575 research outputs found
Sediment Respiration Pulses in Intermittent Rivers and Ephemeral Streams
Intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams (IRES) may represent over half the global stream network, but their contribution to respiration and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions is largely undetermined. In particular, little is known about the variability and drivers of respiration in IRES sediments upon rewetting, which could result in large pulses of CO2. We present a global study examining sediments from 200 dry IRES reaches spanning multiple biomes. Results from standardized assays show that mean respiration increased 32-fold to 66-fold upon sediment rewetting. Structural equation modeling indicates that this response was driven by sediment texture and organic matter quantity and quality, which, in turn, were influenced by climate, land use, and riparian plant cover. Our estimates suggest that respiration pulses resulting from rewetting of IRES sediments could contribute significantly to annual CO2 emissions from the global stream network, with a single respiration pulse potentially increasing emission by 0.2-0.7%. As the spatial and temporal extent of IRES increases globally, our results highlight the importance of recognizing the influence of wetting-drying cycles on respiration and CO2 emissions in stream network
Thermal and electromagnetic properties of 166-Er and 167-Er
The primary gamma-ray spectra of 166-Er and 167-Er are deduced from the
(3-He,alpha gamma) and (3-He,3-He' gamma) reaction, respectively, enabling a
simultaneous extraction of the level density and the gamma-ray strength
function. Entropy, temperature and heat capacity are deduced from the level
density within the micro-canonical and the canonical ensemble, displaying
signals of a phase-like transition from the pair-correlated ground state to an
uncorrelated state at Tc=0.5 MeV. The gamma-ray strength function displays a
bump around E-gamma=3 MeV, interpreted as the pygmy resonance.Comment: 21 pages including 2 tables and 11 figure
Preconditioning effects of intermittent stream flow on leaf litter decomposition
Autumnal input of leaf litter is a pivotal energy source in most headwater streams. In temporary streams, however, water stress may lead to a seasonal shift in leaf abscission. Leaves accumulate at the surface of the dry streambed or in residual pools and are subject to physicochemical preconditioning before decomposition starts after flow recovery. In this study, we experimentally tested the effect of photodegradation on sunlit streambeds and anaerobic fermentation in anoxic pools on leaf decomposition during the subsequent flowing phase. To mimic field preconditioning, we exposed Populus tremula leaves to UV-VIS irradiation and wet-anoxic conditions in the laboratory. Subsequently, we quantified leaf mass loss of preconditioned leaves and the associated decomposer community in five low-order temporary streams using coarse and fine mesh litter bags. On average, mass loss after approximately 45 days was 4 and 7% lower when leaves were preconditioned by irradiation and anoxic conditions, respectively. We found a lower chemical quality and lower ergosterol content (a proxy for living fungal biomass) in leaves from the anoxic preconditioning, but no effects on macroinvertebrate assemblages were detected for any preconditioning treatment. Overall, results from this study suggest a reduced processing efficiency of organic matter in temporary streams due to preconditioning during intermittence of flow leading to reduced substrate quality and repressed decomposer activity. These preconditioning effects may become more relevant in the future given the expected worldwide increase in the geographical extent of intermittent flow as a consequence of global change. © 2011 Springer Basel AG
Finite-Size Bosonization of 2-Channel Kondo Model: a Bridge between Numerical Renormalization Group and Conformal Field Theory
We generalize Emery and Kivelson's (EK) bosonization-refermionization
treatment of the 2-channel Kondo model to finite system size and on the EK-line
analytically construct its exact eigenstates and finite-size spectrum. The
latter crosses over to conformal field theory's (CFT) universal
non-Fermi-liquid spectrum (and yields the most-relevant operators' dimensions),
and further to a Fermi-liquid spectrum in a finite magnetic field. Our approach
elucidates the relation between bosonization, scaling techniques, the numerical
renormalization group (NRG) and CFT. All CFT's Green's functions are recovered
with remarkable ease from the model's scattering states.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, Revte
Organized crime and preventive justice
By comparison with the prevention of terrorism, the prevention of acts of organizedcrime might be thought easier to conceptualize precisely and less controversial to legislate against and police. This impression is correct up to a point, because it is possible to arrive at some general characteristics of organized crime, and because legislation against it is not obviously bedevilled by the risk of violating civil or political rights, as in the case of terrorism. But there is a significant residue of legal, moral and political difficulty: legislation against organized crime is hard to make effective; the harm of organized crime is not uniform, and so some preventive legislation seems too sweeping and potentially unjust. More fundamentally, the scale and rewards of organized crime are often dependent on mass public participation in markets for proscribed goods, which may point to a hidden public consensus in favour of some of what is criminalized. Preventive policing and legislation in both areas, then, are less easily justified than first appears
Level density and thermal properties in rare earth nuclei
A convergent method to extract the nuclear level density and the gamma-ray
strength function from primary gamma-ray spectra has been established.
Thermodynamical quantities have been obtained within the microcanonical and
canonical ensemble theory. Structures in the caloric curve and in the heat
capacity curve are interpreted as fingerprints of breaking of Cooper pairs and
quenching of pairing correlations. The strength function can be described using
models and common parameterizations for the E1, M1 and pygmy resonance
strength. However, a significant decrease of the pygmy resonance strength at
finite temperatures has been observed.Comment: 15 pages including 8 figures. Proceedings article for the conference
Nuclear Structure and Related Topics, Dubna, Russia, June 6-10, 200
Simple Bosonization Solution of the 2-channel Kondo Model: I. Analytical Calculation of Finite-Size Crossover Spectrum
We present in detail a simple, exact solution of the anisotropic 2-channel
Kondo (2CK) model at its Toulouse point. We reduce the model to a quadratic
resonant-level model by generalizing the bosonization-refermionization approach
of Emery and Kivelson to finite system size, but improve their method in two
ways: firstly, we construct all boson fields and Klein factors explicitly in
terms of the model's original fermion operators , and secondly
we clarify explicitly how the Klein factors needed when refermionizing act on
the original Fock space. This enables us to explicitly follow the adiabatic
evolution of the 2CK model's free-fermion states to its exact eigenstates,
found by simply diagonalizing the resonant-level model for arbitrary magnetic
fields and spin-flip coupling strengths. In this way we obtain an {\em
analytic} description of the cross-over from the free to the non-Fermi-liquid
fixed point. At the latter, it is remarkably simple to recover the conformal
field theory results for the finite-size spectrum (implying a direct proof of
Affleck and Ludwig's fusion hypothesis). By analyzing the finite-size spectrum,
we directly obtain the operator content of the 2CK fixed point and the
dimension of various relevant and irrelevant perturbations. Our method can
easily be generalized to include various symmetry-breaking perturbations.
Furthermore it establishes instructive connections between different
renormalization group schemes such as poor man's scaling, Anderson-Yuval type
scaling, the numerical renormalization group and finite-size scaling.Comment: 35 pages Revtex, 7 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
- …