840 research outputs found
Lowland river responses to intraplate tectonism and climate forcing quantified with luminescence and cosmogenic 10Be
Intraplate tectonism has produced large-scale folding that steers regional drainage systems, such as the 1600 km-long Cooper Ck, en route to Australia’s continental depocentre at Lake Eyre. We apply cosmogenic 10Be exposure dating in bedrock, and luminescence dating in sediment, to quantify the erosional and depositional response of Cooper Ck where it incises the rising Innamincka Dome. The detachment of bedrock joint-blocks during extreme floods governs the minimum rate of incision (17.4±6.5 mm/ky) estimated using a numerical model of episodic erosion calibrated with our 10Be measurements. The last big-flood phase occurred no earlier than ~112–121ka. Upstream of the Innamincka Dome long-term rates of alluvial deposition, partly reflecting synclinal-basin subsidence, are estimated from 47 luminescence dates in sediments accumulated since ~270 ka. Sequestration of sediment in subsiding basins such as these may account for the lack of Quaternary accumulation in Lake Eyre, and moreover suggests that notions of a single primary depocentre at base-level may poorly represent lowland, arid-zone rivers. Over the period ~75–55 ka Cooper Ck changed from a bedload- dominant, laterally-active meandering river to a muddy anabranching channel network up to 60 km wide. We propose that this shift in river pattern was a product of base-level rise linked with the slowly deforming syncline–anticline structure, coupled with a climate-forced reduction in discharge. The uniform valley slope along this subsiding alluvial and rising bedrock system represents an adjustment between the relative rates of deformation and the ability of greatly enhanced flows at times during the Quaternary to incise the rising anticline. Hence, tectonic and climate controls are balanced in the long term
Importancia de Una Área Natural Protegida en el Caribe Mexicano en la Conservación y Manejo de Una Especie Amenazada, el Caracol Rosa, Strombus gigas.
Low-frequency measurement of the tunneling amplitude in a flux qubit
We have observed signatures of resonant tunneling in an Al three-junction
qubit, inductively coupled to a Nb LC tank circuit. The resonant properties of
the tank oscillator are sensitive to the effective susceptibility (or
inductance) of the qubit, which changes drastically as its flux states pass
through degeneracy. The tunneling amplitude is estimated from the data. We find
good agreement with the theoretical predictions in the regime of their
validity.Comment: REVTeX4, 3pp., 3 EPS figures. v2: new sample, textual clarifications.
v3: minor polishing; final, to appear in PRB Rapid
ARCTIC: Durvalumab + tremelimumab and durvalumab monotherapy vs SoC in ≥ 3L advanced NSCLC treatment
n/
Sensitivity analysis of reactive ecological dynamics
Author Posting. © Springer, 2008. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Springer for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Bulletin of Mathematical Biology 70 (2008): 1634-1659, doi:10.1007/s11538-008-9312-7.Ecological systems with asymptotically stable equilibria may exhibit significant transient
dynamics following perturbations. In some cases, these transient dynamics include
the possibility of excursions away from the equilibrium before the eventual return; systems
that exhibit such amplification of perturbations are called reactive. Reactivity is
a common property of ecological systems, and the amplification can be large and long-lasting.
The transient response of a reactive ecosystem depends on the parameters of
the underlying model. To investigate this dependence, we develop sensitivity analyses
for indices of transient dynamics (reactivity, the amplification envelope, and the optimal
perturbation) in both continuous- and discrete-time models written in matrix form.
