1,194 research outputs found

    A super-analogue of Kontsevich's theorem on graph homology

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    In this paper we will prove a super-analogue of a well-known result by Kontsevich which states that the homology of a certain complex which is generated by isomorphism classes of oriented graphs can be calculated as the Lie algebra homology of an infinite-dimensional Lie algebra of symplectic vector fields.Comment: 15 page

    Law, Market Building and Public Health in the European Union

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    European Union (EU) law is based upon a liberalising imperative, the goal of which is to construct a single market between member states. Yet the EU is no ordinary trade pact, incorporating as it does a range of supranational political institutions and common policies in a range of areas beyond simple market building. Scholars have nevertheless noted a distinction between ‘positive’ integration (the formulation of common policies applying to all member states) and ‘negative’ integration (the removal of national-level regulations acting as barriers to market integration). In the context of debates about the implications of trade law and corporate activity for health, this article poses three related questions. First, to what extent does EU law afford corporations opportunities to challenge national-level health regulations? Second, to what extent do EU legal and political processes provide opportunities for positive pro-health supranational regulation, including that which might offset the effects of negative liberalising integration? Third, how do EU market-building processes differ from those of more narrowly-drawn trade agreements and organisations in their implications for health? We analyse and compare two recent sets of health-related legal proceedings under EU law, the first of which challenges legislation passed by the Scottish Government to introduce minimum unit pricing for alcohol, and the second of which addresses the legality of specific aspects of the EU’s 2014 Tobacco Products Directive. We find, first, that EU law offers ample opportunities for corporations to challenge national health regulations; second, that there is significant scope for pro-health supranational regulations, but that these must be couched in the language of facilitating the single market, and are dependent on the political commitment of key policy actors; and, third, that this (limited) scope for pro-health supranational regulation distinguishes EU legal and political processes from those of other trade agreements and organisations

    'Sexercise': Working out heterosexuality in Jane Fonda’s fitness books

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    This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Leisure Studies, 30(2), 237 - 255, 2011, copyright Taylor & Francis, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/02614367.2010.523837.This paper explores the connection between the promotion of heterosexual norms in women’s fitness books written by or in the name of Jane Fonda during the 1980s and the commodification of women’s fitness space in both the public and private spheres. The paper is set in the absence of overt discussions of normative heterosexuality in leisure studies and draws on critical heterosexual scholarship as well as the growing body of work theorising geographies of corporeality and heterosexuality. Using the principles of media discourse analysis, the paper identifies three overlapping characteristics of heterosexuality represented in Jane Fonda’s fitness books, and embodied through the exercise regimes: respectable heterosexual desire, monogamous procreation and domesticity. The paper concludes that the promotion and prescription of exercise for women in the Jane Fonda workout books centred on the reproduction and embodiment of heterosexual corporeality. Set within an emerging commercial landscape of women’s fitness in the 1980s, such exercise practices were significant in the legitimation and institutionalisation of heteronormativity

    Aerosol–cloud drop concentration closure in warm cumulus

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    Our understanding of the activation of aerosol particles into cloud drops during the formation of warm cumulus clouds presently has a limited observational foundation. Detailed observations of aerosol size and composition, cloud microphysics and dynamics, and atmospheric thermodynamic state were collected in a systematic study of 21 cumulus clouds by the Center for Interdisciplinary Remotely-Piloted Aircraft Studies (CIRPAS) Twin Otter aircraft during NASA's Cirrus Regional Study of Tropical Anvils and Cirrus Layers–Florida Area Cirrus Experiment (CRYSTAL-FACE). An “aerosol-cloud” closure study was carried out in which a detailed cloud activation parcel model, which predicts cloud drop concentration using observed aerosol concentration, size distribution, cloud updraft velocity, and thermodynamic state, is evaluated against observations. On average, measured droplet concentration in adiabatic cloud regions is within 15% of the predictions. This agreement is corroborated by independent measurements of aerosol activation carried out by two cloud condensation nucleus (CCN) counters on the aircraft. Variations in aerosol concentration, which ranged from 300 to 3300 cm^(−3), drives large microphysical differences (250–2300 cm^(−3)) observed among continental and maritime clouds in the South Florida region. This is the first known study in which a cloud parcel model is evaluated in a closure study using a constraining set of data collected from a single platform. Likewise, this is the first known study in which relationships among aerosol size distribution, CCN spectrum, and cloud droplet concentration are all found to be consistent with theory within experimental uncertainties much less than 50%. Vertical profiles of cloud microphysical properties (effective radius, droplet concentration, dispersion) clearly demonstrate the boundary layer aerosol's effect on cloud microphysics throughout the lowest 1 km of cloud depth. Onboard measurements of aerosol hygroscopic growth and the organic to sulfate mass ratio are related to CCN properties. These chemical data are used to quantify the range of uncertainty associated with the simplified treatment of aerosol composition assumed in the closure study

