1,043 research outputs found

    Invariant Submanifolds of Generalized Sasakian-Space-Forms

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    The object of this paper is to study the invariant submanifolds of generalized Sasakian-space-forms. Here, we obtain some equivalent conditions for an invariant submanifold of a generalized Sasakian-space-forms to be totally geodesic.Comment: 11 page

    The SGR 1806-20 magnetar signature on the Earth's magnetic field

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    SGRs denote ``soft γ\gamma-ray repeaters'', a small class of slowly spinning neutron stars with strong magnetic fields. On 27 December 2004, a giant flare was detected from magnetar SGR 1806-20. The initial spike was followed by a hard-X-ray tail persisting for 380 s with a modulation period of 7.56 s. This event has received considerable attention, particularly in the astrophysics area. Its relevance to the geophysics community lies in the importance of investigating the effects of such an event on the near-earth electromagnetic environment. However, the signature of a magnetar flare on the geomagnetic field has not previously been investigated. Here, by applying wavelet analysis to the high-resolution magnetic data provided by the CHAMP satellite, a modulated signal with a period of 7.5 s over the duration of the giant flare appears in the observed data. Moreover, this event was detected by the energetic ion counters onboard the DEMETER satellite.Comment: Science Editors' Choice: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol314/issue5798/twil.dt

    Anthropogenic Space Weather

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    Anthropogenic effects on the space environment started in the late 19th century and reached their peak in the 1960s when high-altitude nuclear explosions were carried out by the USA and the Soviet Union. These explosions created artificial radiation belts near Earth that resulted in major damages to several satellites. Another, unexpected impact of the high-altitude nuclear tests was the electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that can have devastating effects over a large geographic area (as large as the continental United States). Other anthropogenic impacts on the space environment include chemical release ex- periments, high-frequency wave heating of the ionosphere and the interaction of VLF waves with the radiation belts. This paper reviews the fundamental physical process behind these phenomena and discusses the observations of their impacts.Comment: 71 pages, 35 figure

    Search for electromagnetic properties of the neutrinos at the LHC

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    Exclusive production of neutrinos via photon-photon fusion provides an excellent opportunity to probe electromagnetic properties of the neutrinos at the LHC. We explore the potential of processes pp-> p gamma gamma p -> p nu anti-nu p and pp -> p gamma gamma p -> p nu anti-nu Z p to probe neutrino-photon and neutrino-two photon couplings. We show that these reactions provide more than seven orders of magnitude improvement in neutrino-two photon couplings compared to LEP limits.Comment: 11 pages, 4 tables, New backgrounds have been adde

    Customising agent based analysis towards analysis of disaster management knowledge

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    © 2016 Dedi Iskandar Inan, Ghassan Beydoun and Simon Opper. In developed countries such as Australia, for recurring disasters (e.g. floods), there are dedicated document repositories of Disaster Management Plans (DISPLANs), and supporting doctrine and processes that are used to prepare organisations and communities for disasters. They are maintained on an ongoing cyclical basis and form a key information source for community education, engagement and awareness programme in the preparation for and mitigation of disasters. DISPLANS, generally in semi-structured text document format, are then accessed and activated during the response and recovery to incidents to coordinate emergency service and community safety actions. However, accessing the appropriate plan and the specific knowledge within the text document from across its conceptual areas in a timely manner and sharing activities between stakeholders requires intimate domain knowledge of the plan contents and its development. This paper describes progress on an ongoing project with NSW State Emergency Service (NSW SES) to convert DISPLANs into a collection of knowledge units that can be stored in a unified repository with the goal to form the basis of a future knowledge sharing capability. All Australian emergency services covering a wide range of hazards develop DISPLANs of various structure and intent, in general the plans are created as instances of a template, for example those which are developed centrally by the NSW and Victorian SES’s State planning policies. In this paper, we illustrate how by using selected templates as part of an elaborate agent-based process, we can apply agent-oriented analysis more efficiently to convert extant DISPLANs into a centralised repository. The repository is structured as a layered abstraction according to Meta Object Facility (MOF). The work is illustrated using DISPLANs along the flood-prone Murrumbidgee River in central NSW

    Electrophysiological Heterogeneity of Fast-Spiking Interneurons: Chandelier versus Basket Cells

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    In the prefrontal cortex, parvalbumin-positive inhibitory neurons play a prominent role in the neural circuitry that subserves working memory, and alterations in these neurons contribute to the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Two morphologically distinct classes of parvalbumin neurons that target the perisomatic region of pyramidal neurons, chandelier cells (ChCs) and basket cells (BCs), are generally thought to have the same "fast-spiking" phenotype, which is characterized by a short action potential and high frequency firing without adaptation. However, findings from studies in different species suggest that certain electrophysiological membrane properties might differ between these two cell classes. In this study, we assessed the physiological heterogeneity of fast-spiking interneurons as a function of two factors: species (macaque monkey vs. rat) and morphology (chandelier vs. basket). We showed previously that electrophysiological membrane properties of BCs differ between these two species. Here, for the first time, we report differences in ChCs membrane properties between monkey and rat. We also found that a number of membrane properties differentiate ChCs from BCs. Some of these differences were species-independent (e.g., fast and medium afterhyperpolarization, firing frequency, and depolarizing sag), whereas the differences in the first spike latency between ChCs and BCs were species-specific. Our findings indicate that different combinations of electrophysiological membrane properties distinguish ChCs from BCs in rodents and primates. Such electrophysiological differences between ChCs and BCs likely contribute to their distinctive roles in cortical circuitry in each species. © 2013 Povysheva et al

    Alcohol drinking in one's thirties and forties is associated with body mass index in men, but not in women: A longitudinal analysis of the 1970 British Cohort Study

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    Our objective was to investigate longitudinal associations between alcohol drinking and body mass index (BMI). Alcohol drinking (exposure), BMI (outcome), smoking habit, occupation, longstanding illness, and leisure time physical activity (potential confounders) were assessed at ages 30, 34, 42, and 46 in the 1970 British Birth Cohort Study. Multilevel models were used to cope with the problem of correlated observations. There were 15,708 observations in 5931 men and 14,077 observations in 5656 women. Drinking was associated with BMI in men. According to the regression coefficients, BMI was expected to increase by 0.36 (95% confidence interval: 0.11, 0.60) kg/m2 per year in men who drank once a week and by 0.40 (0.14, 0.15) kg/m2 per year in men who drank most days. In ten years, BMI was expected to increase by 5.4 kg/m2 in men who drank and by 2.9 kg/m2 in men who drank and were physically active. Drinking was not associated with BMI in women. Rather, BMI was expected to increase by 0.25 (0.07, 0.43) kg/m2 per year in women who were former smokers. In ten years, BMI was expected to increase by 4.3 kg/m2 in women who were former smokers and by 0.8 kg/m2 in women who were former smokers and who were physically active. Associations between drinking and BMI were similar after further adjustment for problematic drinking and diet. These longitudinal data suggest that drinking is associated with BMI in men and that drinking is not associated with BMI in women independent of other lifestyle risk factors
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