429 research outputs found
Dynamics of cosmic strings and springs; a covariant formulation
A general family of charge-current carrying cosmic string models is
investigated. In the special case of circular configurations in arbitrary
axially symmetric gravitational and electromagnetic backgrounds the dynamics is
determined by simple point particle Hamiltonians. A certain "duality"
transformation relates our results to previous ones, obtained by Carter et.
al., for an infinitely long open stationary string in an arbitrary stationary
background.Comment: 11 pages, Latex, Nordita preprint 93/28
Wrong Turn in Cyberspace: Using ICANN to Route Around the APA and the Constitution
The Internet relies on an underlying centralized hierarchy built into the domain name system (DNS) to control the routing for the vast majority of Internet traffic. At its heart is a single data file, known as the root. Control of the root provides singular power in cyberspace. This Article first describes how the United States government found itself in control of the root. It then describes how, in an attempt to meet concerns that the United States could so dominate an Internet chokepoint, the U. S. Department of Commerce (DoC) summoned into being the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a formally private nonprofit California corporation. DoC then signed contracts with ICANN in order to clothe it with most of the U. S. government\u27s power over the DNS, and convinced other parties to recognize ICANN\u27s authority. ICANN then took regulatory actions that the U. S. Department of Commerce was unable or unwilling to make itself, including the imposition on all registrants of Internet addresses of an idiosyncratic set of arbitration rules and procedures that benefit third-party trademark holders. Professor Froomkin then argues that the use of ICANN to regulate in the stead of an executive agency violates fundamental values and policies designed to ensure democratic control over the use of government power, and sets a precedent that risks being expanded into other regulatory activities. He argues that DoC\u27s use of ICANN to make rules either violates the APA\u27s requirement for notice and comment in rulemaking and judicial review, or it violates the Constitution\u27s nondelegation doctrine. Professor Froomkin reviews possible alternatives to ICANN, and ultimately proposes a decentralized structure in which the namespace of the DNS is spread out over a transnational group of policy partners with DoC
Ab Initio Estimates of the Size of the Observable Universe
When one combines multiverse predictions by Bousso, Hall, and Nomura for the
observed age and size of the universe in terms of the proton and electron
charge and masses with anthropic predictions of Carter, Carr, and Rees for
these masses in terms of the charge, one gets that the age of the universe
should be roughly the inverse 64th power, and the cosmological constant should
be around the 128th power, of the proton charge. Combining these with a further
renormalization group argument gives a single approximate equation for the
proton charge, with no continuous adjustable or observed parameters, and with a
solution that is within 8% of the observed value. Using this solution gives
large logarithms for the age and size of the universe and for the cosmological
constant that agree with the observed values within 17%.Comment: 10 pages, LaTe
A Bisognano-Wichmann-like Theorem in a Certain Case of a Non Bifurcate Event Horizon related to an Extreme Reissner-Nordstr\"om Black Hole
Thermal Wightman functions of a massless scalar field are studied within the
framework of a ``near horizon'' static background model of an extremal R-N
black hole. This model is built up by using global Carter-like coordinates over
an infinite set of Bertotti-Robinson submanifolds glued together. The
analytical extendibility beyond the horizon is imposed as constraints on
(thermal) Wightman's functions defined on a Bertotti-Robinson sub manifold. It
turns out that only the Bertotti-Robinson vacuum state, i.e. , satisfies
the above requirement. Furthermore the extension of this state onto the whole
manifold is proved to coincide exactly with the vacuum state in the global
Carter-like coordinates. Hence a theorem similar to Bisognano-Wichmann theorem
for the Minkowski space-time in terms of Wightman functions holds with
vanishing ``Unruh-Rindler temperature''. Furtermore, the Carter-like vacuum
restricted to a Bertotti-Robinson region, resulting a pure state there, has
vanishing entropy despite of the presence of event horizons. Some comments on
the real extreme R-N black hole are given
On higher dimensional Einstein spacetimes with a warped extra dimension
We study a class of higher dimensional warped Einstein spacetimes with one
extra dimension. These were originally identified by Brinkmann as those
Einstein spacetimes that can be mapped conformally on other Einstein
spacetimes, and have subsequently appeared in various contexts to describe,
e.g., different braneworld models or warped black strings. After clarifying the
relation between the general Brinkmann metric and other more specific
coordinate systems, we analyze the algebraic type of the Weyl tensor of the
solutions. In particular, we describe the relation between Weyl aligned null
directions (WANDs) of the lower dimensional Einstein slices and of the full
spacetime, which in some cases can be algebraically more special. Possible
spacetime singularities introduced by the warp factor are determined via a
study of scalar curvature invariants and of Weyl components measured by
geodetic observers. Finally, we illustrate how Brinkmann's metric can be
employed to generate new solutions by presenting the metric of spinning and
accelerating black strings in five dimensional anti-de Sitter space.Comment: 14 pages, minor changes in the text, mainly in Section 2.
Sex, Trust, and Corporate Boards
This essay collects and interprets social science research on sex and trust and uses this work to shed new light on the emerging case for gender diversity on corporate boards. Specifically, the essay describes research findings that indicate (1) that men and women trust and are trustworthy on different bases and (2) the existence of a bias against women in corporate leadership positions. Based on this research and current legal scholarship on corporate governance, the essay asserts that gender diversity on corporate boards may be desirable but difficult to attain. The essay also calls for more targeted research on the links among sex, trusting behavior, trustworthiness, and corporate board membership
Internet-based search of randomised trials relevant to mental health originating in the Arab world
BACKGROUND:
The internet is becoming a widely used source of accessing medical research through various on-line databases. This instant access to information is of benefit to busy clinicians and service users around the world. The population of the Arab World is comparable to that of the United States, yet it is widely believed to have a greatly contrasting output of randomised controlled trials related to mental health. This study was designed to investigate the existence of such research in the Arab World and also to investigate the availability of this research on-line.
METHODS:
Survey of findings from three internet-based potential sources of randomised trials originating from the Arab world and relevant to mental health care.
RESULTS:
A manual search of an Arabic online current contents service identified 3 studies, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PsycINFO searches identified only 1 study, and a manual search of a specifically indexed, study-based mental health database, PsiTri, revealed 27 trials.
CONCLUSION:
There genuinely seem to be few trials from the Arab world and accessing these on-line was problematic. Replication of some studies that guide psychiatric/psychological practice in the Arab world would seem prudent
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