1,120 research outputs found
Changes in growth of tropical forests: evaluating potential biases
Over the past century almost every ecosystem on Earth has come under the
influence of changes in atmospheric composition and climate caused by human activity.
Tropical forests are among the most productive and extensive ecosystems, and it has been
hypothesized that both the dynamics and biomass of apparently undisturbed, old-growth
tropical forests have been changing in response to atmospheric changes. Long-term forest
sample plots are a critical tool in detecting and monitoring such changes, and our recent
analysis of pan-tropical-forest plot data has suggested that the biomass of tropical forests
has been increasing, providing a modest negative feedback on the rate of accumulation of
atmospheric CO2. However, it has been argued that some of these old forest plot data sets
have significant problems in interpretation because of the use of nonstandardized methodologies.
In this paper we examine the extent to which potential field methodological errors may
bias estimates of total biomass change by detailed examination of tree-by-tree records from
up to 120 Neotropical plots to test predictions from theory. Potential positive biases on
measurements of biomass change include a bias in site selection, tree deformities introduced
by the measurement process, poor methodologies to deal with tree deformities or buttresses,
and nonrecording of negative growth increments. We show that, while it is important to
improve and standardize methodologies in current and future forest-plot work, any systematic
errors introduced by currently identified biases in past studies are small and calculable.
We conclude that most tropical-forest plot data are of useful quality, and that the evidence
does still weigh conclusively in favor of a recent increase of biomass in old-growth tropical
forests
The imposition of Cauchy data to the Teukolsky equation I: The nonrotating case
Gravitational perturbations about a Kerr black hole in the Newman-Penrose
formalism are concisely described by the Teukolsky equation. New numerical
methods for studying the evolution of such perturbations require not only the
construction of appropriate initial data to describe the collision of two
orbiting black holes, but also to know how such new data must be imposed into
the Teukolsky equation. In this paper we show how Cauchy data can be
incorporated explicitly into the Teukolsky equation for non-rotating black
holes. The Teukolsky function and its first time derivative
can be written in terms of only the 3-geometry and the
extrinsic curvature in a gauge invariant way. Taking a Laplace transform of the
Teukolsky equation incorporates initial data as a source term. We show that for
astrophysical data the straightforward Green function method leads to divergent
integrals that can be regularized like for the case of a source generated by a
particle coming from infinity.Comment: 9 pages, REVTEX. Misprints corrected in formulas (2.4)-(2.7). Final
version to appear in PR
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Magnetic force microscopy of single-domain cobalt dots patterned using interference lithography
We have fabricated arrays of Co dots of diameters 100 and 70 nm using interference lithography. Density of these arrays is 7.2x10{sup 9}/in{sup 2}. Magnetic force microscopy indicate that the Co dots are single domain with moments that can be controlled to point either in-plane or out-of-plane. Interference lithography is a process that is easily scaled to large areas and is potentially capable of high throughput. Large, uniform arrays of single-domain structures are potentially useful for high-density, low-noise data storage
Axions and their Relatives
A review of the status of axions and axion-like particles is given. Special
attention is devoted to the recent results of the PVLAS collaboration, which
are in conflict with the CAST data and with the astrophysical constraints.
Solutions to the puzzle and the implications for new physics are discussed. The
question of axion-like particles being dark matter is also addressed.Comment: Updated version of an invited talk at the Axion Training (CERN,
December 2005). To appear as a Lecture Notes in Physics (Springer-Verlag),
edited by B. Beltran, M. Kuster and G. Raffel
Local Hidden Variables Underpinning of Entanglement and Teleportation
Entangled states whose Wigner functions are non-negative may be viewed as
being accounted for by local hidden variables (LHV). Recently, there were
studies of Bell's inequality violation (BIQV) for such states in conjunction
with the well known theorem of Bell that precludes BIQV for theories that have
LHV underpinning. We extend these studies to teleportation which is also based
on entanglement. We investigate if, to what extent, and under what conditions
may teleportation be accounted for via LHV theory. Our study allows us to
expose the role of various quantum requirements. These are, e.g., the
uncertainty relation among non-commuting operators, and the no-cloning theorem
which forces the complete elimination of the teleported state at its initial
port.Comment: 24 pages, 1 figure, accepted Found. Phy
Autism community research priorities: the potential of future research to benefit autistics
Despite the enormous amounts of money spent on autism research, there has been little focus to date on what members of the autistic community believe should be prioritised by autism researchers. Our systematic review of the literature identified three published studies that had developed wide-ranging autism research priority sets. We undertook an in-depth analysis of these priorities sets to determine whether research focused on each priority had the potential to benefit the well-being of and/or emancipate autistic individuals. For this purpose, we used published ‘inclusive research’ criteria. We also compared the three sets of autism research priorities in the context of autistic well-being and emancipation. Our findings demonstrated substantial differences between the priorities in the studies in terms of whether they might benefit and/or be emancipatory for autistic people. Autistic people were a small minority of participants in studies where participant numbers had been recorded. There has yet to be a study focused solely on understanding the autism research priorities of autistic adults
Correlation of pre-hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) pro-inflammatory cytokines in bronchioalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid with pulmonary complications following HCT in patients with inherited metabolic storage disorders (IMSDs)
Structural and biophysical characterization of bacillus thuringiensis insecticidal proteins Cry34Ab1 and Cry35Ab1
Bacillus thuringiensis strains are well known for the production of insecticidal proteins upon sporulation and these proteins are deposited in parasporal crystalline inclusions. The majority of these insect-specific toxins exhibit three domains in the mature toxin sequence. However, other Cry toxins are structurally and evolutionarily unrelated to this three-domain family and little is known of their three dimensional structures, limiting our understanding of their mechanisms of action and our ability to engineer the proteins to enhance their function. Among the non-three domain Cry toxins, the Cry34Ab1 and Cry35Ab1 proteins from B. thuringiensis strain PS149B1 are required to act together to produce toxicity to the western corn rootworm (WCR) Diabrotica virgifera virgifera Le Conte via a pore forming mechanism of action. Cry34Ab1 is a protein of ∼14 kDa with features of the aegerolysin family (Pfam06355) of proteins that have known membrane disrupting activity, while Cry35Ab1 is a ∼44 kDa member of the toxin_10 family (Pfam05431) that includes other insecticidal proteins such as the binary toxin BinA/BinB. The Cry34Ab1/Cry35Ab1 proteins represent an important seed trait technology having been developed as insect resistance traits in commercialized corn hybrids for control of WCR. The structures of Cry34Ab1 and Cry35Ab1 have been elucidated to 2.15 Å and 1.80 Å resolution, respectively. The solution structures of the toxins were further studied by small angle X-ray scattering and native electrospray ion mobility mass spectrometry. We present here the first published structure from the aegerolysin protein domain family and the structural comparisons of Cry34Ab1 and Cry35Ab1 with other pore forming toxins
Summing up the perturbation series in the Schwinger Model
Perturbation series for the electron propagator in the Schwinger Model is
summed up in a direct way by adding contributions coming from individual
Feynman diagrams. The calculation shows the complete agreement between
nonperturbative and perturbative approaches.Comment: 10 pages (in REVTEX
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