Conidial harvest from solid media using fiberglass screening.

Conidial harvest from solid media using fiberglass screening

The U(1)-Higgs Model: Critical Behaviour in the Confinig-Higgs region

We study numerically the critical properties of the U(1)-Higgs lattice model, with fixed Higgs modulus, in the region of small gauge coupling where the Higgs and Confining phases merge. We find evidence of a first order transition line that ends in a second order point. By means of a rotation in parameter space we introduce thermodynamic magnitudes and critical exponents in close resemblance with simple models that show analogous critical behaviour. The measured data allow us to fit the critical exponents finding values in agreement with the mean field prediction. The location of the critical point and the slope of the first order line are accurately given.Comment: 21 text pages. 12 postscript figures available on reques

A new family of standardized and symmetric indices for measuring the intensity and importance of plant neighbour effects

1. Measurements of competition and facilitation between plants often rely upon intensity and importance indices that quantify the net effect of neighbours on the performance of a target plant. A systematic analysis of the mathematical behaviour of the indices is lacking and leads to structural pitfalls, e.g. statistical problems detected in importance indices. 2. We summarize and analyse themathematical properties that the indices should display. We reviewthe properties of the commonly used indices focusing on standardization and symmetry, which are necessary to avoid compromising data interpretation.We introduce a new family of indices ‘Neighbour-effect Indices’ that meet all the proposed properties. 3. Considering the commonly used indices, none of the importance indices are standardized, and onlyRII (Relative Interaction Index) displays all the required mathematical properties. The existing indices show two types of symmetries, namely, additive or commutative, which are currently confounded, potentially resulting in misleading interpretations. Our Neighbour-effect Indices encompass two intensity and two importance indices that are standardized and have different and defined symmetries. 4. Our new additive intensity index, NIntA, is the first of its kind, and it is generally more suitable for assessing competition and facilitation intensity than the widely used RII, which may underestimate facilitation. Our new standardized importance indices solve the main statistical problems that are known to affectCimp and Iimp. Intensity and importance with the same symmetry should be used within the same study. The Neighbour-effect Indices, sharing the same formulation, will allow for unbiased comparisons between intensity and importance, and between types of symmetry.The research of R.D.S. was supported by funding from Ministry of Economy and Competitivity (AGL2015-69151-R). V.R.D. was supported by a Ram on y Cajal fellowship (RYC-2012-10970, MINECO, Spain). The research of M.B. and M.R. was supported by funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013), grant agreement 283068 (CASCADE). M.V. was supported by an NWO–ALW ‘open competition’ grant. (Netherlands Science Foundation – Earth and Life Sciences, project number 820.01.020.)

Nonadiabatic wavepacket dynamics: k-space formulation

The time evolution of wavepackets in crystals in the presence of a homogeneous electric field is formulated in k-space in a numerically tractable form. The dynamics is governed by separate equations for the motion of the waveform in k-space and for the evolution of the underlying Bloch-like states. A one-dimensional tight-binding model is studied numerically, and both Bloch oscillations and Zener tunneling are observed. The long-lived Bloch oscillations of the wavepacket center under weak fields are accompanied by oscillations in its spatial spread. These are analyzed in terms of a k-space expression for the spread having contributions from both the quantum metric and the Berry connection of the Bloch states. We find that when sizeable spread oscillations do occur, they are mostly due to the latter term

Influence of light exposure on horizontal transmission of Salmonella typhimurium in weaned pigs

The objective of the following experiment was to examine the effect of light exposure on horizontal transmission of Salmonella typhimurium in weaned pigs. Twenty crossbred pigs (average BW = 15 kg) were housed in isolation rooms (10 pigs/room) and randomly assigned to one of two lighting regimes. Low (8 h light, 16 h dark) or High (16 h light, 8 h dark). Pigs were adjusted to their respective lighting treatments for six days and on the seventh day, two randomly selected pigs/room orally inoculated with 5 ml of tryptic soy broth containing 18 x 108 cfu Salmonella typhimurium/ml. Rectal swabs were collected from each pig daily over the next eight days for direct plating and plating following 24-h enrichment. On day nine, following inoculation of the seeder pigs, all pigs were euthanized and necropsied. Luminal contents were collected from the ileum, colon, cecum and rectum (quantification and qualification of inoculated strain) and tissue samples collected from the above gut segments as well as the tonsils, ileo-cecal lymph nodes, spleen and liver (qualification only)

A systematic topographical relationship between mouse lateral posterior thalamic neurons and their visual cortical projection targets.

