177 research outputs found
Fertilization in Broadcast-Spawning Corals of the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary
Broadcast spawning is considered to be the dominant reproductive strategy for reef corals, but little is known about two critical postspawning processes, fertilization and early larval development. Instead, most efforts have focused on dispersal and recruitment. Since 1993, we have examined coral fertilization and development at the Flower Garden Banks, which contain two isolated reefs with predictable and dramatic annual mass spawning events in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico. Observations of in vitro fertilization indicate that the hermaphroditic scleractinian species Colpophyllia natans, Diploria strigosa, Monfastraea faveolata, and M. franksi all have high fertilization potentials when outcrossing. However, although D. strigosa can self-fertilize readily, self-fertilization levels within C. natans and the Montastraea species are low. In addition, interspecific crossing attempts among the hermaphroditic species of Montastraea (M. franksi, M. faveolata, and M. annularis) yielded low levels of fertilization. The differences observed in the timing of spawning and the low hybridization success between the Montastraea siblings lend additional support to their recent reclassification as separate species. Spawned egg samples collected immediately upon release from female colonies of the gonochoric species M. cavernosa and Stephanocoenia intersepta produced an unexpected observation—very high levels of fertilization. This suggests internal fertilization prior to egg release, a process that has not heretofore been observed in a broadcast-spawning scleractinian
Bi-partite mode entanglement of bosonic condensates on tunneling graph
We study a set of spatial bosonic modes localized on a graph
The particles are allowed to tunnel from vertex to vertex by hopping along the
edges of We analyze how, in the exact many-body eigenstates of the
system i.e., Bose-Einstein condensates over single-particle eigenfunctions, the
bi-partite quantum entanglement of a lattice vertex with respect to the rest of
the graph depends on the topology of Comment: 3 Pages LaTeX, 2 Figures include
Speckle-visibility spectroscopy: A tool to study time-varying dynamics
We describe a multispeckle dynamic light scattering technique capable of
resolving the motion of scattering sites in cases that this motion changes
systematically with time. The method is based on the visibility of the speckle
pattern formed by the scattered light as detected by a single exposure of a
digital camera. Whereas previous multispeckle methods rely on correlations
between images, here the connection with scattering site dynamics is made more
simply in terms of the variance of intensity among the pixels of the camera for
the specified exposure duration. The essence is that the speckle pattern is
more visible, i.e. the variance of detected intensity levels is greater, when
the dynamics of the scattering site motion is slow compared to the exposure
time of the camera. The theory for analyzing the moments of the spatial
intensity distribution in terms of the electric field autocorrelation is
presented. It is demonstrated for two well-understood samples, a colloidal
suspension of Brownian particles and a coarsening foam, where the dynamics can
be treated as stationary. However, the method is particularly appropriate for
samples in which the dynamics vary with time, either slowly or rapidly, limited
only by the exposure time fidelity of the camera. Potential applications range
from soft-glassy materials, to granular avalanches, to flowmetry of living
tissue.Comment: review - theory and experimen
Minimum Wage Channels of Adjustment
Industrial Relations, forthcoming Abstract: The effects of minimum wage increases in 2007-2009 are analyzed using a sample of restaurants from Georgia/Alabama. Store-level payroll records provide precise measures of compliance costs. Examined are multiple adjustment channels. Exploiting variation in compliance costs across restaurants, we find employment and hours responses to be variable and in most cases statistically insignificant. Channels of adjustment to wage increases and to changes in non-labor costs include prices, profits, wage compression, turnover, and performance standards
GenASiS: General Astrophysical Simulation System. I. Refinable Mesh and Nonrelativistic Hydrodynamics
GenASiS (General Astrophysical Simulation System) is a new code being
developed initially and primarily, though by no means exclusively, for the
simulation of core-collapse supernovae on the world's leading capability
supercomputers. This paper---the first in a series---demonstrates a centrally
refined coordinate patch suitable for gravitational collapse and documents
methods for compressible nonrelativistic hydrodynamics. We benchmark the
hydrodynamics capabilities of GenASiS against many standard test problems; the
results illustrate the basic competence of our implementation, demonstrate the
strengths and limitations of the HLLC relative to the HLL Riemann solver in a
number of interesting cases, and provide preliminary indications of the code's
ability to scale and to function with cell-by-cell fixed-mesh refinement.Comment: Belated update to version accepted ApJ
Resourcing resilience: Social protection for HIV prevention amongst children and adolescents in Eastern and Southern Africa
Adolescents are the only age group with growing AIDS-related morbidity and mortality in Eastern and Southern
Africa, making HIV prevention research among this population an urgent priority. Structural deprivations are key
drivers of adolescent HIV infection in this region. Biomedical interventions must be combined with behavioural
and social interventions to alleviate the socio-structural determinants of HIV infection. There is growing evidence
that social protection has the potential to reduce the risk of HIV infection among children and adolescents.
This research combined expert consultations with a rigorous review of academic and policy literature on the
effectiveness of social protection for HIV prevention among children and adolescents, including prevention for
those already HIV-positive. The study had three goals: (i) assess the evidence on the effectiveness of social
protection for HIV prevention, (ii) consider key challenges to implementing social protection programmes
that promote HIV prevention, and (iii) identify critical research gaps in social protection and HIV prevention, in
Eastern and Southern Africa. Causal pathways of inequality, poverty, gender and HIV risk require flexible and
responsive social protection mechanisms. Results confirmed that HIV-inclusive child- and adolescent-sensitive
social protection has the potential to interrupt risk pathways to HIV infection and foster resilience. In particular,
empirical evidence (literature and expert feedback) detailed the effectiveness of combination social protection
particularly cash/in-kind components combined with “care” and “capability” among children and adolescents.
Social protection programmes should be dynamic and flexible, and consider age, gender, HIV-related stigma, and
context, including cultural norms, which offer opportunities to improve programmatic coverage, reach and uptake.
Effective HIV prevention also requires integrated social protection policies, developed through strong national
government ownership and leadership. Future research should explore which combinations of social protection
work for sub-groups of children and adolescents, particularly those living with HIV
- …