38,742 research outputs found
Sanitizing the fortress: protection of ant brood and nest material by worker antibiotics
Social groups are at particular risk for parasite infection, which is heightened in eusocial insects by the low genetic diversity of individuals within a colony. To combat this, adult ants have evolved a suite of defenses to protect each other, including the production of antimicrobial secretions. However, it is the brood in a colony that are most vulnerable to parasites because their individual defenses are limited, and the nest material in which ants live is also likely to be prone to colonization by potential parasites. Here, we investigate in two ant species whether adult workers use their antimicrobial secretions not only to protect each other but also to sanitize the vulnerable brood and nest material. We find that, in both leaf-cutting ants and weaver ants, the survival of the brood was reduced and the sporulation of parasitic fungi from them increased, when the workers nursing them lacked functional antimicrobial-producing glands. This was the case for both larvae that were experimentally treated with a fungal parasite (Metarhizium) and control larvae which developed infections of an opportunistic fungal parasite (Aspergillus). Similarly, fungi were more likely to grow on the nest material of both ant species if the glands of attending workers were blocked. The results show that the defense of brood and sanitization of nest material are important functions of the antimicrobial secretions of adult ants and that ubiquitous, opportunistic fungi may be a more important driver of the evolution of these defenses than rarer, specialist parasites
Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability in a Weakly Ionized Medium
Ambient interstellar material may become entrained in outflows from massive
stars as a result of shear flow instabilities. We study the linear theory of
the Kelvin - Helmholtz instability, the simplest example of shear flow
instability, in a partially ionized medium. We model the interaction as a two
fluid system (charged and neutral) in a planar geometry. Our principal result
is that for much of the relevant parameter space, neutrals and ions are
sufficiently decoupled that the neutrals are unstable while the ions are held
in place by the magnetic field. Thus, we predict that there should be a
detectably narrower line profile in ionized species tracing the outflow
compared with neutral species since ionized species are not participating in
the turbulent interface with the ambient ISM. Since the magnetic field is
frozen to the plasma, it is not tangled by the turbulence in the boundary
layer.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figure
A pilot study of the S-MAP (Solutions for Medications Adherence Problems) intervention for older adults prescribed polypharmacy in primary care: Study protocol
Background: Adhering to multiple medications as prescribed is challenging for older patients (aged ≥ 65 years) and a difficult behaviour to improve. Previous interventions designed to address this have been largely complex in nature but have shown limited effectiveness and have rarely used theory in their design. It has been recognised that theory ('a systematic way of understanding events or situations') can guide intervention development and help researchers better understand how complex adherence interventions work. This pilot study aims to test a novel community pharmacy-based intervention that has been systematically developed using the Theoretical Domains Framework (12-domain version) of behaviour change. Methods: As part of a non-randomised pilot study, pharmacists in 12 community pharmacies across Northern Ireland (n = 6) and London, England (n = 6), will be trained to deliver the intervention to older patients who are prescribed ≥ 4 regular medicines and are non-adherent (self-reported). Ten patients will be recruited per pharmacy (n = 120) and offered up to four tailored one-to-one sessions, in the pharmacy or via telephone depending on their adherence, over a 3-4-month period. Guided by an electronic application (app) on iPads, the intervention content will be tailored to each patient's underlying reasons for non-adherence and mapped to the most appropriate solutions using established behaviour change techniques. This study will assess the feasibility of collecting data on the primary outcome of medication adherence (self-report and dispensing data) and secondary outcomes (health-related quality of life and unplanned hospitalisations). An embedded process evaluation will assess training fidelity for pharmacy staff, intervention fidelity, acceptability to patients and pharmacists and the intervention's mechanism of action. Process evaluation data will include audio-recordings of training workshops, intervention sessions, feedback interviews and patient surveys. Analysis will be largely descriptive. Discussion: Using pre-defined progression criteria, the findings from this pilot study will guide the decision whether to proceed to a cluster randomised controlled trial to test the effectiveness of the S-MAP intervention in comparison to usual care in community pharmacies. The study will also explore how the intervention components may work to bring about change in older patients' adherence behaviour and guide further refinement of the intervention and study procedures. Trial registration: This study is registered at ISRCTN: https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN7383153
