Effect of stripe order strength for the Nernst effect in La_{2-x}Sr_xCu_4 single crystals

We have precisely measured the Nernst effect in Nd-doped La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ single crystals with controlling the strength (stability) of the stripe order. We found that the onset temperature $T_{onset}$, where the Nernst signal starts increasing, does not change conspicuously in spite of Nd-doping. At low temperatures, on the other hand, the absolute value of the Nernst signal is strongly suppressed in accordance with the strength of the stripe order. These results imply that the fluctuation of (charge) stripe order enhances the Nernst signal below $T_{onset}$ at high temperatures, and then the stripe order enhanced by Nd-doping suppresses the superconducting fluctuation to reduce the Nernst signal at low temperatures. We also observed an increase of the Nernst signal below the charge order temperature $T_{ch}$ which is observed in diffraction measurement.Comment: 3pages, 2figure

Explaining microbial population genomics through phage predation

The remarkable diversity of genes within the pool of prokaryotic genomes belonging to the same species or pan-genome is difficult to reconcile with the widely accepted paradigm which asserts that periodic selection within bacterial populations would regularly purge genomic diversity by clonal replacement. Recent evidence from metagenomics indicates that even within a single sample a large diversity of genomes can be present for a single species. We have found that much of the differential gene content affects regions that are potential phage recognition targets. We therefore propose the operation of Constant-Diversity dynamics in which the diversity of prokaryotic populations is preserved by phage predation. We provide supporting evidence for this model from metagenomics, mathematical analysis and computer simulations. Periodic selection and phage predation dynamics are not mutually exclusive; we compare their predictions to indicate under which ecological circumstances each dynamics could predominate

Crisis? What crisis? Economic recovery and support for independence in Catalonia

Many political commentators and politicians claim that the effects of the Great Recession account for the surge in support for independence in Catalonia. However, available evidence does not point to a significant role having been played by the economic crisis in this political process. To enhance our understanding of the potential effects of changing economic conditions, we extend our analysis to the subsequent period, when economic recovery had taken place in Catalonia. Even in this very different economic scenario, the same results are found: that is, no evidence of a systematic relationship between changes in economic variables and variations in support for independence

Spectropolarimetric observations of the Ca II 8498 A and 8542 A lines in the quiet Sun

The Ca II infrared triplet is one of the few magnetically sensitive chromospheric lines available for ground-based observations. We present spectropolarimetric observations of the 8498 A and 8542 A lines in a quiet Sun region near a decaying active region and compare the results with a simulation of the lines in a high plasma-beta regime. Cluster analysis of Stokes V profile pairs shows that the two lines, despite arguably being formed fairly close, often do not have similar shapes. In the network, the local magnetic topology is more important in determining the shapes of the Stokes V profiles than the phase of the wave, contrary to what our simulations show. We also find that Stokes V asymmetries are very common in the network, and the histograms of the observed amplitude and area asymmetries differ significantly from the simulation. Both the network and internetwork show oscillatory behavior in the Ca II lines. It is stronger in the network, where shocking waves, similar to those in the high-beta simulation, are seen and large self-reversals in the intensity profiles are common.Comment: 23 pages, 17 figures, accepted to ApJ some figures are low-res, for high-res email [email protected]

Conserved superenergy currents

We exploit once again the analogy between the energy-momentum tensor and the so-called ``superenergy'' tensors in order to build conserved currents in the presence of Killing vectors. First of all, we derive the divergence-free property of the gravitational superenergy currents under very general circumstances, even if the superenergy tensor is not divergence-free itself. The associated conserved quantities are explicitly computed for the Reissner-Nordstrom and Schwarzschild solutions. The remaining cases, when the above currents are not conserved, lead to the possibility of an interchange of some superenergy quantities between the gravitational and other physical fields in such a manner that the total, mixed, current may be conserved. Actually, this possibility has been recently proved to hold for the Einstein-Klein-Gordon system of field equations. By using an adequate family of known exact solutions, we present explicit and completely non-obvious examples of such mixed conserved currents.Comment: LaTeX, 19 pages; improved version adding new content to the second section and some minor correction

Getting the most out of additional guidance information in deformable image registration by leveraging multi-objective optimization

