The Cauchy problem for the Proca equation in gravitating dielectric media

We analyze the Cauchy problem for the Proca equation in gravitating dielectric media.Comment: 6 page

European pressures on National Trade Unions

Die Europäische Union spielt im Bereich der Arbeitsbeziehungen eine wichtige Rolle. Der Anpassungsdruck, dem nationale Systeme gegenüberstehen und der auf Grund von Kompetenzverschiebungen durch frühere Integrationsschritte entstanden ist, wurde bislang dennoch nicht näher betrachtet. Auch wenn keine empirischen Daten vorgestellt werden, so wird der Anpassungsdruck auf die nationalen Gewerkschaften durch einen Vergleich des Einflusses von vier verschiedenen Kategorien europäischer Normsetzungsinstrumente auf die in der Literatur identifizierten drei Idealtypen der Arbeitsbeziehungen diskutiert. Die Resultate lassen vermuten, dass europäischer Anpassungsdruck Transformation in Richtung zunehmend konvergenter nationaler Systeme der Arbeitsbeziehungen bestärkt.The European Union plays an important role in the area of industrial relations. National systems have encountered significant pressures due to the shift of competences that occurred with the advancement of integration in the past. Such pressures have yet to be formally assessed. Although no empirical data is presented, the potential effects of European pressure on national trade unions are discussed by comparing the influence of four distinct categories of European level instruments on the three ideal-types of industrial relations identified in the literature. The results indicate that EU-level pressures promote transformation towards more convergent national systems of industrial relations

No Proca Photons

We show that the Proca equation in vacuum, as well as its plausible modifications in dielectric media, is incompatible with experimental evidence, no matter how small the Proca mass is.Comment: 6 pages; minor changes to formattin

Valence Quark Polarization In the Nucleon And the Deuteron Data

Within the framework of the so-called "valon" model, we argue that a substantial part of the nucleon spin, about 40%, is carried by the polarized valence quarks. The remaining is the result of cancellations between gluon polarization and the orbital angular momentum, where the gluon polarization is the dominant one. It is shown that the sea quark contribution to the spin of any hadron is simply marginal and consistent with zero. Our findings point to a substantially smaller value for a_8 thaninferred from hyperon- $\beta$ decay, suggesting that fullSU(3) symmetric assumption needs to be reconsidered. New and emerging experimental data tend to support this finding. Finally, we show that within the model described here the experimental data on the polarized structure functions $g_{1}^{p,n,d}$ are reproduced.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures To appear in Phys. Lett.

Assessment of chemical species of lead accumulated in tidemarks of human articular cartilage by X-ray absorption near-edge structure analysis

Lead is a toxic trace element that shows a highly specific accumulation in the transition zone between calcified and non-calcified articular cartilage, the so-called ‘tidemark’. Excellent agreement has been found between XANES spectra of synthetic Pb-doped carbonated hydroxyapatite and spectra obtained in the tidemark region and trabecular bone of normal human samples, confirming that in both tissues Pb is incorporated into the hydroxyapatite crystal structure of bone. During this study the µ-XANES set-up at the SUL-X beamline at ANKA was tested and has proven to be well suited for speciation of lead in human mineralized tissue samples

The genetic study of three population microisolates in South Tyrol (MICROS): study design and epidemiological perspectives

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>There is increasing evidence of the important role that small, isolated populations could play in finding genes involved in the etiology of diseases. For historical and political reasons, South Tyrol, the northern most Italian region, includes several villages of small dimensions which remained isolated over the centuries.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The MICROS study is a population-based survey on three small, isolated villages, characterized by: old settlement; small number of founders; high endogamy rates; slow/null population expansion. During the stage-1 (2002/03) genealogical data, screening questionnaires, clinical measurements, blood and urine samples, and DNA were collected for 1175 adult volunteers. Stage-2, concerning trait diagnoses, linkage analysis and association studies, is ongoing. The selection of the traits is being driven by expert clinicians. Preliminary, descriptive statistics were obtained. Power simulations for finding linkage on a quantitative trait locus (QTL) were undertaken.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Starting from participants, genealogies were reconstructed for 50,037 subjects, going back to the early 1600s. Within the last five generations, subjects were clustered in one pedigree of 7049 subjects plus 178 smaller pedigrees (3 to 85 subjects each). A significant probability of familial clustering was assessed for many traits, especially among the cardiovascular, neurological and respiratory traits. Simulations showed that the MICROS pedigree has a substantial power to detect a LOD score ≥ 3 when the QTL specific heritability is ≥ 20%.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The MICROS study is an extensive, ongoing, two-stage survey aimed at characterizing the genetic epidemiology of Mendelian and complex diseases. Our approach, involving different scientific disciplines, is an advantageous strategy to define and to study population isolates. The isolation of the Alpine populations, together with the extensive data collected so far, make the MICROS study a powerful resource for the study of diseases in many fields of medicine. Recent successes and simulation studies give us confidence that our pedigrees can be valuable both in finding new candidates loci and to confirm existing candidate genes.</p