Classical Open String Models in 4-Dim Minkowski Spacetime

Classical bosonic open string models in fourdimensional Minkowski spacetime are discussed. A special attention is paid to the choice of edge conditions, which can follow consistently from the action principle. We consider lagrangians that can depend on second order derivatives of worldsheet coordinates. A revised interpretation of the variational problem for such theories is given. We derive a general form of a boundary term that can be added to the open string action to control edge conditions and modify conservation laws. An extended boundary problem for minimal surfaces is examined. Following the treatment of this model in the geometric approach, we obtain that classical open string states correspond to solutions of a complex Liouville equation. In contrast to the Nambu-Goto case, the Liouville potential is finite and constant at worldsheet boundaries. The phase part of the potential defines topological sectors of solutions.Comment: 25 pages, LaTeX, preprint TPJU-28-93 (the previous version was truncated by ftp...

Holographic current correlators at finite coupling and scattering off a supersymmetric plasma

By studying the effect of the order(\alpha'^3) string theory corrections to type IIB supergravity, including those corrections involving the Ramond-Ramond five-form field strength, we obtain the corrected equations of motion of an Abelian perturbation of the AdS_5-Schwarzschild black hole. We then use the gauge theory/string theory duality to examine the coupling-constant dependence of vector current correlators associated to a gauged U(1) sub-group of the global R-symmetry group of strongly-coupled N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory at finite temperature. The corrections induce a set of higher-derivative operators for the U(1) gauge field, but their effect is highly suppressed. We thus find that the order(\alpha'^3) corrections affect the vector correlators only indirectly, through the corrected metric. We apply our results to investigate scattering off a supersymmetric Yang-Mills plasma at low and high energy. In the latter regime, where Deep Inelastic Scattering is expected to occur, we find an enhancement of the plasma structure functions in comparison with the infinite 't Hooft coupling result.Comment: 38 pages, 6 figures, minor clarifications added, typos corrected, references adde

A global reference database of crowdsourced cropland data collected using the Geo-Wiki platform

A global reference data set on cropland was collected through a crowdsourcing campaign using the Geo-Wiki crowdsourcing tool. The campaign lasted three weeks, with over 80 participants from around the world reviewing almost 36,000 sample units, focussing on cropland identification. For quality assessment purposes, two additional data sets are provided. The first is a control set of 1,793 sample locations validated by students trained in satellite image interpretation. This data set was used to assess the quality of the crowd as the campaign progressed. The second data set contains 60 expert validations for additional evaluation of the quality of the contributions. All data sets are split into two parts: the first part shows all areas classified as cropland and the second part shows cropland average per location and user. After further processing, the data presented here might be suitable to validate and compare medium and high resolution cropland maps generated using remote sensing. These could also be used to train classification algorithms for developing new maps of land cover and cropland extent

A global reference database of crowdsourced cropland data collected using the Geo-Wiki platform

A global reference data set on cropland was collected through a crowdsourcing campaign using the Geo-Wiki crowdsourcing tool. The campaign lasted three weeks, with over 80 participants from around the world reviewing almost 36,000 sample units, focussing on cropland identification. For quality assessment purposes, two additional data sets are provided. The first is a control set of 1,793 sample locations validated by students trained in satellite image interpretation. This data set was used to assess the quality of the crowd as the campaign progressed. The second data set contains 60 expert validations for additional evaluation of the quality of the contributions. All data sets are split into two parts: the first part shows all areas classified as cropland and the second part shows cropland average per location and user. After further processing, the data presented here might be suitable to validate and compare medium and high resolution cropland maps generated using remote sensing. These could also be used to train classification algorithms for developing new maps of land cover and cropland extent

Drivers of tropical forest loss between 2008 and 2019

During December 2020, a crowdsourcing campaign to understand what has been driving tropical forest loss during the past decade was undertaken. For 2 weeks, 58 participants from several countries reviewed almost 115 K unique locations in the tropics, identifying drivers of forest loss (derived from the Global Forest Watch map) between 2008 and 2019. Previous studies have produced global maps of drivers of forest loss, but the current campaign increased the resolution and the sample size across the tropics to provide a more accurate mapping of crucial factors leading to forest loss. The data were collected using the Geo-Wiki platform (www.geo-wiki.org) where the participants were asked to select the predominant and secondary forest loss drivers amongst a list of potential factors indicating evidence of visible human impact such as roads, trails, or buildings. The data described here are openly available and can be employed to produce updated maps of tropical drivers of forest loss, which in turn can be used to support policy makers in their decision-making and inform the public

