1,044 research outputs found
Limitations on the smooth confinement of an unstretchable manifold
We prove that an m-dimensional unit ball D^m in the Euclidean space {\mathbb
R}^m cannot be isometrically embedded into a higher-dimensional Euclidean ball
B_r^d \subset {\mathbb R}^d of radius r < 1/2 unless one of two conditions is
met -- (1)The embedding manifold has dimension d >= 2m. (2) The embedding is
not smooth. The proof uses differential geometry to show that if d<2m and the
embedding is smooth and isometric, we can construct a line from the center of
D^m to the boundary that is geodesic in both D^m and in the embedding manifold
{\mathbb R}^d. Since such a line has length 1, the diameter of the embedding
ball must exceed 1.Comment: 20 Pages, 3 Figure
Heritability of female extra-pair paternity rate in song sparrows (Melospiza melodia)
The forces driving the evolution of extra-pair reproduction in socially monogamous animals remain widely debated and unresolved. One key hypothesis is that female extra-pair reproduction evolves through indirect genetic benefits, reflecting increased additive genetic value of extra-pair offspring. Such evolution requires that a female's propensity to produce offspring that are sired by an extra-pair male is heritable. However, additive genetic variance and heritability in female extra-pair paternity (EPP) rate have not been quantified, precluding accurate estimation of the force of indirect selection. Sixteen years of comprehensive paternity and pedigree data from socially monogamous but genetically polygynandrous song sparrows (Melospiza melodia) showed significant additive genetic variance and heritability in the proportion of a female's offspring that was sired by an extra-pair male, constituting major components of the genetic architecture required for extra-pair reproduction to evolve through indirect additive genetic benefits. However, estimated heritabilities were moderately small (0.12 and 0.18 on the observed and underlying latent scales, respectively). The force of selection on extra-pair reproduction through indirect additive genetic benefits may consequently be relatively weak. However, the additive genetic variance and non-zero heritability observed in female EPP rate allow for multiple further genetic mechanisms to drive and constrain mating system evolution
Comparing neck extensor muscle function in asymptomatic Canadian adults and adults with tension-type headache: a cross-sectional study
Aim To further the understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying tension-type headache (TTH) by comparing the endurance and strength of neck extensor muscles under acute muscle fatigue in participants with TTH and asymptomatic participants. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of neck extensor muscle performance. Asymptomatic participants and participants with TTH were recruited via social media platforms and from the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières community and employees. A total of 44 participants with TTH and 40 asymptomatic participants took part in an isometric neck extensor endurance task performed at 60% of their maximum voluntary contraction. Inclusion criteria for the headache group were to be older than 18 years old and to fulfil the International Headache Society classification's criteria for either frequent episodic or chronic TTH. Clinical (self-efficacy, anxiety, neck disability and kinesiophobia) and physical parameters (neck extensors maximum voluntary contraction, endurance time, muscle fatigue) as well as characteristics of headache episodes (intensity, frequency and associated disability) were collected for all participants. Surface electromyography was used to document upper trapezius, splenius capitis and sternocleidomastoids muscle activity and muscle fatigue. Results Both groups displayed similar neck extensor muscle endurance capacity with a mean difference of 6.2 s (p>0.05) in favour of the control group (control=68.1±32.3; TTH=61.9±20.1). Similarly, participants in the headache group showed comparable neck extensor muscle strength (95.9±30.4 N) to the control group (111.3±38.7 N). Among participants with TTH, those scoring as severely incapacitated by headaches were the ones with higher neck-related disability (F[1,44]=10.77; p=0.002), the more frequent headache episodes (F[1,44]=6.70; p=0.01) and higher maximum headache intensity (F[1,44]=10.81; p=0.002). Conclusion A fatigue task consisting of isometric neck extension cannot efficiently differentiate participants with TTH from asymptomatic participants. © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2019. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ
Acoustic Emission from crumpling paper
From magnetic systems to the crust of the earth, many physical systems that
exibit a multiplicty of metastable states emit pulses with a broad power law
distribution in energy. Digital audio recordings reveal that paper being
crumpled, a system that can be easily held in hand, is such a system. Crumpling
paper both using the traditional hand method and a novel cylindrical geometry
uncovered a power law distribution of pulse energies spanning at least two
decades: (exponent 1.3 - 1.6) Crumpling initally flat sheets into a compact
ball (strong crumpling), we found little or no evidence that the energy
distribution varied systematically over time or the size of the sheet. When we
applied repetitive small deformations (weak crumpling) to sheets which had been
previously folded along a regular grid, we found no systematic dependence on
the grid spacing. Our results suggest that the pulse energy depends only weakly
on the size of the paper regions responsible for sound production.Comment: 12 pages of text, 9 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. E, additional
information availible at http://www.msc.cornell.edu/~houle/crumpling
The Role of Local Intrinsic Dimensionality in Benchmarking Nearest Neighbor Search
This paper reconsiders common benchmarking approaches to nearest neighbor
search. It is shown that the concept of local intrinsic dimensionality (LID)
allows to choose query sets of a wide range of difficulty for real-world
datasets. Moreover, the effect of different LID distributions on the running
time performance of implementations is empirically studied. To this end,
different visualization concepts are introduced that allow to get a more
fine-grained overview of the inner workings of nearest neighbor search
principles. The paper closes with remarks about the diversity of datasets
commonly used for nearest neighbor search benchmarking. It is shown that such
