419 research outputs found
Time dependence of starch levels in the sapwood of Eucalyptus diversicolor (Karri) as: standing trees, stored saw-Logs, ringbarked trees and trees felled without lopping
The spread of Lyctus brunneus (powder post borer) throughout South Western Australia has lead to a need for Information on Starch levels in the sapwood of Eucalyptus diversicolor (Karri). Karri is one of the most commonly used structural timbers in Western Australia. Rates of starch depletion in stored Karri logs were determined, those in dry stored logs were found to be greater than those stored under an intermittent water spray regime. Starch levels in living, Standing Kam were measured and found to be strongly influenced by rainfall. Starch levels in ringbarked (girdled) trees declined more rapidly than those felled and left with an intact crown. A standard colorimetric technique for starch analysis was used. While high relative precision is possible, assumptions in this and similar methods make them unsuitable for absolute estimations of the two components of starch, amylose and amylopectin. Possible alternative methods are discussed
Casimir force on a piston
We consider a massless scalar field obeying Dirichlet boundary conditions on
the walls of a two-dimensional L x b rectangular box, divided by a movable
partition (piston) into two compartments of dimensions a x b and (L-a) x b. We
compute the Casimir force on the piston in the limit L -> infinity. Regardless
of the value of a/b, the piston is attracted to the nearest end of the box.
Asymptotic expressions for the Casimir force on the piston are derived for a <<
b and a >> b.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure. Final version, accepted for publication in Phys.
Rev.
Similar patterns of leaf temperatures and thermal acclimation to warming in temperate and tropical tree canopies
As the global climate warms, a key question is how increased leaf temperatures will affect tree physiology and the coupling between leaf and air temperatures in forests. To explore the impact of increasing temperatures on plant performance in open air, we warmed leaves in the canopy of two mature evergreen forests, a temperate Eucalyptus woodland and a tropical rainforest. The leaf heaters consistently maintained leaves at a target of 4 °C above ambient leaf temperatures. Ambient leaf temperatures (Tleaf) were mostly coupled to air temperatures (Tair), but at times, leaves could be 8–10 °C warmer than ambient air temperatures, especially in full sun. At both sites, Tleaf was warmer at higher air temperatures (Tair > 25 °C), but was cooler at lower Tair, contrary to the ‘leaf homeothermy hypothesis’. Warmed leaves showed significantly lower stomatal conductance (−0.05 mol m−2 s−1 or −43% across species) and net photosynthesis (−3.91 μmol m−2 s−1 or −39%), with similar rates in leaf respiration rates at a common temperature (no acclimation). Increased canopy leaf temperatures due to future warming could reduce carbon assimilation via reduced photosynthesis in these forests, potentially weakening the land carbon sink in tropical and temperate forests
Do master narratives change among High School Students?: a characterization of how national history is represented
Master narratives frame students’ historical knowledge, possibly hindering access to more historical representations. A detailed analysis of students’ historical narratives about the origins of their own nation is presented in terms of four master narrative characteristics related to the historical subject, national identification, the main theme and the nation concept. The narratives of Argentine 8th and 11th graders were analyzed to establish whether a change toward a more complex historical account occurred. The results show that the past is mostly understood in master narrative terms but in the 11th
grade narratives demonstrate a more historical understanding. Only identification appears to be fairly constant across years of history learning. The results suggest that in history education first aiming at a constructivist concept of nation and then using the concept to reflect on the national historical subject and events in the narrative might help produce historical understanding of a national past.This article was written with the support of projects EDU-2010-17725 (DGICYT, Spain) and
PICT-2008-1217 (ANPCYT, Argentina), coordinated by the first author. We are grateful for that support
Experimental Study of the Shortest Reset Word of Random Automata
In this paper we describe an approach to finding the shortest reset word of a
finite synchronizing automaton by using a SAT solver. We use this approach to
perform an experimental study of the length of the shortest reset word of a
finite synchronizing automaton. The largest automata we considered had 100
states. The results of the experiments allow us to formulate a hypothesis that
the length of the shortest reset word of a random finite automaton with
states and 2 input letters with high probability is sublinear with respect to
and can be estimated as $1.95 n^{0.55}.
