The post-fledging survival and movements of juvenile Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica): an automated telemetry approach

For migratory songbirds, population dynamics are primarily influenced by juvenile or first year survival, but survival between fledging and fall migration is particularly important. Unfortunately, our knowledge of this post-fledging period is largely limited due to the difficulty of tracking juveniles outside the nest. For this thesis, I used automated radio telemetry to track the survival and post-fledging movements of 216 juvenile Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica) from fledging up until departure for autumn migration in 2016-2017. Average apparent survival was 42% for both broods and nestlings in better body condition had higher survival. Nestlings from second broods migrated 21 days younger and moved less overall during the post-fledging period but had significantly higher daily post-fledging movements suggesting they might be trying to compensate for their shorter time near the breeding grounds. My results suggest that the post-fledging period is a critical period of survival and exploration for juvenile Barn Swallows

L-Visibility Drawings of IC-planar Graphs

An IC-plane graph is a topological graph where every edge is crossed at most once and no two crossed edges share a vertex. We show that every IC-plane graph has a visibility drawing where every vertex is an L-shape, and every edge is either a horizontal or vertical segment. As a byproduct of our drawing technique, we prove that an IC-plane graph has a RAC drawing in quadratic area with at most two bends per edge

Solar flares and their associated processes

The evolution of the solar neutrino flux which is described by the wave function $\Psi^T=(\nu_{eL},\nu_{XL}, \overline{\nu}_{eL}, \overline{\nu}_{XL})$ is examined. Our treatment of the problem holds for any standard model (SM) extensions possessing nonzero dipole magnetic and anapole moments. When the solar neutrino flux moves through the solar flare (SF) region in the preflare period, then it undergoes the additional (compared with the SM) resonance conversions. As a result, the weakening the electron neutrinos flux takes place. On the other hand, existence of the additional resonances lead to appearance of the $\overline{\nu}_{eL}$ and $\overline{\nu}_{XL}$ neutrinos that could be detected by the terrestrial detectors. The hypothesis of the $\nu_e$-induced $\beta$-decays is also discussed. According to it, before the large SF, decreasing the $\beta$-decay rate for some elements takes place. The possible influence of the electron antineutrino flux produced in the superflares on the regime of the hypothetical georeactor is considered.Comment: 11 pages. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:hep-ph/0401221 by other author

Onset of T=0 Pairing and Deformations in High Spin States of the N=Z Nucleus 48Cr

The yrast line of the N=Z nucleus 48Cr is studied up to high spins by means of the cranked Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov method including the T=0 and T=1 isospin pairing channels. A Skyrme force is used in the mean-field channel together with a zero-range density-dependent interaction in the pairing channels. The extensions of the method needed to incorporate the neutron-proton pairing are summarized. The T=0 pairing correlations are found to play a decisive role for deformation properties and excitation energies above 16hbar which is the maximum spin that can be obtained in the f7/2 subshell.Comment: LaTeX, 4 ps figure

Visibility Representations of Boxes in 2.5 Dimensions

We initiate the study of 2.5D box visibility representations (2.5D-BR) where vertices are mapped to 3D boxes having the bottom face in the plane $z=0$ and edges are unobstructed lines of sight parallel to the $x$- or $y$-axis. We prove that: $(i)$ Every complete bipartite graph admits a 2.5D-BR; $(ii)$ The complete graph $K_n$ admits a 2.5D-BR if and only if $n \leq 19$; $(iii)$ Every graph with pathwidth at most $7$ admits a 2.5D-BR, which can be computed in linear time. We then turn our attention to 2.5D grid box representations (2.5D-GBR) which are 2.5D-BRs such that the bottom face of every box is a unit square at integer coordinates. We show that an $n$-vertex graph that admits a 2.5D-GBR has at most $4n - 6 \sqrt{n}$ edges and this bound is tight. Finally, we prove that deciding whether a given graph $G$ admits a 2.5D-GBR with a given footprint is NP-complete. The footprint of a 2.5D-BR $\Gamma$ is the set of bottom faces of the boxes in $\Gamma$.Comment: Appears in the Proceedings of the 24th International Symposium on Graph Drawing and Network Visualization (GD 2016

