The dynamics of domain walls and strings

The leading order finite-width corrections to the equation of motion describing the motion of a domain wall are derived. The regime in which this equation of motion is invalid is discussed. Spherically and cylindrically symmetric solutions to this equation of motion are found. A misconception that has arisen in recent years regarding the rigidity (or otherwise) of cosmic strings is also clarified

A Decade of Dark Energy: 1998 - 2008

The years 1998 to 2008 were very exciting years for cosmology. It was a pleasure to accept this invitation to describe my contributions to the development of our knowledge and understanding of the universe over the course of the past decade. Here, I begin by describing some of my work on radio galaxies as a modified standard yardstick and go on to describe model-independent studies of the accelerating universe and the properties of the dark energy. During the course of these studies, I came upon interesting ways to study the spin and other properties of supermassive black holes, some of which are briefly mentioned.Comment: Proceedings of the 2008 UCLA Conference "Dark Matter and Dark Energy in the Universe," submitted to AIP Conference Proceedings, 6 page

The early expansion and evolutionary dynamics of POU class genes.

The POU genes represent a diverse class of animal-specific transcription factors that play important roles in neurogenesis, pluripotency, and cell-type specification. Although previous attempts have been made to reconstruct the evolution of the POU class, these studies have been limited by a small number of representative taxa, and a lack of sequences from basally branching organisms. In this study, we performed comparative analyses on available genomes and sequences recovered through "gene fishing" to better resolve the topology of the POU gene tree. We then used ancestral state reconstruction to map the most likely changes in amino acid evolution for the conserved domains. Our work suggests that four of the six POU families evolved before the last common ancestor of living animals-doubling previous estimates-and were followed by extensive clade-specific gene loss. Amino acid changes are distributed unequally across the gene tree, consistent with a neofunctionalization model of protein evolution. We consider our results in the context of early animal evolution, and the role of POU5 genes in maintaining stem cell pluripotency

Understanding the Dynamics of Gene Regulatory Systems : Characterisation and Clinical Relevance of cis-Regulatory Polymorphisms

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Multiyear measurements of ebullitive methane flux from three subarctic lakes

Ebullition (bubbling) from small lakes and ponds at high latitudes is an important yet unconstrained source of atmospheric methane (CH4). Small water bodies are most abundant in permanently frozen peatlands, and it is speculated that their emissions will increase as the permafrost thaws. We made 6806 measurements of CH4 ebullition during four consecutive summers using a total of 40 bubble traps that were systematically distributed across the depth zones of three lakes in a sporadic permafrost landscape in northernmost Sweden. We identified significant spatial and temporal variations in ebullition and observed a large spread in the bubbles\u27 CH4 concentration, ranging from 0.04% to 98.6%. Ebullition followed lake temperatures, and releases were significantly larger during periods with decreasing atmospheric pressure. Although shallow zone ebullition dominated the seasonal bubble CH4 flux, we found a shift in the depth dependency towards higher fluxes from intermediate and deep zones in early fall. The average daily flux of 13.4 mg CH4 m−2 was lower than those measured in most other high‐latitude lakes. Locally, however, our study lakes are a substantial CH4 source; we estimate that 350 kg of CH4 is released via ebullition during summer (June–September), which is approximately 40% of total whole year emissions from the nearby peatland. In order to capture the large variability and to accurately scale lake CH4 ebullition temporally and spatially, frequent measurements over long time periods are critical