796 research outputs found

    Prosperity for whom? Systemic Injustice and the UK Economy

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    The UK cost of living crisis has thrown the government’s Levelling Up agenda into sharper relief. With inflation at its highest rate in three decades – and with the effects of the pandemic still keenly felt in many communities – disparities are only set to widen over the coming months and years. This Working Paper draws on policy literature, historical research, and contemporary data to explore how persistent patterns of inequality have developed in the United Kingdom – and to demonstrate why holistic models of change are needed. Though policy makers rarely reach back into the past, preferring to look to a brighter, greener future, history helps us to consider how patterns of systemic injustice persist and shapeshift over time. Only by acknowledging historic trends and seeking radical alternatives to existing economic models can we attempt to design an inclusive vision of prosperity

    Spectral networks

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    We introduce new geometric objects called spectral networks. Spectral networks are networks of trajectories on Riemann surfaces obeying certain local rules. Spectral networks arise naturally in four-dimensional N=2 theories coupled to surface defects, particularly the theories of class S. In these theories spectral networks provide a useful tool for the computation of BPS degeneracies: the network directly determines the degeneracies of solitons living on the surface defect, which in turn determine the degeneracies for particles living in the 4d bulk. Spectral networks also lead to a new map between flat GL(K,C) connections on a two-dimensional surface C and flat abelian connections on an appropriate branched cover Sigma of C. This construction produces natural coordinate systems on moduli spaces of flat GL(K,C) connections on C, which we conjecture are cluster coordinate systems.Comment: 87 pages, 48 figures; v2: typos, correction to general rule for signs of BPS count

    Experimental Evidence for a Spin-Polarized Ground State in the \nu=5/2 Fractional Quantum Hall Effect

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    We study the \nu=5/2 even-denominator fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE) over a wide range of magnetic (B) field in a heterojunction insulated gate field-effect transistor (HIGFET). The electron density can be tuned from n=0 to 7.6 \times 10^{11} cm^{-2} with a peak mobility \mu = 5.5 \times 10^6 cm^2/Vs. The \nu=5/2 state shows a strong minimum in diagonal resistance and a developing Hall plateau at magnetic fields as high as 12.6T. The strength of the energy gap varies smoothly with B-field. We interpret these observations as strong evidence for a spin-polarized ground state at \nu=5/2.Comment: new references adde

    The spread of epidemic disease on networks

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    The study of social networks, and in particular the spread of disease on networks, has attracted considerable recent attention in the physics community. In this paper, we show that a large class of standard epidemiological models, the so-called susceptible/infective/removed (SIR) models can be solved exactly on a wide variety of networks. In addition to the standard but unrealistic case of fixed infectiveness time and fixed and uncorrelated probability of transmission between all pairs of individuals, we solve cases in which times and probabilities are non-uniform and correlated. We also consider one simple case of an epidemic in a structured population, that of a sexually transmitted disease in a population divided into men and women. We confirm the correctness of our exact solutions with numerical simulations of SIR epidemics on networks.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure

    Mixed States of Composite Fermions Carrying Two and Four Vortices

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    There now exists preliminary experimental evidence for some fractions, such as ν\nu = 4/11 and 5/13, that do not belong to any of the sequences ν=n/(2pn±1)\nu=n/(2pn\pm 1), pp and nn being integers. We propose that these states are mixed states of composite fermions of different flavors, for example, composite fermions carrying two and four vortices. We also obtain an estimate of the lowest-excitation dispersion curve as well as the transport gap; the gaps for 4/11 are smaller than those for 1/3 by approximately a factor of 50.Comment: Accepted for PRB rapid communication (scheduled to appear in Nov 15, 2000 issue

    Snacking characteristics and patterns and their associations with diet quality and BMI in the Childhood Obesity Prevention and Treatment Research Consortium

