A New Derivation of the CPT and Spin-Statistics Theorems in Non-Commutative Field Theories

We propose an alternative axiomatic description for non-commutative field theories (NCFT) based on some ideas by Soloviev to nonlocal quantum fields. The local commutativity axiom is replaced by the weaker condition that the fields commute at sufficiently large spatial separations, called asymptotic commutativity, formulated in terms of the theory of analytic functionals. The question of a possible violation of the CPT and Spin-Statistics theorems caused by nonlocality of the commutation relations $[\hat{x}_\mu,\hat{x}_\nu]=i\theta_{\mu\nu}$ is investigated. In spite of this inherent nonlocality, we show that the modification aforementioned is sufficient to ensure the validity of these theorems for NCFT. We restrict ourselves to the simplest model of a scalar field in the case of only space-space non-commutativity.Comment: The title is new, and the analysis in the manuscript has been made more precise. This revised version is to be published in J.Math.Phy

Comparison of esters determination techniques in cachaça

An analytical comparison of three different techniques for quantitative profile of esters in cachaça is reported. The Ministério da Agricultura Pecuária e Abastecimento (MAPA) recommends the use of GC/FID or volumetry. Despite being laborious and lacking in chemical speciation, the volumetric technique for total ester content shows to be appropriate, reproducible, and accurate for the analysis of cachaça. However, the GC/FID suggested by MAPA, considering only ethyl acetate, shows inaccuracy, underestimating the total ester content by a median factor of 72%, mainly due to the absence of ethyl lactate analysis. On the other hand, the GC/MS technique that comprises the analysis and speciation of nine esters, including ethyl lactate, proved to be reproducible, simple, fast and accurate for the analysis of total ester content in cachaça. Thus, the total ester content results obtained using GC/FID must be considered with precaution.FAPESPCNP

Lethal Mutagenesis of Poliovirus Mediated by a Mutagenic Pyrimidine Analogue

Lethal mutagenesis is the mechanism of action of ribavirin against poliovirus (PV) and numerous other RNA viruses. However, there is still considerable debate regarding the mechanism of action of ribavirin against a variety of RNA viruses. Here we show by using T7 RNA polymerase mediated production of PV genomic RNA, PV polymerase-catalyzed primer extension and cell-free PV synthesis that a pyrimidine ribonucleoside triphosphate analogue (rPTP) with ambiguous basepairing capacity is an efficient mutagen of the PV genome. The in vitro incorporation properties of rPTP are superior to ribavirin triphosphate. We observed a log-linear relationship between virus titer reduction and the number of rPMP molecules incorporated. A PV genome encoding a high-fidelity polymerase was more sensitive to rPMP incorporation, consistent with diminished mutational robustness of high-fidelity PV. The nucleoside (rP) did not exhibit antiviral activity in cell culture owing to the inability of rP to be converted to rPMP by cellular nucleotide kinases. rP was also a poor substrate for herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase. The block to nucleoside phosphorylation could be bypassed by treatment with the P nucleobase, which exhibited both antiviral activity and mutagenesis, presumably a reflection of rP nucleotide formation by a nucleotide salvage pathway. These studies provide additional support for lethal mutagenesis as an antiviral strategy, suggest that rPMP prodrugs may be highly efficacious antiviral agents, and provide a new tool to determine the sensitivity of RNA virus genomes to mutagenesis as well as interrogation of the impact of mutational load on the population dynamics of these viruses

Eu ganho, a empresa ganha ou ganhamos juntos? Traços moderados do Dark Triad e a maximização de lucros

