5,459 research outputs found
On the occurrence of bryophytes and macrolichens in different lowland rain forest types at Mabura Hill, Guyana
A floristic and ecological study of bryophytes and macrolichens in different lowland rain forest types around Mabura Hill, Guyana, South America, yielded 170 species: 52 mosses, 82 liverworts and 36 macrolichens. Lejeuneaceae account for about 30% of the species and are the dominant cryptogamic family of the lowland rain forest. Special attention was paid to the flora of the forest canopy, by using mountaineering techniques. It appeared that 50% of the bryophyte species and 86% of the macrolichens occurred exclusively in the canopy. Dry evergreen 'walaba' forest on white sand is particularly rich in lichens whereas the more humid 'mixed' forest on loamy soil is characterized by a rather rich liverwort flora. More species are exclusive to the mixed forest than to dry evergreen forest due to the 'canopy effect', i.e. the occurrence of xerophytic species in the outer canopy of both dry and humid forests. Furthermore, canopy species have wider vertical distributions on trees in the dry evergreen forest than in the mixed forest, due to the more open canopy foliage of the dry evergreen forest
Auto-oscillation threshold, narrow spectral lines, and line jitter in spin-torque oscillators based on MgO magnetic tunnel junctions
We demonstrate spin torque induced auto-oscillation in MgO-based magnetic
tunnel junctions. At the generation threshold, we observe a strong line
narrowing down to 6 MHz at 300K and a dramatic increase in oscillator power,
yielding spectrally pure oscillations free of flicker noise. Setting the
synthetic antiferromagnet into autooscillation requires the same current
polarity as the one needed to switch the free layer magnetization. The induced
auto-oscillations are observed even at zero applied field, which is believed to
be the acoustic mode of the synthetic antiferromagnet. While the phase
coherence of the auto-oscillation is of the order of microseconds, the power
autocorrelation time is of the order of milliseconds and can be strongly
influenced by the free layer dynamics
Identifying HIV-1 dual infections
Transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is no exception to the phenomenon that a second, productive infection with another strain of the same virus is feasible. Experiments with RNA viruses have suggested that both coinfections (simultaneous infection with two strains of a virus) and superinfections (second infection after a specific immune response to the first infecting strain has developed) can result in increased fitness of the viral population. Concerns about dual infections with HIV are increasing. First, the frequent detection of superinfections seems to indicate that it will be difficult to develop a prophylactic vaccine. Second, HIV-1 superinfections have been associated with accelerated disease progression, although this is not true for all persons. In fact, superinfections have even been detected in persons controlling their HIV infections without antiretroviral therapy. Third, dual infections can give rise to recombinant viruses, which are increasingly found in the HIV-1 epidemic. Recombinants could have increased fitness over the parental strains, as in vitro models suggest, and could exhibit increased pathogenicity. Multiple drug resistant (MDR) strains could recombine to produce a pan-resistant, transmittable virus
Quantized spin wave modes in magnetic tunnel junction nanopillars
We present an experimental and theoretical study of the magnetic field
dependence of the mode frequency of thermally excited spin waves in rectangular
shaped nanopillars of lateral sizes 60x100, 75x150, and 105x190 nm2, patterned
from MgO-based magnetic tunnel junctions. The spin wave frequencies were
measured using spectrally resolved electrical noise measurements. In all
spectra, several independent quantized spin wave modes have been observed and
could be identified as eigenexcitations of the free layer and of the synthetic
antiferromagnet of the junction. Using a theoretical approach based on the
diagonalization of the dynamical matrix of a system of three coupled, spatially
confined magnetic layers, we have modeled the spectra for the smallest pillar
and have extracted its material parameters. The magnetization and exchange
stiffness constant of the CoFeB free layer are thereby found to be
substantially reduced compared to the corresponding thin film values. Moreover,
we could infer that the pinning of the magnetization at the lateral boundaries
must be weak. Finally, the interlayer dipolar coupling between the free layer
and the synthetic antiferromagnet causes mode anticrossings with gap openings
up to 2 GHz. At low fields and in the larger pillars, there is clear evidence
for strong non-uniformities of the layer magnetizations. In particular, at zero
field the lowest mode is not the fundamental mode, but a mode most likely
localized near the layer edges.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures, (re)submitted to PR
Relative entropy as a measure of inhomogeneity in general relativity
We introduce the notion of relative volume entropy for two spacetimes with
preferred compact spacelike foliations. This is accomplished by applying the
notion of Kullback-Leibler divergence to the volume elements induced on
spacelike slices. The resulting quantity gives a lower bound on the number of
bits which are necessary to describe one metric given the other. For
illustration, we study some examples, in particular gravitational waves, and
conclude that the relative volume entropy is a suitable device for quantitative
comparison of the inhomogeneity of two spacetimes.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figure
Differential gaze behavior towards sexually preferred and non-preferred human figures
The gaze pattern associated with image exploration is a sensitive index of our attention, motivation and preference. To examine whether an individual’s gaze behavior
can reflect his/her sexual interest, we compared gaze patterns of young heterosexual men and women (M = 19.94 years, SD = 1.05) while viewing photos of plain-clothed male and female figures aged from birth to sixty years old. Our analysis revealed a clear gender difference in viewing sexually preferred figure images. Men displayed a distinctive gaze pattern only when viewing twenty-year-old female images, with more fixations and longer viewing time dedicated to the upper body and waist-hip region. Women also
directed more attention at the upper body on female images in comparison to male images, but this difference was not age-specific. Analysis of local image salience revealed that observers’ eye-scanning strategies could not be accounted for by low-level processes, such as analyzing local image contrast and structure, but were associated with
attractiveness judgments. The results suggest that the difference in cognitive processing of sexually preferred and non-preferred figures can be manifested in gaze patterns
associated with figure viewing. Thus, eye-tracking holds promise as a potential sensitive measure for sexual preference, particularly in men
Auto-oscillation threshold and line narrowing in MgO-based spin-torque oscillators
We present an experimental study of the power spectrum of current-driven
magnetization oscillations in MgO tunnel junctions under low bias. We find the
existence of narrow spectral lines, down to 8 MHz in width at a frequency of
10.7 GHz, for small applied fields with clear evidence of an auto-oscillation
threshold. Micromagnetics simulations indicate that the excited mode
corresponds to an edge mode of the synthetic antiferromagnet
Searching with and against each other: Spatiotemporal coordination of visual search behavior in collaborative and competitive settings
Although in real life people frequently perform visual search together, in lab experiments this social dimension is typically left out. Here, we investigate individual, collaborative and competitive visual search with visualization of search partners' gaze. Participants were instructed to search a grid of Gabor patches while being eye tracked. For collaboration and competition, searchers were shown in real time at which element the paired searcher was looking. To promote collaboration or competition, points were rewarded or deducted for correct or incorrect answers. Early in collaboration trials, searchers rarely fixated the same elements. Reaction times of couples were roughly halved compared with individual search, although error rates did not increase. This indicates searchers formed an efficient collaboration strategy. Overlap, the proportion of dwells that landed on hexagons that the other searcher had already looked at, was lower than expected from simulated overlap of two searchers who are blind to the behavior of their partner. The proportion of overlapping dwells correlated positively with ratings of the quality of collaboration. During competition, overlap increased earlier in time, indicating that competitors divided space less efficiently. Analysis of the entropy of the dwell locations and scan paths revealed that in the competition condition, a less fixed looking pattern was exhibited than in the collaborate and individual search conditions. We conclude that participants can efficiently search together when provided only with information about their partner's gaze position by dividing up the search space. Competing search exhibited more random gaze patterns, potentially reflecting increased interaction between searchers in this condition
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