23,934 research outputs found
Down to earth : a historical-sociological analysis of the rise and fall of 'industrial' agriculture and of the prospects for the re-rooting of agriculture from the factory to the local farmer and ecology
Lookback time bounds from energy conditions
In general relativity, the energy conditions are invoked to restrict general
energy-momentum tensors on physical grounds. We show that in the standard
Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) approach to cosmological modeling,
where the energy and matter components of the cosmic fluid are unknown, the
energy conditions provide model-independent bounds on the behavior of the
lookback time of cosmic sources as a function of the redshift for any value of
the spatial curvature. We also confront such bounds with a lookback time sample
which is built from the age estimates of 32 galaxies lying in the interval
and by assuming the total expanding age of the
Universe to be Gyr, as obtained from current cosmic microwave
background experiments. In agreement with previous results, we show that all
energy conditions seem to have been violated at some point of the recent past
of cosmic evolution.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures. v2: Minor changes, published in Phys.Rev.D in the
present for
Energy Conditions and Cosmic Acceleration
In general relativity, the energy conditions are invoked to restrict general
energy-momentum tensors in different frameworks, and to derive
general results that hold in a variety of general contexts on physical grounds.
We show that in the standard Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW)
approach, where the equation of state of the cosmological fluid is unknown, the
energy conditions provide model-independent bounds on the behavior of the
distance modulus of cosmic sources as a function of the redshift for any
spatial curvature. We use the most recent type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia)
observations, which include the new Hubble Space Telescope SNe Ia events, to
carry out a model-independent analysis of the energy conditions violation in
the context of the standard cosmology. We show that both the null (NEC), weak
(WEC) and dominant (DEC) conditions, which are associated with the existence of
the so-called phantom fields, seem to have been violated only recently (), whereas the condition for attractive gravity, i.e., the strong
energy condition (SEC) was firstly violated billions of years ago, at .Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures. v2: References added, misprints corrected,
published in Phys.Rev.D in the present for
Exploring the effect of sex on empirical fitness landscapes
The nature of epistasis has important consequences for the evolutionary significance of sex and recombination. Recent efforts to find negative epistasis as a source of negative linkage disequilibrium and associated long-term advantage to sex have yielded little support. Sign epistasis, where the sign of the fitness effects of alleles varies across genetic backgrounds, is responsible for the ruggedness of the fitness landscape, with several unexplored implications for the evolution of sex. Here, we describe fitness landscapes for two sets of strains of the asexual fungus Aspergillus niger involving all combinations of five mutations. We find that 30% of the single-mutation fitness effects are positive despite their negative effect in the wild-type strain and that several local fitness maxima and minima are present. We then compare adaptation of sexual and asexual populations on these empirical fitness landscapes by using simulations. The results show a general disadvantage of sex on these rugged landscapes, caused by the breakdown by recombination of genotypes on fitness peaks. Sex facilitates movement to the global peak only for some parameter values on one landscape, indicating its dependence on the landscapeâs topography. We discuss possible reasons for the discrepancy between our results and the reports of faster adaptation of sexual population
Dirty black holes: Symmetries at stationary non-static horizons
We establish that the Einstein tensor takes on a highly symmetric form near
the Killing horizon of any stationary but non-static (and non-extremal) black
hole spacetime. [This follows up on a recent article by the current authors,
gr-qc/0402069, which considered static black holes.] Specifically, at any such
Killing horizon -- irrespective of the horizon geometry -- the Einstein tensor
block-diagonalizes into ``transverse'' and ``parallel'' blocks, and its
transverse components are proportional to the transverse metric. Our findings
are supported by two independent procedures; one based on the regularity of the
on-horizon geometry and another that directly utilizes the elegant nature of a
bifurcate Killing horizon. It is then argued that geometrical symmetries will
severely constrain the matter near any Killing horizon. We also speculate on
how this may be relevant to certain calculations of the black hole entropy.Comment: 21 pages; plain LaTe
Fourier spectra from exoplanets with polar caps and ocean glint
The weak orbital-phase dependent reflection signal of an exoplanet contains
information on the planet surface, such as the distribution of continents and
oceans on terrestrial planets. This light curve is usually studied in the time
domain, but because the signal from a stationary surface is (quasi)periodic,
analysis of the Fourier series may provide an alternative, complementary
approach.
We study Fourier spectra from reflected light curves for geometrically simple
configurations. Depending on its atmospheric properties, a rotating planet in
the habitable zone could have circular polar ice caps. Tidally locked planets,
on the other hand, may have symmetric circular oceans facing the star. These
cases are interesting because the high-albedo contrast at the sharp edges of
the ice-sheets and the glint from the host star in the ocean may produce
recognizable light curves with orbital periodicity, which could also be
interpreted in the Fourier domain.
We derive a simple general expression for the Fourier coefficients of a
quasiperiodic light curve in terms of the albedo map of a Lambertian planet
surface. Analytic expressions for light curves and their spectra are calculated
for idealized situations, and dependence of spectral peaks on the key
parameters inclination, obliquity, and cap size is studied.Comment: 15 pages, 2 tables, 13 figure
Geometric structure of the generic static traversable wormhole throat
Traversable wormholes have traditionally been viewed as intrinsically
topological entities in some multiply connected spacetime. Here, we show that
topology is too limited a tool to accurately characterize a generic traversable
wormhole: in general one needs geometric information to detect the presence of
a wormhole, or more precisely to locate the wormhole throat. For an arbitrary
static spacetime we shall define the wormhole throat in terms of a
2-dimensional constant-time hypersurface of minimal area. (Zero trace for the
extrinsic curvature plus a "flare-out" condition.) This enables us to severely
constrain the geometry of spacetime at the wormhole throat and to derive
generalized theorems regarding violations of the energy conditions-theorems
that do not involve geodesic averaging but nevertheless apply to situations
much more general than the spherically symmetric Morris-Thorne traversable
wormhole. [For example: the null energy condition (NEC), when suitably weighted
and integrated over the wormhole throat, must be violated.] The major technical
limitation of the current approach is that we work in a static spacetime-this
is already a quite rich and complicated system.Comment: 25 pages; plain LaTeX; uses epsf.sty (four encapsulated postscript
figures
Web Based Organizing and the Management of Human Resources
The paper focuses on the consequences of web-based business-to-business transactions in medium and large old economy companies in particular and discusses the implications for HRM and HR professionals. Medium and large old economy companies can be involved in transactions within the new economy in different ways. First of all the paper gives an overview of the striking characteristics that distinguish web-based transactions from more traditional transactions. The paper continues with an overview of the different ways in which old economy companies are attempting to integrate elements of web-based organizing into their current business and the implications of it for human resources management. Three different ways of integration are distinguished:-Seeing the Net as an extension of normal market channels for buying and selling.-Using the Net to expand and improve current co-makership relationships amongst key suppliers (section 4).-Totally re-thinking business models before deciding on e-commerce strategy and practice, which implies desegregation and organizational revolution. Each of these areas will be highlighted and possible implications for human resources management and HR managers considered.human resource management;business to business transactions;human resource managers;web-based organizing
Closed timelike curves in general relativity
Many solutions of Einstein's field equations contain closed timelike curves
(CTC). Some of these solutions refer to ordinary materials in situations which
might occur in the laboratory, or in astrophysics. It is argued that, in
default of a reasonable interpretation of CTC, general relativity does not give
a satisfactory account of all phenomena within its terms of reference.Comment: 3 pages, PACS: 042
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