6,907 research outputs found
Achieving Democracy: Implementing the 1992 Salvadoran Peace Accords
The literature on negotiations and bargaining has been dominated by academics in business and public administration. Given the interests and orientation of the academic disciplines, it is not surprising that the academic studies predominantly have examined the processes and dynamics at the level of collective bargaining and to a lesser extent organization leadership and management. Dispute resolution has a distinctly intra–organizational character. In 1991 the warring factions in El Salvador came together to negotiate both an end to the fighting, but also to create a framework for the introduction of a democratic government for the country. Over a period of several months the two sides shaped an agreement. Finally in late December of 1991 with a flurry of decisions an agreement was drafted and signed. Twenty years later the country continues to implement the peace accord, but there is no consensus that the task is complete
Further analysis of the quantum critical point of CeLaRuSi
New data on the spin dynamics and the magnetic order of
CeLaRuSi are presented. The importance of the Kondo
effect at the quantum critical point of this system is emphasized from the
behaviour of the relaxation rate at high temperature and from the variation of
the ordered moment with respect to the one of the N\'eel temperature for
various .Comment: Contribution for the Festschrift on the occasion of Hilbert von
Loehneysen 60 th birthday. To be published as a special issue in the Journal
of Low Temperature Physic
The turbulent destruction of clouds - I. A k-epsilon treatment of turbulence in 2D models of adiabatic shock-cloud interactions
The interaction of a shock with a cloud has been extensively studied in the
literature, where the effects of magnetic fields, radiative cooling and thermal
conduction have been considered. However, the formation of fully developed
turbulence has often been prevented by the artificial viscosity inherent in
hydrodynamical simulations, and a uniform post-shock flow has been assumed in
all previous single-cloud studies. In reality, the flow behind the shock is
also likely to be turbulent, with non-uniform density, pressure and velocity
structure created as the shock sweeps over inhomogenities upstream of the
cloud. To address these twin issues we use a sub-grid compressible k-epsilon
turbulence model to estimate the properties of the turbulence generated in
shock-cloud interactions and the resulting increase in the transport
coefficients that the turbulence brings. A detailed comparison with the output
from an inviscid hydrodynamical code puts these new results into context.
We find that cloud destruction in inviscid and k-epsilon models occurs at
roughly the same speed when the post-shock flow is smooth and when the density
contrast between the cloud and inter-cloud medium is less than 100. However,
there are increasing and significant differences as this contrast increases.
Clouds subjected to strong ``buffeting'' by a highly turbulent post-shock
environment are destroyed significantly quicker. Additional calculations with
an inviscid code where the post-shock flow is given random, grid-scale, motions
confirms the more rapid destruction of the cloud.
Our results clearly show that turbulence plays an important role in
shock-cloud interactions, and that environmental turbulence adds a new
dimension to the parameter space which has hitherto been studied (abridged).Comment: 31 pages, 22 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Next Generation Life Support Project Status
Next Generation Life Support (NGLS) is one of over twenty technology development projects sponsored by NASA's Game Changing Development Program. The NGLS Project develops selected life support technologies needed for humans to live and work productively in space, with focus on technologies for future use in spacecraft cabin and space suit applications. Over the last three years, NGLS had five main project elements: Variable Oxygen Regulator (VOR), Rapid Cycle Amine (RCA) swing bed, High Performance (HP) Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Glove, Alternative Water Processor (AWP) and Series-Bosch Carbon Dioxide Reduction. The RCA swing bed, VOR and HP EVA Glove tasks are directed at key technology needs for the Portable Life Support System (PLSS) and pressure garment for an Advanced Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU). Focus is on prototyping and integrated testing in cooperation with the Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) Advanced EVA Project. The HP EVA Glove Element, new this fiscal year, includes the generation of requirements and standards to guide development and evaluation of new glove designs. The AWP and Bosch efforts focus on regenerative technologies to further close spacecraft cabin atmosphere revitalization and water recovery loops and to meet technology maturation milestones defined in NASA's Space Technology Roadmaps. These activities are aimed at increasing affordability, reliability, and vehicle self-sufficiency while decreasing mass and mission cost, supporting a capability-driven architecture for extending human presence beyond low-Earth orbit, along a human path toward Mars. This paper provides a status of current technology development activities with a brief overview of future plans
Origin and evolution of water oxidation before the last common ancestor of the Cyanobacteria
Photosystem II, the water oxidizing enzyme, altered the course of evolution by filling the atmosphere with oxygen. Here, we reconstruct the origin and evolution of water oxidation at an unprecedented level of detail by studying the phylogeny of all D1 subunits, the main protein coordinating the water oxidizing cluster (Mn4CaO5) of Photosystem II. We show that D1 exists in several forms making well-defined clades, some of which could have evolved before the origin of water oxidation and presenting many atypical characteristics. The most ancient form is found in the genome of Gloeobacter kilaueensis JS-1 and this has a C-terminus with a higher sequence identity to D2 than to any other D1. Two other groups of early evolving D1 correspond to those expressed under prolonged far-red illumination and in darkness. These atypical D1 forms are characterized by a dramatically different Mn4CaO5 binding site and a Photosystem II containing such a site may assemble an unconventional metal cluster. The first D1 forms with a full set of ligands to the Mn4CaO5 cluster are grouped with D1 proteins expressed only under low oxygen concentrations and the latest evolving form is the dominant type of D1 found in all cyanobacteria and plastids. In addition, we show that the plastid ancestor had a D1 more similar to those in early branching Synechococcus. We suggest each one of these forms of D1 originated from transitional forms at different stages towards the innovation and optimization of water oxidation before the last common ancestor of all known cyanobacteria
