Gotcha! Coronavirus, crises and the politics of blame games

Politicians are primarily motivated by avoiding blame for failure. But what happens in a major crisis, when some level of failure is inevitable? Matthew Flinders examines the politics of blame during the COVID-19 pandemic

Non-equilibrium transition from dissipative quantum walk to classical random walk

We have investigated the time-evolution of a free particle in interaction with a phonon thermal bath, using the tight-binding approach. A dissipative quantum walk can be defined and many important non-equilibrium decoherence properties can be investigated analytically. The non-equilibrium statistics of a pure initial state have been studied. Our theoretical results indicate that the evolving wave-packet shows the suppression of Anderson's boundaries (ballistic peaks) by the presence of dissipation. Many important relaxation properties can be studied quantitatively, such as von Neumann's entropy and quantum purity. In addition, we have studied Wigner's function. The time-dependent behavior of the quantum entanglement between a free particle -in the lattice- and the phonon bath has been characterized analytically. This result strongly suggests the non-trivial time-dependence of the off-diagonal elements of the reduced density matrix of the system. We have established a connection between the quantum decoherence and the dissipative parameter arising from interaction with the phonon bath. The time-dependent behavior of quantum correlations has also been pointed out, showing continuous transition from quantum random walk to classical random walk, when dissipation increases.Comment: Submitted for publication. 17 pages, 6 figure

On the nature of some SGRs and AXPs as rotation-powered neutron stars

We investigate the possibility that some SGRs/AXPs could be canonical rotation-powered pulsars using realistic NS structure parameters instead of fiducial values. We show that realistic NS parameters lowers the estimated value of the magnetic field and radiation efficiency, $L_X/\dot{E}_{\rm rot}$, with respect to estimates based on fiducial NS parameters. We show that nine SGRs/AXPs can be described as canonical pulsars driven by the NS rotational energy, for $L_X$ computed in the soft (2--10~keV) X-ray band. We compute the range of NS masses for which $L_X/\dot{E}_{\rm rot}<1$. We discuss the observed hard X-ray emission in three sources of the group of nine potentially rotation-powered NSs. This additional hard X-ray component dominates over the soft one leading to $L_X/\dot{E}_{\rm rot}>1$ in two of them. We show that 9 SGRs/AXPs can be rotation-powered NSs if we analyze their X-ray luminosity in the soft 2--10~keV band. Interestingly, four of them show radio emission and six have been associated with supernova remnants (including Swift J1834.9-0846 the first SGR observed with a surrounding wind nebula). These observations give additional support to our results of a natural explanation of these sources in terms of ordinary pulsars. Including the hard X-ray emission observed in three sources of the group of potential rotation-powered NSs, this number of sources with $L_X/\dot{E}_{\rm rot}<1$ becomes seven. It remains open to verification 1) the accuracy of the estimated distances and 2) the possible contribution of the associated supernova remnants to the hard X-ray emission.Comment: 11 pages, 14 figures, to appear in A&

Consumo de revistas de moda y efectos en la autopercepción del cuerpo de mujeres: un estudio comparado entre España y México desde la Tercera Persona

El presente estudio investiga los efectos de la publicidad sobre moda en actitudes y opiniones de las mujeres, así como las posibles consecuencias de la exposición a los estereotipos ofrecidos en los anuncios de las marcas de moda. El estudio se realizó a partir de una muestra compuesta por 884 mujeres: estudiantes, profesoras o trabajadoras de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, España y del Tecnológico de Monterrey, Campus Monterrey, en México. Se realizó un tratamiento cuantitativo de los datos obtenidos de un cuestionario on line que permitió ofrecer datos comparativos sobre los efectos del consumo publicitario y sus condicionantes culturales. Palabras clave: Revistas de moda, Mujer, Efectos de la Publicidad, Auto percepción del cuerpo

Local and remote sources of airborne suspended particulate matter in the antarctic region

Quantification of suspended particulate matter (SPM) measurements-together with statistical tools, polar contour maps and backward air mass trajectory analyses-were implemented to better understand the main local and remote sources of contamination in this pristine region. Field campaigns were carried out during the austral summer of 2016-2017 at the "Gabriel de Castilla" Spanish Antarctic Research Station, located on Deception Island (South Shetland Islands, Antarctic). Aerosols were deposited in an air filter through a low-volume sampler and chemically analysed using Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) and Inductively Coupled Plasma-Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-AES). Elements such as Al, Ca, Fe, K, Mg, Na, P, S, Cu, Pb, Sr, Ti, Zn, Hf, Zr, V, As, Ti, Mn, Sn and Cr were identified. The statistical tools together with their correlations (Sr/Na, Al/Ti, Al/Mn, Al/Sr, Al/Pb, K/P) suggest a potentially significant role of terrestrial inputs for Al, Ti, Mn, Sr and Pb; marine environments for Sr and Na; and biological inputs for K and P. Polar contour graphical maps allowed reproducing wind maps, revealing the biological local distribution of K and P (penguin colony). Additionally, backward trajectory analysis confirmed previous affirmations and atmospheric air masses following the Antarctic circumpolar pattern

Oxidation of methane in biotrickling filters inoculated with methanotrophic bacteria

Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Estudio de los niveles de actividad de las esterasas A y B asociadas con la resistencia a insecticidas organofosforados en poblaciones de Anopheles albimanus (Diptera : Cilicidae).

