Dynamics of a structured slug population model in the absence of seasonal variation

We develop a novel, nonlinear structured population model for the slug Deroceras reticulatum, a highly significant agricultural pest of great economic impact, in both organic and non-organic settings. In the absence of seasonal variations, we numerically explore the effect of life history traits that are dependent on an individual's size and measures of population biomass. We conduct a systematic exploration of parameter space and highlight the main mechanisms and implications of model design. A major conclusion of this work is that strong size dependent predation significantly adjusts the competitive balance, leading to non-monotonic steady state solutions and slowly decaying transients consisting of distinct generational cycles. Furthermore, we demonstrate how a simple ratio of adult to juvenile biomass can act as a useful diagnostic to distinguish between predated and non-predated environments, and may be useful in agricultural settings

Orbital stability of periodic waves for the nonlinear Schroedinger equation

The nonlinear Schroedinger equation has several families of quasi-periodic travelling waves, each of which can be parametrized up to symmetries by two real numbers: the period of the modulus of the wave profile, and the variation of its phase over a period (Floquet exponent). In the defocusing case, we show that these travelling waves are orbitally stable within the class of solutions having the same period and the same Floquet exponent. This generalizes a previous work where only small amplitude solutions were considered. A similar result is obtained in the focusing case, under a non-degeneracy condition which can be checked numerically. The proof relies on the general approach to orbital stability as developed by Grillakis, Shatah, and Strauss, and requires a detailed analysis of the Hamiltonian system satisfied by the wave profile.Comment: 34 pages, 7 figure

Configuration Complexities of Hydrogenic Atoms

The Fisher-Shannon and Cramer-Rao information measures, and the LMC-like or shape complexity (i.e., the disequilibrium times the Shannon entropic power) of hydrogenic stationary states are investigated in both position and momentum spaces. First, it is shown that not only the Fisher information and the variance (then, the Cramer-Rao measure) but also the disequilibrium associated to the quantum-mechanical probability density can be explicitly expressed in terms of the three quantum numbers (n, l, m) of the corresponding state. Second, the three composite measures mentioned above are analytically, numerically and physically discussed for both ground and excited states. It is observed, in particular, that these configuration complexities do not depend on the nuclear charge Z. Moreover, the Fisher-Shannon measure is shown to quadratically depend on the principal quantum number n. Finally, sharp upper bounds to the Fisher-Shannon measure and the shape complexity of a general hydrogenic orbital are given in terms of the quantum numbers.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figures, accepted i

YqiC of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium is a membrane fusogenic protein required for mice colonization

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Salmonella enterica </it>serovar Typhimurium is an intracellular bacterial pathogen which can colonize a variety of hosts, including human, causing syndromes that vary from gastroenteritis and diarrhea to systemic disease.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this work we present structural information as well as insights into the <it>in vivo </it>function of YqiC, a 99-residue protein of <it>S</it>. Typhimurium, which belongs to the cluster of the orthologous group 2960 (COG2960). We found that YqiC shares biophysical and biochemical properties with <it>Brucella abortus </it>BMFP, the only previously characterized member of this group, such as a high alpha helix content, a coiled-coil domain involved in trimerization and a membrane fusogenic activity <it>in vitro</it>. In addition, we demonstrated that YqiC localizes at cytoplasmic and membrane subcellular fractions, that a <it>S</it>. Typhimurium <it>yqiC </it>deficient strain had a severe attenuation in virulence in the murine model when inoculated both orally and intraperitoneally, and was impaired to replicate at physiological and high temperatures <it>in vitro</it>, although it was still able to invade and replicate inside epithelial and macrophages cell lines.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This work firstly demonstrates the importance of a COG2960 member for pathogen-host interaction, and suggests a common function conserved among members of this group.</p

