Laser modulation at the atomic level monthly report no. 8, 1 - 28 feb. 1965

Measurement of temperature dependence of energy levels involved in laser emissio

Laser modulation at the atomic level monthly report no. 7, 1-31 jan. 1965

Laser modulation at atomic level - yttrium- aluminum garnet emission and laser emission shift with homogeneous pulsed magnetic fiel

Estimating the functional form for the density dependence from life history data

Two contrasting approaches to the analysis of population dynamics are currently popular: demographic approaches where the associations between demographic rates and statistics summarizing the population dynamics are identified; and time series approaches where the associations between population dynamics, population density, and environmental covariates are investigated. In this paper, we develop an approach to combine these methods and apply it to detailed data from Soay sheep (Ovis aries). We examine how density dependence and climate contribute to fluctuations in population size via age- and sex-specific demographic rates, and how fluctuations in demographic structure influence population dynamics. Density dependence contributes most, followed by climatic variation, age structure fluctuations and interactions between density and climate. We then simplify the density-dependent, stochastic, age-structured demographic model and derive a new phenomenological time series which captures the dynamics better than previously selected functions. The simple method we develop has potential to provide substantial insight into the relative contributions of population and individual-level processes to the dynamics of populations in stochastic environments

Role of acid efflux during growth promotion of primary leaves of Phaseolus vulgaris L. by hormones and light

The white-light-(WL) induced enlargement of dicotyledonous leaf cells is known to occur via an acid-growth mechanism; i.e., WL causes leaf cells to excrete protons which lead to an increase in wall extensibility and thus cell enlargement. Gibberellic acid (GA 3 ) and N 6 -benzyladenine (BA) also induce leaf cell enlargement. To see if they also act via acid-induced cell wall loosening, a comparison has been made of WL-, GA 3 -and BA-induced growth of strips, taken from primary leaves of bean ( Phaseolus vulgaris L.) plants raised in continuous red light for 10 d. White light, GA 3 and BA all increased wall extensibility as measured by the Instron technique, and this change preceded the increase in growth rate. However, whereas WL induced significant proton excretion, neither GA 3 nor BA caused any acidification of the apoplast. Furthermore, neutral buffers, which effectively inhibited the growth induced by WL, were without effect on growth promoted by either GA 3 or BA. These results indicate that while WL, GA 3 and BA all initiate growth in bean leaves by altering cell-wall properties, GA 3 and BA do so through some wall loosening mechanism other than wall acidification. Neither gibberellin nor cytokinin is likely to play a major role in light-induced cell enlargement of dicotyledonous leaves.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/47475/1/425_2004_Article_BF00392615.pd

Financial instability from local market measures

We study the emergence of instabilities in a stylized model of a financial market, when different market actors calculate prices according to different (local) market measures. We derive typical properties for ensembles of large random markets using techniques borrowed from statistical mechanics of disordered systems. We show that, depending on the number of financial instruments available and on the heterogeneity of local measures, the market moves from an arbitrage-free phase to an unstable one, where the complexity of the market - as measured by the diversity of financial instruments - increases, and arbitrage opportunities arise. A sharp transition separates the two phases. Focusing on two different classes of local measures inspired by real markets strategies, we are able to analytically compute the critical lines, corroborating our findings with numerical simulations.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figure

Partons and Jets at the LHC

I review some issues related to short distance QCD and its relation to the experimental program of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) now under construction in Geneva.Comment: Talk at the conference QCD2002 at IIT Kanpur, India, November 2002. Ten pages with 12 figure

Sexual conflict in twins: male co-twins reduce fitness of female Soay sheep

Males and females often have different requirements during early development, leading to sex-specific interactions between developing offspring. In polytocous mammals, competition for limited resources in utero may be asymmetrical between the sexes, and androgens produced by male foetuses could have adverse effects on the development of females, with potentially long-lasting consequences. We show here, in an unmanaged population of Soay sheep, that female lambs with a male co-twin have reduced birth weight relative to those with a female co-twin, while there was no such effect in male twins. In addition, females with a male co-twin had lower lifetime breeding success, which appeared to be mainly driven by differences in first-year survival. These results show that sex-specific sibling interactions can have long-term consequences for survival and reproduction, with potentially important implications for optimal sex allocation

Grooming coercion and the post-conflict trading of social services in wild Barbary macaques

In animal and human societies, social services such as protection from predators are often exchanged between group members. The tactics that individuals display to obtain a service depend on its value and on differences between individuals in their capacity to aggressively obtain it. Here we analysed the exchange of valuable social services (i.e. grooming and relationship repair) in the aftermath of a conflict, in wild Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus). The relationship repair function of post-conflict affiliation (i.e. reconciliation) was apparent in the victim but not in the aggressor. Conversely, we found evidence for grooming coercion by the aggressor; when the victim failed to give grooming soon after a conflict they received renewed aggression from the aggressor. We argue that post-conflict affiliation between former opponents can be better described as a trading of social services rather than coercion alone, as both animals obtain some benefits (i.e. grooming for the aggressor and relationship repair for the victim). Our study is the first to test the importance of social coercion in the aftermath of a conflict. Differences in competitive abilities can affect the exchange of services and the occurrence of social coercion in animal societies. This may also help explain the variance between populations and species in their social behaviour and conflict management strategies

Hypercholesterolemia and microvascular dysfunction: interventional strategies

Hypercholesterolemia is defined as excessively high plasma cholesterol levels, and is a strong risk factor for many negative cardiovascular events. Total cholesterol levels above 200 mg/dl have repeatedly been correlated as an independent risk factor for development of peripheral vascular (PVD) and coronary artery disease (CAD), and considerable attention has been directed toward evaluating mechanisms by which hypercholesterolemia may impact vascular outcomes; these include both results of direct cholesterol lowering therapies and alternative interventions for improving vascular function. With specific relevance to the microcirculation, it has been clearly demonstrated that evolution of hypercholesterolemia is associated with endothelial cell dysfunction, a near-complete abrogation in vascular nitric oxide bioavailability, elevated oxidant stress, and the creation of a strongly pro-inflammatory condition; symptoms which can culminate in profound impairments/alterations to vascular reactivity. Effective interventional treatments can be challenging as certain genetic risk factors simply cannot be ignored. However, some hypercholesterolemia treatment options that have become widely used, including pharmaceutical therapies which can decrease circulating cholesterol by preventing either its formation in the liver or its absorption in the intestine, also have pleiotropic effects with can directly improve peripheral vascular outcomes. While physical activity is known to decrease PVD/CAD risk factors, including obesity, psychological stress, impaired glycemic control, and hypertension, this will also increase circulating levels of high density lipoprotein and improving both cardiac and vascular function. This review will provide an overview of the mechanistic consequences of the predominant pharmaceutical interventions and chronic exercise to treat hypercholesterolemia through their impacts on chronic sub-acute inflammation, oxidative stress, and microvascular structure/function relationships