QCD Analysis of Polarized Deep Inelastic Data and Parton Distributions

A QCD analysis of the world data on polarized deep inelastic scattering is presented in leading and next-to-leading order. New parameterizations are derived for the quark and gluon distributions for the kinematic range x \epsilon [10^{-9},1], Q^2 \epsilon [1,10^6] \GeV^2. The extrapolation far outside the domain of the current measurements is given both to allow for applications at higher values of $Q^2$ and to be able to calculate integral properties of the present distributions. The values of $\Lambda_{\rm QCD}$ and $\alpha_s(M_z)$ are determined. Emphasis is put on the derivation of the fully correlated $1\sigma$ error bands for these distributions, which are also given in terms of parameterizations and are directly applicable to determine experimental errors of other polarized observables. The impact of the variation of both the renormalization and factorization scales on the value of $\alpha_s$ is studied. Finally we perform a factorization--scheme invariant QCD analysis based on the observables $g_1(x,Q^2)$ and $d g_1(x,Q^2)/d \log(Q^2)$ in next-to-leading order, which is compared to the standard analysis. A series of low moments of parton densities, accounting for error correlation, are given to allow for comparison with results from lattice simulations.Comment: 43 pages LATEX, 1 style files, 13 eps-figures, final version, Nucl. Phys. B in prin

HARD PROBES OF DENSE MATTER

Direct probes for the QGP must be hard enough to resolve sub-hadronic scales (\ll \la^{-1}) and distinguish confined and deconfined media. This can be achieved by fast colour charges (jets) and heavy quark resonances (quarkonia). After a general survey, we study quarkonia as confinement probe and show in particular that confined matter is transparent, deconfined matter opaque to \J's.Comment: 13 pages, plain TeX, figures available upon request from the autho

Introduction: building the history of language learning and teaching (HoLLT)

The papers presented in this issue are the result of a workshop held at the University of Nottingham in December 2012 as part of an Arts and Humanities Research Council research network Towards a History of Modern Foreign Language Teaching and Learning (2012–14) intended to stimulate historical research into language teaching and learning. This, the first workshop in the programme, focused on exchanging information on the history of language learning and teaching (HoLLT) across the different language traditions, for it had become clear to us that scholars working within their own language disciplines were often relatively unaware of work outside these. We hope that this special issue — with overview articles on the history of English, French, German, and Spanish as second/foreign languages — will help overcome that lack of awareness and facilitate further research collaboration. Charting the history of language teaching and learning will, in turn, make us all better informed in facing challenges and changes to policy and practice now and in the future. It is instructive in the current climate, for example, to realize that grave doubts were held about whether second foreign languages could survive alongside French in British schools in the early twentieth century (McLelland, forthcoming), or to look back at earlier attempts to establish foreign languages in primary schools (Bayley, 1989; Burstall et al., 1974; Hoy, 1977). As we write, language learning in England is undergoing yet more radical change. Language teaching for all children from the age of seven is being made compulsory in primary schools from 2014, while at Key Stage 3 (up to age 16), where a foreign language has not been compulsory since 2002, the most recent programme of study for England has virtually abandoned the recent focus on intercultural competence and now requires learners to ‘read great literature in the original language’,1 a radical change in emphasis compared to the previous half-century, which seems to reflect a very different view of what language learning is for. We seem to be little closer in 2014 than we were at the dawn of the twentieth century to answering with any certainty the questions that lie at the very foundations of language teaching: who should learn a foreign language, why learners learn, what they need to learn, and what we want to teach them — answers that we need before we can consider how we want to teach. The research programme begun under our research network is intended to help us to take ‘the long view’ on such questions

A highly specific and sensitive serological assay detects SARS‑CoV‑2 antibody levels in COVID‑19 patients that correlate with neutralization

Objective The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic challenges national health systems and the global economy. Monitoring of infection rates and seroprevalence can guide public health measures to combat the pandemic. This depends on reliable tests on active and former infections. Here, we set out to develop and validate a specific and sensitive enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for detection of anti SARS-CoV-2 antibody levels. Methods In our ELISA, we used SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain (RBD) and a stabilized version of the spike (S) ectodomain as antigens. We assessed sera from patients infected with seasonal coronaviruses, SARS-CoV-2 and controls. We determined and monitored IgM-, IgA- and IgG-antibody responses towards these antigens. In addition, for a panel of 22 sera, virus neutralization and ELISA parameters were measured and correlated. Results The RBD-based ELISA detected SARS-CoV-2-directed antibodies, did not cross-react with seasonal coronavirus antibodies and correlated with virus neutralization (R2 = 0.89). Seroconversion started at 5 days after symptom onset and led to robust antibody levels at 10 days after symptom onset. We demonstrate high specificity (99.3%; N = 1000) and sensitivity (92% for IgA, 96% for IgG and 98% for IgM; > 10 days after PCR-proven infection; N = 53) in serum. Conclusions With the described RBD-based ELISA protocol, we provide a reliable test for seroepidemiological surveys. Due to high specificity and strong correlation with virus neutralization, the RBD ELISA holds great potential to become a preferred tool to assess thresholds of protective immunity after infection and vaccination

