Constraints on DD Dimensional Warped Spaces

In order to investigate the phenomenological implications of allowing gauge fields to propagate in warped spaces of more than five dimensions, we consider a toy model of a space warped by the presence of a anisotropic bulk cosmological constant. After solving the Einstein equation, three classes of solutions are found, those in which the additional ($D>5$) dimensions are growing, shrinking or remaining constant. It is found that gauge fields propagating in these spaces have a significantly different Kaluza Klein (KK) mass spectrum and couplings from that of the Randall and Sundrum model. This leads to a greatly reduced lower bound on the KK scale, arising from electroweak constraints, for spaces growing towards the IR brane.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures PASCOS2010 International Symposium proceedin

A bioinformatics approach to the development of immunoassays for specified risk material in canned meat products

A bioinformatics approach to developing antibodies to specific proteins has been evaluated for the production of antibodies to heat-processed specified risk tissues from ruminants (brain and eye tissue). The approach involved the identification of proteins specific to ruminant tissues by interrogation of the annotation fields within the Swissprot database. These protein sequences were then interrogated for peptide sequences that were unique to the protein. Peptides were selected that met these criteria as close as possible and that were also theoretically resistant to either pepsin or trypsin. The selected peptides were synthesised and used as immunogens to raise monoclonal antibodies. Antibodies specific for the synthetic peptides were raised to half of the selected peptides. These antibodies have each been incorporated into a competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and shown to be able to detect the heat-processed parent protein after digestion with either pepsin or trypsin. One antibody, specific for alpha crystallin peptide (from bovine eye tissue), was able to detect the peptide in canned meat products spiked with 10% eye tissue. These results, although preliminary in nature, show that bioinformatics in conjunction with enzyme digestion can be used to develop ELISA for proteins in high-temperature processed foods and demonstrate that the approach is worth further stud

Social parasitism by honeybee workers (Apis mellifera capensis Escholtz): host finding and resistance of hybrid host colonies

We studied possible host finding and resistance mechanisms of host colonies in the context of social parasitism by Cape honeybee (Apis mellifera capensis) workers. Workers often join neighboring colonies by drifting, but long-range drifting (dispersal) to colonies far away from the maternal nests also rarely occurs. We tested the impact of queenstate and taxon of mother and host colonies on drifting and dispersing of workers and on the hosting of these workers in A. m. capensis, A. m. scutellata, and their natural hybrids. Workers were paint-marked according to colony and reintroduced into their queenright or queenless mother colonies. After 10 days, 579 out of 12,034 labeled workers were recaptured in foreign colonies. We found that drifting and dispersing represent different behaviors, which were differently affected by taxon and queenstate of both mother and host colonies. Hybrid workers drifted more often than A. m. capensis and A. m. scutellata. However, A. m. capensis workers dispersed more often than A. m. scutellata and the hybrids combined, and A. m. scutellata workers also dispersed more frequently than the hybrids. Dispersers from queenright A. m. capensis colonies were more often found in queenless host colonies and vice versa, indicating active host searching and/or a queenstate-discriminating guarding mechanism. Our data show that A. m. capensis workers disperse significantly more often than other races of A. mellifera, suggesting that dispersing represents a host finding mechanism. The lack of dispersal in hybrids and different hosting mechanisms of foreign workers by hybrid colonies may also be responsible for the stability of the natural hybrid zone between A. m. capensis and A. m. scutellata

Registration of ‘Haymaker’ Intermediate Wheatgrass

‘NU-ARS AC2’ crested wheatgrass [Agropyron cristatum (L.) Gaertn.–A. cristatum var. pectinatum (M. Bieb.) Tzvelev] (Reg. no. CV-28, PI 634507) is a broadly adapted, complex composite population produced by allowing selected plants from fairway-type germplasm accessions to randomly intermate. It originates from collections made by Douglas Dewey, USDA-ARS Plant Geneticist, in the former USSR in 1977. It was released in September 2002 by USDA-ARS; Agricultural Research Division, Institute of Agricultural and Natural Resources, University of Nebraska-Lincoln; and the USDA-NRCS. NU-ARS AC2 was tested under the experimental designation NE AC2