The Cross-Wavelet Transform and Analysis of Quasiperiodic Behavior in the Pearson-Readhead VLBI Survey Sources
We introduce an algorithm for applying a cross-wavelet transform to analysis
of quasiperiodic variations in a time-series, and introduce significance tests
for the technique. We apply a continuous wavelet transform and the
cross-wavelet algorithm to the Pearson-Readhead VLBI survey sources using data
obtained from the University of Michigan 26-m parabloid at observing
frequencies of 14.5, 8.0, and 4.8 GHz. Thirty of the sixty-two sources were
chosen to have sufficient data for analysis, having at least 100 data points
for a given time-series. Of these thirty sources, a little more than half
exhibited evidence for quasiperiodic behavior in at least one observing
frequency, with a mean characteristic period of 2.4 yr and standard deviation
of 1.3 yr. We find that out of the thirty sources, there were about four time
scales for every ten time series, and about half of those sources showing
quasiperiodic behavior repeated the behavior in at least one other observing
frequency.Comment: Revised version, accepted by ApJ. 17 pages, 13 figures, color figures
included as gifs, seperate from the text. The addition of statistical
significance tests has resulted in modifying the technique and results, but
the broad conclusion remain the same. A high resolution version may be found
at http://www.astro.lsa.umich.edu/obs/radiotel/prcwdata.htm
Daylight quantum key distribution over 1.6 km
Quantum key distribution (QKD) has been demonstrated over a point-to-point
-km atmospheric optical path in full daylight. This record
transmission distance brings QKD a step closer to surface-to-satellite and
other long-distance applications.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, 1 table. Submitted to PRL on 14 January 2000 for
publication consideratio
The twisted fourth moment of the Riemann zeta function
We compute the asymptotics of the fourth moment of the Riemann zeta function
times an arbitrary Dirichlet polynomial of length Comment: 28 pages. v2: added reference
Supersymmetry of FRW barotropic cosmologies
Barotropic FRW cosmologies are presented from the standpoint of
nonrelativistic supersymmetry. First, we reduce the barotropic FRW system of
differential equations to simple harmonic oscillator differential equations.
Employing the factorization procedure, the solutions of the latter equations
are divided into the two classes of bosonic (nonsingular) and fermionic
(singular) cosmological solutions. We next introduce a coupling parameter
denoted by K between the two classes of solutions and obtain barotropic
cosmologies with dissipative features acting on the scale factors and spatial
curvature of the universe. The K-extended FRW equations in comoving time are
presented in explicit form in the low coupling regime. The standard barotropic
FRW cosmologies correspond to the dissipationless limit K =0Comment: 6 page
Experimental Verification of Surface Vehicle Dynamics
Experimental verification of surface vehicle dynamic
Nearly horizon skimming orbits of Kerr black holes
An unusual set of orbits about extreme Kerr black holes resides at the
Boyer-Lindquist radius , the coordinate of the hole's event horizon.
These ``horizon skimming'' orbits have the property that their angular momentum
{\it increases} with inclination angle, opposite to the familiar behavior
one encounters at larger radius. In this paper, I show that this behavior is
characteristic of a larger family of orbits, the ``nearly horizon skimming''
(NHS) orbits. NHS orbits exist in the very strong field of any black hole with
spin a\agt 0.952412M. Their unusual behavior is due to the locking of
particle motion near the event horizon to the hole's spin, and is therefore a
signature of the Kerr metric's extreme strong field. An observational hallmark
of NHS orbits is that a small body spiraling into a Kerr black hole due to
gravitational-wave emission will be driven into orbits of progressively smaller
inclination angle, toward the equator. This is in contrast to the ``normal''
behavior. For circular orbits, the change in inclination is very small, and
unlikely to be of observational importance. I argue that the change in
inclination may be considerably larger when one considers the evolution of
inclined eccentric orbits. If this proves correct, then the gravitational waves
produced by evolution through the NHS regime may constitute a very interesting
and important probe of the strong-field nature of rotating black holes.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in PR
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