Distributed leadership, trust and online communities

This paper analyses the role of distributed leadership and trust in online communities. The team-based informal ethos of online collaboration requires a different kind of leadership from that in formal positional hierarchies. Such leadership may be more flexible and sophisticated, capable of encompassing ambiguity and rapid change. Online leaders need to be partially invisible, delegating power and distributing tasks. Yet, simultaneously, online communities are facilitated by the high visibility and subtle control of expert leaders. This paradox: that leaders need to be both highly visible and invisible as appropriate, was derived from prior research and tested in the analysis of online community discussions using a pattern-matching process. It is argued that both leader visibility and invisibility are important for the facilitation of trusting collaboration via distributed leadership. Advanced leadership responses to complex situations in online communities foster positive group interaction and decision-making, facilitated through active distribution of specific tasks

Mid-Miocene cooling and the extinction of tundra in continental Antarctica

A major obstacle in understanding the evolution of Cenozoic climate has been the lack of well dated terrestrial evidence from high-latitude, glaciated regions. Here, we report the discovery of exceptionally well preserved fossils of lacustrine and terrestrial organisms from the McMurdo Dry Valleys sector of the Transantarctic Mountains for which we have established a precise radiometric chronology. The fossils, which include diatoms, palynomorphs, mosses, ostracodes, and insects, represent the last vestige of a tundra community that inhabited the mountains before stepped cooling that first brought a full polar climate to Antarctica. Paleoecological analyses, 40Ar/39Ar analyses of associated ash fall, and climate inferences from glaciological modeling together suggest that mean summer temperatures in the region cooled by at least 8°C between 14.07 ± 0.05 Ma and 13.85 ± 0.03 Ma. These results provide novel constraints for the timing and amplitude of middle-Miocene cooling in Antarctica and reveal the ecological legacy of this global climate transition

Physics of Psychophysics: Stevens and Weber-Fechner laws are transfer functions of excitable media

Sensory arrays made of coupled excitable elements can improve both their input sensitivity and dynamic range due to collective non-linear wave properties. This mechanism is studied in a neural network of electrically coupled (e.g. via gap junctions) elements subject to a Poisson signal process. The network response interpolates between a Weber-Fechner logarithmic law and a Stevens power law depending on the relative refractory period of the cell. Therefore, these non-linear transformations of the input level could be performed in the sensory periphery simply due to a basic property: the transfer function of excitable media.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Mesonic Form Factors

We have started a program to compute the electromagnetic form factors of mesons. We discuss the techniques used to compute the pion form factor and present preliminary results computed with domain wall valence fermions on MILC asqtad lattices, as well as Wilson fermions on quenched lattices. These methods can easily be extended to rho-to-gamma-pi transition form factors.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, Workshop on Lattice Hadron Physics 2003 (LHP2003

Scaling algebras and pointlike fields: A nonperturbative approach to renormalization

We present a method of short-distance analysis in quantum field theory that does not require choosing a renormalization prescription a priori. We set out from a local net of algebras with associated pointlike quantum fields. The net has a naturally defined scaling limit in the sense of Buchholz and Verch; we investigate the effect of this limit on the pointlike fields. Both for the fields and their operator product expansions, a well-defined limit procedure can be established. This can always be interpreted in the usual sense of multiplicative renormalization, where the renormalization factors are determined by our analysis. We also consider the limits of symmetry actions. In particular, for suitable limit states, the group of scaling transformations induces a dilation symmetry in the limit theory.Comment: minor changes and clarifications; as to appear in Commun. Math. Phys.; 37 page

Ecological Invasion, Roughened Fronts, and a Competitor's Extreme Advance: Integrating Stochastic Spatial-Growth Models

Both community ecology and conservation biology seek further understanding of factors governing the advance of an invasive species. We model biological invasion as an individual-based, stochastic process on a two-dimensional landscape. An ecologically superior invader and a resident species compete for space preemptively. Our general model includes the basic contact process and a variant of the Eden model as special cases. We employ the concept of a "roughened" front to quantify effects of discreteness and stochasticity on invasion; we emphasize the probability distribution of the front-runner's relative position. That is, we analyze the location of the most advanced invader as the extreme deviation about the front's mean position. We find that a class of models with different assumptions about neighborhood interactions exhibit universal characteristics. That is, key features of the invasion dynamics span a class of models, independently of locally detailed demographic rules. Our results integrate theories of invasive spatial growth and generate novel hypotheses linking habitat or landscape size (length of the invading front) to invasion velocity, and to the relative position of the most advanced invader.Comment: The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com/content/8528v8563r7u2742

Measurement of the ttbar Production Cross Section in ppbar Collisions at sqrt(s)=1.96 TeV using Lepton + Jets Events with Lifetime b-tagging

We present a measurement of the top quark pair ($t\bar{t}$) production cross section ($\sigma_{t\bar{t}}$) in $p\bar{p}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=1.96$ TeV using 230 pb$^{-1}$ of data collected by the D0 experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. We select events with one charged lepton (electron or muon), missing transverse energy, and jets in the final state. We employ lifetime-based b-jet identification techniques to further enhance the $t\bar{t}$ purity of the selected sample. For a top quark mass of 175 GeV, we measure $\sigma_{t\bar{t}}=8.6^{+1.6}_{-1.5}(stat.+syst.)\pm 0.6(lumi.)$ pb, in agreement with the standard model expectation.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, 3 tables Submitted to Phys.Rev.Let

