Black holes and wormholes subject to conformal mappings

Solutions of the field equations of theories of gravity which admit distinct conformal frame representations can look very different in these frames. We show that Brans class IV solutions describe wormholes in the Jordan frame (in a certain parameter range) but correspond to horizonless geometries in the Einstein frame. The reasons for such a change of behaviour under conformal mappings are elucidated in general, using Brans IV solutions as an example.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure

A Strategic Soil Nitrogen Test For Flooded Rice

From 1998 until 2002 a project to develop a soil nitrogen (N) test for flooded rice was conducted in the Rice CRC. The reason for wanting such a test for the Australian rice industry is that N fertiliser is used more efficiently when applied before sowing so it is economically and environmentally preferable for as much as possible of the optimum amount of N fertiliser to be applied at that time. However excessive N applied before sowing leads to a high risk of yield loss due to cold damage. The aim was to develop a system to forecast the optimum N supply for pre-flood application and minimize the amount being topdressed which has been a safe, but inefficient system. The method of developing the test was first to compare the near infrared reflectance (NIR) spectra with crop productivity and N mineralisation measured by wet chemistry. These measurements were made with soil from 22 previous experiments measuring yield response to N applied at sowing. There were close relationships of the NIR spectra with crop productivity and N mineralisation but because of the small data set the relationships had little predictive value. However the close relationships found between NIRS, N mineralisation measured in the laboratory and crop performance encouraged us to proceed with further studies. A more detailed study related soil mineralisation across farms to crop performance. Seventeen methods of mineralisation were tested and the most reliable was found to be anaerobic incubation at 40°C for 21 days. This method predicted the optimum N requirement with a standard error of about 75 kgN/ha, which is clearly unsatisfactory for an industry where the average amount of N fertiliser applied is 145 kgN/ha. A possible reason for the low correlation between mineralisation and crop performance was that other factors were limiting N response. There was some evidence that sowing date and deficiencies of other nutrients were partly responsible for the variability of the N response. However it is unlikely that including information about these factors would lift the soil-N test to acceptable accuracy for commercial use. The most likely reason for the low correlation was that the soil depth used for mineralisation measurements was poorly defined because of the widespread levelling of rice fields which led to different depths of topsoil. Two options are proposed for more reliable application of N fertiliser at the time of sowing. Both require further research. One is to use the existing soil test only to identify soils with large amounts of potentially mineralisable N. Such a test could be the basis of a recommendation to apply little or no N fertiliser before sowing. Rice growers would still have the option of topdressing N fertiliser at the panicle initiation stage. The advantage of using a test in this way is that it is most unlikely to result in ‘false positives’, i.e. - recommendations for excessive N fertiliser leading to yield reductions. The other option is to set up a system of zone management for N fertiliser based on the likely N mineralisation in different parts of a rice field. The results in this project suggest that yield responses are more accurately predicted by sodicity than by the soil N test. It is likely that sodicity is a good indication of the depth of topsoil cut in the process of levelling. If this result is shown to be general, maps of ‘cut and fill’ areas may help in deciding the optimum amount of N fertiliser. Evidence from the Ricecheck database shows that about 10% of rice paddocks receive too much N fertiliser at sowing and suffer a large yield reduction. This leads to an annual loss of about $18 m. While this project has not led to a solution to this problem, the two suggestions arising from the project offer methods to reduce the problem

Alien Registration- Russell, Angus F. (Presque Isle, Aroostook County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/33452/thumbnail.jp

Polar ring galaxies as tests of gravity

Polar ring galaxies are ideal objects with which to study the three-dimensional shapes of galactic gravitational potentials since two rotation curves can be measured in two perpendicular planes. Observational studies have uncovered systematically larger rotation velocities in the extended polar rings than in the associated host galaxies. In the dark matter context, this can only be explained through dark halos that are systematically flattened along the polar rings. Here, we point out that these objects can also be used as very effective tests of gravity theories, such as those based on Milgromian dynamics (MOND). We run a set of polar ring models using both Milgromian and Newtonian dynamics to predict the expected shapes of the rotation curves in both planes, varying the total mass of the system, the mass of the ring with respect to the host, as well as the size of the hole at the center of the ring. We find that Milgromian dynamics not only naturally leads to rotation velocities being typically higher in the extended polar rings than in the hosts, as would be the case in Newtonian dynamics without dark matter, but that it also gets the shape and amplitude of velocities correct. Milgromian dynamics thus adequately explains this particular property of polar ring galaxies.Comment: 9 pages, 8 Figures, 1 Table, Accepted for publication by MNRA

Electroweak Theory Without Higgs Bosons

A perturbative SU(2)_L X U(1)_Y electroweak theory containing W, Z, photon, ghost, lepton and quark fields, but no Higgs or other fields, gives masses to W, Z and the non-neutrino fermions by means of an unconventional choice for the unperturbed Lagrangian and a novel method of renormalisation. The renormalisation extends to all orders. The masses emerge on renormalisation to one loop. To one loop the neutrinos are massless, the A -> Z transition drops out of the theory, the d quark is unstable and S-matrix elements are independent of the gauge parameter xi.Comment: 27 pages, LaTex, no figures; revised for publication; accepted by Int. J. Mod. Phys. A; includes biographical note on A. F. Nicholso

A new set of endogenous control genes for use in quantitative real-time PCR experiments show that formin Ldia2dex transcripts are enriched in the early embryo of the pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis (Panpulmonata)

© 2019 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Malacological Society of London, all rights reserved. Although the pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis is an emerging model organism for molecular studies in a wide variety of fields, there are a limited number of verified endogenous control genes for use in quantitative real-Time PCR. As part of a larger study on snail chirality, or left-right asymmetry, we assayed gene expression in pond snail embryos. We evaluated six candidate control genes, by comparing their expression in three tissues (ovotestis, foot and embryo) and used three software programmes (geNorm, Normfinder and Bestkeeper) to do so. The specific utility of these control genes was then tested by investigating the relative expression of six experimental transcripts, including formin Ldia2, a gene that has been associated with chiral variation in L. stagnalis. All six control genes were found to be suitable for use in the three tissues tested. Of the six experimental genes, it was found that all were relatively depleted in the early embryo compared with other tissues, except the formin Ldia2 gene. Instead, transcripts of the wild-Type Ldia2dex were enriched in the embryo, whereas a nonfunctional frameshifted version, Ldia2sin, was severely depleted. These differences in Ldia2sin expression were less evident in the ovotestis and were not evident in the foot tissue, possibly because nonsense-mediated decay is obscured in actively transcribing tissues. Our work provides a set of control genes that may be useful to the wider community and illustrates how these genes may be used to assay differences in expression in a variety of tissues

The MOND Fundamental Plane

Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) has been shown to be able to fit spiral galaxy rotation curves as well as giving a theoretical foundation for empirically determined scaling relations, such as the Tully - Fisher law, without the need for a dark matter halo. As a complementary analysis, one should investigate whether MOND can also reproduce the dynamics of early - type galaxies (ETGs) without dark matter. As a first step, we here show that MOND can indeed fit the observed central velocity dispersion $\sigma_0$ of a large sample of ETGs assuming a simple MOND interpolating functions and constant anisotropy. We also show that, under some assumptions on the luminosity dependence of the Sersic n parameter and the stellar M/L ratio, MOND predicts a fundamental plane for ETGs : a log - linear relation among the effective radius $R_{eff}$, $\sigma_0$ and the mean effective intensity $\langle I_e \rangle$. However, we predict a tilt between the observed and the MOND fundamental planes.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication on MNRA