1,824 research outputs found
The Malagarasi River Does Not Form an Absolute Barrier to Chimpanzee Movement in Western Tanzania
The Malagarasi River has long been thought to be a barrier to chimpanzee movements in western Tanzania. This potential geographic boundary could affect chimpanzee ranging behavior, population connectivity and pathogen transmission, and thus has implications for conservation strategies and government policy. Indeed, based on mitochondrial DNA sequence comparisons it was recently argued that chimpanzees from communities to the north and to the south of the Malagarasi are surprisingly distantly related, suggesting that the river prevents gene flow. To investigate this, we conducted a survey along the Malagarasi River. We found a ford comprised of rocks that researchers could cross on foot. On a trail leading to this ford, we collected 13 fresh fecal samples containing chimpanzee DNA, two of which tested positive for SIVcpz. We also found chimpanzee feces within the riverbed. Taken together, this evidence suggests that the Malagarasi River is not an absolute barrier to chimpanzee movements and communities from the areas to the north and south should be considered a single population. These results have important consequences for our understanding of gene flow, disease dynamics and conservation management
NLO QCD corrections to WZ+jet production with leptonic decays
We compute the next-to-leading order QCD corrections to WZ+jet production at
the Tevatron and the LHC, including decays of the electroweak bosons to light
leptons with all off-shell effects taken into account. The corrections are
sizable and have significant impact on the differential distributions.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figure
CHIIMP: An automated high-throughput microsatellite genotyping approach reveals greater allelic diversity in wild chimpanzees
Short tandem repeats (STRs), also known as microsatellites, are commonly used to non invasively genotype wild-living endangered species, including African apes. Until recently, capillary electrophoresis has been the method of choice to determine the length of polymorphic STR loci. However, this technique is labor intensive, difficult to compare across platforms, and notoriously imprecise. Here we developed a MiSeq-based approach and tested its performance using previously genotyped fecal samples from long-term studied chimpanzees in Gombe National Park, Tanzania. Using data from eight microsatellite loci as a reference, we designed a bioinformatics platform that converts raw MiSeq reads into locus-specific files and automatically calls alleles after filtering stutter sequences and other PCR artifacts. Applying this method to the entire Gombe population, we confirmed previously reported genotypes, but also identified 31 new alleles that had been missed due to sequence differences and size homoplasy. The new genotypes, which increased the allelic diversity and heterozygosity in Gombe by 61% and 8%, respectively, were validated by replicate amplification and pedigree analyses. This demonstrated inheritance and resolved one case of an ambiguous paternity. Using both singleplex and multiplex locus amplification, we also genotyped fecal samples from chimpanzees in the Greater Mahale Ecosystem in Tanzania, demonstrating the utility of the MiSeq-based approach for genotyping non-habituated populations and performing comparative analyses across field sites. The new automated high-throughput analysis platform (available at https://github.com/ShawHahnLab/chiimp) will allow biologists to more accurately and effectively determine wildlife population size and structure, and thus obtain information critical for conservation efforts
Seeing versus Doing: How Businesses Manage Tensions in Pursuit of Sustainability
Management of organizational tensions can facilitate the simultaneous advancement of economic, social, and environmental priorities. The approach is based on managers identifying and managing tensions between the three priorities, by employing one of the three strategic responses. Although recent work has provided a theoretical basis for such tension acknowledgment and management, there is a dearth of empirical studies. We interviewed 32 corporate sustainability managers across 25 forestry and wood-products organizations in Australia. Study participants were divided into two groups: (1) those considered effective at corporate sustainability and (2) a status-quo group. Contrary to current theory, our findings showed that acknowledgment of organizational tensions was widespread in the Australian forestry and wood-products industry and not limited to those managers who are effective at managing corporate sustainability. What differed was the degree to which managers did something about the perceived tensions—with the effective group more consistently acting to manage and resolve paradoxical scenarios. Our findings suggest that existing theoretical constructs of tension management may not adequately capture the individual-level complexity involved with managing tensions in practice
On the Decomposition of Clifford Algebras of Arbitrary Bilinear Form
Clifford algebras are naturally associated with quadratic forms. These
algebras are Z_2-graded by construction. However, only a Z_n-gradation induced
by a choice of a basis, or even better, by a Chevalley vector space isomorphism
Cl(V) \bigwedge V and an ordering, guarantees a multi-vector decomposition
into scalars, vectors, tensors, and so on, mandatory in physics. We show that
the Chevalley isomorphism theorem cannot be generalized to algebras if the
Z_n-grading or other structures are added, e.g., a linear form. We work with
pairs consisting of a Clifford algebra and a linear form or a Z_n-grading which
we now call 'Clifford algebras of multi-vectors' or 'quantum Clifford
algebras'. It turns out, that in this sense, all multi-vector Clifford algebras
of the same quadratic but different bilinear forms are non-isomorphic. The
