Fuzzy Line Bundles, the Chern Character and Topological Charges over the Fuzzy Sphere

Using the theory of quantized equivariant vector bundles over compact coadjoint orbits we determine the Chern characters of all noncommutative line bundles over the fuzzy sphere with regard to its derivation based differential calculus. The associated Chern numbers (topological charges) arise to be non-integer, in the commutative limit the well known integer Chern numbers of the complex line bundles over the 2-sphere are recovered.Comment: Latex2e, 13 pages, 1 figure. This paper continues and supersedes math-ph/0103003. v2: Typos correcte

Quantifying the art of retail site selection : a retail case study

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2001.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 88-89).Although there have been great strides in attempting to identify the locations that will yield the highest sales, the opinion among retailers remains that once the demographic, market, and sub-market analysis is complete, the choice of where to open a store within a sub-market is a matter of "feeling". Science can help a retailer pinpoint an optimal intersection that will enable it to place its goods and/or services in front of the largest number of potential customers, but it is the "art" of site selection that will enable a retailer to choose the best of the available locations surrounding the targeted intersection. There are invariably a number of appropriate alternative sites within a qualified trade area. Choosing the best location among these alternative sites is subjective. This "feeling" or "art" of selecting the relatively better location is something that is usually refined through years of developing the intuition for what will work the best. The purpose of this paper is to look at and then quantify the real estate variables that affect the relative attractiveness of available locations that exist within a delineated trade area. This is in an attempt to replace the subjectivity or "art" of selecting the best location with that of quantifiable results that prove that one site will result in higher sales than that of another. The results of the analysis show that the independent variables fail to predict sales per square foot with a requisite statistical significance. While the data failed to prove the hypothesis that the "art" of selecting retail locations can be replaced with quantitative analysis, the authors believe that with a larger sample size real estate factors can provide valuable insight into sales per square foot forecasts.by Matthew Lane Hawkins and Christian Eyre Foulger.S.M

Flow states in exercise: A systematic review

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to systematically identify, review, synthesise, and appraise current literature on flow in exercise. By doing so, this study aimed to highlight gaps and future research directions that will help to advance understanding and application of flow states in this setting. Design: A systematic review using PRISMA guidelines. Methods: Eight electronic databases were searched in February 2019. Inclusion criteria were peer-reviewed studies focused on the investigation of flow in exercise. Exclusion criteria were studies that did not exclusively include exercise participants, or that focused on instrument development and/or validation. Data from included studies were extracted and reported in a narrative synthesis. Results: A total of 26 studies that were conducted with 4478 participants met the inclusion criteria. Several issues with the conceptualisation and measurement of flow in exercise were identified, which makes it difficult to draw meaningful conclusions about this literature. Nevertheless, there is tentative evidence that exergame design features, music, and virtual stimuli can affect at least some dimensions of flow. While little attention has been directed towards developing an explanatory theory, initial findings concerning the contexts and process underlying flow occurrence could offer a potential avenue for progress. Conclusions: The review advances knowledge by synthesising quantitative and qualitative evidence on flow states in exercise. By doing so, the review also highlights a range of conceptual and methodological issues in the field. Recommendations to address these issues and suggestions for making meaningful progress to develop understanding of flow states in exercise are advanced

Studying Near-Critical and Super-Critical Fluids in Reduced Gravity

Critical and supercritical fluids have a variety of applications, from use as machine lubricants in high pressure or high temperature environments to the manufacturing of materials such as aerogel. The optical properties of fluids undergo rapid changes near the critical point resulting in a rapid increase in turbidity known as critical opalescence. These optical changes can be used to probe the universality of critical behavior. As a fluid approaches the critical point, the compressibility rapidly increases. In a gravitational field, this increase in compressibility leads to near-critical fluids stratifying by phase and density, making it difficult to observe the optical properties of the fluid. Therefore it becomes necessary to study critical fluids in a reduced gravity environment. The HYdrogen Levitation DEvice (HYLDE) apparatus at CEA-Grenoble was used to study cells filled with oxygen and hydrogen suspended in a magnetic field as they were gradually decreased from the critical temperature (Tc). Using shadowgraph methods, we analyzed intensity map data to determine the light transmission and turbidity of critical and near critical hydrogen and oxygen. Turbidity measurements were made for a hydrogen filled cell at light wavelengths of 465.2 nm, 519.4 nm, and 669.4 nm. The turbidity of the oxygen filled cell was measured at 400 nm, 450 nm, 500 nm, and 650 nm

