Approaches to Faith, Guest Editorial Preface

Springer. We find in contemporary culture starkly contrasting estimates of the value of faith. On the one hand, for many people, faith is a virtue or positive human value, something associated with understanding, hope, and love, something to be inculcated, maintained, and cherished. On the other hand, for many people, faith is a vice, something associated with dogmatism, arrogance, and close-mindedness, something to be avoided at all costs. The papers included in this special (double) issue on approaches to faith explore questions about faith in a variety of settings through a diverse range of examples, both secular and religious. The attempt to deepen our understanding of faith in the context of ordinary human relationships (e.g., between parents and children, friends, generals and their armies, business partners, citizens and the state), a commitment to ideals, or the pursuit of significant goals is clearly of general philosophical interest, as is the examination of potential connections between faith and topics such as trust or reliance

Analysis of permanent magnets as elasmobranch bycatch reduction devices in hook-and-line and longline trials

Previous studies indicate that elasmobranch fishes (sharks, skates and rays) detect the Earth’s geomagnetic field by indirect magnetoreception through electromagnetic induction, using their ampullae of Lorenzini. Applying this concept, we evaluated the capture of elasmobranchs in the presence of permanent magnets in hook-and-line and inshore longline fishing experiments. Hooks with neodymium-iron-boron magnets significantly reduced the capture of elasmobranchs overall in comparison with control and procedural control hooks in the hook-and-line experiment. Catches of Atlantic sharpnose shark (Rhizoprionodon terraenovae) and smooth dogfish (Mustelus canis) were signif icantly reduced with magnetic hook-and-line treatments, whereas catches of spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias) and clearnose skate (Raja eglanteria) were not. Longline hooks with barium-ferrite magnets significantly reduced total elasmobranch capture when compared with control hooks. In the longline study, capture of blacktip sharks (Carcharhinus limbatus) and southern stingrays (Dasyatis americana) was reduced on magnetic hooks, whereas capture of sandbar shark (Carcharhinus plumbeus) was not affected. Teleosts, such as red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus), Atlantic croaker (Micropogonias undulatus), oyster toadfish (Opsanus tau), black sea bass (Centropristis striata), and the bluefish (Pomatomas saltatrix), showed no hook preference in either hook-and-line or longline studies. These results indicate that permanent magnets, although eliciting species-specific capture trends, warrant further investigation in commercial longline and recreational fisheries, where bycatch mortality is a leading contributor to declines in elasmobranch populations

Energetics of hydrogen impurities in aluminum and their effect on mechanical properties

The effects of hydrogen impurities in the bulk and on the surface of aluminum are theoretically investigated. Within the framework of density functional theory, we have obtained the dependence on H concentration of the stacking fault energy, the cleavage energy, the Al/H surface energy and the Al/H/Al interface formation energy. The results indicate a strong dependence of the slip energy barrier in the $[\bar 211]$ direction the cleavage energy in the [111] direction and the Al/H/Al interface formation energy, on H concentration and on tension. The dependence of the Al/H surface energy on H coverage is less pronounced, while the optimal H coverage is $\leq 0.25$ monolayer. The calculated activation energy for diffusion between high symmetry sites in the bulk and on the surface is practically the same, 0.167 eV. From these results, we draw conclusions about the possible effect of H impurities on mechanical properties, and in particular on their role in embrittlement of Al.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

Steric antisense inhibition of AMPA receptor Q/R editing reveals tight coupling to intronic editing sites and splicing

Adenosine-to-Inosine (A-to-I) RNA editing is a post-transcriptional mechanism, evolved to diversify the transcriptome in metazoa. In addition to wide-spread editing in non-coding regions protein recoding by RNA editing allows for fine tuning of protein function. Functional consequences are only known for some editing sites and the combinatorial effect between multiple sites (functional epistasis) is currently unclear. Similarly, the interplay between RNA editing and splicing, which impacts on post-transcriptional gene regulation, has not been resolved. Here, we describe a versatile antisense approach, which will aid resolving these open questions. We have developed and characterized morpholino oligos targeting the most efficiently edited site--the AMPA receptor GluA2 Q/R site. We show that inhibition of editing closely correlates with intronic editing efficiency, which is linked to splicing efficiency. In addition to providing a versatile tool our data underscore the unique efficiency of a physiologically pivotal editing site

Raman spectroscopy of laser irradiated titanium dioxide.

Raman spectroscopy is applied to investigate the effect of exposure to high power laser radiation on the crystalline phases of TiO2. Measurement of the changes in the Raman spectra of TiO2 with exposure to laser radiation was reported. This has proved to be a useful sensor in monitoring both the structure and the kinetics process of change in crystalline phases from anatase to rutile during exposure to laser irradiation

Basins of attraction on random topography

We investigate the consequences of fluid flowing on a continuous surface upon the geometric and statistical distribution of the flow. We find that the ability of a surface to collect water by its mere geometrical shape is proportional to the curvature of the contour line divided by the local slope. Consequently, rivers tend to lie in locations of high curvature and flat slopes. Gaussian surfaces are introduced as a model of random topography. For Gaussian surfaces the relation between convergence and slope is obtained analytically. The convergence of flow lines correlates positively with drainage area, so that lower slopes are associated with larger basins. As a consequence, we explain the observed relation between the local slope of a landscape and the area of the drainage basin geometrically. To some extent, the slope-area relation comes about not because of fluvial erosion of the landscape, but because of the way rivers choose their path. Our results are supported by numerically generated surfaces as well as by real landscapes

Recurrent Variational Approach to the Two-Leg Hubbard Ladder

We applied the Recurrent Variational Approach to the two-leg Hubbard ladder. At half-filling, our variational Ansatz was a generalization of the resonating valence bond state. At finite doping, hole pairs were allowed to move in the resonating valence bond background. The results obtained by the Recurrent Variational Approach were compared with results from Density Matrix Renormalization Group.Comment: 10 pages, 14 Postscript figure