Registration of ‘NU-ARS AC2’ Crested Wheatgrass

‘NU-ARS AC2’ crested wheatgrass [Agropyron cristatum (L.) Gaertn.–A. cristatum var. pectinatum (M. Bieb.) Tzvelev] (Reg. no. CV-28, PI 634507) is a broadly adapted, complex composite population produced by allowing selected plants from fairway-type germplasm accessions to randomly intermate. It originates from collections made by Douglas Dewey, USDA-ARS Plant Geneticist, in the former USSR in 1977. It was released in September 2002 by USDA-ARS; Agricultural Research Division, Institute of Agricultural and Natural Resources, University of Nebraska-Lincoln; and the USDA-NRCS. NU-ARS AC2 was tested under the experimental designation NE AC2

Sensitivity of wide band detectors to quintessential gravitons

There are no reasons why the energy spectra of the relic gravitons, amplified by the pumping action of the background geometry, should not increase at high frequencies. A typical example of this behavior are quintessential inflationary models where the slopes of the energy spectra can be either blue or mildly violet. In comparing the predictions of scenarios leading to blue and violet graviton spectra we face the problem of correctly deriving the sensitivities of the interferometric detectors. Indeed, the expression of the signal-to-noise ratio not only depends upon the noise power spectra of the detectors but also upon the spectral form of the signal and, therefore, one can reasonably expect that models with different spectral behaviors will produce different signal-to-noise ratios. By assuming monotonic (blue) spectra of relic gravitons we will give general expressions for the signal-to-noise ratio in this class of models. As an example we studied the case of quintessential gravitons. The minimum achievable sensitivity to $h^2_{0} \Omega_{GW}$ of different pairs of detectors is computed, and compared with the theoretical expectations.Comment: 10 pages in Revtex style, 3 figure

Microstructure of (Hf-Ta-Zr-Nb)C high-entropy carbide at micro and nano/atomic level

Support from the projects APVV-15-0469, APVV-15-0621, VEGA 2/0163/16, and VEGA 2/0082/17 is acknowledged. MJR and EGC acknowledge the support of EPSRC grant XMAT (EP/K008749/2)

Coral development: from classical embryology to molecular control

The phylum Cnidaria is the closest outgroup to the triploblastic metazoans and as such offers unique insights into evolutionary questions at several levels. In the post-genomic era, a knowledge of the gene complement of representative cnidarians will be important for understanding the relationship between the expansion of gene families and the evolution of morphological complexity among more highly evolved metazoans. Studies of cnidarian development and its molecular control will provide information about the origins of the major bilaterian body axes, the origin of the third tissue layer, the mesoderm, and the evolution of nervous system patterning. We are studying the cnidarian Acropora millepora, a reef building scleractinian coral, and a member of the basal cnidarian class, the Anthozoa. We review ourwork on descriptive embryology and studies of selected transcription factor gene families, where our knowledge from Acropora is particularly advanced relative to other cnidarians. We also describe a recent preliminary whole genome initiative, a coral EST database.Eldon E. Ball, David C. Hayward, John S. Reece-Hoyes, Nikki R. Hislop, Gabrielle Samuel, Robert Saint, Peter L. Harrison and David J. Mille

Bridging Physics and Biology Teaching through Modeling

As the frontiers of biology become increasingly interdisciplinary, the physics education community has engaged in ongoing efforts to make physics classes more relevant to life sciences majors. These efforts are complicated by the many apparent differences between these fields, including the types of systems that each studies, the behavior of those systems, the kinds of measurements that each makes, and the role of mathematics in each field. Nonetheless, physics and biology are both sciences that rely on observations and measurements to construct models of the natural world. In the present theoretical article, we propose that efforts to bridge the teaching of these two disciplines must emphasize shared scientific practices, particularly scientific modeling. We define modeling using language common to both disciplines and highlight how an understanding of the modeling process can help reconcile apparent differences between the teaching of physics and biology. We elaborate how models can be used for explanatory, predictive, and functional purposes and present common models from each discipline demonstrating key modeling principles. By framing interdisciplinary teaching in the context of modeling, we aim to bridge physics and biology teaching and to equip students with modeling competencies applicable across any scientific discipline.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, 3 table