7,858 research outputs found
Measurements of Surface Diffusivity and Coarsening During Pulsed Laser Deposition
Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) of homoepitaxial SrTiO3 was studied with
in-situ x-ray specular reflectivity and surface diffuse x-ray scattering.
Unlike prior reflectivity-based studies, these measurements access both the
time- and the length-scales of the evolution of the surface morphology during
growth. In particular, we show that this technique allows direct measurements
of the diffusivity for both inter- and intra-layer transport. Our results
explicitly limit the possible role of island break-up, demonstrate the key
roles played by nucleation and coarsening in PLD, and place an upper bound on
the Ehrlich-Schwoebel (ES) barrier for downhill diffusion
Genetic correlation of ram sexual performance with ewe reproductive traits of four sheep breeds
Rams express differences in sexual performance during the breeding season. Breeding rams with high sexual performance scores as measured during a sexual performance test can improve flock fertility. Whether selecting rams for high sexual performance score will indirectly improve ewe reproductive performance is not known. The objective of this study was to estimate the genetic correlation between sexual performance scores of rams and reproduction of ewes. Sexual performance scores of rams and reproductive performance (number of lambs born per ewe exposed and number of lambs weaned per ewe exposed) from four breeds were analyzed with univariate and bivariate animal models using REML. A total of 4685 records for sexual performance scores of rams were obtained from the US Sheep Experiment Station (Columbia, n = 807; Polypay, n = 1668; Rambouillet, n = 1208; and Targhee, n = 1002). Reproductive performance of ewes was based on 35,154 records (Columbia, n = 7693; Polypay, n = 9229; Rambouillet, n = 10,954; and Targhee, n = 7278). Estimates of heritability for sexual performance score of rams were larger for the Columbia (0.31±0.09) and Polypay (0.30±0.08) than that for Rambouillet (0.14±0.07) and Targhee breeds (0.17±0.08). Overall breed heritability estimate was 0.22 ± 0.04. Heritability estimates for number of lambs born were larger (0.05–0.11) than for number of lambs weaned (0.02–0.05). Estimates of genetic correlation between sexual performance score and number of lambs born were near zero (−0.09 to 0.02) except for the Columbia breed (0.24±0.20). Estimates of genetic correlation between sexual performance score of the ram and number of lambs weaned varied by breed (Columbia, 0.28±0.26; Polypay, 0.00±0.25; Rambouillet, −0.17 ± 0.25; and Targhee, 0.32 ± 0.28). Overall breed genetic correlations of sexual performance of rams with number of lambs born and weaned were 0.00 ± 0.10 and 0.00 ± 0.12, respectively. Because of the low heritability of ewe reproductive traits and their apparently nil to low genetic correlation with sexual performance scores of rams, selection and use of rams with high sexual performance scores would not be expected to result in much indirect response for improved reproduction of ewes
Related Randomness Attacks for Public Key Encryption
Abstract. Several recent and high-profile incidents give cause to believe that randomness failures of various kinds are endemic in deployed cryptographic systems. In the face of this, it behoves cryptographic researchers to develop methods to immunise – to the extent that it is possible – cryptographic schemes against such failures. This paper considers the practically-motivated situation where an adversary is able to force a public key encryption scheme to reuse random values, and functions of those values, in encryption computations involving adversarially chosen public keys and messages. It presents a security model appropriate to this situation, along with variants of this model. It also provides necessary conditions on the set of functions used in order to attain this security notation, and demonstrates that these conditions are also sufficient in the Random Oracle Model. Further standard model constructions achieving weaker security notions are also given, with these constructions having interesting connections to other primitives including: pseudo-random functions that are secure in the related key attack setting; Correlated Input Secure hash functions; and public key encryption schemes that are secure in the auxiliary input setting (this being a special type of leakage resilience)
Shrinking of Cluster Ellipticals: a Tidal Stripping explanation and Implications for the Intra-Cluster Light
We look for evidence of tidal stripping in elliptical galaxies through the
analysis of homogeneous CCD data corresponding to a sample of 228 elliptical
galaxies belonging to 24 clusters of galaxies at . We
investigate departures from the standard magnitude-isophotal size relation, as
a function of environmental (cluster-centric distance, local galaxy density)
and structural (cluster velocity dispersion, Bautz-Morgan type) properties. We
find that, for any particular galaxy luminosity, the ellipticals in the inner
and denser regions of the clusters are about 5% smaller than those in the outer
regions, which is in good agreement with the finding of Strom & Strom (1978)
based on photographic photometry. The null hypothesis (ie., galaxy sizes are
independent of the cluster-centric distance or density) is rejected at a
significance level of better than 99.7%. Numericals models of Aguilar & White
(1986) predict that tidal stripping can lead to changes in the whole structure
of ellipticals producing shrinkage and brightening of the galaxy, qualitatively
consistent with our measurements and also with the findings of Trujillo et al.
(2002), that more centrally concentrated ellipticals populate denser regions.
