3,364 research outputs found
Phenotypic plasticity for life-history traits in Drosophila melanogaster. III. Effect of the environment on genetic parameters
We estimated genetic and environmental variance components for developmental time and dry weight at eclosion in Drosophila melanogaster raised in ten different environments (all combinations of 22, 25 and 28°C and 0·5, 1 and 4% yeast concentration, and 0·25% yeast at 25°C). We used six homozygous lines derived from a natural population for complete diallel crosses in each environment. Additive genetic variances were consistently low for both traits (h2 around 10%). The additive genetic variance of developmental time was larger at lower yeast concentrations, but the heritability did not increase because other components were also larger. The additive genetic effects of the six parental lines changed ranks across environments, suggesting a mechanism for the maintenance of genetic variation in heterogenous environments. The variance due to non-directional dominance was small in most environments. However, there was directional dominance in the form of inbreeding depression for both traits. It was pronounced at high yeast levels and temperatures but disappeared when yeast or temperature were decreased. This meant that the heterozygous flies were more sensitive to environmental differences than homozygous flies. Because dominance effects are not heritable, this suggests that the evolution of plasticity can be constrained when dominance effects are important as a mechanism for plasticit
Thermochemical analyses of the oxidative vaporization of metals and oxides by oxygen molecules and atoms
Equilibrium thermochemical analyses are employed to describe the vaporization processes of metals and metal oxides upon exposure to molecular and atomic oxygen. Specific analytic results for the chromium-, platinum-, aluminum-, and silicon-oxygen systems are presented. Maximum rates of oxidative vaporization predicted from the thermochemical considerations are compared with experimental results for chromium and platinum. The oxidative vaporization rates of chromium and platinum are considerably enhanced by oxygen atoms
Stereocontrolled enantioselective total synthesis of the [2+2] quadrigemine alkaloids.
A unified strategy for enantioselective total synthesis of all stereoisomers of the 2+2 family of quadrigemine alkaloids is reported. In this approach, two enantioselective intramolecular Heck reactions are carried out at the same time on precursors fashioned in four steps from either meso- or (+)-chimonanthine to form the two critical quaternary carbons of the peripheral cyclotryptamine rings of these products. Useful levels of catalyst control are realized in either desymmetrizing a meso precursor or controlling diastereoselectivity in elaborating C2-symmetic intermediates. None of the synthetic quadrigemines are identical with alkaloids isolated previously and referred to as quadrigemines A and E. In addition, we report improvements in our previous total syntheses of (+)- or (-)-quadrigemine C that shortened the synthetic sequence to 10 steps and provided these products in 2.2% overall yield from tryptamine
Magnetic friction in Ising spin systems
A new contribution to friction is predicted to occur in systems with magnetic
correlations: Tangential relative motion of two Ising spin systems pumps energy
into the magnetic degrees of freedom. This leads to a friction force
proportional to the area of contact. The velocity and temperature dependence of
this force are investigated. Magnetic friction is strongest near the critical
temperature, below which the spin systems order spontaneously.
Antiferromagnetic coupling leads to stronger friction than ferromagnetic
coupling with the same exchange constant. The basic dissipation mechanism is
explained. If the coupling of the spin system to the heat bath is weak, a
surprising effect is observed in the ordered phase: The relative motion acts
like a heat pump cooling the spins in the vicinity of the friction surface.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Prospect for room temperature tunneling anisotropic magnetoresistance effect: density of states anisotropies in CoPt systems
Tunneling anisotropic magnetoresistance (TAMR) effect, discovered recently in
(Ga,Mn)As ferromagnetic semiconductors, arises from spin-orbit coupling and
reflects the dependence of the tunneling density of states in a ferromagnetic
layer on orientation of the magnetic moment. Based on ab initio relativistic
calculations of the anisotropy in the density of states we predict sizable TAMR
effects in room-temperature metallic ferromagnets. This opens prospect for new
spintronic devices with a simpler geometry as these do not require
antiferromagnetically coupled contacts on either side of the tunnel junction.