Broadly directed virus-specific CD4+ T cell responses are primed during acute hepatitis C infection, but rapidly disappear from human blood with viral persistence
Vigorous proliferative CD4+ T cell responses are the hallmark of spontaneous clearance of acute hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, whereas comparable responses are absent in chronically evolving infection. Here, we comprehensively characterized the breadth, specificity, and quality of the HCV-specific CD4+ T cell response in 31 patients with acute HCV infection and varying clinical outcomes. We analyzed in vitro T cell expansion in the presence of interleukin-2, and ex vivo staining with HCV peptide-loaded MHC class II tetramers. Surprisingly, broadly directed HCV-specific CD4+ T cell responses were universally detectable at early stages of infection, regardless of the clinical outcome. However, persistent viremia was associated with early proliferative defects of the HCV-specific CD4+ T cells, followed by rapid deletion of the HCV-specific response. Only early initiation of antiviral therapy was able to preserve CD4+ T cell responses in acute, chronically evolving infection. Our results challenge the paradigm that HCV persistence is the result of a failure to prime HCV-specific CD4+ T cells. Instead, broadly directed HCV-specific CD4+ T cell responses are usually generated, but rapid exhaustion and deletion of these cells occurs in the majority of patients. The data further suggest a short window of opportunity to prevent the loss of CD4+ T cell responses through antiviral therapy
1940: Abilene Christian College Bible Lectures - Full Text
Delivered in the Auditorium of Abilene Christian College, February, 1940, Abilene, Texas.
Published April, 1940
PRICE, $1.00
FIRM FOUNDATION PUBLISHING HOUSE
Austin, Texas
Circumstellar discs: What will be next?
This prospective chapter gives our view on the evolution of the study of
circumstellar discs within the next 20 years from both observational and
theoretical sides. We first present the expected improvements in our knowledge
of protoplanetary discs as for their masses, sizes, chemistry, the presence of
planets as well as the evolutionary processes shaping these discs. We then
explore the older debris disc stage and explain what will be learnt concerning
their birth, the intrinsic links between these discs and planets, the hot dust
and the gas detected around main sequence stars as well as discs around white
dwarfs.Comment: invited review; comments welcome (32 pages
Actin binding domains direct actin-binding proteins to different cytoskeletal locations
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Filamin (FLN) and non-muscle α-actinin are members of a family of F-actin cross-linking proteins that utilize Calponin Homology domains (CH-domain) for actin binding. Although these two proteins have been extensively characterized, little is known about what regulates their binding to F-actin filaments in the cell.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We have constructed fusion proteins consisting of green fluorescent protein (GFP) with either the entire cross-linking protein or its actin-binding domain (ABD) and examined the localization of these fluorescent proteins in living cells under a variety of conditions. The full-length fusion proteins, but not the ABD's complemented the defects of cells lacking both endogenous proteins indicating that they are functional. The localization patterns of filamin (GFP-FLN) and α-actinin (GFP-αA) were overlapping but distinct. GFP-FLN localized to the peripheral cell cortex as well as to new pseudopods of unpolarized cells, but was observed to localize to the rear of polarized cells during cAMP and folate chemotaxis. GFP-αA was enriched in new pseudopods and at the front of polarized cells, but in all cases was absent from the peripheral cortex. Although both proteins appear to be involved in macropinocytosis, the association time of the GFP-probes with the internalized macropinosome differed. Surprisingly, the localization of the GFP-actin-binding domain fusion proteins precisely reflected that of their respective full length constructs, indicating that the localization of the protein was determined by the actin-binding domain alone. When expressed in a cell line lacking both filamin and α-actinin, the probes maintain their distinct localization patterns suggesting that they are not functionally redundant.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These observations strongly suggest that the regulation of the binding of these proteins to actin filaments is built into the actin-binding domains. We suggest that different actin binding domains have different affinities for F-actin filaments in functionally distinct regions of the cytoskeleton.</p
The Relation Between the Surface Brightness and the Diameter for Galactic Supernova Remnants
In this work, we have constructed a relation between the surface brightness
() and diameter (D) of Galactic C- and S-type supernova remnants
(SNRs). In order to calibrate the -D dependence, we have carefully
examined some intrinsic (e.g. explosion energy) and extrinsic (e.g. density of
the ambient medium) properties of the remnants and, taking into account also
the distance values given in the literature, we have adopted distances for some
of the SNRs which have relatively more reliable distance values. These
calibrator SNRs are all C- and S-type SNRs, i.e. F-type SNRs (and S-type SNR
Cas A which has an exceptionally high surface brightness) are excluded. The
Sigma-D relation has 2 slopes with a turning point at D=36.5 pc: (at 1
GHz)=8.4 D
WmHzster (for
WmHzster and D36.5 pc) and (at 1
GHz)=2.7 10 D
WmHzster (for
WmHzster and D36.5 pc). We discussed the theoretical
basis for the -D dependence and particularly the reasons for the change
in slope of the relation were stated. Added to this, we have shown the
dependence between the radio luminosity and the diameter which seems to have a
slope close to zero up to about D=36.5 pc. We have also adopted distance and
diameter values for all of the observed Galactic SNRs by examining all the
available distance values presented in the literature together with the
distances found from our -D relation.Comment: 45 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomical and
Astrophysical Transaction
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