Dreißig Jahre Fakultät Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaften an der Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg (1977 bis 2007)

Anlass zur Vorlage der Festschrift ist das dreißigjährige Bestehen der Fakultät Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaften (SpLit) der Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg (1977–2007). Sie soll die Entwicklung, die die Fakultät seit ihrer Gründung genommen hat, möglichst knapp und sachlich dokumentieren. Sie hat daher den Charakter einer Leistungsbilanz, sie bietet streckenweise Materialien zu einer Chronik der Fakultät, sie verschweigt aber auch nicht ihre „Geburtsfehler“ in Gestalt mangelnder Ressourcen. In einer Zeit des Umbruchs, nämlich der bevorstehenden Verschmelzung mit der Fakultät Geschichts- und Geowissenschaften (GGeo) zu einer Fakultät Geistes- und Kulturwissenschaften (GuK), soll diese Selbstdarstellung der Fakultät ihr Profil und ihre Identität bis zu ihrer zum 1.10.2007 zu Ende gegangenen selbständigen Existenz erkennbar machen. Die Druckauflage wurde vom Dekanat der Fakultät herausgegeben

The neutron and its role in cosmology and particle physics

Experiments with cold and ultracold neutrons have reached a level of precision such that problems far beyond the scale of the present Standard Model of particle physics become accessible to experimental investigation. Due to the close links between particle physics and cosmology, these studies also permit a deep look into the very first instances of our universe. First addressed in this article, both in theory and experiment, is the problem of baryogenesis ... The question how baryogenesis could have happened is open to experimental tests, and it turns out that this problem can be curbed by the very stringent limits on an electric dipole moment of the neutron, a quantity that also has deep implications for particle physics. Then we discuss the recent spectacular observation of neutron quantization in the earth's gravitational field and of resonance transitions between such gravitational energy states. These measurements, together with new evaluations of neutron scattering data, set new constraints on deviations from Newton's gravitational law at the picometer scale. Such deviations are predicted in modern theories with extra-dimensions that propose unification of the Planck scale with the scale of the Standard Model ... Another main topic is the weak-interaction parameters in various fields of physics and astrophysics that must all be derived from measured neutron decay data. Up to now, about 10 different neutron decay observables have been measured, much more than needed in the electroweak Standard Model. This allows various precise tests for new physics beyond the Standard Model, competing with or surpassing similar tests at high-energy. The review ends with a discussion of neutron and nuclear data required in the synthesis of the elements during the "first three minutes" and later on in stellar nucleosynthesis.Comment: 91 pages, 30 figures, accepted by Reviews of Modern Physic

Be careful with „Kiezdeutsch“

Der Beitrag befasst sich mit Publikationen der Potsdamer Germanistin Heike Wiese über eine Erscheinungsform des Deutschen, die bei Jugendlichen aus Zuwandererfamilien in großen Städten beobachtet wurde. Sie nennt sie „Kiezdeutsch“. Der Beitrag problematisiert die Erhebungsmethodik, die linguistische Einordnung des „Kiezdeutschen“ als Dialekt sowie die Geschichtsblindheit des Ansatzes. Denn Mischvarietäten des Deutschen, die auf Sprachkontakten beruhen, gab es schon immer, und seit dem 18. Jahrhundert sind sie quellenmäßig belegt. Die Literatur zum „Kiezdeutschen“ wird als politisch und sozialpädagogisch motiviert und linguistisch unerheblich beurteilt.The article deals with publications of the Potsdam professor of Germanic linguistics Heike Wiese on so-called “Kiezdeutsch“. Kiezdeutsch is a manifestation of contemporary German, observed in the speech and behaviour of teenage migrants in big cities. The contribution queries the methods of data acquisition, the classification of „Kiezdeutsch“ as a German dialect, and the absence of historical awareness. Mixed varieties of German as a result of language contacts have been present extant since the early Middle Ages and evidenced in texts from the 18th century on. The publications on „Kiezdeutsch“ are motivated mainly by political and social-educational points of view and can be assessed as linguistically irrelevant