Differential rotation of relativistic superfluid in neutron stars

It is shown how to set up a mathematically elegant and fully relativistic superfluid model that can provide a realistic approximation (neglecting small anisotropies due to crust solidity, magnetic fields, et cetera, but allowing for the regions with vortex pinning) of the global structure of a rotating neutron star, in terms of just two independently moving constituents, one of which represents the differentially rotating neutron superfluid, while the other part represents the combination of all the other ingredients, including the degenerate electrons, the superfluid protons in the core, and the ions in the crust, whose electromagnetic interactions will tend to keep them locked together in a state of approximately rigid rotation. Order of magnitude estimates are provided for relevant parameters such as the resistive drag coefficient and the maximum pinning force.Comment: 35 pages, Latex, no figure, submitted to M.N.R.A.

Media Coverage of Law Enforcement Use of Force and Disability

Disability intersects with other factors such as race, class, gender, and sexuality, to magnify degrees of marginalization and increase the risk of violence. When the media ignores or mishandles a major factor, as we contend they generally do with disability, it becomes harder to effect change.This white paper focuses on the three years of media coverage of police violence and disability since the death of a young man with Down syndrome, named Ethan Saylor, in January 2013. After reviewing media coverage of eight selected cases of police violence against individuals with disabilities, the paper reveals the following patterns in the overall data:? Disability goes unmentioned or is listed as an attribute without context.? An impairment is used to evoke pity or sympathy for the victim.? A medical condition or "mental illness" is used to blame victims for their deaths.? In rare instances, we have identified thoughtful examinations of disability from within its social context that reveal the intersecting forces that lead to dangerous use-of-force incidents. Such stories point the way to better models for policing in the future. We conclude by proposing best practices for reporting on disability and police violence

Cultivated Positive Emotions Inspire Environmentally Responsible Behaviors

Existing environmental problems, such as climate change and species extinction, are partially the result of human behavior. Attempts to motivate people to reduce and alter consumption behaviors have primarily relied on the summoning of negative emotions. The author elaborates a comprehensive theory, supported by empirical evidence, showing how positive emotions can be more effective at inspiring environmentally responsible behaviors. B. L. Fredrickson’s (1998, 2001) broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions is used to demonstrate how cultivated positive emotions can, expand people’s awareness that they are a connected part of the Earth’s living system, increase their capacity to creatively and effectively address environmental problems, and help them recognize that well-being and environmental health go hand in hand

Gait Extraction and Description by Evidence-Gathering

Using gait as a biometric is of increasing interest, yet there are few model-based, parametric, approaches to extract and describe moving articulated objects. One new approach can detect moving parametric objects by evidence gathering, hence accruing known performance advantages in terms of performance and occlusion. Here we show how that the new technique can be extended not only to extract a moving person, but also to extract and concurrently provide a gait signature for use as a biometric. We show the natural relationship between the bases of these approaches, and the results they can provide. As such, these techniques allow for gait extraction and description for recognition purposes, and with known performance advantages of a well-established vision technique

Novel Rbfox2 isoforms associated with alternative exon usage in rat cortex and suprachiasmatic nucleus

Abstract Transcriptome diversity in adult neurons is partly mediated by RNA binding proteins (RBPs), including the RBFOX factors. RBFOX3/NeuN, a neuronal maturity marker, is strangely depleted in suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) neurons, and may be compensated by a change in Rbfox2 expression. In this study, we found no superficial changes in Rbfox2 expression in the SCN, but mRNA population analysis revealed a distinct SCN transcript profile that includes multiple novel Rbfox2 isoforms. Of eleven isoforms in SCN and cerebral cortex that exhibit exon variation across two protein domains, we found a 3-fold higher abundance of a novel (‘−12–40’) C-terminal domain (CTD)-variant in the SCN. This isoform embraces an alternative reading frame that imparts a 50% change in CTD protein sequence, and functional impairment of exon 7 exclusion activity in a RBFOX2-target, the L-type calcium channel gene, Cacna1c. We have also demonstrated functional correlates in SCN gene transcripts; inclusion of Cacna1c exon 7, and also exclusion of both NMDA receptor gene Grin1 exon 4, and Enah exon 12, all consistent with a change in SCN RBFOX activity. The demonstrated regional diversity of Rbfox2 in adult brain highlights the functional adaptability of this RBP, enabling neuronal specialization, and potentially responding to disease-related neuronal dysfunction

Extremal Black Hole/CFT Correspondence in (Gauged) Supergravities

We extend the investigation of the recently proposed Kerr/CFT correspondence to large classes of rotating black hole solutions in gauged and ungauged supergravities. The correspondence, proposed originally for four-dimensional Kerr black holes, asserts that the quantum states in the near-horizon region of an extremal rotating black hole are holographically dual to a two-dimensional chiral theory whose Virasoro algebra arises as an asymptotic symmetry of the near-horizon geometry. In fact in dimension D there are [(D-1)/2] commuting Virasoro algebras. We consider a general canonical class of near-horizon geometries in arbitrary dimension D, and show that in any such metric, the [(D-1)/2] central charges each imply, via the Cardy formula, a microscopic entropy that agrees with the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of the associated extremal black hole. In the remainder of the paper we show for most of the known rotating black hole solutions of gauged supergravity, and for the ungauged supergravity solutions with four charges in D=4 and three charges in D=5, that their extremal near-horizon geometries indeed lie within the canonical form. This establishes that in all these examples, the microscopic entropies of the dual CFTs agree with the Bekenstein-Hawking entropies of the extremal rotating black holes.Comment: 32 pages, references added and minor typos fixe

NEOS Operation Center

This report covers the activities of the NEOS Operation Center at USNO for 2012. The Operation Center schedules the IVS-R4 and the INT1 Intensive experiments

Bogomol'nyi Limit For Magnetic Vortices In Rotating Superconductor

This work is the sequel of a previous investigation of stationary and cylindrically symmetric vortex configurations for simple models representing an incompressible non-relativistic superconductor in a rigidly rotating background. In the present paper, we carry out our analysis with a generalized Ginzburg-Landau description of the superconductor, which provides a prescription for the radial profile of the normal density within the vortex. Within this framework, it is shown that the Bogomol'nyi limit condition marking the boundary between type I and type II behavior is unaffected by the rotation of the background.Comment: 7 pages, uses RevTeX, submitted to Phys.Rev.