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Entanglement in and ingestion of marine debris by sea turtles stranded along the South Texas coast
Entanglement data were collected from sea turtle stranding reports submitted to the Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network from Mustang and North Padre Islands, Texas during 1986 and 1987. Data collected included: month and location of stranding, species stranded, curved carapace length of the turtle and type of entanglement. A general necropsy similar to that described by Wolke and George (1981) was performed on dead sea turtles stranded during 1986 and 1987 on Mustang, North Padre and South Padre Islands, Texas. During necropsy, the curved carapace length and width was measured, sex was determined by external examination of the gonads, the entire digestive tract was removed and all organs were examined for irregularities in an attempt to determine the cause of death of the turtle. The esophagus, stomach and intestinal tract were later opened in the lab. If debris was present, it was removed and its location in the digestive tract was noted. The remaining gut contents were preserved in 10% buffered formalin for later analysis.Marine Scienc
Solution of a minimal model for many-body quantum chaos
We solve a minimal model for quantum chaos in a spatially extended many-body
system. It consists of a chain of sites with nearest-neighbour coupling under
Floquet time evolution. Quantum states at each site span a -dimensional
Hilbert space and time evolution for a pair of sites is generated by a
random unitary matrix. The Floquet operator is specified by a
quantum circuit of depth two, in which each site is coupled to its neighbour on
one side during the first half of the evolution period, and to its neighbour on
the other side during the second half of the period. We show how dynamical
behaviour averaged over realisations of the random matrices can be evaluated
using diagrammatic techniques, and how this approach leads to exact expressions
in the large- limit. We give results for the spectral form factor,
relaxation of local observables, bipartite entanglement growth and operator
spreading.Comment: Accepted in PR
Zenithal bistable device: comparison of modeling and experiment
A comparative modeling and experimental study of the zenithal bistable liquid crystal device is presented. A dynamic Landau de Gennes theory of nematic liquid crystals is solved numerically to model the electric field induced latching of the device and the results are compared with experimental measurements and theoretical approximations. The study gives a clear insight into the latching mechanism dynamics and enables the dependence of the device latching on both material parameters and surface shape to be determined. Analytical approximation highlights a route to optimize material selection in terms of latching voltages and the numerical model, which includes an accurate surface representation, recovers the complex surface shape effects. Predictions of device performance are presented as a function of both surface anchoring strength and surface shape and grating pitch. A measurement of the homeotropic anchoring energy has been undertaken by comparing the voltage response as a function of cell gap; we find the homeotropic anchoring energies can be varied in the range 0.5 to 4 (10-44 J m-2)
Quasi-Normal Modes of a Schwarzschild White Hole
We investigate perturbations of the Schwarzschild geometry using a
linearization of the Einstein vacuum equations within a Bondi-Sachs, or null
cone, formalism. We develop a numerical method to calculate the quasi-normal
modes, and present results for the case . The values obtained are
different to those of a Schwarzschild black hole, and we interpret them as
quasi-normal modes of a Schwarzschild white hole.Comment: 5 pages, 4 Figure
Proteins and polymers
Proteins, chain molecules of amino acids, behave in ways which are similar to
each other yet quite distinct from standard compact polymers. We demonstrate
that the Flory theorem, derived for polymer melts, holds for compact protein
native state structures and is not incompatible with the existence of
structured building blocks such as -helices and -strands. We
present a discussion on how the notion of the thickness of a polymer chain,
besides being useful in describing a chain molecule in the continuum limit,
plays a vital role in interpolating between conventional polymer physics and
the phase of matter associated with protein structures.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure
The Autism Related Protein Contactin-Associated Protein-Like 2 (CNTNAP2) Stabilizes New Spines: An In Vivo Mouse Study.
