8,407 research outputs found
Temperature Effects on Development of Three Cereal Aphid Parasitoids (Hymenoptera: Aphidiidae)
Temperature is an important climatological variable that influences the biology and ecology of insects. Poor climatic adaptation can limit the effectiveness of parasitic insects in biological control. Two exotic parasites (Syrian Diaeretiella rapae (M\u27Intosh) and Argentinean Aphidius colemani Viereck) imported for biological control of the Russian wheat aphid, Diuraphis noxia (Mordvilko), and one native parasite (Diaeretiella rapae) were reared in growth chambers in three fluctuating temperature regimes with average daily temperatures of 12, 18, and 24°C. Estimates of temperature thresholds for immature development were 3.3, 3.5, and 2.8°C, for Oklahoman D. rapae, Syrian D. rapae, and A. colemani, respectively. Estimates of thermal require- ments for development from egg to adult were 297, 278, and 301 degree-days for the three parasitoids. Dry weights of adults reared in different fluctuating temperature regimes did not differ significantly among sexes, but adults from regimes with low average temperatures of 12 and 18°C had significantly greater weights than those reared in a regime with an average temperature of 24°C. Results suggest that developmental response to temperature will not limit the effectiveness of the exotic parasites in biological control
Double Charge Exchange And Configuration Mixing
The energy dependence of forward pion double charge exchange reactions on
light nuclei is studied for both the Ground State transition and the
Double-Isobaric-Analog-State transitions. A common characteristic of these
double reactions is a resonance-like peak around 50 MeV pion lab energy. This
peak arises naturally in a two-step process in the conventional pion-nucleon
system with proper handling of nuclear structure and pion distortion. A
comparison among the results of different nuclear structure models demonstrates
the effects of configuration mixing. The angular distribution is used to fix
the single particle wave function.Comment: Added 1 figure (now 8) corrected references and various other change
Sandwich Boosting for Accurate Estimation in Partially Linear Models for Grouped Data
We study partially linear models in settings where observations are arranged
in independent groups but may exhibit within-group dependence. Existing
approaches estimate linear model parameters through weighted least squares,
with optimal weights (given by the inverse covariance of the response,
conditional on the covariates) typically estimated by maximising a (restricted)
likelihood from random effects modelling or by using generalised estimating
equations. We introduce a new 'sandwich loss' whose population minimiser
coincides with the weights of these approaches when the parametric forms for
the conditional covariance are well-specified, but can yield arbitrarily large
improvements in linear parameter estimation accuracy when they are not. Under
relatively mild conditions, our estimated coefficients are asymptotically
Gaussian and enjoy minimal variance among estimators with weights restricted to
a given class of functions, when user-chosen regression methods are used to
estimate nuisance functions. We further expand the class of functional forms
for the weights that may be fitted beyond parametric models by leveraging the
flexibility of modern machine learning methods within a new gradient boosting
scheme for minimising the sandwich loss. We demonstrate the effectiveness of
both the sandwich loss and what we call 'sandwich boosting' in a variety of
settings with simulated and real-world data
De-biased Populations of Kuiper Belt Objects from the Deep Ecliptic Survey
The Deep Ecliptic Survey (DES) discovered hundreds of Kuiper Belt objects
from 1998-2005. Follow-up observations yielded 304 objects with good dynamical
classifications (Classical, Scattered, Centaur, or 16 mean-motion resonances
with Neptune). The DES search fields are well documented, enabling us to
calculate the probability of detecting objects with particular orbital
parameters and absolute magnitudes at a randomized point in each orbit.
Grouping objects together by dynamical class leads, we estimate the orbital
element distributions (a, e, i) for the largest three classes (Classical, 3:2,
and Scattered) using maximum likelihood. Using H-magnitude as a proxy for the
object size, we fit a power law to the number of objects for 8 classes with at
least 5 detected members (246 objects). The best Classical slope is
alpha=1.02+/-0.01 (observed from 5<=H<=7.2). Six dynamical classes (Scattered
plus 5 resonances) are consistent in slope with the Classicals, though the
absolute number of objects is scaled. The exception to the power law relation
are the Centaurs (non-resonant with perihelia closer than Neptune, and thus
detectable at smaller sizes), with alpha=0.42+/-0.02 (7.5<H<11). This is
consistent with a knee in the H-distribution around H=7.2 as reported elsewhere
(Bernstein et al. 2004, Fraser et al. 2014). Based on the Classical-derived
magnitude distribution, the total number of objects (H<=7) in each class are:
Classical (2100+/-300 objects), Scattered (2800+/-400), 3:2 (570+/-80), 2:1
(400+/-50), 5:2 (270+/-40), 7:4 (69+/-9), 5:3 (60+/-8). The independent
estimate for the number of Centaurs in the same H range is 13+/-5. If instead
all objects are divided by inclination into "Hot" and "Cold" populations,
following Fraser et al. (2014), we find that alphaHot=0.90+/-0.02, while
alphaCold=1.32+/-0.02, in good agreement with that work.Comment: 26 pages emulateapj, 6 figures, 5 tables, accepted by A
Spectral Signatures of the Diffusional Anomaly in Water
Analysis of power spectrum profiles for various tagged particle quantities in
bulk SPC/E water is used to demonstrate that variations in mobility associated
with the diffusional anomaly are mirrored in the exponent of the \onebyf\
region. Monitoring of \onebyf behaviour is shown to be a simple and direct
method for linking phenomena on three distinctive length and time scales: the
local molecular environment, hydrogen bond network reorganisations and the
diffusivity. The results indicate that experimental studies of supercooled
water to probe the density dependence of spectral features, or
equivalent stretched exponential behaviour in time-correlation functions, will
be of interest.Comment: 5 Pages, 4 Figure
Systematic and Causal Corrections to the Coherent Potential Approximation
The Dynamical Cluster Approximation (DCA) is modified to include disorder.
