Recent Decisions

Comments on recent decisions by Thomas D. Logan, charles L. Daschle, R. Emmett Fitzgerald, Richard M. Di Valerio, Stan R. Herrlinger, Richard G. Dytrych, Paul R. Pressler, James Kalo, Joseph C. Spalding, and Carl F. Eiberger

Inclusive search for supersymmetry using razor variables in pp collisions at root s=13 TeV

Peer reviewe

Raising Wood Ducks

Numbered among Nature\u27s most colorful creatures, wood ducks willingly accept a helping hand from man in establishing new homes. These birds adapt well to suitable habitat, and you can play an important part in bringing the wood duck to locations where they do not now nest. For groups or individuals who are willing to expend the effort necessary to undertake a wood duck restoration project anti see it to completion, it is an exceptional gift from today\u27s generation to those of decades and centuries to come. Many areas in Nebraska provide suitable wood duck habitat, but do not have a breeding population of wood ducks. Wood ducks seldom pioneer these spots, until a hen is forced out of another area because of a lack of nesting sites. This process could take several years, if it occurs at all. Wood duck releases offer a way to establish birds in areas where habitat is adequate. Careful release-site selection, nest-box placement, and annual maintenance can mean a local breeding population. Building and installing nesting boxes can also increase the number of wood ducks in an area where a breeding population already exists

Topographic Shear and the Relation of Ocular Dominance Columns to Orientation Columns in Prime and Cat Visual Cortex

Shear has been known to exist for many years in the topographic structure of prirnary visual cortex, but has received little attention in the modeling literature. Although the topographic map of V1 is largely conformal (i.e. zero shear), several groups have observed topographic shear in the region of the V1/V2 border. Furthennore, shear has also been revealed by anisotropy of cortical magnification factor within a single ocular dominance colunm. In the present paper, we make a functional hypothesis: the major axis of the topographic shear tensor provides cortical neurons with a preferred direction of orientation tuning. We demonstrate that isotropic neuronal summation of a sheared topographic map, in the presence of additional random shear can provide the major features of corlical functional architecture with the ocular dominance column system acting as the principal source of the shear tensor. The major principal axis of the shear tensor determines the direction and its eigenvalues the relative strength of cortical orientation preference. This hypothesis is then shown to be qualitatively consistent with a variety of experimental results on cat and monkey orientation column properties obtained from optical recording and from other anatomical and physiological techniques. In addition, we show that a recent result of (Das and Gilbert, 1997) is consistent with an infinite set of parameterized solutions for the cortical map. We exploit this freedom to choose a particular instance of the Das-Gilbert solution set which is consistent with the full range of local spatial structure in V1. These results suggest that further relationships between ocular dominance columns, orientation columns, and local topography may be revealed by experimental testing

Semiclassical energy formulas for power-law and log potentials in quantum mechanics

We study a single particle which obeys non-relativistic quantum mechanics in R^N and has Hamiltonian H = -Delta + V(r), where V(r) = sgn(q)r^q. If N \geq 2, then q > -2, and if N = 1, then q > -1. The discrete eigenvalues E_{n\ell} may be represented exactly by the semiclassical expression E_{n\ell}(q) = min_{r>0}\{P_{n\ell}(q)^2/r^2+ V(r)}. The case q = 0 corresponds to V(r) = ln(r). By writing one power as a smooth transformation of another, and using envelope theory, it has earlier been proved that the P_{n\ell}(q) functions are monotone increasing. Recent refinements to the comparison theorem of QM in which comparison potentials can cross over, allow us to prove for n = 1 that Q(q)=Z(q)P(q) is monotone increasing, even though the factor Z(q)=(1+q/N)^{1/q} is monotone decreasing. Thus P(q) cannot increase too slowly. This result yields some sharper estimates for power-potential eigenvlaues at the bottom of each angular-momentum subspace.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figure

Riffle Beetles of Wisconsin (Coleoptera: Dryopidae, Elmidae, Lutrochidae, Psephenidae) With Notes on Distribution, Habitat, and Identification

Twenty-four species of Elmidae, three species of Psephenidae, two species of Dryopidae, and one species of Lutrochidae were represented among 33,351 riffle beetles that were identified from Wisconsin. Almost all were found in streams, but some inhabited wave-swept lake margins and spring-ponds. Adults and larvae of eight species were collected almost exclusively from submerged, decaying wood, while those of most other species inhabited rock or gravel substrates, especially in stream riffles, and only occasionally were found in wood; adults of three species of Dubiraphia were found also on macrophytes. The presence of Stenelmis antennalis, S. fuscata, and S. knobeli in Wisconsin represents significant range extensions

The Organic Research Centre; Elm Farm Bulletin 84 July 2006

Regular bulletin with technical updates of the Organic Advisory Service Issue contains: Battling on for Avian Flu preventive vaccination; Organic Colombian Blacktail eggs; UK Co-existence - GMOand non-GMO crops; Aspects of Poultry Behaviour; CAP in the service of biodiversity; Seeing the Wood, the Trees and the Catch 22; Beware of organic market "statistics"; A central role in energy review

Religion, Faith-Based Community Organizing, and the Struggle for Justice

On May 2, 2000, three thousand people converged on the State Capitol in Sacramento, California. But this was not the usual frenzy of lobbyists serving the interests of the well-off, using the tools of well-oiled political action committees. Rather, these were working poor, working class, and lower-middle income people lately referred to as working families and they went to Sacramento because they were tired of living on the verge of financial ruin or physical debility. Attendees were demanding adequate health coverage for people left out by current health care arrangements and they were angry about that, at a time when remarkable wealth was being accumulated all around them and California was running a $10 billion budget surplus.\u2