316 research outputs found
Response of copepods to elevated pCO2 and environmental copper as co-stressors--a multigenerational study.
We examined the impacts of ocean acidification and copper as co-stressors on the reproduction and population level responses of the benthic copepod Tisbe battagliai across two generations. Naupliar production, growth, and cuticle elemental composition were determined for four pH values: 8.06 (control); 7.95; 7.82; 7.67, with copper addition to concentrations equivalent to those in benthic pore waters. An additive synergistic effect was observed; the decline in naupliar production was greater with added copper at decreasing pH than for decreasing pH alone. Naupliar production modelled for the two generations revealed a negative synergistic impact between ocean acidification and environmentally relevant copper concentrations. Conversely, copper addition enhanced copepod growth, with larger copepods produced at each pH compared to the impact of pH alone. Copepod digests revealed significantly reduced cuticle concentrations of sulphur, phosphorus and calcium under decreasing pH; further, copper uptake increased to toxic levels that lead to reduced naupliar production. These data suggest that ocean acidification will enhance copper bioavailability, resulting in larger, but less fecund individuals that may have an overall detrimental outcome for copepod populations
Implications of partially degenerate neutrinos at a high scale in the light of KamLAND and WMAP
Electroweak radiative corrections can generate the neutrino (mass)
difference required for the large mixing angle solution (LMA) to the solar
neutrino problem if two of the neutrinos are assumed degenerate at high energy.
We test this possibility with the existing experimental knowledge of the low
energy neutrino mass and mixing parameters. We derive restrictions on ranges of
the high scale mixing matrix elements and obtain predictions for the low energy
parameters required in order to get the LMA solution of the solar neutrino
problem picked out by KamLAND. We find that in the case of standard model this
is achieved only when the (degenerate) neutrino masses lie in the range
(0.7-2) \eV which is at odds with the cosmological limit m_{\nu}<0.23 \eV
(at ) established recently using WMAP results. Thus SM radiative
corrections cannot easily generate the LMA solution in this scenario. However,
the LMA solution is possible in case of the MSSM electroweak corrections with
(almost) degenerate spectrum or with inverted mass hierarchy for limited ranges
in the high scale parameters.Comment: 15 pages, LATEX includes five postscript figure
Role of Brans-Dicke Theory with or without self-interacting potential in cosmic acceleration
In this work we have studied the possibility of obtaining cosmic acceleration
in Brans-Dicke theory with varying or constant (Brans- Dicke
parameter) and with or without self-interacting potential, the background fluid
being barotropic fluid or Generalized Chaplygin Gas. Here we take the power law
form of the scale factor and the scalar field. We show that accelerated
expansion can also be achieved for high values of for closed Universe.Comment: 12 Latex pages, 20 figures, RevTex styl
Stringy Dark Energy Model with Cold Dark Matter
Cosmological consequences of adding the Cold Dark Matter (CDM) to the exactly
solvable stringy Dark Energy (DE) model are investigated. The model is
motivated by the consideration of our Universe as a slowly decaying D3-brane.
The decay of this D-brane is described in the String Field Theory framework.
Stability conditions of the exact solution with respect to small fluctuations
of the initial value of the CDM energy density are found. Solutions with large
initial value of the CDM energy density attracted by the exact solution without
CDM are constructed numerically. In contrast to the LambdaCDM model the Hubble
parameter in the model is not a monotonic function of time. For specific
initial data the DE state parameter w_{DE} is also not monotonic function of
time. For these cases there are two separate regions of time where w_{DE} being
less than -1 is close to -1.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures; references adde
Spontaneous Breaking of Flavor Symmetry and Naturalness of Nearly Degenerate Neutrino Masses and Bi-maximal Mixing
The gauge model with flavor symmetry and three Higgs triplets is
studied. We show how the intriguing nearly degenerate neutrino mass and
bi-maximal mixing scenario comes out naturally after spontaneous breaking of
the symmetry. The hierarchy between the neutrino mass-squared differences,
which is needed for reconciling both solar and atmospheric neutrino data, is
naturally resulted from an approximate permutation symmetry. The model can also
lead to interesting phenomena on lepton-flavor violations via the
gauge interactions.Comment: 13 pages, latex, no figures, the version appearing in SCIENCE IN
CHINA (Series A), Vol.35 No.9 (2000
Visualisation of the copepod female reproductive system using confocal laser scanning microscopy and two-photon microscopy
We examined mating behaviour in the harpacticoid copepod Tube battagliai Volkmann-Rocco, 1972, in particular the process of delivering spermatophore seminal contents to the female urosome. Labelling using 4′6′ diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) coupled with two-photon confocal laser scanning microscopy successfully visualised the spermatophore and female internal reproductive system. Sections of the female urosome were imaged to examine seminal fluid stores. The female tissues were found to auto-fluoresce as red emission under green excitation, requiring no additional tissue labelling. DAPI-labelled seminal fluid stores were identified within the female reproductive system. The details observed agreed with previous descriptions of copepod reproductive anatomy and of spermatophores. Specimens cultured under pH 8.10 and a simulated ocean acidification scenario (pH 7.67) were compared for changes in reproductive anatomy and spermatophore size and site attachment. No differences were observed in spermatophore attachment or the female reproductive system but spermatophore size was reduced significantly at pH 7.67 compared with pH 8.10. This size reduction was, however, in proportion to an overall reduction in female body size at reduced pH. Confocal microscopy is shown here to be a valuable tool to investigate detailed reproductive processes in copepods
Electromagnetic waves in an axion-active relativistic plasma non-minimally coupled to gravity
We consider cosmological applications of a new self-consistent system of
equations, accounting for a nonminimal coupling of the gravitational,
electromagnetic and pseudoscalar (axion) fields in a relativistic plasma. We
focus on dispersion relations for electromagnetic perturbations in an initially
isotropic ultrarelativistic plasma coupled to the gravitational and axion
fields in the framework of isotropic homogeneous cosmological model of the de
Sitter type. We classify the longitudinal and transversal electromagnetic modes
in an axionically active plasma and distinguish between waves (damping,
instable or running), and nonharmonic perturbations (damping or instable). We
show that for the special choice of the guiding model parameters the
transversal electromagnetic waves in the axionically active plasma,
nonminimally coupled to gravity, can propagate with the phase velocity less
than speed of light in vacuum, thus displaying a possibility for a new type of
resonant particle-wave interactions.Comment: 19 pages, 9 figures, published versio
Supernova Bounds on Majoron-emitting decays of light neutrinos
Neutrino masses arising from the spontaneous violation of ungauged
lepton-number are accompanied by a physical Goldstone boson, generically called
Majoron. In the high-density supernova medium the effects of Majoron-emitting
neutrino decays are important even if they are suppressed in vacuo by small
neutrino masses and/or small off-diagonal couplings. We reconsider the
influence of these decays on the neutrino signal of supernovae in the light of
recent Super-Kamiokande data on solar and atmospheric neutrinos. We find that
majoron-neutrino coupling constants in the range 3\times 10^{-7}\lsim g\lsim
2\times 10^{-5} or g \gsim 3 \times 10^{-4} are excluded by the observation
of SN1987A. Then we discuss the potential of Superkamiokande and the Sudbury
Neutrino Observatory to detect majoron neutrino interactions in the case of a
future galactic supernova. We find that these experiments could probe majoron
neutrino interactions with improved sensitivity.Comment: 28 pages, 5 figure
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