Orthospectra of Geodesic Laminations and Dilogarithm Identities on Moduli Space

Given a measured lamination on a finite area hyperbolic surface we consider a natural measure Mon the real line obtained by taking the push-forward of the volume measure of the unit tangent bundle of the surface under an intersection function associated with the lamination. We show that the measure M gives summation identities for the Rogers dilogarithm function on the moduli space of a surface.Comment: 21 pages, 2 figure

Nonequilibrium GW+EDMFT: Antiscreening and inverted populations from nonlocal correlations

We study the dynamics of screening in photo-doped Mott insulators with long-ranged interactions using a nonequilibrium implementation of the $GW$ plus extended dynamical mean field theory ($GW$+EDMFT) formalism. Our study demonstrates that the complex interplay of the injected carriers with bosonic degrees of freedom (charge fluctuations) can result in long-lived transient states with properties that are distinctly different from those of thermal equilibrium states. Systems with strong nonlocal interactions are found to exhibit a self-sustained population inversion of the doublons and holes. This population inversion leads to low-energy antiscreening which can be detected in time-resolved electron-energy loss spectra

Electronic structure and chemical bonding of nc-TiC/a-C nanocomposites

The electronic structure of nanocrystalline (nc-) TiC/amorphous C nanocomposites has been investigated by soft x-ray absorption and emission spectroscopy. The measured spectra at the Ti 2p and C 1s thresholds of the nanocomposites are compared to those of Ti metal and amorphous C. The corresponding intensities of the electronic states for the valence and conduction bands in the nanocomposites are shown to strongly depend on the TiC carbide grain size. An increased charge-transfer between the Ti 3d-eg states and the C 2p states has been identified as the grain size decreases, causing an increased ionicity of the TiC nanocrystallites. It is suggested that the charge-transfer occurs at the interface between the nanocrystalline TiC and the amorphous C matrix and represents an interface bonding which may be essential for the understanding of the properties of nc-TiC/amorphous C and similar nanocomposites.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, 1 table; http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevB.80.23510

Biogeomorphic recovery of a river reach affected by mining

Environmental changes are impacting river systems worldwide. These arise from factors such as flood magnitude–frequency changes, direct human management interventions, inadvertent human impacts on sediment supply and fluvial regimes and landscape-scale changes in climate. Historical and active metal mining is significant in this regard. Here, we investigate morphodynamic changes within a reach of the River Ystwyth, Wales, since 1845. We analyse historical and contemporary information derived from maps, river flow records (1962–2021), metal analyses of sediment samples (1970s and 2021), ground geomorphological surveys (1970s and 1986–1987) and remotely sensed imagery (2001–2021) to investigate changes during a period of active metal mining followed by a century of post-mining recovery. During the studied period, an initially meandering river was transformed into a braided one, subsequently reverting to a single sinuous channel. Sinuosity reduced from 1.31 in 1845 to 1.09 in 1982 before recovering to 1.39 in 2019. Inversely, the braiding index reduced from a maximum of 2.0 in 1987 to 1.5 in 2021. Evolution in planform was associated with a change from expansive bar formation and avulsion under braided conditions to lateral bar accretion and associated bank erosion along a sinuous single channel. The initial 19th-century channel pattern and floodplain instability seems to have been related to mining sediment toxicity effects rather than a response to high sediment volumes, with recent recovery and channel style reversion being attributable to vegetation encroachment and biomass stabilization of the floodplain. Causal factors of recent recovery appear to be colonization by gorse (Ulex europeaus) in the absence of physical control measures and a reduction in grazing by the native rabbit population because of a disease-induced decline in their numbers. These results highlight the importance of riparian vegetation in addition to sediment balance and hydrological processes in controlling fluvial responses to environmental changes

Constraining Alternate Models of Black Holes: Type I X-ray Bursts on Accreting Fermion-Fermion and Boson-Fermion Stars

