826 research outputs found
Landscape scale conservation: incentives for cross-property action
Production landscapes are critical for biodiversity conservation. Individual landholders can contribute but the real challenge is coordinated cross-property action at a landscape scale. This paper describes 2 projects through which we have attempted to better understand that challenge. The âCommunities in Landscapesâ project (Caring for Our Country 2009-2012) provided coordinated advice and training to develop cross-property biodiversity plans and $70k for each of 7 landholder groups for the initial phase of the implementation. The project generated collaboration on landscape scale biodiversity conservation, but without ongoing support the benefits achieved could be soon lost. The âIncreasing landholder collaboration for landscape scale conservationâ project (NSW Environmental Trust 2016-2017) is exploring the nature and extent of collaboration, and the opportunities provided by collaboration for public and private benefit. The vision is for landholders to develop âLandscape Corporationsâ which are the vehicle for integrating production and conservation for landholders sharing the same landscape
Scanning-probe spectroscopy of semiconductor donor molecules
Semiconductor devices continue to press into the nanoscale regime, and new
applications have emerged for which the quantum properties of dopant atoms act
as the functional part of the device, underscoring the necessity to probe the
quantum structure of small numbers of dopant atoms in semiconductors[1-3].
Although dopant properties are well-understood with respect to bulk
semiconductors, new questions arise in nanosystems. For example, the quantum
energy levels of dopants will be affected by the proximity of nanometer-scale
electrodes. Moreover, because shallow donors and acceptors are analogous to
hydrogen atoms, experiments on small numbers of dopants have the potential to
be a testing ground for fundamental questions of atomic and molecular physics,
such as the maximum negative ionization of a molecule with a given number of
positive ions[4,5]. Electron tunneling spectroscopy through isolated dopants
has been observed in transport studies[6,7]. In addition, Geim and coworkers
identified resonances due to two closely spaced donors, effectively forming
donor molecules[8]. Here we present capacitance spectroscopy measurements of
silicon donors in a gallium-arsenide heterostructure using a scanning probe
technique[9,10]. In contrast to the work of Geim et al., our data show
discernible peaks attributed to successive electrons entering the molecules.
Hence this work represents the first addition spectrum measurement of dopant
molecules. More generally, to the best of our knowledge, this study is the
first example of single-electron capacitance spectroscopy performed directly
with a scanning probe tip[9].Comment: In press, Nature Physics. Original manuscript posted here; 16 pages,
3 figures, 5 supplementary figure
Interpreting Attoclock Measurements of Tunnelling Times
Resolving in time the dynamics of light absorption by atoms and molecules,
and the electronic rearrangement this induces, is among the most challenging
goals of attosecond spectroscopy. The attoclock is an elegant approach to this
problem, which encodes ionization times in the strong-field regime. However,
the accurate reconstruction of these times from experimental data presents a
formidable theoretical challenge. Here, we solve this problem by combining
analytical theory with ab-initio numerical simulations. We apply our theory to
numerical attoclock experiments on the hydrogen atom to extract ionization time
delays and analyse their nature. Strong field ionization is often viewed as
optical tunnelling through the barrier created by the field and the core
potential. We show that, in the hydrogen atom, optical tunnelling is
instantaneous. By calibrating the attoclock using the hydrogen atom, our method
opens the way to identify possible delays associated with multielectron
dynamics during strong-field ionization.Comment: 33 pages, 10 figures, 3 appendixe
High Resolution Spectroscopy of Two-Dimensional Electron Systems
Spectroscopic methods involving the sudden injection or ejection of electrons
in materials are a powerful probe of electronic structure and interactions.
