763 research outputs found
Human rights as foundations for labour law
The aim of this chapter is to map out how different theories of human rights might be used as philosophical justifications for labour law. Although labour rights are included in many constitutions and international human rights documents there remains controversy over their status and philosophical justification as human rights. These ongoing doubts illustrate a normative gap that currently exists between the practice and philosophy of labour rights as human rights. This chapter provides an overview of contemporary theories of human rights, and uses these to explore the legitimacy of aligning labour rights and human rights as a matter of theory
De novo Cryoglobulinaemic Mononeuritis Multiplex during Treatment of Chronic Hepatitis C Infection: A Viral Effect or Induced by Pegylated Interferon Alpha?
Cryoglobulinaemic mononeuritis multiplex (MNM) is an extrahepatic manifestation of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection for which interferon-based antiviral therapy is currently the treatment of choice. Rarely MNM can be associated with HCV treatment though generally in the setting of pre-existing cryoglobulinaemia and detectable HCV viraemia. We report an unusual case of de novo MNM occurring late during the course of pegylated interferon and ribavirin therapy for chronic HCV infection, following a prolonged period of viral suppression. The patient had no evidence of cryoglobulinaemia prior to HCV treatment and undetectable HCV RNA levels at the time of presentation with MNM. The case raises the possibility that MNM could develop as an adverse immunomodulatory effect of pegylated interferon therapy
Effect of Interband Transitions on the c axis Penetration Depth of Layered Superconductors
The electromagnetic response of a system with two planes per unit cell
involves, in addition to the usual intraband contribution, an added interband
term. These transitions affect the temperature dependence and the magnitude of
the zero temperature c-axis penetration depth. When the interplane hopping is
sufficiently small, the interband transitions dominate the low temperature
behaviour of the penetration depth which then does not reflect the linear
temperature dependence of the intraband term and in comparison becomes quite
flat even for a d-wave gap. It is in this regime that the pseudogap was found
in our previous normal state calculations of the c-axis conductivity, and the
effects are connected.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure
Coloured peak algebras and Hopf algebras
For a finite abelian group, we study the properties of general
equivalence relations on G_n=G^n\rtimes \SG_n, the wreath product of with
the symmetric group \SG_n, also known as the -coloured symmetric group. We
show that under certain conditions, some equivalence relations give rise to
subalgebras of \k G_n as well as graded connected Hopf subalgebras of
\bigoplus_{n\ge o} \k G_n. In particular we construct a -coloured peak
subalgebra of the Mantaci-Reutenauer algebra (or -coloured descent algebra).
We show that the direct sum of the -coloured peak algebras is a Hopf
algebra. We also have similar results for a -colouring of the Loday-Ronco
Hopf algebras of planar binary trees. For many of the equivalence relations
under study, we obtain a functor from the category of finite abelian groups to
the category of graded connected Hopf algebras. We end our investigation by
describing a Hopf endomorphism of the -coloured descent Hopf algebra whose
image is the -coloured peak Hopf algebra. We outline a theory of
combinatorial -coloured Hopf algebra for which the -coloured
quasi-symmetric Hopf algebra and the graded dual to the -coloured peak Hopf
algebra are central objects.Comment: 26 pages latex2
Oscillatory wave fronts in chains of coupled nonlinear oscillators
Wave front pinning and propagation in damped chains of coupled oscillators
are studied. There are two important thresholds for an applied constant stress
: for (dynamic Peierls stress), wave fronts fail to propagate,
for stable static and moving wave fronts coexist, and
for (static Peierls stress) there are only stable moving wave
fronts. For piecewise linear models, extending an exact method of Atkinson and
Cabrera's to chains with damped dynamics corroborates this description. For
smooth nonlinearities, an approximate analytical description is found by means
of the active point theory. Generically for small or zero damping, stable wave
front profiles are non-monotone and become wavy (oscillatory) in one of their
tails.Comment: 18 pages, 21 figures, 2 column revtex. To appear in Phys. Rev.
