6,049 research outputs found
Phenotypic Effects of an Allele Causing Obligate Parthenogenesis in a Rotifer
Transitions to obligate asexuality have been documented in almost all metazoan taxa, yet the conditions favoring such transitions remained largely unexplored. We address this problem in the rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus. In this species, a polymorphism at a single locus, op, can result in transitions to obligate parthenogenesis. Homozygotes for the op allele reproduce strictly by asexual reproduction, whereas heterozygous clones (+/op) and wild-type clones (+/+) are cyclical parthenogens that undergo sexual reproduction at high population densities. Here, we examine dosage effects of the op allele by analyzing various life-history characteristics and population traits in 10 clones for each of the 3 possible genotypes (op/op, +/op, and +/+). For most traits, we found that op/op clones differed significantly (P < 0.05) from the 2 cyclical parthenogenetic genotypes (+/+ and +/op). By contrast, the 2 cyclical parthenogenetic genotypes were almost indistinguishable, except that heterozygote individuals were slightly but significantly smaller in body size compared with wild-type individuals. Overall, this indicates that the op allele is selectively neutral in the heterozygous state. Thus, selective sweeps of this allele in natural populations would first require conditions favoring the generation of homozygotes. This may be given by inbreeding in very small populations or by double mutants in very large populations
The t W- Mode of Single Top Production
The t W- mode of single top production is proposed as an important means to
study the weak interactions of the top quark. While the rate of this mode is
most likely too small to be observed at Run II of the Fermilab Tevatron, it is
expected to be considerably larger at the CERN LHC. In this article the
inclusive t W- rate is computed, including O(1 / log (m_t^2 / m_b^2))
corrections, and when combined with detailed Monte Carlo simulations including
the top and W decay products, indicate that the t W- single top process may be
extracted from the considerable t tbar and W+ W- j backgrounds at low
luminosity runs of the LHC.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figure
Numerical study of surface-induced reorientation and smectic layering in a nematic liquid crystal
Surface-induced profiles of both nematic and smectic order parameters in a
nematic liquid crystal, ranging from an orienting substrate to "infinity", were
evaluated numerically on base of an extended Landau theory. In order to obtain
a smooth behavior of the solutions at "infinity" a boundary energy functional
was derived by linearizing the Landau energy around its equilibrium solutions.
We find that the intrinsic wave number of the smectic structure, which plays
the role of a coupling between nematic and smectic order, strongly influences
the director reorientation. Whereas the smectic order is rapidly decaying when
moving away from the surface, the uniaxial nematic order parameter shows an
oscillatory behavior close to the substrate, accompanied by a non-zero local
biaxiality.Comment: LaTeX, 17 pages, with 4 postscript figure
Director configuration of planar solitons in nematic liquid crystals
The director configuration of disclination lines in nematic liquid crystals
in the presence of an external magnetic field is evaluated. Our method is a
combination of a polynomial expansion for the director and of further
analytical approximations which are tested against a numerical shooting method.
The results are particularly simple when the elastic constants are equal, but
we discuss the general case of elastic anisotropy. The director field is
continuous everywhere apart from a straight line segment whose length depends
on the value of the magnetic field. This indicates the possibility of an
elongated defect core for disclination lines in nematics due to an external
magnetic field.Comment: 12 pages, Revtex, 8 postscript figure
Theory and simulation of the nematic zenithal anchoring coefficient
Combining molecular simulation, Onsager theory and the elastic description of
nematic liquid crystals, we study the dependence of the nematic liquid crystal
elastic constants and the zenithal surface anchoring coefficient on the value
of the bulk order parameter
A multi-wavelength view of the multiple activity cycles of ~Eridani
Eridani is a highly active young K2 star with an activity cycle of
about three years established using Ca II H & K line index measurements
(S_MWO). This relatively short cycle has been demonstrated to be consistent
with X-ray and magnetic flux measurements. Recent work suggested a change in
the cyclic behaviour. Here we report new X-ray flux and S_MWO measurements and
also include S_MWO measurements from the historical Mount Wilson program. This
results in an observational time baseline of over 50 years for the S_MWO data
and of over 7 years in X-rays. Moreover, we include Ca II infrared triplet
(IRT) index measurements (S_IRT) from 2013-2022 in our study. With the extended
X-ray data set, we can now detect the short cycle for the first time using a
periodogram analysis. Near-simultaneous S_MWO data and X-ray fluxes, which are
