945 research outputs found
Neo sex chromosomes, colour polymorphism and male-killing in the African queen butterfly, Danaus chrysippus (L.)
Danaus chrysippus (L.), one of the world’s commonest butterflies, has an extensive range throughout the Old-World tropics. In Africa it is divided into four geographical subspecies which overlap and hybridise freely in the East African Rift: Here alone a male-killing (MK) endosymbiont, Spiroplasma ixodetis, has invaded, causing female-biased populations to predominate. In ssp. chrysippus, inside the Rift only, an autosome carrying a colour locus has fused with the W chromosome to create a neo-W chromosome. A total of 40–100% of Rift females are neo-W and carry Spiroplasma, thus transmitting a linked, matrilineal neo-W, MK complex. As neo-W females have no sons, half the mother’s genes are lost in each generation. Paradoxically, although neo-W females have no close male relatives and are thereby forced to outbreed, MK restricts gene flow between subspecies and may thus promote speciation. The neo-W chromosome originated in the Nairobi region around 2.2 k years ago and subsequently spread throughout the Rift contact zone in some 26 k generations, possibly assisted by not having any competing brothers. Our work on the neo-W chromosome, the spread of Spiroplasma and possible speciation is ongoing
Optimally squeezed spin states
We consider optimally spin-squeezed states that maximize the sensitivity of
the Ramsey spectroscopy, and for which the signal to noise ratio scales as the
number of particles . Using the variational principle we prove that these
states are eigensolutions of the Hamiltonian
and that, for large , the states become equivalent to the quadrature
squeezed states of the harmonic oscillator. We present numerical results that
illustrate the validity of the equivalence
Atom loss and the formation of a molecular Bose-Einstein condensate by Feshbach resonance
In experiments conducted recently at MIT on Na Bose-Einstein condensates [S.
Inouye et al, Nature 392, 151 (1998); J. Stenger et al, Phys. Rev. Lett. 82,
2422 (1999)], large loss rates were observed when a time-varying magnetic field
was used to tune a molecular Feshbach resonance state near the state of a pair
of atoms in the condensate. A collisional deactivation mechanism affecting a
temporarily formed molecular condensate [see V. A. Yurovsky, A. Ben-Reuven, P.
S. Julienne and C. J. Williams, Phys. Rev. A 60, R765 (1999)], studied here in
more detail, accounts for the results of the slow-sweep experiments. A best fit
to the MIT data yields a rate coefficient for deactivating atom-molecule
collisions of 1.6e-10 cm**3/s. In the case of the fast sweep experiment, a
study is carried out of the combined effect of two competing mechanisms, the
three-atom (atom-molecule) or four-atom (molecule-molecule) collisional
deactivation vs. a process of two-atom trap-state excitation by curve crossing
[F. H. Mies, P. S. Julienne, and E. Tiesinga, Phys. Rev. A 61, 022721 (2000)].
