New Limits on Local Lorentz Invariance in Mercury and Cesium

We report new bounds on Local Lorentz Invariance (LLI) violation in Cs and Hg. The limits are obtained through the observation of the the spin- precession frequencies of 199Hg and 133Cs atoms in their ground states as a function of the orientation of an applied magnetic field with respect to the fixed stars. We measure the amplitudes of the dipole couplings to a preferred direction in the equatorial plane to be 19(11) nHz for Hg and 9(5) microHz for Cs. The upper bounds established here improve upon previous bounds by about a factor of four. The improvement is primarily due to mounting the apparatus on a rotating table. New bounds are established on several terms in the standard model extension including the first bounds on the spin-couplings of the neutron and proton to the z direction, <7e-30 GeV and <7e-29 GeV, respectively.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figure

Spike-Train Responses of a Pair of Hodgkin-Huxley Neurons with Time-Delayed Couplings

Model calculations have been performed on the spike-train response of a pair of Hodgkin-Huxley (HH) neurons coupled by recurrent excitatory-excitatory couplings with time delay. The coupled, excitable HH neurons are assumed to receive the two kinds of spike-train inputs: the transient input consisting of $M$ impulses for the finite duration ($M$: integer) and the sequential input with the constant interspike interval (ISI). The distribution of the output ISI $T_{\rm o}$ shows a rich of variety depending on the coupling strength and the time delay. The comparison is made between the dependence of the output ISI for the transient inputs and that for the sequential inputs.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figure

Resonance between Noise and Delay

We propose here a stochastic binary element whose transition rate depends on its state at a fixed interval in the past. With this delayed stochastic transition this is one of the simplest dynamical models under the influence of ``noise'' and ``delay''. We demonstrate numerically and analytically that we can observe resonant phenomena between the oscillatory behavior due to noise and that due to delay.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys.Rev.Lett Expanded and Added Reference

Robust convergence in pulse coupled oscillators with delays

We show that for pulse coupled oscillators a class of phase response curves with both excitation and inhibition exhibit robust convergence to synchrony on arbitrary aperiodic connected graphs with delays. We describe the basins of convergence and give explicit bounds on the convergence times. These results provide new and more robust methods for synchronization of sensor nets and also have biological implications.Comment: http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v106/i19/e19410

The victorious English language: hegemonic practices in the management academy

This study explores hegemonic linguistic processes, that is, the dominant and unreflective use of the English language in the production of textual knowledge accounts. The authors see the production of management knowledge as situated in central or peripheral locations, which they examine from an English language perspective. Their inquiry is based on an empirical study based on the perspectives of 33 management academics (not English language speakers) in (semi) peripheral locations, who have to generate and disseminate knowledge in and through the English language. Although the hegemony of the center in the knowledge production process has long been acknowledged, the specific contribution of this study is to explore how the English language operates as part of the “ideological complex” that produces and maintains this hegemony, as well as how this hegemony is manifested at the local level of publication practices in peripherally located business and management schools