This article analyzes the relationship between the maximization of personal and company gains and the moderate traits of the Dark Triad. The relevance of choosing this topic lies in investigating the attitude of executives who exhibit characteristics of a moderate intensity between the strong and weak traits. It is proven that the vision and charisma of narcissistic individuals, the strategy and tactics of Machiavellian individuals, and the creativity and good strategic thinking of psychopathic individuals are differentiating characteristics that enhance successful and integrative leadership and that are far from the more accentuated and opportunistic attitudes related to the strong traits, whose practices involve dishonest actions for personal gain. This evidence creates the possibility for strengthening the research in the accounting area, especially on the behavioral approach, in order to promote its interface with psychology and clarify how personality, values, and experiences influence managers’ choices when conducting business and how workers and companies are impacted by these decisions. The study is empirical-theoretical and involves 263 managers, adopting a survey as its data collection strategy and applying a selfreporting type questionnaire. The data analysis approaches included descriptive statistics, correlations, tests of means, and logistic regressions. In this study, managers with moderate psychopathic traits showed a lower tendency to maximize profit by manipulating results. An opposite tendency was revealed for those with moderate Machiavellian traits. The combined effect of the three Dark Triad traits was significant and positive, revealing opportunistic profit maximization. These findings contribute to future studies that aim to systematically analyze moderate levels of the triad and corroborate the findings that have revealed the common characteristics of manipulation, callousness, and dishonesty when investigating the interactive effect between the traits in question.Este artigo analisa a relação entre a maximização de ganhos pessoais e empresariais e os traços moderados do Dark Triad. A relevância da escolha do tema recai sobre a investigação da atitude de executivos que exibem características com intensidade moderada entre os altos e baixos traços. Comprova-se que a visão e o carisma do indivíduo narcisista, a estratégia e tática do indivíduo maquiavelista e a criatividade e o bom pensamento estratégico do indivíduo psicopata são características diferenciadoras que potencializam uma liderança bem-sucedida e integradora – distante de atitudes negativas mais acentuadas e oportunísticas, concernentes aos altos traços, cujas práticas evidenciam ações desonestas para ganho pessoal. Tais evidências proporcionam a possibilidade de fortalecimento das pesquisas na área contábil, em especial da abordagem comportamental, por promover sua interface com a psicologia para esclarecer como a personalidade, os valores e as experiências influenciam as escolhas dos gestores na condução do negócio e como os funcionários e as empresas são impactados por essas decisões. Trata-se de pesquisa empírico-teórica, realizada com 263 gerentes, adotando o survey como estratégia de coleta de dados – com aplicação de questionário do tipo autorrelato. As abordagens de análise de dados foram: estatística descritiva, correlação, teste de médias e regressão logística. Neste estudo, gestores com traços moderados de Psicopatia evidenciaram menor disposição a maximizar ganhos por meio da manipulação de resultados. Disposição contrária foi revelada para aqueles com traços moderados de Maquiavelismo. O efeito combinado entre os três traços do Dark Triad foi significativo e positivo, com a maximização oportunística de ganhos. Tais achados contribuem com futuras pesquisas que almejem analisar de modo sistemático o nível moderado da tríade e corroboram os achados que revelaram as características comuns de manipulação, insensibilidade e desonestidade quando se investiga o efeito interativo entre os traços em questão

The Key Role of Heavy Precipitation Events in Climate Model Disagreements of Future Annual Precipitation Changes in California

Climate model simulations disagree on whether future precipitation will increase or decrease over California, which has impeded efforts to anticipate and adapt to human-induced climate change. This disagreement is explored in terms of daily precipitation frequency and intensity. It is found that divergent model projections of changes in the incidence of rare heavy (\u3e60 mm day−1) daily precipitation events explain much of the model disagreement on annual time scales, yet represent only 0.3% of precipitating days and 9% of annual precipitation volume. Of the 25 downscaled model projections examined here, 21 agree that precipitation frequency will decrease by the 2060s, with a mean reduction of 6–14 days yr−1. This reduces California\u27s mean annual precipitation by about 5.7%. Partly offsetting this, 16 of the 25 projections agree that daily precipitation intensity will increase, which accounts for a model average 5.3% increase in annual precipitation. Between these conflicting tendencies, 12 projections show drier annual conditions by the 2060s and 13 show wetter. These results are obtained from 16 global general circulation models downscaled with different combinations of dynamical methods [Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF), Regional Spectral Model (RSM), and version 3 of the Regional Climate Model (RegCM3)] and statistical methods [bias correction with spatial disaggregation (BCSD) and bias correction with constructed analogs (BCCA)], although not all downscaling methods were applied to each global model. Model disagreements in the projected change in occurrence of the heaviest precipitation days (\u3e60 mm day−1) account for the majority of disagreement in the projected change in annual precipitation, and occur preferentially over the Sierra Nevada and Northern California. When such events are excluded, nearly twice as many projections show drier future conditions

Probabilistic estimates of future changes in California temperature and precipitation usingstatistical and dynamical downscaling