The establishment and maintenance of neuronal circuits depends on tight regulation of synaptic contacts. We hypothesized that CNTNAP2, a protein associated with autism, would play a key role in this process. Indeed, we found that new dendritic spines in mice lacking CNTNAP2 were formed at normal rates, but failed to stabilize. Notably, rates of spine elimination were unaltered, suggesting a specific role for CNTNAP2 in stabilizing new synaptic circuitry
Storage and Search in Dynamic Peer-to-Peer Networks
We study robust and efficient distributed algorithms for searching, storing,
and maintaining data in dynamic Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks. P2P networks are
highly dynamic networks that experience heavy node churn (i.e., nodes join and
leave the network continuously over time). Our goal is to guarantee, despite
high node churn rate, that a large number of nodes in the network can store,
retrieve, and maintain a large number of data items. Our main contributions are
fast randomized distributed algorithms that guarantee the above with high
probability (whp) even under high adversarial churn:
1. A randomized distributed search algorithm that (whp) guarantees that
searches from as many as nodes ( is the stable network size)
succeed in -rounds despite churn, for
any small constant , per round. We assume that the churn is
controlled by an oblivious adversary (that has complete knowledge and control
of what nodes join and leave and at what time, but is oblivious to the random
choices made by the algorithm).
2. A storage and maintenance algorithm that guarantees (whp) data items can
be efficiently stored (with only copies of each data item)
and maintained in a dynamic P2P network with churn rate up to
per round. Our search algorithm together with our
storage and maintenance algorithm guarantees that as many as nodes
can efficiently store, maintain, and search even under churn per round. Our algorithms require only polylogarithmic in bits to
be processed and sent (per round) by each node.
To the best of our knowledge, our algorithms are the first-known,
fully-distributed storage and search algorithms that provably work under highly
dynamic settings (i.e., high churn rates per step).Comment: to appear at SPAA 201
A Superwind from Early Post-Red Giant Stars?
We suggest that the gap observed at 20,000 K in the horizontal branches of
several Galactic globular clusters is caused by a small amount of extra mass
loss which occurs when stars start to "peel off" the red giant branch (RGB),
i.e., when their effective temperature starts to increase, even though they may
still be on the RGB. We show that the envelope structure of RGB stars which
start to peel off is similar to that of late asymptotic giant branch stars
known to have a super-wind phase. An analogous super-wind in the RGB peel-off
stars could easily lead to the observed gap in the distribution of the hottest
HB stars.Comment: 9 pages; Accepted by ApJ Letters; Available also at
http://www.astro.puc.cl/~mcatelan
Neutron transition strengths of states in the neutron rich Oxygen isotopes determined from inelastic proton scattering
A coupled-channel analysis of the O data has been
performed to determine the neutron transition strengths of 2 states in
Oxygen targets, using the microscopic optical potential and inelastic form
factor calculated in the folding model. A complex density- and \emph{isospin}
dependent version of the CDM3Y6 interaction was constructed, based on the
Brueckner-Hatree-Fock calculation of nuclear matter, for the folding model
input. Given an accurate isovector density dependence of the CDM3Y6
interaction, the isoscalar () and isovector () deformation
lengths of 2 states in O have been extracted from the
folding model analysis of the data. A specific -dependence of
and has been established which can be linked to the
neutron shell closure occurring at approaching 16. The strongest isovector
deformation was found for 2 state in O, with about 2.5
times larger than , which indicates a strong core polarization by the
valence neutrons in O. The ratios of the neutron/proton transition
matrix elements () determined for 2 states in O have
been compared to those deduced from the mirror symmetry, using the measured
values of 2 states in the proton rich Ne and Mg
nuclei, to discuss the isospin impurity in the excitation of the
and isobars.Comment: Version accepted for publication in Physical Review
Carbon Concentration Dependence of the Superconducting Transition Temperature and Structure of MgCxNi3
The crystal structure of the superconductor MgCxNi3 is reported as a function
of carbon concentration determined by powder neutron diffraction. The
single-phase perovskite structure was found in only a narrow range of carbon
content, 0.88 < x < 1.0. The superconducting transition temperature was found
to decrease systematically with decreasing carbon concentration. The
introduction of carbon vacancies has a significant effect on the positions of
the Ni atoms. No evidence for long range magnetic ordering was seen by neutron
diffraction for carbon stoichiometries within the perovskite phase stability
range.Comment: 4 figure
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