203 research outputs found
Does urbanization influence the diet of a large snake?
Urbanization facilitates synanthropic species such as rodents, which benefit the diets of many predators in cities. We investigated how urbanization affects the feeding ecology of dugites Pseudonaja affinis, a common elapid snake in south-west Western Australia. We predicted that urban snakes: 1) more frequently contain prey and eat larger meals, 2) eat proportionally more non-native prey, 3) eat a lower diversity of prey species, and 4) are relatively heavier, than non-urban dugites. We analyzed the diet of 453 specimens obtained from the Western Australian Museum and opportunistic road-kill collections. Correcting for size, sex, season, and temporal biases, we tested whether location influenced diet for our 4 predictions. Body size was a strong predictor of diet (larger snakes had larger prey present, a greater number of prey items, and a greater diversity of prey). We identified potential collection biases: urban dugites were relatively smaller (snout-vent length) than non-urban specimens, and females were relatively lighter than males. Accounting for these effects, urban snakes were less likely to have prey present in their stomachs and were relatively lighter than non-urban snakes. Other urban-adapted carnivores appear to benefit from urbanization through increased food supplementation, but we found the opposite of this: urban dugites were less likely to contain a meal, and their meals were smaller, indicating they did not make greater use of synanthropic species than was evident for non-urban snakes. In contrast to other carnivores, snakes do not appear to fit a consistent directional pattern for size differences between urban and non-urban populations
The spatial organization of multinational firms
Using six years of firm-level data covering 224 regions of the enlarged European Union, we evaluate the importance to a firm of locating its activities (production, headquarters, R&D, logistics and sales) close together. We find that, after controlling for regional characteristics, being closely located to a previous investment positively affects firm location choice. However, the impact of distance is dependent on the type of investment (production or service). The impact dies out faster for service activities. Finally, we show that a surprisingly positive effect comes from locating a new production plant close to an existing production investment, but in another country
Ontogenetic shift in diet of a large elapid snake is facilitated by allometric change in skull morphology
As snakes are limbless, gape-limited predators, their skull is the main feeding structure involved in prey handling, manipulation and feeding. Ontogenetic changes in prey type and size are likely to be associated with distinct morphological changes in the skull during growth. We investigated ontogenetic variation in diet from stomach contents of 161 Dugite specimens (Pseudonaja affinis, Elapidae) representing the full range of body size for the species, and skull morphology of 46 specimens (range 0.25â1.64 m snout-vent-length; SVL). We hypothesised that changes in prey type throughout postnatal ontogeny would coincide with distinct changes in skull shape. Dugites demonstrate a distinct size-related shift in diet: the smallest individuals ate autotomised reptile tails and reptiles, medium-sized individuals predominantly ate mammals, and the largest individuals had the most diverse diet, including large reptiles. Morphometric analysis revealed thatâ~40% of the variation in skull shape was associated with body size (SVL). Through ontogeny, skulls changed from a smooth, bulbous cranium with relatively small trophic bones (upper and lower jaws and their attachments), to more rugose bones (as a likely reflection of muscle attachment) and relatively longer trophic bones that would extend gape. Individual shape variation in trophic bone dimensions was greater in larger adults and this likely reflects natural plasticity of individuals feeding on different prey sizes/types. Rather than a distinct morphological shift with diet, the ontogenetic changes were gradual, but positive allometry of individual trophic bones resulted in disproportionate growth of the skull, reflected in increased gape size and mobility of jaw bones in adults to aid the ingestion of larger prey and improve manipulation and processing ability. These results indicate that allometric scaling is an important mechanism by which snakes can change their dietary niche
Resumming the color-octet contribution to e+ e- -> J/psi + X
Recent observations of the spectrum of J/psi produced in e+ e- collisions at
the Upsilon(4S) resonance are in conflict with fixed-order calculations using
the Non-Relativistic QCD (NRQCD) effective field theory. One problem is that
leading order color-octet mechanisms predict an enhancement of the cross
section for J/psi with maximal energy that is not observed in the data.
However, in this region of phase space large perturbative corrections (Sudakov
logarithms) as well as enhanced nonperturbative effects are important. In this
paper we use the newly developed Soft-Collinear Effective Theory (SCET) to
systematically include these effects. We find that these corrections
significantly broaden the color-octet contribution to the J/psi spectrum. Our
calculation employs a one-stage renormalization group evolution rather than the
two-stage evolution used in previous SCET calculations. We give a simple
argument for why the two methods yield identical results to lowest order in the
SCET power counting.Comment: 27 pages, 7 figure
Domain k-Wise Consistency Made as Simple as Generalized Arc Consistency
Abstract. In Constraint Programming (CP), Generalized Arc Consistency (GAC) is the central property used for making inferences when solving Constraint Satisfaction Problems (CSPs). Developing simple and practical filtering algorithms based on consistencies stronger than GAC is a challenge for the CP community. In this paper, we propose to combine k-Wise Consistency (kWC) with GAC, where kWC states that every tuple in a constraint can be extended to every set of k â 1 additional constraints. Our contribution is as follows. First, we derive a domain-filtering consistency, called Domain k-Wise Consistency (DkWC), from the combination of kWC and GAC. Roughly speaking, this property corresponds to the pruning of values of GAC, when enforced on a CSP previously made kWC. Second, we propose a procedure to enforce DkWC, relying on an encoding of kWC to generate a modified CSP called k-interleaved CSP. Formally, we prove that enforcing GAC on the k-interleaved CSP corresponds to enforcing DkWC on the initial CSP. Consequently, we show that the strong DkWC can be enforced very easily in constraint solvers since the k-interleaved CSP is rather immediate to generate and only existing GAC propagators are required: in a nutshell, DkWC is made as simple and practical as GAC. Our experimental results show the benefits of our approach on a variety of benchmarks.
