5,403 research outputs found
Larval condition and growth of Sardinella brasiliensis (Steindachner, 1879): preliminary results from laboratory studies
Brazilian sardine, the most important resource along the southeastern Brazilian coast, presented great variations and declines in its stocks. The main factors contributing to this are: oceanographic structure changes; recruitment failures; excessive catches of juveniles and increase in fishery effort. In spite of this, no alterations in the density-dependent parameters were detected. Consequently, methods analysing the condition of the larvae coupled with methods determining growth using sagittae otolith increment width were applied to evaluate growth under experimental conditions. The results of the readings on the sagittae were compared with the age of the laboratory-reared sardine larvae and confirmed that increments are formed on a daily basis. Under poor feeding conditions, sardine larvae showed a low growth expressed by dry weight, RNA/DNA ratio and tryptic enzyme activity and by the narrow and low contrast increments in the otoliths. The results of the biochemical indices showed an unexpected decline in the feeding group coupled with a decrease in width of increment numbers 8 and 10. Other factors than food availability were affecting the condition of the larvae and might be indicative of physiological processes and ontogenetic changes occurring in sardine larvae
Surface nano-patterning through styrene adsorption on Si(100)
We present an ab initio study of the structural and electronic properties of
styrene molecules adsorbed on the dimerized Si(100) surface at different
coverages, ranging from the single-molecule to the full monolayer. The
adsorption mechanism primarily involves the vinyl group via a [2+2]
cycloaddition process that leads to the formation of covalent Si-C bonds and a
local surface derelaxation, while it leaves the phenyl group almost
unperturbed. The investigation of the functionalized surface as a function of
the coverage (e.g. 0.5 -- 1 ML) and of the substrate reconstruction reveals two
major effects. The first results from Si dimer-vinyl interaction and concerns
the controlled variation of the energy bandgap of the interface. The second is
associated to phenyl-phenyl interactions, which gives rise to a regular pattern
of electronic wires at surface, stemming from the pi-pi coupling. These
findings suggest a rationale for tailoring the surface nano-patterning of the
surface, in a controlled way.Comment: 19 pages (preprint), 4 figures, supplementary materia
Dissipation in planar resonant planetary systems
Close-in planetary systems detected by the Kepler mission present an excess
of periods ratio that are just slightly larger than some low order resonant
values. This feature occurs naturally when resonant couples undergo dissipation
that damps the eccentricities. However, the resonant angles appear to librate
at the end of the migration process, which is often believed to be an evidence
that the systems remain in resonance.
Here we provide an analytical model for the dissipation in resonant planetary
systems valid for low eccentricities. We confirm that dissipation accounts for
an excess of pairs that lie just aside from the nominal periods ratios, as
observed by the Kepler mission. In addition, by a global analysis of the phase
space of the problem, we demonstrate that these final pairs are non-resonant.
Indeed, the separatrices that exist in the resonant systems disappear with the
dissipation, and remains only a circulation of the orbits around a single
elliptical fixed point. Furthermore, the apparent libration of the resonant
angles can be explained using the classical secular averaging method. We show
that this artifact is only due to the severe damping of the amplitudes of the
eigenmodes in the secular motion.Comment: 18 pages, 20 figures, accepted to A&
Field-theoretical renormalization group for a flat two-dimensional Fermi surface
We implement an explicit two-loop calculation of the coupling functions and
the self-energy of interacting fermions with a two-dimensional flat Fermi
surface in the framework of the field theoretical renormalization group (RG)
approach. Throughout the calculation both the Fermi surface and the Fermi
velocity are assumed to be fixed and unaffected by interactions. We show that
in two dimensions, in a weak coupling regime, there is no significant change in
the RG flow compared to the well-known one-loop results available in the
literature. However, if we extrapolate the flow to a moderate coupling regime
there are interesting new features associated with an anisotropic suppression
of the quasiparticle weight Z along the Fermi surface, and the vanishing of the
renormalized coupling functions for several choices of the external momenta.Comment: 16 pages and 22 figure
Protective effect of bronchial challenge with hypertonic saline on nocturnal asthma
