Climatic niche breadth can explain variation in geographical range size of alpine and subalpine plants

Understanding the environmental factors determining the distribution of species with different range sizes can provide valuable insights for evolutionary ecology and conservation biology in the face of expected climate change. However, little is known about what determines the variation in geographical and elevational ranges of alpine and subalpine plant species. Here, we examined the relationship between geographical and elevational range sizes for 80 endemic rhododendron species in China using Spearman’s rank-order correlation. We ran the species distribution model – maximum entropy modelling (MaxEnt) – with 27 environmental variables. The importance of each variable to the model prediction was compared for species groups with different geographical and elevational range sizes. Our results showed that the correlation between geographical and elevational range sizes of rhododendron species was not significant. Climate-related variables were found to be the most important factors in shaping the distributional ranges of alpine and subalpine plant species across China. Species with geographically and elevationally narrow ranges had distinct niche requirements. For geographical ranges, the narrow-ranged species showed less tolerance to niche conditions than the wide-ranged species. For elevational ranges, compared with the wide-ranged species, the narrow-ranged species showed an equivalent niche breadth, but occurred at different niche position along the environmental gradient. Our findings suggest that over large spatial extents the elevational range size can be a complementary trait of alpine and subalpine plant species to geographical range size. Climatic niche breadth, especially the range of seasonal variability, can explain species’ geographical range sizes. Changes in climate may influence the distribution of rhododendrons, with the effects likely being felt most by species with either a narrow geographical or narrow elevational range

Phase Separation in Lix_xFePO4_4 Induced by Correlation Effects

We report on a significant failure of LDA and GGA to reproduce the phase stability and thermodynamics of mixed-valence Li$_x$FePO$_4$ compounds. Experimentally, Li$_x$FePO$_4$ compositions ($0 \leq x \leq 1$) are known to be unstable and phase separate into Li FePO$_4$ and FePO$_4$. However, first-principles calculations with LDA/GGA yield energetically favorable intermediate compounds an d hence no phase separation. This qualitative failure of LDA/GGA seems to have its origin in the LDA/GGA self-interaction which de localizes charge over the mixed-valence Fe ions, and is corrected by explicitly considering correlation effects in this material. This is demonstrated with LDA+U calculations which correctly predict phase separation in Li$_x$FePO$_4$ for $U-J \gtrsim 3.5$eV. T he origin of the destabilization of intermediate compounds is identified as electron localization and charge ordering at different iron sites. Introduction of correlation also yields more accurate electrochemical reaction energies between FePO$_4$/Li$_x$FePO$_ 4$ and Li/Li$^+$ electrodes.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, Phys. Rev. B 201101R, 200

Excitation energy dependence of electron-phonon interaction in ZnO nanoparticles

Raman spectroscopic investigations are carried out on ZnO nanoparticles for various photon energies. Intensities of E1-LO and E2 modes exhibit large changes as the excitation energy varied from 2.41 to 3.815 eV, signifying substantially large contribution of Frohlich interaction to the Raman polarizability as compared to deformation potential close to the resonance. Relative strength of these two mechanisms is estimated for the first time in nanoparticles and compared with those in the bulk.Comment: 13 pages. 3 figures Journa

Scaling relations in equilibrium nonextensive thermostatistics

The forms of Euler and Gibbs-Duhem relations discussed in thermodynamics of extensive systems are shown to hold also for nonextensive systems with long-range interactions with a novel interpretation of entities appearing therein. In this way, the principles underlying Tsallis' scaling relations in equilibrium nonextensive thermostatistics are clarified.Comment: 10 pages, no figures, Eqs. (4)-(7) are correcte

Effective nonlinear optical properties of composite media of graded spherical particles

We have developed a nonlinear differential effective dipole approximation (NDEDA), in an attempt to investigate the effective linear and third-order nonlinear susceptibility of composite media in which graded spherical inclusions with weak nonlinearity are randomly embedded in a linear host medium. Alternatively, based on a first-principles approach, we derived exactly the linear local field inside the graded particles having power-law dielectric gradation profiles. As a result, we obtain also the effective linear dielectric constant and third-order nonlinear susceptibility. Excellent agreement between the two methods is numerically demonstrated. As an application, we apply the NDEDA to investigate the surface plasma resonant effect on the optical absorption, optical nonlinearity enhancement, and figure of merit of metal-dielectric composites. It is found that the presence of gradation in metal particles yields a broad resonant band in the optical region, and further enhances the figure of merit.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figure

