Electroweak quark-lepton symmetry and weak topological-charge confinement in the Standard Model with Dirac neutrinos

The standard electroweak model with Dirac neutrinos is extended by way of the principles of electroweak quark-lepton symmetry and weak topological-charge confinement to account for quark-lepton charge relations which, if not accidental, are indicative of charge structures. A mixing in quarks and leptons of underlying integer local charges with integer weak topological charges associated with an additive group Z_3, fixed by the anomaly cancellation requirement, is discussed. It is found that the electroweak difference between topological quarks and leptons is the nonequivalence between the topological vacua of their weak field configurations, produced by a four-instanton which carries the topological charge, induces the universal fractional piece of charge distinguishing quarks from leptons, and breaks the underlying symmetry. The constituent quarks of the standard model appear as coming from topological quarks, via the weak four-instanton event. Dual transitions occur for leptons. It is shown that several other fundamental problems left open in the standard electroweak model with Dirac neutrinos are solved: the one-to-one correspondence between quark and lepton flavors, the existence of three generations, the conservation and ungauging of B-L, the electric charge quantization, and the confinement of fractional electric charges.Comment: 23 pages, 1 figure, uses IJMPA.cl

Determination of Benthic Soil Conditions Using Nematodes: Nematode FoodWeb Conditions of Fish Ponds in the Lincoln and Desha Counties of Arkansas

We determined the health status of similar channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) ponds in Lincoln and Desha counties of Arkansas, using the nematode soil food web condition as our reference point. Soil nematodes were categorized into colonizer-persister (cp) groups, based on their life course characteristics e.g sensitivity to environmental changes, body size, etc. These cp groups represent different components of the soil food web, which in turn were indicators of soil conditions. Benthic soil samples were collected at four week intervals over a 4-month period, from 6-ponds in each county. The nematodes were extracted according to standard methods and the recovered nematode taxa grouped according to their cp values. The product of each nematode taxon was determined (mean number of individuals x cp value) and the sum of all members of a cp group constituted the biomass produced by that cp group. Nematodes of the cp-3 and cp-4 groups dominated in biomass productivity in ponds for both counties. These groups of nematodes represent structured components of a food web and therefore a healthy ecosystem. Lincoln county ponds had higher cp-3 and cp-4 biomass likely due to slightly less acidic conditions while Desha county ponds had a greater biomass of plant-parasitic nematodes. It was also found that free-living nematodes tolerate more acidic conditions than plant-parasitic nematodes, though this could also be related to more root tissues. Nematode biomass calculations could be useful in determining benthic soil food web conditions, which may provide a simple way of assessing environmental conditions and changes in Arkansas catfish ponds

Photosynthesis of three dessert banana cultivars along an altitudinal gradient

Poster presented at Tropentag 2011 - Development on the Margin. Bonn (Germany), 3-7 Oct 2011

The XMM-Newton survey of the ELAIS-S1 field II: optical identifications and multiwavelength catalogue of X-ray sources

We present optical identifications and a multi-band catalogue of a sample of 478 X-ray sources in the XMM and Chandra surveys of the central 0.6 deg^2 of the ELAIS-S1 field. The optical/infrared counterpart of each X-ray source was identified using R and IRAC 3.6 um bands. This method was complemented by the precise positions obtained through Chandra observations. Approximately 94% of the counterparts are detected in the R band, while the remaining are blank fields in the optical down to R~24.5, but have a near-infrared counterpart detected by IRAC within 6 arcsec from the XMM centroid. The multi-band catalogue contains photometry in ten photometric bands (B to the MIPS 24 um). We determined redshift and classification for 237 sources (~50% of the sample) brighter than R=24. We classified 47% of the sources with spectroscopic redshift as broad-line active galactic nuclei (BL AGNs) with z=0.1-3.5, while sources without broad-lines are about 46% of the spectroscopic sample and are found up to z=2.6. We identified 11 type 2 QSOs among the sources with X/O>8, with z=0.9-2.6, high 2-10 keV luminosity (log(L2-10keV)>=43.8 erg/s) and hard X-ray colors suggesting large absorbing columns at the rest frame (logN_H up to 23.6 cm^-2). BL AGNs show on average blue optical-to-near-infrared colors, softer X-ray colors and X-ray-to-optical colors typical of optically selected AGNs. Conversely, narrow-line sources show redder optical colors, harder X-ray flux ratio and span a wider range of X-ray-to-optical colors. On average the SEDs of high-luminosity BL AGNs resemble the power-law typical of unobscured AGNs. The SEDs of NOT BL AGNs are dominated by the galaxy emission in the optical/near-infrared, and show a rise in the mid-infrared which suggests the presence of an obscured active nucleus.Comment: 15 pages, A&A accepted, affiliations correcte