The existence of black holes remains open to doubt until other conceivable options are excluded. With this motivation, we consider a model of a compact star in which most of the mass consists of dark particles of some kind, and a small fraction of the mass is in the form of ordinary nucleonic gas. The gas does not interact with the dark matter other than via gravity, but collects at the center as a separate fermionic fluid component. Depending on whether the dark mass is made of fermions or bosons, the objects may be called fermion-fermion stars or boson-fermion stars, respectively. For appropriate choices of the mass of the dark matter particles, these objects are viable models of black hole candidates in X-ray binaries. We consider models with a dark mass of 10 solar masses and a range of gas mass from 10^{-6} to nearly one solar mass, and analyse the bursting properties of the models when they accrete gas. We show that all the models would experience thermonuclear Type I X-ray bursts at appropriate mass accretion rates. Since no Type I bursts have been reported from black hole candidates, the models are ruled out. The case for identifying black hole candidates in X-ray binaries as true black holes is thus strengthened.Comment: 29 pages, 7 figures, to appear in The Astrophysical Journa

Next-to-leading Log Resummation of Scalar and Pseudoscalar Higgs Boson Differential Cross-Sections at the LHC and Tevatron

The region of small transverse momentum in q qbar- and gg-initiated processes must be studied in the framework of resummation to account for the large, logarithmically-enhanced contributions to physical observables. In this paper, we will calculate the fixed order next-to-leading order (NLO) perturbative total and differential cross-sections for both a Standard Model (SM) scalar Higgs boson and the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model's (MSSM) pseudoscalar Higgs boson in the Heavy Quark Effective Theory (HQET) where the mass of the top quark is taken to be infinite. Resummation coefficients B^2_g, C^2_gg for the total cross-section resummation for the pseudoscalar case are given, as well as C^1_gg for the differential cross-section.Comment: 18 pages, REVTeX4, 5 eps figures. v2: Typos corrected, references added, a discussion of uncertainties was adde

Implementing Web 2.0 in secondary schools: impacts, barriers and issues

One of the reports from the Web 2.0 technologies for learning at KS3 and KS4 project. This report explored Impact of Web 2.0 technologies on learning and teaching and drew upon evidence from multiple sources: field studies of 27 schools across the country; guided surveys of 2,600 school students; 100 interviews and 206 online surveys conducted with managers, teachers and technical staff in these schools; online surveys of the views of 96 parents; interviews held with 18 individual innovators in the field of Web 2.0 in education; and interviews with nine regional managers responsible for implementation of ICT at national level

Viral promoters can initiate expression of toxin genes introduced into Escherichia coli

BACKGROUND: The expression of recombinant proteins in eukaryotic cells requires the fusion of the coding region to a promoter functional in the eukaryotic cell line. Viral promoters are very often used for this purpose. The preceding cloning procedures are usually performed in Escherichia coli and it is therefore of interest if the foreign promoter results in an expression of the gene in bacteria. In the case molecules toxic for humans are to be expressed, this knowledge is indispensable for the specification of safety measures. RESULTS: We selected five frequently used viral promoters and quantified their activity in E. coli with a reporter system. Only the promoter from the thymidine kinase gene from HSV1 showed no activity, while the polyhedrin promoter from baculovirus, the early immediate CMV promoter, the early SV40 promoter and the 5' LTR promoter from HIV-1 directed gene expression in E. coli. The determination of transcription start sites in the immediate early CMV promoter and the polyhedrin promoter confirmed the existence of bacterial -10 and -35 consensus sequences. The importance of this heterologous gene expression for safety considerations was further supported by analysing fusions between the aforementioned promoters and a promoter-less cytotoxin gene. CONCLUSION: According to our results a high percentage of viral promoters have the ability of initiating gene expression in E. coli. The degree of such heterologous gene expression can be sufficient for the expression of toxin genes and must therefore be considered when defining safety measures for the handling of corresponding genetically modified organisms

Higgs Boson Production at Hadron Colliders

I report on a calculation of the inclusive Higgs boson production cross section at hadron colliders at next-to-next-to-leading order in QCD. The result is computed as an expansion about the threshold region. By continuing the expansion to very high order, we map the result onto basis functions and obtain the result in closed analytic form.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, uses espcrc2.sty. Talk presented at XXXIst International Conference on High Energy Physics, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 24-31 July, 200