Chlorophyll fluorescence-based high-throughput phenotyping facilitates the genetic dissection of photosynthetic heat tolerance in African (Oryza glaberrima) and Asian (Oryza sativa) rice.

Acknowledgements We are grateful to the University of Nottingham glasshouse staff for their assistance with general plant maintenance. We acknowledge the insight of two anonymous reviews whose comments greatly improved this manuscript. JR and JNF were supported by the Palaeobenchmarking Resilient Agriculture Systems (PalaeoRAS) project funded by the Future Food Beacon of the University of Nottingham.Peer reviewedPostprin

Axially symmetric Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov Calculations for Nuclei Near the Drip-Lines

Nuclei far from stability are studied by solving the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov (HFB) equations, which describe the self-consistent mean field theory with pairing interaction. Calculations for even-even nuclei are carried out on two-dimensional axially symmetric lattice, in coordinate space. The quasiparticle continuum wavefunctions are considered for energies up to 60 MeV. Nuclei near the drip lines have a strong coupling between weakly bound states and the particle continuum. This method gives a proper description of the ground state properties of such nuclei. High accuracy is achieved by representing the operators and wavefunctions using the technique of basis-splines. The detailed representation of the HFB equations in cylindrical coordinates is discussed. Calculations of observables for nuclei near the neutron drip line are presented to demonstrate the reliability of the method.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to Physical Review C on 05/08/02. Revised on Dec/0

Phenomenology of flavor-mediated supersymmetry breaking

The phenomenology of a new economical SUSY model that utilizes dynamical SUSY breaking and gauge-mediation (GM) for the generation of the sparticle spectrum and the hierarchy of fermion masses is discussed. Similarities between the communication of SUSY breaking through a messenger sector, and the generation of flavor using the Froggatt-Nielsen (FN) mechanism are exploited, leading to the identification of vector-like messenger fields with FN fields, and the messenger U(1) as a flavor symmetry. An immediate consequence is that the first and second generation scalars acquire flavor-dependent masses, but do not violate FCNC bounds since their mass scale, consistent with effective SUSY, is of order 10 TeV. We define and advocate a minimal flavor-mediated model (MFMM), recently introduced in the literature, that successfully accommodates the small flavor-breaking parameters of the standard model using order one couplings and ratios of flavon field vevs. The mediation of SUSY breaking occurs via two-loop log-enhanced GM contributions, as well as several one-loop and two-loop Yukawa-mediated contributions for which we provide analytical expressions. The MFMM is parameterized by a small set of masses and couplings, with values restricted by several model constraints and experimental data. The next-to-lightest sparticle (NLSP) always has a decay length that is larger than the scale of a detector, and is either the lightest stau or the lightest neutralino. Similar to ordinary GM models, the best collider search strategies are, respectively, inclusive production of at least one highly ionizing track, or events with many taus plus missing energy. In addition, D^0 - \bar{D}^0 mixing is also a generic low energy signal. Finally, the dynamical generation of the neutrino masses is briefly discussed.Comment: 54 pages, LaTeX, 8 figure

Development of the Critical Thinking Toolkit (CriTT): a measure of student attitudes and beliefs about critical thinking

Critical thinking is an important focus in higher education and is essential for good academic achievement. We report the development of a tool to measure critical thinking for three purposes: (i) to evaluate student perceptions and attitudes about critical thinking, (ii) to identify students in need of support to develop their critical thinking, and (iii) to predict academic performance. Seventy-seven items were generated from focus groups, interviews and the critical thinking literature. Data were collected from 133 psychology students. Factor Analysis revealed three latent factors based on a reduced set of 27 items. These factors were characterised as: Confidence in Critical Thinking; Valuing Critical Thinking; and Misconceptions. Reliability analysis demonstrated that the sub-scales were reliable. Convergent validity with measures of grade point average and argumentation skill was shown, with significant correlations between subscales and validation measures. Most notably, in multiple regression analysis, the three sub-scales from the new questionnaire substantially increased the variance in grade point average accounted for by measures of reflective thinking and argumentation. To sum, the resultant scale offers a measure that is simple to administer, can be used as a diagnostic tool to identify students who need support in developing their critical thinking skills, and can also predict academic performance

Pion, kaon, proton and anti-proton transverse momentum distributions from p+p and d+Au collisions at sNN=200\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 200 GeV

