Geocentric Ecocriticism (work in progress)

In my view, ecocriticism needs a foundation in something akin to metaphysics. This work in progress began as an effort to find such a foundation. In the course of working on it, I discovered philosophers today, mostly young, clearly a new generation, philosophizing under the umbrella term “speculative realism” what amounts to a new metaphysics, even when the term “metaphysics” is not embraced. That discovery led me to put this work aside to study this new philosophy, a decision that has evolved into a book length project assessing this new metaphysics. When that is done I will be better prepared to ground ecocriticism in metaphysics. Material from this work in progress will be relevant but will no doubt have to be recast in radically different form. Parts of chapters 1 and 4 have been published in revised form (see “The Theory Ecocriticism Needs” and “Geocentric Ecocriticism” at academia.edu).An introductory overview of chapters 2-4, chapter 1 centers on differences between Neil Evernden’s The Social Creation of Nature and Bruno Latour’s We Have Never Been Modern. Evernden seeks a nature independent of cultural and institutional mediations, whereas for Latour escaping these mediations is impossible. Chapter 2 elaborates on Evernden’s ecocritical strategy by comparing and contrasting it with Lawrence Buell’s, particularly Buell’s ideas of the “fallacy of derealization” and “extrospection.” Chapter 3 elaborates on Latour, particularly his theory of hybrids, concluding with an evaluation of his “parliament of things.” Chapter 4 then reconciles the two within a framework large enough to incorporate both. This framework revises Spinoza’s monism, cleansing it of its cosmocentric tendencies in the name of geocentricism. In these chapters (pp. 21, 32n8, 53 54, 58, 81, 94) promises appear that at the time of their writing were envisioned as appearing in later chapters

Hartle-Hawking state in supersymmetric minisuperspace

The Hartle-Hawking `no-boundary' state is constructed explicitly for the recently developed supersymmetric minisuperspace model with non-vanishing fermion number.Comment: 11 pages, revte

Cosmological Time in Quantum Supergravity

The version of supergravity formulated by Ogievetsky and Sokatchev is almost identical to the conventional $N=1$ theory, except that the cosmological constant $\Lambda$ appears as a dynamical variable which is constant only by virtue of the field equations. We consider the canonical quantisation of this theory, and show that the wave function evolves with respect to a dynamical variable which can be interpreted as a cosmological time parameter. The square of the modulus of the wave function obeys a set of simple conservation equations and can be interpreted as a probability density functional. The usual problems associated with time in quantum gravity are avoided.Comment: 12 pages, LaTe

Supersymmetric minisuperspace with non-vanishing fermion number

The Lagrangean of $N=1$ supergravity is dimensionally reduced to one (time-like) dimension assuming spatial homogeneity of any Bianchi type within class A of the classification of Ellis and McCallum. The algebra of the supersymmetry generators, the Lorentz generators, the diffeomorphism generators and the Hamiltonian generator is determined and found to close. In contrast to earlier work, infinitely many physical states with non-vanishing even fermion number are found to exist in these models, indicating that minisuperspace models in supergravity may be just as useful as in pure gravity.Comment: 4 page

Vector and pseudoscalar charm meson radiative decays

Combining heavy quark effective theory and the chiral Lagrangian approach we investigate radiative decays of pseudoscalar $D$ mesons. We first reanalyse $D^{*} \rightarrow D \gamma$ decays within the effective Lagrangian approach using heavy quark spin symmetry, chiral symmetry Lagrangian, but including also the light vector mesons. We then investigate $D \rightarrow V \gamma$ decays and calculate the $D^0 \rightarrow \bar{K}^{*0} \gamma$ and $D^{s+} \rightarrow \rho^+ \gamma$ partial widths and branching ratios.Comment: 21 pages Latex, no figures, IJS-TP-94/19, TUM-31-62/94, NUHEP-TH-94-

General Aspects of Tree Level Gauge Mediation

Tree level gauge mediation (TGM) may be considered as the simplest way to communicate supersymmetry breaking: through the tree level renormalizable exchange of heavy gauge messengers. We study its general structure, in particular the general form of tree level sfermion masses and of one loop, but enhanced, gaugino masses. This allows us to set up general guidelines for model building and to identify the hypotheses underlying the phenomenological predictions. In the context of models based on the "minimal" gauge group SO(10), we show that only two "pure" embeddings of the MSSM fields are possible using $d< 120$ representations, each of them leading to specific predictions for the ratios of family universal sfermion masses at the GUT scale, $m^2_{\bar{5}} = 2 m^2_{10}$ or $m^2_{\bar{5}} = (3/4) m^2_{10}$ (in SU(5) notation). These ratios are determined by group factors and are peculiar enough to make this scheme testable at the LHC. We also discuss three possible approaches to the $\mu$-problem, one of them distinctive of TGM.Comment: 37 pages, 2 figure

