8,105 research outputs found
Recommended from our members
Beach impact study, Padre Island National Seashore
Prepared for Office of Natural Science, Southwest Region, National Park Service, under contract CX70005044830 April 1976Vegetative differences between heavily and very lightly trafficked beaches show that more beach traffic correlates with quantitative decreases in variety and density of plants and with declines of grasses relative to forbs. The vegetated portions of all beaches continue to grow in volume. However, this is at the expense of the more seaward (more trafficked) parts of the beaches and has lead to overall loss of total beach volume except where vehicular traffic is prohibited. The very lightly trafficked beach is the only study site wherein the entire beach to mean sea level has grown. The effect of these trends on resistance to storm surge erosion remains to be tested.Marine Scienc
A semi-analytical perspective on massive galaxies at
The most massive and luminous galaxies in the Universe serve as powerful
probes to study the formation of structure, the assembly of mass, and
cosmology. However, their detailed formation and evolution is still barely
understood. Here we extract a sample of massive mock galaxies from the
semi-analytical model of galaxy formation (SAM) GALACTICUS from the
MultiDark-Galaxies, by replicating the CMASS photometric selection from the
SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). The comparison of the
GALACTICUS CMASS-mock with BOSS-CMASS data allows us to explore different
aspects of the massive galaxy population at , including the
galaxy-halo connection and the galaxy clustering. We find good agreement
between our modelled galaxies and observations regarding the galaxy-halo
connection, but our CMASS-mock over-estimates the clustering amplitude of the
2-point correlation function, due to a smaller number density compared to BOSS,
a lack of blue objects, and a small intrinsic scatter in stellar mass at fixed
halo mass of dex. To alleviate this problem, we construct an alternative
mock catalogue mimicking the CMASS colour-magnitude distribution by randomly
down-sampling the SAM catalogue. This CMASS-mock reproduces the clustering of
CMASS galaxies within 1 and shows some environmental dependency of star
formation properties that could be connected to the quenching of star formation
and the assembly bias.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures, 2 tables, submitted to MNRA
Orbital electron capture by the nucleus
The theory of nuclear electron capture is reviewed in the light of current understanding of weak interactions. Experimental methods and results regarding capture probabilities, capture ratios, and EC/Beta(+) ratios are summarized. Radiative electron capture is discussed, including both theory and experiment. Atomic wave function overlap and electron exchange effects are covered, as are atomic transitions that accompany nuclear electron capture. Tables are provided to assist the reader in determining quantities of interest for specific cases
Five new species of aeolid nudibranchs (Mollusca, Opisthobranchia) from the tropical eastern Pacific
Estimating salinity stress via hsp70 expression in the invasive round goby (Neogobius melanostomus) : implications for further range expansion
Species invasions often occur on coasts and estuaries where abiotic conditions vary, e.g. salinity, temperature, runoff etc. Successful establishment and dispersal of non-indigenous species in many such systems are poorly understood, partially since the species tend to show genetic and ecological plasticity at population level towards many abiotic conditions, including salinity tolerance. Plasticity may be driven by shifting expression of heat shock proteins such as Hsp70, which is widely recognized as indicator of physical stress. In this study, we developed a qPCR assay for expression of the hsp70 gene in the invasive round goby (Neogobius melanostomus) and tested the expression response of fish collected from a brackish environment in the western Baltic Sea to three different salinities, 0, 10 and 30. hsp70 expression was highest in fresh water, indicating higher stress, and lower at brackish (ambient condition for the sampled population) and oceanic salinities, suggestive of low stress response to salinities above the population’s current distribution. The highest stress in fresh water was surprising since populations in fresh water exist, e.g. large European rivers and Laurentian Great Lakes. The results have implications to predictions for the species’ plasticity potential and possible range expansion of the species into other salinity regimes
B-> K photon photon via intermediate eta'
We examine our previous conjecture that the eta' intermediate resonance has
the dominant role in the long distance contributions to B decay into two
photons and a strange final state hadron. We calculate the branching ratio of
the exclusive B-> K eta'-> K photon photon decay using the nonspectator
mechanism for eta' production in charmless hadronic B decays. It is shown that
the obtained branching ratio B^eta'(B-> K\gamma\gamma)~ 8.7 X 10^{-7} is more
than twice as large as the eta_c contribution to this decay mode.Comment: 6 pages, latex, no figure
A pulsed, mono-energetic and angular-selective UV photo-electron source for the commissioning of the KATRIN experiment
The KATRIN experiment aims to determine the neutrino mass scale with a
sensitivity of 200 meV/c^2 (90% C.L.) by a precision measurement of the shape
of the tritium -spectrum in the endpoint region. The energy analysis of
the decay electrons is achieved by a MAC-E filter spectrometer. To determine
the transmission properties of the KATRIN main spectrometer, a mono-energetic
and angular-selective electron source has been developed. In preparation for
the second commissioning phase of the main spectrometer, a measurement phase
was carried out at the KATRIN monitor spectrometer where the device was
operated in a MAC-E filter setup for testing. The results of these measurements
are compared with simulations using the particle-tracking software
"Kassiopeia", which was developed in the KATRIN collaboration over recent
years.Comment: 19 pages, 16 figures, submitted to European Physical Journal
Charge-Reversal Instability in Mixed Bilayer Vesicles
Bilayer vesicles form readily from mixtures of charged and neutral
surfactants. When such a mixed vesicle binds an oppositely-charged object, its
membrane partially demixes: the adhesion zone recruits more charged surfactants
from the rest of the membrane. Given an unlimited supply of adhering objects
one might expect the vesicle to remain attractive until it was completely
covered. Contrary to this expectation, we show that a vesicle can instead
exhibit {\it adhesion saturation,} partitioning spontaneously into an
attractive zone with definite area fraction, and a repulsive zone. The latter
zone rejects additional incoming objects because counterions on the interior of
the vesicle migrate there, effectively reversing the membrane's charge. The
effect is strongest at high surface charge densities, low ionic strength, and
with thin, impermeable membranes. Adhesion saturation in such a situation has
recently been observed experimentally [H. Aranda-Espinoza {\it et al.}, {\sl
Science} {\bf285} 394--397 (1999)]
Variation in the upstream region of P-Selectin (SELP) is a risk factor for SLE
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a complex autoimmune disease. Genome-wide linkage studies implicated a region containing the adhesion molecule P-Selectin. This family-based study revealed two regions of association within P-Selectin. The strongest signal, from a 21.4-kb risk haplotype, stretched from the promoter into the first two consensus repeat (CR) regions (P=8 × 10−4), with a second association from a 14.6-kb protective haplotype covering CR 2–9 (P=0.0198). The risk haplotype is tagged by the rare C allele of rs3753306, which disrupts the binding site of the trans-activating transcription factor HNF-1. One other variant (rs3917687) on the risk haplotype was significant after permutation (P10000<1 × 10−5), replicated in independent pseudo case-control analysis and was significant by meta-analysis (P=4.37 × 10−6). A third associated variant on the risk haplotype (rs3917657) replicated in 306 US SLE families and was significant in a joint UK-SLE data set after permutation. The protective haplotype is tagged by rs6133 (a non-synonymous variant in CR8 (P=9.00 × 10−4), which also shows association in the pseudo case-control analysis (P=1.09 × 10−3) and may contribute to another signal in P-Selectin. We propose that polymorphism in the upstream region may reduce expression of P-Selectin, the mechanism by which this promotes autoimmunity is unknown, although it may reduce the production of regulatory T cells
- …