It is shown that both mechanisms contribute to the loss comparably and
nonadditively.Comment: LaTeX, 14 pages, 12 PostScript figures, uses REVTeX and psfig,
submitted to Physical Review
Self-consistent model of ultracold atomic collisions and Feshbach resonances in tight harmonic traps
We consider the problem of cold atomic collisions in tight traps, where the
absolute scattering length may be larger than the trap size. As long as the
size of the trap ground state is larger than a characteristic length of the van
der Waals potential, the energy eigenvalues can be computed self-consistently
from the scattering amplitude for untrapped atoms. By comparing with the exact
numerical eigenvalues of the trapping plus interatomic potentials, we verify
that our model gives accurate eigenvalues up to milliKelvin energies for single
channel s-wave scattering of Na atoms in an isotropic harmonic trap,
even when outside the Wigner threshold regime. Our model works also for
multi-channel scattering, where the scattering length can be made large due to
a magnetically tunable Feshbach resonance.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures (PostScript), submitted to Physical Review
African queens find mates when males are rare
This is the final version. Available from Wiley via the DOI in this record. DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT:
Sex ratio, spermatophore numbers and Rcode: Figshare doi:10.6084/
m9.figshare.21947729.In butterflies and moths, male-killing endosymbionts are transmitted from infected females via their eggs, and the male progeny then perish. This means that successful transmission of the parasite relies on the successful mating of the host. Paradoxically, at the population level, parasite transmission also reduces the number of adult males present in the final population for infected females to mate with. Here we investigate if successful female mating when males are rare is indeed a likely rate-limiting step in the transmission of male-killing Spiroplasma in the African Monarch, Danaus chrysippus. In Lepidoptera, successful pairings are hallmarked by the transfer of a sperm-containing spermatophore from the male to the female during copulation. Conveniently, this spermatophore remains detectable within the female upon dissection, and thus, spermatophore counts can be used to assess the frequency of successful mating in the field. We used such spermatophore counts to examine if altered sex ratios in the D. chrysippus do indeed affect female mating success. We examined two different field sites in East Africa where males were often rare. Surprisingly, mated females carried an average of 1.5 spermatophores each, regardless of male frequency, and importantly, only 10-20% remained unmated. This suggests that infected females will still be able to mate in the face of either Spiroplasma-mediated male killing and/or fluctuations in adult sex ratio over the wet-dry season cycle. These observations may begin to explain how the male-killing mollicute can still be successfully transmitted in a population where males are rare.National Geographic SocietyRoyal Societ
Many particle entanglement in two-component Bose-Einstein Condensates
We investigate schemes to dynamically create many particle entangled states
of a two component Bose-Einstein condensate in a very short time proportional
to 1/N where is the number of condensate particles. For small we
compare exact numerical calculations with analytical semiclassical estimates
and find very good agreement for . We also estimate the effect of
decoherence on our scheme, study possible scenarios for measuring the entangled
states, and investigate experimental imperfections.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figure
Multi-gap superconductivity in a BaFe1.84Co0.16As2 film from optical measurements at terahertz frequencies
We measured the THz reflectance properties of a high quality epitaxial thin
film of the Fe-based superconductor BaFeCoAs with
T=22.5 K. The film was grown by pulsed laser deposition on a DyScO
substrate with an epitaxial SrTiO intermediate layer. The measured
spectrum, i.e. the reflectivity ratio between the superconducting and
normal state reflectance, provides clear evidence of a superconducting gap
close to 15 cm. A detailed data analysis shows that a
two-band, two-gap model is absolutely necessary to obtain a good description of
the measured spectrum. The low-energy gap results to be
well determined (=15.50.5 cm), while the value of the
high-energy gap is more uncertain (=557 cm).
Our results provide evidence of a nodeless isotropic double-gap scenario, with
the presence of two optical gaps corresponding to 2 values close
to 2 and 7.Comment: Published Versio
Moderate to vigorous physical activity interactions with genetic variants and body mass index in a large US ethnically diverse cohort
