2,959 research outputs found
How to Track Protists in Three Dimensions
We present an apparatus optimized for tracking swimming microorganisms in the
size range 10-1000 microns, in three dimensions (3D), far from surfaces, and
with negligible background convective fluid motion. CCD cameras attached to two
long working distance microscopes synchronously image the sample from two
perpendicular directions, with narrowband dark-field or bright-field
illumination chosen to avoid triggering a phototactic response. The images from
the two cameras can be combined to yield 3D tracks of the organism. Using
additional, highly directional broad-spectrum illumination with millisecond
timing control the phototactic trajectories in 3D of organisms ranging from
Chlamydomonas to Volvox can be studied in detail. Surface-mediated hydrodynamic
interactions can also be investigated without convective interference. Minimal
modifications to the apparatus allow for studies of chemotaxis and other taxes.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure
Role of host feeding niches and host refuges in habitat-related behaviour of Hyssopus pallidus (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae), a larval parasitoid of the codling moth
Parasitoid fitness depends largely on the capability to locate a host in an ecosystem. A parasitoid of a polyphagous host might not be able to find or to access the host in all its feeding niches. This study evaluated the niche selection of Hyssopus pallidus (Askew), a larval parasitoid of Cydia pomonella (Linnaeus), at the plant level with the goal of assessing its potential for biological control on different fruit crops throughout the plant cycle. Parasitoid behaviour during host location and reproduction rate were investigated on host caterpillars actively feeding on apple, pear, apricot or plum, and on caterpillars diapausing under the bark. Under laboratory conditions, the host searching behaviour of H. pallidus varied depending on the fruit species offered and the infestation of the fruits. Parasitoid females searched longer on apples than on other fruit species, and they searched longer on infested than on uninfested apples. Female wasps were able to locate and parasitize host caterpillars under the tree bark, and their behaviour did not vary with host accessibility. The numbers of caterpillars attacked by H. pallidus depended on the fruit species. The highest numbers of caterpillars were parasitized in apples and apricots. Their accessibility (i.e. position) within the fruit or on the branch did not influence parasitism success. Although hosts were parasitized throughout the season, the best results were achieved with early and late releases. Therefore, the host niche selection behaviour of H. pallidus most likely co-evolved with the host C. pomonella on apples, which renders H. pallidus a valuable biocontrol agent for successful release at different times of the season into apple orchard
Sex hormones modulate neurophysiological correlates of visual temporal attention
The functional cerebral asymmetry (FCA) in processing targets within rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) streams has been reported to fluctuate across the menstrual cycle, with identification of the second of two closely spaced targets being impaired when both targets occur in the left or the right hemifield stream during the luteal phase, while during the menstrual phase identification of the second target is only impaired for target pairs presented in the right hemifield stream. This fluctuation has been proposed to result from variations in estradiol levels. The current study used EEG to investigated whether the cycle-related fluctuation in RSVP target identification FCA relates to changes in early, stimulus-driven, bottom-up or in later, top down-driven aspects of FCA. While the former would be expected to become evident in the early visual evoked potentials (VEPs) P1 or N1, the latter would be evident in later event-related potentials (ERPs) such as N2pc or P3. Women performed a dual-stream RSVP task once during the menstrual phase and once during the follicular phase. Estradiol levels were determined from saliva samples. In contrast to previous findings, FCA in RSVP target identification was not affected by cycle phase. However, the impairment in second-target identification when targets where closely spaced was generally smaller during the menstrual phase than during the follicular phase. This effect was matched by shorter peak latencies of P1 VEPs for the menstrual phase, and by a reduction in the latency of the second-target P3 ERP for closely spaced relative to widely spaced target pairs, again for the menstrual phase. Results suggest that in a dual-stream RSVP setup, target identification, early stage stimulus processing, and target consolidation are affected by cycle phase, but that the asymmetry of these effects does not differ between menstrual and follicular phase. The observed cycle-related modulations in neurophysiology and behavior could relate to the effects of estradiol on the locus ceruleus norepinephrine (LC-NE) system, which is known to play a major role in arousal, attention and stress response
Bosonic effective action for interacting fermions
We compare different versions of a bosonic description for systems of
interacting fermions, with particular emphasis on the free energy functional.
The bosonic effective action makes the issue of symmetries particularly
transparent and we present for the Hubbard model an exact mapping between
repulsive and attractive interactions. A systematic expansion for the bosonic
effective action starts with a solution to the lowest order Schwinger-Dyson or
gap equation. We propose a two particle irreducible formulation of an exact
functional renormalization group equation for computations beyond leading
order. On this basis we suggest a renormalized gap equation. This approach is
compared with functional renormalization in a partially bosonized setting.Comment: new sections on exact mapping between attractive and repulsive
Hubbard model and relation between two-particle-irreducible formalism, 32
pages,1 figure,LaTe
Stripe ordering and two-gap model for underdoped cuprates
The evidence of edge-gaps around the M-points in the metallic state of
underdoped cuprates has triggered a very active debate on their origin. We
first consider the possibility that this spectroscopic feature results from a
quasi-static charge ordering taking place in the underdoped regime. It comes
out that to explain the coexistence of gaps and arcs on the Fermi surface the
charge modulation should be in an eggbox form. In the lack of evidences for
that, we then investigate the local pairing induced by charge-stripe
fluctuations. A proper description of the strong anisotropy of both the
interactions and the Fermi velocities requires a two-gap model for pairing. We
find that a gap due to incoherent pairing forms near the M-points, while
coherence is established by the stiffness of the pairing near the nodal points.
The model allows for a continuos evolution from a pure BCS pairing (over- and
optimally doped regime) to a mixed boson-fermion model (heavily underdoped
regime).Comment: 4 pages, Proceedings of M2S-HTS
The Product Space Conditions the Development of Nations
Economies grow by upgrading the type of products they produce and export. The
technology, capital, institutions and skills needed to make such new products
are more easily adapted from some products than others. We study the network of
relatedness between products, or product space, finding that most upscale
products are located in a densely connected core while lower income products
occupy a less connected periphery. We show that countries tend to move to goods
close to those they are currently specialized in, allowing nations located in
more connected parts of the product space to upgrade their exports basket more
quickly. Most countries can reach the core only if they jump over empirically
infrequent distances in the product space. This may help explain why poor
countries have trouble developing more competitive exports, failing to converge
to the income levels of rich countries.Comment: This version is slightly different from the one published in Scienc
Moduli spaces of toric manifolds
We construct a distance on the moduli space of symplectic toric manifolds of
dimension four. Then we study some basic topological properties of this space,
in particular, path-connectedness, compactness, and completeness. The
construction of the distance is related to the Duistermaat-Heckman measure and
the Hausdorff metric. While the moduli space, its topology and metric, may be
constructed in any dimension, the tools we use in the proofs are
four-dimensional, and hence so is our main result.Comment: To appear in Geometriae Dedicata, minor changes to previous version,
19 pages, 6 figure
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