Sailboat propeller drag

All but the smallest classes of modern keelboats are fitted with inboard engines and consequently, when making way under sail, the craft experience parasitic drag due to trailing propellers and associated appendages. The variety of screw configurations used on sailing boats includes fixed-blade, feathering, and folding set-ups, with blades numbering two or three. Although the magnitude of the resultant drag is thought to have a significant influence on sailing performance, the published literature having regard to this problem is sparse. Here, the aim was to evaluate the drag effect of fixed-blade propellers of types commonly used on sailing craft. The results of towing tank tests on full-scale propellers are presented for the locked shaft condition; these are presented along with reconfigured data from the few previously published sources. For the case in which the propeller is allowed to rotate, tests were conducted on a typical screw with a range of braking torques being applied. It was hypothesised that the performance coefficients of the Wageningen B-Screw Series could be used to characterise adequately the types of screw of interest and that these could be extrapolated to enable prediction of the drag of a freewheeling propeller; an assessment of this formed part of the investigation

Gene-flow between populations of cotton bollworm Helicoverpa armigera (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) is highly variable between years

Both large and small scale migrations of Helicoverpa armigera Hübner in Australia were investigated using AMOVA analysis and genetic assignment tests. Five microsatellite loci were screened across 3142 individuals from 16 localities in eight major cotton and grain growing regions within Australia, over a 38-month period (November 1999 to January 2003). From November 1999 to March 2001 relatively low levels of migration were characterized between growing regions. Substantially higher than average gene-flow rates and limited differentiation between cropping regions characterized the period from April 2001 to March 2002. A reduced migration rate in the year from April 2002 to March 2003 resulted in significant genetic structuring between cropping regions. This differentiation was established within two or three generations. Genetic drift alone is unlikely to drive genetic differentiation over such a small number of generations, unless it is accompanied by extreme bottlenecks and/or selection. Helicoverpa armigera in Australia demonstrated isolation by distance, so immigration into cropping regions is more likely to come from nearby regions than from afar. This effect was most pronounced in years with limited migration. However, there is evidence of long distance dispersal events in periods of high migration (April 2001–March 2002). The implications of highly variable migration patterns for resistance management are considered.K.D. Scott, K.S. Wilkinson, N. Lawrence, C.L. Lange, L.J. Scott, M.A. Merritt, A.J. Lowe and G.C Graha

Glassy Vortex State in a Two-Dimensional Disordered XY-Model

The two-dimensional XY-model with random phase-shifts on bonds is studied. The analysis is based on a renormalization group for the replicated system. The model is shown to have an ordered phase with quasi long-range order. This ordered phase consists of a glass-like region at lower temperatures and of a non-glassy region at higher temperatures. The transition from the disordered phase into the ordered phase is not reentrant and is of a new universality class at zero temperature. In contrast to previous approaches the disorder strength is found to be renormalized to larger values. Several correlation functions are calculated for the ordered phase. They allow to identify not only the transition into the glassy phase but also an additional crossover line, where the disconnected vortex correlation changes its behavior on large scales non-analytically. The renormalization group approach yields the glassy features without a breaking of replica symmetry.Comment: latex 12 pages with 3 figures, using epsf.sty and multicol.st

Small eigenvalues of the staggered Dirac operator in the adjoint representation and Random Matrix Theory

The low-lying spectrum of the Dirac operator is predicted to be universal, within three classes, depending on symmetry properties specified according to random matrix theory. The three universal classes are the orthogonal, unitary and symplectic ensemble. Lattice gauge theory with staggered fermions has verified two of the cases so far, unitary and symplectic, with staggered fermions in the fundamental representation of SU(3) and SU(2). We verify the missing case here, namely orthogonal, with staggered fermions in the adjoint representation of SU(N_c), N_c=2, 3.Comment: 3 pages, revtex, 2 postscript figure

Parafermionic polynomials, Selberg integrals and three-point correlation function in parafermionic Liouville field theory

In this paper we consider parafermionic Liouville field theory. We study integral representations of three-point correlation functions and develop a method allowing us to compute them exactly. In particular, we evaluate the generalization of Selberg integral obtained by insertion of parafermionic polynomial. Our result is justified by different approach based on dual representation of parafermionic Liouville field theory described by three-exponential model

Spectrum of the SU(3) Dirac operator on the lattice: Transition from random matrix theory to chiral perturbation theory

