Pepino mosaic virus

Pepino mosaic virus (PepMV) is a relatively new plant virus that has become a signifi cant agronomical problem in a relatively short period of time. It is a member of the genus Potexvirus within the family Flexiviridae and is readily mechanically transmissible. It is capable of infecting tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) and other Solaneceous host plants. Since its description in 1980 from pepino plants (Solanum muricatum) collected in 1974 in Peru, the virus remained unknown for a long time until it manifested itself in commercial tomato crops in Europe in 1999. Since then the virus has been reported worldwide and the disease it causes has become important in commercial tomato production. Since 1999, new strains of the virus have been described which diff er from the original pepino isolate. The fast spread of the virus and the appearance of mixed infections with the new strains may play an important role in the increase of the agricultural importance of this viral diseas

The coset weight distributions of certain BCH codes and a family of curves

We study the distribution of the number of rational points in a family of curves over a finite field of characteristic 2. This distribution determines the coset weight distribution of a certain BCH code.Comment: Plain Tex, 15 pages; some numerical data adde

On the Existence of Supersingular Curves of Given Genus

We give a method to construct explicitly a supersingular curve of given genus g in characteristic 2.Comment: 9 pages, plain TeX, UvA-report 94-1

Generalized Reed-Muller codes and curves with many points

The weight hierarchy of generalized Reed-Muller codes over arbitrary finite fields was determined by Heijnen and Pellikaan. In this paper we produce curves over finite fields with many points which are closely related to this weight hierarchy.Comment: Plain Tex, 11 page

Quadratic forms, generalized Hamming weights of codes and curves with many points

We use the relations between quadrics, trace codes and algebraic curves to construct algebraic curves over finite fields with many points and to compute generalized Hamming weights of codes.Comment: 14 pages, Plain Te

Kummer Covers with Many Points

We give a method for constructing Kummer covers with many points over finite fields.Comment: Plain Tex, 13 page

How AGN feedback drives the size growth of the first quasars

Quasars at $z \,=\, 6$ are powered by accretion onto supermassive black holes with masses $M_{\rm BH} \sim 10^9 \rm \, M_{\odot}$. Their rapid assembly requires efficient gas inflow into the galactic nucleus, sustaining black hole accretion at a rate close to the Eddington limit, but also high central star formation rates. Using a set of cosmological 'zoom-in' hydrodynamic simulations performed with the moving mesh code Arepo, we show that $z \,=\, 6$ quasar host galaxies develop extremely tightly bound stellar bulges with peak circular velocities $300$ - $500$ km s$^{-1}$ and half-mass radii $\approx 0.5 \, \rm kpc$. Despite their high binding energy, we find that these compact bulges expand at $z \, < \, 6$, with their half-mass radii reaching $\approx 5$ kpc by $z \, = \, 3$. The circular velocity drops by factors $\approx 2$ from their initial values to $200$ - $300$ km s$^{-1}$ at $z \, \approx \, 3$ and the stellar profile undergoes a cusp-core transformation. By tracking individual stellar populations, we find that the gradual expansion of the stellar component is mainly driven by fluctuations in the gravitational potential induced by bursty AGN feedback. We also find that galaxy size growth and the development of a cored stellar profile does not occur if AGN feedback is ineffective. Our findings suggest that AGN-driven outflows may have profound implications for the internal structure of massive galaxies, possibly accounting for their size growth, the formation of cored ellipticals as well as for the saturation of the $M_{\rm BH}$ - $\sigma_{\star}$ seen at high velocity dispersions $\sigma_{\star}$.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in MNRA

A distributed computing environment (DCE) based object request broker

Includes bibliographical references.Object oriented technology has moved beyond being a tool for design and programming and is now being used to implement enterprise wide computer systems. Also, there has been a move from centralised mainframe systems to distributed computing due to the advent of more powerful workstations and faster, more reliable networks. The integration of object oriented technology and distributed computing is becoming a generally accepted method for implementing networked computer solutions. The purpose of the research presented in this thesis is to investigate how the evolving object oriented technologies can build upon the current distributed computing technology by using there underlying infrastructure and then to implement a CORBA compliant distributed Object Request Broker. This involves the design and implementation of a compiler which maps CORBA objects to DCE remote procedure calls. Our objective is to investigate the operation of a distributed object implementation and in particular the performance which can be achieved by a DCE-based Object Request Broker which is CORBA compliant