A New Solution of The Cosmological Constant Problems

We extend the usual gravitational action principle by promoting the bare cosmological constant (CC) from a parameter to a field which can take many possible values. Variation leads to a new integral constraint equation which determines the classical value of the effective CC that dominates the wave function of the universe. In a realistic cosmological model, the expected value of the effective CC, is calculated from measurable quantities to be O(t_U), as observed, where t_U is the present age of the universe in Planck units,. Any application of our model produces a falsifiable prediction for $\Lambda$ in terms of other measurable quantities. This leads to a specific falsifiable prediction for the observed spatial curvature parameter of Omega_k0=-0.0055. Our testable proposal requires no fine tunings or extra dark-energy fields but does suggest a new view of time and cosmological evolution.Comment: 5 pages; v3: version accepted by Phys. Rev. Let

Optimal Conditions for Kinetic Study of Succinate Dehydrogenase in Rat Liver

Succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) commonly is assayed as a marker enzyme for mitochondrial activity. The literature presents numerous conditions for conducting this assay due to the fact that, it has been difficult to get sufficient reduction of the acceptor dye, 2,3,5-triphenyl-2H-tetrazolium chloride (TTC). This study was undertaken to optimize the SDH-catalyzed reduction of TTC dye by evaluation of a greater range of molor ratios of TTC to succinate and by further evaluation of additives reported as beneficial. Improvement in enzyme specific activity was achieved by liver perfusion via the left cardiac ventricle with homogenizing solution. Increase in TTC from 1 to 10 mM and further increase to 20 mM resulted in major improvement in color production. The greatest improvement in apparent activity was achieved by addition of 1 mM phenozine methosulfate, a hydrogen transfer mediator. Use of CaCI₂. EDTA, Triton X-100, NaN₃ and KCN was not beneficial. The above modifications of the SDH assay resulted in greater sensitivity, the conduct of a greater number of assays with less tissue and the sacrifice of fewer animals

Using the forest vegetation simulator as a teaching tool

The Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS) is a tree-level, spatially non-explicit growth model. It is an outgrowth of the Stand Prognosis model that the U.S. Forest Service began developing in the late 1960s. Local variants of FVS now cover most of the forest types of the United States. Development of two complementary programs, Suppose and the Stand Visualization System (SVS), have opened the possibilities for using FVS as a teaching tool in forestry classes

An Approximate Variational Method for Improved Thermodynamics of Molecular Fluids

For a certain class of thermodynamic perturbation theories, a generalization of the Gibbs-Bogoliubov inequality holds through second order of perturbation theory and for a subset of terms the inequality is true to infinite order. Using this approximate variational principle, a perturbation theory is chosen for which the Helmholtz free energy of the reference system is minimized under the constraint that the first order term is identically zero. We apply these ideas to the determination of effective spherical potentials that accurately reproduce the thermodynamics of nonspherical molecular potentials. For a diatomic-Lennard-Jones (DLJ) potential with l ∕σ = 0.793, the resulting spherical reference potential is identical to the median average over angles for the repulsive part of the potential, but differs in the attractive well. The variational effective spherical potential leads to more accurate thermodynamics than the median, however, particularly in the triple point region

The Local Effects of Cosmological Variations in Physical 'Constants' and Scalar Fields I. Spherically Symmetric Spacetimes

We apply the method of matched asymptotic expansions to analyse whether cosmological variations in physical `constants' and scalar fields are detectable, locally, on the surface of local gravitationally bound systems such as planets and stars, or inside virialised systems like galaxies and clusters. We assume spherical symmetry and derive a sufficient condition for the local time variation of the scalar fields that drive varying constants to track the cosmological one. We calculate a number of specific examples in detail by matching the Schwarzschild spacetime to spherically symmetric inhomogeneous Tolman-Bondi metrics in an intermediate region by rigorously construction matched asymptotic expansions on cosmological and local astronomical scales which overlap in an intermediate domain. We conclude that, independent of the details of the scalar-field theory describing the varying `constant', the condition for cosmological variations to be measured locally is almost always satisfied in physically realistic situations. The proof of this statement provides a rigorous justification for using terrestrial experiments and solar system observations to constrain or detect any cosmological time variations in the traditional `constants' of Nature.Comment: 30 pages, 3 figures; corrected typo