The DCA incorporates non-local corrections to local approximations such as the
Coherent Potential Approximation (CPA) by mapping the lattice problem with
disorder, and in the thermodynamic limit, to a self-consistently embedded
finite-sized cluster problem. It satisfies all of the characteristics of a
successful cluster approximation. It is causal, preserves the point-group and
translational symmetry of the original lattice, recovers the CPA when the
cluster size equals one, and becomes exact as . We use the DCA to
study the Anderson model with binary diagonal disorder. It restores sharp
features and band tailing in the density of states which reflect correlations
in the local environment of each site. While the DCA does not describe the
localization transition, it does describe precursor effects of localization.Comment: 11 pages, LaTeX, and 11 PS figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. B.
Revised version with typos corrected and references adde
Colonic Endometriosis Mimicking Colon Cancer on a Virtual Colonoscopy Study: A Potential Pitfall in Diagnosis
Colonic endometriosis has been reported in the literature to mimic colon cancer. Patients can present with symptoms almost identical to colon cancer. We present an exemplary case of a woman who was found to have a mass on conventional colonoscopy. Virtual colonoscopy was instrumental in characterizing the obstructive sigmoid mass. A biopsy of the mass revealed sigmoid endometriosis
Poverty in the UK: Advancing paradata analysis and open access
This project aimed to provide open access to data from Peter Townsend’s 1967-68 Poverty in the UK (PinUK) landmark UK survey, and to enhance the capacity to use it, through innovative analysis of micro paradata and comparative analysis of macro paradata. This is the final report
Hypoxic repeat sprint training improves rugby player's repeated sprint but not endurance performance
This study aims to investigate the performance changes in 19 well-trained male rugby players after repeat-sprint training (six sessions of four sets of 5 × 5 s sprints with 25 s and 5 min of active recovery between reps and sets, respectively) in either normobaric hypoxia (HYP; n = 9; F₁O₂ = 14.5%) or normobaric normoxia (NORM; n = 10; F₁O₂ = 20.9%). Three weeks after the intervention, 2 additional repeat-sprint training sessions in hypoxia (F₁O₂ = 14.5%) was investigated in both groups to gauge the efficacy of using "top-up" sessions for previously hypoxic-trained subjects and whether a small hypoxic dose would be beneficial for the previously normoxic-trained group. Repeated sprint (8 × 20 m) and Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Level 1 (YYIR1) performances were tested twice at baseline (Pre 1 and Pre 2) and weekly after (Post 1-3) the initial intervention (intervention 1) and again weekly after the second "top-up" intervention (Post 4-5). After each training set, heart rate, oxygen saturation, and rate of perceived exertion were recorded. Compared to baseline (mean of Pre 1 and Pre 2), both the hypoxic and normoxic groups similarly lowered fatigue over the 8 sprints 1 week after the intervention (Post 1: -1.8 ± 1.6%, -1.5 ± 1.4%, mean change ± 90% CI in HYP and NORM groups, respectively). However, from Post 2 onwards, only the hypoxic group maintained the performance improvement compared to baseline (Post 2: -2.1 ± 1.8%, Post 3: -2.3 ± 1.7%, Post 4: -1.9 ± 1.8%, and Post 5: -1.2 ± 1.7%). Compared to the normoxic group, the hypoxic group was likely to have substantially less fatigue at Post 3-5 (-2.0 ± 2.4%, -2.2 ± 2.4%, -1.6 ± 2.4% Post 3, Post 4, Post 5, respectively). YYIR1 performances improved throughout the recovery period in both groups (13-37% compared to baseline) with unclear differences found between groups. The addition of two sessions of "top-up" training after intervention 1, had little effect on either group. Repeat-sprint training in hypoxia for six sessions increases repeat sprint ability but not YYIR1 performance in well-trained rugby players
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