Increased Photosynthesis Offsets Costs of Allocation to Sapwood in An Arid Environment

We assessed the effect that varying patterns of biomass allocation had on growth of ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) growing in the desert climate of the Great Basin and the montane climate of the eastern Sierra Nevada. Prior work established that desert trees have lower leaf:sapwood area ratios than montane trees (0.104 and 0.201 m2/cm2, respectively) and proportionally greater stem respiration. Sapwood:leaf mass ratios are also greater and increase more as a function stem diameter in desert than in montane trees. We hypothesized that this increased allocation of carbon to stem sapwood and stem respiration in large trees could decrease growth rates in the desert compared to the montane environment, in addition to any growth reduction imposed by drought on physiology and growth processes. Trees of all diameters (dbh) in the desert environment had lower relative growth rates (RGRs) than montane trees (e.g., for a 30 cm dbh tree, RGR = 0.012 vs. 0.021 kg·kg−1·yr−1, respectively). However, growth rates of desert and montane trees declined similarly with increasing dbh and did not reflect diverging sapwood:leaf mass ratios. Alternatively, we hypothesized that desert trees may increase rates of photosynthetic carbon accumulation (per unit leaf area) with diameter, thereby compensating for increased sapwood respiration. Leaf nitrogen (N) concentration and stable-carbon isotope composition (δ13C) were measured to examine size-dependent and seasonally integrated photosynthetic capacity within desert and montane environments. Nitrogen concentration was correlated with photosynthetic capacity. Leaf nitrogen (N) concentration and δ13C values were greater in the desert (e.g., in 1-yr-old needles, desert = 1.11% and −22.96‰; montane = 0.94% and −24.20‰) and differed between desert and montane trees as a function of dbh. In desert trees, leaf nitrogen concentration in 1-yr-old through 5-yr-old needles increased with dbh, and carbon isotope composition in 1-yr-old needles increased with dbh, suggesting increased photosynthetic capacity and photosynthetic rates with increasing tree size. Needle nitrogen concentration and δ13C values decreased or remained constant with dbh in montane trees. Desert trees had greater light extinction coefficients and retained fewer needle cohorts. Our results suggest that increased allocation to heterotrophic stem tissue at the expense of photosynthetic tissue does not always incur a reduction in tree growth as predicted by current models of forest productivity

Trotter-Kato product formulae in Dixmier ideal

It is shown that for a certain class of the Kato functions the Trotter-Kato product formulae converge in Dixmier ideal C 1,$\infty$ in topology, which is defined by the $\times$ 1,$\infty$-norm. Moreover, the rate of convergence in this topology inherits the error-bound estimate for the corresponding operator-norm convergence. 1 since [24], [14]. Note that a subtle point of this program is the question about the rate of convergence in the corresponding topology. Since the limit of the Trotter-Kato product formula is a strongly continuous semigroup, for the von Neumann-Schatten ideals this topology is the trace-norm $\times$ 1 on the trace-class ideal C 1 (H). In this case the limit is a Gibbs semigroup [25]. For self-adjoint Gibbs semigroups the rate of convergence was estimated for the first time in [7] and [9]. The authors considered the case of the Gibbs-Schr{\"o}dinger semigroups. They scrutinised in these papers a dependence of the rate of convergence for the (exponential) Trotter formula on the smoothness of the potential in the Schr{\"o}dinger generator. The first abstract result in this direction was due to [19]. In this paper a general scheme of lifting the operator-norm rate convergence for the Trotter-Kato product formulae was proposed and advocated for estimation the rate of the trace-nor

Fast simulation of a quantum phase transition in an ion-trap realisable unitary map

We demonstrate a method of exploring the quantum critical point of the Ising universality class using unitary maps that have recently been demonstrated in ion trap quantum gates. We reverse the idea with which Feynman conceived quantum computing, and ask whether a realisable simulation corresponds to a physical system. We proceed to show that a specific simulation (a unitary map) is physically equivalent to a Hamiltonian that belongs to the same universality class as the transverse Ising Hamiltonian. We present experimental signatures, and numerical simulation for these in the six-qubit case.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure

Exact solution of a 2D interacting fermion model

We study an exactly solvable quantum field theory (QFT) model describing interacting fermions in 2+1 dimensions. This model is motivated by physical arguments suggesting that it provides an effective description of spinless fermions on a square lattice with local hopping and density-density interactions if, close to half filling, the system develops a partial energy gap. The necessary regularization of the QFT model is based on this proposed relation to lattice fermions. We use bosonization methods to diagonalize the Hamiltonian and to compute all correlation functions. We also discuss how, after appropriate multiplicative renormalizations, all short- and long distance cutoffs can be removed. In particular, we prove that the renormalized two-point functions have algebraic decay with non-trivial exponents depending on the interaction strengths, which is a hallmark of Luttinger-liquid behavior.Comment: 59 pages, 3 figures, v2: further references added; additional subsections elaborating mathematical details; additional appendix with details on the relation to lattice fermion

