The Rachel Carson Letters and the Making of Silent Spring

Environment, conservation, green, and kindred movements look back to Rachel Carson’s 1962 book Silent Spring as a milestone. The impact of the book, including on government, industry, and civil society, was immediate and substantial, and has been extensively described; however, the provenance of the book has been less thoroughly examined. Using Carson’s personal correspondence, this paper reveals that the primary source for Carson’s book was the extensive evidence and contacts compiled by two biodynamic farmers, Marjorie Spock and Mary T. Richards, of Long Island, New York. Their evidence was compiled for a suite of legal actions (1957-1960) against the U.S. Government and that contested the aerial spraying of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT). During Rudolf Steiner’s lifetime, Spock and Richards both studied at Steiner’s Goetheanum, the headquarters of Anthroposophy, located in Dornach, Switzerland. Spock and Richards were prominent U.S. anthroposophists, and established a biodynamic farm under the tutelage of the leading biodynamics exponent of the time, Dr. Ehrenfried Pfeiffer. When their property was under threat from a government program of DDT spraying, they brought their case, eventually lost it, in the process spent US$100,000, and compiled the evidence that they then shared with Carson, who used it, and their extensive contacts and the trial transcripts, as the primary input for Silent Spring. Carson attributed to Spock, Richards, and Pfeiffer, no credit whatsoever in her book. As a consequence, the organics movement has not received the recognition, that is its due, as the primary impulse for Silent Spring, and it is, itself, unaware of this provenance

Measuring and Analyzing Effects of HEMP Simulation on Synthetic Power Grids

There is significant uncertainty about the potential effects of a high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) detonation on the bulk electric system. This study attempts to account for such uncertainty, in using Monte-Carlo methods to account for speculated range of effect of HEMP contingency. Through task parallelism and asynchronous processing techniques implemented throughout simulation, this study measure the effects of 700 large-scale HEMP simulations on a 7173 bus synthetic power grid. Analysis explores how contingency severity varies, depending on initial contingency parameters. Severity indices were captured throughout simulation to measure and quantify the cascading nature of an HEMP event. Further development of HEMP simulation modeling is explored as well, which could augment forecasts of potential contingency events as well.Comment: 6 pages. 13 figure

Zero mode quantization of multi-Skyrmions

A zero mode quantization of the minimal energy SU(2) Skyrmions for nucleon numbers four to nine and seventeen is described. This involves quantizing the rotational and isorotational modes of the configurations. For nucleon numbers four, six and eight the ground states obtained are in agreement with the observed nuclear states of Helium, Lithium and Beryllium. However, for nucleon numbers five, seven, nine and seventeen the spins obtained conflict with the observed isodoublet nuclear states.Comment: 37 pages, LaTeX, 4 figures. More careful treatment of double covers, reference adde

Multibaryons as Symmetric Multiskyrmions

We study non-adiabatic corrections to multibaryon systems within the bound state approach to the SU(3) Skyrme model. We use approximate ansatze for the static background fields based on rational maps which have the same symmetries of the exact solutions. To determine the explicit form of the collective Hamiltonians and wave functions we only make use of these symmetries. Thus, the expressions obtained are also valid in the exact case. On the other hand, the inertia parameters and hyperfine splitting constants we calculate do depend on the detailed form of the ansatze and are, therefore, approximate. Using these values we compute the low lying spectra of multibaryons with B <= 9 and strangeness 0, -1 and -B. Finally, we show that the non-adiabatic corrections do not affect the stability of the tetralambda and heptalambda found in a previous work.Comment: 17 pages, RevTeX, no figure

The debris disk host star HD 61005: a member of the Argus Association?

HD 61005 is a nearby young solar type star that shows a large infrared excess due to a debris disk. The disk has been recently imaged from ground and space, with indications of several components. Some characteristics of the disk suggest the presence of planetary companions around the star, that remain undetected in deep adaptive optics imaging. For a better understanding of the system we aim to refine the determination of the stellar parameters, with emphasis on the stellar age and system orientation. We used ASAS and Hipparcos photometry and FEROS spectra to determine the rotation period, radial and rotational velocity, chromospheric emission, effective temperature, and chemical composition. We find no indication of any misalignment between the star rotation axis and the disk. The standard age calibrations applied to several indicators yield an age close to that of the Pleiades (120 Myr); however the kinematic properties strongly support its membership in the younger (40 Myr) Argus association, which also includes the IC 2391 open cluster. Detailed comparison of the properties of HD 61005 and IC 2391 members shows that the characteristics of HD 61005 are compatible with membership to the Argus association, once its rather slow rotation is taken into account, because lithium and other age indicators are somewhat correlated with stellar rotation at a fixed age. We also identify systematic differences between the field and cluster population of the Argus association, which are probably selection effects, so we suggest that additional members with slower rotation and lower activity level are waiting to be identified.Comment: A&A, in press, 13 pages, 11 figure

Mass splittings of nuclear isotopes in chiral soliton approach

The differences of the masses of nuclear isotopes with atomic numbers between \~10 and ~30 can be described within the chiral soliton approach in satisfactory agreement with data. Rescaling of the model is necessary for this purpose - decrease of the Skyrme constant by about 30%, providing the "nuclear variant" of the model. The asymmetric term in Weizsaecker-Bethe- Bacher mass formula for nuclei can be obtained as the isospin dependent quantum correction to the nucleus energy. Some predictions for the binding energies of neutron rich nuclides are made in this way, from, e.g. Be-16 and B-19 to Ne-31 and Na-32. Neutron rich nuclides with high values of isospin are unstable relative to strong interactions. The SK4 (Skyrme) variant of the model, as well as SK6 variant (6-th order term in chiral derivatives in the lagrangian as solitons stabilizer) are considered, and the rational map approximation is used to describe multiskyrmions.Comment: 16 pages, 10 tables, 2 figures. Figures are added and few misprints are removed. Submitted to Phys. Atom. Nucl. (Yad. Fiz.