Inviscid limit of the active interface equations

We present a detailed solution of the active interface equations in the inviscid limit. The active interface equations were previously introduced as a toy model of membrane-protein systems: they describe a stochastic interface where growth is stimulated by inclusions which themselves move on the interface. In the inviscid limit, the equations reduce to a pair of coupled conservation laws. After discussing how the inviscid limit is obtained, we turn to the corresponding Riemann problem: the solution of the set of conservation laws with discontinuous initial condition. In particular, by considering two physically meaningful initial conditions, a giant trough and a giant peak in the interface, we elucidate the generation of shock waves and rarefaction fans in the system. Then, by combining several Riemann problems, we construct an oscillating solution of the active interface with periodic boundaries conditions. The existence of this oscillating state reflects the reciprocal coupling between the two conserved quantities in our system.Comment: 22 pages, 11 figure

Molecular characterization, tissue expression and sequence variability of the barramundi (Lates calcarifer) myostatin gene

Background: Myostatin (MSTN) is a member of the transforming growth factor-β superfamily that negatively regulates growth of skeletal muscle tissue. The gene encoding for the MSTN peptide is a consolidate candidate for the enhancement of productivity in terrestrial livestock. This gene potentially represents an important target for growth improvement of cultured finfish.\ud \ud Results: Here we report molecular characterization, tissue expression and sequence variability of the barramundi (Lates calcarifer) MSTN-1 gene. The barramundi MSTN-1 was encoded by three exons 379, 371 and 381 bp in length and translated into a 376-amino acid peptide. Intron 1 and 2 were 412 and 819 bp in length and presented typical GT...AG splicing sites. The upstream region contained cis-regulatory elements such as TATA-box and E-boxes. A first assessment of sequence variability suggested that higher mutation rates are found in the 5' flanking region with several SNP's present in this species. A putative micro RNA target site has also been observed in the 3'UTR (untranslated region) and is highly conserved across teleost fish. The deduced amino acid sequence was conserved across vertebrates and exhibited characteristic conserved putative functional residues including a cleavage motif of proteolysis (RXXR), nine cysteines and two glycosilation sites. A qualitative analysis of the barramundi MSTN-1 expression pattern revealed that, in adult fish, transcripts are differentially expressed in various tissues other than skeletal muscles including gill, heart, kidney, intestine, liver, spleen, eye, gonad and brain.\ud \ud Conclusion: Our findings provide valuable insights such as sequence variation and genomic information which will aid the further investigation of the barramundi MSTN-1 gene in association with growth. The finding for the first time in finfish MSTN of a miRNA target site in the 3'UTR provides an opportunity for the identification of regulatory mutations on the expression of this gene

Dynamical density functional theory for interacting Brownian particles: stochastic or deterministic?

We aim to clarify confusions in the literature as to whether or not dynamical density functional theories for the one-body density of a classical Brownian fluid should contain a stochastic noise term. We point out that a stochastic as well as a deterministic equation of motion for the density distribution can be justified, depending on how the fluid one-body density is defined -- i.e. whether it is an ensemble averaged density distribution or a spatially and/or temporally coarse grained density distribution.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure, to be submitted to Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Genera

The Chemical Compositions of the Type II Cepheids -- The BL Her and W Vir Variables

Abundance analyses from high-resolution optical spectra are presented for 19 Type II Cepheids in the Galactic field. The sample includes both short-period (BL Her) and long-period (W Vir) stars. This is the first extensive abundance analysis of these variables. The C, N, and O abundances with similar spreads for the BL Her and W Vir show evidence for an atmosphere contaminated with $3\alpha$-process and CN-cycling products. A notable anomaly of the BL Her stars is an overabundance of Na by a factor of about five relative to their presumed initial abundances. This overabundance is not seen in the W Vir stars. The abundance anomalies running from mild to extreme in W Vir stars but not seen in the BL Her stars are attributed to dust-gas separation that provides an atmosphere deficient in elements of high condensation temperature, notably Al, Ca, Sc, Ti, and $s$-process elements. Such anomalies have previously been seen among RV Tau stars which represent a long-period extension of the variability enjoyed by the Type II Cepheids. Comments are offered on how the contrasting abundance anomalies of BL Her and W Vir stars may be explained in terms of the stars' evolution from the blue horizontal branch.Comment: 41 pages including 11 figures and 4 tables; Accepted for publication in Ap