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    Objective: To describe snacking characteristics and patterns in children and examine associations with diet quality and BMI. Design: Children's weight and height were measured. Participants/adult proxies completed multiple 24 h dietary recalls. Snack occasions were self-identified. Snack patterns were derived for each sample using exploratory factor analysis. Associations of snacking characteristics and patterns with Healthy Eating Index-2010 (HEI-2010) score and BMI were examined using multivariable linear regression models. Setting: Childhood Obesity Prevention and Treatment Research (COPTR) Consortium, USA: NET-Works, GROW, GOALS and IMPACT studies. Participants: Predominantly low-income, racial/ethnic minorities: NET-Works (n 534, 2-4-year-olds); GROW (n 610, 3-5-year-olds); GOALS (n 241, 7-11-year-olds); IMPACT (n 360, 10-13-year-olds).Results: Two snack patterns were derived for three studies: a meal-like pattern and a beverage pattern. The IMPACT study had a similar meal-like pattern and a dairy/grains pattern. A positive association was observed between meal-like pattern adherence and HEI-2010 score (P for trend < 0-01) and snack occasion frequency and HEI-2010 score (β coefficient (95 % CI): NET-Works, 0-14 (0-04, 0-23); GROW, 0-12 (0-02, 0-21)) among younger children. A preference for snacking while using a screen was inversely associated with HEI-2010 score in all studies except IMPACT (β coefficient (95 % CI): NET-Works, -3-15 (-5-37, -0-92); GROW, -2-44 (-4-27, -0-61); GOALS, -5-80 (-8-74, -2-86)). Associations with BMI were almost all null. Conclusions: Meal-like and beverage patterns described most children's snack intake, although patterns for non-Hispanic Blacks or adolescents may differ. Diets of 2-5-year-olds may benefit from frequent meal-like pattern snack consumption and diets of all children may benefit from decreasing screen use during eating occasions

    iNOS activity is critical for the clearance of Burkholderia mallei from infected RAW 264.7 murine macrophages

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    Burkholderia mallei is a facultative intracellular pathogen that can cause fatal disease in animals and humans. To better understand the role of phagocytic cells in the control of infections caused by this organism, studies were initiated to examine the interactions of B. mallei with RAW 264.7 murine macrophages. Utilizing modified kanamycin-protection assays, B. mallei was shown to survive and replicate in RAW 264.7 cells infected at multiplicities of infection (moi) of ≤ 1. In contrast, the organism was efficiently cleared by the macrophages when infected at an moi of 10. Interestingly, studies demonstrated that the monolayers only produced high levels of TNF-α, IL-6, IL-10, GM-CSF, RANTES and IFN-β when infected at an moi of 10. In addition, nitric oxide assays and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) immunoblot analyses revealed a strong correlation between iNOS activity and clearance of B. mallei from RAW 264.7 cells. Furthermore, treatment of activated macrophages with the iNOS inhibitor, aminoguanidine, inhibited clearance of B. mallei from infected monolayers. Based upon these results, it appears that moi significantly influence the outcome of interactions between B. mallei and murine macrophages and that iNOS activity is critical for the clearance of B. mallei from activated RAW 264.7 cells

    Measurement of the Charged Multiplicities in b, c and Light Quark Events from Z0 Decays

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    Average charged multiplicities have been measured separately in bb, cc and light quark (u,d,su,d,s) events from Z0Z^0 decays measured in the SLD experiment. Impact parameters of charged tracks were used to select enriched samples of bb and light quark events, and reconstructed charmed mesons were used to select cc quark events. We measured the charged multiplicities: nˉuds=20.21±0.10(stat.)±0.22(syst.)\bar{n}_{uds} = 20.21 \pm 0.10 (\rm{stat.})\pm 0.22(\rm{syst.}), nˉc=21.28±0.46(stat.)0.36+0.41(syst.)\bar{n}_{c} = 21.28 \pm 0.46(\rm{stat.}) ^{+0.41}_{-0.36}(\rm{syst.}) nˉb=23.14±0.10(stat.)0.37+0.38(syst.)\bar{n}_{b} = 23.14 \pm 0.10(\rm{stat.}) ^{+0.38}_{-0.37}(\rm{syst.}), from which we derived the differences between the total average charged multiplicities of cc or bb quark events and light quark events: Δnˉc=1.07±0.47(stat.)0.30+0.36(syst.)\Delta \bar{n}_c = 1.07 \pm 0.47(\rm{stat.})^{+0.36}_{-0.30}(\rm{syst.}) and Δnˉb=2.93±0.14(stat.)0.29+0.30(syst.)\Delta \bar{n}_b = 2.93 \pm 0.14(\rm{stat.})^{+0.30}_{-0.29}(\rm{syst.}). We compared these measurements with those at lower center-of-mass energies and with perturbative QCD predictions. These combined results are in agreement with the QCD expectations and disfavor the hypothesis of flavor-independent fragmentation.Comment: 19 pages LaTex, 4 EPS figures, to appear in Physics Letters
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