5,197 research outputs found
Modelling Structural Change in Money Demand Using a Fourier-Series Approximation
The paper develops a simple method that can be used to test for a time-varying intercept and to approximate its form. The test is solidly grounded in asymptotic theory and has good small-sample properties. The methodology is based on the fact that a Fourier approximation can capture the variation in any absolutely integrable function of time. As such, it is possible to use successive applications of the test to "back-out" the form of the time-varying intercept. We illustrate the methodology using an extended example concerning the demand for money.structural break; fourier approximations; money demand
Stress-induced changes in abundance differ among obligate and facultative endosymbionts of the soybean aphid
Bacterial endosymbionts can drive evolutionary novelty by conferring adaptive benefits under adverse environmental conditions. Among aphid species there is growing evidence that symbionts influence tolerance to various forms of stress. However, the extent to which stress inflicted on the aphid host has cascading effects on symbiont community dynamics remains poorly understood. Here we simultaneously quantified the effect of host-plant induced and xenobiotic stress on soybean aphid (Aphis glycines) fitness and relative abundance of its three bacterial symbionts. Exposure to soybean defensive stress (Rag1 gene) and a neurotoxic insecticide (thiamethoxam) substantially reduced aphid composite fitness (survival 9 reproduction) by 74 ± 10% and 92 ± 2%, respectively, which in turn induced distinctive changes in the endosymbiont microbiota. When challenged by host-plant defenses a 1.4-fold reduction in abundance of the obligate symbiont Buchnera was observed across four aphid clonal lines. Among facultative symbionts of Rag1-stressed aphids, Wolbachia abundance increased twofold and Arsenophonus decreased 1.5-fold. A similar pattern was observed under xenobiotic stress, with Buchnera and Arsenophonus titers decreasing (1.3-fold) and Wolbachia increasing (1.5-fold). Furthermore, variation in aphid virulence to Rag1 was positively correlated with changes in Arsenophonus titers, but not Wolbachia or Buchnera. A single Arsenophonus multi-locus genotype was found among aphid clonal lines, indicating strain diversity is not primarily responsible for correlated host-symbiont stress levels. Overall, our results demonstrate the nature of aphid symbioses can significantly affect the outcome of interactions under stress and suggests general changes in the microbiome can occur across multiple stress types
Multibarrier tunneling
We study the tunneling through an arbitrary number of finite rectangular
opaque barriers and generalize earlier results by showing that the total
tunneling phase time depends neither on the barrier thickness nor on the
inter-barrier separation. We also predict two novel peculiar features of the
system considered, namely the independence of the transit time (for non
resonant tunneling) and the resonant frequency on the number of barriers
crossed, which can be directly tested in photonic experiments. A thorough
analysis of the role played by inter-barrier multiple reflections and a
physical interpretation of the results obtained is reported, showing that
multibarrier tunneling is a highly non-local phenomenon.Comment: RevTex, 7 pages, 1 eps figur
Lorentz Invariant Superluminal Tunneling
It is shown that superluminal optical signalling is possible without
violating Lorentz invariance and causality via tunneling through photonic band
gaps in inhomogeneous dielectrics of a special kind.Comment: 10 pages revtex, no figure, more discussions added, submitted to
Phys. Rev.
On a counterexample to a conjecture by Blackadar
Blackadar conjectured that if we have a split short-exact sequence 0 -> I ->
A -> A/I -> 0 where I is semiprojective and A/I is isomorphic to the complex
numbers, then A must be semiprojective. Eilers and Katsura have found a
counterexample to this conjecture. Presumably Blackadar asked that the
extension be split to make it more likely that semiprojectivity of I would
imply semiprojectivity of A. But oddly enough, in all the counterexamples of
Eilers and Katsura the quotient map from A to A/I is split. We will show how to
modify their examples to find a non-semiprojective C*-algebra B with a
semiprojective ideal J such that B/J is the complex numbers and the quotient
map does not split.Comment: 6 page
Small Corrections to the Tunneling Phase Time Formulation
After reexamining the above barrier diffusion problem where we notice that
the wave packet collision implies the existence of {\em multiple} reflected and
transmitted wave packets, we analyze the way of obtaining phase times for
tunneling/reflecting particles in a particular colliding configuration where
the idea of multiple peak decomposition is recovered. To partially overcome the
analytical incongruities which frequently rise up when the stationary phase
method is adopted for computing the (tunneling) phase time expressions, we
present a theoretical exercise involving a symmetrical collision between two
identical wave packets and a unidimensional squared potential barrier where the
scattered wave packets can be recomposed by summing the amplitudes of
simultaneously reflected and transmitted wave components so that the conditions
for applying the stationary phase principle are totally recovered. Lessons
concerning the use of the stationary phase method are drawn.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figure
Coverage and use of insecticide-treated bed nets in households with children aged under five years in Liberia
Tunneling dynamics in relativistic and nonrelativistic wave equations
We obtain the solution of a relativistic wave equation and compare it with
the solution of the Schroedinger equation for a source with a sharp onset and
excitation frequencies below cut-off. A scaling of position and time reduces to
a single case all the (below cut-off) nonrelativistic solutions, but no such
simplification holds for the relativistic equation, so that qualitatively
different ``shallow'' and ``deep'' tunneling regimes may be identified
relativistically. The nonrelativistic forerunner at a position beyond the
penetration length of the asymptotic stationary wave does not tunnel;
nevertheless, it arrives at the traversal (semiclassical or
B\"uttiker-Landauer) time "tau". The corresponding relativistic forerunner is
more complex: it oscillates due to the interference between two saddle point
contributions, and may be characterized by two times for the arrival of the
maxima of lower and upper envelops. There is in addition an earlier
relativistic forerunner, right after the causal front, which does tunnel.
Within the penetration length, tunneling is more robust for the precursors of
the relativistic equation
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