These techniques, such as photoemission and tunneling, yield measurements of
the "single particle" density of states (SPDOS) spectrum of a system. The SPDOS
is proportional to the probability of successfully injecting or ejecting an
electron in these experiments. It is equal to the number of electronic states
in the system able to accept an injected electron as a function of its energy
and is among the most fundamental and directly calculable quantities in
theories of highly interacting systems. However, the two-dimensional electron
system (2DES), host to remarkable correlated electron states such as the
fractional quantum Hall effect, has proven difficult to probe
spectroscopically. Here we present an improved version of time domain
capacitance spectroscopy (TDCS) that now allows us to measure the SPDOS of a
2DES with unprecedented fidelity and resolution. Using TDCS, we perform
measurements of a cold 2DES, providing the first direct measurements of the
single-particle exchange-enhanced spin gap and single particle lifetimes in the
quantum Hall system, as well as the first observations of exchange splitting of
Landau levels not at the Fermi surface. The measurements reveal the difficult
to reach and beautiful structure present in this highly correlated system far
from the Fermi surface.Comment: There are formatting and minor textual differences between this
version and the published version in Nature (follow the DOI link below
Leg disorders in broiler chickens : prevalence, risk factors and prevention
Broiler (meat) chickens have been subjected to intense genetic selection. In the past 50 years, broiler growth rates have increased
by over 300% (from 25 g per day to 100 g per day). There is growing societal concern that many broiler chickens have impaired
locomotion or are even unable to walk. Here we present the results of a comprehensive survey of commercial flocks which
quantifies the risk factors for poor locomotion in broiler chickens.We assessed the walking ability of 51,000 birds, representing 4.8
million birds within 176 flocks.We also obtained information on approximately 150 different management factors associated with
each flock. At a mean age of 40 days, over 27.6% of birds in our study showed poor locomotion and 3.3% were almost unable to
walk. The high prevalence of poor locomotion occurred despite culling policies designed to remove severely lame birds from
flocks. We show that the primary risk factors associated with impaired locomotion and poor leg health are those specifically
associated with rate of growth. Factors significantly associated with high gait score included the age of the bird (older birds), visit
(second visit to same flock), bird genotype, not feeding whole wheat, a shorter dark period during the day, higher stocking density
at the time of assessment, no use of antibiotic, and the use of intact feed pellets. The welfare implications are profound. Worldwide
approximately 261010 broilers are reared within similar husbandry systems.We identify a range of management factors that could
be altered to reduce leg health problems, but implementation of these changes would be likely to reduce growth rate and
production. A debate on the sustainability of current practice in the production of this important food source is required
Metabolic effects of diets differing in glycaemic index depend on age and endogenous GIP
Aims/hypothesis
High- vs low-glycaemic index (GI) diets unfavourably affect body fat mass and metabolic markers in rodents. Different effects of these diets could be age-dependent, as well as mediated, in part, by carbohydrate-induced stimulation of glucose-dependent insulinotrophic polypeptide (GIP) signalling.
Methods
Young-adult (16 weeks) and aged (44 weeks) male wild-type (C57BL/6J) and GIP-receptor knockout (Gipr â/â ) mice were exposed to otherwise identical high-carbohydrate diets differing only in GI (20â26 weeks of intervention, nâ=â8â10 per group). Diet-induced changes in body fat distribution, liver fat, locomotor activity, markers of insulin sensitivity and substrate oxidation were investigated, as well as changes in the gene expression of anorexigenic and orexigenic hypothalamic factors related to food intake.
Results
Body weight significantly increased in young-adult high- vs low-GI fed mice (two-way ANOVA, pâ<â0.001), regardless of the Gipr genotype. The high-GI diet in young-adult mice also led to significantly increased fat mass and changes in metabolic markers that indicate reduced insulin sensitivity. Even though body fat mass also slightly increased in high- vs low-GI fed aged wild-type mice (pâ<â0.05), there were no significant changes in body weight and estimated insulin sensitivity in these animals. However, aged Gipr â/â vs wild-type mice on high-GI diet showed significantly lower cumulative net energy intake, increased locomotor activity and improved markers of insulin sensitivity.
Conclusions/interpretation
The metabolic benefits of a low-GI diet appear to be more pronounced in younger animals, regardless of the Gipr genotype. Inactivation of GIP signalling in aged animals on a high-GI diet, however, could be beneficial
A Comprehensive Workflow for General-Purpose Neural Modeling with Highly Configurable Neuromorphic Hardware Systems
In this paper we present a methodological framework that meets novel
requirements emerging from upcoming types of accelerated and highly
configurable neuromorphic hardware systems. We describe in detail a device with
45 million programmable and dynamic synapses that is currently under
development, and we sketch the conceptual challenges that arise from taking
this platform into operation. More specifically, we aim at the establishment of
this neuromorphic system as a flexible and neuroscientifically valuable
modeling tool that can be used by non-hardware-experts. We consider various
functional aspects to be crucial for this purpose, and we introduce a
consistent workflow with detailed descriptions of all involved modules that
implement the suggested steps: The integration of the hardware interface into
the simulator-independent model description language PyNN; a fully automated
translation between the PyNN domain and appropriate hardware configurations; an
executable specification of the future neuromorphic system that can be
seamlessly integrated into this biology-to-hardware mapping process as a test
bench for all software layers and possible hardware design modifications; an
evaluation scheme that deploys models from a dedicated benchmark library,
compares the results generated by virtual or prototype hardware devices with
reference software simulations and analyzes the differences. The integration of
these components into one hardware-software workflow provides an ecosystem for
ongoing preparative studies that support the hardware design process and
represents the basis for the maturity of the model-to-hardware mapping
software. The functionality and flexibility of the latter is proven with a
variety of experimental results
A Bayesian approach to quantifying the effects of mass poultry vaccination upon the spatial and temporal dynamics of H5N1 in Northern Vietnam.
Published versio
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