Auto-Concealment of Supersymmetry in Extra Dimensions

In supersymmetric (SUSY) theories with extra dimensions the visible energy in sparticle decays can be significantly reduced and its energy distribution broadened, thus significantly weakening the present collider limits on SUSY. The mechanism applies when the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) is a bulk state-- e.g. a bulk modulino, axino, or gravitino-- the size of the extra dimensions larger than ~$10^{-14}$ cm, and for a broad variety of visible sparticle spectra. In such cases the lightest ordinary supersymmetric particle (LOSP), necessarily a brane-localised state, decays to the Kaluza-Klein (KK) discretuum of the LSP. This dynamically realises the compression mechanism for hiding SUSY as decays into the more numerous heavier KK LSP states are favored. We find LHC limits on right-handed slepton LOSPs evaporate, while LHC limits on stop LOSPs weaken to ~350-410 GeV compared to ~700 GeV for a stop decaying to a massless LSP. Similarly, for the searches we consider, present limits on direct production of degenerate first and second generation squarks drop to ~450 GeV compared to ~800 GeV for a squark decaying to a massless LSP. Auto-concealment typically works for a fundamental gravitational scale of $M_*$~10-100 TeV, a scale sufficiently high that traditional searches for signatures of extra dimensions are mostly avoided. If superpartners are discovered, their prompt, displaced, or stopped decays can also provide new search opportunities for extra dimensions with the potential to reach $M_*$~$10^9$ GeV. This mechanism applies more generally than just SUSY theories, pertaining to any theory where there is a discrete quantum number shared by both brane and bulk sectors.Comment: 22 pages, 13 figures. Minor changes to match published versio

Traumatic Cancer in Workmen\u27s Compensation

It is difficult today to prove a relation between single trauma and cancer in workmen\u27s compensation, except in isolated cases. The possibility now seems to exist, however, in view of numerous recent decisions, that more and more of these claims will be allowed in the near future, and that more awards of compensation will be sustained

Fear, Racism, Agriculture: The Drive for Japanese Internment

The focus of this dissertation is the timing of the forced evacuation of the ethnic Japanese population from the West Coast in 1942. This work focuses on three key factors driving the timing of the evacuation: racism, security concerns, and agriculture. Racism has been studied and written about extensively; however, an overview of this factor is critical as it directly influenced the removal of Japanese American citizens in addition to Japanese immigrants. This dissertation will focus on the intellectual origins of racism and prejudice by focusing on key figures and tracing the ideas and beliefs and how they influenced the laws that directly affected the ethnic Japanese and their removal. Security concerns for the West Coast stem from the actions of Japan after WWI when they expanded their territory virtually unchecked throughout the South Pacific. The violent nature of this expansion was front-page news in every major city in the United States for two decades before WWII. These actions by Japan fed the West Coast security concerns and fear of a potential fifth column living among the citizens on the West Coast. The final straw was the attack on Pearl Harbor; this act by the Japanese brought to the forefront the fear, racism, and intolerance that had been building on the West Coast since the late 1800s. This dissertation takes all of these factors into account and focuses on the timing of the evacuation as it pertains to the spring growing season in 1942. The ethnic Japanese were deliberately evacuated during the spring growing season so their absence would not hinder the crop production of their farms and allow enough time for the Farm Security Administration, Wartime Civilian Control Administration, and the Department of Agriculture to find replacement farmers before the spring harvest. The Department of Agriculture fully implemented the Food for Freedom program months before the attack on Pearl Harbor, and this program, run by the Department of Agriculture, dictated the amount and type of crops each farm in America needed to produce. These assignments aimed to fulfill the Lend Lease obligations of the U.S. to its European allies and feed America. The Japanese farmers on the West Coast commanded a strong presence and contribution to the food supply. Although the total farms owned and operated by ethnic Japanese farmers numbered less than 7,000, they contributed over 50% of specific crops and almost 100% of others to local markets throughout the state. Due to the need for food production and the Japanese influence and contribution to the local food supply, the evacuation timing was explicitly built around the spring growing season to eliminate any potential for lost crops grown on Japanese farms

On the geometric trinity of gravity, non-relativistic limits, and Maxwell gravitation

We show that the common core of the recently-discovered non-relativistic geometric trinity of gravity is Maxwell gravitation. Moreover, we explain why no such dynamical common core exists in the case of the better-known relativistic geometric trinity of gravity

Prion-like domains as epigenetic regulators, scaffolds for subcellular organization, and drivers of neurodegenerative disease

Key challenges faced by all cells include how to spatiotemporally organize complex biochemistry and how to respond to environmental fluctuations. The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae harnesses alternative protein folding mediated by yeast prion domains (PrDs) for rapid evolution of new traits in response to environmental stress. Increasingly, it is appreciated that low complexity domains similar in amino acid composition to yeast PrDs (prion-like domains; PrLDs) found in metazoa have a prominent role in subcellular cytoplasmic organization, especially in relation to RNA homeostasis. In this review, we highlight recent advances in our understanding of the role of prions in enabling rapid adaptation to environmental stress in yeast. We also present the complete list of human proteins with PrLDs and discuss the prevalence of the PrLD in nucleic-acid binding proteins that are often connected to neurodegenerative disease, including: ataxin 1, ataxin 2, FUS, TDP-43, TAF15, EWSR1, hnRNPA1, and hnRNPA2. Recent paradigm-shifting advances establish that PrLDs undergo phase transitions to liquid states, which contribute to the structure and biophysics of diverse membraneless organelles. This structural functionality of PrLDs, however, simultaneously increases their propensity for deleterious protein-misfolding events that drive neurodegenerative disease. We suggest that even these PrLD-misfolding events are not irreversible and can be mitigated by natural or engineered protein disaggregases, which could have important therapeutic applications. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled SI:RNA Metabolism in Disease