AMPK Is Essential to Balance Glycolysis and Mitochondrial Metabolism to Control T-ALL Cell Stress and Survival

T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) is an aggressive malignancy associated with Notch pathway mutations. While both normal activated and leukemic T cells can utilize aerobic glycolysis to support proliferation, it is unclear to what extent these cell populations are metabolically similar and if differences reveal T-ALL vulnerabilities. Here we show that aerobic glycolysis is surprisingly less active in T-ALL cells than proliferating normal T cells and that T-ALL cells are metabolically distinct. Oncogenic Notch promoted glycolysis but also induced metabolic stress that activated 5' AMP-activated kinase (AMPK). Unlike stimulated T cells, AMPK actively restrained aerobic glycolysis in T-ALL cells through inhibition of mTORC1 while promoting oxidative metabolism and mitochondrial Complex I activity. Importantly, AMPK deficiency or inhibition of Complex I led to T-ALL cell death and reduced disease burden. Thus, AMPK simultaneously inhibits anabolic growth signaling and is essential to promote mitochondrial pathways that mitigate metabolic stress and apoptosis in T-ALL

Very Low-Mass Stellar and Substellar Companions to Solar-Like Stars from MARVELS I: A Low Mass Ratio Stellar Companion to TYC 4110-01037-1 in a 79-day Orbit

TYC 4110-01037-1 has a low-mass stellar companion, whose small mass ratio and short orbital period are atypical amongst solar-like (Teff ~< 6000 K) binary systems. Our analysis of TYC 4110-01037-1 reveals it to be a moderately aged (~<5 Gyr) solar-like star having a mass of 1.07 +/- 0.08 MSun and radius of 0.99 +/- 0.18 RSun. We analyze 32 radial velocity measurements from the SDSS-III MARVELS survey as well as 6 supporting radial velocity measurements from the SARG spectrograph on the 3.6m TNG telescope obtained over a period of ~2 years. The best Keplerian orbital fit parameters were found to have a period of 78.994 +/- 0.012 days, an eccentricity of 0.1095 +/- 0.0023, and a semi-amplitude of 4199 +/- 11 m/s. We determine the minimum companion mass (if sin i = 1) to be 97.7 +/- 5.8 MJup. The system's companion to host star mass ratio, >0.087 +/- 0.003, places it at the lowest end of observed values for short period stellar companions to solar-like (Teff ~< 6000 K) stars. One possible way to create such a system would be if a triple-component stellar multiple broke up into a short period, low q binary during the cluster dispersal phase of its lifetime. A candidate tertiary body has been identified in the system via single-epoch, high contrast imagery. If this object is confirmed to be co-moving, we estimate it would be a dM4 star. We present these results in the context of our larger-scale effort to constrain the statistics of low mass stellar and brown dwarf companions to FGK-type stars via the MARVELS survey.Comment: 22 pages; accepted in A

In-depth study of moderately young but extremely red, very dusty substellar companion HD206893B

Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics. Reproduced with permission from Astronomy & Astrophysics. © 2018 ESO.The substellar companion HD206893b has recently been discovered by direct imaging of its disc-bearing host star with the SPHERE instrument. We investigate the atypical properties of the companion, which has the reddest near-infrared colours among all known substellar objects, either orbiting a star or isolated, and we provide a comprehensive characterisation of the host star-disc-companion system. We conducted a follow-up of the companion with adaptive optics imaging and spectro-imaging with SPHERE, and a multiinstrument follow-up of its host star. We obtain a R=30 spectrum from 0.95 to 1.64 micron of the companion and additional photometry at 2.11 and 2.25 micron. We carried out extensive atmosphere model fitting for the companions and the host star in order to derive their age, mass, and metallicity. We found no additional companion in the system in spite of exquisite observing conditions resulting in sensitivity to 6MJup (2MJup) at 0.5" for an age of 300 Myr (50 Myr). We detect orbital motion over more than one year and characterise the possible Keplerian orbits. We constrain the age of the system to a minimum of 50 Myr and a maximum of 700 Myr, and determine that the host-star metallicity is nearly solar. The comparison of the companion spectrum and photometry to model atmospheres indicates that the companion is an extremely dusty late L dwarf, with an intermediate gravity (log g 4.5-5.0) which is compatible with the independent age estimate of the system. Though our best fit corresponds to a brown dwarf of 15-30 MJup aged 100-300 Myr, our analysis is also compatible with a range of masses and ages going from a 50 Myr 12MJup planetary-mass object to a 50 MJup Hyades-age brown dwarf...Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Study of DJ meson decays to D+π−, D0π+ and D∗+π− final states in pp collisions

A study of D+π−, D0π+ and D∗+π− final states is performed using pp collision data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb−1, collected at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV with the LHCb detector. The D1(2420)0 resonance is observed in the D∗+π− final state and the D∗2(2460) resonance is observed in the D+π−, D0π+ and D∗+π− final states. For both resonances, their properties and spin-parity assignments are obtained. In addition, two natural parity and two unnatural parity resonances are observed in the mass region between 2500 and 2800 MeV. Further structures in the region around 3000 MeV are observed in all the D∗+π−, D+π− and D0π+ final states