Semileptonic Bs ->DsJ(2460)l nu decay in QCD

Using three point QCD sum rules method, the form factors relevant to the semileptonic Bs ->DsJ (2460)l nu decay are calculated. The q2 dependence of these form factors is evaluated and compared with the heavy quark effective theory predictions. The dependence of the asymmetry parameter alpha, characterizing the polarization of DsJ meson, on q2 is studied .The branching ratio of this decay is also estimated and is shown that it can be easily detected at LHC.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figures and 1 Tabl

Interferon-λ restricts West Nile virus neuroinvasion by tightening the blood-brain barrier

Although interferon-λ [also known as type III interferon or interleukin-28 (IL-28)/IL-29] restricts infection by several viruses, its inhibitory mechanism has remained uncertain. We used recombinant interferon-λ and mice lacking the interferon-λ receptor (IFNLR1) to evaluate the effect of interferon-λ on infection with West Nile virus, an encephalitic flavivirus. Cell culture studies in mouse keratinocytes and dendritic cells showed no direct antiviral effect of exogenous interferon-λ, even though expression of interferon-stimulated genes was induced. We observed no differences in West Nile virus burden between wild-type and Ifnlr1-/- mice in the draining lymph nodes, spleen, or blood. We detected increased West Nile virus infection in the brain and spinal cord of Ifnlr1-/- mice, yet this was not associated with a direct antiviral effect in mouse neurons. Instead, we observed an increase in blood-brain barrier permeability in Ifnlr1-/- mice. Treatment of mice with pegylated interferon-λ2 resulted in decreased blood-brain barrier permeability, reduced West Nile virus infection in the brain without affecting viremia, and improved survival against lethal virus challenge. An in vitro model of the blood-brain barrier showed that interferon-λ signaling in mouse brain microvascular endothelial cells increased transendothelial electrical resistance, decreased virus movement across the barrier, and modulated tight junction protein localization in a protein synthesis- and signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 (STAT1)-independent manner. Our data establish an indirect antiviral function of interferon-λ in which noncanonical signaling through IFNLR1 tightens the blood-brain barrier and restricts viral neuroinvasion and pathogenesis

Fast and Compact Distributed Verification and Self-Stabilization of a DFS Tree

We present algorithms for distributed verification and silent-stabilization of a DFS(Depth First Search) spanning tree of a connected network. Computing and maintaining such a DFS tree is an important task, e.g., for constructing efficient routing schemes. Our algorithm improves upon previous work in various ways. Comparable previous work has space and time complexities of $O(n\log \Delta)$ bits per node and $O(nD)$ respectively, where $\Delta$ is the highest degree of a node, $n$ is the number of nodes and $D$ is the diameter of the network. In contrast, our algorithm has a space complexity of $O(\log n)$ bits per node, which is optimal for silent-stabilizing spanning trees and runs in $O(n)$ time. In addition, our solution is modular since it utilizes the distributed verification algorithm as an independent subtask of the overall solution. It is possible to use the verification algorithm as a stand alone task or as a subtask in another algorithm. To demonstrate the simplicity of constructing efficient DFS algorithms using the modular approach, We also present a (non-sielnt) self-stabilizing DFS token circulation algorithm for general networks based on our silent-stabilizing DFS tree. The complexities of this token circulation algorithm are comparable to the known ones

Reducing the communication complexity with quantum entanglement

We propose a probabilistic two-party communication complexity scenario with a prior nonmaximally entangled state, which results in less communication than that is required with only classical random correlations. A simple all-optical implementation of this protocol is presented and demonstrates our conclusion.Comment: 4 Pages, 2 Figure

Exclusive semileptonic B_s decays to excited D_s mesons: Search of D_{sJ}(2317) and D_{sJ}(2460)

We study the exclusive semileptonic decays B_s->D_{s0}^*\ell\bar\nu and B_s->D_{s1}^*\ell\bar\nu, where p-wave excited D_{s0}^* and D_{s1}^* states are identified with the newly observed D_{sJ}(2317) and D_{sJ}(2460) states. Within the framework of HQET the Isgur-Wise functions up to the subleading order of the heavy quark expansion are calculated by QCD sum rules. The decay rates and branching ratios are computed with the inclusion of the order of 1/m_Q corrections. We point out that the investigation of the B_s semileptonic decays to excited D_s mesons may provide some information about the nature of the new D_{sJ}^* mesons.Comment: 15 pages, 6 eps figures, RevTeX 4, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.