30,012 research outputs found
Deregulation Using Stealth “Science” Strategies
In this Article, we explore the “stealth” use of science by the Executive Branch to advance deregulation and highlight the limited, existing legal and institutional constraints in place to discipline and discourage these practices. Political appointees have employed dozens of strategies over the years, in both Democratic and Republican administrations, to manipulate science in ends-oriented ways that advance the goal of deregulation. Despite this bald manipulation of science, however, the officials frequently present these strategies as necessary to bring “sound science” to bear on regulatory decisions. To begin to address this problem, it is important to reconceptualize how the administrative state addresses science-intensive decisions. Rather than allow agencies and the White House to operate as a cohesive unit, institutional bounds should be drawn around the scientific expertise lodged within the agencies. We propose that the background scientific work prepared by agency staff should be firewalled from the evaluative, policymaking input of the remaining officials, including politically appointed officials, in the agency
Quantum Moment Map and Invariant Integration Theory on Quantum Spaces
It is shown that, on the one hand, quantum moment maps give rise to examples for the operator-theoretic approach to invariant integration theory developed by K.-D. Kürsten and the second author, and that, on the other hand, the operator-theoretic approach to invariant integration theory is more general since it also applies to examples without a well-defined quantum moment map
A simple physical model for scaling in protein-protein interaction networks
It has recently been demonstrated that many biological networks exhibit a
scale-free topology where the probability of observing a node with a certain
number of edges (k) follows a power law: i.e. p(k) ~ k^-g. This observation has
been reproduced by evolutionary models. Here we consider the network of
protein-protein interactions and demonstrate that two published independent
measurements of these interactions produce graphs that are only weakly
correlated with one another despite their strikingly similar topology. We then
propose a physical model based on the fundamental principle that (de)solvation
is a major physical factor in protein-protein interactions. This model
reproduces not only the scale-free nature of such graphs but also a number of
higher-order correlations in these networks. A key support of the model is
provided by the discovery of a significant correlation between number of
interactions made by a protein and the fraction of hydrophobic residues on its
surface. The model presented in this paper represents the first physical model
for experimentally determined protein-protein interactions that comprehensively
reproduces the topological features of interaction networks. These results have
profound implications for understanding not only protein-protein interactions
but also other types of scale-free networks.Comment: 50 pages, 17 figure
Non-universality of artificial frustrated spin systems
Magnetic frustration effects in artificial kagome arrays of nanomagnets with
out-of-plane magnetization are investigated using Magnetic Force Microscopy and
Monte Carlo simulations. Experimental and theoretical results are compared to
those found for the artificial kagome spin ice, in which the nanomagnets have
in-plane magnetization. In contrast with what has been recently reported, we
demonstrate that long range (i.e. beyond nearest-neighbors) dipolar
interactions between the nanomagnets cannot be neglected when describing the
magnetic configurations observed after demagnetizing the arrays using a field
protocol. As a consequence, there are clear limits to any universality in the
behavior of these two artificial frustrated spin systems. We provide arguments
to explain why these two systems show striking similarities at first sight in
the development of pairwise spin correlations.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure
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