Singular Modes of the Electromagnetic Field

We show that the mode corresponding to the point of essential spectrum of the electromagnetic scattering operator is a vector-valued distribution representing the square root of the three-dimensional Dirac's delta function. An explicit expression for this singular mode in terms of the Weyl sequence is provided and analyzed. An essential resonance thus leads to a perfect localization (confinement) of the electromagnetic field, which in practice, however, may result in complete absorption.Comment: 14 pages, no figure

Influence of the scattering potential model on low energy electron diffraction from Cu(001)−c(2 × 2)-Pb

A dynamical LEED intensity analysis is reported for Cu(001)−c(2 × 2)-Pb. The adsorbate layer distance from the substrate is determined as 2.29 Å, and the topmost interlayer spacing for the substrate is the same as in bulk Cu, in contrast to a contraction for clean Cu(001). This structural result is, within the accuracy reached, insensitive to changes in the assumed scattering potential models. The r-factors suggest a weak preference for an energy-dependent exchange correlation and a moderate one for adding a localized adsorption part inside the muffin-tin spheres. The sensitivity of spectra and r-factors to changes in the assumed isotropic Debye temperature for Pb suggests that vibrational anisotropy should be taken into account in order to improve the accuracy of the analysis. Calculated spin polarization spectra are very sensitive to the exchange approximation, the localized absorption and the Debye temperature. Together with experimental data, they should be useful in particular for determining the vibrational anisotropy

The acquisition of Sign Language: The impact of phonetic complexity on phonology

Research into the effect of phonetic complexity on phonological acquisition has a long history in spoken languages. This paper considers the effect of phonetics on phonological development in a signed language. We report on an experiment in which nonword-repetition methodology was adapted so as to examine in a systematic way how phonetic complexity in two phonological parameters of signed languages — handshape and movement — affects the perception and articulation of signs. Ninety-one Deaf children aged 3–11 acquiring British Sign Language (BSL) and 46 hearing nonsigners aged 6–11 repeated a set of 40 nonsense signs. For Deaf children, repetition accuracy improved with age, correlated with wider BSL abilities, and was lowest for signs that were phonetically complex. Repetition accuracy was correlated with fine motor skills for the youngest children. Despite their lower repetition accuracy, the hearing group were similarly affected by phonetic complexity, suggesting that common visual and motoric factors are at play when processing linguistic information in the visuo-gestural modality

A Study of Cosmic Ray Composition in the Knee Region using Multiple Muon Events in the Soudan 2 Detector

Deep underground muon events recorded by the Soudan 2 detector, located at a depth of 2100 meters of water equivalent, have been used to infer the nuclear composition of cosmic rays in the "knee" region of the cosmic ray energy spectrum. The observed muon multiplicity distribution favors a composition model with a substantial proton content in the energy region 800,000 - 13,000,000 GeV/nucleus.Comment: 38 pages including 11 figures, Latex, submitted to Physical Review

More Than Forty Prominent Economists Urge Supreme Court to Allow EPA to Consider Costs and Consequences of Clean Air Regulations

More than forty prominent economists filed a Friend of the Court brief with the Supreme Court, asking the justices to overturn a lower court ruling that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) may not take into account the costs of regulations when setting standards under the Clean Air Act. Calling the lower court ruling "economically unsound," the economists argued that the EPA "should be allowed to consider explicitly the full consequences" of regulatory decisions, including costs, benefits, and any other relevant facts. In their Amici Curiae brief, the economists contended that the "plain aim" of the Clean Air Act "is protecting the public health&quo.t; That aim, they said, "is unlikely to be achieved without, at least, an implicit balancing of benefits and costs." The Supreme Court filing was organized by the American Enterprise Institute-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies. The bipartisan group of economists signing the brief included three Nobel laureates, seven former chairmen of the President's Council of Economic Advisers, and two former directors of the White House Office of Management and Budget. The case, American Trucking Association v. Carol M. Browner, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency , was appealed to the Supreme Court after a Federal Court in Washington D.C. ruled that the EPA was not permitted to consider costs in setting regulatory standards for enforcing the Clean Air Act. "We believe it would be imprudent for the EPA to ignore costs totally, particularly given their magnitude in this case," the economists stated in the brief. "The EPA estimates that those [clean air] standards could cost on the order of $50 billion annually." The brief argued, "Not considering costs makes it difficult to set a defensible standard, especially when there is no threshold below which health risks disappear." Ignoring costs, the economists said, "could lead to a decision to set the standard at zero pollution," which would threaten "the very economic prosperity on which public health primarily depends." The economists declared: "The importance of this issue cannot be overstated. Both direct benefits and costs of environmental, health, and safety regulations are substantial, estimated to be several hundred billion dollars annually." If the Supreme Court overturns the lower court ruling and allows the EPA to consider costs in establishing clear air regulations, the brief argued, it would be "a historic moment in the making of regulatory policy."Environment, Other Topics

A comprehensive 1000 Genomes-based genome-wide association meta-analysis of coronary artery disease

Existing knowledge of genetic variants affecting risk of coronary artery disease (CAD) is largely based on genome-wide association studies (GWAS) analysis of common SNPs. Leveraging phased haplotypes from the 1000 Genomes Project, we report a GWAS meta-analysis of 185 thousand CAD cases and controls, interrogating 6.7 million common (MAF>0.05) as well as 2.7 million low frequency (0.005<MAF<0.05) variants. In addition to confirmation of most known CAD loci, we identified 10 novel loci, eight additive and two recessive, that contain candidate genes that newly implicate biological processes in vessel walls. We observed intra-locus allelic heterogeneity but little evidence of low frequency variants with larger effects and no evidence of synthetic association. Our analysis provides a comprehensive survey of the fine genetic architecture of CAD showing that genetic susceptibility to this common disease is largely determined by common SNPs of small effect siz

Law, necropolitics and the stop and search of young people

Stop and search can harm young people, damage relations between police and the community and alienate ethnic and racial minorities. In Mohidin and another v Commissioner of the Police of the Metropolis and others, a group of minors who had been stopped, searched and, in some cases, falsely imprisoned, assaulted and racially abused by officers, were awarded damages for the distress and pain suffered. In this article, the case will be read not for the tortious legal consequences of police actions towards youth, or members of the public in general, nor for the culpability of any of the parties concerned, but for how the use of ‘lawful’ police powers on young people was framed and justified by both officers and the courts. It is argued that the punitive function of such powers has been underexplored by criminologists, and that the authorization and legitimization of such tactics, routinely defended as a ‘necessary’ crime prevention tool, can be understood as an instantiation of ‘necropolitics’