Phase transitions near black hole horizons

The Reissner-Nordstrom black hole in four dimensions can be made unstable without violating the dominant energy condition by introducing a real massive scalar with non-renormalizable interactions with the gauge field. New stable black hole solutions then exist with greater entropy for fixed mass and charge than the Reissner-Nordstrom solution. In these new solutions, the scalar condenses to a non-zero value near the horizon. Various generalizations of these hairy black holes are discussed, and an attempt is made to characterize when black hole hair can occur.Comment: 30 pages, 6 figures. v2: minor corrections, references adde

Testing isosource : stable isotope analysis of a tropical fishery with diverse organic matter sources

Author Posting. © Ecological Society of America, 2006. This article is posted here by permission of Ecological Society of America for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Ecology 87 (2006): 326–333, doi:10.1890/05-0721.We sampled consumers and organic matter sources (mangrove litter, freshwater swamp-forest litter, seagrasses, seagrass epiphytes, and marine particulate organic matter [MPOM]) from four estuaries on Kosrae, Federated States of Micronesia for stable isotope (δ13C and δ34S) analysis. Unique mixing solutions cannot be calculated in a dual-isotope, five-endmember scenario, so we tested IsoSource, a recently developed statistical procedure that calculates ranges in source contributions (i.e., minimum and maximum possible). Relatively high minimum contributions indicate significant sources, while low maxima indicate otherwise. Litter from the two forest types was isotopically distinguishable but had low average minimum contributions (0–8% for mangrove litter and 0% for swamp-forest litter among estuaries). Minimum contribution of MPOM was also low, averaging 0–13% among estuaries. Instead, local marine sources dominated contributions to consumers. Minimum contributions of seagrasses averaged 8–47% among estuaries (range 0–88% among species). Minimum contributions of seagrass epiphytes averaged 5–27% among estuaries (range 0–69% among species). IsoSource enabled inclusion of five organic matter sources in our dual-isotope analysis, ranking trophic importance as follows: seagrasses > seagrass epiphytes > MPOM > mangrove forest > freshwater swamp-forest. IsoSource is thus a useful step toward understanding which of multiple organic matter sources support food webs; more detailed work is necessary to identify unique solutions.This research was funded through a research joint venture agreement between the USDA and CMP at the University of Georgia

openWAR: An Open Source System for Evaluating Overall Player Performance in Major League Baseball

Within baseball analytics, there is substantial interest in comprehensive statistics intended to capture overall player performance. One such measure is Wins Above Replacement (WAR), which aggregates the contributions of a player in each facet of the game: hitting, pitching, baserunning, and fielding. However, current versions of WAR depend upon proprietary data, ad hoc methodology, and opaque calculations. We propose a competitive aggregate measure, openWAR, that is based upon public data and methodology with greater rigor and transparency. We discuss a principled standard for the nebulous concept of a "replacement" player. Finally, we use simulation-based techniques to provide interval estimates for our openWAR measure.Comment: 27 pages including supplemen

Anomalous Thrust Production from an RF Test Device Measured on a Low-Thrust Torsion Pendulum

This paper describes the eight-day August 2013 test campaign designed to investigate and demonstrate viability of using classical magnetoplasmadynamics to obtain a propulsive momentum transfer via the quantum vacuum virtual plasma. This paper will not address the physics of the quantum vacuum plasma thruster, but instead will describe the test integration, test operations, and the results obtained from the test campaign. Approximately 30-50 micro-Newtons of thrust were recorded from an electric propulsion test article consisting primarily of a radio frequency (RF) resonant cavity excited at approximately 935 megahertz. Testing was performed on a low-thrust torsion pendulum that is capable of detecting force at a single-digit micronewton level, within a stainless steel vacuum chamber with the door closed but at ambient atmospheric pressure. Several different test configurations were used, including two different test articles as well as a reversal of the test article orientation. In addition, the test article was replaced by an RF load to verify that the force was not being generated by effects not associated with the test article. The two test articles were designed by Cannae LLC of Doylestown, Pennsylvania. The torsion pendulum was designed, built, and operated by Eagleworks Laboratories at the NASA Johnson Space Center of Houston, Texas. Approximately six days of test integration were required, followed by two days of test operations, during which, technical issues were discovered and resolved. Integration of the two test articles and their supporting equipment was performed in an iterative fashion between the test bench and the vacuum chamber. In other words, the test article was tested on the bench, then moved to the chamber, then moved back as needed to resolve issues. Manual frequency control was required throughout the test. Thrust was observed on both test articles, even though one of the test articles was designed with the expectation that it would not produce thrust. Specifically, one test article contained internal physical modifications that were designed to produce thrust, while the other did not (with the latter being referred to as the "null" test article). Test data gathered includes torsion pendulum displacement measurements which are used to calculate generated force, still imagery in the visible spectrum to document the physical configuration, still imagery in the infrared spectrum to characterize the thermal environment, and video imagery. Post-test data includes static and animated graphics produced during RF resonant cavity characterization using the COMSOL Multiphysics software application. Excerpts from all of the above are included and discussed in this paper. Lessons learned from test integration and operations include identification of the need to replace manual control of the resonant cavity target frequency with an automated frequency control capability. Future test plans include the development of an automatic frequency control circuit. Test results indicate that the RF resonant cavity thruster design, which is unique as an electric propulsion device, is producing a force that is not attributable to any classical electromagnetic phenomenon and therefore is potentially demonstrating an interaction with the quantum vacuum virtual plasma. Future test plans include independent verification and validation at other test facilities