Our observational results can be interpreted as evidence for stripping of stars
from ellipticals in the central/denser regions of clusters, contributing to the
intra-cluster light observed in these structures.Comment: AJ Accepted, 15 pages, 9 figure
Checklist of British and Irish Hymenoptera - Chalcidoidea and Mymarommatoidea
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The attached file is the published version of the article.NHM Repositor
Predicting microscale shifts in the distribution of the butterfly Plebejus argus at the northern edge of its range
This is the final version of the article. Available from Wiley via the DOI in this recordSpecies are often observed to occur in restricted patches of particularly warm microclimate at their high latitude/altitude geographic range margin. In these areas, global warming is expected to cause small-scale expansion of the occupied area, but most previous studies of range expansion have used very coarse scale data. Using high resolution microclimate models together with detailed field surveys, we tested whether the butterfly Plebejus argus, occurring on limestone grassland in north Wales, was responding as might be expected due to climate change in the last 30-40 yr. The abundance of adult Plebejus argus at 100 m resolution in 2011 was strongly affected by elevation and near-ground temperatures in May. A statistical model including microclimate, fitted to 2011 data, was successful (67% correct) at hindcasting the occurrence of Plebejus argus in 1983 when the average May air temperature was 1.4°C cooler. However, the model was less accurate at hindcasting occurrences in 1972 (50% correct). Given the distribution of micro-sites in this landscape, we predict that further warming of approximately 1°C would make the majority of sites highly microclimatically suitable for this species. There are a growing number of long-term studies of range change, and investigations into the mechanisms driving them, but still surprisingly few that explicitly make and test predictions with independent data. Our tests are a valuable example of how accurate predictions of distribution change can be, but also of the inevitable uncertainties. Improved understanding of how well models predict will be very important to plan robust climate change adaptation measures.JAH, JJB, RJW and CDT were supported by NERC grant NE/G006377/1 (). Fieldwork by JAH and NL was supported by a pump-priming grant from the Dept of Biology, Univ. of York
Nutrient interaction effects on yield and chemical composition of spinach and green beans
This report is based upon a thesis submitted by Mr. Blevins as partial fulfillment of a master of science degree from the College of Agriculture, University of Missouri-Columbia--P. [2].Digitized 2007 AES MoU.Includes bibliographical references (pages 22-23)
Spitzer Observations of Cold Dust Galaxies
We combine new Spitzer Space Telescope observations in the mid- and
far-infrared with SCUBA 850 micron observations to improve the measurement of
dust temperatures, masses and luminosities for 11 galaxies of the SCUBA Local
Universe Galaxy Survey (SLUGS). By fitting dust models we measure typical dust
masses of 10E7.9 M_sol and dust luminosities of ~ 10E10 L_sol, for galaxies
with modest star formation rates. The data presented in this paper combined
with previous observations show that cold dust is present in all types of
spiral galaxies and is a major contributor to their total luminosity. Because
of the lower dust temperature of the SCUBA sources measured in this paper, they
have flatter Far-IR nu F_nu(160um)/nu F_nu(850um) slopes than the larger
Spitzer Nearby Galaxies Survey (SINGS), the sample that provides the best
measurements of the dust properties of galaxies in the nearby universe. The new
data presented here added to SINGS extend the parameter space that is well
covered by local galaxies, providing a comprehensive set of templates that can
be used to interpret the observations of nearby and distant galaxies.Comment: Accepted by A.J. 16 pages, 10 figures, 7 tables. High resolution
version at http://mips.as.arizona.edu/~cnaw/slugs_hires.pd
Ultra High Power and Efficiency Space Traveling-Wave Tube Amplifier Power Combiner with Reduced Size and Mass for NASA Missions
In the 2008 International Microwave Symposium (IMS) Digest version of our paper, recent advances in high power and efficiency space traveling-wave tube amplifiers (TWTAs) for NASA s space-to-Earth communications are presented. The RF power and efficiency of a new K-Band amplifier are 40 W and 50 percent and that of a new Ka-Band amplifier are 200 W and 60 percent. An important figure-of-merit, which is defined as the ratio of the RF power output to the mass (W/kg) of a TWT, has improved by a factor of ten over the previous generation Ka-Band devices. In this extended paper, a high power, high efficiency Ka-band combiner for multiple TWTs, based on a novel hybrid magic-T waveguide circuit design, is presented. The measured combiner efficiency is as high as 90 percent. In addition, at the design frequency of 32.05 GHz, error-free uncoded BPSK/QPSK data transmission at 8 megabits per second (Mbps), which is typical for deep space communications is demonstrated. Furthermore, QPSK data transmission at 622 Mbps is demonstrated with a low bit error rate of 2.4x10(exp -8), which exceeds the deep space state-of-the-art data rate transmission capability by more than two orders of magnitude. A potential application of the TWT combiner is in deep space communication systems for planetary exploration requiring transmitter power on the order of a kilowatt or higher
Herschel Far-Infrared and Sub-millimeter Photometry for the KINGFISH Sample of Nearby Galaxies
New far-infrared and sub-millimeter photometry from the Herschel Space
Observatory is presented for 61 nearby galaxies from the Key Insights on Nearby
Galaxies: A Far-Infrared Survey with Herschel (KINGFISH) sample. The
spatially-integrated fluxes are largely consistent with expectations based on
Spitzer far-infrared photometry and extrapolations to longer wavelengths using
popular dust emission models. Dwarf irregular galaxies are notable exceptions,
as already noted by other authors, as their 500um emission shows evidence for a
sub-millimeter excess. In addition, the fraction of dust heating attributed to
intense radiation fields associated with photo-dissociation regions is found to
be (21+/-4)% larger when Herschel data are included in the analysis. Dust
masses obtained from the dust emission models of Draine & Li are found to be on
average nearly a factor of two higher than those based on single-temperature
modified blackbodies, as single blackbody curves do not capture the full range
of dust temperatures inherent to any galaxy. The discrepancy is largest for
galaxies exhibiting the coolest far-infrared colors.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap
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