Naturalness of the Coleman-Glashow Mass Relation in the 1/N_c Expansion: an Update

A new measurement of the Xi^0 mass verifies the accuracy of the Coleman-Glashow relation at the level predicted by the 1/N_c expansion. Values for other baryon isospin mass splittings are updated, and continue to agree with the 1/N_c hierarchy.Comment: 6 pages, revte

Improved thermally conducting electron transfer polymers

Development of polymers with improved heat transfer coefficients for use in encapsulating electronic modules is discussed. Chemical reactions for synthesizing the polymers are described and thermodynamic and physical properties are analyzed

Troubling Trends in Terrorism and Attacks on Surface Transportation: The Outlook Is Grim, but People Still Have a Great Deal of Control

This Transportation Security Perspective is the seventh in a continuing series produced by the National Transportation Safety and Security Center of the Mineta Transportation Institute. These examine major terrorist attacks and trends in terrorists targeting surface transportation

“Smashing Into Crowds” -- An Analysis of Vehicle Ramming Attacks

Vehicle ramming attacks are not new. But since 2010 Jihadists have urged their use. Is this the wave of the future, or a terrorist fad? To answer this and other questions the authors expanded and updated the database used in their May 2018 MTI Security Perspective entitled An Analysis of Vehicle Ramming as a Terrorist Threat to include 184 attacks since January 1, 1970. They also reviewed literature and examined some cases in detail. This MTI Security perspective indicates that while not new, vehicle rammings are more frequent and lethal since 2014, although the number of attacks seems to be dropping in 2019. Still it is too early to know if this is because of government countermeasures or because it is a fad that has come and gone. They also found that: (a) the majority of attacks occur in developed countries like the US and Europe; (b) though not more lethal than some other tactics they can be easily carried out by those who cannot get bombs or guns in a target-rich environment that is difficult to protect; (c) while Jihadists (responsible for only 19% of the attacks) have exhorted their use since 2010, it isn’t clear these calls have been successful -- instead the pattern of attacks suggest a kind of wider contagion; (d) attackers plowing vehicles into public gatherings and pedestrianized streets are the most lethal, particularly the attacks are planned and the drivers rent or steal large trucks or vans driven at speed; and finally, (e) government authorities cannot prevent these attacks but can and are doing things to prevent them and mitigate fatalities when they occur

Quenched Chiral Perturbation Theory for Baryons

We develop quenched chiral perturbation theory for baryons using the graded-symmetry formalism of Bernard and Golterman and calculate non-analytic contributions to the baryon masses coming from quenched chiral loops. The usual term proportional to $m_{q}^{3/2}$ is substantially altered due to the cancellation of diagrams with internal quark loops. In addition, the $\eta'$ ``hairpin'' vertex leads to a new correction, proportional to $m_{q}^{1/2}$. We compare our results to numerical lattice data and use them to estimate the size of the quenching error in the octet baryon masses.Comment: 7 pages (An abridged version of this note will appear in the proceedings of Lattice'93. Latex + 14 postscript files, bundled using uufiles. Needs psfig.) UW/PT-93-0

The Terrorist Attack in Kunming, China: Does It Indicate a Growing Threat Worldwide?

At 9:00 pm on March 1, 2014, six men and two women, dressed in black and wielding knives, arrived at the Kunming train station, one of the largest in southwest China, and began slashing people at random. Before authorities could stop them, the assailants had killed 29 people and wounded another 143. It was the second worst terrorist attack in the history of the People’s Republic of China, not including a series of bombings in Shijiazhuang in 1998, which killed 108 people. These, however, were carried out for personal, not political reasons. It was also China’s second most lethal transportation attacks

Mineta Transportation Institute Says Subways Are Still in Terrorists’ Sights

The FBI arrested a California National Guard reservist on March 17 as he headed for the Canadian border on his way to Syria. Once in Syria, Nicholas Michael Teausant, who is also a student at San Joaquin Delta Community College in Stockton CA, planned to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Although he had never attended the army’s basic training course and was in the process of being discharged by the National Guard for failing to meet “basic education requirements,” Teausant thought he could teach the Syrian jihadists shooting skills and urban warfare tactic

Train Wrecks and Track Attacks: An Analysis of Attempts by Terrorists and Other Extremists to Derail Trains or Disrupt Rail Transportation

Attempts to sabotage rails and deliberately derail passenger trains have a long history in conventional and guerrilla warfare as well as during some particularly bitter labor disputes in the past. Since the 1970s, political fanatics have become a major adversary. Terrorists have sought to derail trains to achieve high-casualty events, while anarchists and issue oriented extremists have attacked rails to attract attention to their causes and impose economic damage. In this report, we examine the more than a thousand attempts to derail trains and to attack rail infrastructure to discern overall patterns and trends. We then look at four subsets of attacks in greater detail: those by India’s Maoist guerrillas; those by separatist insurgents in Thailand; those by various jihadist groups worldwide; and those by an assemblage of anarchists, environmental and similar cause-oriented extremists in Europe. How do these adversaries compare in terms of tactics, success rates, lethality, and other factors? Do their different objectives and circumstances affect their actions? Perhaps most important, is there evidence that they become more effective and lethal over time

Explosives and Incendiaries Used in Terrorist Attacks on Public Surface Transportation: A Preliminary Empirical Analysis, MTI Report WP 09-02

This report provides data on terrorist attacks against public surface transportation targets and serious crimes committed against such targets throughout the world. The data are drawn from the MTI database of attacks on public surface transportation, which is expanded and updated as information becomes available. This analysis is based on the database as of February 20, 2010. Data include the frequency and lethality with which trains, buses, and road and highway targets are attacked; the relationship between fatalities and attacks against those targets; and the relationship between injuries and attacks against them. The report presents some preliminary observations drawn from the data that can help stakeholder governments, transit managers, and employee to focus on the ways the most frequent and/or most lethal attacks are carried out as they consider measures to prevent or mitigate attacks that may be considered likely to happen in the United State