Identified mid-rapidity particle spectra of $\pi^{\pm}$, $K^{\pm}$, and $p(\bar{p})$ from 200 GeV p+p and d+Au collisions are reported. A time-of-flight detector based on multi-gap resistive plate chamber technology is used for particle identification. The particle-species dependence of the Cronin effect is observed to be significantly smaller than that at lower energies. The ratio of the nuclear modification factor ($R_{dAu}$) between protons $(p+\bar{p})$ and charged hadrons ($h$) in the transverse momentum range $1.2<{p_{T}}<3.0$ GeV/c is measured to be $1.19\pm0.05$(stat)$\pm0.03$(syst) in minimum-bias collisions and shows little centrality dependence. The yield ratio of $(p+\bar{p})/h$ in minimum-bias d+Au collisions is found to be a factor of 2 lower than that in Au+Au collisions, indicating that the Cronin effect alone is not enough to account for the relative baryon enhancement observed in heavy ion collisions at RHIC.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. We extended the pion spectra from transverse momentum 1.8 GeV/c to 3. GeV/

Azimuthal anisotropy and correlations in p+p, d+Au and Au+Au collisions at 200 GeV

We present the first measurement of directed flow ($v_1$) at RHIC. $v_1$ is found to be consistent with zero at pseudorapidities $\eta$ from -1.2 to 1.2, then rises to the level of a couple of percent over the range $2.4 < |\eta| < 4$. The latter observation is similar to data from NA49 if the SPS rapidities are shifted by the difference in beam rapidity between RHIC and SPS. Back-to-back jets emitted out-of-plane are found to be suppressed more if compared to those emitted in-plane, which is consistent with {\it jet quenching}. Using the scalar product method, we systematically compared azimuthal correlations from p+p, d+Au and Au+Au collisions. Flow and non-flow from these three different collision systems are discussed.Comment: Quark Matter 2004 proceeding, 4 pages, 3 figure

Azimuthal anisotropy: the higher harmonics

We report the first observations of the fourth harmonic (v_4) in the azimuthal distribution of particles at RHIC. The measurement was done taking advantage of the large elliptic flow generated at RHIC. The integrated v_4 is about a factor of 10 smaller than v_2. For the sixth (v_6) and eighth (v_8) harmonics upper limits on the magnitudes are reported.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, contribution to the Quark Matter 2004 proceeding

All-optical switching and strong coupling using tunable whispering-gallery-mode microresonators

We review our recent work on tunable, ultrahigh quality factor whispering-gallery-mode bottle microresonators and highlight their applications in nonlinear optics and in quantum optics experiments. Our resonators combine ultra-high quality factors of up to Q = 3.6 \times 10^8, a small mode volume, and near-lossless fiber coupling, with a simple and customizable mode structure enabling full tunability. We study, theoretically and experimentally, nonlinear all-optical switching via the Kerr effect when the resonator is operated in an add-drop configuration. This allows us to optically route a single-wavelength cw optical signal between two fiber ports with high efficiency. Finally, we report on progress towards strong coupling of single rubidium atoms to an ultra-high Q mode of an actively stabilized bottle microresonator.Comment: 20 pages, 24 figures. Accepted for publication in Applied Physics B. Changes according to referee suggestions: minor corrections to some figures and captions, clarification of some points in the text, added references, added new paragraph with results on atom-resonator interactio

Strange Resonance Production in p+p and Au+Au Collisions at RHIC Energies

Resonance yields and spectra from elementary p+p and Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} =$ 200 GeV from the STAR experiment at RHIC are presented and discussed in terms of chemical and thermal freeze-out conditions. Thermal models do not adequately describe the yields of the resonance production in central Au+Au collisions. The approach to include elastic hadronic interactions between chemical freeze-out and thermal freeze-out suggests a time of $\Delta \tau>$5 fm/c.Comment: 4 pages, 7 figures, proceedings of the Quark Matter 2004, in Oakland, California, to be published in Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physic

Identified particles at large transverse momenta in STAR in Au+Au collisions @ sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV

We report measurements of the ratios of identified hadrons (pi,K,p,Lambda) in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV as a function of both collision centrality and transverse momentum (p_T). Ratios of anti-baryon to baryon yields are independent of p_T within 2<p_T <6 GeV/c indicating that, for such a range, our measurements are inconsistent with theoretical pQCD calculations predicting a decrease due to a stronger contribution from valence quark scattering. For both strange and non-strange species, a strong baryon enhancement relative to meson yields is observed as a function of collision centrality in this intermediate p_T region, leading to p/pi and Lambda/K ratios greater than unity. The nuclear modification factor, R_cp (central relative to peripheral collisions), is used to illustrate the interplay between jet quenching and hadron production. The physics implications of these measurements are discussed with reference to different theoretical models.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. Proceedings of Quark Matter 2004 Conference, Jan 2004, Oakland, USA. Submitted to Journal of Physics