1,952 research outputs found
Nutrient Limitation of Periphyton in a Spring-Fed, Coastal Stream in Florida, USA.
There is strong evidence to suggest that ground-water
nitrate concentrations have increased in recent years and
further increases are expected along portions of the central
Gulf coast of Florida. Much of the nitrate enriched groundwater
is discharged into surface waters through numerous
freshwater springs that are characteristic of the area and the
potential for eutrophication of their receiving waters is a
legitimate concern. To test the potential effects of elevated
nutrient concentrations on the periphyton community an
in
situ
nutrient addition experiment was conducted in the
spring-fed Chassahowitzka River, FL, USA, during the summer
of 1999. Plastic tubes housing arrays of glass microscope
slides were suspended in the stream. Periphyton colonizing
the microscope slides was subjected to artificial increases in
nitrogen, phosphorus or a combination of both. Slides from
each tube were collected at 3- to 4- day intervals and the
periphyton communities were measured for chlorophyll concentration.
The addition of approximately 10 μg/L of phosphate
above ambient concentrations significantly increased
the amount of periphyton on artificial substrates relative to
controls; the addition of approximately 100 μg/L of nitrate
above ambient concentrations did not. The findings from
this experiment implicated phosphorus, rather than
nitrogen, as the nutrient that potentially limits periphyton
growth in this system.(PDF contains 4 pages.
Anodal transcranial direct current stimulation of the motor cortex increases cortical voluntary activation and neural plasticity
INTRODUCTION: We examined the cumulative effect of 4 consecutive bouts of non-invasive brain stimulation on corticospinal plasticity and motor performance, and whether these responses were influenced by the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) polymorphism. METHODS: In a randomized double-blinded cross-over design, changes in strength and indices of corticospinal plasticity were analyzed in 14 adults who were exposed to 4 consecutive sessions of anodal and sham transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Participants also undertook a blood sample for BDNF genotyping (N=13). RESULTS: We observed a significant increase in isometric wrist flexor strength with transcranial magnetic stimulation revealing increased corticospinal excitability, decreased silent period duration, and increased cortical voluntary activation compared to sham tDCS. DISCUSSION: The results show that 4 consecutive sessions of anodal tDCS increased cortical voluntary activation manifested as an improvement in strength. Induction of corticospinal plasticity appears to be influenced by the BDNF polymorphism
Control of atomic currents using a quantum stirring device
We propose a BEC stirring device which can be regarded as the incorporation
of a quantum pump into a closed circuit: it produces a DC circulating current
in response to a cyclic adiabatic change of two control parameters of an
optical trap. We demonstrate the feasibility of this concept and point out that
such device can be utilized in order to probe the interatomic interactions.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, uses epl2.cls, revised versio
Shoot growth of woody trees and shrubs is predicted by maximum plant height and associated traits
1. The rate of elongation and thickening of individual branches (shoots) varies across plant species. This variation is important for the outcome of competition and other plant-plant interactions. Here we compared rates of shoot growth across 44 species from tropical, warm temperate, and cool temperate forests of eastern Australia.2. Shoot growth rate was found to correlate with a suite of traits including the potential height of the species, xylem-specific conductivity, leaf size, leaf area per xylem cross-section, twig diameter (at 40 cm length), wood density and modulus of elasticity.3. Within this suite of traits, maximum plant height was the clearest correlate of growth rates, explaining 50 to 67% of the variation in growth overall (p p 4. Growth rates were not strongly correlated with leaf nitrogen or leaf mass per unit leaf area.5. Correlations between growth and maximum height arose both across latitude (47%, p p p p < 0.0001), reflecting intrinsic differences across species and sites
Forest structure, diversity, and primary production in relation to disturbance severity
Differential disturbance severity effects on forest vegetation structure, species diversity, and net primary production (NPP) have been long theorized and observed. Here, we examined these factors concurrently to explore the potential for a mechanistic pathway linking disturbance severity, changes in light environment, leaf functional response, and wood NPP in a temperate hardwood forest.Using a suite of measurements spanning an experimental gradient of tree mortality, we evaluated the direction and magnitude of change in vegetation structural and diversity indexes in relation to wood NPP. Informed by prior observations, we hypothesized that forest structural and species diversity changes and wood NPP would exhibit either a linear, unimodal, or threshold response in relation to disturbance severity. We expected increasing disturbance severity would progressively shift subcanopy light availability and leaf traits, thereby coupling structural and species diversity changes with primary production.Linear or unimodal changes in three of four vegetation structural indexes were observed across the gradient in disturbance severity. However, disturbance‐related changes in vegetation structure were not consistently correlated with shifts in light environment, leaf traits, and wood NPP. Species diversity indexes did not change in response to rising disturbance severity.We conclude that, in our study system, the sensitivity of wood NPP to rising disturbance severity is generally tied to changing vegetation structure but not species diversity. Changes in vegetation structure are inconsistently coupled with light environment and leaf traits, resulting in mixed support for our hypothesized cascade linking disturbance severity to wood NPP.We examined multiple metrics of vegetation structural and biological diversity concurrently to explore the potential for a mechanistic pathway linking disturbance severity, changes in light environment, leaf functional response, and wood NPP in a temperate hardwood forest. Significant linear or unimodal changes in three of four vegetation structural indexes were observed across the gradient in disturbance severity, although disturbance‐related changes in vegetation structure were not consistently correlated with shifts in light environment, leaf traits, and wood NPP. We conclude that, in our study system, the sensitivity of wood NPP to rising disturbance severity is generally tied to changing vegetation structure but not species diversity.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/155474/1/ece36209.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/155474/2/ece36209_am.pd
Dijet resonances, widths and all that
The search for heavy resonances in the dijet channel is part of the on-going
physics programme, both at the Tevatron and at the LHC. Lower limits have been
placed on the masses of dijet resonances predicted in a wide variety of models.
