Native and invasive inoculation sources modify fungal community assembly and biomass production of a chaparral shrub

Feedbacks between plants and surrounding soil microbes can contribute to the establishment and persistence of invasive annual grasses as well as limit the success of restoration efforts. In this study, we aim to understand how three sources of soil inocula – native, invasive (from under Bromus diandrus) and sterile – affect the growth response and fungal community composition in the roots of a chaparral shrub, Adenostoma fasciculatum. We grew A. fasciculatum from seed in a greenhouse with each inoculum source and harvested at six months. We measured above- and below-ground biomass, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal (AMF) colonization and conducted targeted-amplicon sequencing of the 18S and ITS2 loci to characterize AMF and general fungal community composition, respectively. Native inoculum resulted in roots with richer communities of some groups of AMF and non-AMF symbionts, when compared to roots grown with invasive or sterile inoculum. Seedlings grown with invasive and native inoculum did not have different growth responses, but both produced more biomass than a sterile control. These findings suggest that inoculation with soil from native species can increase the diversity of multiple groups of fungal symbionts and inoculation with live soil (invasive or native) can increase seedling biomass. Moreover, future work would benefit from assessing if a more diverse community of fungal symbionts increases seedling survival when planted in field restoration sites

The ILR School at Fifty: Voices of the Faculty, Alumni & Friends (Full Text)

A collection of reflections on the first fifty years of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University. Compiled by Robert B. McKersie, J. Gormly Miller, Robert L. Aronson, and Robert R. Julian. Edited by Elaine Gruenfeld Goldberg. It was the hope of the compilers that the reflections contained in this book would both kindle memories of the school and stimulate interest on the part of future generations of ILRies who have not yet shared in its special history. Dedicated to the Memory of J. Gormly Miller, 1914-1995. Copyright 1996 by Cornell University. All rights reserved

Erosion waves: transverse instabilities and fingering

Two laboratory scale experiments of dry and under-water avalanches of non-cohesive granular materials are investigated. We trigger solitary waves and study the conditions under which the front is transversally stable. We show the existence of a linear instability followed by a coarsening dynamics and finally the onset of a fingering pattern. Due to the different operating conditions, both experiments strongly differ by the spatial and time scales involved. Nevertheless, the quantitative agreement between the stability diagram, the wavelengths selected and the avalanche morphology reveals a common scenario for an erosion/deposition process.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, submitted to PR

Shift in the velocity of a front due to a cut-off

We consider the effect of a small cut-off epsilon on the velocity of a traveling wave in one dimension. Simulations done over more than ten orders of magnitude as well as a simple theoretical argument indicate that the effect of the cut-off epsilon is to select a single velocity which converges when epsilon tends to 0 to the one predicted by the marginal stability argument. For small epsilon, the shift in velocity has the form K(log epsilon)^(-2) and our prediction for the constant K agrees very well with the results of our simulations. A very similar logarithmic shift appears in more complicated situations, in particular in finite size effects of some microscopic stochastic systems. Our theoretical approach can also be extended to give a simple way of deriving the shift in position due to initial conditions in the Fisher-Kolmogorov or similar equations.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure

Test of Special Relativity and Equivalence principle from K Physics

A violation of Local Lorentz Invariance (VLI) and hence the special theory of relativity or a violation of equivalence principle (VEP) in the Kaon system can, in principle, induce oscillations between $K^0$ and $\bar{K}^0$. We construct a general formulation in which simultaneous pairwise diagonalization of mass, momemtum, weak or gravitational eigenstates is not assumed. %and the maximum attainable %velocities of the velocity eigenstates are different. We discuss this problem in a general way and point out that, as expected, the VEP and VLI contributions are indistinguishable. We then insist on the fact that VEP or VLI can occur even when CPT is conserved. A possible CP violation of the superweak type induced by VEP or VLI is introduced and discussed. We show that the general VEP mechanism (or the VLI mechanism, but not both simultaneously), with or without conserved CPT, could be clearly tested experimentally through the energy dependence of the $K_L-K_S$ mass difference and of $\eta_{+-}$, $\eta_{00}$, $\delta$. Constraints imposed by present experiments are calculated.Comment: Latex, 15 pages, 1 figure, version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Non-Fermi-liquid behavior in Ce(Ru1−x_{1-x}Fex_x)2_2Ge2_2: cause and effect

