220 research outputs found
Louse (Insecta : Phthiraptera) mitochondrial 12S rRNA secondary structure is highly variable
Lice are ectoparasitic insects hosted by birds and mammals. Mitochondrial 12S rRNA sequences obtained from lice show considerable length variation and are very difficult to align. We show that the louse 12S rRNA domain III secondary structure displays considerable variation compared to other insects, in both the shape and number of stems and loops. Phylogenetic trees constructed from tree edit distances between louse 12S rRNA structures do not closely resemble trees constructed from sequence data, suggesting that at least some of this structural variation has arisen independently in different louse lineages. Taken together with previous work on mitochondrial gene order and elevated rates of substitution in louse mitochondrial sequences, the structural variation in louse 12S rRNA confirms the highly distinctive nature of molecular evolution in these insects
The construction of masculinities and femininities in the Church of England:the case of the male clergy spouse
The ordination of women to the priesthood in the Church of England in 1994 signified great change. The impact of the new priests was well documented, and their integration became the focus of much research in the following years. One important area of change was the altered dynamics of gender identity. New roles had opened up for women, but new identities had also emerged for men. While women priests were a new historical emergence, so too were clergy husbands. This paper will consider the historical construction of masculinities and femininities within the church and will go on to look at this in the context of clergy spouses, specifically focusing on men occupying this role. Some provisional findings, acting as work in progress, will be considered
First robotic monitoring of a lensed quasar: intrinsic variability of SBS 0909+532
To go into the details about the variability of the double quasar SBS
0909+532, we designed a monitoring programme with the 2 m Liverpool Robotic
Telescope in the r Sloan filter, spanning 1.5 years from 2005 January to 2006
June. The r-band light curves of the A and B components, several
cross-correlation techniques and a large number of simulations (synthetic light
curves) lead to a robust delay of 49 +/- 6 days (1-sigma interval) that agrees
with our previous results (the B component is leading). Once the time delay and
the magnitude offset are known, the magnitude- and time-shifted light curve of
image A is subtracted from the light curve of image B. This difference light
curve of SBS 0909+532 is consistent with zero, so any possible extrinsic signal
must be very weak, i.e., the observed variability in A and B is basically due
to observational noise and intrinsic signal. We then make the combined light
curve and analyse its statistical properties (structure functions). The
structure function of the intrinsic luminosity is fitted to predictions of
simple models of two physical scenarios: accretion disc instabilities and
nuclear starbursts. Although no simple model is able to accurately reproduce
the observed trend, symmetric triangular flares in an accretion disc seems to
be the best option to account for it.Comment: 27 pages, 9 figures and 2 tables (including information on the
robotic monitoring and the final fluxes). Accepted for publication in New
Astronom
Implications of Space-Time foam for Entanglement Correlations of Neutral Kaons
The role of invariance and consequences for bipartite entanglement of
neutral (K) mesons are discussed. A relaxation of leads to a modification
of the entanglement which is known as the effect. The relaxation of
assumptions required to prove the theorem are examined within the context
of models of space-time foam. It is shown that the evasion of the EPR type
entanglement implied by (which is connected with spin statistics) is
rather elusive. Relaxation of locality (through non-commutative geometry) or
the introduction of decoherence by themselves do not lead to a destruction of
the entanglement. So far we find only one model which is based on non-critical
strings and D-particle capture and recoil that leads to a stochastic
contribution to the space-time metric and consequent change in the neutral
meson bipartite entanglement. The lack of an omega effect is demonstrated for a
class of models based on thermal like baths which are generally considered as
generic models of decoherence
Improved Determination of the Mass of the Light Hybrid Meson From QCD Sum Rules
We calculate the next-to-leading order (NLO) -corrections to the
contributions of the condensates and in the
current-current correlator of the hybrid current
g\barq(x)\gamma_{\nu}iF_{\mu\nu}^aT^aq(x) using the external field method in
Feynman gauge. After incorporating these NLO contributions into the Laplace
sum-rules, the mass of the = light hybrid meson is recalculated
using the QCD sum rule approach. We find that the sum rules exhibit enhanced
stability when the NLO -corrections are included in the sum rule
analysis, resulting in a light hybrid meson mass of approximately 1.6
GeV.Comment: revtex4, 10 pages, 7 eps figures embedded in manuscrip
Power, norms and institutional change in the European Union: the protection of the free movement of goods
