Initial state fluctuations in collisions between light and heavy ions

In high energy collisions involving small nuclei (p+p or x+Au collisions where x=p, d, or $^3$He) the fluctuating size, shape and internal gluonic structure of the nucleon is shown to have a strong effect on the initial size and shape of the fireball of new matter created in the collision. A systematic study of the eccentricity coefficients describing this initial fireball state for several semi-realistic models of nucleon substructure and for several practically relevant collision systems involving small nuclei is presented. The key importance of multiplicity fluctuations in such systems is pointed out. Our results show large differences from expectations based on conventional Glauber model simulations of the initial state created in such collisions.Comment: 18 pages, 15 figures. Submitted to Physical Review

The Management of Pay as the Influence of Collective Bargaining Diminishes.

The management of pay in Britain has changed substantially in recent years. The paper starts with a theoretical discussion of the extent to which individual employers can exercise discretion in the management of their employees' pay. It then examines the ways in which pay is used to secure productive effort. An analysis of the influence of trade unions leads on to an examination of the diminishing influence of collective bargaining in British pay determination. The implications of this are discussed for employer pay strategies, within and between firms, and internationally. It concludes with the consequences of diminishing trade union influence for the distribution of pay.wage determination; collective bargaining; remuneration management; bargaining structure; income distribution; trade union effects; employer pay strategy

Policy responses to invasive native species: issues of social and private benefits and costs

Farm and catchment managers in Australia face decisions about controlling invasive native species (or scrub) which may infest agricultural land. The treatment of this land to remove the infestation and re-establish native pastures is likely to be expensive for landholders. Yet there are potential social benefits from such remediation and so a policy question arises of what to do to about facilitating such change. New South Wales state government legislation addresses this issue through regulations, and the Catchment Management Authorities are responsible for administering public funds to achieve associated natural resource improvements. However, the extent of the private costs and social benefits associated with such changes are not known, which precludes benefit-cost analyses using the traditional welfare economics framework. This paper reports results of a social and private economic analysis of the impacts of a typical infestation remediation decision. We show that for the landholder the private costs exceed the benefits achieved from increased livestock productivity. However, there are social benefits expressed by the willingness to pay by members of the local catchment community for improvements in native vegetation and biodiversity. When these social benefits are included, the economic analysis shows a positive social net benefit. This raises questions of how to reconcile the public and private accounting, and whether any changes to policies, regulations or procedures for natural resource management in New South Wales are warranted.Invasive native scrub, environmental values, choice modelling, financial, economic, Namoi catchment,

Reply to the comment on 'Validity of certain soft photon amplitudes'

We respond to the accompanying Comment on our paper, 'Validity of certain soft photon amplitudes'. While we hope the discussion here clarifies the issues, we have found nothing which leads to a change in the original conclusions of our paper.Comment: 6 pages, Latex, uses ReVTeX, now publishe

Suitable databases for process-centred environments do not yet exist

this paper we argue that, despite the substantial number of proposed new database systems, a suitable database system for software developmentenvironments and especially process-centred environments does not yet exist. Wedos

On the fundamental group of the complement of a complex hyperplane arrangement

We construct two combinatorially equivalent line arrangements in the complex projective plane such that the fundamental groups of their complements are not isomorphic. The proof uses a new invariant of the fundamental group of the complement to a line arrangement of a given combinatorial type with respect to isomorphisms inducing the canonical isomorphism of the first homology groups.Comment: 12 pages, Latex2e with AMSLaTeX 1.2, no figures; this last version is almost the same as published in Functional Analysis and its Applications 45:2 (2011), 137-14

Gas Absorption Detected from the Edge-on Debris Disk Surrounding HD32297

Near-infrared and optical imaging of HD32297 indicate that it has an edge-on debris disk, similar to beta Pic. I present high resolution optical spectra of the NaI doublet toward HD32297 and stars in close angular proximity. A circumstellar absorption component is clearly observed toward HD32297 at the stellar radial velocity, which is not observed toward any of its neighbors, including the nearest only 0.9 arcmin away. An interstellar component is detected in all stars >90 pc, including HD32297, likely due to the interstellar material at the boundary of the Local Bubble. Radial velocity measurements of the nearest neighbors, BD+07 777s and BD+07 778, indicate that they are unlikely to be physically associated with HD32297. The measured circumstellar column density around HD32997, log N(NaI) ~ 11.4, is the strongest NaI absorption measured toward any nearby main sequence debris disk, even the prototypical edge-on debris disk, beta Pic. Assuming that the morphology and abundances of the gas component around HD32297 are similar to beta Pic, I estimate an upper limit to the gas mass in the circumstellar disk surrounding HD32297 of ~0.3 M_Earth.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures; Accepted for publication in ApJ Letter

Association of N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide with cognitive function and depression in elderly people with type 2 diabetes

<p>Background: Type 2 diabetes mellitus is associated with risk of congestive heart failure (CHF), cognitive dysfunction and depression. CHF itself is linked both to poor cognition and depression. The ventricular N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) is a marker of CHF, suggesting potential as a marker for cognitive impairment and/or depression. This was tested in the Edinburgh Type 2 Diabetes Study (ET2DS).</p> <p>Methodology and Principal Findings: Cross-sectional analysis of 1066 men and women aged 60–75 with type 2 diabetes. Results from seven neuropsychological tests were combined in a standardised general cognitive ability factor, ‘g’. A vocabulary-based test estimated pre-morbid cognitive ability. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) assessed possible depression. After adjustment for age and sex, raised plasma NT-proBNP was weakly associated with lower ‘g’ and higher depression scores (ß −0.09, 95% CI −0.13 to −0.03, p = 0.004 and ß 0.08, 95% CI 0.04 to 0.12, p<0.001, respectively). Comparing extreme quintiles of NT-proBNP, subjects in the highest quintile were more likely to have reduced cognitive ability (within the lowest tertile of ‘g’) and ‘possible’ depression (HADS depression ≥8) (OR 1.80; 95% CI: 1.20, 2.70; p = 0.005 and OR 2.18; 95% CI: 1.28, 3.71; p = 0.004, respectively). Associations persisted when pre-morbid ability was adjusted for, but as expected were no longer statistically significant following the adjustment for diabetes-related and vascular co-variates (β −0.02, 95% CI −0.07 to 0.03, p>0.05 for ‘g’; β 0.03, 95% CI −0.02 to 0.07, p>0.05 for depression scores).</p> <p>Conclusion: Raised plasma NT-proBNP was weakly but statistically significantly associated with poorer cognitive function and depression. The prospective phases of the ET2DS will help determine whether or not NT-proBNP can be considered a risk marker for subsequent cognitive impairment and incident depression and whether it provides additional information over and above traditional risk factors for these conditions.</p&gt