Sphenopteris sellardsii, a problematical pteridosperm from the Permian of Kansas

8 p., 4 fig.http://paleo.ku.edu/contributions.htm

Fossil fungi from America Pennsylvanian coal balls

10 p., 4 pl.http://paleo.ku.edu/contributions.htm

Corynepteris involucrata, sp. nov., a new fertile fern of possible zygopterid affinities from the Pennsylvanian of Kansas

16 p., 7 pl., 1 fig.http://paleo.ku.edu/contributions.htm

Are fast food restaurants an environmental risk factor for obesity?

OBJECTIVE: Eating at "fast food" restaurants has increased and is linked to obesity. This study examined whether living or working near "fast food" restaurants is associated with body weight. METHODS: A telephone survey of 1033 Minnesota residents assessed body height and weight, frequency of eating at restaurants, and work and home addresses. Proximity of home and work to restaurants was assessed by Global Index System (GIS) methodology. RESULTS: Eating at "fast food" restaurants was positively associated with having children, a high fat diet and Body Mass Index (BMI). It was negatively associated with vegetable consumption and physical activity. Proximity of "fast food" restaurants to home or work was not associated with eating at "fast food" restaurants or with BMI. Proximity of "non-fast food" restaurants was not associated with BMI, but was associated with frequency of eating at those restaurants. CONCLUSION: Failure to find relationships between proximity to "fast food" restaurants and obesity may be due to methodological weaknesses, e.g. the operational definition of "fast food" or "proximity", or homogeneity of restaurant proximity. Alternatively, the proliferation of "fast food" restaurants may not be a strong unique cause of obesity

Exact and Scaling Form of the Bipartite Fidelity of the Infinite XXZ Chain

We find an exact expression for the bipartite fidelity f=|'|^2, where |vac> is the vacuum eigenstate of an infinite-size antiferromagnetic XXZ chain and |vac>' is the vacuum eigenstate of an infinite-size XXZ chain which is split in two. We consider the quantity -ln(f) which has been put forward as a measure of quantum entanglement, and show that the large correlation length xi behaviour is consistent with a general conjecture -ln(f) ~ c/8 ln(xi), where c is the central charge of the UV conformal field theory (with c=1 for the XXZ chain). This behaviour is a natural extension of the existing conformal field theory prediction of -ln(f) ~ c/8 ln(L) for a length L bipartite system with 0<< L <<xi.Comment: 6 page

Glassy behaviour in an exactly solved spin system with a ferromagnetic transition

We show that applying simple dynamical rules to Baxter's eight-vertex model leads to a system which resembles a glass-forming liquid. There are analogies with liquid, supercooled liquid, glassy and crystalline states. The disordered phases exhibit strong dynamical heterogeneity at low temperatures, which may be described in terms of an emergent mobility field. Their dynamics are well-described by a simple model with trivial thermodynamics, but an emergent kinetic constraint. We show that the (second order) thermodynamic transition to the ordered phase may be interpreted in terms of confinement of the excitations in the mobility field. We also describe the aging of disordered states towards the ordered phase, in terms of simple rate equations.Comment: 11 page

The Bible Story Producer App

The Bible Story Producer team at Cedarville University has been spending the past year on the Bible Story Producer app for Android. This app is a tool whose purpose is to facilitate the translation of Bible stories by bilingual laypersons in places where the Bible is unavailable in the vernacular. The aim of the app is to facilitate the oral translation of Bible stories transmitted as templates consisting of voice narration in a Language of Wider Communication (LWC). The narration is accompanied by a series of high-quality illustrations animated by the Ken Burns (pan and zoom) effect. An instance of oral translation may not involve writing down the translated words since some languages do not yet have an alphabet. Field testing has, so far, shown the controversial notion of oral translation to be effective. In our presentation, we will discuss the translation process that our client introduced to us as well as different implementation decisions that went into the making of the app

Some Exact Results on the Potts Model Partition Function in a Magnetic Field

We consider the Potts model in a magnetic field on an arbitrary graph $G$. Using a formula of F. Y. Wu for the partition function $Z$ of this model as a sum over spanning subgraphs of $G$, we prove some properties of $Z$ concerning factorization, monotonicity, and zeros. A generalization of the Tutte polynomial is presented that corresponds to this partition function. In this context we formulate and discuss two weighted graph-coloring problems. We also give a general structural result for $Z$ for cyclic strip graphs.Comment: 5 pages, late

Partition Function Zeros of a Restricted Potts Model on Lattice Strips and Effects of Boundary Conditions

We calculate the partition function $Z(G,Q,v)$ of the $Q$-state Potts model exactly for strips of the square and triangular lattices of various widths $L_y$ and arbitrarily great lengths $L_x$, with a variety of boundary conditions, and with $Q$ and $v$ restricted to satisfy conditions corresponding to the ferromagnetic phase transition on the associated two-dimensional lattices. From these calculations, in the limit $L_x \to \infty$, we determine the continuous accumulation loci ${\cal B}$ of the partition function zeros in the $v$ and $Q$ planes. Strips of the honeycomb lattice are also considered. We discuss some general features of these loci.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figure