Connecting post-release mortality to the physiological stress response of large coastal sharks in a commercial longline fishery

Bycatch mortality is a major factor contributing to shark population declines. Post-release mortality (PRM) is particularly difficult to quantify, limiting the accuracy of stock assessments. We paired blood-stress physiology with animal-borne accelerometers to quantify PRM rates of sharks caught in a commercial bottom longline fishery. Blood was sampled from the same individuals that were tagged, providing direct correlation between stress physiology and animal fate for sandbar (Carcharhinus plumbeus, N = 130), blacktip (C. limbatus, N = 105), tiger (Galeocerdo cuvier, N = 52), spinner (C. brevipinna, N = 14), and bull sharks (C. leucas, N = 14). PRM rates ranged from 2% and 3% PRM in tiger and sandbar sharks to 42% and 71% PRM in blacktip and spinner sharks, respectively. Decision trees based on blood values predicted mortality with >67% accuracy in blacktip and spinner sharks, and >99% accuracy in sandbar sharks. Ninety percent of PRM occurred within 5 h after release and 59% within 2 h. Blood physiology indicated that PRM was primarily associated with acidosis and increases in plasma potassium levels. Total fishing mortality reached 62% for blacktip and 89% for spinner sharks, which may be under-estimates given that some soak times were shortened to focus on PRM. Our findings suggest that no-take regulations may be beneficial for sandbar, tiger, and bull sharks, but less effective for more susceptible species such as blacktip and spinner sharks

Hyperons analogous to the \Lambda(1405)

The low mass of the $\Lambda(1405)$ hyperon with $j^P = 1/2^-$, which is higher than the ground state $\Lambda(1116)$ mass by 290 MeV, is difficult to understand in quark models. We analyze the hyperon spectrum in the bound state approach of the Skyrme model that successfully describes both the $\Lambda(1116)$ and the $\Lambda(1405)$. This model predicts that several hyperon resonances of the same spin but with opposite parity form parity doublets that have a mass difference of around 300 MeV, which is indeed realized in the observed hyperon spectrum. Furthermore, the existence of the $\Xi(1620)$ and the $\Xi(1690)$ of $j^P=1/2^-$ is predicted by this model. Comments on the $\Omega$ baryons and heavy quark baryons are made as well.Comment: 4 pages, talk presented at the Fifth Asia-Pacific Conference on Few-Body Problems in Physics 2011 (APFB2011), Aug. 22-26, 2011, Seoul, Kore

Phase diagram of an Ising model with long-range frustrating interactions: a theoretical analysis

We present a theoretical study of the phase diagram of a frustrated Ising model with nearest-neighbor ferromagnetic interactions and long-range (Coulombic) antiferromagnetic interactions. For nonzero frustration, long-range ferromagnetic order is forbidden, and the ground-state of the system consists of phases characterized by periodically modulated structures. At finite temperatures, the phase diagram is calculated within the mean-field approximation. Below the transition line that separates the disordered and the ordered phases, the frustration-temperature phase diagram displays an infinite number of ``flowers'', each flower being made by an infinite number of modulated phases generated by structure combination branching processes. The specificities introduced by the long-range nature of the frustrating interaction and the limitation of the mean-field approach are finally discussed.Comment: 32 pages, 7 figure

The everyday experience of xenophobia: performing The Crossing from Zimbabwe to South Africa

Debates on the underlying causes of xenophobia in South Africa have proliferated since the attacks -between March and May 2008. Our article shows how exploring the everyday 'ordinariness' of xenophobia as performance can contribute additional insights not readily available in the public media or in works such as the recently published Go home or die here.- violence, xenophobia and the reinvention of difference (Hassim et al. 2009). The claim that as metaphor the meaning of performance is discovered in the dialectic established between the fictitious and actual context, provides a point of departure for a discussion of an autobiographical one-man play, The Crossing, in which Jonathan Nkala performs .his hazardous and 'illegal' rites of passage from Zimbabwe to South Africa. The play's aesthetic of 'witnessing', associated with the protest generation, intersects with and looks beyond a post-Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) aesthetic. To contextualise our discussion of Nkala's work we track trends in responses to xenophobia, including the suggestion that the attacks were underpinned by prevailing discourses of exceptianaJism and indigeneity. However, the intimacy of targeting those living close to you needs fuller anatysis. We will argue that the liminality of the performance event provides scope for making connections not directly 'there' at the moment of performance. This has a bearing on the 'return' to Fanon and claims about 'negrophobia' characterising many reports in the public domain on the events of 2008. In turn, this invites speculation about the re-alignments indicated here.DHE

