On the EDM Cancellations in D-brane models

We analyze the possibility of simultaneous electron, neutron, and mercury electric dipole moment (EDM) cancellations in the mSUGRA and D--brane models. We find that the mercury EDM constraint practically rules out the cancellation scenario in D-brane models whereas in the context of mSUGRA it is still allowed with some fine-tuning.Comment: 10 pages, to appear in Phys. Rev. Let

A multi-component flood risk assessment in the Maresme coast (NW Mediterranean)

Coastal regions are the areas most threatened by natural hazards, with floods being the most frequent and significant threat in terms of their induced impacts, and therefore, any management scheme requires their evaluation. In coastal areas, flooding is a hazard associated with various processes acting at different scales: coastal storms, flash floods, and sea level rise (SLR). In order to address the problem as a whole, this study presents a methodology to undertake a preliminary integrated risk assessment that determines the magnitude of the different flood processes (flash flood, marine storm, SLR) and their associated consequences, taking into account their temporal and spatial scales. The risk is quantified using specific indicators to assess the magnitude of the hazard (for each component) and the consequences in a common scale. This allows for a robust comparison of the spatial risk distribution along the coast in order to identify both the areas at greatest risk and the risk components that have the greatest impact. This methodology is applied on the Maresme coast (NW Mediterranean, Spain), which can be considered representative of developed areas of the Spanish Mediterranean coast. The results obtained characterise this coastline as an area of relatively low overall risk, although some hot spots have been identified with high-risk values, with flash flooding being the principal risk process

The Arabidopsis thaliana Homeobox Gene ATHB12 Is Involved in Symptom Development Caused by Geminivirus Infection

BACKGROUND: Geminiviruses are single-stranded DNA viruses that infect a number of monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous plants. Arabidopsis is susceptible to infection with the Curtovirus, Beet severe curly top virus (BSCTV). Infection of Arabidopsis with BSCTV causes severe symptoms characterized by stunting, leaf curling, and the development of abnormal inflorescence and root structures. BSCTV-induced symptom development requires the virus-encoded C4 protein which is thought to interact with specific plant-host proteins and disrupt signaling pathways important for controlling cell division and development. Very little is known about the specific plant regulatory factors that participate in BSCTV-induced symptom development. This study was conducted to identify specific transcription factors that are induced by BSCTV infection. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Arabidopsis plants were inoculated with BSCTV and the induction of specific transcription factors was monitored using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction assays. We found that the ATHB12 and ATHB7 genes, members of the homeodomain-leucine zipper family of transcription factors previously shown to be induced by abscisic acid and water stress, are induced in symptomatic tissues of Arabidopsis inoculated with BSCTV. ATHB12 expression is correlated with an array of morphological abnormalities including leaf curling, stunting, and callus-like structures in infected Arabidopsis. Inoculation of plants with a BSCTV mutant with a defective c4 gene failed to induce ATHB12. Transgenic plants expressing the BSCTV C4 gene exhibited increased ATHB12 expression whereas BSCTV-infected ATHB12 knock-down plants developed milder symptoms and had lower ATHB12 expression compared to the wild-type plants. Reporter gene studies demonstrated that the ATHB12 promoter was responsive to BSCTV infection and the highest expression levels were observed in symptomatic tissues where cell cycle genes also were induced. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These results suggest that ATHB7 and ATHB12 may play an important role in the activation of the abnormal cell division associated with symptom development during geminivirus infection

Variabilité des techniques de récolte et traitement des céréales dans l’occident méditerranéen au Néolithique ancien et moyen : facteurs environnementaux économiques et sociaux.

peer reviewe

Scattered or polycentric? Untangling urban growth in three southern European metropolitan regions through exploratory spatial data analysis

The present study illustrates an exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) aimed at investigating changes in the distribution of built-up areas in three southern European metropolitan regions (Barcelona, Rome and Athens). An approach based on global Moran's indexes of spatial autocorrelations was proposed to assess similarities in the spatial organization of the three regions, based on land-use data for 1960 and 2010. Compact monocentric, scattered low-density and mixed polycentric structures were compared in the three regions using local Moran's indexes computed at two different scales, "urban" (5 km radius) and "regional" (20 km radius). The proposed approach identifies emerging trends in scattered monocentric or polycentric development. Our results outline the trend toward scattered urban expansion for the three cities, with signs of a modest shift toward polycentrism in Barcelona. ESDA provides basic information needed for policies promoting spatially balanced, sustainable development in originally compact and economically segmented regions

Neutralino-Nucleon Scattering Revisited

We present a detailed discussion of the elastic scattering of a supersymmetric neutralino off a nucleon or nucleus, with emphasis on the spin--independent interaction. We carefully treat QCD effects on the squark exchange contribution. In particular, we identify a class of terms that survive even in the absence of mixing in both the neutralino and squark sectors; the corresponding quark and gluon operators also appear in analyses of deep--inelastic lepton--nucleon scattering (``twist--2 operators''), so their hadronic matrix elements are well known. We also re--emphasize the importance of mixing between the superpartners of left-- and right--handed quarks, and of the contribution from the heavier scalar Higgs boson. We use our refined calculation of the scattering amplitude to update predictions of signal rates for cosmic relic neutralino searches with Germanium detectors. In general the counting rate varies strongly with the values (even the signs) of model parameters; typical results lie between a few times $10^{-4}$ and a few times $10^{-1}$ events/(kg$\cdot$day).Comment: 32 pages with 7 figures (not included; hard copies available from DREES@WISCPHEN), LaTeX with EQUATION.STY, MAD/PH/76