2,776 research outputs found
A new sandperch, Parapercis maritzi (Teleostei: Pmguipedidae), from South Africa
A new species of sandperch, Parapercis maritzi, is described from 12 specimens from the outer shelf off Transkei and Natal. The species differs from all other sandperches in its colouration, particulars of its dentition, and meristics of its axial skeleton and squamation. It is one of the deep-water sandperches, and is found on open sandy-rubble bottoms of the outer shelf
Mechanisms of Spontaneous Current Generation in an Inhomogeneous d-Wave Superconductor
A boundary between two d-wave superconductors or an s-wave and a d-wave
superconductor generally breaks time-reversal symmetry and can generate
spontaneous currents due to proximity effect. On the other hand, surfaces and
interfaces in d-wave superconductors can produce localized current-carrying
states by supporting the T-breaking combination of dominant and subdominant
order parameters. We investigate spontaneous currents in the presence of both
mechanisms and show that at low temperature, counter-intuitively, the
subdominant coupling decreases the amplitude of the spontaneous current due to
proximity effect. Superscreening of spontaneous currents is demonstrated to be
present in any d-d (but not s-d) junction and surface with d+id' order
parameter symmetry. We show that this supercreening is the result of
contributions from the local magnetic moment of the condensate to the
spontaneous current.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, RevTe
Pocket Monte Carlo algorithm for classical doped dimer models
We study the correlations of classical hardcore dimer models doped with
monomers by Monte Carlo simulation. We introduce an efficient cluster
algorithm, which is applicable in any dimension, for different lattices and
arbitrary doping. We use this algorithm for the dimer model on the square
lattice, where a finite density of monomers destroys the critical confinement
of the two-monomer problem. The monomers form a two-component plasma located in
its high-temperature phase, with the Coulomb interaction screened at finite
densities. On the triangular lattice, a single pair of monomers is not
confined. The monomer correlations are extremely short-ranged and hardly change
with doping.Comment: 6 pages, REVTeX
Statistical and Dynamical Study of Disease Propagation in a Small World Network
We study numerically statistical properties and dynamical disease propagation
using a percolation model on a one dimensional small world network. The
parameters chosen correspond to a realistic network of school age children. We
found that percolation threshold decreases as a power law as the short cut
fluctuations increase. We found also the number of infected sites grows
exponentially with time and its rate depends logarithmically on the density of
susceptibles. This behavior provides an interesting way to estimate the
serology for a given population from the measurement of the disease growing
rate during an epidemic phase. We have also examined the case in which the
infection probability of nearest neighbors is different from that of short
cuts. We found a double diffusion behavior with a slower diffusion between the
characteristic times.Comment: 12 pages LaTex, 10 eps figures, Phys.Rev.E Vol. 64, 056115 (2001
The Chihuahua dog: A new animal model for neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis CLN7 disease?
Neuronal ceroid lipofuscinoses (NCLs) are a group of incurable lysosomal storage disorders characterized by neurodegeneration and accumulation of lipopigments mainly within the neurons. We studied two littermate Chihuahua dogs presenting with progressive signs of blindness, ataxia, pacing, and cognitive impairment from 1 year of age. Because of worsening of clinical signs, both dogs were euthanized at about 2 years of age. Postmortem examination revealed marked accumulation of autofluorescent intracellular inclusions within the brain, characteristic of NCL. Whole-genome sequencing was performed on one of the affected dogs. After sequence alignment and variant calling against the canine reference genome, variants were identified in the coding region or splicing regions of four previously known NCL genes (CLN6, ARSG, CLN2 [=TPP1], and CLN7 [=MFSD8]). Subsequent segregation analysis within the family (two affected dogs, both parents, and three relatives) identified MFSD8:p.Phe282Leufs13*, which had previously been identified in one Chinese crested dog with no available ancestries, as the causal mutation. Because of the similarities of the clinical signs and histopathological changes with the human form of the disease, we propose that the Chihuahua dog could be a good animal model of CLN7 disease
Early-Holocene warming in Beringia and its mediation by sea-level and vegetation changes