Search for single top quarks in the tau+jets channel using 4.8 fb−1^{-1} of ppˉp\bar{p} collision data

We present the first direct search for single top quark production using tau leptons. The search is based on 4.8 fb$^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity collected in $p\bar{p}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}$=1.96 TeV with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. We select events with a final state including an isolated tau lepton, missing transverse energy, two or three jets, one or two of them $b$ tagged. We use a multivariate technique to discriminate signal from background. The number of events observed in data in this final state is consistent with the signal plus background expectation. We set in the tau+jets channel an upper limit on the single top quark cross section of \TauLimObs pb at the 95% C.L. This measurement allows a gain of 4% in expected sensitivity for the observation of single top production when combining it with electron+jets and muon+jets channels already published by the D0 collaboration with 2.3 fb$^{-1}$ of data. We measure a combined cross section of \SuperCombineXSall pb, which is the most precise measurement to date.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure

Phenomenological model for the Kbar N --> K Xi reaction

A phenomenological model for the Kbar N --> K Xi reaction is suggested. The model includes s and u channel exchanges by Lambda, Sigma, Sigma(1385), and Lambda(1520) and s channel exchanges by above-threshold hyperonic resonances. Explicit expression for the propagator for a particle with spin 7/2 is presented. High-mass and high-spin resonances play a significant role in the process. We deal with the whole set of existing experimental data on the cross sections and polarizations in the energy range from the threshold to 2.8 GeV in the center-of-mass system and reach a good agreement with experiments. Applications of the model to other elementary reactions of Xi production and to Xi hypernuclear spectroscopy are briefly discussed.Comment: Published version; minor change

Measuring the metric: a parametrized post-Friedmanian approach to the cosmic dark energy problem

We argue for a ``parametrized post-Friedmanian'' approach to linear cosmology, where the history of expansion and perturbation growth is measured without assuming that the Einstein Field Equations hold. As an illustration, a model-independent analysis of 92 type Ia supernovae demonstrates that the curve giving the expansion history has the wrong shape to be explained without some form of dark energy or modified gravity. We discuss how upcoming lensing, galaxy clustering, cosmic microwave background and Lyman alpha forest observations can be combined to pursue this program, which generalizes the quest for a dark energy equation of state, and forecast the accuracy that the proposed SNAP satellite can attain.Comment: Replaced to match accepted PRD version. References and another example added, section III omitted since superceded by astro-ph/0207047. 11 PRD pages, 7 figs. Color figs and links at http://www.hep.upenn.edu/~max/gravity.html or from [email protected]

Projected WIMP sensitivity of the LUX-ZEPLIN dark matter experiment

LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) is a next-generation dark matter direct detection experiment that will operate 4850 feet underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in Lead, South Dakota, USA. Using a two-phase xenon detector with an active mass of 7 tonnes, LZ will search primarily for low-energy interactions with weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), which are hypothesized to make up the dark matter in our galactic halo. In this paper, the projected WIMP sensitivity of LZ is presented based on the latest background estimates and simulations of the detector. For a 1000 live day run using a 5.6-tonne fiducial mass, LZ is projected to exclude at 90% confidence level spin-independent WIMP-nucleon cross sections above 1.4 × 10-48cm2 for a 40 GeV/c2 mass WIMP. Additionally, a 5σ discovery potential is projected, reaching cross sections below the exclusion limits of recent experiments. For spin-dependent WIMP-neutron(-proton) scattering, a sensitivity of 2.3 × 10−43 cm2 (7.1 × 10−42 cm2) for a 40 GeV/c2 mass WIMP is expected. With underground installation well underway, LZ is on track for commissioning at SURF in 2020

Star clusters near and far; tracing star formation across cosmic time

© 2020 Springer-Verlag. The final publication is available at Springer via https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-020-00690-x.Star clusters are fundamental units of stellar feedback and unique tracers of their host galactic properties. In this review, we will first focus on their constituents, i.e.\ detailed insight into their stellar populations and their surrounding ionised, warm, neutral, and molecular gas. We, then, move beyond the Local Group to review star cluster populations at various evolutionary stages, and in diverse galactic environmental conditions accessible in the local Universe. At high redshift, where conditions for cluster formation and evolution are more extreme, we are only able to observe the integrated light of a handful of objects that we believe will become globular clusters. We therefore discuss how numerical and analytical methods, informed by the observed properties of cluster populations in the local Universe, are used to develop sophisticated simulations potentially capable of disentangling the genetic map of galaxy formation and assembly that is carried by globular cluster populations.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio