Food Habits of Wolves in Kluane National Park

The food habits of wolves (Canis lupus) were studied at two different den-sites in Kluane National Park in the southwest of the Yukon Territory, in 1972 and 1973, as part of an assessment of predator-prey dynamics in that newly-designated reserve. No published data exist on the diets of wolves in northern British Columbia or the Yukon Territory; the closest available information concerns the wolf populations of Alaska

Scaling Behaviour and Complexity of the Portevin-Le Chatelier Effect

The plastic deformation of dilute alloys is often accompanied by plastic instabilities due to dynamic strain aging and dislocation interaction. The repeated breakaway of dislocations from and their recapture by solute atoms leads to stress serrations and localized strain in the strain controlled tensile tests, known as the Portevin-Le Chatelier (PLC) effect. In this present work, we analyse the stress time series data of the observed PLC effect in the constant strain rate tensile tests on Al-2.5%Mg alloy for a wide range of strain rates at room temperature. The scaling behaviour of the PLC effect was studied using two complementary scaling analysis methods: the finite variance scaling method and the diffusion entropy analysis. From these analyses we could establish that in the entire span of strain rates, PLC effect showed Levy walk property. Moreover, the multiscale entropy analysis is carried out on the stress time series data observed during the PLC effect to quantify the complexity of the distinct spatiotemporal dynamical regimes. It is shown that for the static type C band, the entropy is very low for all the scales compared to the hopping type B and the propagating type A bands. The results are interpreted considering the time and length scales relevant to the effect.Comment: 35 pages, 6 figure

Ab initio parametrised model of strain-dependent solubility of H in alpha-iron

The calculated effects of interstitial hydrogen on the elastic properties of alpha-iron from our earlier work are used to describe the H interactions with homogeneous strain fields using ab initio methods. In particular we calculate the H solublility in Fe subject to hydrostatic, uniaxial, and shear strain. For comparison, these interactions are parametrised successfully using a simple model with parameters entirely derived from ab initio methods. The results are used to predict the solubility of H in spatially-varying elastic strain fields, representative of realistic dislocations outside their core. We find a strong directional dependence of the H-dislocation interaction, leading to strong attraction of H by the axial strain components of edge dislocations and by screw dislocations oriented along the critical slip direction. We further find a H concentration enhancement around dislocation cores, consistent with experimental observations.Comment: part 2/2 from splitting of 1009.3784 (first part was 1102.0187), minor changes from previous version

Acute stress induced by the preslaughter use of electric prodders causes tougher beef meat

Adrenergic activation and hormone release preslaughter is an inevitable outcome of the systems used to move cattle to slaughter. The aim of this experiment was to investigate the effects of acute preslaughter stress in beef cattle on postmortem muscle metabolism and the meat quality, including consumer-assessed eating quality. Eighty-four cattle were used on three separate days, with ‘mobs’ of four cattle allocated to either a ‘control’ (no electric goads used preslaughter) or a ‘stress’ (six prods given with an electric goad over 5–10 min) treatment at 15 min preslaughter. Cattle undergoing the ‘stress’ treatment had higher plasma lactate at slaughter. The prerigor pH and temperature, ultimate pH and temperature at rigor of the longissimus thoracis muscle were similar between treatments (P\u3e0.05 for all). The water-holding capacity of the longissimus lumborum was reduced by the ‘stress’ treatment, as indicated by higher levels of water lost during suspension (drip loss), storage (purge) for 21 days and cooking (cooking loss at 1 day postslaughter) (P\u3c0.05 for all). ‘Stress’ cattle produced longissimus lumborum muscle with similar sarcomere lengths andWarner–Bratzler shear force at 2, 6 and 21 days , compared to ‘control’ cattle (P\u3c0.05 for all). The longissimus lumborum muscle of cattle undergoing the ‘stress’ treatment was rated less tender, less juicy, with a less acceptable flavour, a lower ‘liking’ and a lower MQ4 score (P\u3c0.05 for all). The ‘bloomed’ surface colour (CIE L*, a*, b*) of the longissimus lumborum muscle at 2, 6 and 21 days postslaughter was similar between the ‘stress’ and ‘control’ treatments (P\u3e0.05 for all). In conclusion, cattle subjected to acute preslaughter stress using electric goads produced meat which the consumer rated as tougher with inferior quality. The inferior quality induced by the acute stress treatment was associated with reduced water-holding capacity but was independent of muscle pH and temperature

