Spiral model, jamming percolation and glass-jamming transitions

The Spiral Model (SM) corresponds to a new class of kinetically constrained models introduced in joint works with D.S. Fisher [8,9]. They provide the first example of finite dimensional models with an ideal glass-jamming transition. This is due to an underlying jamming percolation transition which has unconventional features: it is discontinuous (i.e. the percolating cluster is compact at the transition) and the typical size of the clusters diverges faster than any power law, leading to a Vogel-Fulcher-like divergence of the relaxation time. Here we present a detailed physical analysis of SM, see [5] for rigorous proofs. We also show that our arguments for SM does not need any modification contrary to recent claims of Jeng and Schwarz [10].Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, proceedings for StatPhys2

Bulletin No. 288 - Draingage and Irrigation, Soil, Economic, and Social Conditions, Delta Area, Utah Division 4: Social Conditions

This study is a part of a more comprehensive one which was organized in 1928 for the purpose of ascertaining what conditions existed in bonded irrigation and drainage districts which were unable to. liquidate obligations incurred. The first such area to be studied was the Delta Area in Millard County. This area was selected for this study because of the pressing need for more detailed and wider information than was available to either the farmers or the bondholders and because available facts based on careful study might aid in achieving fairer settlements. These data might also assist other areas in eliminating wastes which multiply in hastily planned undertakings

Capacitated Vehicle Routing with Non-Uniform Speeds

The capacitated vehicle routing problem (CVRP) involves distributing (identical) items from a depot to a set of demand locations, using a single capacitated vehicle. We study a generalization of this problem to the setting of multiple vehicles having non-uniform speeds (that we call Heterogenous CVRP), and present a constant-factor approximation algorithm. The technical heart of our result lies in achieving a constant approximation to the following TSP variant (called Heterogenous TSP). Given a metric denoting distances between vertices, a depot r containing k vehicles with possibly different speeds, the goal is to find a tour for each vehicle (starting and ending at r), so that every vertex is covered in some tour and the maximum completion time is minimized. This problem is precisely Heterogenous CVRP when vehicles are uncapacitated. The presence of non-uniform speeds introduces difficulties for employing standard tour-splitting techniques. In order to get a better understanding of this technique in our context, we appeal to ideas from the 2-approximation for scheduling in parallel machine of Lenstra et al.. This motivates the introduction of a new approximate MST construction called Level-Prim, which is related to Light Approximate Shortest-path Trees. The last component of our algorithm involves partitioning the Level-Prim tree and matching the resulting parts to vehicles. This decomposition is more subtle than usual since now we need to enforce correlation between the size of the parts and their distances to the depot

Assessing direct contributions of morphological awareness and prosodic sensitivity to children’s word reading and reading comprehension

We examined the independent contributions of prosodic sensitivity and morphological awareness to word reading, text reading accuracy, and reading comprehension. We did so in a longitudinal study of English-speaking children (N = 70). At 5 to 7 years of age, children completed the metalinguistic measures along with control measures of phonological awareness and vocabulary. Children completed the reading measures two years later. Morphological awareness, but not prosodic sensitivity made a significant independent contribution to word reading, text reading accuracy and reading comprehension. The effects of morphological awareness on reading comprehension remained after controls for word reading. These results suggest that morphological awareness needs to be considered seriously in models of reading development and that prosodic sensitivity might have primarily indirect relations to reading outcomes. Keywords: Morphological Awareness; Prosody; Word Reading; Reading Comprehension

Finding the Median (Obliviously) with Bounded Space

We prove that any oblivious algorithm using space $S$ to find the median of a list of $n$ integers from $\{1,...,2n\}$ requires time $\Omega(n \log\log_S n)$. This bound also applies to the problem of determining whether the median is odd or even. It is nearly optimal since Chan, following Munro and Raman, has shown that there is a (randomized) selection algorithm using only $s$ registers, each of which can store an input value or $O(\log n)$-bit counter, that makes only $O(\log\log_s n)$ passes over the input. The bound also implies a size lower bound for read-once branching programs computing the low order bit of the median and implies the analog of $P \ne NP \cap coNP$ for length $o(n \log\log n)$ oblivious branching programs

Evidence: Biofilter performance and operation as related to commercial composting

This report provides a critical review of available evidence as to how effectively the various categories and configurations of biofilter reduce bioaerosol and odour emissions from composting facilities

Ergot: A New Disease Threat to Sorghum in the Americas and Australia

Sorghum, Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench, is the world’s fifth most important cereal crop, cultivated on about 45 million hectares for food, feed, beverage, and fodder. The most significant technological change since the 1960s has been the development and use of F1 hybrid seed (14), which has lead to a dramatic improvement in the crop’s productivity. Sorghum cultivation in intensive, commercialized systems where yields average 3 to 5 t ha-1 relies almost totally on hybrid seed. In contrast, yields vary widely and average less than 1 t ha-1 in low-input production systems

B-Amyloid of Alzheimer\u27s Disease Induces Reactive Gliosis that Inhibits Axonal Outgrowth

Pathological lesions in the brains of patients with Alzheimer\u27s disease (AD) are characterized by dense deposits of the protein ,B-amyloid. The link between the deposition of B-amyloid in senile plaques and AD-associated pathology is, at present, controversial since there have been conflicting reports on whether the 39- 43 amino acid B-amyloid sequence is toxic or trophic to neurons. In this report, we show that B-amyloid peptide when presented as an insoluble substrate which mimics its conformation in vivo can induce cortical glial cells in vitro and in vivo to locally deposit chondroitin sulfate containingproteoglycan. In vitro the proteoglycan-containing matrix deposited by glia on B-amyloid blocks the usual ability of the peptide to allow cortical neurons to adhere and grow. Chondroitin sulfate-containing proteoglycan was also found in senile plaques of human AD tissue. We suggest that an additional effect of B-amyloid in the brain, which compounds the direct effects of ,8- amyloid on neurons, is mediated by the stimulation of astroglia to become reactive. Once in the reactive state, glial cells deposit large amounts of growth-inhibitory molecules within the neuropil which could impair neuronal process survival and regeneration leading to neurite retraction and/or dystrophy around senile plaques in AD

Higher cognitive ability buffers stress-related depressive symptoms in adolescent girls

Stress has been shown to have a causal effect on risk for depression. We investigated the role of cognitive ability as a moderator of the effect of stressful life events on depressive symptoms and whether this varied by gender. Data were analyzed in two adolescent data sets: one representative community sample aged 11–12 years (n = 460) and one at increased familial risk of depression aged 9–17 years (n = 335). In both data sets, a three-way interaction was found whereby for girls, but not boys, higher cognitive ability buffered the association between stress and greater depressive symptoms. The interaction was replicated when the outcome was a diagnosis of major depressive disorder. This buffering effect in girls was not attributable to coping efficacy. However, a small proportion of the variance was accounted for by sensitivity to environmental stressors. Results suggest that this moderating effect of cognitive ability in girls is largely attributable to greater available resources for cognitive operations that offer protection against stress-induced reductions in cognitive processing and cognitive control which in turn reduces the likelihood of depressive symptomatology