A mathematically assisted reconstruction of the initial focus of the yellow fever outbreak in Buenos Aires (1871)

We discuss the historic mortality record corresponding to the initial focus of the yellow fever epidemic outbreak registered in Buenos Aires during the year 1871 as compared to simulations of a stochastic population dynamics model. This model incorporates the biology of the urban vector of yellow fever, the mosquito Aedes aegypti, the stages of the disease in the human being as well as the spatial extension of the epidemic outbreak. After introducing the historical context and the restrictions it puts on initial conditions and ecological parameters, we discuss the general features of the simulation and the dependence on initial conditions and available sites for breeding the vector. We discuss the sensitivity, to the free parameters, of statistical estimators such as: final death toll, day of the year when the outbreak reached half the total mortality and the normalized daily mortality, showing some striking regularities. The model is precise and accurate enough to discuss the truthfulness of the presently accepted historic discussions of the epidemic causes, showing that there are more likely scenarios for the historic facts.Comment: 25 pages, 12 figure

The confined hydrogen atom with a moving nucleus

We study the hydrogen atom confined to a spherical box with impenetrable walls but, unlike earlier pedagogical articles on the subject, we assume that the nucleus also moves. We obtain the ground-state energy approximately by means of first--order perturbation theory and by a more accurate variational approach. We show that it is greater than the one for the case in which the nucleus is clamped at the center of the box. Present approach resembles the well-known treatment of the helium atom with clamped nucleus

Magnetic Surfaces in Stationary Axisymmetric General Relativity

In this paper a new method is derived for constructing electromagnetic surface sources for stationary axisymmetric electrovac spacetimes endowed with non-smooth or even discontinuous Ernst potentials. This can be viewed as a generalization of some classical potential theory results, since lack of continuity of the potential is related to dipole density and lack of smoothness, to monopole density. In particular this approach is useful for constructing the dipole source for the magnetic field. This formalism involves solving a linear elliptic differential equation with boundary conditions at infinity. As an example, two different models of surface densities for the Kerr-Newman electrovac spacetime are derived.Comment: 15 page

Carboniferous stratigraphie and structure oí the Pisuerga-Carrion unit. NW Spain

[Resumen] La Unidad del Pisuerga-Carri6n (UPC) constituye la parte más externa (Cuenca de antepaís) de la Zona Cantábrica (ZC). Los materiales silúrico-dev6nicos, con facies más profundas que los del resto de la ZC, están circunscritos a unidades alóctonas desenraizadas emplazadas como mantos gravitacionales. El sistema carbonífero se caracteriza por la presencia de series potentes con notables variaciones de facies y potencias. Durante el Carbotírtero inferior es característica la prensencia de facies homogéneas y una baja tasa de sedimentación en un ambiente claramente preorogénico. A partir del Namuriese se inicia la sedimentación sinorogénica, abundan las facies originadas a partir de pendientes submarinas o ligadas a relieves emergidos. La persistencia de las condiciones sinorogénicas desde el Namuriense hasta el Estefaniense A y la relativa proliferación de discordancias son también rasgos peculiares de éste área. En este trabajo se propone un esquema de unidades litoestratigráficas, a las que informalmente se asigna la categoría de «grupo~, separadas por discordancias y/o conglomerados de continuidad lateral limitada. Se considera que estos «grupos~ representan «cuñas clásticas~ relacionadas con el emplazamiento de unidades alóctonas concretas, por lo que se propone también un modelo relacionando grupos litoestratigráficos y unidades alóctonas o mantos. Se establecen los rasgos generales de la estructura de la UPC diferenciando dos tipos de manta> (gravitacionales y enraizados), así como las relaciones entre éstos y las diversas generaciones de pliegues y esquistosidades. Por último se propone un modelo de evolución tectonosedimentaria para la UPC, claramente ligado a la evolución estructural de toda la ZC como una cadena arqueada, en el que se considera que el carácter centrípeto de las vergencias en la ZC origina estructuras en la UPC con vergencias igualmente centrípetas así como cuñas elásticas, genéticamente relacionadas, con depocentros situados en posiciones distintas a través del tiempo.[Abstract] The Pisuerga-Carrion Unit (PCU) forms the most external part (foreland basin) of the Cantabrian Zone (Cl). Siluro-devonian rocks with deeper facies than those of the CZ are limited to alloctonous unit wich have been regarded as gravitational nappes. The main characteristic of Carboniferous system is the presence of thick series with remarkable facies and thickness lateral changes. The outstanding feature of lower Carboniferous is the low rate of sedimentation and the fairly uniform sedimentary facies in a preorigenic environment. The synorogenic sedimentation starts in the Namurian, the most frecuent facies are those originated in submarine slopes or those related to subaerial reliefs. The continous synorogenic conditions from Namurian to the Stephanian A stage and the presence of numerous unconformities and lateral sedimentary changes constitue sorne of the characteristics of this area. In this paper a lithostratigraphic sketch are suggested; alllithostratigraphic units were integrated in higher rank units informally called «groups». These «groups» are separated by conglomerates and /or unconformities of limited lateral extension and would represent clastic wedges generated in the front of the nappes Both clastic wedges and nappes are related in this sketch. The general features of the PCU structure are found and two types of nappes (generated by gliding and /or spreading) are stablished, in this way, severa! Generations of folds and cleavages are related with both types of nappes. Lately a tectonosedimentary evolution model for the PCU which would be directly linked to the structural evolution of the Cl. The centripetal character of the vergences in the Cl produced structures (nappes and related folds) in the PCU that have an equally centripetal vergence and originated a synorogenic clastic wedges with depocenters located, in time, in several positions

