Comparative mortality levels among selected species of captive animals

We present life tables by single year of age and sex for groups of animals and for 42 individual mostly mammalian species. Data are derived from the International Species Information System. The survivorship of most of these species has never been mapped systematically. We demonstrate that, in most of the groups, female survivorship significantly exceeds that of males above age five. Wild-born animals do not have mortality that differs significantly from captive-born animals. While most species have mortality that rises with age above the juvenile stage, there are several groups for which the age pattern of mortality is nearly level.ISIS, longevity, mortality, survivorship

On role of symmetries in Kelvin wave turbulence

E.V. Kozik and B.V. Svistunov (KS) paper "Symmetries and Interaction Coefficients of Kelvin waves", arXiv:1006.1789v1, [cond-mat.other] 9 Jun 2010, contains a comment on paper "Symmetries and Interaction coefficients of Kelvin waves", V. V. Lebedev and V. S. L'vov, arXiv:1005.4575, 25 May 2010. It relies mainly on the KS text "Geometric Symmetries in Superfluid Vortex Dynamics}", arXiv:1006.0506v1 [cond-mat.other] 2 Jun 2010. The main claim of KS is that a symmetry argument prevents linear in wavenumber infrared asymptotics of the interaction vertex and thereby implies locality of the Kelvin wave spectrum previously obtained by these authors. In the present note we reply to their arguments. We conclude that there is neither proof of locality nor any refutation of the possibility of linear asymptotic behavior of interaction vertices in the texts of KS

Comment on "Symmetries and Interaction Coefficients of Kelvin waves" [arXiv:1005.4575] by Lebedev and L'vov

We comment on the claim by Lebedev and L'vov [arXiv:1005.4575] that the symmetry with respect to a tilt of a quantized vortex line does not yet prohibit coupling between Kelvin waves and the large-scale slope of the line. Ironically, the counterexample of an effective scattering vertex in the local induction approximation (LIA) attempted by Lebedev and L'vov invalidates their logic all by itself being a notoriously known example of how symmetries impose stringent constraints on kelvon kinetics---not only the coupling in question but the kinetics in general are absent within LIA. We further explain that the mistake arises from confusing symmetry properties of a specific mathematical representation in terms of the canonical vortex position field w(z) = x(z) + iy(z), which explicitly breaks the tilt symmetry due to an arbitrary choice of the z-axis, with those of the real physical system recovered in final expressions.Comment: comment on arXiv:1005.4575, version accepted in JLTP with minimal changes: abstract adde

The “Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations” And Its Role in Maintaining White Supremacy through Mathematics Education

In this study, we offer an analysis of the phrase the soft bigotry of low expectations and considers its role in rhetoric about U.S. mathematics education policy and practice, especially in regards to Critical Mathematical Inquiry. From the phrase’s origins in a speech given by President George W. Bush in 2000, to its current use on social media, this phrase offers a lens into white supremacy and tools of whiteness (Picower, 2009), and their persistence in U.S. schooling paradigms, especially about mathematics. We analyze specific, recent instantiations of the phrase on blogrolls and Twitter, in addition to more implicit evocations within influential consensus documents and mainstream discourse about education

Information networks in Africa: a collaborative (FAO/SAIAB) project investigating mechanisms of document exchange and the preservation of grey literature.

pp. 203-20

The Role of Knowledge in Information Technology Project Governance

IT governance, the distribution of decision-making concerning IT, has primarily been studied at the organizational or, more recently, the business unit level. However, many IT decisions take place in the context of IT projects, making it important to understand governance issues at the project level. This research develops a project-level conceptualization of IT governance that draws from both the governance and project management literatures. A model of how IT project governance arrangements are influenced by the distribution of business and IT knowledge and the impact on project performance is also proposed. This model will be tested using matched surveys from business and IT managers involved in IT projects

Interaction of Kelvin waves and nonlocality of energy transfer in superfluids

We argue that the physics of interacting Kelvin Waves (KWs) is highly nontrivial and cannot be understood on the basis of pure dimensional reasoning. A consistent theory of KW turbulence in superfluids should be based upon explicit knowledge of their interactions. To achieve this, we present a detailed calculation and comprehensive analysis of the interaction coefficients for KW turbuelence, thereby, resolving previous mistakes stemming from unaccounted contributions. As a first application of this analysis, we derive a local nonlinear (partial differential) equation. This equation is much simpler for analysis and numerical simulations of KWs than the Biot-Savart equation, and in contrast to the completely integrable local induction approximation (in which the energy exchange between KWs is absent), describes the nonlinear dynamics of KWs. Second, we show that the previously suggested Kozik-Svistunov energy spectrum for KWs, which has often been used in the analysis of experimental and numerical data in superfluid turbulence, is irrelevant, because it is based upon an erroneous assumption of the locality of the energy transfer through scales. Moreover, we demonstrate the weak nonlocality of the inverse cascade spectrum with a constant particle-number flux and find resulting logarithmic corrections to this spectrum

The Kelvin-wave cascade in the vortex filament model

The energy transfer mechanism in zero temperature superfluid turbulence of helium-4 is still a widely debated topic. Currently, the main hypothesis is that weakly nonlinear interacting Kelvin waves transfer energy to sufficiently small scales such that energy is dissipated as heat via phonon excitations. Theoretically, there are at least two proposed theories for Kelvin-wave interactions. We perform the most comprehensive numerical simulation of weakly nonlinear interacting Kelvin-waves to date and show, using a specially designed numerical algorithm incorporating the full Biot-Savart equation, that our results are consistent with nonlocal six-wave Kelvin wave interactions as proposed by L'vov and Nazarenko.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure

Estrogen treatment decreases matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-9 in autoimmune demyelinating disease through estrogen receptor alpha (ERalpha).

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) have a crucial function in migration of inflammatory cells into the central nervous system (CNS). Levels of MMP-9 are elevated in multiple sclerosis (MS) and predict the occurrence of new active lesions on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). This translational study aims to determine whether in vivo treatment with the pregnancy hormone estriol affects MMP-9 levels from immune cells in patients with MS and mice with experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) collected from three female MS patients treated with estriol and splenocytes from EAE mice treated with estriol, estrogen receptor (ER) alpha ligand, ERbeta ligand or vehicle were stimulated ex vivo and analyzed for levels of MMP-9. Markers of CNS infiltration were assessed using MRI in patients and immunohistochemistry in mice. Supernatants from PBMCs obtained during estriol treatment in female MS patients showed significantly decreased MMP-9 compared with pretreatment. Decreases in MMP-9 coincided with a decrease in enhancing lesion volume on MRI. Estriol treatment of mice with EAE reduced MMP-9 in supernatants from autoantigen-stimulated splenocytes, coinciding with decreased CNS infiltration by T cells and monocytes. Experiments with selective ER ligands showed that this effect was mediated through ERalpha. In conclusion, estriol acting through ERalpha to reduce MMP-9 from immune cells is one mechanism potentially underlying the estriol-mediated reduction in enhancing lesions in MS and inflammatory lesions in EAE