The sensitivity calculations require expressions, some of them new, for the derivatives
of equilibria, eigenvalues, singular values, and singular vectors, obtained using matrix
calculus. Sensitivity analysis provides a quantitative framework for investigating the
mechanisms leading to transient growth. We apply the methodology to a predator-prey
model and a size-structured food web model. The results suggest predator-driven and
prey-driven mechanisms for transient amplification resulting from multispecies interactions.Financial support provided by NSF grant DEB-0343820, NOAA grant NA03-NMF4720491,
the Ocean Life Institute of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and the Academic
Programs Office of the MIT-WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography
Stable Coexistence of an Invasive Plant and Biocontrol Agent: A Parameterized Coupled Plant-Herbivore Model
1. Coupled plant-herbivore models, allowing feedback from plant to herbivore populations and vice versa, enable us to predict the impact of biocontrol agents on their target weed populations; however, they are rarely used in biocontrol studies. We describe the population biology of the invasive plant Echium plantagineum and the weevil Mogulones larvatus, a biocontrol agent, in Australia. In order to understand the dynamics of this plant-herbivore system, a series of coupled models of increasing complexity was developed. 2. A simple model was extended to include a seed bank, density-dependent plant fecundity, competition between weevil larvae and plant tolerance of herbivory, where below a threshold plants could compensate for larval feeding. Parameters and functional forms were estimated from experimental and field data. 3. The plant model, in the absence of the weevil, exhibited stable dynamics and provided a good quantitative description of field densities before the weevil was introduced. 4. In the coupled plant-herbivore model, density dependence in both plant fecundity and weevil larval competition stabilized the dynamics. Without larval competition the model was unstable, and plant tolerance of herbivory exacerbated this instability. This was a result of a time delay in plant response to herbivore densities. 5. Synthesis and applications. The coupled plant-herbivore model allowed us to predict whether stable coexistence of target plant and biocontrol agents was achievable at an acceptable level. We found this to be the case for the Echium-Mogulones system and believe that similar models would be of use when assessing new agents in this and other invasive plant biocontrol systems. Density dependence in new biocontrol agents should be assessed in order to determine whether it is likely to result in the aims of classical biocontrol: low, stable and sustainable populations of plant and herbivore. Further work should be done to characterize the strength of density dependence according to the niche occupied by the biocontrol agent, for example the strength and functional form of density dependence in stem borers may be quite different to that of defoliators
Computing gravitational waves from slightly nonspherical stellar collapse to black hole: Odd-parity perturbation
Nonspherical stellar collapse to a black hole is one of the most promising
gravitational wave sources for gravitational wave detectors. We numerically
study gravitational waves from a slightly nonspherical stellar collapse to a
black hole in linearized Einstein theory. We adopt a spherically collapsing
star as the zeroth-order solution and gravitational waves are computed using
perturbation theory on the spherical background. In this paper we focus on the
perturbation of odd-parity modes. Using the polytropic equations of state with
polytropic indices and 3, we qualitatively study gravitational waves
emitted during the collapse of neutron stars and supermassive stars to black
holes from a marginally stable equilibrium configuration. Since the matter
perturbation profiles can be chosen arbitrarily, we provide a few types for
them. For , the gravitational waveforms are mainly characterized by a
black hole quasinormal mode ringing, irrespective of perturbation profiles
given initially. However, for , the waveforms depend strongly on the
initial perturbation profiles. In other words, the gravitational waveforms
strongly depend on the stellar configuration and, in turn, on the ad hoc choice
of the functional form of the perturbation in the case of supermassive stars.Comment: 31 pages, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. D, typos and minor
errors correcte
Linear Collider Capabilities for Supersymmetry in Dark Matter Allowed Regions of the mSUGRA Model
Recent comparisons of minimal supergravity (mSUGRA) model predictions with
WMAP measurements of the neutralino relic density point to preferred regions of
model parameter space. We investigate the reach of linear colliders (LC) with
and 1 TeV for SUSY in the framework of the mSUGRA model. We find
that LCs can cover the entire stau co-annihilation region provided \tan\beta
\alt 30. In the hyperbolic branch/focus point (HB/FP) region of parameter
space, specialized cuts are suggested to increase the reach in this important
``dark matter allowed'' area. In the case of the HB/FP region, the reach of a
LC extends well past the reach of the CERN LHC. We examine a case study in the
HB/FP region, and show that the MSSM parameters and can be
sufficiently well-measured to demonstrate that one would indeed be in the HB/FP
region, where the lightest chargino and neutralino have a substantial higgsino
component.Comment: 29 pages, 15 EPS figures; updated version slightly modified to
conform with published versio
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