A New Species of Giant Sengi or Elephant-Shrew (Genus \u3cem\u3eRhynchocyon\u3c/em\u3e) Highlights the Exceptional Biodiversity of the Udzungwa Mountains of Tanzania

A new species of sengi, or elephant-shrew, is described. It was discovered in the northern Udzungwa Mountains of Tanzania in 2005. Sengis (Order Macroscelidea, super-cohort Afrotheria) include four genera and 15 species of mammals that are endemic to Africa. This discovery is a significant contribution to the systematics of this small order. Based on 49 camera trap images, 40 sightings and five voucher specimens, the new sengi is diurnal and distinguished from the other three species of Rhynchocyon by a grizzled grey face, pale yellow to cream chest and chin, orange-rufous sides, maroon back and jet-black lower rump and thighs. The body weight of the new species is about 700 g, which is 25–50% greater than any other giant sengi. The new Rhynchocyon is only known from two populations that cover about 300 km2 of montane forest. It has an estimated density of 50–80 individuals km−2. This discovery has important implications for the conservation of the high biodiversity that is found in the forests of the Eastern Arc Mountains

Investigation of an optically induced superstrate plasma for tuning microstrip antennas

Optically induced electron-hole plasmas in silicon are used to perform radiation pattern tuning. The antenna is a slot loaded microstrip patch and the effect of illumination is shown to produce beam switching in the radiation patterns of certain modes while other modes are left unaffected. The structure is specifically designed to make the best use of currently available miniature laser sources to form a compact tunable package. Modelled and measured results for tuning of the radiation patterns and frequency response are presented. The effect of the losses incurred by the plasma along with the losses in the optically transparent ground plane are quantified in both simulation and measurement. This forms the basis for designing other types of optically tunable miniature antennas based on the structure presented

Niche models for British plants and lichens obtained using an ensemble approach

Site-occupancy models that predict habitat suitability for plant species in relation to measurable environmental factors can be useful for conservation planning. Such models can be derived from large-scale presence–absence datasets on the basis of environmental observations or, where only floristic data are available, using plant trait values averaged across a plot. However, the estimated modelled relationship between species presence and environmental variables depends on the type of statistical model adopted and hence can introduce additional uncertainty. Authors used an ensemble-modelling approach to constrain and quantify the uncertainty because of the choice of statistical model, applying generalised linear models (GLM), generalised additive models (GAM), and multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS). Niche models were derived for over 1000 species of vascular plants, bryophytes and lichens, representing a large proportion of the British flora and many species occurring in continental Europe. Each model predicts habitat suitability for a species in response to climate variables and trait-based scores (evaluated excluding the species being modelled) for soil pH, fertility, wetness and canopy height. An R package containing the fitted models for each species is presented which allows the user to predict the habitat suitability of a given set of conditions for a particular species. Further functions within the package are included so that these habitat suitability scores can be plotted in relation to individual explanatory variables. A simple case study shows how the R package (MultiMOVE) can be used quickly and efficiently to answer questions of scientific interest, specifically whether climate change will counteract any benefits of sheep-grazing for a particular plant community. The package itself is freely available via http://doi.org/10.5285/94ae1a5a-2a28-4315-8d4b-35ae964fc3b9

Affective Man-Machine Interface: Unveiling human emotions through biosignals

As is known for centuries, humans exhibit an electrical profile. This profile is altered through various psychological and physiological processes, which can be measured through biosignals; e.g., electromyography (EMG) and electrodermal activity (EDA). These biosignals can reveal our emotions and, as such, can serve as an advanced man-machine interface (MMI) for empathic consumer products. However, such a MMI requires the correct classification of biosignals to emotion classes. This chapter starts with an introduction on biosignals for emotion detection. Next, a state-of-the-art review is presented on automatic emotion classification. Moreover, guidelines are presented for affective MMI. Subsequently, a research is presented that explores the use of EDA and three facial EMG signals to determine neutral, positive, negative, and mixed emotions, using recordings of 21 people. A range of techniques is tested, which resulted in a generic framework for automated emotion classification with up to 61.31% correct classification of the four emotion classes, without the need of personal profiles. Among various other directives for future research, the results emphasize the need for parallel processing of multiple biosignals

Production and Decay of D_1(2420)^0 and D_2^*(2460)^0

We have investigated $D^{+}\pi^{-}$ and $D^{*+}\pi^{-}$ final states and observed the two established $L=1$ charmed mesons, the $D_1(2420)^0$ with mass $2421^{+1+2}_{-2-2}$ MeV/c$^{2}$ and width $20^{+6+3}_{-5-3}$ MeV/c$^{2}$ and the $D_2^*(2460)^0$ with mass $2465 \pm 3 \pm 3$ MeV/c$^{2}$ and width $28^{+8+6}_{-7-6}$ MeV/c$^{2}$. Properties of these final states, including their decay angular distributions and spin-parity assignments, have been studied. We identify these two mesons as the $j_{light}=3/2$ doublet predicted by HQET. We also obtain constraints on {\footnotesize $\Gamma_S/(\Gamma_S + \Gamma_D)$} as a function of the cosine of the relative phase of the two amplitudes in the $D_1(2420)^0$ decay.Comment: 15 pages in REVTEX format. hardcopies with figures can be obtained by sending mail to: [email protected]

Measurement of the branching fraction for Υ(1S)→τ+τ−\Upsilon (1S) \to \tau^+ \tau^-

We have studied the leptonic decay of the $\Upsilon (1S)$ resonance into tau pairs using the CLEO II detector. A clean sample of tau pair events is identified via events containing two charged particles where exactly one of the particles is an identified electron. We find $B(\Upsilon(1S) \to \tau^+ \tau^-) = (2.61~\pm~0.12~{+0.09\atop{-0.13}})$. The result is consistent with expectations from lepton universality.Comment: 9 pages, RevTeX, two Postscript figures available upon request, CLNS 94/1297, CLEO 94-20 (submitted to Physics Letters B

Measurement of the Decay Asymmetry Parameters in Λc+→Λπ+\Lambda_c^+ \to \Lambda\pi^+ and Λc+→Σ+π0\Lambda_c^+ \to \Sigma^+\pi^0

We have measured the weak decay asymmetry parameters (\aLC ) for two \LC\ decay modes. Our measurements are \aLC = -0.94^{+0.21+0.12}_{-0.06-0.06} for the decay mode $\Lambda_c^+ \to \Lambda\pi^+$ and \aLC = -0.45\pm 0.31 \pm 0.06 for the decay mode $\Lambda_c \to \Sigma^+\pi^0$. By combining these measurements with the previously measured decay rates, we have extracted the parity-violating and parity-conserving amplitudes. These amplitudes are used to test models of nonleptonic charmed baryon decay.Comment: 11 pages including the figures. Uses REVTEX and psfig macros. Figures as uuencoded postscript. Also available as http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLNS/1995/CLNS95-1319.p

Measurement of (anti)deuteron and (anti)proton production in DIS at HERA

The first observation of (anti)deuterons in deep inelastic scattering at HERA has been made with the ZEUS detector at a centre-of-mass energy of 300--318 GeV using an integrated luminosity of 120 pb-1. The measurement was performed in the central rapidity region for transverse momentum per unit of mass in the range 0.3<p_T/M<0.7. The particle rates have been extracted and interpreted in terms of the coalescence model. The (anti)deuteron production yield is smaller than the (anti)proton yield by approximately three orders of magnitude, consistent with the world measurements.Comment: 26 pages, 9 figures, 5 tables, submitted to Nucl. Phys.