Incorporating additional guidance information, e.g., landmark/contour correspondence, in deformable image registration is often desirable and is typically done by adding constraints or cost terms to the optimization function. Commonly, deciding between a “hard” constraint and a “soft” additional cost term as well as the weighting of cost terms in the optimization function is done on a trial-and-error basis. The aim of this study is to investigate the advantages of exploiting guidance information by taking a multi-objective optimization perspective. Hereto, next to objectives related to match quality and amount of deformation, we define a third objective related to guidance information. Multi-objective optimization eliminates the need to a-priori tune a weighting of objectives in a single optimization function or the strict requirement of fulfilling hard guidance constraints. Instead, Pareto-efficient trade-offs between all objectives are found, effectively making the introduction of guidance information straightforward, independent of its type or scale. Further, since complete Pareto fronts also contain less interesting parts (i.e., solutions with near-zero deformation effort), we study how adaptive steering mechanisms can be incorporated to automatically focus more on solutions of interest. We performed experiments on artificial and real clinical data with large differences, including disappearing structures. Results show the substantial benefit of using additional guidance information. Moreover, compared to the 2-objective case, additional computational cost is negligible. Finally, with the same computational budget, use of the adaptive steering mechanism provides superior solutions in the area of interest

The Dynamical Behaviour of Test Particles in a Quasi-Spherical Spacetime and the Physical Meaning of Superenergy

We calculate the instantaneous proper radial acceleration of test particles (as measured by a locally defined Lorentzian observer) in a Weyl spacetime, close to the horizon. As expected from the Israel theorem, there appear some bifurcations with respect to the spherically symmetric case (Schwarzschild), which are explained in terms of the behaviour of the superenergy, bringing out the physical relevance of this quantity in the study of general relativistic systems.Comment: 14 pages, Latex. 4 figures. New references added. Typos corrected. To appear in Int. J. Theor. Phy

9286 Stars: An Agglomeration of Stellar Polarization Catalogs

This is a revision. The revisions are minor. The new version of the catalog should be used in preference to the old. The most serious error in the older version was that $\theta_diff$ was incorrect, being sometimes far too large, for Reiz and Franco entries; the correct values are all zero for that reference. We present an agglomeration of stellar polarization catalogs with results for 9286 stars. We have endeavored to eliminate errors, provide accurate (arcsecond) positions, sensibly weight multiple observations of the same star, and provide reasonable distances. This catalog is included as an ASCII file (catalog.txt) in the source of this submission.Comment: The most serious error in the older version was that $\theta_diff$ was incorrect, being sometimes far too large, for Reiz and Franco entries; the correct values are all zero for that reference. 11 pages, no figures. Accepted for Astronomical Journal. Catalog also available as an ASCII file by anonymous FTP from ftp://vermi.berkeley.edu/pub/polcat/p14.ou

Les pratiques touristiques en espace rural et la place des aménités

L’objectif de ce papier est d’analyser qui sont et que font les touristes en espace rural. Notre point d’entrée est celui de la demande, analysée à partir des comportements observés des touristes. Cette analyse concerne le tourisme d’été dans deux régions : Aquitaine et Rhône-Alpes. Elle est menée à partir des données individuelles recueillies lors de l’enquête "Suivi de la Demande Touristique" des années 2003, 2005 et 2007, données fournies par TNS Sofres à la direction du Tourisme. Ces données nous permettent d’identifier la part relative des différentes pratiques touristiques dans les zones qualifiées de non urbaines. Elles mettent en évidence i) le maintien des séjours qu’on peut qualifier de "retour chez soi" qui n’occasionnent pas de dépense d’hébergement et au cours desquels aucune activité particulière n’est pratiquée ; ii) l’importance des séjours tournés vers la pratique d’activités de plein air et ceux tournés vers la découverte du patrimoine local. Ces deux types de séjours constituent les segments principaux du tourisme rural « moderne » et des vecteurs majeurs de valorisation des aménités. En marge de ces deux segments, émerge un tourisme gastronomique qui valorise la complémentarité entre les aménités naturelles et les aménités culturelles des territoires.TOURISME;AMENITES;MILIEU RURAL;CLASSIFICATION;TOURISM;AMENITIES;RURAL AREA;CLASSIFICATION;FRANCE

Consequences of a Killing symmetry in spacetime's local structure

In this paper we discuss the consequences of a Killing symmetry on the local geometrical structure of four-dimensional spacetimes. We have adopted the point of view introduced in recent works where the exterior derivative of the Killing plays a fundamental role. Then, we study some issues related with this approach and clarify why in many circumstances its use has advantages with respect to other approaches. We also extend the formalism developed in the case of vacuum spacetimes to the general case of an arbitrary energy-momentum content. Finally, we illustrate our framework with the case of spacetimes with a gravitating electromagnetic field.Comment: 20 pages, LaTeX2e, IOP style. Revised version accepted for publication in Classical and Quantum Gravit