AGB subpopulations in the nearby globular cluster NGC 6397

It has been well established that Galactic Globular clusters (GCs) harbour more than one stellar population, distinguishable by the anti-correlations of light element abundances (C-N, Na-O, and Mg-Al). These studies have been extended recently to the asymptotic giant branch (AGB). Here we investigate the AGB of NGC 6397 for the first time. We have performed an abundance analysis of high-resolution spectra of 47 RGB and 8 AGB stars, deriving Fe, Na, O, Mg and Al abundances. We find that NGC 6397 shows no evidence of a deficit in Na-rich AGB stars, as reported for some other GCs - the subpopulation ratios of the AGB and RGB in NGC 6397 are identical, within uncertainties. This agrees with expectations from stellar theory. This GC acts as a control for our earlier work on the AGB of M 4 (with contrasting results), since the same tools and methods were used.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, 8 tables (2 online-only). Accepted for publication in MNRA

Critical Dynamics of Burst Instabilities in the Portevin-Le Chatelier Effect

We investigate the Portevin-Le Chatelier effect (PLC), by compressing Al-Mg alloys in a very large deformation range, and interpret the results from the viewpoint of phase transitions and critical phenomena. The system undergoes two dynamical phase transitions between intermittent (or "jerky") and "laminar" plastic dynamic phases. Near these two dynamic critical points, the order parameter 1/\tau of the PLC effect exhibits large fluctuations, and "critical slowing down" (i.e., the number $\tau$ of bursts, or plastic instabilities, per unit time slows down considerably).Comment: the published 4-page version is in the PRL web sit

Quasi-Static Brittle Fracture in Inhomogeneous Media and Iterated Conformal Maps: Modes I, II and III

The method of iterated conformal maps is developed for quasi-static fracture of brittle materials, for all modes of fracture. Previous theory, that was relevant for mode III only, is extended here to mode I and II. The latter require solution of the bi-Laplace rather than the Laplace equation. For all cases we can consider quenched randomness in the brittle material itself, as well as randomness in the succession of fracture events. While mode III calls for the advance (in time) of one analytic function, mode I and II call for the advance of two analytic functions. This fundamental difference creates different stress distribution around the cracks. As a result the geometric characteristics of the cracks differ, putting mode III in a different class compared to modes I and II.Comment: submitted to PRE For a version with qualitatively better figures see: http://www.weizmann.ac.il/chemphys/ander

Use of ERTS-1 data to access and monitor change in the west side of the San Joaquin Valley and central coastal zone of California

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

Big Entropy Fluctuations in Statistical Equilibrium: The Macroscopic Kinetics

Large entropy fluctuations in an equilibrium steady state of classical mechanics were studied in extensive numerical experiments on a simple 2--freedom strongly chaotic Hamiltonian model described by the modified Arnold cat map. The rise and fall of a large separated fluctuation was shown to be described by the (regular and stable) "macroscopic" kinetics both fast (ballistic) and slow (diffusive). We abandoned a vague problem of "appropriate" initial conditions by observing (in a long run)spontaneous birth and death of arbitrarily big fluctuations for any initial state of our dynamical model. Statistics of the infinite chain of fluctuations, reminiscent to the Poincar\'e recurrences, was shown to be Poissonian. A simple empirical relation for the mean period between the fluctuations (Poincar\'e "cycle") has been found and confirmed in numerical experiments. A new representation of the entropy via the variance of only a few trajectories ("particles") is proposed which greatly facilitates the computation, being at the same time fairly accurate for big fluctuations. The relation of our results to a long standing debates over statistical "irreversibility" and the "time arrow" is briefly discussed too.Comment: Latex 2.09, 26 pages, 6 figure