954 research outputs found
Strategic manoeuvres and impression management: communication approaches in the case of a crisis event
This historical study examines the actions of the Australian former asbestos company, James Hardie, when faced with a potentially ruinous corporate scandal between 2001 and 2007. The company became vilified as public awareness grew of the damage to public health its use of asbestos had caused. In response, it set- up a knowingly underfunded compensation fund supported by a strategy of misinformation and denial. Its actions are analysed using Oliver’s typology of strategic responses and theories of crisis management and crisis communications, providing insights into the company’s motivations for adopting strategies that took it to the brink of financial collaps
The Multifragmentation Freeze--Out Volume in Heavy Ion Collisions
The reduced velocity correlation function for fragments from the reaction Fe
+ Au at 100 A~MeV bombarding energy is investigated using the
dynamical--statistical approach QMD+SMM and compared to experimental data to
extract the Freeze--Out volume assuming simultaneous multifragmentation.Comment: 8 pages; 3 uuencoded figures available with figures command, LateX,
UCRL-J-1157
Generation of Intrinsic Vibrational Gap Modes in Three-Dimensional Ionic Crystals
The existence of anharmonic localization of lattice vibrations in a perfect
3-D diatomic ionic crystal is established for the rigid-ion model by molecular
dynamics simulations. For a realistic set of NaI potential parameters, an
intrinsic localized gap mode vibrating in the [111] direction is observed for
fcc and zinc blende lattices. An axial elastic distortion is an integral
feature of this mode which forms more readily for the zinc blende than for the
fcc structure. Molecular dynamics simulations verify that in each structure
this localized mode may be stable for at least 200 cycles.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, RevTeX, using epsf.sty. To be published in Phys.
Rev. B. Also available at http://www.msc.cornell.edu/~kiselev
The generation of influenza-specific humoral responses is impaired in ST6Gal I-deficient mice.
Posttranslational modification of proteins, such as glycosylation, can impact cell signaling and function. ST6Gal I, a glycosyltransferase expressed by B cells, catalyzes the addition of alpha-2,6 sialic acid to galactose, a modification found on N-linked glycoproteins such as CD22, a negative regulator of B cell activation. We show that SNA lectin, which binds alpha-2,6 sialic acid linked to galactose, shows high binding on plasma blasts and germinal center B cells following viral infection, suggesting ST6Gal I expression remains high on activated B cells in vivo. To understand the relevance of this modification on the antiviral B cell immune response, we infected ST6Gal I(-/-) mice with influenza A/HKx31. We demonstrate that the loss of ST6Gal I expression results in similar influenza infectivity in the lung, but significantly reduced early influenza-specific IgM and IgG levels in the serum, as well as significantly reduced numbers of early viral-specific Ab-secreting cells. At later memory time points, ST6Gal I(-/-) mice show comparable numbers of IgG influenza-specific memory B cells and long-lived plasma cells, with similarly high antiviral IgG titers, with the exception of IgG2c. Finally, we adoptively transfer purified B cells from wild-type or ST6Gal I(-/-) mice into B cell-deficient (microMT(-/-)) mice. Recipient mice that received ST6Gal I(-/-) B cells demonstrated reduced influenza-specific IgM levels, but similar levels of influenza-specific IgG, compared with mice that received wild-type B cells. These data suggest that a B cell intrinsic defect partially contributes to the impaired antiviral humoral response
Correspondences and Quantum Description of Aharonov-Bohm and Aharonov-Casher Effects
We establish systematic consolidation of the Aharonov-Bohm and
Aharonov-Casher effects including their scalar counterparts. Their formal
correspondences in acquiring topological phases are revealed on the basis of
the gauge symmetry in non-simply connected spaces and the adiabatic condition
for the state of magnetic dipoles. In addition, investigation of basic two-body
interactions between an electric charge and a magnetic dipole clarifies their
appropriate relative motions and discloses physical interrelations between the
effects. Based on the two-body interaction, we also construct an exact
microscopic description of the Aharonov-Bohm effect, where all the elements are
treated on equal footing, i.e., magnetic dipoles are described
quantum-mechanically and electromagnetic fields are quantized. This microscopic
analysis not only confirms the conventional (semiclassical) results and the
topological nature but also allows one to explore the fluctuation effects due
to the precession of the magnetic dipoles with the adiabatic condition relaxed
Measurement of the electron electric dipole moment using YbF molecules
The most sensitive measurements of the electron electric dipole moment d_e
have previously been made using heavy atoms. Heavy polar molecules offer a
greater sensitivity to d_e because the interaction energy to be measured is
typically 10^3 times larger than in a heavy atom. We report the first
measurement of this kind, for which we have used the molecule YbF. Together,
the large interaction energy and the strong tensor polarizability of the
molecule make our experiment essentially free of the systematic errors that
currently limit d_e measurements in atoms. Our first result d_e = (- 0.2 \pm
3.2) x 10^-26 e.cm is less sensitive than the best atom measurement, but is
limited only by counting statistics and demonstrates the power of the method.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. v2. Minor corrections and clarifications made in
response to referee comment
The importance of initial-final state correlations for the formation of fragments in heavy ion collisions
Using quantum molecular dynamics simulations, we investigate the formation of
fragments in symmetric reactions between beam energies of E=30AMeV and 600AMeV.
After a comparison with existing data we investigate some observables relevant
to tackle equilibration: dsigma/dErat, the double differential cross section
dsigma/pt.dpz.dpt,... Apart maybe from very energetic E>400AMeV and very
central reactions, none of our simulations gives evidence that the system
passes through a state of equilibrium. Later, we address the production
mechanisms and find that, whatever the energy, nucleons finally entrained in a
fragment exhibit strong initial-final state correlations, in coordinate as well
as in momentum space. At high energy those correlations resemble the ones
obtained in the participant-spectator model. At low energy the correlations are
equally strong, but more complicated; they are a consequence of the Pauli
blocking of the nucleon-nucleon collisions, the geometry, and the excitation
energy. Studying a second set of time-dependent variables (radii,
densities,...), we investigate in details how those correlations survive the
reaction especially in central reactions where the nucleons have to pass
through the whole system. It appears that some fragments are made of nucleons
which were initially correlated, whereas others are formed by nucleons
scattered during the reaction into the vicinity of a group of previously
correlated nucleons.Comment: 45 pages text + 20 postscript figures Accepted for publication in
Physical Review
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