3,141 research outputs found
Constitutional Law - Self-Incrimination - Refusal of Attorney to Produce Demanded Financial Records and to Testify in a Disciplinary Proceeding on Ground That the Records and Testimony Would Tend to Incriminate Him Not Ground for Disbarment
Signed Confidentiality of Non-Public Information Julie Williams - Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
Safety of Log Transportation After Regulation and Training in the State of Georgia, USA
Mechanical failure rates observed in highway accidents involving logging tractor-trailers have fallen significantly since Georgia subjected these vehicles to random roadside inspections. This improvement is attributed to both the regulation and the training efforts aimed at the log trucking community immediately before and after the implementation of the rules
Rethinking the Death Penalty: Can We Define Who Deserves Death? A Symposium Held at the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, May 22, 2002
In light of the defects of the capital punishment system and recent calls for a moratorium on executions, many are calling for serious reform of the system. Even some who would not eliminate the death penalty entirely propose reforms that they contend would result in fewer executions and would limit the death penalty to a category that they call the worst of the worst. This program asks the question: Is there a category of defendants who are the worst of the worst? Can a crime be so heinous that a defendant can be said to deserve to be executed? Would such a limited death penalty be supportable morally, philosophically, and constitutionally
Boundary Effective Field Theory and Trans-Planckian Perturbations: Astrophysical Implications
We contrast two approaches to calculating trans-Planckian corrections to the
inflationary perturbation spectrum: the New Physics Hypersurface [NPH] model,
in which modes are normalized when their physical wavelength first exceeds a
critical value, and the Boundary Effective Field Theory [BEFT] approach, where
the initial conditions for all modes are set at the same time, and modified by
higher dimensional operators enumerated via an effective field theory
calculation. We show that these two approaches -- as currently implemented --
lead to radically different expectations for the trans-Planckian corrections to
the CMB and emphasize that in the BEFT formalism we expect the perturbation
spectrum to be dominated by quantum gravity corrections for all scales shorter
than some critical value. Conversely, in the NPH case the quantum effects only
dominate the longest modes that are typically much larger than the present
horizon size. Furthermore, the onset of the breakdown in the standard
inflationary perturbation calculation predicted by the BEFT formalism is likely
to be associated with a feature in the perturbation spectrum, and we discuss
the observational signatures of this feature in both CMB and large scale
structure observations. Finally, we discuss possible modifications to both
calculational frameworks that would resolve the contradictions identified here.Comment: Reworded commentary, reference added (v2) References added (v3
Partial or Complete Unloading of Skeletal Muscle Leads to Specific Alterations of Anabolic Signal Transduction
Consequences of disuse atrophy of skeletal muscle observed during spaceflight on astronaut health and performance are a focal point of space research. Decrements of both muscle mass and protein synthesis rates have been observed with exposure to varying muscle loading environments (1G \u3e partial loading \u3e 0G), and most of the reduced muscle mass can be attributed to diminished rates of synthesis. However, specific mechanisms behind unloading-dependent reductions of protein synthesis are not well defined.
PURPOSE: To determine whether or not alterations of anabolic signal transduction was responsible for the changes previously observed in fractional synthesis rates with specific gravitational loading paradigms. METHODS: Female BALB/cByJ were normalized by bodyweight and assigned to normal cage ambulation (1G), partial weight bearing suspension titrated to approximately 33% bodyweight (G/3), partial weight bearing titrated to 16% bodyweight (G/6) and full unloading of hind limbs (0G) in specially designed cages. All mice were subjected to that loading environment for 21d prior to tissue harvest, and monitored daily. Immunoblotting of the gastrocnemius (n=23) was carried out to analyze alterations of anabolic signal transduction. Although numerous signaling intermediates were assessed, the focus of this abstract will be on ribosomal protein S6 kinase (p70-S6K). This important protein has served as a marker of protein synthesis signal transduction as well as the anabolic capacity in skeletal muscle. RESULTS: Regardless of loading paradigm, no differences were detected among groups for the activation of p70-S6K (as indicated by the phospho: total protein content). Total protein content, however, was ~27% lower than control in 0G and G/3 (P=0.008) with G/6 not being different from control (P\u3e0.05). CONCLUSION: In combination with previous data (unpublished observations), Partial gravitational fields at least partially rescues anabolic signaling, suggesting that a threshold level of stimulus is necessary to maintain anabolic capacity in muscle. These results may have important implications towards the development of strategies designed to counter the effects of partial/complete unloading on skeletal muscle based on how the anabolic capacity of muscle is affected
Spectroscopy of Broad Line Blazars from 1LAC
We report on optical spectroscopy of 165 Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars (FSRQs)
in the Fermi 1LAC sample, which have helped allow a nearly complete study of
this population. Fermi FSRQ show significant evidence for non-thermal emission
even in the optical; the degree depends on the gamma-ray hardness. They also
have smaller virial estimates of hole mass than the optical quasar sample. This
appears to be largely due to a preferred (axial) view of the gamma-ray FSRQ and
non-isotropic (H/R ~ 0.4) distribution of broad-line velocities. Even after
correction for this bias, the Fermi FSRQ show higher mean Eddington ratios than
the optical population. A comparison of optical spectral properties with Owens
Valley Radio Observatory radio flare activity shows no strong correlation.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap
A generic estimate of trans-Planckian modifications to the primordial power spectrum in inflation
We derive a general expression for the power spectra of scalar and tensor
fluctuations generated during inflation given an arbitrary choice of boundary
condition for the mode function at a short distance. We assume that the
boundary condition is specified at a short-distance cutoff at a scale which
is independent of time. Using a particular prescription for the boundary
condition at momentum , we find that the modulation to the power spectra
of density and gravitational wave fluctuations is of order , where
is the Hubble parameter during inflation, and we argue that this behavior is
generic, although by no means inevitable. With fixed boundary condition, we
find that the shape of the modulation to the power spectra is determined
entirely by the deviation of the background spacetime from the de Sitter limit.Comment: 15 pages (RevTeX), 2 figure
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