10,446 research outputs found
Minding the Gap: Bias, Soft Structures, and the Double Life of Social Norms
We argue that work on norms provides a way to move beyond debates between proponents of individualist and structuralist approaches to bias, oppression, and injustice. We briefly map out the geography of that debate before presenting Charlotte Witt’s view, showing how her position, and the normative ascriptivism at its heart, seamlessly connects individuals to the social reality they inhabit. We then describe recent empirical work on the psychology of norms and locate the notions of informal institutions and soft structures with respect to it. Finally, we argue that the empirical resources enrich Witt’s ascriptivism, and that the resulting picture shows theorists need not, indeed should not, choose between either the individualist or structuralist camp
Chemistry of aminoacylation of 5'-AMO and the origin of protein synthesis
Much of our recent work has been a study of aminoacyl AMP derivatives. Elucidation of the character of aminoacyl AMP derivatives has made it obvious that AMP has characteristics which should allow it to preferentially catalyze the synthesis of L-amino acid peptides. The essential features which lead to this conclusion are that all l-amino acids (but not all D amino acids) when esterified to 5'-AMP preferentially (65 percent) distribute to the 3' position of the 5'-AMP; that esterification is predominantly at the 2' position; that 2', 3' diaminoacyl esters are readily formed; and that a peptide bond can be formed between adjacent 2',3' aminoacyl esters
Toward an Improved Analytical Description of Lagrangian Bias
We carry out a detailed numerical investigation of the spatial correlation
function of the initial positions of cosmological dark matter halos. In this
Lagrangian coordinate system, which is especially useful for analytic studies
of cosmological feedback, we are able to construct cross-correlation functions
of objects with varying masses and formation redshifts and compare them with a
variety of analytical approaches. For the case in which both formation
redshifts are equal, we find good agreement between our numerical results and
the bivariate model of Scannapieco & Barkana (2002; SB02) at all masses,
redshifts, and separations, while the model of Porciani et al. (1998) does well
for all parameters except for objects with different masses at small
separations. We find that the standard mapping between Lagrangian and Eulerian
bias performs well for rare objects at all separations, but fails if the
objects are highly-nonlinear (low-sigma) peaks. In the Lagrangian case in which
the formation redshifts differ, the SB02 model does well for all separations
and combinations of masses, apart from a discrepancy at small separations in
situations in which the smaller object is formed earlier and the difference
between redshifts or masses is large. As this same limitation arises in the
standard approach to the single-point progenitor distribution developed by
Lacey & Cole (1993), we conclude that a more complete understanding of the
progenitor distribution is the most important outstanding issue in the analytic
modeling of Lagrangian bias.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figures, ApJ, in pres
Formation time distribution of dark matter haloes: theories versus N-body simulations
This paper uses numerical simulations to test the formation time distribution
of dark matter haloes predicted by the analytic excursion set approaches. The
formation time distribution is closely linked to the conditional mass function
and this test is therefore an indirect probe of this distribution. The
excursion set models tested are the extended Press-Schechter (EPS) model, the
ellipsoidal collapse (EC) model, and the non-spherical collapse boundary (NCB)
model. Three sets of simulations (6 realizations) have been used to investigate
the halo formation time distribution for halo masses ranging from dwarf-galaxy
like haloes (, where is the characteristic non-linear mass
scale) to massive haloes of . None of the models can match the
simulation results at both high and low redshift. In particular, dark matter
haloes formed generally earlier in our simulations than predicted by the EPS
model. This discrepancy might help explain why semi-analytic models of galaxy
formation, based on EPS merger trees, under-predict the number of high redshift
galaxies compared with recent observations.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Identification of the YfgF MASE1 domain as a modulator of bacterial responses to aspartate
Complex 3'-5'-cyclic diguanylic acid (c-di-GMP) responsive regulatory networks that are modulated by the action of multiple diguanylate cyclases (DGC; GGDEF domain proteins) and phosphodiesterases (PDE; EAL domain proteins) have evolved in many bacteria. YfgF proteins possess a membrane-anchoring domain (MASE1), a catalytically inactive GGDEF domain and a catalytically active EAL domain. Here, sustained expression of the Salmonella enterica spp. Enterica ser. Enteritidis YfgF protein is shown to mediate inhibition of the formation of the aspartate chemotactic ring on motility agar under aerobic conditions. This phenomenon was c-di-GMP-independent because it occurred in a Salmonella strain that lacked the ability to synthesize c-di-GMP and also when PDE activity was abolished by site-directed mutagenesis of the EAL domain. YfgF-mediated inhibition of aspartate chemotactic ring formation was impaired in the altered redox environment generated by exogenous p-benzoquinone. This ability of YfgF to inhibit the response to aspartate required a motif, (213)Lys-Lys-Glu(215), in the predicted cytoplasmic loop between trans-membrane regions 5 and 6 of the MASE1 domain. Thus, for the first time the function of a MASE1 domain as a redox-responsive regulator of bacterial responses to aspartate has been shown
The mass function
We present the mass functions for different mass estimators for a range of
cosmological models. We pay particular attention to how universal the mass
function is, and how it depends on the cosmology, halo identification and mass
estimator chosen. We investigate quantitatively how well we can relate observed
masses to theoretical mass functions.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures, to appear in ApJ
Ink Drying in Inkjet Printers
The first problem put to the Study Group for Maths in Industry by Domino UK Ltd
concerns ink drying and blocking nozzles in a printer. The goals were as follows:
1. To propose mechanisms for the growth of a plug of dried ink in the open end of a Drop-on-Demand drop generator,
2. To suggest cures to this problem,
3. To consider why oscillating the meniscus appears to alleviate the problem
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