Lyman break and UV-selected galaxies at z∼1z \sim 1 I. Stellar populations from ALHAMBRA survey

We take advantage of the exceptional photometric coverage provided by the combination of GALEX data in the UV and the ALHAMBRA survey in the optical and near-IR to analyze the physical properties of a sample of 1225 GALEX-selected Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) at $0.8 \lesssim z \lesssim 1.2$ located in the COSMOS field. This is the largest sample of LBGs studied at that redshift range so far. According to a spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting with synthetic stellar population templates, we find that LBGs at $z \sim 1$ are mostly young galaxies with a median age of 341 Myr and have intermediate dust attenuation, $\ \sim 0.20$. Due to their selection criterion, LBGs at $z \sim 1$ are UV-bright galaxies and have high dust-corrected total SFR, with a median value of 16.9 $M_\odot {\rm yr}^{-1}$. Their median stellar mass is $\log{\left(M_*/M_\odot \right)} = 9.74$. We obtain that the dust-corrected total SFR of LBGs increases with stellar mass and the specific SFR is lower for more massive galaxies. Only 2% of the galaxies selected through the Lyman break criterion have an AGN nature. LBGs at $z \sim 1$ are mostly located over the blue cloud of the color-magnitude diagram of galaxies at their redshift, with only the oldest and/or the dustiest deviating towards the green valley and red sequence. Morphologically, 69% of LBGs are disk-like galaxies, with the fraction of interacting, compact, or irregular systems being much lower, below 12%. LBGs have a median effective radius of 2.5 kpc and bigger galaxies have higher total SFR and stellar mass. Comparing to their high-redshift analogues, we find evidence that LBGs at lower redshifts are bigger, redder in the UV continuum, and have a major presence of older stellar populations in their SEDs. However, we do not find significant difference in the distributions of stellar mass or dust attenuation.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA

The ALHAMBRA Survey: Bayesian Photometric Redshifts with 23 bands for 3 squared degrees

The ALHAMBRA (Advance Large Homogeneous Area Medium Band Redshift Astronomical) survey has observed 8 different regions of the sky, including sections of the COSMOS, DEEP2, ELAIS, GOODS-N, SDSS and Groth fields using a new photometric system with 20 contiguous ~ $300\AA$ filters covering the optical range, combining them with deep $JHKs$ imaging. The observations, carried out with the Calar Alto 3.5m telescope using the wide field (0.25 sq. deg FOV) optical camera LAICA and the NIR instrument Omega-2000, correspond to ~700hrs on-target science images. The photometric system was designed to maximize the effective depth of the survey in terms of accurate spectral-type and photo-zs estimation along with the capability of identification of relatively faint emission lines. Here we present multicolor photometry and photo-zs for ~438k galaxies, detected in synthetic F814W images, complete down to I~24.5 AB, taking into account realistic noise estimates, and correcting by PSF and aperture effects with the ColorPro software. The photometric ZP have been calibrated using stellar transformation equations and refined internally, using a new technique based on the highly robust photometric redshifts measured for emission line galaxies. We calculate photometric redshifts with the BPZ2 code, which includes new empirically calibrated templates and priors. Our photo-zs have a precision of $dz/(1+z_s)=1$ for I<22.5 and 1.4% for 22.5<I<24.5. Precisions of less than 0.5% are reached for the brighter spectroscopic sample, showing the potential of medium-band photometric surveys. The global $P(z)$ shows a mean redshift =0.56 for I=0.86 for I<24.5 AB. The data presented here covers an effective area of 2.79 sq. deg, split into 14 strips of 58.5'x15.5' and represents ~32 hrs of on-target.Comment: The catalog data and a full resolution version of this paper is available at https://cloud.iaa.csic.es/alhambra