Potential for the use of reconstructed IASI radiances in the detection of atmospheric trace gases
Principal component (PC) analysis has received considerable attention as a technique for the extraction of meteorological signals from hyperspectral infra-red sounders such as the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) and the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS). In addition to achieving substantial bit-volume reductions for dissemination purposes, the technique can also be used to generate reconstructed radiances in which random instrument noise has been reduced. Studies on PC analysis of hyperspectral infrared sounder data have been undertaken in the context of numerical weather prediction, instrument monitoring and geophysical variable retrieval, as well as data compression. This study examines the potential of PC analysis for chemistry applications.A major concern in the use of PC analysis for chemistry is that the spectral features associated with trace gases may not be well represented in the reconstructed spectra, either due to deficiencies in the training set or due to the limited number of PC scores used in the radiance reconstruction. In this paper we show examples of reconstructed IASI radiances for several trace gases: ammonia, sulphur dioxide, methane and carbon monoxide. It is shown that care must be taken in the selection of spectra for the initial training set: an iterative technique, in which outlier spectra are added to a base training set, gives the best results. For the four trace gases examined, key features of the chemical signatures are retained in the reconstructed radiances, whilst achieving a substantial reduction in instrument noise.A new regional re-transmission service for IASI is scheduled to start in 2010, as part of the EUMETSAT Advanced Retransmission Service (EARS). For this EARS-IASI service it is intended to include PC scores as part of the data stream. The paper describes the generation of the reference eigenvectors for this new service
Computing the first eigenpair of the p-Laplacian via inverse iteration of sublinear supersolutions
We introduce an iterative method for computing the first eigenpair
for the -Laplacian operator with homogeneous Dirichlet
data as the limit of as , where
is the positive solution of the sublinear Lane-Emden equation
with same boundary data. The method is
shown to work for any smooth, bounded domain. Solutions to the Lane-Emden
problem are obtained through inverse iteration of a super-solution which is
derived from the solution to the torsional creep problem. Convergence of
to is in the -norm and the rate of convergence of
to is at least . Numerical evidence is
presented.Comment: Section 5 was rewritten. Jed Brown was added as autho
Couplings of light I=0 scalar mesons to simple operators in the complex plane
The flavour and glue structure of the light scalar mesons in QCD are probed
by studying the couplings of the I=0 mesons and to the
operators , and to two photons. The Roy dispersive
representation for the amplitude is used to determine the
pole positions as well as the residues in the complex plane. On the real axis,
is constrained to solve the Roy equation together with elastic
unitarity up to the K\Kbar threshold leading to an improved description of
the . The problem of using a two-particle threshold as a matching
point is discussed. A simple relation is established between the coupling of a
scalar meson to an operator and the value of the related pion form-factor
computed at the resonance pole. Pion scalar form-factors as well as two-photon
partial-wave amplitudes are expressed as coupled-channel Omn\`es dispersive
representations. Subtraction constants are constrained by chiral symmetry and
experimental data. Comparison of our results for the couplings with
earlier determinations of the analogous couplings of the lightest I=1 and
scalar mesons are compatible with an assignment of the ,
, , into a nonet. Concerning the gluonic operator
we find a significant coupling to both the and the
.Comment: 31 pages, 5 figure
Building Performance Assessment Protocol for Timber Dwellings – Conducting Thermography Tests on Live Construction sites
This paper introduces the pan-Wales (UK) Home-Grown Homes (HGH) project (2018 to 2020) which focusses on three areas of improvement for delivering high performance, affordable and healthy homes. The HGH project is funded by Powys County Council, through the European Regional Development Fund’s Agricultural Stream. The HGH project is being delivered by Woodknowledge Wales in a consortium with Cardiff Metropolitan University (CMU), TRADA and Coed Cymru, with seven work packages. ‘More and Better Homes from Wood’ (work package (WP) WP3) focusses on the assessment of building performance for dwellings using timber, and is being delivered by a multi-disciplinary team at CMU through the Sustainable and Resilient Built Environment (SuRBe) group. This paper discusses the context and need for the HGH project as Wales launched its low carbon agenda in March 2019. The focus of this paper on introducing the building performance assessment (BPA) protocol to be implemented by SuRBe across several housing case studies in Wales, through the design, in-construction and occupancy phases, to address thermal and fire (TaF) performance issues, and impacts on occupants’ quality of life, comfort and safety. Preliminary results of in-construction testing on a live construction site are presented, with the challenges of conducting thermography tests whilst construction is in progress and weather conditions in spring in the UK (April 2019). This paper will be useful for academics, architects, building contractors, housing developers and professionals undertaking building performance assessment and evaluation on live construction sites
Nac-mediated repression of the serA promoter of Escherichia coli
Escherichia coli and related bacteria contain two paralogous PII-like proteins involved in nitrogen regulation, the glnB product, PII, and the glnK product, GlnK. Previous studies have shown that cells lacking both PII and GlnK have a severe growth defect on minimal media, resulting from elevated expression of the Ntr regulon. Here, we show that this growth defect is caused by activity of the nac product, Nac, a LysR-type transcription factor that is part of the Ntr regulon. Cells with elevated Ntr expression that also contain a null mutation in nac displayed growth rates on minimal medium similar to the wild type. When expressed from high-copy plasmids, Nac imparts a growth defect to wild-type cells in an expression level-dependent manner. Neither expression of Nac nor lack thereof significantly affected Ntr gene expression, suggesting that the activity of Nac at one or more promoters outside the Ntr regulon was responsible for its effects. The growth defect of cells lacking both PII and GlnK was also eliminated upon supplementation of minimal medium with serine or glycine for solid medium or with serine or glycine and glutamine for liquid medium. These observations suggest that high Nac expression results in a reduction in serine biosynthesis. β -Galactosidase activity expressed from a Mu d1 insertion in serA was reduced approximately 10-fold in cells with high Nac expression. We hypothesize that one role of Nac is to limit serine biosynthesis as part of a cellular mechanism to reduce metabolism in a co-ordinated manner when cells become starved for nitrogen.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72401/1/j.1365-2958.2002.02994.x.pd
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