A crowdsourced global data set for validating built-up surface layers

Several global high-resolution built-up surface products have emerged over the last five years, taking full advantage of open sources of satellite data such as Landsat and Sentinel. However, these data sets require validation that is independent of the producers of these products. To fill this gap, we designed a validation sample set of 50 K locations using a stratified sampling approach independent of any existing global built-up surface products. We launched a crowdsourcing campaign using Geo-Wiki (https://www.geo-wiki.org/) to visually interpret this sample set for built-up surfaces using very high-resolution satellite images as a source of reference data for labelling the samples, with a minimum of five validations per sample location. Data were collected for 10 m sub-pixels in an 80 × 80 m grid to allow for geo-registration errors as well as the application of different validation modes including exact pixel matching to majority or percentage agreement. The data set presented in this paper is suitable for the validation and inter-comparison of multiple products of built-up areas

MOA-2019-BLG-008Lb : a new microlensing detection of an object at the planet/brown dwarf boundary

Funding: R.A.S. and E.B. gratefully acknowledge support from NASA grant 80NSSC19K0291. Y.T. and J.W. acknowledge the support of DFG priority program SPP 1992 “Exploring the Diversity of Extrasolar Planets” (WA 1047/11-1). K.H. acknowledges support from STFC grant ST/R000824/1. J.C.Y. acknowledges support from NSF grant No. AST-2108414. Work by C.H. was supported by the grants of the National Research Foundation of Korea (2019R1A2C2085965 and 2020R1A4A2002885). D.M.B. acknowledges the support of the NYU Abu Dhabi Research Enhancement Fund under grant RE124. This work was partly supported by the National Science Foundation of China (grant Nos. 11333003, 11390372, and 11761131004 to S.M.). The MOA project is supported by JSPS KAKENHI grant Nos. JSPS24253004, JSPS26247023, JSPS23340064, JSPS15H00781, JP16H06287, and JP17H02871.We report on the observations, analysis and interpretation of the microlensing event MOA-2019-BLG-008. The observed anomaly in the photometric light curve is best described through a binary lens model. In this model, the source did not cross caustics and no finite-source effects were observed. Therefore, the angular Einstein ring radius θE cannot be measured from the light curve alone. However, the large event duration, tE ∼ 80 days, allows a precise measurement of the microlensing parallax πE. In addition to the constraints on the angular radius θ* and the apparent brightness Is of the source, we employ the Besançon and GalMod galactic models to estimate the physical properties of the lens. We find excellent agreement between the predictions of the two galactic models: the companion is likely a resident of the brown dwarf desert with a mass Mp ∼ 30 MJup, and the host is a main-sequence dwarf star. The lens lies along the line of sight to the Galactic bulge, at a distance of ≤4 kpc. We estimate that in about 10 yr the lens and source will be separated by ∼55 mas, and it will be possible to confirm the exact nature of the lensing system by using high-resolution imaging from ground- or space-based observatories.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Creative destruction in science

Drawing on the concept of a gale of creative destruction in a capitalistic economy, we argue that initiatives to assess the robustness of findings in the organizational literature should aim to simultaneously test competing ideas operating in the same theoretical space. In other words, replication efforts should seek not just to support or question the original findings, but also to replace them with revised, stronger theories with greater explanatory power. Achieving this will typically require adding new measures, conditions, and subject populations to research designs, in order to carry out conceptual tests of multiple theories in addition to directly replicating the original findings. To illustrate the value of the creative destruction approach for theory pruning in organizational scholarship, we describe recent replication initiatives re-examining culture and work morality, working parents\u2019 reasoning about day care options, and gender discrimination in hiring decisions. Significance statement It is becoming increasingly clear that many, if not most, published research findings across scientific fields are not readily replicable when the same method is repeated. Although extremely valuable, failed replications risk leaving a theoretical void\u2014 reducing confidence the original theoretical prediction is true, but not replacing it with positive evidence in favor of an alternative theory. We introduce the creative destruction approach to replication, which combines theory pruning methods from the field of management with emerging best practices from the open science movement, with the aim of making replications as generative as possible. In effect, we advocate for a Replication 2.0 movement in which the goal shifts from checking on the reliability of past findings to actively engaging in competitive theory testing and theory building. Scientific transparency statement The materials, code, and data for this article are posted publicly on the Open Science Framework, with links provided in the article

Psychometric Properties and Correlates of Precarious Manhood Beliefs in 62 Nations

Precarious manhood beliefs portray manhood, relative to womanhood, as a social status that is hard to earn, easy to lose, and proven via public action. Here, we present cross-cultural data on a brief measure of precarious manhood beliefs (the Precarious Manhood Beliefs scale [PMB]) that covaries meaningfully with other cross-culturally validated gender ideologies and with country-level indices of gender equality and human development. Using data from university samples in 62 countries across 13 world regions (N = 33,417), we demonstrate: (1) the psychometric isomorphism of the PMB (i.e., its comparability in meaning and statistical properties across the individual and country levels); (2) the PMB’s distinctness from, and associations with, ambivalent sexism and ambivalence toward men; and (3) associations of the PMB with nation-level gender equality and human development. Findings are discussed in terms of their statistical and theoretical implications for understanding widely-held beliefs about the precariousness of the male gender role