Inhalation of hypertonic saline (HS) causes bronchoconstriction in asthmatic subjects. Repeated inhalation of HS leads to substantially reduced bronchoconstriction, known as the refractory period. Refractoriness due to different stimuli has also been described (cross-refractoriness). Nocturnal asthma is defined as an increase in symptoms, need for medication, airway responsiveness, and/or worsening of lung function that usually occurs from 4 to 6 am. Our objective was to determine the effect of refractoriness on nocturnal asthma. The challenge test consisted of inhalations of 4.5% saline with increasing durations until a reduction of 20% in forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) (PD20HS) or total time of 15.5 min. Twelve subjects with nocturnal asthma were challenged with HS at 16:00 and 18:00 h and FEV1 was measured at 4:00 h. One to 2 weeks later, FEV1 was determined at 16:00 and 4:00 h. LogPD20HS at 18:00 h was significantly greater than logPD20HS at 16:00 h, 0.51 ± 0.50 and 0.69 ± 0.60 mg, respectively (P = 0.0033). When subjects underwent two HS challenges in the afternoon, mean (± SD) FEV1 reduction was 206 ± 414 mL or 9.81 ± 17.42%. On the control day (without challenge in the afternoon) FEV1 reduction was 523 ± 308 mL or 22.75 ± 15.40% (P = 0.021). Baseline FEV1 values did not differ significantly between the control and study days, 2.48 ± 0.62 and 2.36 ± 0.46 L, respectively. The refractory period following HS challenges reduces the nocturnal worsening of asthma. This new concept may provide beneficial applications to asthmatic patients
Doped carrier formulation of the t-J model: the projection constraint and the effective Kondo-Heisenberg lattice representation
We show that the recently proposed doped carrier Hamiltonian formulation of
the t-J model should be complemented with the constraint that projects out the
unphysical states. With this new important ingredient, the previously used and
seemingly different spin-fermion representations of the t-J model are shown to
be gauge related to each other. This new constraint can be treated in a
controlled way close to half-filling suggesting that the doped carrier
representation provides an appropriate theoretical framework to address the t-J
model in this region. This constraint also suggests that the t-J model can be
mapped onto a Kondo-Heisenberg lattice model. Such a mapping highlights
important physical similarities between the quasi two-dimensional heavy
fermions and the high-T superconductors. Finally we discuss the physical
implications of our model representation relating in particular the small
versus large Fermi surface crossover to the closure of the lattice spin gap.Comment: corrected and enlarged versio
Geostatistics applied to evaluation of thermal conditions and noise in compost dairy barns with different ventilation systems
ArticleThe objective of this work was to evaluate the spatial distribution of thermal
conditions and bed variables in compost dairy barns with different ventilation systems, through
the technique of geostatistics. The experiment was conducted in April 2017, in farms located in
Madre de Deus, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Three facilities were evaluated with different ventilation
systems: natural (NV); mechanical of low volume and high speed (LVHS); and mechanical of
high volume and low speed (HVLS). The interior of the premises was divided into 40 meshes
equidistant points, in which air temperature, relative humidity and air speed were manually
collected. Geostatistics technique was used to assess the spatial dependence of the variables.
The results showed the occurrence of dependence and spatial variability of the variables
evaluated. Based on thermal comfort indexes, it was concluded that dairy cows were under
stress conditions during the hottest hours of the day in the three animal facilities evaluated. The
results obtained allow us to understand that the thermal environment is more influenced by the
ventilation system adopted
Convergence of simple adaptive Galerkin schemes based on h − h/2 error estimators
We discuss several adaptive mesh-refinement strategies based on (h − h/2)-error estimation. This class of adaptivemethods is particularly popular in practise since it is problem independent and requires virtually no implementational overhead. We prove that, under the saturation assumption, these adaptive algorithms are convergent. Our framework applies not only to finite element methods, but also yields a first convergence proof for adaptive boundary element schemes. For a finite element model problem, we extend the proposed adaptive scheme and prove convergence even if the saturation assumption fails to hold in general
Exploring the potential of cuttlebone waste to produce building lime
The goal of this study is to find a practicable way to recycle cuttlebone waste in the production of lime. It was studied the behavior of calcium oxide obtained from the calcination of this waste at 900, 1000 and 1100 ºC and, after wet slaking, the produced lime was characterized. All the results were compared to calcium oxide or to hydrated lime obtained from commercial limestone. According to the slaking results, the waste and the limestone calcined at 1000 ºC achieved the R4 (around 13 min to reach 60 ºC) and R5 (60 ºC in 25 s) reactivity class, respectively. Changing the calcination temperature to 900 or 1100 ºC did not promote an increase in the reactivity of the calcined waste. Although less reactive than the calcined limestone, the calcined cuttlebone can be transformed without significant constraint into building lime, since this construction material fulfills the relevant physic-chemical standard specifications.The authors thank VAC Minerais, S.A. (Rio Maior, Portugal) for supplying the commercial limestone, the support of Quadro de Referência Estratégica Nacional (QREN) and R&D units: Techn&Art (UID/05488/2018) and Geobiotec (UID/GEO/04035/2019). They also thank Prof. Dr. Francisco Franco Duro, from the University of Malaga (Spain), for the translations to Spanish language.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
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