On renormalization group flows and the a-theorem in 6d

We study the extension of the approach to the a-theorem of Komargodski and Schwimmer to quantum field theories in d=6 spacetime dimensions. The dilaton effective action is obtained up to 6th order in derivatives. The anomaly flow a_UV - a_IR is the coefficient of the 6-derivative Euler anomaly term in this action. It then appears at order p^6 in the low energy limit of n-point scattering amplitudes of the dilaton for n > 3. The detailed structure with the correct anomaly coefficient is confirmed by direct calculation in two examples: (i) the case of explicitly broken conformal symmetry is illustrated by the free massive scalar field, and (ii) the case of spontaneously broken conformal symmetry is demonstrated by the (2,0) theory on the Coulomb branch. In the latter example, the dilaton is a dynamical field so 4-derivative terms in the action also affect n-point amplitudes at order p^6. The calculation in the (2,0) theory is done by analyzing an M5-brane probe in AdS_7 x S^4. Given the confirmation in two distinct models, we attempt to use dispersion relations to prove that the anomaly flow is positive in general. Unfortunately the 4-point matrix element of the Euler anomaly is proportional to stu and vanishes for forward scattering. Thus the optical theorem cannot be applied to show positivity. Instead the anomaly flow is given by a dispersion sum rule in which the integrand does not have definite sign. It may be possible to base a proof of the a-theorem on the analyticity and unitarity properties of the 6-point function, but our preliminary study reveals some difficulties.Comment: 41 pages, 5 figure

Thermal quenches in N=2* plasmas

We exploit gauge/gravity duality to study `thermal quenches' in a plasma of the strongly coupled N=2* gauge theory. Specifically, we consider the response of an initial thermal equilibrium state of the theory under variations of the bosonic or fermionic mass, to leading order in m/T<<1. When the masses are made to vary in time, novel new counterterms must be introduced to renormalize the boundary theory. We consider transitions the conformal super-Yang-Mills theory to the mass deformed gauge theory and also the reverse transitions. By construction, these transitions are controlled by a characteristic time scale \calt and we show how the response of the system depends on the ratio of this time scale to the thermal time scale 1/T. The response shows interesting scaling behaviour both in the limit of fast quenches with T\calt<<1 and slow quenches with T\calt>>1. In the limit that T\calt\to\infty, we observe the expected adiabatic response. For fast quenches, the relaxation to the final equilibrium is controlled by the lowest quasinormal mode of the bulk scalar dual to the quenched operator. For slow quenches, the system relaxes with a (nearly) adiabatic response that is governed entirely by the late time profile of the mass. We describe new renormalization scheme ambiguities in defining gauge invariant observables for the theory with time dependant couplings.Comment: 78 pages, 17 figure

Síntese e avaliação catalítica de catalisadores microporoso, mesoporosos e micro-mesoporosos

As propriedades e potencialidades dos materiais porosos estão em constantes estudos e usos nas mais variadas áreas da ciência. Esses materiais são atribuídos em classes de acordo com o ordenamento dos seus blocos estruturantes. Suas propriedades estão intrinsecamente relacionadas pela sua capacidade de catalisar as reações químicas. Neste trabalho, catalisadores do tipo HAlZSM-12, HAlMCM-41, HAlMCM-48, AlSBA-15 (Si/Al= 25, 50, 75) e HAlZSM-12/HAlMCM-41, HAlZSM-12/HAlMCM-48, HAlZSM-12/AlSBA-15 foram sintetizados pelo método hidrotérmico, submetidas a processos de calcinação e troca iônica e caracterizados por difratometria de raios-X. No presente trabalho também avaliou-se o potencial catalítico dos catalisadores na pirólise catalítica do ácido oléico em escala de bancada usando a termogravimetria. _________________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT: The properties and potential of porous materials are in constant studies and uses in various areas of science. These materials are attributed to classes according to their structural ordering of blocks. Their properties are intrinsically related by their ability to catalyze chemical reactions. In this study, catalysts of type HAlZSM-12, HAlMCM-41, HAlMCM-48, AlSBA-15 (Si/Al 25, 50, 75) and composites HAlZSM-12/HAlMCM-41, HAlZSM-12/HAlMCM-48, HAlZSM-12/AlSBA-15 were synthesized by hydrothermal method, subjected to calcination and ion exchange processes and characterized by X-ray diffraction. In this study also were evaluated the catalytic potential of catalysts in the catalytic pyrolysis of oleic acid in micro-scale tests using thermogravimetric (TG)

Identification of novel genetic risk factors of dilated cardiomyopathy: from canine to human

BackgroundDilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a life-threatening heart disease and a common cause of heart failure due to systolic dysfunction and subsequent left or biventricular dilatation. A significant number of cases have a genetic etiology; however, as a complex disease, the exact genetic risk factors are largely unknown, and many patients remain without a molecular diagnosis.MethodsWe performed GWAS followed by whole-genome, transcriptome, and immunohistochemical analyses in a spontaneously occurring canine model of DCM. Canine gene discovery was followed up in three human DCM cohorts.ResultsOur results revealed two independent additive loci associated with the typical DCM phenotype comprising left ventricular systolic dysfunction and dilatation. We highlight two novel candidate genes, RNF207 and PRKAA2, known for their involvement in cardiac action potentials, energy homeostasis, and morphology. We further illustrate the distinct genetic etiologies underlying the typical DCM phenotype and ventricular premature contractions. Finally, we followed up on the canine discoveries in human DCM patients and discovered candidate variants in our two novel genes.ConclusionsCollectively, our study yields insight into the molecular pathophysiology of DCM and provides a large animal model for preclinical studies