Two-proton correlations from 158 AGeV Pb+Pb central collisions
The two-proton correlation function at midrapidity from Pb+Pb central
collisions at 158 AGeV has been measured by the NA49 experiment. The results
are compared to model predictions from static thermal Gaussian proton source
distributions and transport models RQMD and VENUS. An effective proton source
size is determined by minimizing CHI-square/ndf between the correlation
functions of the data and those calculated for the Gaussian sources, yielding
3.85 +-0.15(stat.) +0.60-0.25(syst.) fm. Both the RQMD and the VENUS model are
consistent with the data within the error in the correlation peak region.Comment: RevTeX style, 6 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. More discussion are added
about the structure on the tail of the correlation function. The systematic
error is revised. To appear in Phys. Lett.
Event-by-event fluctuations of average transverse momentum in central Pb+Pb collisions at 158 GeV per nucleon
We present first data on event-by-event fluctuations in the average
transverse momentum of charged particles produced in Pb+Pb collisions at the
CERN SPS. This measurement provides previously unavailable information allowing
sensitive tests of microscopic and thermodynamic collision models and to search
for fluctuations expected to occur in the vicinity of the predicted QCD phase
transition. We find that the observed variance of the event-by-event average
transverse momentum is consistent with independent particle production modified
by the known two-particle correlations due to quantum statistics and final
state interactions and folded with the resolution of the NA49 apparatus. For
two specific models of non-statistical fluctuations in transverse momentum
limits are derived in terms of fluctuation amplitude. We show that a
significant part of the parameter space for a model of isospin fluctuations
predicted as a consequence of chiral symmetry restoration in a non-equilibrium
scenario is excluded by our measurement.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Phys. Lett.
Decoherence and CPT Violation in a Stringy Model of Space-Time Foam
I discuss a model inspired from the string/brane framework, in which our
Universe is represented as a three brane, propagating in a bulk space time
punctured by D0-brane (D-particle) defects. As the D3-brane world moves in the
bulk, the D-particles cross it, and from an effective observer on D3 the
situation looks like a ``space-time foam'' with the defects ``flashing'' on and
off (``D-particle foam''). The open strings, with their ends attached on the
brane, which represent matter in this scenario, can interact with the
D-particles on the D3-brane universe in a topologically non-trivial manner,
involving splitting and capture of the strings by the D0-brane defects. Such
processes are described by logarithmic conformal field theories on the
world-sheet. Physically, they result in effective decoherence of the string
matter on the D3 brane, and as a result, of CPT Violation, but of a type that
implies an ill-defined nature of the effective CPT operator. Due to electric
charge conservation, only electrically neutral (string) matter can exhibit such
interactions with the D-particle foam. This may have unique, experimentally
detectable, consequences for electrically-neutral entangled quantum matter
states on the brane world, in particular the modification of the pertinent EPR
Correlation of neutral mesons in a meson factory.Comment: 41 pages Latex, five eps figures incorporated. Uses special macro
Tomato: a crop species amenable to improvement by cellular and molecular methods
Tomato is a crop plant with a relatively small DNA content per haploid genome and a well developed genetics. Plant regeneration from explants and protoplasts is feasable which led to the development of efficient transformation procedures.
In view of the current data, the isolation of useful mutants at the cellular level probably will be of limited value in the genetic improvement of tomato. Protoplast fusion may lead to novel combinations of organelle and nuclear DNA (cybrids), whereas this technique also provides a means of introducing genetic information from alien species into tomato. Important developments have come from molecular approaches. Following the construction of an RFLP map, these RFLP markers can be used in tomato to tag quantitative traits bred in from related species. Both RFLP's and transposons are in the process of being used to clone desired genes for which no gene products are known. Cloned genes can be introduced and potentially improve specific properties of tomato especially those controlled by single genes. Recent results suggest that, in principle, phenotypic mutants can be created for cloned and characterized genes and will prove their value in further improving the cultivated tomato.
Excess-noise-enhanced parametric down conversion
We calculate the influence of excess noise on parametric down conversion in an unstable optical parametric oscillator (OPO), using a quantum quasimode description. We find a strongly enhanced pair photon generation rate below threshold as compared to a conventional stable cavity setup of comparable gain and loss. In addition, the oscillation threshold is lowered due to the influence of the excess noise and the squeezing properties of the emitted light are significantly changed. In general, the maximal quantum-noise suppression in one quadrature component is reduced, which poses strong limitations for the practical usefulness of a geometrically unstable OPO source. The analytical results from our quasimode description are in good agreement with numerical simulations using a positive-P representation of the field in mode space and in position space
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