Energy in Yang-Mills on a Riemann Surface

Sengupta's lower bound for the Yang-Mills action on smooth connections on a bundle over a Riemann surface generalizes to the space of connections whose action is finite. In this larger space the inequality can always be saturated. The Yang-Mills critical sets correspond to critical sets of the energy action on a space of paths. This may shed light on Atiyah and Bott's conjecture concerning Morse theory for the space of connections modulo gauge transformations.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, Latex2e with epsfig, submitted to Journal of Mathematical Physic

Potential bronchoconstrictor stimuli in acid fog.

Acid fog is complex and contains multiple stimuli that may be capable of inducing bronchoconstriction. These stimuli include sulfuric and niric acids, the principal inorganic acids present; sulfites, formed in the atmosphere as a reaction product of sulfur dioxide and water droplets; fog water itself, a hypoosmolar aerosol; the organic acid hydroxymethanesulfonate, the bisulfite adduct of formaldehyde; and gaseous pollutants, e.g., sulfur dioxide, oxides of nitrogen, ozone. Given this complexity, evaluation of the respiratory health effects of naturally occurring acid fog requires assessment of the bronchoconstrictor potency of each component stimulus and possible interactions among these stimuli. We summarize the results of three studies that involve characterization of the bronchoconstrictor potency of acid fog stimuli and/or their interaction in subjects with asthma. The results of the first study indicate that titratable acidity appears to be a more important stimulus to bronchoconstriction than is pH. The results of the second study demonstrate that sulfite species are capable of inducing bronchoconstriction, especially when inhaled at acid pH. The results of the third study suggest that acidity can potentiate hypoosmolar fog-induced bronchoconstriction

A model of ganglion axon pathways accounts for percepts elicited by retinal implants.

Degenerative retinal diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa and macular degeneration cause irreversible vision loss in more than 10 million people worldwide. Retinal prostheses, now implanted in over 250 patients worldwide, electrically stimulate surviving cells in order to evoke neuronal responses that are interpreted by the brain as visual percepts ('phosphenes'). However, instead of seeing focal spots of light, current implant users perceive highly distorted phosphenes that vary in shape both across subjects and electrodes. We characterized these distortions by asking users of the Argus retinal prosthesis system (Second Sight Medical Products Inc.) to draw electrically elicited percepts on a touchscreen. Using ophthalmic fundus imaging and computational modeling, we show that elicited percepts can be accurately predicted by the topographic organization of optic nerve fiber bundles in each subject's retina, successfully replicating visual percepts ranging from 'blobs' to oriented 'streaks' and 'wedges' depending on the retinal location of the stimulating electrode. This provides the first evidence that activation of passing axon fibers accounts for the rich repertoire of phosphene shape commonly reported in psychophysical experiments, which can severely distort the quality of the generated visual experience. Overall our findings argue for more detailed modeling of biological detail across neural engineering applications

A quantum group version of quantum gauge theories in two dimensions

For the special case of the quantum group $SL_q (2,{\bf C})\ (q= \exp \pi i/r,\ r\ge 3)$ we present an alternative approach to quantum gauge theories in two dimensions. We exhibit the similarities to Witten's combinatorial approach which is based on ideas of Migdal. The main ingredient is the Turaev-Viro combinatorial construction of topological invariants of closed, compact 3-manifolds and its extension to arbitrary compact 3-manifolds as given by the authors in collaboration with W. Mueller.Comment: 6 pages (plain TeX

Penerapan Pembelajaran Tutor Sebaya Dengan Strategi Everyone is a Teacher ( ETH ) Pada Praktek Pembelajaran Tematik SD Di Program Studi PGSD IKIP PGRI Semarang

Thematic learning is learning that is designed based on certain themes. In his discussion themes were reviewed from a variety of subjects. Thematic learning provides the breadth and depth of curriculum implementation, offering vast opportunities for students to bring up the dynamics in education. In cycle I obtained an average yield of 81.5% active students, the average ability of students 57.7%, an average of 7.4 and active learning in peer tutoring and learning activities to teach the average value of 7, 56. In cycle II, obtained an average yield of 83.4% active students, the average ability of students 73.4%, the average learning outcomes 8.8 and the average value of active peer tutors in the teaching-learning 7.75

Quantum analogues of Hardy's nonlocality paradox

Hardy's nonlocality is a "nonlocality proof without inequalities": it exemplifies that quantum correlations can be qualitatively stronger than classical correlations. This paper introduces variants of Hardy's nonlocality in the CHSH scenario which are realized by the PR-box, but not by quantum correlations. Hence this new kind of Hardy-type nonlocality is a proof without inequalities showing that superquantum correlations can be qualitatively stronger than quantum correlations.Comment: minor fixe

The importance of recent infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis in an area with high HIV prevalence: a long-term molecular epidemiological study in Northern Malawi.

BACKGROUND: The proportion of cases of tuberculosis due to recent infection can be estimated in long-term population-based studies using molecular techniques. Here, we present what is, to our knowledge, the first such study in an area with high human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevalence. METHODS: All patients with tuberculosis in Karonga District, Malawi, were interviewed. Isolates were genotyped using restriction-fragment-length polymorphism (RFLP) patterns. Strains were considered to be "clustered" if at least 1 other patient had an isolate with an identical pattern. RESULTS: RFLP results were available from 83% of culture-positive patients from late 1995 to early 2003. When strains with <5 bands were excluded, 72% (682/948) were clustered. Maximum clustering was reached using a 4-year window, with an estimated two-thirds of cases due to recent transmission. The proportion clustered decreased with age and varied by area of residence. In older adults, clustering was less common in men and more common in patients who were HIV positive (adjusted odds ratio, 5.1 [95% confidence interval, 2.1-12.6]). CONCLUSIONS: The proportion clustered found in the present study was among the highest in the world, suggesting high rates of recent transmission. The association with HIV infection in older adults may suggest that HIV has a greater impact on disease caused by recent transmission than on that caused by reactivation

Numerical Simulation of Vortex Crystals and Merging in N-Point Vortex Systems with Circular Boundary

In two-dimensional (2D) inviscid incompressible flow, low background vorticity distribution accelerates intense vortices (clumps) to merge each other and to array in the symmetric pattern which is called ``vortex crystals''; they are observed in the experiments on pure electron plasma and the simulations of Euler fluid. Vortex merger is thought to be a result of negative ``temperature'' introduced by L. Onsager. Slight difference in the initial distribution from this leads to ``vortex crystals''. We study these phenomena by examining N-point vortex systems governed by the Hamilton equations of motion. First, we study a three-point vortex system without background distribution. It is known that a N-point vortex system with boundary exhibits chaotic behavior for N\geq 3. In order to investigate the properties of the phase space structure of this three-point vortex system with circular boundary, we examine the Poincar\'e plot of this system. Then we show that topology of the Poincar\'e plot of this system drastically changes when the parameters, which are concerned with the sign of ``temperature'', are varied. Next, we introduce a formula for energy spectrum of a N-point vortex system with circular boundary. Further, carrying out numerical computation, we reproduce a vortex crystal and a vortex merger in a few hundred point vortices system. We confirm that the energy of vortices is transferred from the clumps to the background in the course of vortex crystallization. In the vortex merging process, we numerically calculate the energy spectrum introduced above and confirm that it behaves as k^{-\alpha},(\alpha\approx 2.2-2.8) at the region 10^0<k<10^1 after the merging.Comment: 30 pages, 11 figures. to be published in Journal of Physical Society of Japan Vol.74 No.