Baryonic Generating Functions

We show how it is possible to use the plethystic program in order to compute baryonic generating functions that count BPS operators in the chiral ring of quiver gauge theories living on the world volume of D branes probing a non compact CY manifold. Special attention is given to the conifold theory and the orbifold C^2/Z_2 times C, where exact expressions for generating functions are given in detail. This paper solves a long standing problem for the combinatorics of quiver gauge theories with baryonic moduli spaces. It opens the way to a statistical analysis of quiver theories on baryonic branches. Surprisingly, the baryonic charge turns out to be the quantized Kahler modulus of the geometry.Comment: 44 pages, 7 figures; fonts change

Deformations of conformal theories and non-toric quiver gauge theories

We discuss several examples of non-toric quiver gauge theories dual to Sasaki-Einstein manifolds with U(1)^2 or U(1) isometry. We give a general method for constructing non-toric examples by adding relevant deformations to the toric case. For all examples, we are able to make a complete comparison between the prediction for R-charges based on geometry and on quantum field theory. We also give a general discussion of the spectrum of conformal dimensions for mesonic and baryonic operators for a generic quiver theory; in the toric case we make an explicit comparison between R-charges of mesons and baryons.Comment: 51 pages, 12 figures; minor corrections in appendix B, published versio

Early brain damage affects body schema and person perception abilities in children and adolescents with spastic diplegia

Early brain damage leading to cerebral palsy is associated to core motor impairments and also affects cognitive and social abilities. In particular, previous studies have documented specific alterations of perceptual body processing and motor cognition that are associated to unilateral motor deficits in hemiplegic patients. However, little is known about spastic diplegia (SpD), which is characterized by motorial deficits involving both sides of the body and is often associated to visuospatial, attentional, and social perception impairments. Here, we compared the performance of a sample of 30 children and adolescents with SpD (aged 7-18 years) and of a group of age-matched controls with typical development (TD) at two different tasks tapping on body representations. In the first task, we tested visual and motor imagery abilities as assessed, respectively, by the object-based mental rotation of letters and by the first-person transformations for whole-body stimuli. In the second task, we administered an inversion effect/composite illusion task to evaluate the use of configural/holistic processing of others' body. Additionally, we assessed social perception abilities in the SpD sample using the NEPSY-II battery. In line with previously reported visuospatial deficits, a general mental imagery impairment was found in SpD patients when they were engaged in both object-centered and first-person mental transformations. Nevertheless, a specific deficit in operating an own-body transformation emerged. As concerns body perception, while more basic configural processing (i.e., inversion effect) was spared, no evidence for holistic (i.e., composite illusion) body processing was found in the SpD group. NEPSY-II assessment revealed that SpD children were impaired in both the theory of mind and affect recognition subtests. Overall, these findings suggested that early brain lesions and biased embodied experience could affect higher-level motor cognition and perceptual body processing, thus pointing to a strict link between motor deficits, body schema alterations, and person processing difficulties

A high-throughput, straightforward procedure for biomonitoring organomercury species in human hair

Mercury is a pervasive and concerning pollutant due to its toxicity, mobility, and tendency to biomagnify in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Speciation analysis is crucial to assess exposure and risks associated with mercury, as different mercury species exhibit varying properties and toxicities. This study aimed at developing a selective detection method for organic mercury species in a non-invasive biomonitoring matrix like human hair. The method is based on frontal chromatography (FC) in combination with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), using a low pressure, homemade, anion exchange column inserted in a standard ICP-MS introduction system, without requiring high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) hyphenation. In addition to the extreme simplification and cost reduction of the chromatographic equipment, the proposed protocol involves a fast, streamlined and fully integrated sample preparation process (in contrast to existing methods): the optimized procedure features a 15-min ultrasonic assisted extraction procedure and 5 min analysis time. Consequently, up to 100 samples could be analyzed daily, making the method highly productive and suitable for large-scale screening programs in public and environmental health. Moreover, the optimized procedure enables a limit of detection (LOD) of 5.5 μg/kg for a 10 mg hair microsample. All these features undeniably demonstrate a significant advancement in routine biomonitoring practices. To provide additional evidence, the method was applied to forty-nine human hair samples from individuals with varying dietary habits successfully finding a clear correlation between methylmercury levels (ranging from 0.02 to 3.2 mg/kg) in hair and fish consumption, in line with previous literature data

Topological susceptibility of SU(N) gauge theories at finite temperature

We investigate the large-N behavior of the topological susceptibility in four-dimensional SU(N) gauge theories at finite temperature, and in particular across the finite-temperature transition at Tc. For this purpose, we consider the lattice formulation of the SU(N) gauge theories and perform Monte Carlo simulations for N=4,6. The results indicate that the topological susceptibility has a nonvanishing large-N limit for T<Tc, as at T=0, and that the topological properties remain substantially unchanged in the low-temperature phase. On the other hand, above the deconfinement phase transition, the topological susceptibility shows a large suppression. The comparison between the data for N=4 and N=6 hints at a vanishing large-N limit for T>Tc.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figs, a few discussions added, JHEP in pres

