282 research outputs found
Railways and development in Uganda: a study in economic geography
Ministry of Education ,Smuts Memorial Fund of Cambridge and British Counci
Controle de plantas daninhas em cultivos orgânicos de soja por meio de descarga elétrica
Dois experimentos foram instalados em semeadura direta, em área de cultivo orgânico de soja, no município de São Miguel do Iguaçu, Paraná (PR), com o objetivo de avaliar o controle de plantas daninhas na cultura da soja (BRS 232) por meio de descarga elétrica. O delineamento experimental foi blocos casualizados, com quatro repetições. No experimento 1, fixou-se a voltagem de 4400V e,no experimento 2, de 6800V. Em ambos os experimentos,os tratamentos consistiram das variações de rotação do motor do trator (i) 2200rpm (rotações por minutos); (ii) 2000rpm;(iii)1600rpm e as testemunhas(iv) capinada e (v) sem capina. O equipamento utilizado para aplicação dos tratamentos foi o Eletroherb (Sayyou do Brasil). As plantas daninhas existentes na área experimental foram o amendoim-bravo (Euphorbia heterophylla), a corda de-viola (Ipomoea spp.), a guanxuma (Sida spp.), o capim-marmelada(Brachiaria plantaginea) e o capim-colchão (Digitaria spp.). O emprego de descarga elétrica é eficiente no controle das plantas daninhas da cultura da soja. A rotação 2200rpm proporcionou o melhor controle e, consequentemente, a maior produtividade da soja
Theory of finite temperature crossovers near quantum critical points close to, or above, their upper-critical dimension
A systematic method for the computation of finite temperature () crossover
functions near quantum critical points close to, or above, their upper-critical
dimension is devised. We describe the physics of the various regions in the
and critical tuning parameter () plane. The quantum critical point is at
, , and in many cases there is a line of finite temperature
transitions at , with . For the relativistic,
-component continuum quantum field theory (which describes lattice
quantum rotor () and transverse field Ising () models) the upper
critical dimension is , and for , is the control
parameter over the entire phase diagram. In the region , we obtain an expansion for coupling constants which then are
input as arguments of known {\em classical, tricritical,} crossover functions.
In the high region of the continuum theory, an expansion in integer powers
of , modulo powers of , holds for all
thermodynamic observables, static correlators, and dynamic properties at all
Matsubara frequencies; for the imaginary part of correlators at real
frequencies (), the perturbative expansion describes
quantum relaxation at or larger, but fails for or smaller. An important principle,
underlying the whole calculation, is the analyticity of all observables as
functions of at , for ; indeed, analytic continuation in is
used to obtain results in a portion of the phase diagram. Our method also
applies to a large class of other quantum critical points and their associated
continuum quantum field theories.Comment: 36 pages, 4 eps figure
Noncommutative vector bundles over fuzzy CP^N and their covariant derivatives
We generalise the construction of fuzzy CP^N in a manner that allows us to
access all noncommutative equivariant complex vector bundles over this space.
We give a simplified construction of polarization tensors on S^2 that
generalizes to complex projective space, identify Laplacians and natural
noncommutative covariant derivative operators that map between the modules that
describe noncommuative sections. In the process we find a natural
generalization of the Schwinger-Jordan construction to su(n) and identify
composite oscillators that obey a Heisenberg algebra on an appropriate Fock
space.Comment: 34 pages, v2 contains minor corrections to the published versio
Scalar Field Theory on Fuzzy S^4
Scalar fields are studied on fuzzy and a solution is found for the
elimination of the unwanted degrees of freedom that occur in the model. The
resulting theory can be interpreted as a Kaluza-Klein reduction of CP^3 to S^4
in the fuzzy context.Comment: 16 pages, LaTe
The Star Product on the Fuzzy Supersphere
The fuzzy supersphere is a finite-dimensional matrix
approximation to the supersphere incorporating supersymmetry
exactly. Here the star-product of functions on is obtained by
utilizing the OSp(2,1) coherent states. We check its graded commutative limit
to and extend it to fuzzy versions of sections of bundles using the
methods of [1]. A brief discussion of the geometric structure of our
star-product completes our work.Comment: 21 pages, LaTeX, new material added, minor errors correcte
Computation of the winding number diffusion rate due to the cosmological sphaleron
A detailed quantitative analysis of the transition process mediated by a
sphaleron type non-Abelian gauge field configuration in a static Einstein
universe is carried out. By examining spectra of the fluctuation operators and
applying the zeta function regularization scheme, a closed analytical
expression for the transition rate at the one-loop level is derived. This is a
unique example of an exact solution for a sphaleron model in spacetime
dimensions.Comment: Some style corrections suggested by the referee are introduced
(mainly in Sec.II), one reference added. To appear in Phys.Rev.D 29 pages,
LaTeX, 3 Postscript figures, uses epsf.st
