5,058 research outputs found
Resolution of a paradox: Hummingbird flight at high elevation does not come without a cost
Flight at high elevation is energetically demanding because of parallel reductions in air density and oxygen availability. The hovering flight of hummingbirds is one of the most energetically expensive forms of animal locomotion, but hummingbirds are nonetheless abundant at high elevations throughout the Americas. Two mechanisms enhance aerodynamic performance in high-elevation hummingbirds: increase in wing size and wing stroke amplitude during hovering. How do these changes in morphology, kinematics, and physical properties of air combine to influence the aerodynamic power requirements of flight across elevations? Here, we present data on the flight performance of 43 Andean hummingbird species as well as a 76-taxon multilocus molecular phylogeny that served as the historical framework for comparative analyses. Along a 4,000-m elevational transect, hummingbird body mass increased systematically, placing further aerodynamic demands on high-elevation taxa. However, we found that the minimum power requirements for hovering flight remain constant with respect to elevation because hummingbirds compensate sufficiently through increases in wing size and stroke amplitude. Thus, high-elevation hummingbirds are not limited in their capacity for hovering flight despite the challenges imposed by hypobaric environments. Other flight modes including vertical ascent and fast forward flight are more mechanically and energetically demanding, and we accordingly also tested for the maximum power available to hummingbirds by using a load-lifting assay. In contrast to hovering, excess power availability decreased substantially across elevations, thereby reducing the biomechanical potential for more complex flight such as competitive and escape maneuvers
Atlantic menhaden, Brevoortia tyrannus, Purse Seine Fishery, 1972-84, with a brief discussion of age and size composition of the Landings
This report summarizes (I) annual purse seine landings of Atlantic menhaden, Brevoortia tyrannus, for 1972-84, (2) estimated numbers of fish caught by fishing area. (3) estimates of nominal fishing effort and catch-per-unit-effort, (4) mean fish length and weight, and (5) major changes in the fishery. During the 1970s stock size and recruitment increased and the age composition broadened. reversing trends witnessed during the fishery's decline in the 1960s. Landings steadily improved and by 1980 the total coast wide landings exceeded 400,000 metric tons.
Nevertheless, the character of the fishery changed considerably. Eleven reduction plants processed fish at seven ports in 1972, but in 1984 only eight plants
operated at live ports. Beginning in the mid-1960s the center of fishing aclivity shifted from the Middle Atlantic area to the Chesapeake Bay area, which has continued to dominate the fishery in landings and effort through the 1970s and 1980s. During this period the average size and age of fish in the catches declined. (PDF file contains 30 pages.
A Multi-Sims Investigation of Water Content and D/H Ratios in Roberts Massif 04262 with Insight to Sources of Hydrogen in Maskelynite
We want to define the H2O content ([H2O]) and hydrogen (H) isotope composition of meteoritic material from Mars [1-3] with motivation to understand Mars volatile history, constrain geochemical signatures of interior water reservoirs (i.e. the Martian mantle) and explore effects of planetary (e.g. planet formation, magma ocean degassing) and local (e.g. volcanic degassing, impact melting and degassing) processes on H incorporated in minerals. Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) allows multiple avenues to address these questions. However, application to (1) precious astromaterials and (2) low level H measurements, pose specific challenges that are further complicated when combined. We present preliminary data of a multi-approach (SIMS vs. NanoSIMS) study of H in Roberts Massif 04262 (RBT 04262), an enriched lherzolitic shergottite with nonpoikilitic (NP) and poikilitic (P) lithologies [4]. We analyze olivine, pyrox-ene, and melt inclusions to compare indigenous mantle water, with impact-generated maskelynite to investigate H signatures due to shock
Fundamental noise limitations to supercontinuum generation in microstructure fiber
Broadband noise on supercontinuum spectra generated in microstructure fiber
is shown to lead to amplitude fluctuations as large as 50 % for certain input
laser pulse parameters. We study this noise using both experimental
measurements and numerical simulations with a generalized stochastic nonlinear
Schroedinger equation, finding good quantitative agreement over a range of
input pulse energies and chirp values. This noise is shown to arise from
nonlinear amplification of two quantum noise inputs: the input pulse shot noise