How do institutions of the European Union change? Using an institutionalist approach, this article highlights the interplay between power, cognitive limits, and the normative order that underpins institutional settings and assesses their impact upon the process of institutional change. Empirical evidence from recent attempts to reinforce the protection of the free movement of goods in the EU suggests that, under conditions of uncertainty, actors with ambiguous preferences assess attempts at institutional change on the basis of the historically defined normative order which holds a given institutional structure together. Hence, path dependent and incremental change occurs even when more ambitious and functionally superior proposals are on offer
The Topological B-model on a Mini-Supertwistor Space and Supersymmetric Bogomolny Monopole Equations
In the recent paper hep-th/0502076, it was argued that the open topological
B-model whose target space is a complex (2|4)-dimensional mini-supertwistor
space with D3- and D1-branes added corresponds to a super Yang-Mills theory in
three dimensions. Without the D1-branes, this topological B-model is equivalent
to a dimensionally reduced holomorphic Chern-Simons theory. Identifying the
latter with a holomorphic BF-type theory, we describe a twistor correspondence
between this theory and a supersymmetric Bogomolny model on R^3. The connecting
link in this correspondence is a partially holomorphic Chern-Simons theory on a
Cauchy-Riemann supermanifold which is a real one-dimensional fibration over the
mini-supertwistor space. Along the way of proving this twistor correspondence,
we review the necessary basic geometric notions and construct action
functionals for the involved theories. Furthermore, we discuss the geometric
aspect of a recently proposed deformation of the mini-supertwistor space, which
gives rise to mass terms in the supersymmetric Bogomolny equations. Eventually,
we present solution generating techniques based on the developed twistorial
description together with some examples and comment briefly on a twistor
correspondence for super Yang-Mills theory in three dimensions.Comment: 55 pages; v2: typos fixed, published versio
Asymmetric Dark Matter and Dark Radiation
Asymmetric Dark Matter (ADM) models invoke a particle-antiparticle asymmetry,
similar to the one observed in the Baryon sector, to account for the Dark
Matter (DM) abundance. Both asymmetries are usually generated by the same
mechanism and generally related, thus predicting DM masses around 5 GeV in
order to obtain the correct density. The main challenge for successful models
is to ensure efficient annihilation of the thermally produced symmetric
component of such a light DM candidate without violating constraints from
collider or direct searches. A common way to overcome this involves a light
mediator, into which DM can efficiently annihilate and which subsequently
decays into Standard Model particles. Here we explore the scenario where the
light mediator decays instead into lighter degrees of freedom in the dark
sector that act as radiation in the early Universe. While this assumption makes
indirect DM searches challenging, it leads to signals of extra radiation at BBN
and CMB. Under certain conditions, precise measurements of the number of
relativistic species, such as those expected from the Planck satellite, can
provide information on the structure of the dark sector. We also discuss the
constraints of the interactions between DM and Dark Radiation from their
imprint in the matter power spectrum.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figures, to be published in JCAP, minor changes to match
version to be publishe
Charged AdS Black Holes and Catastrophic Holography
We compute the properties of a class of charged black holes in anti-de Sitter
space-time, in diverse dimensions. These black holes are solutions of
consistent Einstein-Maxwell truncations of gauged supergravities, which are
shown to arise from the inclusion of rotation in the transverse space. We
uncover rich thermodynamic phase structures for these systems, which display
classic critical phenomena, including structures isomorphic to the van der
Waals-Maxwell liquid-gas system. In that case, the phases are controlled by the
universal `cusp' and `swallowtail' shapes familiar from catastrophe theory. All
of the thermodynamics is consistent with field theory interpretations via
holography, where the dual field theories can sometimes be found on the world
volumes of coincident rotating branes.Comment: 19 pages, revtex, psfig, 6 multicomponent figures, typos, references
and a few remarks have been repaired, and adde
Some general properties of the renormalized stress-energy tensor for static quantum states on (n+1)-dimensional spherically symmetric black holes
We study the renormalized stress-energy tensor (RSET) for static quantum
states on (n+1)-dimensional, static, spherically symmetric black holes. By
solving the conservation equations, we are able to write the stress-energy
tensor in terms of a single unknown function of the radial co-ordinate, plus
two arbitrary constants. Conditions for the stress-energy tensor to be regular
at event horizons (including the extremal and ``ultra-extremal'' cases) are
then derived using generalized Kruskal-like co-ordinates. These results should
be useful for future calculations of the RSET for static quantum states on
spherically symmetric black hole geometries in any number of space-time
dimensions.Comment: 9 pages, no figures, RevTeX4, references added, accepted for
publication in General Relativity and Gravitatio
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