2,879 research outputs found
Curculionidae and Chrysomelidae Found in Aquatic Habitats in Wisconsin
(excerpt)
We became interested in aquatic weevils (Curculionidae) and leaf beetles (Chryso- melidae) during the Aquatic Entomology Course at the University of Wisconsin, in the
spring of 1971. Many collections, taken from a variety of aquatic habitats in Wisconsin, contained weevils and leaf beetles. Most of the species were not fully treated in the keys found in aquatic entomology texts. We thought it would be useful to compile keys from the literature and present what is known of the distribution of these insects in Wisconsin. Nine species of weevils have been found in aquatic habitats in Wisconsin, representing seven genera, all belonging to the subtribe Hydronomi, and twenty-five species of leaf beetles, representing five genera in three subfamilies
Thematic mapper research in the earth sciences: Small scale patches of suspended matter and phytoplankton in the Elbe River Estuary, German Bight and Tidal Flats
A Thematic Mapper (TM) field experiment was followed by a data analysis to determine TM capabilities for analysis of suspended matter and phytoplankton. Factor analysis showed that suspended matter concentration, atmospheric scattering, and sea surface temperature can be retrieved as independent factors which determine the variation in the TM data over water areas. Spectral channels in the near infrared open the possibility of determining the Angstrom exponent better than for the coastal zone color scanner. The suspended matter distribution may then be calculated by the absolute radiance of channel 2 or 3 or the ratio of both. There is no indication of whether separation of chlorophyll is possible. The distribution of suspended matter and sea surface temperature can be observed with the expected fine structure. A good correlation between water depth and suspended matter distribution as found from ship data can now be analyzed for an entire area by the synoptic view of the TM scenes
Association between oxytocin receptor gene polymorphisms and self-rated 'empathic concern' in schizophrenia
The nonapeptide oxytocin (OXT) and its receptor (OXTR) have been implicated in social cognition, empathy, emotion and stress regulation in humans. Previous studies reported associations between OXT and OXTR genetic polymorphisms and risk for disorders characterized by impaired socio-emotional functioning, such as schizophrenia and autism. Here we investigate the influence of two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within the OXTR gene on a measure of socio-emotional functioning in schizophrenic patients. OXTR SNPs that were previously investigated in other studies were genotyped in 145 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia according to DSM-IV and 145 healthy controls matched for age and gender. The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) was used to assess cognitive ('perspective taking'), affective ('empathic concern') and self-related ('personal distress') dimensions of empathy. No group differences in genotype frequencies were observed. MANCOVA revealed a significant main (F [1,282] = 10.464; pGG) with 'empathic concern'. Within the schizophrenia group, linear regression analysis determined OXTR rs2254298 genotype, PANSS negative and general symptom score, and age of disease onset as being significantly associated with 'empathic concern'. OXTR rs2254298 significantly impacted PANSS general psychopathology scores. No associations were found for OXTR rs53576, IRI 'perspective taking' or 'personal distress' ratings. Our preliminary findings support hypotheses about an involvement of OXTR rs2254298 in emotional empathy in schizophrenic and healthy individuals, warranting independent replication
Levy flights and Levy -Schroedinger semigroups
We analyze two different confining mechanisms for L\'{e}vy flights in the
presence of external potentials. One of them is due to a conservative force in
the corresponding Langevin equation. Another is implemented by
Levy-Schroedinger semigroups which induce so-called topological Levy processes
(Levy flights with locally modified jump rates in the master equation). Given a
stationary probability function (pdf) associated with the Langevin-based
fractional Fokker-Planck equation, we demonstrate that generically there exists
a topological L\'{e}vy process with the very same invariant pdf and in the
reverse.Comment: To appear in Cent. Eur. J. Phys. (2010
Video Pandemics: Worldwide Viral Spreading of Psy's Gangnam Style Video
Viral videos can reach global penetration traveling through international
channels of communication similarly to real diseases starting from a
well-localized source. In past centuries, disease fronts propagated in a
concentric spatial fashion from the the source of the outbreak via the short
range human contact network. The emergence of long-distance air-travel changed
these ancient patterns. However, recently, Brockmann and Helbing have shown
that concentric propagation waves can be reinstated if propagation time and
distance is measured in the flight-time and travel volume weighted underlying
air-travel network. Here, we adopt this method for the analysis of viral meme