Summary What is already known about this subject Genome-Wide Association Studies have successfully identified numerous genetic loci that influence body mass index in European-descent middle-aged adults. Adolescence is a high-risk period for the development of adult obesity and severe obesity. Physical activity is one of the most promising behavioural candidates for preventing and reducing weight gain, particularly among youth. What this study adds An examination of the joint association between 41 of the well-established obesity susceptibility single-nucleotide polymorphisms with <5 vs. ≥5 bouts of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) per week in relation to body mass index (BMI)-for-age Z-score in a nationally representative sample of European American, African-American and Hispanic American adolescents. Three nominally significant interactions (P < 0.05) varied by race/ethnicity. Overall, the estimated effect of the risk allele on BMI-for-age Z-score was greater in individuals with <5 than those with ≥5 bouts MVPA per week. Background Little is known about the interaction between genetic and behavioural factors during lifecycle risk periods for obesity and how associations vary across race/ethnicity. Objective The objective of this study was to examine joint associations of adiposity-related single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) with body mass index (BMI) in a diverse adolescent cohort. Methods Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (n = 8113: Wave II 1996; ages 12-21, Wave III; ages 18-27), we assessed interactions of 41 well-established SNPs and MVPA with BMI-for-age Z-scores in European Americans (EA; n = 5077), African-Americans (AA; n = 1736) and Hispanic Americans (HA; n = 1300). Results Of 97 assessed, we found nominally significant SNP-MVPA interactions on BMI-for-age Z-score in EA at GNPDA2 and FTO and in HA at LZTR2/SEC16B. In EA, the estimated effect of the FTO risk allele on BMI-for-age Z-score was lower (β = -0.13; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.08, 0.18) in individuals with ≥5 vs. <5 (β = 0.24; CI: 0.16, 0.32) bouts of MVPA per week (P for interaction 0.02). Race/ethnicity-pooled meta-analysis showed nominally significant interactions for SNPs at TFAP2B, POC5 and LYPLAL1. Conclusions High MVPA may attenuate underlying genetic risk for obesity during adolescence, a high-risk period for adult obesity
Evidence for Association between SH2B1 Gene Variants and Glycated Hemoglobin in Nondiabetic European American Young Adults: The Add Health Study
Glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) is used to classify glycaemia and type 2 diabetes (T2D). Body mass index (BMI) is a predictor of HbA1c levels and T2D. We tested 43 established BMI and obesity loci for association with HbA1c in a nationally representative multiethnic sample of young adults from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health [Add Health: age 24–34 years; n = 5641 European Americans (EA); 1740 African Americans (AA); 1444 Hispanic Americans (HA)] without T2D, using two levels of covariate adjustment (Model 1: age, sex, smoking, and geographic region; Model 2: Model 1 covariates plus BMI). Bonferroni adjustment was made for 43 SNPs and we considered P < 0.0011 statistically significant. Means (SD) for HbA1c were 5.4% (0.3) in EA, 5.7% (0.4) in AA, and 5.5% (0.3) in HA. We observed significant evidence for association with HbA1c for two variants near SH2B1 in EA (rs4788102, P = 2.2 × 10−4; rs7359397, P = 9.8 × 10−4) for Model 1. Both results were attenuated after adjustment for BMI (rs4788102, P = 1.7 × 10−3; rs7359397, P = 4.6 × 10−3). No variant reached Bonferroni-corrected significance in AA or HA. These results suggest that SH2B1 polymorphisms are associated with HbA1c, largely independent of BMI, in EA young adults
Screen time behaviours may interact with obesity genes, independent of physical activity, to influence adolescent BMI in an ethnically diverse cohort
Background There has been little investigation of gene-by-environment interactions related to sedentary behaviour, a risk factor for obesity defined as leisure screen time (ST; i.e. television, video and computer games). Objective To test the hypothesis that limiting ST use attenuates the genetic predisposition to increased body mass index (BMI), independent of physical activity. Design Using 7642 wave II participants of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, (Add Health; mean=16.4 years, 52.6% female), we assessed the interaction of ST (hweek-1) and 41 established obesity single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with age- and sex-specific BMI Z-scores in 4788 European-American (EA), 1612 African-American (AA) and 1242 Hispanic American (HA) adolescents. Results Nominally significant SNP ST interaction were found for FLJ35779 in EA, GNPDA2 in AA and none in HA (EA: beta [SE]=0.016[0.007]), AA: beta [SE]=0.016[0.011]) per 7hweek-1 ST and one risk allele in relation to BMI Z-score. Conclusions While for two established BMI loci, we find evidence that high levels of ST exacerbate the influence of obesity susceptibility variants on body mass; overall, we do not find strong evidence for interactions between the majority of established obesity loci. However, future studies with larger sample sizes, or that may build on our current study and the growing published literature, are clearly warranted
- …