We focus on several model systems ranging from simple hcp-Co to more complex
ferromagnetic structures with enhanced spin-orbit coupling, namely bulk and
thin film L1-CoPt ordered alloys and a monatomic-Co chain at a Pt surface
step edge. Reliability of the predicted density of states anisotropies is
confirmed by comparing quantitatively our ab initio results for the
magnetocrystalline anisotropies in these systems with experimental data.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Electronic structure and effects of dynamical electron correlation in ferromagnetic bcc-Fe, fcc-Ni and antiferromagnetic NiO
LDA+DMFT method in the framework of the iterative perturbation theory (IPT)
with full LDA Hamiltonian without mapping onto the effective Wannier orbitals.
We then apply this LDA+DMFT method to ferromagnetic bcc-Fe and fcc-Ni as a test
of transition metal, and to antiferromagnetic NiO as an example of transition
metal oxide. In Fe and Ni, the width of occupied 3d bands is narrower than
those in LDA and Ni 6eV satellite appears. In NiO, the resultant electronic
structure is of charge-transfer insulator type and the band gap is 4.3eV. These
results are in good agreement with the experimental XPS. The configuration
mixing and dynamical correlation effects play a crucial role in these results
Parasite infections in a social carnivore: Evidence of their fitness consequences and factors modulating infection load
There are substantial individual differences in parasite composition and infection load in wildlife populations. Few studies have investigated the factors shaping this heterogeneity in large wild mammals or the impact of parasite infections on Darwinian fitness, particularly in juveniles. A host's parasite composition and infection load can be shaped by factors that determine contact with infective parasite stages and those that determine the host's resistance to infection, such as abiotic and social environmental factors, and age. Hostâparasite interactions and synergies between coinfecting parasites may also be important. We test predictions derived from these different processes to investigate factors shaping infection loads (fecal egg/oocyte load) of two energetically costly gastrointestinal parasites: the hookworm Ancylostoma and the intracellular Cystoisospora, in juvenile spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) in the Serengeti National Park, in Tanzania. We also assess whether parasite infections curtail survival to adulthood and longevity. Ancylostoma and Cystoisospora infection loads declined as the number of adult clan members increased, a result consistent with an encounterâreduction effect whereby adults reduced encounters between juveniles and infective larvae, but were not affected by the number of juveniles in a clan. Infection loads decreased with age, possibly because active immune responses to infection improved with age. Differences in parasite load between clans possibly indicate variation in abiotic environmental factors between clan den sites. The survival of juveniles (<365 days old) to adulthood decreased with Ancylostoma load, increased with age, and was modulated by maternal social status. Highâranking individuals with low Ancylostoma loads had a higher survivorship during the first 4 years of life than highâranking individuals with high Ancylostoma loads. These findings suggest that high infection loads with energetically costly parasites such as hookworms during early life can have negative fitness consequences
Sustainable Agriculture and the Structure of North Dakota Agriculture
Environmental Economics and Policy, Industrial Organization, Production Economics,
On finitely ambiguous B\"uchi automata
Unambiguous B\"uchi automata, i.e. B\"uchi automata allowing only one
accepting run per word, are a useful restriction of B\"uchi automata that is
well-suited for probabilistic model-checking. In this paper we propose a more
permissive variant, namely finitely ambiguous B\"uchi automata, a
generalisation where each word has at most accepting runs, for some fixed
. We adapt existing notions and results concerning finite and bounded
ambiguity of finite automata to the setting of -languages and present a
translation from arbitrary nondeterministic B\"uchi automata with states to
finitely ambiguous automata with at most states and at most accepting
runs per word
Experimental application of sum rules for electron energy loss magnetic chiral dichroism
We present a derivation of the orbital and spin sum rules for magnetic
circular dichroic spectra measured by electron energy loss spectroscopy in a
transmission electron microscope. These sum rules are obtained from the
differential cross section calculated for symmetric positions in the
diffraction pattern. Orbital and spin magnetic moments are expressed explicitly
in terms of experimental spectra and dynamical diffraction coefficients. We
estimate the ratio of spin to orbital magnetic moments and discuss first
experimental results for the Fe L_{2,3} edge.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figure
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