Higher-order visual thalamus communicates broadly and bi-directionally with primary and extrastriate cortical areas in various mammals. In primates, the pulvinar is a topographically and functionally organized thalamic nucleus that is largely dedicated to visual processing. Still, a more granular connectivity map is needed to understand the role of thalamocortical loops in visually guided behavior. Similarly, the secondary visual thalamic nucleus in mice (the lateral posterior nucleus, LP) has extensive connections with cortex. To resolve the precise connectivity of these circuits, we first mapped mouse visual cortical areas using intrinsic signal optical imaging and then injected fluorescently tagged retrograde tracers (cholera toxin subunit B) into retinotopically-matched locations in various combinations of seven different visual areas. We find that LP neurons representing matched regions in visual space but projecting to different extrastriate areas are found in different topographically organized zones, with few double-labeled cells (~4-6%). In addition, V1 and extrastriate visual areas received input from the ventrolateral part of the laterodorsal nucleus of the thalamus (LDVL). These observations indicate that the thalamus provides topographically organized circuits to each mouse visual area and raise new questions about the contributions from LP and LDVL to cortical activity

Linear Response Calculations of Spin Fluctuations

A variational formulation of the time--dependent linear response based on the Sternheimer method is developed in order to make practical ab initio calculations of dynamical spin susceptibilities of solids. Using gradient density functional and a muffin-tin-orbital representation, the efficiency of the approach is demonstrated by applications to selected magnetic and strongly paramagnetic metals. The results are found to be consistent with experiment and are compared with previous theoretical calculations.Comment: 11 pages, RevTex; 3 Figures, postscript, high-resolution printing (~1200dpi) is desire

HIL-validation of an extremum seeking-based controller for advanced der management

Paradigm shifts in electricity generation are leading to more renewable and distributed energy resources (DER) on the grid. There is a strong interest to utilize these resources for various grid services, but the practicality of commanding multiple DER is often an obstacle to such approaches. In this article, we seek to validate through Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) simulation an extremum seeking (ES) based control scheme proposed in previous work. The method aggregates and coordinates multiple distributed controllers to offer transmission grid level services. The HIL validation uses a prototype real-time implementation of the controller's logic on distributed devices and photovoltaic (PV) inverters operating on a simulated utility distribution feeder. Several grid services, including load following and voltage regulation, were validated to demonstrate the deployment feasibility of the ES control approach on equipment already installed on the grid

Local moment formation in quantum point contacts

Spin-density-functional theory of quantum point contacts (QPCs) reveals the formation of a local moment with a net of one electron spin in the vicinity of the point contact - supporting the recent report of a Kondo effect in a QPC. The hybridization of the local moment to the leads decreases as the QPC becomes longer, while the onsite Coulomb-interaction energy remains almost constant.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter

Stability of the Black Hole Horizon and the Landau Ghost

The stability of the black hole horizon is demanded by both cosmic censorship and the generalized second law of thermodynamics. We test the consistency of these principles by attempting to exceed the black hole extremality condition in various process in which a U(1) charge is added to a nearly extreme Reissner--Nordstr\"om black hole charged with a {\it different\/} type of U(1) charge. For an infalling spherical charged shell the attempt is foiled by the self--Coulomb repulsion of the shell. For an infalling classical charge it fails because the required classical charge radius exceeds the size of the black hole. For a quantum charge the horizon is saved because in order to avoid the Landau ghost, the effective coupling constant cannot be large enough to accomplish the removal.Comment: 12 pages, RevTe