FLUKA Simulations of Energy Density Deposition from a ILC Bunch in different Spoiler Designs

FLUKA is used to simulate the energy deposition due to a direct bunch impact of the ILC beam in various candidate spoiler designs. The conclusions extracted will contribute to the overall optimisation process and identify areas where additional experimental data would be beneficial

Supercolonial structure of invasive populations of the tawny crazy ant Nylanderia fulva in the US

Background: Social insects are among the most serious invasive pests in the world, particularly successful at monopolizing environmental resources to outcompete native species and achieve ecological dominance. The invasive success of some social insects is enhanced by their unicolonial structure, under which the presence of numerous queens and the lack of aggression against non-nestmates allow high worker densities, colony growth, and survival while eliminating intra-specific competition. In this study, we investigated the population genetics, colony structure and levels of aggression in the tawny crazy ant, Nylanderia fulva, which was recently introduced into the United States from South America. Results: We found that this species experienced a genetic bottleneck during its invasion lowering its genetic diversity by 60%. Our results show that the introduction of N. fulva is associated with a shift in colony structure. This species exhibits a multicolonial organization in its native range, with colonies clearly separated from one another, whereas it displays a unicolonial system with no clear boundaries among nests in its invasive range. We uncovered an absence of genetic differentiation among populations across the entire invasive range, and a lack of aggressive behaviors towards conspecifics from different nests, even ones separated by several hundreds of kilometers. Conclusions: Overall, these results suggest that across its entire invasive range in the U.S.A., this species forms a single supercolony spreading more than 2000 km. In each invasive nest, we found several, up to hundreds, of reproductive queens, each being mated with a single male. The many reproductive queens per nests, together with the free movement of individuals between nests, leads to a relatedness coefficient among nestmate workers close to zero in introduced populations, calling into question the stability of this unicolonial system in which indirect fitness benefits to workers is apparently absent.Fil: Eyer, Pierre André. Texas A&M University; Estados UnidosFil: McDowell, Bryant. Texas A&M University; Estados UnidosFil: Johnson, Laura N. L.. Texas A&M University; Estados UnidosFil: Calcaterra, Luis Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Fundación para el Estudio de Especies Invasivas; ArgentinaFil: Fernández, María Belén. Fundación para el Estudio de Especies Invasivas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Shoemaker, Dewayne. University of Tennessee; Estados UnidosFil: Puckett, Robert T.. Texas A&M University; Estados UnidosFil: Vargo, Edward L.. Texas A&M University; Estados Unido

Possible ring material around centaur (2060) Chiron

We propose that several short duration events observed in past stellar occultations by Chiron were produced by rings material. From a reanalysis of the stellar occultation data in the literature we determined two possible orientations of the pole of Chiron's rings, with ecliptic coordinates l=(352+/-10) deg, b=(37+/-10) deg or l=(144+/-10) deg, b=(24+/-10) deg . The mean radius of the rings is (324 +/- 10) km. One can use the rotational lightcurve amplitude of Chiron at different epochs to distinguish between the two solutions for the pole. Both imply lower lightcurve amplitude in 2013 than in 1988, when the rotational lightcurve was first determined. We derived Chiron's rotational lightcurve in 2013 from observations at the 1.23-m CAHA telescope and indeed its amplitude is smaller than in 1988. We also present a rotational lightcurve in 2000 from images taken at CASLEO 2.15-m telescope that is consistent with our predictions. Out of the two poles the l=(144+/-10) deg, b=(24+/-10) deg solution provides a better match to a compilation of rotational lightcurve amplitudes from the literature and those presented here. We also show that using this preferred pole, Chiron's long term brightness variations are compatible with a simple model that incorporates the changing brightness of the rings as the tilt angle with respect to the Earth changes with time. Also, the variability of the water ice band in Chiron's spectra in the literature can be explained to a large degree by an icy ring system whose tilt angle changes with time and whose composition includes water ice, analogously to the case of Chariklo. We present several possible formation scenarios for the rings from qualitative points of view and speculate on the reasons why rings might be common in centaurs. We speculate on whether the known bimodal color distribution of centaurs could be due to presence of rings and lack of them

Geometric Phases and Mielnik's Evolution Loops

The cyclic evolutions and associated geometric phases induced by time-independent Hamiltonians are studied for the case when the evolution operator becomes the identity (those processes are called {\it evolution loops}). We make a detailed treatment of systems having equally-spaced energy levels. Special emphasis is made on the potentials which have the same spectrum as the harmonic oscillator potential (the generalized oscillator potentials) and on their recently found coherent states.Comment: 11 pages, harvmac, 2 figures available upon request; CINVESTAV-FIS GFMR 11/9