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results

Degradabilidade in situ de híbridos de milho e de capim-elefante colhidos em quatro estádios de maturidade

Dentre as forragens, a silagem de milho é amplamente utilizada pelos fazendeiros que visam explorar o máximo do potencial genético dos animais. No entanto, outros volumosos tropicais como o capim-elefante (Pennisetum purpureum) são mais produtivos e, portanto, mais baratos do que a silagem de milho. Nosso objetivo foi comparar a degradabilidade in situ do capim-elefante com a degradabilidade de híbridos de milho, colhidos em quatro estágios de maturidade. O experimento seguiu um delineamento de blocos ao acaso com sub-parcelas. Dois híbridos de milho: AG5011 e ZN8392 foram colhidos com 25, 30, 35 e 40% matéria seca (MS) na planta toda e separados na fração colmo + bainha + folhas e espigas. Capim elefante foi colhido 30, 40, 50 e 60 dias após o corte de nivelamento. As amostras secas e trituradas foram incubadas no rúmen por 0, 6, 12, 24, 48 e 72 h para cálculo da cinética da degradação ruminal da MS e da fibra em detergente neutro (FDN). O avanço da maturidade aumentou os teores de FDN e fibra em detergente ácido (FDA) do capim elefante e reduziu a degradabilidade da MS. Entretanto, a maturidade teve pouco efeito sobre os teores de fibra e a degradabilidade da MS da fração planta dos híbridos de milho. O capim elefante apresentou maior degradabilidade da FDN do que híbridos de milho, e não houve efeito da maturidade sobre a degradabilidade da FDN das duas espécies. A degradabilidade da fibra de capim-elefante não é pior do que a de híbridos de milho e, portanto a escolha da forragem deve ser feita com base em análises econômicas ao invés de assumir um menor potencial de produção em dietas a base de capim elefanteAmong tropical forages, corn silage is largely used by farmers trying to explore the maximum genetic potential from the animals. However, other tropical forages, such as elephant-grass (Pennisetum purpureum), are more productive and therefore cheaper to use than corn silage. Our objective was to compare the in situ degradability of elephant-grass with that from corn hybrids, all harvested at four stages of maturity. The experimental design followed a randomized block design with nested subplots. Two corn hybrids: AG5011, ZN8392 were harvested with 25, 30, 35, and 40% dry matter (DM) in the whole plant, and separated in stem + leaf sheath + leaf blade (stover), and cobs. Elephant-grass was harvested with 30, 40, 50 and 60 days after a leveling cut. Dried and ground samples were incubated in nylon bags inside the rumen for 0, 6, 12, 24, 48 and 72 h to estimate the kinetics of ruminal DM and neutral detergent fiber (NDF) degradation. The advance of maturity increased the NDF and acid detergent fiber (ADF) content in elephant-grass, and reduced its DM degradability. However, maturity had little or no effect on fiber content and DM degradability of corn stover. Elephant-grass had a higher NDF degradability than corn stover, and there was no effect of maturity on NDF degradability of either elephant-grass or corn stover. Fiber degradability of elephant-grass was not worse than that of corn stover, and therefore the choice of forage should be made on economical analysis rather than assuming an intrinsic low production potential for elephant-grass based diet

Time-integrated luminosity recorded by the BABAR detector at the PEP-II e+e- collider

This article is the Preprint version of the final published artcile which can be accessed at the link below.We describe a measurement of the time-integrated luminosity of the data collected by the BABAR experiment at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy e+e- collider at the ϒ(4S), ϒ(3S), and ϒ(2S) resonances and in a continuum region below each resonance. We measure the time-integrated luminosity by counting e+e-→e+e- and (for the ϒ(4S) only) e+e-→μ+μ- candidate events, allowing additional photons in the final state. We use data-corrected simulation to determine the cross-sections and reconstruction efficiencies for these processes, as well as the major backgrounds. Due to the large cross-sections of e+e-→e+e- and e+e-→μ+μ-, the statistical uncertainties of the measurement are substantially smaller than the systematic uncertainties. The dominant systematic uncertainties are due to observed differences between data and simulation, as well as uncertainties on the cross-sections. For data collected on the ϒ(3S) and ϒ(2S) resonances, an additional uncertainty arises due to ϒ→e+e-X background. For data collected off the ϒ resonances, we estimate an additional uncertainty due to time dependent efficiency variations, which can affect the short off-resonance runs. The relative uncertainties on the luminosities of the on-resonance (off-resonance) samples are 0.43% (0.43%) for the ϒ(4S), 0.58% (0.72%) for the ϒ(3S), and 0.68% (0.88%) for the ϒ(2S).This work is supported by the US Department of Energy and National Science Foundation, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (Canada), the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique and Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physiquedes Particules (France), the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Germany), the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (Italy), the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (The Netherlands), the Research Council of Norway, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain), and the Science and Technology Facilities Council (United Kingdom). Individuals have received support from the Marie-Curie IEF program (European Union) and the A.P. Sloan Foundation (USA)