We present inelastic neutron scattering measurements on the intermetallic compounds Ce(Ru$_{1-x}$Fe$_x$)$_2$Ge$_2$ ($x$=0.65, 0.76 and 0.87). These compounds represent samples in a magnetically ordered phase, at a quantum critical point and in the heavy-fermion phase, respectively. We show that at high temperatures the three compositions have the identical response of a local moment system. However, at low temperatures the spin fluctuations in the critical composition are given by non-Fermi-liquid dynamics, while the spin fluctuations in the heavy fermion system show a simple exponential decay in time. In both compositions, the lifetime of the fluctuations is determined solely by the distance to the quantum critical point. We discuss the implications of these observations regarding the possible origins of non-Fermi-liquid behavior in this system.Comment: 4 figures, submitted to PR

Electronic correlations in FeGa3 and the effect of hole doping on its magnetic properties

We investigate signatures of electronic correlations in the narrow-gap semiconductor FeGa 3 by means of electrical resistivity and thermodynamic measurements performed on single crystals of FeGa 3 , Fe 1−x Mn x Ga 3 , and FeGa 3−y Zn y , complemented by a study of the 4d analog material RuGa 3 . We find that the inclusion of sizable amounts of Mn and Zn dopants into FeGa 3 does not induce an insulator-to-metal transition. Our study indicates that both substitution of Zn onto the Ga site and replacement of Fe by Mn introduces states into the semiconducting gap that remain localized even at highest doping levels. Most importantly, using neutron powder diffraction measurements, we establish that FeGa 3 orders magnetically above room temperature in a complex structure, which is almost unaffected by the doping with Mn and Zn. Using realistic many-body calculations within the framework of dynamical mean field theory (DMFT), we argue that while the iron atoms in FeGa 3 are dominantly in an S=1 state, there are strong charge and spin fluctuations on short-time scales, which are independent of temperature. Further, the low magnitude of local contributions to the spin susceptibility advocates an itinerant mechanism for the spin response in FeGa 3 . Our joint experimental and theoretical investigations classify FeGa 3 as a correlated band insulator with only small dynamical correlation effects, in which nonlocal exchange interactions are responsible for the spin gap of 0.4 eV and the antiferromagnetic order. We show that hole doping of FeGa 3 leads, within DMFT, to a notable strengthening of many-body renormalizations

On Conceptually Simple Algorithms for Variants of Online Bipartite Matching

We present a series of results regarding conceptually simple algorithms for bipartite matching in various online and related models. We first consider a deterministic adversarial model. The best approximation ratio possible for a one-pass deterministic online algorithm is $1/2$, which is achieved by any greedy algorithm. D\"urr et al. recently presented a $2$-pass algorithm called Category-Advice that achieves approximation ratio $3/5$. We extend their algorithm to multiple passes. We prove the exact approximation ratio for the $k$-pass Category-Advice algorithm for all $k \ge 1$, and show that the approximation ratio converges to the inverse of the golden ratio $2/(1+\sqrt{5}) \approx 0.618$ as $k$ goes to infinity. The convergence is extremely fast --- the $5$-pass Category-Advice algorithm is already within $0.01\%$ of the inverse of the golden ratio. We then consider a natural greedy algorithm in the online stochastic IID model---MinDegree. This algorithm is an online version of a well-known and extensively studied offline algorithm MinGreedy. We show that MinDegree cannot achieve an approximation ratio better than $1-1/e$, which is guaranteed by any consistent greedy algorithm in the known IID model. Finally, following the work in Besser and Poloczek, we depart from an adversarial or stochastic ordering and investigate a natural randomized algorithm (MinRanking) in the priority model. Although the priority model allows the algorithm to choose the input ordering in a general but well defined way, this natural algorithm cannot obtain the approximation of the Ranking algorithm in the ROM model

Electrodynamic Radiation Reaction and General Relativity

We argue that the well-known problem of the instabilities associated with the self-forces (radiation reaction forces) in classical electrodynamics are possibly stabilized by the introduction of gravitational forces via general relativity