usefulness of such algebras in quantum field theory and superconductivity was
shown elsewhere. Allowing for arbitrary bilinear forms however spoils their
diagonalizability which has a considerable effect on the tensor decomposition
of the Clifford algebras governed by the periodicity theorems, including the
Atiyah-Bott-Shapiro mod 8 periodicity. We consider real algebras Cl_{p,q} which
can be decomposed in the symmetric case into a tensor product Cl_{p-1,q-1}
\otimes Cl_{1,1}. The general case used in quantum field theory lacks this
feature. Theories with non-symmetric bilinear forms are however needed in the
analysis of multi-particle states in interacting theories. A connection to
q-deformed structures through nontrivial vacuum states in quantum theories is
outlined.Comment: 25 pages, 1 figure, LaTeX, {Paper presented at the 5th International
Conference on Clifford Algebras and their Applications in Mathematical
Physics, Ixtapa, Mexico, June 27 - July 4, 199
NLO QCD corrections to off-shell top-antitop production with leptonic decays at hadron colliders
We present details of a calculation of the cross section for hadronic
top-antitop production in next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD, including the decays
of the top and antitop into bottom quarks and leptons. This calculation is
based on matrix elements for \nu e e+ \mu- \bar{\nu}_{\mu}b\bar{b} production
and includes all non-resonant diagrams, interferences, and off-shell effects of
the top quarks. Such contributions are formally suppressed by the top-quark
width and turn out to be small in the inclusive cross section. However, they
can be strongly enhanced in exclusive observables that play an important role
in Higgs and new-physics searches. Also non-resonant and off-shell effects due
to the finite W-boson width are investigated in detail, but their impact is
much smaller than naively expected. We also introduce a matching approach to
improve NLO calculations involving intermediate unstable particles. Using a
fixed QCD scale leads to perturbative instabilities in the high-energy tails of
distributions, but an appropriate dynamical scale stabilises NLO predictions.
Numerical results for the total cross section, several distributions, and
asymmetries are presented for Tevatron and the LHC at 7 TeV, 8 TeV, and 14 TeV.Comment: 61 pp. Matches version published in JHEP; one more reference adde
NLO QCD corrections to top anti-top bottom anti-bottom production at the LHC: 2. full hadronic results
We present predictions for top anti-top bottom anti-bottom production at the
LHC in next-to-leading order QCD. The precise description of this background
process is a prerequisite to observe associated top anti-top Higgs production
in the Higgs -> bottom anti-bottom decay channel and to directly measure the
top-quark Yukawa coupling at the LHC. The leading-order cross section is
extremely sensitive to scale variations. We observe that the traditional scale
choice adopted in ATLAS simulations underestimates the top anti-top bottom
anti-bottom background by a factor two and introduce a new dynamical scale that
stabilizes the perturbative predictions. We study various kinematic
distributions and observe that the corrections have little impact on their
shapes if standard cuts are applied. In the regime of highly boosted Higgs
bosons, which offers better perspectives to observe the top anti-top Higgs
signal, we find significant distortions of the kinematic distributions. The
one-loop amplitudes are computed using process-independent algebraic
manipulations of Feynman diagrams and numerical tensor reduction. We find that
this approach provides very high numerical stability and CPU efficiency.Comment: 42 pages, LaTeX, 44 postscript figure
A mathematical model for breath gas analysis of volatile organic compounds with special emphasis on acetone
Recommended standardized procedures for determining exhaled lower respiratory
nitric oxide and nasal nitric oxide have been developed by task forces of the
European Respiratory Society and the American Thoracic Society. These
recommendations have paved the way for the measurement of nitric oxide to
become a diagnostic tool for specific clinical applications. It would be
desirable to develop similar guidelines for the sampling of other trace gases
in exhaled breath, especially volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which reflect
ongoing metabolism. The concentrations of water-soluble, blood-borne substances
in exhaled breath are influenced by: (i) breathing patterns affecting gas
exchange in the conducting airways; (ii) the concentrations in the
tracheo-bronchial lining fluid; (iii) the alveolar and systemic concentrations
of the compound. The classical Farhi equation takes only the alveolar
concentrations into account. Real-time measurements of acetone in end-tidal
breath under an ergometer challenge show characteristics which cannot be
explained within the Farhi setting. Here we develop a compartment model that
reliably captures these profiles and is capable of relating breath to the
systemic concentrations of acetone. By comparison with experimental data it is
inferred that the major part of variability in breath acetone concentrations
(e.g., in response to moderate exercise or altered breathing patterns) can be
attributed to airway gas exchange, with minimal changes of the underlying blood
and tissue concentrations. Moreover, it is deduced that measured end-tidal
breath concentrations of acetone determined during resting conditions and free
breathing will be rather poor indicators for endogenous levels. Particularly,
the current formulation includes the classical Farhi and the Scheid series
inhomogeneity model as special limiting cases.Comment: 38 page
Exposure to Nonhuman Primates in Rural Cameroon
A high percentage of rural villagers are exposed to blood of nonhuman primates and risk acquiring infectious diseases
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