Improved description of the pion-nucleon scattering phenomenology in covariant baryon chiral perturbation theory

We highlight some of the recent advances in the application of chiral effective field theory (chiral EFT) with baryons to the $\pi N$ scattering process. We recall some problems that cast doubt on the applicability of chiral EFT to $\pi N$ and show how the relativistic formalism, once the $\Delta(1232)$-resonance is included as an explicit degree of freedom, solves these issues. Finally it is shown how this approach can be used to extract the $\sigma$-terms from phenomenological information.Comment: Contribution to the 13th International Conference on Meson-Nucleon Physics and the Structure of the Nucleon (MENU 2013), Rome, Italy, 30 September - October 4, 2013. 4 pages, 1 figur

chemotaxis of rhizobium phaseoli towards flavones and other related compounds

The formation of nitrogen-fixing nodules on leguminous plants is the result of a highly specific interaction between the host plant and the soil bacterium Rhizobium. Two observations suggest that chemotaxis may play a role in the establishment of the legume-Rhizobium symbiosis: 1) The widespread occurence of Rhizobium species with flagella (Gotz, 1982; Carlile. 1980)2) The copious exudation into the soil surrounding legume roots of a wide variety of potentially chemotactic compounds which include amino acids, sugars and sugar-acids. (Beringer et.al.,1979). Recently the plant flavones luteolin (3,44,7 - Tetra - hydroxyflavone) and apigenin (4,5,7 - Trihydroxy-flavone) have been reported as inducers of Rhizobium nodulation genes (Peters, 1986, Rolfe 1986). We report here that R. phaseoli (RP8002) exhibits positive chemotaxis toward both flavones. Other diverse compounds tested elicited different responses. An understanding of the influence of flavones in two events such as chemotaxis and nodulation efficiency can be valuable to clarify their action in the intricate legume-rhizobia interaction

Description and Optimization of Abstract Machines in a Dialect of Prolog

In order to achieve competitive performance, abstract machines for Prolog and related languages end up being large and intricate, and incorporate sophisticated optimizations, both at the design and at the implementation levels. At the same time, efficiency considerations make it necessary to use low-level languages in their implementation. This makes them laborious to code, optimize, and, especially, maintain and extend. Writing the abstract machine (and ancillary code) in a higher-level language can help tame this inherent complexity. We show how the semantics of most basic components of an efficient virtual machine for Prolog can be described using (a variant of) Prolog. These descriptions are then compiled to C and assembled to build a complete bytecode emulator. Thanks to the high level of the language used and its closeness to Prolog, the abstract machine description can be manipulated using standard Prolog compilation and optimization techniques with relative ease. We also show how, by applying program transformations selectively, we obtain abstract machine implementations whose performance can match and even exceed that of state-of-the-art, highly-tuned, hand-crafted emulators.Comment: 56 pages, 46 figures, 5 tables, To appear in Theory and Practice of Logic Programming (TPLP

Compulsary vaccination vs. Parental rights: a false conflict of rights

It is not unusual nowadays that some parents refuse their chindren to get vaccinated due to their religious beliefs or because they think it is a better way to protect their chindren health. This claim is allegedly supported by the freedom of religion and the right of parents to decide about some important aspects of their children’s life such as education or health care. This decisions may have effects on others and their right to health, thus turning the problem into a conflict of rights. This conflict, it is said, will justify the limitation of the parents right to decide about this issues. In this paper I will defend that there is no conflict at all and therefore no limitation of any right. I will defend a conception of rights that try to avoid the misunderstandings (about what rights are and how they work in legal reasoning) of a “conflicting conception of rights”. In other words, I will defend a conception of rights for which not leting the parents to put other’s health at risk is not a limitation of the right, but an action that lies beyond the boundaries of the right.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Andalucía Tech

Purported use and self-awareness of cognitive and metacognitive foreign language reading strategies in tertiary education in Mozambique

