321 research outputs found
Introduction
At Seattle University School of Lawâs Symposium on Racial Bias and the Criminal Justice System, students, faculty, judges, scholars, lawyers, and community members gathered to address racial disparity in the criminal justice system and to explore ways to keep the promise of our democracy that we all are equal before the law. Race, ethnicity, skin color, and national origin profoundly influence our legal structure and our liberty. The way that race influences perceptions and actions is critically important in the context of our criminal justice systemâa system that changes lives, disrupts and protects communities, and represents a key part of our struggle for justice
Counterrotating Dust Disk Around a Schwarzschild Black Hole: New Fully Integrated Explicit Exact Solution
The first fully integrated explicit exact solution of Einstein's field equations corresponding to the superposition of a counterrotating dust disk with a central black hole is presented. The obtained solution represents an infinite annular thin disk (a disk with an inner edge) around the Schwarsz-child black hole, and the corresponding to energy-momentum tensor agrees with all the energy conditions. The solution can also be interpreted as des-cribing a thin disk made of two counterrotating dust fluids that are also in agreement with all the energy conditions.
 
Suppression of electron-electron repulsion and superconductivity in Ultra Small Carbon Nanotubes
Recently, ultra-small-diameter Single Wall Nano Tubes with diameter of have been produced and many unusual properties were observed, such as
superconductivity, leading to a transition temperature , much
larger than that observed in the bundles of larger diameter tubes.
By a comparison between two different approaches, we discuss the issue
whether a superconducting behavior in these carbon nanotubes can arise by a
purely electronic mechanism. The first approach is based on the Luttinger Model
while the second one, which emphasizes the role of the lattice and short range
interaction, is developed starting from the Hubbard Hamiltonian. By using the
latter model we predict a transition temperature of the same order of magnitude
as the measured one.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, to appear in J. Phys.-Cond. Ma
Dust-Bounded ULIRGs? Model Predictions for Infrared Spectroscopic Surveys
The observed faintness of infrared fine-structure line emission along with
the warm far-infrared (FIR) colors of ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs)
is a long-standing problem. In this work, we calculate the line and continuum
properties of a cloud exposed to an Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) and starburst
spectral energy distribution (SED). We use an integrated modeling approach,
predicting the spectrum of ionized, atomic, and molecular environments in
pressure equilibrium. We find that the effects of high ratios of impinging
ionizing radiation density to particle density (i.e. high ionization
parameters, or U) can reproduce many ULIRG observational characteristics.
Physically, as U increases, the fraction of UV photons absorbed by dust
increases, corresponding to fewer photons available to photoionize and heat the
gas, producing what is known as a "dust-bounded" nebula. We show that high U
effects can explain the "[C II] deficit", the ~1 dex drop in the [C II] 158
micron /FIR ratio seen in ULIRGs when compared to starburst or normal galaxies.
Additionally, by increasing U through increasing the ionizing photon flux,
warmer dust and thus higher IRAS F(60)/F(100) ratios result. High U effects
also predict an increase in [O I]63 micron /[C II] 158 micron and a gradual
decline in [O III] 88 micron /FIR, similar to the magnitude of the trends
observed, and yield a reasonable fit to [Ne V]14 micron /FIR ratio AGN
observations.Comment: 34 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
Journa
The detached dust shells of AQ And, U Ant, and TT Cyg
Detached circumstellar dust shells are detected around three carbon variables
using Herschel-PACS. Two of them are already known on the basis of their
thermal CO emission and two are visible as extensions in IRAS imaging data. By
model fits to the new data sets, physical sizes, expansion timescales, dust
temperatures, and more are deduced. A comparison with existing molecular CO
material shows a high degree of correlation for TT Cyg and U Ant but a few
distinct differences with other observables are also found.Comment: Letter accepted for publication on the A&A Herschel Special Issu
Enhancing real-time human detection based on histograms of oriented gradients
In this paper we propose a human detection framework based on an enhanced version of Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HOG) features. These feature descriptors are computed with the help of a precalculated histogram of square-blocks. This novel method outperforms the integral of oriented histograms allowing the calculation of a single feature four times faster. Using Adaboost for HOG feature selection and Support Vector Machine as weak classifier, we build up a real-time human classifier with an excellent detection rate.Peer Reviewe
Regulation of constitutive and alternative mRNA splicing across the human transcriptome by PRPF8 is determined by 5' splice site strength.
BACKGROUND: Sequential assembly of the human spliceosome on RNA transcripts regulates splicing across the human transcriptome. The core spliceosome component PRPF8 is essential for spliceosome assembly through its participation in ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complexes for splice-site recognition, branch-point formation and catalysis. PRPF8 deficiency is linked to human diseases like retinitis pigmentosa or myeloid neoplasia, but its genome-wide effects on constitutive and alternative splicing remain unclear. RESULTS: Here, we show that alterations in RNA splicing patterns across the human transcriptome that occur in conditions of restricted cellular PRPF8 abundance are defined by the altered splicing of introns with weak 5' splice sites. iCLIP of spliceosome components reveals that PRPF8 depletion decreases RNP complex formation at most splice sites in exon-intron junctions throughout the genome. However, impaired splicing affects only a subset of human transcripts, enriched for mitotic cell cycle factors, leading to mitotic arrest. Preferentially retained introns and differentially used exons in the affected genes contain weak 5' splice sites, but are otherwise indistinguishable from adjacent spliced introns. Experimental enhancement of splice-site strength in mini-gene constructs overcomes the effects of PRPF8 depletion on the kinetics and fidelity of splicing during transcription. CONCLUSIONS: Competition for PRPF8 availability alters the transcription-coupled splicing of RNAs in which weak 5' splice sites predominate, enabling diversification of human gene expression during biological processes like mitosis. Our findings exemplify the regulatory potential of changes in the core spliceosome machinery, which may be relevant to slow-onset human genetic diseases linked to PRPF8 deficiency
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