However, across experiments, the search strategy assumes that the effect of the
new particles is well-approximated by on-shell production and subsequent decay
into a pair of jets. We examine the impact of off-shell effects on such
searches, particularly for strongly interacting resonances.Comment: Version published in JHE
Vitamin D with Calcium reduces mortality: patient level pooled analysis of 70,528 patients from eight major vitamin D trials
Introduction: Vitamin D may affect multiple health outcomes. If so, an effect on mortality is to be expected. Using pooled data from randomized controlled trials, we performed individual patient data (IPD) and trial level meta-analyses to assess mortality among participants randomized to either vitamin D alone or vitamin D with calcium.
Subjects and Methods: Through a systematic literature search, we identified 24 randomized controlled trials reporting data on mortality in which vitamin D was given either alone or with calcium. From a total of 13 trials with more than 1000 participants each, eight trials were included in our IPD analysis. Using a stratified Cox regression model, we calculated risk of death during 3 yr of treatment in an intention-to-treat analysis. Also, we performed a trial level meta-analysis including data from all studies.
Results: The IPD analysis yielded data on 70,528 randomized participants (86.8% females) with a median age of 70 (interquartile range, 62–77) yr. Vitamin D with or without calcium reduced mortality by 7% [hazard ratio, 0.93; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.88–0.99]. However, vitamin D alone did not affect mortality, but risk of death was reduced if vitamin D was given with calcium (hazard ratio, 0.91; 95% CI, 0.84–0.98). The number needed to treat with vitamin D plus calcium for 3 yr to prevent one death was 151. Trial level meta-analysis (24 trials with 88,097 participants) showed similar results, i.e. mortality was reduced with vitamin D plus calcium (odds ratio, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.88–0.99), but not with vitamin D alone (odds ratio, 0.98; 95% CI, 0.91–1.06).
Conclusion: Vitamin D with calcium reduces mortality in the elderly, whereas available data do not support an effect of vitamin D alone
Inflationary perturbation theory is geometrical optics in phase space
A pressing problem in comparing inflationary models with observation is the
accurate calculation of correlation functions. One approach is to evolve them
using ordinary differential equations ("transport equations"), analogous to the
Schwinger-Dyson hierarchy of in-out quantum field theory. We extend this
approach to the complete set of momentum space correlation functions. A formal
solution can be obtained using raytracing techniques adapted from geometrical
optics. We reformulate inflationary perturbation theory in this language, and
show that raytracing reproduces the familiar "delta N" Taylor expansion. Our
method produces ordinary differential equations which allow the Taylor
coefficients to be computed efficiently. We use raytracing methods to express
the gauge transformation between field fluctuations and the curvature
perturbation, zeta, in geometrical terms. Using these results we give a compact
expression for the nonlinear gauge-transform part of fNL in terms of the
principal curvatures of uniform energy-density hypersurfaces in field space.Comment: 22 pages, plus bibliography and appendix. v2: minor changes, matches
version published in JCA
Salmon mortality investigation
On 1 March 2012, the New Zealand King Salmon Company (NZKS) notified MPI of a significant mortality event occurring in Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) at their sea farm in Waihinau Bay, outer Pelorus Sound
Spectral functions of isoscalar scalar and isovector electromagnetic form factors of the nucleon at two-loop order
We calculate the imaginary parts of the isoscalar scalar and isovector
electromagnetic form factors of the nucleon up to two-loop order in chiral
perturbation theory. Particular attention is paid on the correct behavior of Im
and Im at the two-pion threshold
in connection with the non-relativistic 1/M-expansion. We recover the
well-known strong enhancement near threshold originating from the nearby
anomalous singularity at . In the
case of the scalar spectral function Im one finds a significant
improvement in comparison to the lowest order one-loop result. Higher order
-rescattering effects are however still necessary to close a remaining
20%-gap to the empirical scalar spectral function. The isovector electric and
magnetic spectral functions Im get additionally enhanced near
threshold by the two-pion-loop contributions. After supplementing their
two-loop results by a phenomenological -meson exchange term one can
reproduce the empirical isovector electric and magnetic spectral functions
fairly well.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Physical Review
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