Investigating the drivers of maturation dynamics in Barents Sea haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus)

Changes in size and age at maturation of many exploited fish stocks have been investigated and the influences of environmental factors and exploitation have often been inferred, but not explicitly investigated. Here we determine probabilistic maturation reaction norms (PMRNs) for Barents Sea haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus) using generalized linear models (GLMs) and mixed effect models (GLMMs), which account for the correlation among samples within a tow station, and investigate the effects of fishing mortality, environmental factors (NAO, water temperature, and salinity), and potential density dependence or species interaction effects. We found little evidence of a consistent trend in maturation tendencies for Barents Sea haddock for cohorts 1983–2003, ages 4–6 years. Female haddock matured at larger lengths for a given age than males, but overall patterns were similar for both sexes. The GLMM approach gave consistently higher PMRN midpoint estimates than the GLM approach, which indicated that PMRNs that do not account for correlations within the data may bias estimates. Environmental factors, rather than exploitation, density dependence, or species interactions, were responsible for the observed changes in size and age at maturation in Barents Sea haddock during the late 1980s through early 2000s. Little evidence of fisheries-induced evolution was found in these fish over the time period investigated. The lack of a significant temporal trend in maturation may be due to several challenges in estimating representative population parameters for this stock, the trait change being in a period of stasis or reversal, or adaptation by the fish to higher exploitation in the past resulting in negligible evolutionary selection during the study period when exploitation has been more moderate

Non-stationary heat conduction in one-dimensional chains with conserved momentum

The Letter addresses the relationship between hyperbolic equations of heat conduction and microscopic models of dielectrics. Effects of the non-stationary heat conduction are investigated in two one-dimensional models with conserved momentum: Fermi-Pasta-Ulam (FPU) chain and chain of rotators (CR). These models belong to different universality classes with respect to stationary heat conduction. Direct numeric simulations reveal in both models a crossover from oscillatory decay of short-wave perturbations of the temperature field to smooth diffusive decay of the long-wave perturbations. Such behavior is inconsistent with parabolic Fourier equation of the heat conduction. The crossover wavelength decreases with increase of average temperature in both models. For the FPU model the lowest order hyperbolic Cattaneo-Vernotte equation for the non-stationary heat conduction is not applicable, since no unique relaxation time can be determined.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Variable Linear Polarization from Sagittarius A*: Evidence for a Hot Turbulent Accretion Flow

We report the discovery of variability in the linear polarization from the Galactic Center black hole source, Sagittarius A*. New polarimetry obtained with the Berkeley-Illinois-Maryland Association array at a wavelength of 1.3 mm shows a position angle that differs by 28 +/- 5 degrees from observations 6 months prior and then remains stable for 15 months. This difference may be due to a change in the source emission region on a scale of 10 Schwarzschild radii or due to a change of 3 x 10^5 rad m^-2 in the rotation measure. We consider a change in the source physics unlikely, however, since we see no corresponding change in the total intensity or polarized intensity fraction. On the other hand, turbulence in the accretion region at a radius ~ 10 to 1000 R_s could readily account for the magnitude and time scale of the position angle change.Comment: accepted for publication in ApJ

Habitat filtering determines spatial variation of macroinvertebrate community traits in northern headwater streams

Although our knowledge of the spatial distribution of stream organisms has been increasing rapidly in the last decades, there is still little consensus about trait-based variability of macroinvertebrate communities within and between catchments in near-pristine systems. Our aim was to examine the taxonomic and trait based stability vs. variability of stream macroinvertebrates in three high-latitude catchments in Finland. The collected taxa were assigned to unique trait combinations (UTCs) using biological traits. We found that only a single or a highly limited number of taxa formed a single UTC, suggesting a low degree of redundancy. Our analyses revealed significant differences in the environmental conditions of the streams among the three catchments. Linear models, rarefaction curves and beta-diversity measures showed that the catchments differed in both alpha and beta diversity. Taxon- and trait-based multivariate analyses also indicated that the three catchments were significantly different in terms of macroinvertebrate communities. All these findings suggest that habitat filtering, i.e., environmental differences among catchments, determines the variability of macroinvertebrate communities, thereby contributing to the significant biological differences among the catchments. The main implications of our study is that the sensitivity of trait-based analyses to natural environmental variation should be carefully incorporated in the assessment of environmental degradation, and that further studies are needed for a deeper understanding of trait-based community patterns across near-pristine streams

Optical quality assurance of GEM foils

An analysis software was developed for the high aspect ratio optical scanning system in the Detec- tor Laboratory of the University of Helsinki and the Helsinki Institute of Physics. The system is used e.g. in the quality assurance of the GEM-TPC detectors being developed for the beam diagnostics system of the SuperFRS at future FAIR facility. The software was tested by analyzing five CERN standard GEM foils scanned with the optical scanning system. The measurement uncertainty of the diameter of the GEM holes and the pitch of the hole pattern was found to be 0.5 {\mu}m and 0.3 {\mu}m, respectively. The software design and the performance are discussed. The correlation between the GEM hole size distribution and the corresponding gain variation was studied by comparing them against a detailed gain mapping of a foil and a set of six lower precision control measurements. It can be seen that a qualitative estimation of the behavior of the local variation in gain across the GEM foil can be made based on the measured sizes of the outer and inner holes.Comment: 12 pages, 29 figure

Self-interference in Multi-tap Channels for Full-Duplex Wireless Systems

Residual self-interference (SI) is primarily a key challenge when designing In-Band Full-duplex (IBFDX) wireless systems. Channel estimation errors are one of the major causes of residual SI. Consequently, a deeper understanding of the impact of the channel effects on the residual SI becomes indispensable. In this paper, we investigate the influence of multiple taps on the residual SI power of IBFDX systems. We first formulate the effect of having independent taps on the residual SI power mathematically. The derivations take into account the amount of interference cancellation on each tap by considering phase and amplitude estimation coefficients. We conclude that the increase in the number of taps always leads to an additive effect of the residual power. Such findings are shown mathematically and also reported in different results obtained by simulation. Finally, we compare the distribution of the residual SI power with different known distributions, concluding that Weibull and Gamma distributions are the closest ones in terms of accuracy. In-Band Full-Duplex communication Residual self-interference Independent fading taps channel.authorsversionpublishe

Trophic ecology of blue whiting in the Barents Sea

Blue whiting (Micromesistius poutassou) are distributed throughout the North Atlantic, including the Norwegian and Barents Seas. In recent years, both abundance and distribution of blue whiting in the Barents Sea have increased dramatically. Therefore, to evaluate the trophic impact of this increase, we analysed the diet of the species. In all, 54 prey species or taxa were identified, the main prey being krill. However, the diet varied geographically and ontogenetically: the proportion of fish in the diet was higher in large blue whiting and in the north of the range. Blue whiting overlap geographically with other pelagic species at the edge of their distribution in the Barents Sea, with juvenile herring in the south, with polar cod in the north, and with capelin in the northeast. The overlap in diet between blue whiting and these other pelagic species ranged from 6 to 86% and was greatest with capelin in areas where both species feed on hyperiids and krill. The importance of blue whiting as prey for predatory fish was highest in the areas of greatest abundance, but overall, blue whiting were seemingly unimportant as prey of piscivorous fish in the Barents Sea