Point perturbations of circle billiards

The spectral statistics of the circular billiard with a point-scatterer is investigated. In the semiclassical limit, the spectrum is demonstrated to be composed of two uncorrelated level sequences. The first corresponds to states for which the scatterer is located in the classically forbidden region and its energy levels are not affected by the scatterer in the semiclassical limit while the second sequence contains the levels which are affected by the point-scatterer. The nearest neighbor spacing distribution which results from the superposition of these sequences is calculated analytically within some approximation and good agreement with the distribution that was computed numerically is found.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figure

Intermediate statistics for a system with symplectic symmetry: the Dirac rose graph

We study the spectral statistics of the Dirac operator on a rose-shaped graph---a graph with a single vertex and all bonds connected at both ends to the vertex. We formulate a secular equation that generically determines the eigenvalues of the Dirac rose graph, which is seen to generalise the secular equation for a star graph with Neumann boundary conditions. We derive approximations to the spectral pair correlation function at large and small values of spectral spacings, in the limit as the number of bonds approaches infinity, and compare these predictions with results of numerical calculations. Our results represent the first example of intermediate statistics from the symplectic symmetry class.Comment: 26 pages, references adde

Springtime Contribution of Dinitrogen Fixation to Primary Production Across the Mediterranean Sea

Dinitrogen (N-2) fixation rates were measured during early spring across the different provinces of Mediterranean Sea surface waters. N-2 fixation rates, measured using N-15(2) enriched seawater, were lowest in the eastern basin and increased westward with a maximum at the Strait of Gibraltar (0.10 to 2.35 nmol NL-1 d(-1), respectively). These rates were 3-7 fold higher than N-2 fixation rates measured previously in the Mediterranean Sea during summertime and we estimated that methodological differences alone did not account for the seasonal changes we observed. Higher contribution of N-2 fixation to primary production (4-8 %) was measured in the western basin compared to the eastern basin (similar to 2 %). Our data indicates that these differences between basins may be attributed to changes in N-2-fixing planktonic communities and that heterotrophic diazotrophy may play a significant role in the eastern Mediterranean while autotrophic diazotrophy has a more dominant role in the western basin

Classical limit of transport in quantum kicked maps

We investigate the behavior of weak localization, conductance fluctuations, and shot noise of a chaotic scatterer in the semiclassical limit. Time resolved numerical results, obtained by truncating the time-evolution of a kicked quantum map after a certain number of iterations, are compared to semiclassical theory. Considering how the appearance of quantum effects is delayed as a function of the Ehrenfest time gives a new method to compare theory and numerical simulations. We find that both weak localization and shot noise agree with semiclassical theory, which predicts exponential suppression with increasing Ehrenfest time. However, conductance fluctuations exhibit different behavior, with only a slight dependence on the Ehrenfest time.Comment: 17 pages, 13 figures. Final versio

The Impact of Atmospheric Dry Deposition Associated Microbes on the Southeastern Mediterranean Sea Surface Water following an Intense Dust Storm

This study explores the potential impacts of microbes deposited into the surface seawater of the southeastern Mediterranean Sea (SEMS) along with atmospheric particles on marine autotrophic and heterotrophic production. We compared in situ changes in autotrophic and heterotrophic microbial abundance and production rates before and during an intense dust storm event in early September 2015. Additionally, we measured the activity of microbes associated with atmospheric dry deposition (also referred to as airborne microbes) in sterile SEMS water using the same particles collected during the dust storm. A high diversity of prokaryotes and a low diversity of autotrophic eukaryotic algae were delivered to surface SEMS waters by the storm. Autotrophic airborne microbial abundance and activity were low, contributing ~1% of natural abundance in SEMS water and accounting for 1–4% to primary production. Airborne heterotrophic bacteria comprised 30–50% of the cells and accounted for 13–42% of bacterial production. Our results demonstrate that atmospheric dry deposition may supply not only chemical constitutes but also microbes that can affect ambient microbial populations and their activity in the surface ocean. Airborne microbes may play a greater role in ocean biogeochemistry in the future in light of the expected enhancement of dust storm durations and frequencies due to climate change and desertification processes

Bezlotoxumab for prevention of recurrent Clostridium difficile infection in patients at increased risk for recurrence

