XMM-Newton observations of the complex spin pulse of the intermediate polar PQ~Geminorum

The intermediate polar PQ Geminorum shows a complex pulsation, caused by a spinning white dwarf, which varies markedly with wavelength. We report XMM-Newton observations, including the soft and hard X-ray bands and the first UV lightcurves of this star. We update the ephemeris for PQ Gem allowing us to align these data with a compilation of lightcurves from the optical to the X-ray. Building on work by previous authors, we show how a model in which accretion flows along skewed field lines, viewed at the correct inclination, can explain the major features of the lightcurves in all bands. We discuss how the skew of the field lines relates to the spinning down of the white-dwarf rotation.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Inclusive jet spectrum for small-radius jets

Following on our earlier work on leading-logarithmic (LLR) resummations for the properties of jets with a small radius, R, we here examine the phenomenological considerations for the inclusive jet spectrum. We discuss how to match the NLO predictions with small-R resummation. As part of the study we propose a new, physically-inspired prescription for fixed-order predictions and their uncertainties. We investigate the R-dependent part of the next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) corrections, which is found to be substantial, and comment on the implications for scale choices in inclusive jet calculations. We also examine hadronisation corrections, identifying potential limitations of earlier analytical work with regards to their $p_t$-dependence. Finally we assemble these different elements in order to compare matched (N)NLO+LLR predictions to data from ALICE and ATLAS, finding improved consistency for the R-dependence of the results relative to NLO predictions.Comment: 42 pages, 24 figures, additional material at http://microjets.hepforge.org/, updated to match published versio

Viewing the Dublin Drug Treatment Court Through the Lens of Therapeutic Jurisprudence

© International Association for Court Administration. Over the last 25 years problem solving courts have developed internationally to provide a response to entrenched criminal justice related issues including addiction and mental health problems. These courts operate in adherence with the concept of Therapeutic Jurisprudence, which recognises the court and its officials as therapeutic agents, who work collaboratively to achieve the best possible outcomes for those appearing before the court. In an Irish context, problem solving courts have been in operation since 2001 when the Dublin Drug Treatment Court was established. This, however, remains the only problem solving court in operation within the Irish criminal justice system. This paper considers the wide ranging international literature on drug courts before casting a critical eye over the Dublin Drug Treatment Court, from its inception to the present day. It considers the workings of the court against the theoretical backdrop of Therapeutic Jurisprudence. This paper argues that while there seems to be a lack of overt engagement with Therapeutic Jurisprudence principles on the part of the Irish judiciary involved with the Dublin Drug Treatment Court, many tenets of the Court actually adhere to Therapeutic Jurisprudence principles, and the authors contend that calls for further empirical analysis. The paper builds on the works of Butler and Loughran et al., which has already provided an excellent grounding for any future studies on the Dublin Drug Treatment Court

Classical pion fields in the presence of source

Classical pion field similar to Disoriented Chiral Condensate (DCC) is considered in the presence of the external source. This field is similar to DCC in the sense that its isotopic orientation is specified with a single vector at the whole space. We study the classical field solutions in the nonlinear sigma-model both in the chiral limit with massless pion and for the finite pion mass. In both cases the field resembles the Coulomb field of charged particle however the nonlinear pion interactions lead to the existence of several solutions. In the massless case and for the very small size of the source there is the lot of classical solutions with finite discrete energies. In the more realistic situation of large nucleus (heavy ion) there are no stable solutions of the above type, but there is the possibility for the formation of the quasistationary states. They can live for a long time slowly decaying through the emission of very soft pions. The structure and the energies of these solutions is investigated numerically.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX, 1 figure, epsfig.sty, corrected typos, added reference

Fluctuation and flow probes of early-time correlations in relativistic heavy ion collisions

Fluctuation and correlation observables are often measured using multi-particle correlation methods and therefore mutually probe the origins of genuine correlations present in multi-particle distribution functions. We investigate the common influence of correlations arising from the spatially inhomogeneous initial state on multiplicity and momentum fluctuations as well as flow fluctuations. Although these observables reflect different aspects of the initial state, taken together, they can constrain a correlation scale set at the earliest moments of the collision. We calculate both the correlation scale in an initial stage Glasma flux tube picture and the modification to these correlations from later stage hydrodynamic flow and find quantitative agreement with experimental measurements over a range of collision systems and energies.Comment: Proceedings of the 28th Winter Workshop on Nuclear Dynamics, Dorado del Mar, Puerto Rico, April 7-14, 201

Variability of the Accretion Stream in the Eclipsing Polar EP Dra

We present the first high time resolution light curves for six eclipses of the magnetic cataclysmic variable EP Dra, taken using the superconducting tunnel junction imager S-Cam2. The system shows a varying eclipse profile between consecutive eclipses over the two nights of observation. We attribute the variable stream eclipse after accretion region ingress to a variation in the amount and location of bright material in the accretion stream. This material creates an accretion curtain as it is threaded by many field lines along the accretion stream trajectory. We identify this as the cause of absorption evident in the light curves when the system is in a high accretion state. We do not see direct evidence in the light curves for an accretion spot on the white dwarf; however, the variation of the stream brightness with the brightness of the rapid decline in flux at eclipse ingress indicates the presence of some form of accretion region. This accretion region is most likely located at high colatitude on the white dwarf surface, forming an arc shape at the foot points of the many field lines channeling the accretion curtain.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS (7 pages