Effects of eicosapentaenoic acid ethyl ester on visfatin and apelin in lean and overweight (cafeteria diet-fed) rats

Previous studies have demonstrated that the n-3 fatty acid EPA improves insulin resistance induced by high-fat diets. The aim of the present study was to investigate the potential role of visfatin and apelin in the insulin-sensitising effects of EPA ethyl ester. The effects of EPA on muscle and adipose GLUT mRNA, as well as on liver glucokinase (GK) and glucose-6-phosphatase (G6Pase) activity, were investigated. Male Wistar rats fed on a standard diet or a high-fat cafeteria diet were daily treated by oral administration with EPA ethyl ester (1 g/kg) for 5 weeks. A significant decrease (P,0·01) in white adipose tissue (WAT) visfatin mRNA levels was found in the cafeteria-fed rats, which was reversed by EPA administration (P,0·05). Moreover, a negative relationship was observed between homeostatic model assessment (HOMA) and the visfatin:total WAT ratio. In contrast, cafeteria-diet feeding caused a significant increase (P,0·01) in apelin mRNA in visceral WAT. EPA increased (P,0·01) apelin gene expression, and a negative relationship between HOMA index with visceral apelin mRNA and serum apelin:total WAT ratio was also observed. EPA treatment did not induce changes in skeletal muscle GLUT1, GLUT4 or insulin receptor mRNA levels. Neither liver GK and G6Pase activity nor the GK:G6Pase ratio was modified by EPA. These data suggest that somehow the insulin-sensitising effects of EPA could be related to its stimulatory action on both visfatin and apelin gene expression in visceral fat, while changes in skeletal muscle GLUT, as well as in hepatic glucose production, are not likely to be the main contributing factors in the improvement in insulin resistance induced by EPA

Chemical modification of titanium precursor to obtain stable silica-titania sol: acetylacetone

[ES] La técnica Sol-Gel se ha utilizado para sintetizar una serie de sistemas multicomponentes, entre ellos SiO2 – TiO2. El mayor problema en la obtención de geles multicomponentes estables es la desigual velocidad de hidrólisis y condensación que presentan los alcóxidos precursores de los cationes de interés. En este trabajo se muestra cómo adicionando acetilacetona, acacH, al sistema TEOS – Ti(OBu)4 – H2O se puede obtener un sol estable. Se tomaron diferentes concentraciones de los precursores de silicio y titanio y una sola concentración de acacH. Se utilizó espectroscopia infrarroja, FTIR, para identificar los grupos funcionales presentes en el sistema y además se midió regularmente la viscosidad para determinar cualitativamente el avance de la policondensación del sistema.[EN] Sol-gel processing has become a well established technique for producing ceramic powders or glasses. This processing has been utilized to synthesize several interesting systems, e.g. the SiO2 – TiO2 system. A major concern in the stable multicomponent geles is that the hydrolysis and condensation velocities are diferent for each precursor, TEOS and Ti(OBu)4 in this work. The chemical control of these reactions is currently performed by adding complexing reagents that react with metal alkoxides at a molecular level, giving rise to new molecular precursors of different structure, reactivity and functionanality. This paper shows that stable TEOS – Ti(OBu)4 – H2O sol can be reproducibly prepared in the presence of acetylacetone. We shall then show that the acac behaves as a ligand, directly bonded to the titanium ion. Thus the formation of precipitate is avoided. Infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR) and viscosity measures were used to demostrated this behaviour of the system.Este trabajo fue financiado a través de los proyectos COLCIENCIAS N° 1103-05-605-93 y VRI-Universidad del Cauca N° 752. Agradecemos a Ecopetrol-ICP la colaboración prestada con los estudios de espectroscopia infrarroja y a la red CyTED VIII.E la ayuda económica y técnica gracias a la cual A. Mafla pudo realizar su pasantía en el ICVCSIC de Madrid-España.Peer reviewe