and the spontaneous Raman scattering down the fiber.Comment: 16 pages with 6 figure
Sending femtosecond pulses in circles: highly non-paraxial accelerating beams
We use caustic beam shaping on 100 fs pulses to experimentally generate
non-paraxial accelerating beams along a 60 degree circular arc, moving
laterally by 14 \mum over a 28 \mum propagation length. This is the highest
degree of transverse acceleration reported to our knowledge. Using diffraction
integral theory and numerical beam propagation simulations, we show that
circular acceleration trajectories represent a unique class of non-paraxial
diffraction-free beam profile which also preserves the femtosecond temporal
structure in the vicinity of the caustic
Nonlinear wavelength conversion in photonic crystal fibers with three zero dispersion points
In this theoretical study, we show that a simple endlessly single-mode
photonic crystal fiber can be designed to yield, not just two, but three
zero-dispersion wavelengths. The presence of a third dispersion zero creates a
rich phase-matching topology, enabling enhanced control over the spectral
locations of the four-wave-mixing and resonant-radiation bands emitted by
solitons and short pulses. The greatly enhanced flexibility in the positioning
of these bands has applications in wavelength conversion, supercontinuum
generation and pair-photon sources for quantum optics
A Meinardus theorem with multiple singularities
Meinardus proved a general theorem about the asymptotics of the number of
weighted partitions, when the Dirichlet generating function for weights has a
single pole on the positive real axis. Continuing \cite{GSE}, we derive
asymptotics for the numbers of three basic types of decomposable combinatorial
structures (or, equivalently, ideal gas models in statistical mechanics) of
size , when their Dirichlet generating functions have multiple simple poles
on the positive real axis. Examples to which our theorem applies include ones
related to vector partitions and quantum field theory. Our asymptotic formula
for the number of weighted partitions disproves the belief accepted in the
physics literature that the main term in the asymptotics is determined by the
rightmost pole.Comment: 26 pages. This version incorporates the following two changes implied
by referee's remarks: (i) We made changes in the proof of Proposition 1; (ii)
We provided an explanation to the argument for the local limit theorem. The
paper is tentatively accepted by "Communications in Mathematical Physics"
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Chalcogenide-glass polarization-maintaining photonic crystal fiber for mid-infrared supercontinuum generation
In this paper, we report the design and fabrication of a highly birefringent
polarization-maintaining photonic crystal fiber (PM-PCF) made from chalcogenide
glass, and its application to linearly-polarized supercontinuum (SC) generation
in the mid-infrared region. The PM fiber was drawn using the casting method
from As38Se62 glass which features a transmission window from 2 to 10
and a high nonlinear index of 1.13.10mW. It has a
zero-dispersion wavelength around 4.5 and, at this wavelength, a large
birefringence of 6.10 and consequently strong polarization maintaining
properties are expected. Using this fiber, we experimentally demonstrate
supercontinuum generation spanning from 3.1-6.02 and 3.33-5.78
using femtosecond pumping at 4 and 4.53 , respectively. We
further investigate the supercontinuum bandwidth versus the input pump
polarization angle and we show very good agreement with numerical simulations
of the two-polarization model based on two coupled generalized nonlinear
Schr\"odinger equations.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figure
Hydrogen Isotope Fractionation During Impact Degassing of Pyroxene and Maskelynite in Shergottite Larkman Nunatak 06319
Hydrogen in nominally anhydrous minerals (NAMs) in meteorites provides insight to mantle sources of indigenous water on differentiated bodies: e.g. Peslier et al. 2017 [1], including Mars [2-4]. However, all meteorite samples, including Martian shergottites, record impact events as fractures, deformation, silicate darkening, shock melt veins and pockets, etc. The effect of shock on hydrogen in NAMs is poorly constrained, and must be understood prior to using these data to infer planetary indigenous water. Here we present water contents and D/H ratios (calculated as dD, i.e. the variation of the D/H ratio relative to a standard, in this case sea water "SMOW") in pyroxene, olivine and maskelynite in the olivine-phyric shergottite Larkman Nunatak 06319 (LAR 06319) as a function of proximity to impact melt. While the results suggest impact may have a role in fractionating H isotopes, the magmatic signature of H2O in Mars can be preserved in some pyroxene
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