Background: Bezlotoxumab is a human monoclonal antibody against Clostridium difficile toxin B indicated to prevent C. difficile infection (CDI) recurrence (rCDI) in adults at high risk for rCDI. This post hoc analysis of pooled monocolonal antibodies for C.difficile therapy (MODIFY) I/II data assessed bezlotoxumab efficacy in participants with characteristics associated with increased risk for rCDI. Methods: The analysis population was the modified intent-to-treat population who received bezlotoxumab or placebo (n = 1554) by risk factors for rCDI that were prespecified in the statistical analysis plan: age ≥65 years, history of CDI, compromised immunity, severe CDI, and ribotype 027/078/244. The proportion of participants with rCDI in 12 weeks, fecal microbiota transplant procedures, 30-day all cause and CDI-associated hospital readmissions, and mortality at 30 and 90 days after randomization were presented. Results: The majority of enrolled participants (75.6%) had ≥1 risk factor; these participants were older and a higher proportion had comorbidities compared with participants with no risk factors. The proportion of placebo participants who experienced rCDI exceeded 30% for each risk factor compared with 20.9% among those without a risk factor, and the rCDI rate increased with the number of risk factors (1 risk factor: 31.3%; ≥3 risk factors: 46.1%). Bezlotoxumab reduced rCDI, fecal microbiota transplants, and CDI-associated 30-day readmissions in participants with risk factors for rCDI. Conclusions: The risk factors prespecified in the MODIFY statistical analysis plan are appropriate to identify patients at high risk for rCDI. While participants with ≥3 risk factors had the greatest reduction of rCDI with bezlotoxumab, those with 1 or 2 risk factors may also benefit. Clinical Trials Registration: NCT01241552 (MODIFY I) and NCT01513239 (MODIFY II)

Lower bounds on dissipation upon coarse graining

By different coarse-graining procedures we derive lower bounds on the total mean work dissipated in Brownian systems driven out of equilibrium. With several analytically solvable examples we illustrate how, when, and where the information on the dissipation is captured.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figure

Planktonic Aggregates as Hotspots for Heterotrophic Diazotrophy: The Plot Thickens

Biological dinitrogen (N-2) fixation is performed solely by specialized bacteria and archaea termed diazotrophs, introducing new reactive nitrogen into aquatic environments. Conventionally, phototrophic cyanobacteria are considered the major diazotrophs in aquatic environments. However, accumulating evidence indicates that diverse non-cyanobacterial diazotrophs (NCDs) inhabit a wide range of aquatic ecosystems, including temperate and polar latitudes, coastal environments and the deep ocean. NCDs are thus suspected to impact global nitrogen cycling decisively, yet their ecological and quantitative importance remain unknown. Here we review recent molecular and biogeochemical evidence demonstrating that pelagic NCDs inhabit and thrive especially on aggregates in diverse aquatic ecosystems. Aggregates are characterized by reduced-oxygen microzones, high C:N ratio (above Redfield) and high availability of labile carbon as compared to the ambient water. We argue that planktonic aggregates are important loci for energetically-expensive N-2 fixation by NCDs and propose a conceptual framework for aggregate-associated N-2 fixation. Future studies on aggregate-associated diazotrophy, using novel methodological approaches, are encouraged to address the ecological relevance of NCDs for nitrogen cycling in aquatic environments

The non-equilibrium steady state of sparse systems with nontrivial topology

We study the steady state of a multiply-connected system that is driven out of equilibrium by a sparse perturbation. The prototype example is an $N$-site ring coupled to a thermal bath, driven by a stationary source that induces transitions with log-wide distributed rates. An induced current arises, which is controlled by the strength of the driving, and an associated topological term appears in the expression for the energy absorption rate. Due to the sparsity, the crossover from linear response to saturation is mediated by an intermediate regime, where the current is exponentially small in $\sqrt{N}$, which is related to the work of Sinai on "random walk in a random environment".Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Spectral properties of quantized barrier billiards

The properties of energy levels in a family of classically pseudointegrable systems, the barrier billiards, are investigated. An extensive numerical study of nearest-neighbor spacing distributions, next-to-nearest spacing distributions, number variances, spectral form factors, and the level dynamics is carried out. For a special member of the billiard family, the form factor is calculated analytically for small arguments in the diagonal approximation. All results together are consistent with the so-called semi-Poisson statistics.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figure