Structure of A = 7 - 8 nuclei with two- plus three-nucleon interactions from chiral effective field theory

We solve the ab initio no-core shell model (NCSM) in the complete Nmax = 8 basis for A = 7 and A = 8 nuclei with two-nucleon and three-nucleon interactions derived within chiral effective field theory (EFT). We find that including the chiral EFT three-nucleon interaction in the Hamiltonian improves overall good agreement with experimental binding energies, excitation spectra, transitions and electromagnetic moments. We predict states that exhibit sensitivity to including the chiral EFT three-nucleon interaction but are not yet known experimentally.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, updated references and corrected a typ

Bifurcation diagram and pattern formation in superconducting wires with electric currents

We examine the behavior of a one-dimensional superconducting wire exposed to an applied electric current. We use the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau model to describe the system and retain temperature and applied current as parameters. Through a combination of spectral analysis, asymptotics and canonical numerical computation, we divide this two-dimensional parameter space into a number of regions. In some of them only the normal state or a stationary state or an oscillatory state are stable, while in some of them two states are stable. One of the most interesting features of the analysis is the evident collision of real eigenvalues of the associated PT-symmetric linearization, leading as it does to the emergence of complex elements of the spectrum. In particular this provides an explanation to the emergence of a stable oscillatory state. We show that part of the bifurcation diagram and many of the emerging patterns are directly controlled by this spectrum, while other patterns arise due to nonlinear interaction of the leading eigenfunctions

The C. elegans LIM homeobox gene lin-11 specifies multiple cell fates during vulval development

LIM homeobox family members regulate a variety of cell fate choices during animal development. In C. elegans, mutations in the LIM homeobox gene lin-11 have previously been shown to alter the cell division pattern of a subset of the 2° lineage vulval cells. We demonstrate multiple functions of lin-11 during vulval development. We examined the fate of vulval cells in lin-11 mutant animals using five cellular markers and found that lin-11 is necessary for the patterning of both 1° and 2° lineage cells. In the absence of lin-11 function, vulval cells fail to acquire correct identity and inappropriately fuse with each other. The expression pattern of lin-11 reveals dynamic changes during development. Using a temporally controlled overexpression system, we show that lin-11 is initially required in vulval cells for establishing the correct invagination pattern. This process involves asymmetric expression of lin-11 in the 2° lineage cells. Using a conditional RNAi approach, we show that lin-11 regulates vulval morphogenesis. Finally, we show that LDB-1, a NLI/Ldb1/CLIM2 family member, interacts physically with LIN-11, and is necessary for vulval morphogenesis. Together, these findings demonstrate that temporal regulation of lin-11 is crucial for the wild-type vulval patterning

The Gene Ontology: enhancements for 2011

The Gene Ontology (GO) (http://www.geneontology.org) is a community bioinformatics resource that represents gene product function through the use of structured, controlled vocabularies. The number of GO annotations of gene products has increased due to curation efforts among GO Consortium (GOC) groups, including focused literature-based annotation and ortholog-based functional inference. The GO ontologies continue to expand and improve as a result of targeted ontology development, including the introduction of computable logical definitions and development of new tools for the streamlined addition of terms to the ontology. The GOC continues to support its user community through the use of e-mail lists, social media and web-based resources

The Effects Of Rapport-Building Style on Children’s Reports of a Staged Event

Three- to 9-year-old children (N = 144) interacted with a photographer and were interviewed about the event either a week or a month later. The informativeness and accuracy of information provided following either open-ended or direct rapport building were compared. Children in the open-ended rapport-building condition provided more accurate reports than children in the direct rapport-building condition after both short and long delays. Open-ended rapport-building led the 3- to 4-year-olds to report more errors in response to the first recall question about the event, but they went on to provide more accurate reports in the rest of the interview than counterparts in the direct rapport-building condition. These results suggest that forensic interviewers should attempt to establish rapport with children using an open-ended style

Origin of the anomalous long lifetime of 14C

We report the microscopic origins of the anomalously suppressed beta decay of 14C to 14N using the ab initio no-core shell model (NCSM) with the Hamiltonian from chiral effective field theory (EFT) including three-nucleon force (3NF) terms. The 3NF induces unexpectedly large cancellations within the p-shell between contributions to beta decay, which reduce the traditionally large contributions from the NN interactions by an order of magnitude, leading to the long lifetime of 14C.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures and 2 table

The use of paraphrasing in investigative interviews

Objective Young children’s descriptions of maltreatment are often sparse thus creating the need for techniques that elicit lengthier accounts. One technique that can be used by interviewers in an attempt to increase children’s reports is ‘paraphrasing’, or repeating information children have disclosed. Although we currently have a general understanding of how paraphrasing may influence children’s reports, we do not have a clear description of how paraphrasing is actually used in the field. Method The present study assessed the use of paraphrasing in 125 interviews of children aged 4 to 16 years conducted by police officers and social workers. All interviewer prompts were coded into four different categories of paraphrasing. All children’s reports were coded for the number of details in response to each paraphrasing statement. Results ‘Expansion paraphrasing’ (e.g., “you said he hit you. Tell me more about when he hit you”) was used significantly more often and elicited significantly more details, while ‘yes/no paraphrasing’ (e.g., “he hit you?”) resulted in shorter descriptions from children, compared to other paraphrasing styles. Further, interviewers more often distorted children’s words when using yes/no paraphrasing, and children rarely corrected interviewers when they paraphrased inaccurately. Conclusions and Practical Implications Investigative interviewers in this sample frequently used paraphrasing with children of all ages and, though children’s responses differed following the various styles of paraphrasing, the effects did not differ by the age of the child witness. The results suggest that paraphrasing affects the quality of statements by child witnesses. Implications for investigative interviewers will be discussed and recommendations offered for easy ways to use paraphrasing to increase the descriptiveness of children’s reports of their experiences

The no-core shell model with general radial bases

Calculations in the ab initio no-core shell model (NCSM) have conventionally been carried out using the harmonic-oscillator many-body basis. However, the rapid falloff (Gaussian asymptotics) of the oscillator functions at large radius makes them poorly suited for the description of the asymptotic properties of the nuclear wavefunction. We establish the foundations for carrying out no-core configuration interaction (NCCI) calculations using a basis built from general radial functions and discuss some of the considerations which enter into using such a basis. In particular, we consider the Coulomb-Sturmian basis, which provides a complete set of functions with a realistic (exponential) radial falloff.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures; presented at Horizons on Innovative Theories, Experiments, and Supercomputing in Nuclear Physics 2012, New Orleans, Louisiana, June 4-7, 2012; submitted to J. Phys. Conf. Se