Explaining Africa’s public consumption procyclicality : revisiting old evidence

This paper compiles a novel dataset of time-varying measures of government consumption cyclicality for a panel of 46 African economies between 1960 and 2014. Government consumption has, generally, been highly procyclical over time in this group of countries. However, sample averages hide serious heterogeneity across countries with the majority of them showing procyclical behavior despite some positive signs of graduation from the “procyclicality trap” in a few cases. By means of weighted least squares regressions, we find that more developed African economies tend to have a smaller degree of government consumption procyclicality. Countries with higher social fragmentation and those are more reliant on foreign aid inflows tend to have a more procyclical government consumption policy. Better governance promotes counter- cyclical fiscal policy whileincreased democracy dampens it. Finally, some fiscal rules are important in curbing the procyclical behavior of government consumption.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Regulation of Aggrecanase ADAMTS-4 Expression in Human Achilles Tendon and tendon-Derived Cells

Several members of the ADAMTS (A Disintegrin And Metalloproteinase with ThromboSpondin motifs) family have been identified as aggrecanases, whose substrates include versican, the principal large proteoglycan in the tendon extracellular matrix. We have characterized the expression of ADAMTS-4 in human Achilles tendon and tendon-derived cells. ADAMTS-4 mRNA levels were higher in ruptured tendon compared with normal tendon or chronic painful tendinopathy. In tissue extracts probed by Western blotting, mature ADAMTS-4 (68 kDa) was detected only in ruptured tendons, while processed ADAMTS-4 (53 kDa) was detected also in chronic painful tendinopathy and in normal tendon. In cultured Achilles tendon cells, transforming growth factor-ß (TGF-ß) stimulated ADAMTS-4 mRNA expression (typically 20-fold after 24 h), while interleukin-1 induced a smaller, shorter-term stimulation which synergised markedly with that induced by TGF-ß. Increased levels of immunoreactive proteins consistent with mature and processed forms of ADAMTS-4 were detected in TGF-ß-stimulated cells. ADAMTS-4 mRNA was expressed at higher levels by tendon cells in collagen gels than in monolayer cultures. In contrast, the expression of ADAMTS-1 and -5 mRNA was lower in collagen gels compared with monolayers, and these mRNA showed smaller or opposite responses to growth factors and cytokines compared with that of ADAMTS-4 mRNA. We conclude that both ADAMTS-4 mRNA and ADAMTS-4 protein processing may be differentially regulated in normal and damaged tendons and that both the matrix environment and growth factors such as TGF-ß are potentially important factors controlling ADAMTS aggrecanase activities in tendon pathology

Pion Breather States in QCD

We describe a class of pionic breather solutions (PBS) which appear in the chiral lagrangian description of low-energy QCD. These configurations are long-lived, with lifetimes greater than $10^3$ fm/c, and could arise as remnants of disoriented chiral condensate (DCC) formation at RHIC. We show that the chiral lagrangian equations of motion for a uniformly isospin-polarized domain reduce to those of the sine-gordon model. Consequently, our solutions are directly related to the breather solutions of sine-gordon theory in 3+1 dimensions. We investigate the possibility of PBS formation from multiple domains of DCC, and show that the probability of formation is non-negligible.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure

Infection with a Virulent Strain of Wolbachia Disrupts Genome Wide-Patterns of Cytosine Methylation in the Mosquito Aedes aegypti

BACKGROUND Cytosine methylation is one of several reversible epigenetic modifications of DNA that allow a greater flexibility in the relationship between genotype and phenotype. Methylation in the simplest models dampens gene expression by modifying regions of DNA critical for transcription factor binding. The capacity to methylate DNA is variable in the insects due to diverse histories of gene loss and duplication of DNA methylases. Mosquitoes like Drosophila melanogaster possess only a single methylase, DNMT2. DESCRIPTION Here we characterise the methylome of the mosquito Aedes aegypti and examine its relationship to transcription and test the effects of infection with a virulent strain of the endosymbiont Wolbachia on the stability of methylation patterns. CONCLUSION We see that methylation in the A. aegypti genome is associated with reduced transcription and is most common in the promoters of genes relating to regulation of transcription and metabolism. Similar gene classes are also methylated in aphids and honeybees, suggesting either conservation or convergence of methylation patterns. In addition to this evidence of evolutionary stability, we also show that infection with the virulent wMelPop Wolbachia strain induces additional methylation and demethylation events in the genome. While most of these changes seem random with respect to gene function and have no detected effect on transcription, there does appear to be enrichment of genes associated with membrane function. Given that Wolbachia lives within a membrane-bound vacuole of host origin and retains a large number of genes for transporting host amino acids, inorganic ions and ATP despite a severely reduced genome, these changes might represent an evolved strategy for manipulating the host environments for its own gain. Testing for a direct link between these methylation changes and expression, however, will require study across a broader range of developmental stages and tissues with methods that detect splice variants.This research was supported by The National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript