Ranking of Australian Economics Departments Based on Their Total and Per Academic Staff Research Output

This study uses cluster analysis to classify twenty-seven Australian economics teaching departments into groups that have similar quantities of research output, measured by two different publication counts, and similar quality of research output, measured by a citation count. Three distinct groups of departments are identified and factor analysis is used to rank the groups. Whether research output is measured in total or on a per staff basis, Melbourne is in the group that ranks first, the remaining members of the "group of eight" are in one or other of the top two groups, and at least fifteen other departments are always in the third-ranked group.Economics Departments, Australia, Ranking

Colour Confinement and Deformed Baryons in Quantum Chromodynamics

The confinement of coloured entities in Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) is traced to colour singletness of the observed entities. This is believed to arise from colour singlet state of quark-antiquark for mesons and a fully colour antisymmetric state for baryons. This demands a spherically symmetric baryon in the ground state. However it is pointed out that a deformed baryon in the ground state has been found to be extremely successful phenomenology. There are convincing experimental supports for a deformed nucleon as well. This means that something has been missed in the fundamental theory. In this paper this problem is traced to a new colour singlet state for baryons which has been missed hitherto and incorporation of which provides a consistent justification of a deformed baryon in the ground state. Interestingly this new colour singlet state is global in nature.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur

Forager bees (Apis mellifera) highly express immune and detoxification genes in tissues associated with nectar processing.

Pollinators, including honey bees, routinely encounter potentially harmful microorganisms and phytochemicals during foraging. However, the mechanisms by which honey bees manage these potential threats are poorly understood. In this study, we examine the expression of antimicrobial, immune and detoxification genes in Apis mellifera and compare between forager and nurse bees using tissue-specific RNA-seq and qPCR. Our analysis revealed extensive tissue-specific expression of antimicrobial, immune signaling, and detoxification genes. Variation in gene expression between worker stages was pronounced in the mandibular and hypopharyngeal gland (HPG), where foragers were enriched in transcripts that encode antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) and immune response. Additionally, forager HPGs and mandibular glands were enriched in transcripts encoding detoxification enzymes, including some associated with xenobiotic metabolism. Using qPCR on an independent dataset, we verified differential expression of three AMP and three P450 genes between foragers and nurses. High expression of AMP genes in nectar-processing tissues suggests that these peptides may contribute to antimicrobial properties of honey or to honey bee defense against environmentally-acquired microorganisms. Together, these results suggest that worker role and tissue-specific expression of AMPs, and immune and detoxification enzymes may contribute to defense against microorganisms and xenobiotic compounds acquired while foraging

A New Model of Quintessence Compact Stars in Rastall Theory of Gravity

In the present work, we study a new model of anisotropic compact stars in the regime of Rastall theory. To solve the Rastall field equations we have used the Karori and Barua (KB) ansatz along with the quintessence dark energy characterized by a parameter $\omega_{q}$ with $-1<\omega_{q}<-\frac{1}{3}$. We present a comparative study to demonstrate the physical acceptance of our proposed model. We compare the numerical values of physical parameters obtained from our model with those of general relativity ($GR$) model given by Bhar \cite{1} and observe that our model is more compatible (for some chosen values of Rastall dimensionless parameter $\gamma=\kappa\lambda$) with observational data than $GR$ model. For this analysis we have consider four different compact stars, $SAX J1808-3658 (SSI)$, $4U 1820-30$, $Vela X-12$ and $PSR J1416-2230$ with radii $7.07km$, $10km$, $9.99km$ and $10.3km$, respectively. In this investigation we also present some physical aspects of the proposed model necessary to check the validity of the model and inferred that our model is acceptable physically and geometrically.Comment: 20 pages, 16 figures, 8 tables, Accepted for Publication in Eur. Physical Journal

A Selection and Estimation Test for Multiple Target Detection

We apply a selection and estimation procedure for the detection of multiple targets in clutter. The selection and estimation (SE) test perfoms better than a fixed order statistic (OS) detector. The SE test has some similarity to a variable trimmed mean (VTM) test and has a slight performance advantage. Unlike the VTM, whose performance is evaluated only by simulation studies, the performance of the SE test, for Rayleigh fluctuating target model, can be evaluated analytically. Further improvement in the performance is possible if a better selection procedure can be found