New results on atmospheric neutrinos from Soudan 2

Neutrino interactions recorded in a 5.1 fiducial kiloton-year exposure of the Soudan-2 iron tracking calorimeter are analyzed for effects of neutrino oscillations. Using contained single track and single shower events, we update our measurement of the atmospheric nu_mu/nu_e ratio-of-ratios and find R = 0.68 \pm 0.11 \pm 0.06. Assuming this anomalously low R-value is the result of nu_mu flavor disappearance via nu_mu to nu_tau oscillation, we select samples of charged current events which offer good resolution, event-by-event, for L/Enu reconstruction. Oscillation-weighted Monte Carlo events are fitted to these data events using a chisq function summed over bins of log(L/E_nu). The region allowed in the (sin^2 2\theta, \Delta m^2) plane at 90% CL is obtained using the Feldman-Cousins procedure: 0.46 < sin^2 2\theta < 1.0 and 2.2x10^-4 < \Delta m^2 < 2.2x10^-2 ev^2. A small but relatively energetic sample of partially contained nu_mu events has also been isolated. Their distribution in log(L/E_vis) relative to null oscillation Monte Carlo is compatible with nu_mu to nu_tau oscillation scenarios within the parameter region allowed by our contained events.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures; presented at NU2000, the XIXth Int. Conf. on Nuetrino Physics and Astrophysics, June 16-21, 2000, Sudbury, canad

Kaur v. Singh, 136 Nev. Adv. Op. 77 (Dec. 10, 2020)

The Court clarified that district courts should determine whether judicial estoppel applies to a situation, using the judicial estoppel factors, before considering whether a party sufficiently raised a defense to the application of the doctrine

Est. of Curtis v. S. Las Vegas Med. Inv’rs, 136 Nev. Adv. Op. 39 (July 9, 2020)

The Court applied the common knowledge exception to the expert affidavit requirement for an ordinary negligence claim that appeared to sound in professional negligence. The Court determined that a claim predicated upon ordinary negligence—such that a lay juror would not require medical expert testimony to evaluate—is excused from NRS 41A.071’s medical expert affidavit requirement. Here, an act such as administering medicine to the wrong patient is ordinary negligence rather than professional negligence. The Court affirmed the expert testimony requirement for allegations that challenged the health care provider’s medical judgment. Here, allegations of failing to monitor a patient sounded in professional negligence and required expert testimony to evaluate. Therefore, this allegation was not excused from the medical expert affidavit requirement

Vikings, merchants, and pirates at the top of the world : Y-chromosomal signatures of recent and ancient migrations in the Faroe Islands.

The Faroe Islands are a small archipelago in the North Atlantic. With a current population of approximately 49,000 individuals and evidence of high levels of genetic drift, the Faroese are thought to have remained highly homogeneous since their settlement by Vikings around 825 CE. Despite their geographic isolation, however, there is historical evidence that the Faroese experienced sporadic contact with other populations since the time of founding. This study set out to distinguish the signal of the original founders from later migrants. Twelve Y-chromosomal STR markers were scored for 139 Faroese males. Median-joining networks were constructed to determine the phylogenetic relationships within the Faroese and between likely parental populations. Dispersal patterns of individuals around Faroese haplogroups suggest different times of haplogroup introduction to the islands. The most common haplogroup, R1a, consists of a large node with a tight network of neighbor haplotypes, such that 62.06% of R1a individuals are = two mutational steps away. This pattern may represent the early founder event of R1a in the Faroes. Other distributions document more recent introductions to the islands. The overall pattern is one of a strong founder effect followed by minor instances of later migrations

Debt, Bankruptcy, and the Life Course

This Essay considers the significance of credit markets and bankruptcy for life course mobility. Comparing parallel data from the 2007 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) and the 2007 Consumer Bankruptcy Project (CBP), it analyzes use of the bankruptcy process as a function of the distribution of unplanned events, the ability of households to use credit markets to limit the adverse effects of such events, and barriers in access to the bankruptcy system. Our findings suggest two things. One, although the financial characteristics of filers vary markedly by age and race, bankrupt households generally come from the bottom quartiles of the population in assets and income and the top quartile in debt. Two, households neither attribute their bankruptcies to the same causes nor use the same strategies to avert bankruptcy. Age- and race-based variations are consistent with disparate racial access to markets and institutions and the increased incidence of financial activity among the elderly

Determination of Methods to Separate and Analyze Small and Large Chain Isoprenoids from Mycobacterium tuberculosis

The genes responsible for the isoprenoid carrier lipids involved in cell wall biosynthesis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) are believed to be Rv2361c, Rv1086, and Rv0989c. These genes encode prenyltransferases catalyzing production of isoprenoids of increasing length. Rv0989c can work in tandem with Rv1086 to create precursors to decaprenyl diphosphate, the final product of Rv2361c. Rv2361c can also work by itself to produce decaprenyl diphosphate. In addition to Rv2361c, Rv1086, and Rv0989c, M.tb encodes seven total different prenyltransferases, and in other biochemical studies it has been suggested that these genes may provide redundancy with the isoprenoids that are formed. These genes can be expressed in Escherichia coli and the isoprenoids extracted through lipid extraction. The samples are then dephosphorylated using alkaline phosphatase. Once dephosphorylated these samples can be analyzed using HPLC in order to separate and analyze the isoprenoid products. HPLC separation occurs with a mobile phase of water and an increasing gradient of 60:40 isopropanol:methanol at a rate of 1 mL/min. These samples are ran over a C18 column. The HPLC allows us to view the different products that may be formed during errant metabolism when alternate isoprenoid precursors are available. Continuing work with these products will allow us to see the influence of each gene with the other genes present in M.tb in the formation of decaprenyl diphosphate

Trends in Gender Segregation in the Choice of Science and Engineering Majors

Numerous theories have been put forward for the high and continuing levels of gender segregation, but research has not systematically examined the extent to which these theories for the gender gap are consistent with actual trends. Using both administrative data and three education panel datasets, we evaluate several prominent explanations for the persisting gender gap in STEM fields, and find that none of them are empirically satisfactory. Instead, the persisting gender gap in STEM fields is plausibly attributable to a females' greater preference relative to males for elite occupational careers that are less "vocationally oriented" in the undergraduate years and that permit greater flexibility in undergraduate. This hypothesis is supported by an analysis of gendered pathways to medical and law school

The Disputed Quality of Software Patents

We analyze the characteristics of the patents held by firms in the software industry. Unlike prior researchers, we rely on the examination of individual patents to determine which patents involve software inventions. This method of identifying the relevant patents is more laborious than the methods that previous scholars have used, but it produces a data set from which we can learn more about the role of patents in the software industry. In general, we find that patents the computer technology firms obtain on software inventions have more prior art references, claims, and forward citations than the patents that the same firms obtain on nonsoftware inventions. We also find that the patents that pure software firms (those producing only software) obtain on software inventions have more prior art references, claims, and forward citations than the software patents obtained by the firms that derive revenues from other product lines. Finally, we conclude that the patents of the largest firms are no better (or worse) than the patents of the smallest firms, belying the idea that large firms are plagued by challenges based on the worthless patents of their smaller competitors. The Article closes with a brief discussion of the implications of our empirical analysis. The findings undermine the strongest criticisms about the low quality of software patents. It is simply not accurate to say that software patents as a group have remarkably low numbers of prior art references and forward citations. Thus, these findings cut against technology-based patent reforms designed to make it more difficult to obtain software patents. On the other hand, the evidence that small firms are no less capable than large firms of producing quality patents undermines concerns that higher hurdles at the early stage of the patenting process would disadvantage smaller inventors