This paper explores the results of a Survey of Reading Strategies (SORS)-based questionnaire administered to 28 university student participants. The study is carried out in a post-colonial multilingual context, Mozambique. The main aims of the paper are to assess the degree of purported use and awareness of participants own use of reading comprehension skills and strategies in a foreign language (English). The participants were tested for their reading text comprehension using an IELTS comprehension test (Cabinda, 2013). The results revealed low reading comprehension levels. Results contrast with results from the SORS-based questionnaire (Cabinda, 2013) which revealed claims of use of a wide range of cognitive, metacognitive and supply strategies – aspects of high level reading ability and text comprehension. Conclusions show that the participants used or claimed to chiefly use metacognitive and cognitive reading strategies equally, matching the behaviour of good readers, but they also reported a high degree of supply strategies to construe meaning from text, mainly code-switching, translation and cognates. The latter confirms results from studies by Jimenez et al. (1995, 1996) and Zhang & Wu (2009), yet do not conclusively show a correlation between the participants’ degree of text comprehension and their effective use of reading skills and strategies to construe meaning. Further conclusions show that the reported high use of these L1 (Portuguese or other) related supply strategies (not used by English L1 readers) does not aid their reading comprehension

Clarifying leadership roles in ERP implementation projects

Existence of an adequate project champion role has been identified as a critical success factor in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation projects. However, the figure of the project champion is not yet quite well understood. Some authors relate it with the project sponsor figure while others relate it with the project manager figure. This paper tries to clarify these concepts. Our research framework is based upon an extensive ERP literature review and a web survey. The findings of this web survey suggest that the adequate project champion role is that of the project sponsor, emerging as a dual-role champion.ERP, Leadership , Roles

A goals/questions/metrics plan for monitoring user involvement and participation in ERP (...)

ERP implementation success is influenced by a large number of factors. User involvement and participation is one of the most cited critical success factors in ERP implementation projects, and one of the most critical ones for their satisfactory outcome. This study attempts to define a set of metrics for monitoring user involvement and participation within ERP implementation projects by using the Goals/Questions/Metrics method. First, a literature review is presented. Second, a framework for monitoring user involvement and participation in ERP implementation projects is proposed. And third, a Goals/Questions/Metrics preliminary plan is proposed to monitor and control user involvement.ERP, Involvement, Participation, Metrics, Goals, Questions

Exact solutions for the populations of the n-level ion

We present a matrix solution to the full equations of statistical equilibrium that give the energy level populations of collisionally-excited ions in photoionised gaseous nebulae. The rationale for such a calculation is to maintain a parity between improvements in the quantum-mechanically evaluated values for collision strengths and transition probabilities from the Iron and Opacity Projects on the one hand, and 3D photoionisation codes such as MOCASSIN and astrophysical software for producing nebular diagnostics such as the Nebular package for IRAF, on the other. We have taken advantage of the fact that mathematics programs such as MATLAB and Mathematica have proven to be very adept at symbolic manipulation providing a route to exact solutions for the n-level ion. In particular, we have avoided the substitution of estimated values. We provide the matrix solution for the 5-level ion as an example and show how the equations faithfully reduce to the exact solution for the 3-level ion. Through the forbidden line ratio R23, we compare the exact solution with a) that obtained from the observed emission of the spherical planetary nebula Abell 39, b) 3D Monte-Carlo photoionisation modelling of the same nebula, c) the approximate 5-level program TEMDEN and d) the exact 3-level ion. The general solution presented here means that programs for the calculation of level populations can obtain solutions for ions with a user-specified number of excited levels. The use of a separate and updatable database of atomic and ionic constants such as that provided by NIST, means that software of more general application can now be made available; particularly for the study of high excitation objects such as active galactic nebulae (AGNs) and supernovae (SNs) where higher excited levels become significant.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure and 1 table. Submitted to MNRA

Discrimination in the Private Sphere. A subjective Right or a Legal Abuse. An European North American Legal Comparative Study

En el presente trabajo se estudian los límites de la autonomía privada desde la perspectiva del derecho a la igualdad y del principio de no discriminación tanto en el derecho norteamericano como en el europeo, con especial incidencia a la doctrina española. Por un lado se plantea si la piedra angular a la hora de establecer límites a la autonomía privada debe ser el concepto de dignidad o el de igualdad, por otro superando dicho debate se propone un acercamiento al problema entendido como una colisión entre derechos fundamentales en la que en cada concreto supuesto ha de estudiarse cual debe prevalecer. Finalmente se estima conveniente seguir el modelo de la Constitución de Sudáfrica y entender que los derechos fundamentales afectan directamente tanto a las relaciones horizontales como verticales, es decir tanto al ámbito público como privado.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech