0.104 (stat.) +- 0.076 (syst.)) %, B(tau->mu nu nu) = (17.342 +- 0.110 (stat.) +- 0.067 (syst.)) %. From these results the ratio of the charged current coupling constants of the muon and the electron is determined to be g_mu/g_e = 1.0007 +- 0.0051. Assuming electron-muon universality, the Fermi constant is measured in tau lepton decays as G_F = (1.1616 +- 0.0058) 10^{-5} GeV^{-2}. Furthermore, the coupling constant of the strong interaction at the tau mass scale is obtained as alpha_s(m_tau^2) = 0.322 +- 0.009 (exp.) +- 0.015 (theory)

Higgs Candidates in e+e- Interactions at root(s) = 206.6 GeV

In a search for the Standard Model Higgs boson, carried out on 212.5 pb-1 of data collected by the L3 detector at the highest LEP centre-of-mass energies, including 116.5 pb-1 above root(s) = 206GeV, an excess of candidates for the process e+e- -> Z* -> HZ is found for Higgs masses near 114.5GeV. We present an analysis of our data and the characteristics of our strongest candidates.Comment: Footnote added, matches the version to be published in Physics Letters

Search for Manifestations of New Physics in Fermion-Pair Production at LEP

The measurements of hadron and lepton-pair production cross sections and leptonic forward-backward asymmetries performed with the L3 detector at centre-of-mass energies between 130 GeV and 189 GeV are used to search for new physics phenomena such as: contact interactions, exchange of virtual leptoquarks, scalar quarks and scalar neutrinos, effects of TeV strings in models of quantum gravity with large extra dimensions and non-zero sizes of the fermions. No evidence for these phenomena is found and new limits on their parameters are set