Sixteen global general circulation models were used to develop probabilistic projections of temperature (T) and precipitation (P) changes over California by the 2060s. The global models were downscaled with two statistical techniques and three nested dynamical regional climate models, although not all global models were downscaled with all techniques. Both monthly and daily timescale changes in T and P are addressed, the latter being important for a range of applications in energy use, water management, and agriculture. The T changes tend to agree more across downscaling techniques than the P changes. Year-to-year natural internal climate variability is roughly of similar magnitude to the projected T changes. In the monthly average, July temperatures shift enough that that the hottest July found in any simulation over the historical period becomes a modestly cool July in the future period. Januarys as cold as any found in the historical period are still found in the 2060s, but the median and maximum monthly average temperatures increase notably. Annual and seasonal P changes are small compared to interannual or intermodel variability. However, the annual change is composed of seasonally varying changes that are themselves much larger, but tend to cancel in the annual mean. Winters show modestly wetter conditions in the North of the state, while spring and autumn show less precipitation. The dynamical downscaling techniques project increasing precipitation in the Southeastern part of the state, which is influenced by the North American monsoon, a feature that is not captured by the statistical downscaling

Supersymmetric Field-Theoretic Models on a Supermanifold

We propose the extension of some structural aspects that have successfully been applied in the development of the theory of quantum fields propagating on a general spacetime manifold so as to include superfield models on a supermanifold. We only deal with the limited class of supermanifolds which admit the existence of a smooth body manifold structure. Our considerations are based on the Catenacci-Reina-Teofillatto-Bryant approach to supermanifolds. In particular, we show that the class of supermanifolds constructed by Bonora-Pasti-Tonin satisfies the criterions which guarantee that a supermanifold admits a Hausdorff body manifold. This construction is the closest to the physicist's intuitive view of superspace as a manifold with some anticommuting coordinates, where the odd sector is topologically trivial. The paper also contains a new construction of superdistributions and useful results on the wavefront set of such objects. Moreover, a generalization of the spectral condition is formulated using the notion of the wavefront set of superdistributions, which is equivalent to the requirement that all of the component fields satisfy, on the body manifold, a microlocal spectral condition proposed by Brunetti-Fredenhagen-K\"ohler.Comment: Final version to appear in J.Math.Phy

Microclimatic performance of a free-air warming and CO2 enrichment experiment in windy Wyoming, USA

In order to plan for global changing climate experiments are being conducted in many countries, but few have monitored the effects of the climate change treatments (warming, elevated CO2) on the experimental plot microclimate. During three years of an eight year study with year-round feedback-controlled infra-red heater warming (1.5/3.0°C day/night) and growing season free-air CO2 enrichment (600 ppm) in the mixed-grass prairie of Wyoming, USA, we monitored soil, leaf, canopy-air, above-canopy-air temperatures and relative humidity of control and treated experimental plots and evaluated ecologically important temperature differentials. Leaves were warmed somewhat less than the target settings (1.1 & 1.5°C day/night) but soil was warmed more creating an average that matched the target settings extremely well both during the day and night plus the summer and winter. The site typically has about 50% bare or litter covered soil, therefore soil heat transfer is more critical than in dense canopy ecosystems. The Wyoming site commonly has strong winds (5 ms-1 average) and significant daily and seasonal temperature fluctuations (as much as 30°C daily) but the warming system was nearly always able to maintain the set temperatures regardless of abiotic variation. The within canopy-air was only slightly warmed and above canopy- air was not warmed by the system, therefore convective warming was minor. Elevated CO2 had no direct effect nor interaction with the warming treatment on microclimate. Relative humidity within the plant canopy was only slightly reduced by warming. Soil water content was reduced by warming but increased by elevated CO2. This study demonstrates the importance of monitoring the microclimate in manipulative field global change experiments so that critical physiological and ecological conclusions can be determined. Highly variable energy demand fluctuations showed that passive IR heater warming systems will not maintain desired warming for much of the time

The Kaon BB-parameter with Wilson Fermions

We calculate the kaon $B$-parameter in quenched lattice QCD at $\beta=6.0$ using Wilson fermions at $\kappa=0.154$ and $0.155$. We use two kinds of non-local (``smeared'') sources for quark propagators to calculate the matrix elements between states of definite momentum. The use of smeared sources yields results with much smaller errors than obtained in previous calculations with Wilson fermions. By combining results for $\vec p =(0,0,0)$ and $\vec p =(0,0,1)$, we show that one can carry out the non-perturbative subtraction necessary to remove the dominant lattice artifacts induced by the chiral symmetry breaking term in the Wilson action. Our final results are in good agreement with those obtained using staggered fermions. We also present results for $B$-parameters of the $\Delta I = 3/2$ part of the electromagnetic penguin operators, and preliminary results for \bk\ in the presence of two flavors of dynamical quarks.Comment: 39 pages, including 9 PS figures (LA UR-91-3522