Patients with psoriasis: psychosocial adaptation and personality features

A psoríase tem suscitado interesse na investigação por causa dos aspectos psicológicos e sociais de seus portadores. Objetivou-se avaliar as condições psicológicas e adaptativas de pacientes com psoríase e suas relações com variáveis demográficas e condições clínicas. Foram avaliados, no Ambulatório de Dermatologia do Hospital das Clínicas da FMRP - USP, 25 mulheres e 25 homens com idade entre 20-50 anos com diagnóstico de psoríase vulgar. Procedeu-se, em sessões individuais, à aplicação individual do Inventário Simplificado de Personalidade (ISP) e do Inventário de Qualidade de Vida (PDI), conforme as recomendações técnicas, e como complemento houve uma entrevista semi-estruturada. Os protocolos foram cotados e, comparados aos dados normativos, procedeu-se à quantificação e tratamento estatístico. Observou-se que 80% dos pacientes apresentaram tendência a desvio de traço de personalidade, predominando as escalas de Extroversão, Insanidade e Neuroticidade. A maioria relatou dificuldades de adaptação psicossocial, principalmente nas áreas de atividades rotineiras (p&lt;0.001); Extensão psoriática, faixa etária entre 20 a 30 anos, insatisfação quanto à aparência física e desvios de Insanidade e Neuroticidade mostraram-se associados a prejuízos nas atividades rotineiras, relações pessoais e lazer. Os dados apontam a inter-relação de aspectos psíquicos, adaptação psicossocial e peculiaridades clínicas da doença.There has been increasing interest in the investigation of the psychological and social aspects of patients with psoriasis. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the psychological and adaptive conditions of patients with psoriasis and their relations with demographic variables and clinical condition. Twenty-five women and 25 men aged 20-50 years with a diagnosis of vulgar psoriasis were evaluated at the University Hospital, FMRP-USP. The Simplified Personality Inventory (SPI) and the Quality of Life Inventory (QLI) were applied in individual sessions according to technical recommendations and complemented with a semi-structured interview. The protocols were examined and compared to the normative data and the data were quantified and analyzed statistically. Eighty percent of the patients were found to present a tendency to personality deviation, with a predominance of the Extroversion, Insanity and Neuroticism scales. Most patients were in the 20 to 30 year age range and reported difficulties in psychosocial adaptation, especially in areas of routine activities (p&lt;0.001), psoriatic extension, dissatisfaction about their physical appearance and Insanity and Neuroticism deviations, in association with impairment of routine activities, personal relations and leisure. The data indicate an inter-relation between psychological aspects, psychosocial adaptation and the clinical peculiarities of the disease

On the repeated use of oil recovery flow-redizecting technologies

After successful application in several areas of technology-based high-modulus water glass during the second of its application in three years more oil at these sites lacked. However, the composition of petroleum after the application of technology has undergone significant change. Indicating the connection is not involved in earlier in the development of less permeable aleurolitic interiayers, the oil recovery factor of which is low. The question arises - In the absence of Increase in oil production to consider It further, or to recognize the application flow-redizecting technology is not effective

Quantum Computing and Quantum Simulation with Group-II Atoms

Recent experimental progress in controlling neutral group-II atoms for optical clocks, and in the production of degenerate gases with group-II atoms has given rise to novel opportunities to address challenges in quantum computing and quantum simulation. In these systems, it is possible to encode qubits in nuclear spin states, which are decoupled from the electronic state in the $^1$S$_0$ ground state and the long-lived $^3$P$_0$ metastable state on the clock transition. This leads to quantum computing scenarios where qubits are stored in long lived nuclear spin states, while electronic states can be accessed independently, for cooling of the atoms, as well as manipulation and readout of the qubits. The high nuclear spin in some fermionic isotopes also offers opportunities for the encoding of multiple qubits on a single atom, as well as providing an opportunity for studying many-body physics in systems with a high spin symmetry. Here we review recent experimental and theoretical progress in these areas, and summarise the advantages and challenges for quantum computing and quantum simulation with group-II atoms.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, review for special issue of "Quantum Information Processing" on "Quantum Information with Neutral Particles

Selecting normalization genes for small diagnostic microarrays

BACKGROUND: Normalization of gene expression microarrays carrying thousands of genes is based on assumptions that do not hold for diagnostic microarrays carrying only few genes. Thus, applying standard microarray normalization strategies to diagnostic microarrays causes new normalization problems. RESULTS: In this paper we point out the differences of normalizing large microarrays and small diagnostic microarrays. We suggest to include additional normalization genes on the small diagnostic microarrays and propose two strategies for selecting them from genomewide microarray studies. The first is a data driven univariate selection of normalization genes. The second is multivariate and based on finding a balanced diagnostic signature. Finally, we compare both methods to standard normalization protocols known from large microarrays. CONCLUSION: Not including additional genes for normalization on small microarrays leads to a loss of diagnostic information. Using house keeping genes from the literature for normalization fails to work for certain datasets. While a data driven selection of additional normalization genes works well, the best results were obtained using a balanced signature