We calculate complete spectra of the Kogut-Susskind Dirac operator on the lattice in quenched SU(3) gauge theory for various values of coupling constant and lattice size. From these spectra we compute the connected and disconnected scalar susceptibilities and find agreement with chiral random matrix theory up to a certain energy scale, the Thouless energy. The dependence of this scale on the lattice volume is analyzed. In the case of the connected susceptibility this dependence is anomalous, and we explain the reason for this. We present a model of chiral perturbation theory that is capable of describing the data beyond the Thouless energy and that has a common range of applicability with chiral random matrix theory.Comment: 8 pages, RevTeX, 15 .eps figure

INSIG1 influences obesity-related hypertriglyceridemia in humans

In our analysis of a quantitative trait locus (QTL) for plasma triglyceride (TG) levels [logarithm of odds (LOD) = 3.7] on human chromosome 7q36, we examined 29 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) across INSIG1, a biological candidate gene in the region. Insulin-induced genes (INSIGs) are feedback mediators of cholesterol and fatty acid synthesis in animals, but their role in human lipid regulation is unclear. In our cohort, the INSIG1 promoter SNP rs2721 was associated with TG levels (P = 2 × 10−3 in 1,560 individuals of the original linkage cohort, P = 8 × 10−4 in 920 unrelated individuals of the replication cohort, combined P = 9.9 × 10−6). Individuals homozygous for the T allele had 9% higher TG levels and 2-fold lower expression of INSIG1 in surgical liver biopsy samples when compared with individuals homozygous for the G allele. Also, the T allele showed additional binding of nuclear proteins from HepG2 liver cells in gel shift assays. Finally, the variant rs7566605 in INSIG2, the only homolog of INSIG1, enhances the effect of rs2721 (P = 0.00117). The variant rs2721 alone explains 5.4% of the observed linkage in our cohort, suggesting that additional, yet-undiscovered genes and sequence variants in the QTL interval also contribute to alterations in TG levels in humans

Statistical analysis and the equivalent of a Thouless energy in lattice QCD Dirac spectra

Random Matrix Theory (RMT) is a powerful statistical tool to model spectral fluctuations. This approach has also found fruitful application in Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). Importantly, RMT provides very efficient means to separate different scales in the spectral fluctuations. We try to identify the equivalent of a Thouless energy in complete spectra of the QCD Dirac operator for staggered fermions from SU(2) lattice gauge theory for different lattice size and gauge couplings. In disordered systems, the Thouless energy sets the universal scale for which RMT applies. This relates to recent theoretical studies which suggest a strong analogy between QCD and disordered systems. The wealth of data allows us to analyze several statistical measures in the bulk of the spectrum with high quality. We find deviations which allows us to give an estimate for this universal scale. Other deviations than these are seen whose possible origin is discussed. Moreover, we work out higher order correlators as well, in particular three--point correlation functions.Comment: 24 pages, 24 figures, all included except one figure, missing eps file available at http://pluto.mpi-hd.mpg.de/~wilke/diff3.eps.gz, revised version, to appear in PRD, minor modifications and corrected typos, Fig.4 revise

The abolition of the General Teaching Council for England and the future of teacher discipline

With the abolition of the General Teaching Council for England in the 2011 Education Act, this article considers the future of teacher discipline in England. It provides a critique of the changes to the regulation of teacher misconduct and incompetence that draws on a Foucauldian framework, especially concerning the issue of public displays of discipline and the concomitant movement to more hidden forms. In addition, the external context of accountability that accompanies the reforms to teacher discipline are considered including the perfection of the panoptic metaphor presented by the changes to Ofsted practices such as the introduction of zero-notice inspections. The article concludes that the reforms will further move teachers from being occupational professionals to being organisational professionals marking them apart from comparable professions in medicine and law

Statistical distribution of quantum entanglement for a random bipartite state

We compute analytically the statistics of the Renyi and von Neumann entropies (standard measures of entanglement), for a random pure state in a large bipartite quantum system. The full probability distribution is computed by first mapping the problem to a random matrix model and then using a Coulomb gas method. We identify three different regimes in the entropy distribution, which correspond to two phase transitions in the associated Coulomb gas. The two critical points correspond to sudden changes in the shape of the Coulomb charge density: the appearance of an integrable singularity at the origin for the first critical point, and the detachement of the rightmost charge (largest eigenvalue) from the sea of the other charges at the second critical point. Analytical results are verified by Monte Carlo numerical simulations. A short account of some of these results appeared recently in Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 104}, 110501 (2010).Comment: 7 figure