Arctic land-cover changes induced by recent global climate change (e.g., expansion of woody vegetation into tundra and effects of permafrost degradation) are expected to generate further feedbacks to the climate system. Past changes can be used to assess our understanding of feedback mechanisms through a combination of process modelling and paleo-observations. The sub-continental region of Beringia (Northeast Siberia, Alaska, and northwestern Canada) was largely ice-free at the peak of deglacial warming and experienced both major vegetation change and loss of permafrost when many arctic regions were still ice covered. The evolution of Beringian climate at this time was largely driven by global features, such as the amplified seasonal cycle of Northern Hemisphere insolation and changes in global ice volume and atmospheric composition, but changes in regional land-surface controls, such as the widespread development of thaw lakes, the replacement of tundra by deciduous forest or woodland, and the flooding of the Bering–Chukchi land bridge, were probably also important. We examined the sensitivity of Beringia’s early Holocene climate to these regional-scale controls using a regional climate model (RegCM). Lateral and oceanic boundary conditions were provided by global climate simulations conducted using the GENESIS V2.01 atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) with a mixed-layer ocean. We carried out two present day simulations of regional climate, one with modern and one with 11 ka geography, plus another simulation for 6 ka. In addition, we performed five ? 11 ka climate simulations, each driven by the same global AGCM boundary conditions: (i) 11 ka “Control”, which represents conditions just prior to the major transitions (exposed land bridge, no thaw lakes or wetlands, widespread tundra vegetation), (ii) sea-level rise, which employed present day continental outlines, (iii) vegetation change, with deciduous needleleaf and deciduous broadleaf boreal vegetation types distributed as suggested by the paleoecological record, (iv) thaw lakes, which used the present day distribution of lakes and wetlands; and (v) post-11 ka “All”, incorporating all boundary conditions changed in experiments (ii)–(iv). We find that regional-scale controls strongly mediate the climate responses to changes in the large-scale controls, amplifying them in some cases, damping them in others, and, overall, generating considerable spatial heterogeneity in the simulated climate changes. The change from tundra to deciduous woodland produces additional widespread warming in spring and early summer over that induced by the 11 ka insolation regime alone, and lakes and wetlands produce modest and localized cooling in summer and warming in winter. The greatest effect is the flooding of the land bridge and shelves, which produces generally cooler conditions in summer but warmer conditions in winter and is most clearly manifest on the flooded shelves and in eastern Beringia. By 6 ka continued amplification of the seasonal cycle of insolation and loss of the Laurentide ice sheet produce temperatures similar to or higher than those at 11 ka, plus a longer growing season
Flux Creep and Flux Jumping
We consider the flux jump instability of the Bean's critical state arising in
the flux creep regime in type-II superconductors. We find the flux jump field,
, that determines the superconducting state stability criterion. We
calculate the dependence of on the external magnetic field ramp rate,
. We demonstrate that under the conditions typical for most of the
magnetization experiments the slope of the current-voltage curve in the flux
creep regime determines the stability of the Bean's critical state, {\it i.e.},
the value of . We show that a flux jump can be preceded by the
magneto-thermal oscillations and find the frequency of these oscillations as a
function of .Comment: 7 pages, ReVTeX, 2 figures attached as postscript file
Towards the Theory of Cosmological Phase Transitions
We discuss recent progress (and controversies) in the theory of finite
temperature phase transitions. This includes the structure of the effective
potential at a finite temperature, the infrared problem in quantum statistics
of gauge fields, the theory of formation of critical and subcritical bubbles
and the theory of bubble wall propagation.Comment: 50 p
Theory of High \tc Ferromagnetism in family: A case of Doped Spin-1 Mott insulator in a Valence Bond Solid Phase
Doped divalent hexaborides such as exhibit high \tc
ferromagnetism. We isolate a degenerate pair of -orbitals of boron with two
valence electrons, invoke electron correlation and Hund coupling, to suggest
that the undoped state is better viewed as a spin-1 Mott insulator; it is
predicted to be a type of 3d Haldane gap phase with a spin gap ,
much smaller than the charge gap of seen in ARPES. The
experimentally seen high \tc `ferromagnetism' is argued to be a complex
magnetic order in disguise - either a canted 6-sublattice AFM ()
order or its quantum melted version, a chiral spin liquid state, arising from a
type of double exchange mechanism.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures; minor corrections, references adde
Properties of spin-triplet, even-parity superconductors
The physical consequences of the spin-triplet, even-parity pairing that has
been predicted to exist in disordered two-dimensional electron systems are
considered in detail. We show that the presence of an attractive interaction in
the particle-particle spin-triplet channel leads to an instability of the
normal metal that competes with the localizing effects of the disorder. The
instability is characterized by a diverging length scale, and has all of the
characteristics of a continuous phase transition. The transition and the
properties of the ordered phase are studied in mean-field theory, and by taking
into account Gaussian fluctuations. We find that the ordered phase is indeed a
superconductor with an ordinary Meissner effect and a free energy that is lower
than that of the normal metal. Various technical points that have given rise to
confusion in connection with this and other manifestations of odd-gap
superconductivity are also discussed.Comment: 15 pp., REVTeX, psfig, 2 ps figs, final version as publishe
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