Multiple paternity in the cooperatively breeding fish Neolamprologus pulcher

In cooperative breeders, mature males may compete for fertilizations. In this study, we measured the degree of multiple paternity in a natural population of a cooperatively breeding fish. Neolamprologus pulcher (Perciformes: Cichlidae) is a highly social cichlid endemic to Lake Tanganyika. We used highly variable microsatellite loci to survey 12 groups with an average number of 10.6 brood care helpers per group and a total of 43 offspring (mean 3.6 per brood). In 11 of 12 groups, all young were assigned to the dominant female. The dominant male sired all offspring in three groups, part of the offspring in four groups, and in five groups, he had no paternity at all. In total, 44.2% of young were not fathered by the current male territory owner. Multiple paternity was found in 5 of 12 broods (41.7 %), with 8 of 35 young (22.9 %) being sired by males other than the respective territory owners. This is an exceptionally high rate of extra-pair paternity among cooperatively breeding vertebrates. Neither helpers present in these territories during collection nor neighbouring males were unequivocally assigned to have sired these extra-pair young. However, behavioural observations suggest that male helpers may have produced these young before being expelled from the territory in response to this reproductive parasitism. We discuss these results in the light of reproductive skew theory, cooperative breeding in vertebrates and alternative reproductive tactics in fis

SUBARU and e-Merlin observations of NGC3718. Diaries of an SMBH recoil?

NGC3718 is a LINER $L1.9$ galaxy, lying at a distance of about $\sim 17.4$ Mpc away from earth and its similarities with NGC5128 often award it the name "northern Centaurus A". We use high angular resolution ($\sim100$ mas) e-Merlin radio and SUBARU NIR ($\sim170$ mas) data, to take a detailed view of the processes taking place in its central region. In order to preserve some objectivity in our interpretation, we combine our results with literature values and findings from previous studies. Our NIR maps suggest, on one hand, that towards the stellar bulge there are no large scale absorption phenomena caused by the apparent dust lane and, on the other, that there is a significant (local) contribution from hot ($\sim1000$ K) dust to the nuclear NIR emission. The position where this takes place appears to be closer to the offset compact radio emission from our e-Merlin $6$ cm map, lying offset by $\sim4.25$ pc from the center of the underlying stellar bulge. The shape of the radio map suggests the presence of one (or possibly two, forming an X-shape) bipolar structure(s) $\sim1$ ($\sim0.6$) arcsec across, which combined with the balance between the gas and the stellar velocity dispersions and the presence of hard X-ray emission, point towards effects expected by AGN feedback. We also argue that NGC3718 has a "core" in its surface brightness profile, despite the fact that it is a gas-rich galaxy and we discuss its mixed photometric and spectroscopic characteristics. The latter combined with the observed spatial and radio offsets, the relative redshift between the broad and the narrow $H{\mathrm{\alpha}}$ line, the limited star formation activity and AGN feedback, strongly imply the existence of an SMBH recoil. Finally, we discuss a possible interpretation, that could naturally incorporate all these findings into one physically consistent picture.Comment: 18 pages, 18 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publications in A&

Structure–property relationships of ‘safe’ aromatic oil based passenger car tire tread rubber compounds

In this study, the effect of Treated Distillate Aromatic Extract (TDAE) was investigated in medium styrene/high vinyl solution styrene butadiene rubber (S-SBR) and high cis-polybutadiene rubber (BR). Three properties were evaluated: (i) molecular structure (polarity/aromaticity), (ii) molecular weight and (iii) chemical reactivity of the TDAE oil. The fore-mentioned properties of the oil allow the prediction of its behavior in a rubber compound. It was known from literature that the addition of oil causes a shift in the glass transition temperature (Tg) of the compound [2]. Therefore, the study was focused on the variation in the α-relaxation process or Tg of a rubber compound upon addition of TDAE. The conventional techniques for determination of Tg such as Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) as well as more sophisticated relaxation studies using Broadband Dielectric Spectroscopy (BDS) were used to characterize the TDAE-extended S-SBR and BR compounds. Theoretical prediction of the Tg of TDAE-extended compounds was obtained based on the Fox equation for miscible mixtures. Ultimately, the theoretical predictions were correlated with experimental findings

Effect of Aromatic Oil on Phase Dynamics of S-SBR/BR Blends fro Passenger Car Tire Treads

Even though S-SBR/BR blends are commonly used for passenger car tire treads, little is known about the phase dynamics arising from the local morphological heterogeneities. The present study aims at developing the understanding of: (i) the influence of aromatic oil on the dynamics of the individual phases in S-SBR/BR (50/50) blend, and (ii) the partition of the aromatic oil in either phase.\ud S-SBR/BR (50/50) blends with varying concentrations of aromatic oil (0/10/20 phr) were studied. Conventional techniques for the determination of Tg (glass transition temperature or α-relaxation process), such as Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) were of limited use for fulfilling the goal of the present study. Therefore, Broadband Dielectric Spectroscopy (BDS), a more sensitive technique to study the α-relaxation process was employed. It was possible to de-convolute the dielectric loss (ε") peak of the vulcanized blends into two super-positioned relaxation processes, α' and α (in increasing order of frequency), which were attributed to the S-SBR and BR phases, respectively. The distinct effective Tg’s (Tgeff) of the S-SBR and BR phases varied with the amount of aromatic oil added. Tgeff of the BR phase was close to the Tg of virgin BR, whereas Tgeff of the S-SBR phase was close to the blend average Tg. This is in accordance with the model for phase dynamics of miscible blends by Lodge and McLeish (2000). With this a deeper insight into the dynamic heterogeneity of traditional S-SBR/BR (50/50) blends is obtained

Image and Sound Interpretation: Wilde, "The Harlot’s House"

Curatorial note from Digital Pedagogy in the Humanities: This assignment requires students to use multimedia digital technologies to communicate their analyses of a literary text in sensory and associative terms rather than in rational, linear forms of argument. By including terms like visceral, sensual, and intuit in the assignment, Petra Dierkes-Thrun signals that such subjective responses constitute a powerful component of text analysis. This project invokes image, video, and sound as primary modes of interpretation rather than as supplements to a written text. Having students (and Web site visitors outside the class) contribute multimedia responses to a particular poem transforms the course blog into a collaborative intertextual display which can then itself become the object of further investigation and analysis