propagation in Twitter messages, and define a similar weighted network distance
in the communication network connecting countries and states of the World. We
recover a wave-like behavior on average and assess the randomizing effect of
non-locality of spreading. We show that similar result can be recovered from
Google Trends data as well.Comment: 10 page
STEPS - an approach for human mobility modeling
In this paper we introduce Spatio-TEmporal Parametric Stepping (STEPS) - a simple parametric mobility model which can cover a large spectrum of human mobility patterns. STEPS makes abstraction of spatio-temporal preferences in human mobility by using a power law to rule the nodes movement. Nodes in STEPS have preferential attachment to favorite locations where they spend most of their time. Via simulations, we show that STEPS is able, not only to express the peer to peer properties such as inter-ontact/contact time and to reflect accurately realistic routing performance, but also to express the structural properties of the underlying interaction graph such as small-world phenomenon. Moreover, STEPS is easy to implement, exible to configure and also theoretically tractable
Neutron star properties and the equation of state of neutron-rich matter
We calculate total masses and radii of neutron stars (NS) for pure neutron
matter and nuclear matter in beta-equilibrium. We apply a relativistic nuclear
matter equation of state (EOS) derived from Dirac-Brueckner-Hartree-Fock (DBHF)
calculations. We use realistic nucleon-nucleon (NN) interactions defined in the
framework of the meson exchange potential models. Our results are compared with
other theoretical predictions and recent observational data. Suggestions for
further study are discussed.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, 1 table; Revised version, accepted for
publication in Physical Review
Momentum-Dependent Mean Field Based Upon the Dirac-Brueckner Approach for Nuclear Matter
A momentum-dependent mean field potential, suitable for application in the
transport-model description of nucleus-nucleus collisions, is derived in a
microscopic way. The derivation is based upon the Bonn meson-exchange model for
the nucleon-nucleon interaction and the Dirac-Brueckner approach for nuclear
matter. The properties of the microscopic mean field are examined and compared
with phenomenological parametrizations which are commonly used in
transport-model calculations.Comment: 15 pages text (RevTex) and 4 figures (postscript in a separate
uuencoded file), UI-NTH-930
Multiscale mobility networks and the large scale spreading of infectious diseases
Among the realistic ingredients to be considered in the computational
modeling of infectious diseases, human mobility represents a crucial challenge
both on the theoretical side and in view of the limited availability of
empirical data. In order to study the interplay between small-scale commuting
flows and long-range airline traffic in shaping the spatio-temporal pattern of
a global epidemic we i) analyze mobility data from 29 countries around the
world and find a gravity model able to provide a global description of
commuting patterns up to 300 kms; ii) integrate in a worldwide structured
metapopulation epidemic model a time-scale separation technique for evaluating
the force of infection due to multiscale mobility processes in the disease
dynamics. Commuting flows are found, on average, to be one order of magnitude
larger than airline flows. However, their introduction into the worldwide model
shows that the large scale pattern of the simulated epidemic exhibits only
small variations with respect to the baseline case where only airline traffic
is considered. The presence of short range mobility increases however the
synchronization of subpopulations in close proximity and affects the epidemic
behavior at the periphery of the airline transportation infrastructure. The
present approach outlines the possibility for the definition of layered
computational approaches where different modeling assumptions and granularities
can be used consistently in a unifying multi-scale framework.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl
Environmental assessment of bioethanol from onshore grown Ulva
PosterBesides biofuels from microalgae, an emerging interest in using macroalgae as feedstock for biofuel production is observable. Macroalgae have the advantage that they are much easier to harvest than microalgae so that the problem of low feedstock concentration does not arise. The environmental performance of bioethanol from onshore grown green algae is assessed using literature data and initial laboratory scale data. The optimized system model allows for producing an environmentally efficient biofuel in comparison to fossil fuel and bioethanol from sugar cane. Handling the co-product by substitution instead of energy allocation significantly reduced the environmental impacts of the system and resulted in environmental bonuses in several impact categories. Thus, the management of the co-product in the LCA model (energy allocation vs. substitution) is a key step in the LCA, as it highly influences the impact assessment results
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