The Goldstini Variations

We study the 'goldstini' scenario of Cheung, Nomura, and Thaler, in which multiple independent supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking sectors lead to multiple would-be goldstinos, changing collider and cosmological phenomenology. In supergravity, potentially large corrections to the previous prediction of twice the gravitino mass for goldstini masses can arise when their scalar partners are stabilized far from the origin. Considerations arising from the complexity of realistic string compactifications indicate that many of the independent SUSY-breaking sectors should be conformally sequestered or situated in warped Randall-Sundrum-like throats, further changing the predicted goldstini masses. If the sequestered hidden sector is a metastable SUSY-breaking sector of the Intriligator-Seiberg-Shih (ISS) type then multiple goldstini can originate from within a single sector, along with many supplementary 'modulini', all with masses of order twice the gravitino mass. These fields can couple to the Supersymmetric Standard Model (SSM) via the 'Goldstino Portal'. Collider signatures involving SSM sparticle decays can provide strong evidence for warped-or-conformally-sequestered sectors, and of the ISS mechanism of SUSY breaking. Along with axions and photini, the Goldstino Portal gives another potential window to the hidden sectors of string theory.Comment: 30 pages, 3 figures; v2 minor changes, references adde

Tree bahk or 3.0 Bark: Linguistic identity and the sociophonetic variation of rhotics in Gullah Geechee

The current study examines the speech of a Gullah Geechee personality who exhibits conscious shifts between sociolinguistic “styles” when speaking for an outsider audience. Her conscious use of this style shifting indexes specific identities, some for extracommunity consumption and some for demarcation of Gullah Geechee community membership. This ability to shift between lectal levels indicates a high degree of metadiscursive awareness, which is often not shared by the overt prestige status quo. This co-occurrence of style-shifting alongside both a creole continuum and cline of postvocalic r-lessness shows that singular features can co-index larger patterns of sociophonetic and discursive identity formation

Personality predictors of levels of forgiveness two and a half years after the transgression

The aim of the present study was to explore whether the domains and facets of the five-factor model of personality predicted motivational states for avoidance and revenge following a transgression at a second temporal point distant from the original transgression. A sample of 438 university students, who reported experiencing a serious transgression against them, completed measures of avoidance and revenge motivations around the transgression and five-factor personality domains and facets at time 1, and measures of avoidance and revenge motivations two and a half years later. The findings suggest that neuroticism, and specifically anger hostility, predicts revenge and avoidance motivation

What Mr. Simmons said: Stylization, pitch, and the voicing of others on the Gullah Geechee cultural heritage tour

This article discusses the use of stylized voicing, specifically falsetto phonation, in Gullah Geechee during a cultural heritage tour in Charleston, South Carolina. Gullah Geechee, a minority creole language spoken by descendants of formerly enslaved persons in the American Southeastern coastal Lowcountry, is analyzed in the study using participant observation and sociophonetic data collection. The research finds that the stylized pitch-shifting is a productive component of the guide’s ethnolinguistic repertoire, used for multiple indexical functions, including constructing authenticity and performing stylized double-voicing. The data shows the complex social meaning of this feature related to speech genres, performance, perceptions of authenticity and authority, and the ethnolinguistic repertoire of a minority language commodified for outsider consumption. The study also links Gullah Geechee prosodic indexicality with its related variety, African American English

Evidence for assortative mating and selection in surnames: a case from Yucatan, Mexico

Journal ArticleSurnames are often used as metaphors for genetic material on the assumption of neutrality and general immunity from systematic pressures. The Yucatec Maya use surnames of both Maya and Spanish origin. We find evidence of positive assortative mating by ethnic origin of surname and a slight bias away from marriage of women to men with Maya surnames for parents of cohorts born from 1878 to 1970 (x2 = 11.0 to 46.6; p < .001). Selective neutrality of surnames apparently cannot be assumed in all cases

Strategies to Promote Market-Oriented Smallholder Agriculture in Developing Countries: A Case of Kenya

Smallholder Agriculture is key to livelihoods of many rural households in developing and transition economies. In Kenya, small farms account for over 75% of total agricultural production and nearly 50% of the marketed output. Despite favourable trends in global development drivers such as rising population, per capita incomes and emerging urban dietary preferences, most smallholder farmers remain poor. This study sought to characterize agricultural commercialization trends, identify and prioritize constraints to participation in markets, analyse determinants of percentage of output sold, and explore strategies to promote market-oriented production. A participatory Rapid Rural Appraisal approach, household survey and a Truncated Regression model were used. A sample of 224 farmers: 76 of them growing maize, 77 involved in horticulture (kales and tomatoes) and 71 practising dairy, were interviewed in one peri-urban and one rural district (Kiambu and Kisii, respectively). Results show that in rural areas, lower levels of output are sold and fewer farmers participate in markets compared to the peri-urban areas. Opportunities for profitable commercial agriculture are observed in growing demand, emerging food preferences and intensive farming. At village-level, market participation is hampered by poor quality and high cost of inputs, high transportation costs, high market charges and unreliable market information. At the household-level, the determinants of percentage of output sold are producer prices, market information arrangement, output, distance to the market, share of non-farm income and gender. Strategies are suggested to improve rural input supply, institutional and regulatory framework, enhance value addition and strengthen market information provision.Smallholder Agriculture, Market Participation, Commercialization, Kenya, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Demand and Price Analysis, Farm Management, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, International Relations/Trade, Land Economics/Use, Marketing, Productivity Analysis, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,