Normal-state conductivity in underdoped La_{2-x}Sr_xCuO_4 thin films: Search for nonlinear effects related to collective stripe motion
We report a detailed study of the electric-field dependence of the
normal-state conductivity in La_{2-x}Sr_xCuO_4 thin films for two
concentrations of doped holes, x=0.01 and 0.06, where formation of diagonal and
vertical charged stripes was recently suggested. In order to elucidate whether
high electric fields are capable of depinning the charged stripes and inducing
their collective motion, we have measured current-voltage characteristics for
various orientations of the electric field with respect to the crystallographic
axes. However, even for the highest possible fields (~1000 V/cm for x=0.01 and
\~300 V/cm for x=0.06) we observed no non-linear-conductivity features except
for those related to the conventional Joule heating of the films. Our analysis
indicates that Joule heating, rather than collective electron motion, may also
be responsible for the non-linear conductivity observed in some other 2D
transition-metal oxides as well. We discuss that a possible reason why moderate
electric fields fail to induce a collective stripe motion in layered oxides is
that fairly flexible and compressible charged stripes can adjust themselves to
the crystal lattice and individual impurities, which makes their pinning much
stronger than in the case of conventional rigid charge-density waves.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Hard Scattering Factorization from Effective Field Theory
In this paper we show how gauge symmetries in an effective theory can be used
to simplify proofs of factorization formulae in highly energetic hadronic
processes. We use the soft-collinear effective theory, generalized to deal with
back-to-back jets of collinear particles. Our proofs do not depend on the
choice of a particular gauge, and the formalism is applicable to both exclusive
and inclusive factorization. As examples we treat the pi-gamma form factor
(gamma gamma* -> pi^0), light meson form factors (gamma* M -> M), as well as
deep inelastic scattering (e- p -> e- X), Drell-Yan (p pbar -> X l+ l-), and
deeply virtual Compton scattering (gamma* p -> gamma(*) p).Comment: 35 pages, 4 figures, typos corrected, journal versio
Power counting and effective field theory for charmonium
We hypothesize that the correct power counting for charmonia is in the
parameter Lambda_QCD/m_c, but is not based purely on dimensional analysis (as
is HQET). This power counting leads to predictions which differ from those
resulting from the usual velocity power counting rules of NRQCD. In particular,
we show that while Lambda_QCD/m_c power counting preserves the empirically
verified predictions of spin symmetry in decays, it also leads to new
predictions which include: A hierarchy between spin singlet and triplet octet
matrix elements in the J/psi system. A quenching of the net polarization in
production at large transverse momentum. No end point enhancement in radiative
decays. We discuss explicit tests which can differentiate between the
traditional and new theories of NRQCD.Comment: 18 pages, 1 figure Replaced plot of the psi polarization parameter
alpha as a function of transverse momentum. Alpha is now closer to zero for
large transverse moment
Electron-phonon interaction in C70
The matrix elements of the deformation potential of C are calculated
by means of a simple, yet accurate solution of the electron-phonon coupling
problem in fullerenes, based on a parametrization of the ground state
electronic density of the system in terms of hybridized orbitals.
The value of the calculated dimensionless total electron-phonon coupling
constant is , an order of magnitude smaller than in
C, consistent with the lack of a superconducting phase transition in
CA fullerite, and in overall agreement with measurements of the
broadening of Raman peaks in CK. We also calculate the photoemission
cross section of C, which is found to display less structure than that
associated with C, in overall agreement with the experimental
findings.Comment: To be published in Phys. Rev.
Associated Production of Heavy Quarkonia and Electroweak Bosons at Present and Future Colliders
We investigate the associated production of heavy quarkonia, with
angular-momentum quantum numbers ^{2S+1}L_J = ^1S_0, ^3S_1, ^1P_1, ^3P_J (J =
0, 1, 2), and photons, Z bosons, and W bosons in photon-photon, photon-hadron,
and hadron-hadron collisions within the factorization formalism of
nonrelativistic quantum chromodynamics providing all contributing partonic
cross sections in analytic form. In the case of photoproduction, we also
include the resolved-photon contributions. We present numerical results for the
processes involving J/psi and chi_{cJ} mesons appropriate for the Fermilab
Tevatron, CERN LHC, DESY TESLA, operated in the e^+ e^- and gamma gamma modes,
and DESY THERA.Comment: 41 pages (Latex), 10 figures (Postscript
- âŠ