At the intersection of globalization and "civilizational originality' : cultural production in Putin's Russia
This special issue originates from a transnational collaboration of scholars in philology, comparative literature, social theory, sociology, anthropology, ethnography, and media studies. The collection strives to advance a research agenda built on the nexus of three intellectual and academic domains: post-Soviet Russian cultural studies', the research paradigm put forward by Cultural Studies, as well as empirical methods developed in sociology. The collection illustrates the importance of expanding the experience of Cultural Studies beyond its established spheres of national investigation, while it also speaks to the necessity to re-evaluate the hegemony of the English-language academic and cultural production on the global scale. The collection offers insights into the gamut of cultural practices and institutional environments in which Russian cultural production happens today. It shows how cultural industries and institutions in Russia are integrated into the global marketplace and transnational communities, while they also draw on and contribute to local lives and experiences by trying to create an autonomous space for symbolic production at personal and collective levels. Through diverse topics, the issue sheds light on the agency, i.e. practitioners and participants, creators and consumers, of Russian cultural production and the neoliberal practices implemented on creative work and cultural administration in Russia today. The Introduction outlines the development of academic studies on Russian cultural practices since 1991; describes main political developments shaping the cultural field in Putin's Russia; and, finally, identifies the Cultural Studies debates the editors of the collection find most productive for investigations of Russia, i.e. the instrumentalization of culture and culture as resource. Relocated in an analysis of a post-socialist society, these conceptualisations seem increasingly problematic in a situation where local and federal policies governing cultural and creative work focus simultaneously on marketization and on nationalism as the main tools of legitimizing the federal government.Peer reviewe
Systematic Reviews of Animal Experiments Demonstrate Poor Human Clinical and Toxicological Utility
The assumption that animal models are reasonably predictive of human outcomes provides the basis for their widespread use in toxicity testing and in biomedical research aimed at developing cures for human diseases. To investigate the validity of this assumption, the comprehensive Scopus biomedical bibliographic databases were searched for published systematic reviews of the human clinical or toxicological utility of animal experiments. In 20 reviews in which clinical utility was examined, the authors concluded that animal models were either significantly useful in contributing to the development of clinical interventions, or were substantially consistent with clinical outcomes, in only two cases, one of which was contentious. These included reviews of the clinical utility of experiments expected by ethics committees to lead to medical advances, of highly-cited experiments published in major journals, and of chimpanzee experiments — those involving the species considered most likely to be predictive of human outcomes. Seven additional reviews failed to clearly demonstrate utility in predicting human toxicological outcomes, such as carcinogenicity and teratogenicity. Consequently, animal data may not generally be assumed to be substantially useful for these purposes. Possible causes include interspecies differences, the distortion of outcomes arising from experimental environments and protocols, and the poor methodological quality of many animal experiments, which was evident in at least 11 reviews. No reviews existed in which the majority of animal experiments were of good methodological quality. Whilst the effects of some of these problems might be minimised with concerted effort (given their widespread prevalence), the limitations resulting from interspecies differences are likely to be technically and theoretically impossible to overcome. Non-animal models are generally required to pass formal scientific validation prior to their regulatory acceptance. In contrast, animal models are simply assumed to be predictive of human outcomes. These results demonstrate the invalidity of such assumptions. The consistent application of formal validation studies to all test models is clearly warranted, regardless of their animal, non-animal, historical, contemporary or possible future status. Likely benefits would include, the greater selection of models truly predictive of human outcomes, increased safety of people exposed to chemicals that have passed toxicity tests, increased efficiency during the development of human pharmaceuticals and other therapeutic interventions, and decreased wastage of animal, personnel and financial resources. The poor human clinical and toxicological utility of most animal models for which data exists, in conjunction with their generally substantial animal welfare and economic costs, justify a ban on animal models lacking scientific data clearly establishing their human predictivity or utility
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