String-inspired Gauss-Bonnet gravity reconstructed from the universe expansion history and yielding the transition from matter dominance to dark energy

We consider scalar-Gauss-Bonnet and modified Gauss-Bonnet gravities and reconstruct these theories from the universe expansion history. In particular, we are able to construct versions of those theories (with and without ordinary matter), in which the matter dominated era makes a transition to the cosmic acceleration epoch. It is remarkable that, in several of the cases under consideration, matter dominance and the deceleration-acceleration transition occur in the presence of matter only. The late-time acceleration epoch is described asymptotically by de Sitter space but may also correspond to an exact $\Lambda$CDM cosmology, having in both cases an effective equation of state parameter $w$ close to -1. The one-loop effective action of modified Gauss-Bonnet gravity on the de Sitter background is evaluated and it is used to derive stability criteria for the ensuing de Sitter universe.Comment: LaTeX20 pages, 4 figures, version to apear in PR

Spectral triples and manifolds with boundary

We investigate manifolds with boundary in noncommutative geometry. Spectral triples associated to a symmetric differential operator and a local boundary condition are constructed. For a classical Dirac operator with a chiral boundary condition, we show that there is no tadpole.Comment: 18 pages To appear in J. Funct. Ana

Poisson-Lie group of pseudodifferential symbols

We introduce a Lie bialgebra structure on the central extension of the Lie algebra of differential operators on the line and the circle (with scalar or matrix coefficients). This defines a Poisson--Lie structure on the dual group of pseudodifferential symbols of an arbitrary real (or complex) order. We show that the usual (second) Benney, KdV (or GL_n--Adler--Gelfand--Dickey) and KP Poisson structures are naturally realized as restrictions of this Poisson structure to submanifolds of this ``universal'' Poisson--Lie group. Moreover, the reduced (=SL_n) versions of these manifolds (W_n-algebras in physical terminology) can be viewed as subspaces of the quotient (or Poisson reduction) of this Poisson--Lie group by the dressing action of the group of functions. Finally, we define an infinite set of functions in involution on the Poisson--Lie group that give the standard families of Hamiltonians when restricted to the submanifolds mentioned above. The Poisson structure and Hamiltonians on the whole group interpolate between the Poisson structures and Hamiltonians of Benney, KP and KdV flows. We also discuss the geometrical meaning of W_\infty as a limit of Poisson algebras W_\epsilon as \epsilon goes to 0.Comment: 64 pages, no figure

Interaction of Low - Energy Induced Gravity with Quantized Matter -- II. Temperature effects

At the very early Universe the matter fields are described by the GUT models in curved space-time. At high energies these fields are asymptotically free and conformally coupled to external metric. The only possible quantum effect is the appearance of the conformal anomaly, which leads to the propagation of the new degree of freedom - conformal factor. Simultaneously with the expansion of the Universe, the scale of energies decreases and the propagating conformal factor starts to interact with the Higgs field due to the violation of conformal invariance in the matter fields sector. In a previous paper \cite{foo} we have shown that this interaction can lead to special physical effects like the renormalization group flow, which ends in some fixed point. Furthermore in the vicinity of this fixed point there occur the first order phase transitions. In the present paper we consider the same theory of conformal factor coupled to Higgs field and incorporate the temperature effects. We reduce the complicated higher-derivative operator to several ones of the standard second-derivative form and calculate an exact effective potential with temperature on the anti de Sitter (AdS) background.Comment: 12 pages, LaTex - 2 Figure

Classical and quantum ergodicity on orbifolds

We extend to orbifolds classical results on quantum ergodicity due to Shnirelman, Colin de Verdi\`ere and Zelditch, proving that, for any positive, first-order self-adjoint elliptic pseudodifferential operator P on a compact orbifold X with positive principal symbol p, ergodicity of the Hamiltonian flow of p implies quantum ergodicity for the operator P. We also prove ergodicity of the geodesic flow on a compact Riemannian orbifold of negative sectional curvature.Comment: 14 page

Noncommutative Induced Gauge Theory

We consider an external gauge potential minimally coupled to a renormalisable scalar theory on 4-dimensional Moyal space and compute in position space the one-loop Yang-Mills-type effective theory generated from the integration over the scalar field. We find that the gauge invariant effective action involves, beyond the expected noncommutative version of the pure Yang-Mills action, additional terms that may be interpreted as the gauge theory counterpart of the harmonic oscillator term, which for the noncommutative $\phi^4$-theory on Moyal space ensures renormalisability. The expression of a possible candidate for a renormalisable action for a gauge theory defined on Moyal space is conjectured and discussed.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figure

Plasticity of maritime pine (Pinus pinaster) wood-forming tissues during a growing season