The effects of goal types on psychological outcomes in active and insufficiently active adults in a walking task: Further evidence for open goals

Objectives: This study aimed to extend recent work on the effects of goal types in physical activity (PA; Swann et al., 2019) by comparing the effects of SMART, open, and do-your-best (DYB) goals on performance and psychological responses in active and insufficiently active adults in a walking task. Design: 4 (goal condition) x 3 (attempt) x 2 (group) mixed design. Methods: Active (n = 18) and insufficiently active (n = 18) participants completed baseline and two experimental attempts of a 6-minute walking test in four conditions: SMART goal; open goal; DYB goal; and control. A range of measures were taken during and following each attempt, and after each session. A series of mixed ANOVA’s were conducted for all measures assessed between groups. Results: Insufficiently active participants achieved greater distances in the open condition compared to the SMART condition (p < .001), whereas active participants achieved greater distances in the SMART condition compared to the open condition (p < .001). Additionally, exploratory analyses revealed that insufficiently active participants reported greater pleasure and enjoyment (p < .05) in the open condition compared to active participants, who conversely reported more pleasure and enjoyment (p < .05) in the SMART condition than insufficiently active participants. Conclusions: Findings provide initial evidence that PA and psychological responses differ between active and insufficiently active individuals depending on goal type. This work has potential implications for goal setting strategies in PA promotion and raises further questions about current practices of setting SMART goals for insufficiently active participants

Neolithic dispersal implications of murids from late Holocene archaeological and modern natural deposits in the Talaud Islands, northern Sulawesi

The Sangihe-Talaud Archipelago represents a group of 77 remote islands located between the Philippines and North Sulawesi, in the northern sector of Wallacea. The Talaud Islands have a rich and significant archaeological record going back to the Pleistocene and are instrumental in understanding Pleistocene colonisation of small islands and later models of Austronesian language dispersal. Here we report on vertebrate material excavated from Leang Mande'et, a late Holocene rockshelter on Karakelang, the main island in the Talaud group. The site represents a periodically occupied shelter used for gardening. Fauna recovered predominately comprises murid elements, with at least four taxa (Rattus rattus, Rattus exulans and two Melomys species) found. The rodents show clear signs of being deposited by raptors rather than humans, unlike the small number of fish remains also recovered. DNA sequences from several Rattus rattus specimens are referrable to Rattus rattus complex lineage IV, a lineage with a southern Indochinese origins and broad modern representation through Indonesia and the Philippines. The lack of any Rattus rattus complex lineage II from Leang Mande’et suggests that the first agricultural inhabitants of this island did not come from Taiwan or northern Indochina, but rather that they either originated from the south or that, once established in the Talauds, opened up significant trade networks to the south and in the process acquired a significant pest

Interplay between chromosomal architecture and termination of DNA replication in bacteria

Faithful transmission of the genome from one generation to the next is key to life in all cellular organisms. In the majority of bacteria, the genome is comprised of a single circular chromosome that is normally replicated from a single origin, though additional genetic information may be encoded within much smaller extrachromosomal elements called plasmids. By contrast, the genome of a eukaryote is distributed across multiple linear chromosomes, each of which is replicated from multiple origins. The genomes of archaeal species are circular, but are predominantly replicated from multiple origins. In all three cases, replication is bidirectional and terminates when converging replication fork complexes merge and ‘fuse’ as replication of the chromosomal DNA is completed. While the mechanics of replication initiation are quite well understood, exactly what happens during termination is far from clear, although studies in bacterial and eukaryotic models over recent years have started to provide some insight. Bacterial models with a circular chromosome and a single bidirectional origin offer the distinct advantage that there is normally just one fusion event between two replication fork complexes as synthesis terminates. Moreover, whereas termination of replication appears to happen in many bacteria wherever forks happen to meet, termination in some bacterial species, including the well-studied bacteria Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis, is more restrictive and confined to a ‘replication fork trap’ region, making termination even more tractable. This region is defined by multiple genomic terminator (ter) sites, which, if bound by specific terminator proteins, form unidirectional fork barriers. In this review we discuss a range of experimental results highlighting how the fork fusion process can trigger significant pathologies that interfere with the successful conclusion of DNA replication, how these pathologies might be resolved in bacteria without a fork trap system and how the acquisition of a fork trap might have provided an alternative and cleaner solution, thus explaining why in bacterial species that have acquired a fork trap system, this system is remarkably well maintained. Finally, we consider how eukaryotic cells can cope with a much-increased number of termination events