real-world datasets are not diverse: results on a single dataset predict
results on all other datasets well.Comment: Preprint of the paper accepted at SISAP 201
The stress-responsive Hsp90 chaperone is required for the production of the genotoxin colibactin and the siderophore yersiniabactin by Escherichia coli
The genotoxin colibactin synthesized by Escherichia coli is a secondary metabolite belonging to the chemical family of hybrid polyketide/non-ribosomal peptide compounds. It is produced by a complex biosynthetic assembly line encoded by the pks pathogenicity island. The presence of this large cluster of genes in the E. coli genome is invariably associated with the High-Pathogenicity Island, encoding the siderophore yersiniabactin that belongs to the same chemical family as colibactin. The E. coli heat shock protein HtpG (Hsp90Ec) is the bacterial homolog of the eukaryotic molecular chaperone Hsp90 involved in the protection of cellular proteins against a variety of environmental stresses. In contrast to the eukaryotic Hsp90, the functions and client proteins of Hsp90Ec are poorly known. Here, we demonstrated that production of colibactin and yersiniabactin is abolished in the absence of Hsp90Ec We further characterized an interplay between the Hsp90Ec molecular chaperone and the ClpQ protease involved in colibactin and yersiniabactin synthesis. Finally, we demonstrated that Hsp90Ec is required for the full in vivo virulence of extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli This is the first report highlighting the role of heat shock protein Hps90Ec in the production of two secondary metabolites involved in E. coli virulence
Negative phenotypic and genetic associations between copulation duration and longevity in male seed beetles
Reproduction can be costly and is predicted to trade-off against other characters. However, while these trade-offs are well documented for females, there has been less focus on aspects of male reproduction. Furthermore, those studies that have looked at males typically only investigate phenotypic associations, with the underlying genetics often ignored. Here, we report on phenotypic and genetic trade-offs in male reproductive effort in the seed beetle, Callosobruchus maculatus. We find that the duration of a male's first copulation is negatively associated with subsequent male survival, phenotypically and genetically. Our results are consistent with life-history theory and suggest that like females, males trade-off reproductive effort against longevity
Semiclassical Trace Formulas for Noninteracting Identical Particles
We extend the Gutzwiller trace formula to systems of noninteracting identical
particles. The standard relation for isolated orbits does not apply since the
energy of each particle is separately conserved causing the periodic orbits to
occur in continuous families. The identical nature of the particles also
introduces discrete permutational symmetries. We exploit the formalism of
Creagh and Littlejohn [Phys. Rev. A 44, 836 (1991)], who have studied
semiclassical dynamics in the presence of continuous symmetries, to derive
many-body trace formulas for the full and symmetry-reduced densities of states.
Numerical studies of the three-particle cardioid billiard are used to
explicitly illustrate and test the results of the theory.Comment: 29 pages, 11 figures, submitted to PR
Stripes and holes in a two-dimensional model of spinless fermions and hardcore bosons
We consider a Hubbard-like model of strongly-interacting spinless fermions
and hardcore bosons on a square lattice, such that nearest neighbor occupation
is forbidden. Stripes (lines of holes across the lattice forming antiphase
walls between ordered domains) are a favorable way to dope this system below
half-filling. The problem of a single stripe can be mapped to a spin-1/2 chain,
which allows understanding of its elementary excitations and calculation of the
stripe's effective mass for transverse vibrations. Using Lanczos exact
diagonalization, we investigate the excitation gap and dispersion of a hole on
a stripe, and the interaction of two holes. We also study the interaction of
two, three, and four stripes, finding that they repel, and the interaction
energy decays with stripe separation as if they are hardcore particles moving
in one (transverse) direction. To determine the stability of an array of
stripes against phase separation into particle-rich phase and hole-rich liquid,
we evaluate the liquid's equation of state, finding the stripe-array is not
stable for bosons but is possibly stable for fermions.Comment: 24 pages, 18 figure
Risky business: the combined effects of fishing and changes in primary productivity on fish communities
There is an increasing need to understand ecosystem responses to multiple stressors in that such complex responses depend not only on species-level responses, but also on species interactions and ecosystem structure. In this study, we used a multi-model ecosystem simulation approach to explore the combined effects of fishing and primary productivity on different components of the food-web across a suite of ecosystems and a range of model types. Simulations were carried out under different levels of primary productivity and various fishing scenarios. In addition to exploring synergistic, additive or antagonistic combined effects of multiple stressors, we included a fourth category “dampened”, which refers to less negative or less positive impacts compared to additive ones, and in contrast to previous studies, we explicitly considered the direction (positive or negative) of the combined effects. We focused on two specific combined effects (negative synergism and positive dampened) associated with the risk of resultant lower fish biomass than expected under additive effects. Through a meta-analysis of the multi-models' simulation results, we found that (i) the risk of negative synergism was generally higher for low-trophic-level (LTL) taxa, implying that following an increase of fishing pressure on a given LTL stock, the subsequent decrease of biomass under low primary productivity would be larger than expected under additive effects and (ii) the risk of positive dampened effects was generally higher for high-trophic-level (HTL) taxa, implying that given a management measure aimed at reducing the impact of fishing on HTL stocks, the subsequent rebuilding of these stocks would be slower than expected. Our approach to categorizing and exploring cumulative effects can be applied to evaluate other community properties, and provide guidance for fisheries management
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