offset by 20 days at most, are moderately strongly correlated when only the
lowest activity state (concerning short-term variability) is considered in both
diagnostics. In the S_MWO data, we find strong evidence for a much longer cycle
of about 34 years and an 11-year cycle instead of the formerly proposed
-year cycle in addition to the known 3-year cycle. The superposition of the
three periods naturally explains the recent drop in S_MWO measurements. The two
shorter cycles are also detected in the S_IRT data, although the activity
cycles exhibit lower amplitudes in the S_IRT than in the S_MWO data. Finally,
the rotation period of Eri can be found more frequently in the S_MWO
as well as in the S_IRT data for times near the minimum of the long cycle. This
may be explained by a scenario in which the filling factor for magnetically
active regions near cycle maximum is too high to allow for notable short-term
variations.Comment: accepted to A&
Three Numerical Puzzles and the Top Quark's Chiral Weak-Moment
Versus the standard model's t --> W b decay helicity amplitudes, three
numerical puzzles occur at the 0.1 % level when one considers the amplitudes in
the case of an additional (f_M + f_E) coupling of relative strength 53 GeV. The
puzzles are theoretical ones which involve the t --> W b decay helicity
amplitudes in the two cases, the relative strength of this additional coupling,
and the observed masses of these three particles. A deeper analytic realization
is obtained for two of them. Equivalent realizations are given for the
remaining one. An empirical consequence of these analytic realizations is that
it is important to search for effects of a large chiral weak-moment of the
top-quark, the effective mass-scale is about 53 GeV. A full theoretical
resolution would include relating the origin of such a chiral weak-moment and
the mass generation of the top-quark, the W-boson, and probably the b-quark.Comment: 18 pages, 1 postscript table (revised to better explain notation,
model #1, add a little material...
Quantitative spectroscopy of single molecule interaction times
Funding Information: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (421152132 (subproject C03)), EXC 2046 (MATH+Incubator project IN-B2).Single molecule fluorescence tracking provides information at nanometer-scale and millisecond-temporal resolution about the dynamics and interaction of individual molecules in a biological environment. While the dynamic behavior of isolated molecules can be characterized well, the quantitative insight is more limited when interactions between two indistinguishable molecules occur. We address this aspect by developing a theoretical foundation for a spectroscopy of interaction times, i.e., the inference of interaction from imaging data. A non-trivial crossover between a power law to an exponential behavior of the distribution of the interaction times is highlighted, together with the dependence of the exponential term upon the microscopic reaction affinity. Our approach is validated with simulated and experimental datasets.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe
X-Shooter spectroscopy of young stellar objects in Lupus: Accretion properties of class II and transitional objects
We present the results of a study of the stellar and accretion properties of
the (almost) complete sample of class II and transitional YSOs in the Lupus I,
II, III and IV clouds, based on spectroscopic data acquired with the
VLT/X-Shooter spectrograph. Our study combines the dataset from our previous
work with new observations of 55 additional objects. We have investigated 92
YSO candidates in total, 11 of which have been definitely identified with giant
stars unrelated to Lupus. The stellar and accretion properties of the 81 bona
fide YSOs, which represent more than 90% of the whole class~II and transition
disc YSO population in the aforementioned Lupus clouds, have been homogeneously
and self-consistently derived, allowing for an unbiased study of accretion and
its relationship with stellar parameters. The accretion luminosity, Lacc,
increases with the stellar luminosity, Lstar, with an overall slope of ~1.6,
similar but with a smaller scatter than in previous studies. There is a
significant lack of strong accretors below Lstar~0.1Lsun, where Lacc is always
lower than 0.01Lstar. We argue that the Lacc-Lstar slope is not due to
observational biases, but is a true property of the Lupus YSOs. The
logMacc-logMstar correlation shows a statistically significant evidence of a
break, with a steeper relation for Mstar<0.2Msun and a flatter slope for higher
masses. The bimodality of the Macc-Mstar relation is confirmed with four
different evolutionary models used to derive the stellar mass. The bimodal
behaviour of the observed relationship supports the importance of modelling
self-gravity in the early evolution of the more massive discs, but other
processes, such as photo evaporation and planet formation during the YSO's
lifetime, may also lead to disc dispersal on different timescales depending on
the stellar mass. We also refined the empirical Lacc vs. Lline relationships.Comment: 43 pages, 22 figure
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