Direct Detection of WIMP Dark Matter

The status of the recent efforts in the direct search for Weak Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) Dark Matter is briefly reviewed and the main achievements illustrated by the contributions presented to TAUP 99. The strategies followed in the quest for WIMPs will be first revisited and then the new results and the future prospects reported.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures. To be published in the TAUP 99 Proceedings, Nucl. Phys. B (Proc. Suppl.), ed. by M. Froissart, J. Dumarchez and D. Vignau

El nuevo plan contable de entidades aseguradoras en España

Resulta innegable que la realidad económica actual otorga un papel fundamental a la contabilidad, no sólo como herramienta de gestión empresarial, sino también como fuente de información frente a terceros interesados en la evolución del negocio. Esta importancia se acentúa aun más cuando nos situamos en sectores como el asegurador, que por su trascendencia económica, financiera e incluso social, son objeto de ordenación, supervisión y control público. Es evidente, por tanto, la necesidad de normalizar la información contable suministrada por las entidades aseguradoras con la doble finalidad de poder ser interpretada con criterios uniformes y de facilitar la actividad supervisora del organismo encargado. En España, el proceso de adaptación del Plan General de Contabilidad a la actividad aseguradora ha sido especialmente lento y complejo puesto que al mismo tiempo hemos estado inmersos en un periodo de incorporación a la legislación nacional de la normativa contable europea del sector. Este dilatado proceso se ha culminado con la publicación del Real Decreto 2014/1997 de 26 de diciembre, por el que se aprueba el Plan de C'ontabilidad de las entidades aseguradoras, cuya composición y contenido ha sido objeto de estudio en el presente trabajo.It cannot be denied that the current economy reality gives a crucial role to accounting not only as a tool for business Management but also as a source of information for third parties interested in the development of (he business. This importance is all the more marked when we are dealing with sectors like insurance which due to their economic, financial and even social transcendence are the object of public order, supervision and control. Consequently there is a clear to normalize accounting information supplied by insurance companies with the dual purpose of interpreting via uniform criteria and of facilitating the supervisory activity of the organization responsible. In Spain, the adaptation process of the Accounting General Plan to the insurance activity has been specially slow an complex since at the same time we have been inmersed in a period of incorporation into the national legislation of the sector's European accountancy law. This extended process has culminated in the publication on 26th of December 1997 of the RD 2014/1997, by which the insurance companies accountancy plan has been approved. The composition and content of which is the object of study in the following brief

Time to Graduation Improvement Study - A Lean Flow Chart Approach At California Polytechnic State University

In order for Cal Poly to continue to stand out among other universities, there is a strong need to graduate their students in the typical 4 years. With a falling economy, both the budgets of Cal Poly and the student are decreasing. The longer a student takes in receiving their bachelors, the higher the costs will be in both money and time for the student and the university. Today, the average Cal Poly Industrial Technology student takes 5 years to graduate. That extra year of school will cost the student on average $8,523 in tuition fees on top of costs of living and books. This senior project will propose a template of flow charts that will help students, teachers, and the registrar in understand the current flow and capacity for students trying to get through the curriculum and graduate. Flow charts were chosen because they are easy to understand visual aids that can be understood by any person wanting to benefit from this

Inhomogeneous soliton ratchets under two ac forces

We extend our previous work on soliton ratchet devices [L. Morales-Molina et al., Eur. Phys. J. B 37, 79 (2004)] to consider the joint effect of two ac forces including non-harmonic drivings, as proposed for particle ratchets by Savele'v et al. [Europhys. Lett. 67}, 179 (2004); Phys. Rev. E {\bf 70} 066109 (2004)]. Current reversals due to the interplay between the phases, frequencies and amplitudes of the harmonics are obtained. An analysis of the effect of the damping coefficient on the dynamics is presented. We show that solitons give rise to non-trivial differences in the phenomenology reported for particle systems that arise from their extended character. A comparison with soliton ratchets in homogeneous systems with biharmonic forces is also presented. This ratchet device may be an ideal candidate for Josephson junction ratchets with intrinsic large damping

Ratchet behavior in nonlinear Klein-Gordon systems with point-like inhomogeneities

We investigate the ratchet dynamics of nonlinear Klein-Gordon kinks in a periodic, asymmetric lattice of point-like inhomogeneities. We explain the underlying rectification mechanism within a collective coordinate framework, which shows that such system behaves as a rocking ratchet for point particles. Careful attention is given to the kink width dynamics and its role in the transport. We also analyze the robustness of our kink rocking ratchet in the presence of noise. We show that the noise activates unidirectional motion in a parameter range where such motion is not observed in the noiseless case. This is subsequently corroborated by the collective variable theory. An explanation for this new phenomenom is given

The Arabidopsis NADPH oxidases RbohD and RbohF display differential expression patterns and contributions during plant immunity

Plant NADPH oxidases, also known as respiratory burst oxidase homologues (RBOHs), produce reactive oxygen species (ROS) that perform a wide range of functions. RbohD and RbohF, two of the 10 Rboh genes present in Arabidopsis, are pleiotropic and mediate diverse physiological processes including the response to pathogens. We hypothesized that the spatio-temporal control of RbohD and RbohF gene expression might be critical in determining their multiplicity of functions. Transgenic Arabidopsis plants with RbohD and RbohF promoter fusions to β-glucuronidase and Luciferase reporter genes were generated. Analysis of these plants revealed a differential expression pattern for RbohD and RbohF throughout plant development and during immune responses. RbohD and RbohF gene expression was differentially modulated by pathogen-associated molecular patterns. Histochemical stains and in vivo expression analysis showed a correlation between the level of RbohD and RbohF promoter activity, H2O2 accumulation and the amount of cell death in response to the pathogenic bacterium Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000 and the necrotrophic fungus Plectosphaerella cucumerina. A promoter-swap strategy revealed that the promoter region of RbohD was required to drive production of ROS by this gene in response to pathogens. Moreover, RbohD promoter was activated during Arabidopsis interaction with a non-virulent P. cucumerina isolate, and susceptibility tests with the double mutant rbohD rbohF uncovered a new function for these oxidases in basal resistance. Altogether, our results suggest that differential spatio-temporal expression of the Rboh genes contributes to fine-tune RBOH/NADPH oxidase-dependent ROS production and signaling in Arabidopsis immunity