Research• The seasonal effect is the most significant external source of variation affecting vascular cambial activity and the development of newly divided cells, and hence wood properties. Here, the effect of edapho-climatic conditions on the phenotypic and molecular plasticity of differentiating secondary xylem during a growing season was investigated. • Wood-forming tissues of maritime pine (Pinus pinaster) were collected from the beginning to the end of the growing season in 2003. Data from examination of fibre morphology, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), analytical pyrolysis, and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) were combined to characterize the samples. Strong variation was observed in response to changes in edapho-climatic conditions. • A genomic approach was used to identify genes differentially expressed during this growing season. Out of 3512 studied genes, 19% showed a significant seasonal effect. These genes were clustered into five distinct groups, the largest two representing genes over-expressed in the early- or late-wood-forming tissues, respectively. The other three clusters were characterized by responses to specific edapho-climatic conditions. • This work provides new insights into the plasticity of the molecular machinery involved in wood formation, and reveals candidate genes potentially responsible for the phenotypic differences found between early- and late-wood

Comparative analysis of the impact of geological activity on astronomical sites of the Canary Islands, Hawaii and Chile

An analysis of the impact of seismic and volcanic activity was carried out at selected astronomical sites, namely the observatories of El Teide (Tenerife, Canary Islands), Roque de los Muchachos (La Palma, Canary Islands), Mauna Kea (Hawaii) and Paranal (Chile) and the candidate site of Cerro Ventarrones (Chile). Hazard associated to volcanic activity is low or negligible at all sites, whereas seismic hazard is very high in Chile and Hawaii. The lowest geological hazard in both seismic and volcanic activity was found at Roque de los Muchachos observatory, in the island of La Palma.Comment: 12 pages and 11 figure

Amazonian Amphibian Diversity Is Primarily Derived from Late Miocene Andean Lineages

The Neotropics contains half of remaining rainforests and Earth's largest reservoir of amphibian biodiversity. However, determinants of Neotropical biodiversity (i.e., vicariance, dispersals, extinctions, and radiations) earlier than the Quaternary are largely unstudied. Using a novel method of ancestral area reconstruction and relaxed Bayesian clock analyses, we reconstructed the biogeography of the poison frog clade (Dendrobatidae). We rejected an Amazonian center-of-origin in favor of a complex connectivity model expanding over the Neotropics. We inferred 14 dispersals into and 18 out of Amazonia to adjacent regions; the Andes were the major source of dispersals into Amazonia. We found three episodes of lineage dispersal with two interleaved periods of vicariant events between South and Central America. During the late Miocene, Amazonian, and Central American-Chocoan lineages significantly increased their diversity compared to the Andean and Guianan-Venezuelan-Brazilian Shield counterparts. Significant percentage of dendrobatid diversity in Amazonia and Chocó resulted from repeated immigrations, with radiations at <10.0 million years ago (MYA), rather than in situ diversification. In contrast, the Andes, Venezuelan Highlands, and Guiana Shield have undergone extended in situ diversification at near constant rate since the Oligocene. The effects of Miocene paleogeographic events on Neotropical diversification dynamics provided the framework under which Quaternary patterns of endemism evolved

A systematic review of rodent pest research in Afro-Malagasy small-holder farming systems: Are we asking the right questions?

Rodent pests are especially problematic in terms of agriculture and public health since they can inflict considerable economic damage associated with their abundance, diversity, generalist feeding habits and high reproductive rates. To quantify rodent pest impacts and identify trends in rodent pest research impacting on small-holder agriculture in the Afro-Malagasy region we did a systematic review of research outputs from 1910 to 2015, by developing an a priori defined set of criteria to allow for replication of the review process. We followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. We reviewed 162 publications, and while rodent pest research was spatially distributed across Africa (32 countries, including Madagascar), there was a disparity in number of studies per country with research biased towards four countries (Tanzania [25%], Nigeria [9%], Ethiopia [9%], Kenya [8%]) accounting for 51% of all rodent pest research in the Afro-Malagasy region. There was a disparity in the research themes addressed by Tanzanian publications compared to publications from the rest of the Afro-Malagasy region where research in Tanzania had a much more applied focus (50%) compared to a more basic research approach (92%) in the rest of the Afro-Malagasy region. We found that pest rodents have a significant negative effect on the Afro-Malagasy small-holder farming communities. Crop losses varied between cropping stages, storage and crops and the highest losses occurred during early cropping stages (46% median loss during seedling stage) and the mature stage (15% median loss). There was a scarcity of studies investigating the effectiveness of various management actions on rodent pest damage and population abundance. Our analysis highlights that there are inadequate empirical studies focused on developing sustainable control methods for rodent pests and rodent pests in the Africa-Malagasy context is generally ignored as a research topic