Probability-Based Dynamic Time Warping for Gesture Recognition on RGB-D Data

Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) is commonly used in gesture recognition tasks in order to tackle the temporal length variability of gestures. In the DTW framework, a set of gesture patterns are compared one by one to a maybe infinite test sequence, and a query gesture category is recognized if a warping cost below a certain threshold is found within the test sequence. Nevertheless, either taking one single sample per gesture category or a set of isolated samples may not encode the variability of such gesture category. In this paper, a probability-based DTW for gesture recognition is proposed. Different samples of the same gesture pattern obtained from RGB-Depth data are used to build a Gaussian-based probabilistic model of the gesture. Finally, the cost of DTW has been adapted accordingly to the new model. The proposed approach is tested in a challenging scenario, showing better performance of the probability-based DTW in comparison to state-of-the-art approaches for gesture recognition on RGB-D data

First measurement of the 14N(p,gamma)15O cross section down to 70 keV

In stars with temperatures above 20*10^6 K, hydrogen burning is dominated by the CNO cycle. Its rate is determined by the slowest process, the 14N(p,gamma)15O reaction. Deep underground in Italy's Gran Sasso laboratory, at the LUNA 400 kV accelerator, the cross section of this reaction has been measured at energies much lower than ever achieved before. Using a windowless gas target and a 4pi BGO summing detector, direct cross section data has been obtained down to 70 keV, reaching a value of 0.24 picobarn. The Gamow peak has been covered by experimental data for several scenarios of stable and explosive hydrogen burning. In addition, the strength of the 259 keV resonance has been remeasured. The thermonuclear reaction rate has been calculated for temperatures 90 - 300 *10^6 K, for the first time with negligible impact from extrapolations

CLES, Code Liegeois d'Evolution Stellaire

Cles is an evolution code recently developed to produce stellar models meeting the specific requirements of studies in asteroseismology. It offers the users a lot of choices in the input physics they want in their models and its versatility allows them to tailor the code to their needs and implement easily new features. We describe the features implemented in the current version of the code and the techniques used to solve the equations of stellar structure and evolution. A brief account is given of the use of the program and of a solar calibration realized with it.Comment: Comments: 8 pages, Astrophys. Space Sci. CoRoT-ESTA Volume, in the pres

Asymptotic normalization coefficients (nuclear vertex constants) for p+7Be→8Bp+^7Be\to ^8B and the direct 7Be(p,γ)8B^7Be(p,\gamma)^8B astrophysical S-factors at solar energies

A new analysis of the precise experimental astrophysical S-factors for the direct capture $^7Be(p,\gamma)$ $^8B$ reaction [A.J.Junghans et al.Phys.Rev. C 68 (2003) 065803 and L.T. Baby et al. Phys.Rev. C 67 (2003) 065805] is carried out based on the modified two - body potential approach in which the direct astrophysical S-factor, ${\rm S_{17}(E)}$, is expressed in terms of the asymptotic normalization constants for $p+^7Be\to ^8B$ and two additional conditions are involved to verify the peripheral character of the reaction under consideration. The Woods-Saxon potential form is used for the bound ($p+^7Be$)- state wave function and for the $p^7Be$- scattering wave function. New estimates are obtained for the ^{\glqq}indirectly measured\grqq values of the asymptotic normalization constants (the nuclear vertex constants) for the $p+^7Be\to ^8B$ and $S_{17}(E)$ at E$\le$ 115 keV, including $E$=0. These values of $S_{17}(E)$ and asymptotic normalization constants have been used for getting information about the ^{\glqq}indirectly measured\grqq values of the $s$ wave average scattering length and the $p$ wave effective range parameters for $p^7Be$- scattering.Comment: 27 pages, 6 figure

PArthENoPE: Public Algorithm Evaluating the Nucleosynthesis of Primordial Elements

We describe a program for computing the abundances of light elements produced during Big Bang Nucleosynthesis which is publicly available at http://parthenope.na.infn.it/. Starting from nuclear statistical equilibrium conditions the program solves the set of coupled ordinary differential equations, follows the departure from chemical equilibrium of nuclear species, and determines their asymptotic abundances as function of several input cosmological parameters as the baryon density, the number of effective neutrino, the value of cosmological constant and the neutrino chemical potential. The program requires commercial NAG library routines.Comment: 18 pages, 2 figures. Version accepted by Comp. Phys. Com. The code (and an updated manual) is publicly available at http://parthenope.na.infn.it