Para la realización de esta investigación se llevó a cabo una primera fase, que consistió en la colecta y colonización de dos cepas de mosquitos Anopheles albimanus provenientes de regiones de la República de Panamá que han estado sometidas a una potencial presión selectiva de insecticidas, ya sea de uso en salud pública o de uso agrícola. Una de las cepas se colectó en la localidad de Barranco Montafia en la Provincia de Bocas del Toro, y la otra fué colectada en la localidad de Puente Bayano, en la provincia de Panamá. Se emplearon hembras adultas de 3 a 10 días de emergencia de estas dos cepas de mosquitos, con el objetivo de determinar a través de ensayos electroforéticos en gel de celulosa, los niveles de actividad de las esterasas A y B asociadas con la resistencia a insecticidas organofosforados. Mediante los ensayos bioquímicos se detectaron en las dos cepas de An. albimanus las Est-1, Est-2 y Est-3; en las esterasa A y B respectivamente. Los niveles de actividad de la esterasa A al ser hidrolizada con c-naftil-acetato, revelaron como resultado la existencia de una relativa sensibilidad al fenitrotión en las dos cepas de An. albimanus; de acuerdo a los patrones enzimáticos. En cuanto a la esterasa B, los niveles de actividad identificados mediante la catálisis con B-naftil acetato, registraron la presencia de una resistencia intermedia en las dos cepas de mosquitos. Todas las muestras de mosquitos evaluadas de las dos poblaciones, fueron sometidas a la prueba de equilibrio genético de Hardy-Weimberg; obteniéndose, que el alelo más frecuente en las dos cepas para la esterasa A y E, fué el alelo BB; además se identificó que ambas poblaciones de mosquitos no estaban en equilibrio genético. Ello revela una correlación directa entre los resultados obtenidos a través de los patrones enzimáticos de las esterasas A y E y la prueba de Hardy-Weimberg; ya que la primera hace evidente la existencia de una resistencia intermedia, y la segunda, nos indica que las fuerzas evolutivas de la resistencia, en este caso la presión selectiva, no han ejercido un efecto completo para el establecimiento de la resistencia en ambas cepas de An. albimanus

Mathematical modeling and simulation of volatile reduced sulfur compounds oxidation in biotrickling filters

[Abstract] The odour generated by industrial gaseous emissions causing nuisances generally is due to the presence of volatile reduced sulfur compounds (VRSC) Although a number of microorganisms are known for degrading VRSC, the treatment of a mixture of reduced sulfur compounds remains challenging for several reasons. To resolve these problems two-stage systems have been proposed, in the first reactor H2S is bio-oxidized and in the second the rest of the VRSC mixture, avoiding the inhibition effects of H2S over the bio-oxidation of these compounds. In the systems described the complete oxidation of H2S must be performed in the first reactor, if some H2S pass though out the first reactor it would have an effect on the bio-oxidation of the other VRSC present in the mixture in the second bioreactor. This situation was modelled and simulated, and is presented in this article. The bio-oxidation of H2S and DMS in a biotrickling filter is described through a model of the mass transfer and chemical reaction processes. The biotrickling filter is modeled as a fixed bed of packing material which supports the growth of micro-organisms as biofilms. When air flows in the bed, H2S and DMS are continuously transferred from the gas phase to the biofilm, where they diffuse and are oxidized by aerobic microbial activity. A summary of the equations, results of the simulation and sensibility to the inhibition constants are reported

On the Stability of Non-Extremal Conifold Backgrounds with Sources

We present finite temperature solutions describing N_c D5 branes wrapped on the S^2 of the resolved conifold in the presence of N_f flavor brane sources and their backreaction, i.e. N_f/N_c ~ 1. In these solutions the dilaton does not blow up at infinity but stabilizes to a finite value. Thus, we can use them to generate new ones with D5 and D3 charge. The resulting backgrounds are non-extremal versions of the "flavored" resolved deformed conifold. It is tempting to interpret these solutions as gravity duals of finite temperature field theories exhibiting non-trivial phenomena as Seiberg dualities, Higgsing and confinement. However, a first necessary step in this direction is to investigate their stability. We study the specific heat of these new flavored backgrounds and find that they are thermodynamically unstable. Our results on the stability also apply to some of the non-extremal backgrounds with Klebanov-Strassler asymptotics found in the literature.Comment: 34+16 pages, 26 figures. Published versio