Leonardo's rule, self-similarity and wind-induced stresses in trees

Examining botanical trees, Leonardo da Vinci noted that the total cross-section of branches is conserved across branching nodes. In this Letter, it is proposed that this rule is a consequence of the tree skeleton having a self-similar structure and the branch diameters being adjusted to resist wind-induced loads

Sailing Through Designing Memo Assignments

Sailing and designing memo assignments have a lot in common. At first, both can seem overwhelming - so much to learn, so much to organize sequentially, and so much to get right in a short period of time. Mistakes mean instability, lost time, and possibly capsizing. Avoiding the mistakes, a good skipper can break through to clean water and good air, and teaching writing can be exhilarating. The students and teacher both benefit from and enjoy working with an ideal memo assignment. The process is critical, but the destination is key. No memo assignment is effective if it results in capsizing or getting lost. Memos are effective only when they help students meet the goals set for research, analysis, and writing. The three sections of this article provide concrete ideas for reaching the destination. The first section outlines the top ten mistakes in designing memo assignments. The top-ten designation refers not only to the importance of the mistake, but also to the frequency with which the mistake is made. The second section discusses the ideal assignment, and the third section presents strategies for working through the process of designing a memo. The completed memo assignment that appears in Appendix 2 illustrates concepts discussed in both sections two and three. Following the ideas in these three sections should lead to exhilarating sailing through legal writing for both teachers and students

Sailing Through Designing Memo Assignments

Sailing and designing memo assignments have a lot in common. At first, both can seem overwhelming - so much to learn, so much to organize sequentially, and so much to get right in a short period of time. Mistakes mean instability, lost time, and possibly capsizing. Avoiding the mistakes, a good skipper can break through to clean water and good air, and teaching writing can be exhilarating. The students and teacher both benefit from and enjoy working with an ideal memo assignment. The process is critical, but the destination is key. No memo assignment is effective if it results in capsizing or getting lost. Memos are effective only when they help students meet the goals set for research, analysis, and writing. The three sections of this article provide concrete ideas for reaching the destination. The first section outlines the top ten mistakes in designing memo assignments. The top-ten designation refers not only to the importance of the mistake, but also to the frequency with which the mistake is made. The second section discusses the ideal assignment, and the third section presents strategies for working through the process of designing a memo. The completed memo assignment that appears in Appendix 2 illustrates concepts discussed in both sections two and three. Following the ideas in these three sections should lead to exhilarating sailing through legal writing for both teachers and students

Dating human cultural capacity using phylogenetic principles

Humans have genetically based unique abilities making complex culture possible; an assemblage of traits which we term “cultural capacity”. The age of this capacity has for long been subject to controversy. We apply phylogenetic principles to date this capacity, integrating evidence from archaeology, genetics, paleoanthropology, and linguistics. We show that cultural capacity is older than the first split in the modern human lineage, and at least 170,000 years old, based on data on hyoid bone morphology, FOXP2 alleles, agreement between genetic and language trees, fire use, burials, and the early appearance of tools comparable to those of modern hunter-gatherers. We cannot exclude that Neanderthals had cultural capacity some 500,000 years ago. A capacity for complex culture, therefore, must have existed before complex culture itself. It may even originated long before. This seeming paradox is resolved by theoretical models suggesting that cultural evolution is exceedingly slow in its initial stages

Long-term Cre-mediated retrograde tagging of neurons using a novel recombinant pseudorabies virus

Brain regions contain diverse populations of neurons that project to different long-range targets. The study of these subpopulations in circuit function and behavior requires a toolkit to characterize and manipulate their activity in vivo. We have developed a novel set of reagents based on Pseudorabies Virus (PRV) for efficient and long-term genetic tagging of neurons based on their projection targets. By deleting IE180, the master transcriptional regulator in the PRV genome, we have produced a mutant virus capable of infection and transgene expression in neurons but unable to replicate in or spread from those neurons. IE180-null mutants showed no cytotoxicity, and infected neurons exhibited normal physiological function more than 45 days after infection, indicating the utility of these engineered viruses for chronic experiments. To enable rapid and convenient construction of novel IE180-null recombinants, we engineered a bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) shuttle-vector system for moving new constructs into the PRV IE180-null genome. Using this system we generated an IE180-null recombinant virus expressing the site-specific recombinase Cre. This Cre-expressing virus (PRV-hSyn-Cre) efficiently and robustly infects neurons in vivo and activates transgene expression from Cre-dependent vectors in local and retrograde projecting populations of neurons in the mouse. We also generated an assortment of recombinant viruses expressing fluorescent proteins (mCherry, EGFP, ECFP). These viruses exhibit long-term labeling of neurons in vitro but transient labeling in vivo. Together these novel IE180-null PRV reagents expand the toolkit for targeted gene expression in the brain, facilitating functional dissection of neuronal circuits in vivo

Avoiding BBN Constraints on Mirror Models for Sterile Neutrinos

We point out that in models that explain the LSND result for neutrino oscillation using the mirror neutrinos, the big bang nucleosynthesis constraint can be avoided by using the late time phase transition that only helps to mix the active and the sterile neutrinos. We discuss the astrophysical as well as cosmological implications of this proposal.Comment: 5 pages, latex; more discussion added; results unchange

Signature of relic heavy stable neutrinos in underground experiments

Considering heavy stable neutrinos of 4th generation we calculate the relic density of such neutrinos in the Universe. Taking into account the condensation of heavy neutrinos in the Galaxy and applying the results of calculations to experimental data from underground experiments on search for WIMPs in elastic neutral current scattering on nuclei we found an exclusion region of neutrino mass 60 GeV < m < 290 GeV. The bounds obtained from present underground experiments while confirming the previous bounds derived from analysis of cosmic ray spectra are more relible ones. We discuss also the first indication of elastic scattering induced by WIMP in DAMA experiment finding a very narrow window of neutrino mass 45 GeV < m < 50 GeV compatible with the possible signal rate in the detector.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure

Lepton Flavor Violation and the Tau Neutrino Mass

We point out that, in the left-right symmetric model of weak interaction, if $\nu_\tau$ mass is in the keV to MeV range, there is a strong correlation between rare decays such as $\tau \rightarrow 3 \mu, \tau \rightarrow 3 e$ and the $\nu_\tau$ mass. In particular, we point out that a large range of $\nu_\tau$ masses are forbidden by the cosmological constraints on $m_{\nu_\tau}$ in combination with the present upper limits on these processes.Comment: UMDHEP 94-30, 14 pages, TeX file, (some new references added

Cooperation and the evolution of intelligence

The high levels of intelligence seen in humans, other primates, certain cetaceans and birds remain a major puzzle for evolutionary biologists, anthropologists and psychologists. It has long been held that social interactions provide the selection pressures necessary for the evolution of advanced cognitive abilities (the ‘social intelligence hypothesis’), and in recent years decision-making in the context of cooperative social interactions has been conjectured to be of particular importance. Here we use an artificial neural network model to show that selection for efficient decision-making in cooperative dilemmas can give rise to selection pressures for greater cognitive abilities, and that intelligent strategies can themselves select for greater intelligence, leading to a Machiavellian arms race. Our results provide mechanistic support for the social intelligence hypothesis, highlight the potential importance of cooperative behaviour in the evolution of intelligence and may help us to explain the distribution of cooperation with intelligence across taxa