Decay of charged scalar field around a black hole: quasinormal modes of R-N, R-N-AdS and dilaton black holes

It is well known that the charged scalar perturbations of the Reissner-Nordstrom metric will decay slower at very late times than the neutral ones, thereby dominating in the late time signal. We show that at the stage of quasinormal ringing, on the contrary, the neutral perturbations will decay slower for RN, RNAdS and dilaton black holes. The QN frequencies of the nearly extreme RN black hole have the same imaginary parts (damping times) for charged and neutral perturbations. An explanation of this fact is not clear but, possibly, is connected with the Choptuik scaling.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX, 4 figures, considerable changes made and wrong interpretation of computations correcte

Characterizing barley seed macro- and micro-nutrients under multiple environmental conditions

Crop seeds are the main staples in human diet, especially in undeveloped countries. In any case, the diet needs to be rich not only in macro-nutrients like carbohydrates and protein, but also in micro-nutrients. Nevertheless, both the macro- and micro-nutrients presented in seeds largely vary in consequence of field and environment conditions. In this research, 60 lines of a barley RILs population segregating for the SSR marker Hvm74, which is genetically linked to the GPC (grain protein content) locus (HvNAM-1), were studied in 4 environments (two growing years and two field managements) by carrying out a comprehensive profile of seed macro- (starch, total nitrogen and total soluble protein) and micro-nutrients (phytate, phenolics, flavonoids, Pi, Zn and Fe). Under field conditions, all the components were largely affected by the environment, but TN (total nitrogen) exhibited high genotype contribution, while micro-nutrients displayed higher genotype × environments interactions (GEI) than macro-nutrients. In order to approach the effects of carbon-nitrogen (C–N) balance on other seed components, two C/N ratios were calculated: C/TN (CNR1) and C/TSP (CNR2). CNR2 exhibited stronger negative correlations with all micro-nutrients. Hence, the significant GEI and its negative relationships with CNR2 highlighted the different characters of micro-nutrients in barley seeds

A matter of time: recovery of plant species diversity in wild plant communities at declining nitrogen deposition

Plant science

Effects of nutrients, salinity, pH and light:dark cycle on the production of reactive oxygen species in the alga Chattonella marina

Author Posting. © Elsevier B.V., 2007. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier B.V. for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 346 (2007): 76-86, doi:10.1016/j.jembe.2007.03.007.Experiments were carried out to investigate the effects of nutrients, salinity, pH and light:dark cycle on growth rate and production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by Chattonella marina, a harmful algal bloom (HAB) species that often causes fish kills. Different nitrogen forms (organic-N and inorganic-N), N:P ratios, light:dark cycles and salinity significantly influenced algal growth, but not ROS production. However, iron concentration and pH significantly affected both growth and ROS production in C. marina. KCN (an inhibitor of mitochondrial respiration) and 3-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)-1,1-dimethylurea (an inhibitor of photosynthesis) had no significant effects on ROS production. Vitamin K3 (a plasma membrane electron shuttle) enhanced ROS production while its antagonist, dicumarol, decreased ROS production. Taken together, our results suggest that ROS production by C. marina is related to a plasma membrane enzyme system regulated by iron availability but is independent of growth, photosynthesis, availability of macronutrients, salinity and irradiance.The work described in this paper was supported by a CERG grant from the University Grants Committee of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China to RSSW (Project No. 9040864). Support for DMA is provided by U.S. National Science Foundation grant # OCE-0136861

Predicting stroke through genetic risk functions: the CHARGE Risk Score Project.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Beyond the Framingham Stroke Risk Score, prediction of future stroke may improve with a genetic risk score (GRS) based on single-nucleotide polymorphisms associated with stroke and its risk factors. METHODS: The study includes 4 population-based cohorts with 2047 first incident strokes from 22,720 initially stroke-free European origin participants aged ≥55 years, who were followed for up to 20 years. GRSs were constructed with 324 single-nucleotide polymorphisms implicated in stroke and 9 risk factors. The association of the GRS to first incident stroke was tested using Cox regression; the GRS predictive properties were assessed with area under the curve statistics comparing the GRS with age and sex, Framingham Stroke Risk Score models, and reclassification statistics. These analyses were performed per cohort and in a meta-analysis of pooled data. Replication was sought in a case-control study of ischemic stroke. RESULTS: In the meta-analysis, adding the GRS to the Framingham Stroke Risk Score, age and sex model resulted in a significant improvement in discrimination (all stroke: Δjoint area under the curve=0.016, P=2.3×10(-6); ischemic stroke: Δjoint area under the curve=0.021, P=3.7×10(-7)), although the overall area under the curve remained low. In all the studies, there was a highly significantly improved net reclassification index (P<10(-4)). CONCLUSIONS: The single-nucleotide polymorphisms associated with stroke and its risk factors result only in a small improvement in prediction of future stroke compared with the classical epidemiological risk factors for stroke

Limit on Bs0B^0_s oscillation using a jet charge method

A lower limit is set on the B_{s}^{0} meson oscillation parameter \Delta m_{s} using data collected from 1991 to 1994 by the ALEPH detector. Events with a high transverse momentum lepton and a reconstructed secondary vertex are used. The high transverse momentum leptons are produced mainly by b hadron decays, and the sign of the lepton indicates the particle/antiparticle final state in decays of neutral B mesons. The initial state is determined by a jet charge technique using both sides of the event. A maximum likelihood method is used to set a lower limit of \, \Delta m_{s}. The 95\% confidence level lower limit on \Delta m_s ranges between 5.2 and 6.5(\hbar/c^{2})~ps^{-1} when the fraction of b quarks from Z^0 decays that form B_{s}^{0} mesons is varied from 8\% to 16\%. Assuming that the B_{s}^{0} fraction is 12\%, the lower limit would be \Delta m_{s} 6.1(\hbar/c^{2})~ps^{-1} at 95\% confidence level. For x_s = \Delta m_s \, \tau_{B_s}, this limit also gives x_s 8.8 using the B_{s}^{0} lifetime of \tau_{B_s} = 1.55 \pm 0.11~ps and shifting the central value of \tau_{B_s} down by 1\sigma

Measurement of the Bs0^0_s lifetime and production rate with Ds−l+^-_s l^+ combinations in Z decays

The lifetime of the \bs meson is measured in approximately 3 million hadronic Z decays accumulated using the ALEPH detector at LEP from 1991 to 1994. Seven different \ds decay modes were reconstructed and combined with an opposite sign lepton as evidence of semileptonic \bs decays. Two hundred and eight \dsl candidates satisfy selection criteria designed to ensure precise proper time reconstruction and yield a measured \bs lifetime of \mbox{\result .} Using a larger, less constrained sample of events, the product branching ratio is measured to be \mbox{\pbrresult