    High Energy Physics Opportunities Using Reactor Antineutrinos

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    Nuclear reactors are uniquely powerful, abundant, and flavor-pure sources ofantineutrinos that continue to play a vital role in the US neutrino physicsprogram. The US reactor antineutrino physics community is a diverse interestgroup encompassing many detection technologies and many particle physicstopics, including Standard Model and short-baseline oscillations, BSM physicssearches, and reactor flux and spectrum modeling. The community's aims offerstrong complimentary with numerous aspects of the wider US neutrino program andhave direct relevance to most of the topical sub-groups composing the Snowmass2021 Neutrino Frontier. Reactor neutrino experiments also have a directsocietal impact and have become a strong workforce and technology developmentpipeline for DOE National Laboratories and universities. This white paper,prepared as a submission to the Snowmass 2021 community organizing exercise,will survey the state of the reactor antineutrino physics field and summarizethe ways in which current and future reactor antineutrino experiments can playa critical role in advancing the field of particle physics in the next decade.<br

    Evaluating the Potential of Legumes to Mitigate N2_{2}O Emissions From Permanent Grassland Using Process-Based Models

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    A potential strategy for mitigating nitrous oxide (N2_{2}O) emissions from permanent grasslands is the partial substitution of fertilizer nitrogen (Nfert_{fert}) with symbiotically fixed nitrogen (Nsymb_{symb}) from legumes. The input of Nsymb_{symb} reduces the energy costs of producing fertilizer and provides a supply of nitrogen (N) for plants that is more synchronous to plant demand than occasional fertilizer applications. Legumes have been promoted as a potential N2_{2}O mitigation strategy for grasslands, but evidence to support their efficacy is limited, partly due to the difficulty in conducting experiments across the large range of potential combinations of legume proportions and fertilizer N inputs. These experimental constraints can be overcome by biogeochemical models that can vary legume‐fertilizer combinations and subsequently aid the design of targeted experiments. Using two variants each of two biogeochemical models (APSIM and DayCent), we tested the N2_{2}O mitigation potential and productivity of full factorial combinations of legume proportions and fertilizer rates for five temperate grassland sites across the globe. Both models showed that replacing fertilizer with legumes reduced N2_{2}O emissions without reducing productivity across a broad range of legume‐fertilizer combinations. Although the models were consistent with the relative changes of N2_{2}O emissions compared to the baseline scenario (200 kg N ha1^{-1} yr1^{-1}; no legumes), they predicted different levels of absolute N2_{2}O emissions and thus also of absolute N2_{2}O emission reductions; both were greater in DayCent than in APSIM. We recommend confirming these results with experimental studies assessing the effect of clover proportions in the range 30–50% and ≤150 kg N ha1^{-1} yr1^{-1} input as these were identified as best‐bet climate smart agricultural practices

    Selective Constraints on Amino Acids Estimated by a Mechanistic Codon Substitution Model with Multiple Nucleotide Changes

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    Empirical substitution matrices represent the average tendencies of substitutions over various protein families by sacrificing gene-level resolution. We develop a codon-based model, in which mutational tendencies of codon, a genetic code, and the strength of selective constraints against amino acid replacements can be tailored to a given gene. First, selective constraints averaged over proteins are estimated by maximizing the likelihood of each 1-PAM matrix of empirical amino acid (JTT, WAG, and LG) and codon (KHG) substitution matrices. Then, selective constraints specific to given proteins are approximated as a linear function of those estimated from the empirical substitution matrices. Akaike information criterion (AIC) values indicate that a model allowing multiple nucleotide changes fits the empirical substitution matrices significantly better. Also, the ML estimates of transition-transversion bias obtained from these empirical matrices are not so large as previously estimated. The selective constraints are characteristic of proteins rather than species. However, their relative strengths among amino acid pairs can be approximated not to depend very much on protein families but amino acid pairs, because the present model, in which selective constraints are approximated to be a linear function of those estimated from the JTT/WAG/LG/KHG matrices, can provide a good fit to other empirical substitution matrices including cpREV for chloroplast proteins and mtREV for vertebrate mitochondrial proteins. The present codon-based model with the ML estimates of selective constraints and with adjustable mutation rates of nucleotide would be useful as a simple substitution model in ML and Bayesian inferences of molecular phylogenetic trees, and enables us to obtain biologically meaningful information at both nucleotide and amino acid levels from codon and protein sequences.Comment: Table 9 in this article includes corrections for errata in the Table 9 published in 10.1371/journal.pone.0017244. Supporting information is attached at the end of the article, and a computer-readable dataset of the ML estimates of selective constraints is available from 10.1371/journal.pone.001724
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