Dirac field on Moyal-Minkowski spacetime and non-commutative potential scattering

The quantized free Dirac field is considered on Minkowski spacetime (of general dimension). The Dirac field is coupled to an external scalar potential whose support is finite in time and which acts by a Moyal-deformed multiplication with respect to the spatial variables. The Moyal-deformed multiplication corresponds to the product of the algebra of a Moyal plane described in the setting of spectral geometry. It will be explained how this leads to an interpretation of the Dirac field as a quantum field theory on Moyal-deformed Minkowski spacetime (with commutative time) in a setting of Lorentzian spectral geometries of which some basic aspects will be sketched. The scattering transformation will be shown to be unitarily implementable in the canonical vacuum representation of the Dirac field. Furthermore, it will be indicated how the functional derivatives of the ensuing unitary scattering operators with respect to the strength of the non-commutative potential induce, in the spirit of Bogoliubov's formula, quantum field operators (corresponding to observables) depending on the elements of the non-commutative algebra of Moyal-Minkowski spacetime.Comment: 60 pages, 1 figur

CPT and Lorentz tests with muons

Precision experiments with muons are sensitive to Planck-scale CPT and Lorentz violation that is undetectable in other tests. Existing data on the muonium ground-state hyperfine structure and on the muon anomalous magnetic moment could be analyzed to provide dimensionless figures of merit for CPT and Lorentz violation at the levels of $4\times 10^{-21}$ and $10^{-23}$.Comment: 4 pages, accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter

The 1991 Field Evaluation of Herbicides on Small Fruit, Vegetables and Ornamental Crops

The establishment of this field-testing procedure provides the chemical industry, through its partial support, and the Arkansas Experiment Station the opportunity to evaluate herbicide performance on small fruit, vegetable and ornamental crops grown under Arkansas conditions. This report also provides a means for disseminating information to interested people and public-service weed scientists

Dynamic clonal progression in xenografts of acute lymphoblastic leukemia with intrachromosomal amplification of chromosome 21

Intrachromosomal amplification of chromosome 21 is a heterogeneous chromosomal rearrangement occurring in 2% of childhood precursor B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. There are no cell lines with iAMP21 and these abnormalities are too complex to faithfully engineer in animal models. As a resource for future functional and pre-clinical studies, we have created xenografts from intrachromosomal amplification of chromosome 21 leukemia patient blasts and characterised them by in-vivo and ex-vivo luminescent imaging, FLOW immunophenotyping, and histological and ultrastructural analysis of bone marrow and the central nervous system. Investigation of up to three generations of xenografts revealed phenotypic evolution, branching genomic architecture and, compared with other B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia genetic subtypes, greater clonal diversity of leukemia initiating cells. In support of intrachromosomal amplification of chromosome 21 as a primary genetic abnormality, it was always retained through generations of xenografts, although we also observed the first example of structural evolution of this rearrangement. Clonal segregation in xenografts revealed convergent evolution of different secondary genomic abnormalities implicating several known tumour suppressor genes and a region, containing the B-cell adaptor, PIK3AP1, and nuclear receptor co-repressor, LCOR, in the progression of B-ALL. Tracking of mutations in patients and derived xenografts provided evidence for co-operation between abnormalities activating the RAS pathway in B-ALL and for their aggressive clonal expansion in the xeno-environment. Bi-allelic loss of the CDKN2A/B locus was recurrently maintained or emergent in xenografts and also strongly selected as RNA sequencing demonstrated a complete absence of reads for genes associated with the deletions

Early expansion of CD38+ICOS+ GC Tfh in draining lymph nodes during influenza vaccination immune response

T follicular helper (Tfh) cells provide critical help to B cells during the germinal center (GC) reaction to facilitate generation of protective humoral immunity. Accessing the human lymph node (LN) to study the commitment of CD4 T cells to GC Tfh cell differentiation during in vivo vaccine responses is difficult. We used ultrasound guided fine needle biopsy to monitor recall responses in axillary LNs to seasonal influenza vaccination in healthy volunteers. Specific expansion of GC cell subsets occurred exclusively within draining LNs five days postvaccination. Draining LN GC Tfh and precursor-Tfh cells express higher levels of CD38, ICOS, and Ki67, indicating they were significantly more activated, motile, and proliferating, compared to contralateral LN cells. These observations provide insight into the early expansion phase of the human Tfh lineage within LNs during a vaccine induced memory response and highlights early LN immune responses may not be reflected in the periphery