Gravity duals to deformed SYM theories and Generalized Complex Geometry

We analyze the supersymmetry conditions for a class of SU(2) structure backgrounds of Type IIB supergravity, corresponding to a specific ansatz for the supersymmetry parameters. These backgrounds are relevant for the AdS/CFT correspondence since they are suitable to describe mass deformations or beta-deformations of four-dimensional superconformal gauge theories. Using Generalized Complex Geometry we show that these geometries are characterized by a closed nowhere-vanishing vector field and a modified fundamental form which is also closed. The vector field encodes the information about the superpotential and the type of deformation - mass or beta respectively. We also show that the Pilch-Warner solution dual to a mass-deformation of N =4 Super Yang-Mills and the Lunin-Maldacena beta-deformation of the same background fall in our class of solutions.Comment: LaTex, 29 page

Counting Chiral Operators in Quiver Gauge Theories

We discuss in detail the problem of counting BPS gauge invariant operators in the chiral ring of quiver gauge theories living on D-branes probing generic toric CY singularities. The computation of generating functions that include counting of baryonic operators is based on a relation between the baryonic charges in field theory and the Kaehler moduli of the CY singularities. A study of the interplay between gauge theory and geometry shows that given geometrical sectors appear more than once in the field theory, leading to a notion of "multiplicities". We explain in detail how to decompose the generating function for one D-brane into different sectors and how to compute their relevant multiplicities by introducing geometric and anomalous baryonic charges. The Plethystic Exponential remains a major tool for passing from one D-brane to arbitrary number of D-branes. Explicit formulae are given for few examples, including C^3/Z_3, F_0, and dP_1.Comment: 75 pages, 22 figure

Comparison between continuous grazing and rotational grazing on roller chopped rangeland in central-west of La Pampa province

El control de la vegetación leñosa y la planificación posterior del pastoreo contribuirían a aumentar la oferta forrajera y la producción ganadera en pastizales del centro-oeste de la Provincia de La Pampa. El objetivo del presente trabajo fue comparar la dinámica de la vegetación y la respuesta animal en un pastizal rolado sometido a pastoreo continuo o pastoreo rotativo. La mitad de un área rolada de 200 ha se pastoreo en forma continua con terneros de recría, mientras que la restante mitad se pastoreo en forma rotativa mediante la subdivisión en cuatro parcelas de igual tamaño. Durante cuatro años consecutivos se realizaron mediciones sobre la vegetación (herbácea y leñosa) y sobre los animales. En el periodo de mediciones las lluvias fueron similares o superaron (hasta en un 33%) el promedio anual histórico. Los tratamientos de pastoreo (continuo y rotativo) no afectaron en forma diferencial la densidad de las gramíneas perennes palatables ni la cobertura de la vegetación leñosa, mientras que la disponibilidad de MS total promedio de las gramíneas perennes palatables fue mayor bajo pastoreo rotativo. La ganancia diaria de peso promedio de los animales en recría fue mayor bajo pastoreo continuo en tres de los cuatro años de medición. En el contexto del presente estudio no se expresó el potencial esperado del pastoreo rotativo, lo cual se interpreta en relación a las lluvias y a una potencial desmejora de la calidad del forraje consumido por los animales.Woody vegetation control and further grazing planning would contribute to increase forage availability and livestock production in rangelands of central-west La Pampa Province. The objective of present study was to compare vegetation dynamics and animal response in a roller chopped rangeland under continuous or rotational grazing. Half of a roller chopped area of 200 ha was continuously grazed with stocker cattle, whereas the other half was rotationally grazed through its subdivision in four parcels of equal size. Vegetation (herbaceous, woody) and animal responses were measured along a period of four consecutive years. During the study period rainfall was similar or above (up to 33%) the long-term annual average. Grazing treatments (continuous, rotational) did not differentially affect either density of palatable perennial grasses or woody vegetation cover, whereas total average DM availability of palatable perennial grasses was higher under rotational grazing. Average daily gain of stockers was higher under continuous grazing on three out of the four years of measurements. The expected potential of rotation grazing was not expressed under the context of present study, which is interpreted in relation to rainfall conditions and a potential deterioration in forage quality ingested by animals.Fil: Adema, E. O.. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro Regional La Pampa-San Luis. Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Anguil; ArgentinaFil: Butti, L. R.. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro Regional La Pampa-San Luis. Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Anguil; ArgentinaFil: Babinec, Francisco José. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro Regional La Pampa-San Luis. Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Anguil; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Pampa. Facultad de Agronomía; ArgentinaFil: Distel, Roberto Alejandro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Centro de Recursos Naturales Renovables de la Zona Semiarida. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Centro de Recursos Naturales Renovables de la Zona Semiarida; Argentin

New Einstein-Sasaki and Einstein Spaces from Kerr-de Sitter

In this paper, which is an elaboration of our results in hep-th/0504225, we construct new Einstein-Sasaki spaces L^{p,q,r_1,...,r_{n-1}} in all odd dimensions D=2n+1\ge 5. They arise by taking certain BPS limits of the Euclideanised Kerr-de Sitter metrics. This yields local Einstein-Sasaki metrics of cohomogeneity n, with toric U(1)^{n+1} principal orbits, and n real non-trivial parameters. By studying the structure of the degenerate orbits we show that for appropriate choices of the parameters, characterised by the (n+1) coprime integers (p,q,r_1,...,r_{n-1}), the local metrics extend smoothly onto complete and non-singular compact Einstein-Sasaki manifolds L^{p,q,r_1,...,r_{n-1}}. We also construct new complete and non-singular compact Einstein spaces \Lambda^{p,q,r_1,...,r_n} in D=2n+1 that are not Sasakian, by choosing parameters appropriately in the Euclideanised Kerr-de Sitter metrics when no BPS limit is taken.Comment: latex, 26 page