The tipping point: a mathematical model for the profit-driven abandonment of restaurant tipping

The custom of voluntarily tipping for services rendered has gone in and out of fashion in America since its introduction in the 19th century. Restaurant owners that ban tipping in their establishments often claim that social justice drives their decisions, but we show that rational profit-maximization may also justify the decisions. Here, we propose a conceptual model of restaurant competition for staff and customers, and we show that there exists a critical conventional tip rate at which restaurant owners should eliminate tipping to maximize profit. Because the conventional tip rate has been increasing steadily for the last several decades, our model suggests that restaurant owners may abandon tipping en masse when that critical tip rate is reached.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, supplementary material include

PAMELA Positron Excess as a Signal from the Hidden Sector

The recent positron excess observed in the PAMELA satellite experiment strengthens previous experimental findings. We give here an analysis of this excess in the framework of the Stueckelberg extension of the standard model which includes an extra $U(1)_X$ gauge field and matter in the hidden sector. Such matter can produce the right amount of dark matter consistent with the WMAP constraints. Assuming the hidden sector matter to be Dirac fermions it is shown that their annihilation can produce the positron excess with the right positron energy dependence seen in the HEAT, AMS and the PAMELA experiments. Further test of the proposed model can come at the Large Hadron Collider. The predictions of the $\bar p/p$ flux ratio also fit the data.Comment: 9 pages,3 figures; Breit-Wigner enhancement emphasized; published in PR

Genetic disruption of the core circadian clock impairs hippocampus-dependent memory

Perturbing the circadian system by electrolytically lesioning the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) or varying the environmental light:dark schedule impairs memory, suggesting that memory depends on the circadian system. We used a genetic approach to evaluate the role of the molecular clock in memory. Bmal1−/− mice, which are arrhythmic under constant conditions, were examined for hippocampus-dependent memory, LTP at the Schaffer-collateral synapse, and signal transduction activity in the hippocampus. Bmal1−/− mice exhibit impaired contextual fear and spatial memory. Furthermore, LTP in hippocampal slices from Bmal1−/− mice is also significantly decreased relative to that from wild-type mice. Activation of Erk1,2 MAP kinase (MAPK) during training for contextual fear memory and diurnal oscillation of MAPK activity and cAMP in the hippocampus is also lost in Bmal1−/− mice, suggesting that the memory defects are due to reduction of the memory consolidation pathway in the hippocampus. We conclude that critical signaling events in the hippocampus required for memory depend on BMAL1

In Vivo Evolution of Butane Oxidation by Terminal Alkane Hydroxylases AlkB and CYP153A6

Enzymes of the AlkB and CYP153 families catalyze the first step in the catabolism of medium-chain-length alkanes, selective oxidation of the alkane to the 1-alkanol, and enable their host organisms to utilize alkanes as carbon sources. Small, gaseous alkanes, however, are converted to alkanols by evolutionarily unrelated methane monooxygenases. Propane and butane can be oxidized by CYP enzymes engineered in the laboratory, but these produce predominantly the 2-alkanols. Here we report the in vivo-directed evolution of two medium-chain-length terminal alkane hydroxylases, the integral membrane di-iron enzyme AlkB from Pseudomonas putida GPo1 and the class II-type soluble CYP153A6 from Mycobacterium sp. strain HXN-1500, to enhance their activity on small alkanes. We established a P. putida evolution system that enables selection for terminal alkane hydroxylase activity and used it to select propane- and butane-oxidizing enzymes based on enhanced growth complementation of an adapted P. putida GPo12(pGEc47{Delta}B) strain. The resulting enzymes exhibited higher rates of 1-butanol production from butane and maintained their preference for terminal hydroxylation. This in vivo evolution system could be useful for directed evolution of enzymes that function efficiently to hydroxylate small alkanes in engineered hosts

Testing minimal lepton flavor violation with extra vector-like leptons at the LHC

Models of minimal lepton flavor violation where the seesaw scale is higher than the relevant flavor scale predict that all lepton flavor violation is proportional to the charged lepton Yukawa matrix. If extra vector-like leptons are within the reach of the LHC, it will be possible to test the resulting predictions in ATLAS/CMS.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figure

NuSTAR observations of the young, energetic radio pulsar PSR B1509-58

We report on Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) hard X-ray observations of the young rotation-powered radio pulsar PSR B1509$-$58 in the supernova remnant MSH 15$-$52. We confirm the previously reported curvature in the hard X-ray spectrum, showing that a log parabolic model provides a statistically superior fit to the spectrum compared with the standard power law. The log parabolic model describes the NuSTAR data, as well as previously published gamma-ray data obtained with COMPTEL and AGILE, all together spanning 3 keV through 500 MeV. Our spectral modelling allows us to constrain the peak of the broadband high energy spectrum to be at 2.6$\pm$0.8 MeV, an improvement of nearly an order of magnitude in precision over previous measurements. In addition, we calculate NuSTAR spectra in 26 pulse phase bins and confirm previously reported variations of photon indices with phase. Finally, we measure the pulsed fraction of PSR B1509$-$58 in the hard X-ray energy band for the first time. Using the energy resolved pulsed fraction results, we estimate that the pulsar's off-pulse emission has a photon index value between 1.26 and 1.96. Our results support a model in which the pulsar's lack of GeV emission is due to viewing geometry, with the X-rays originating from synchrotron emission from secondary pairs in the magnetosphere.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, 6 tables, ApJ accepte

How the First Stars Regulated Star Formation. II. Enrichment by Nearby Supernovae

Metals from Population III (Pop III) supernovae led to the formation of less massive Pop II stars in the early universe, altering the course of evolution of primeval galaxies and cosmological reionization. There are a variety of scenarios in which heavy elements from the first supernovae were taken up into second-generation stars, but cosmological simulations only model them on the largest scales. We present small-scale, high-resolution simulations of the chemical enrichment of a primordial halo by a nearby supernova after partial evaporation by the progenitor star. We find that ejecta from the explosion crash into and mix violently with ablative flows driven off the halo by the star, creating dense, enriched clumps capable of collapsing into Pop II stars. Metals may mix less efficiently with the partially exposed core of the halo, so it might form either Pop III or Pop II stars. Both Pop II and III stars may thus form after the collision if the ejecta do not strip all the gas from the halo. The partial evaporation of the halo prior to the explosion is crucial to its later enrichment by the supernova.Comment: Accepted to Ap