A Fork Trap in the Chromosomal Termination Area Is Highly Conserved across All Escherichia coli Phylogenetic Groups

Termination of DNA replication, the final stage of genome duplication, is surprisingly complex, and failures to bring DNA synthesis to an accurate conclusion can impact genome stability and cell viability. In Escherichia coli, termination takes place in a specialised termination area opposite the origin. A 'replication fork trap' is formed by unidirectional fork barriers via the binding of Tus protein to genomic ter sites. Such a fork trap system is found in some bacterial species, but it appears not to be a general feature of bacterial chromosomes. The biochemical properties of fork trap systems have been extensively characterised, but little is known about their precise physiological roles. In this study, we compare locations and distributions of ter terminator sites in E. coli genomes across all phylogenetic groups, including Shigella. Our analysis shows that all ter sites are highly conserved in E. coli, with slightly more variability in the Shigella genomes. Our sequence analysis of ter sites and Tus proteins shows that the fork trap is likely to be active in all strains investigated. In addition, our analysis shows that the dif chromosome dimer resolution site is consistently located between the innermost ter sites, even if rearrangements have changed the location of the innermost termination area. Our data further support the idea that the replication fork trap has an important physiological role that provides an evolutionary advantage

Primordial black holes with an accurate QCD equation of state

Making use of definitive new lattice computations of the Standard Model thermodynamics during the quantum chromodynamic (QCD) phase transition, we calculate the enhancement in the mass distribution of primordial black holes (PBHs) due to the softening of the equation of state. We find that the enhancement peaks at approximately 0.7 M-circle dot, with the formation rate increasing by at least two orders of magnitude due to the softening of the equation of state at this time, with a range of approximately 0.3 M-circle dot <M <1.4 M-circle dot at full width half-maximum. PBH formation is increased by a smaller amount for PBHs with masses spanning a large range, 10(-3) M-circle dot <M-PBH <10(3) M-circle dot, which includes the masses of the BHs that LIGO detected. The most significant source of uncertainty in the number of PBHs formed is now due to unknowns in the formation process, rather than from the phase transition. A near scale-invariant density power spectrum tuned to generate a population with mass and merger rate consistent with that detected by LIGO should also produce a much larger energy density of PBHs with solar mass. The existence of BHs below the Chandresekhar mass limit would be a smoking gun for a primordial origin and they could arguably constitute a significant fraction of the cold dark matter density. They also pose a challenge to infiationary model building which seek to produce the LIGO BHs without overproducing lighter PBHs.Peer reviewe

Deficiency of annexins A5 and A6 induces complex changes in the transcriptome of growth plate cartilage but does not inhibit the induction of mineralization

Initiation of mineralization during endochondral ossification is a multistep process and has been assumed to correlate with specific interactions of annexins A5 and A6 and collagens. However, skeletal development appears to be normal in mice deficient for either A5 or A6, and the highly conserved structures led to the assumption that A5 and A6 may fulfill redundant functions. We have now generated mice deficient of both proteins. These mice were viable and fertile and showed no obvious abnormalities. Assessment of skeletal elements using histologic, ultrastructural, and peripheral quantitative computed tomographic methods revealed that mineralization and development of the skeleton were not significantly affected in mutant mice. Otherwise, global gene expression analysis showed subtle changes at the transcriptome level of genes involved in cell growth and intermediate metabolism. These results indicate that annexins A5 and A6 may not represent the essential annexins that promote mineralization in vivo