Nest-Site Selection by Female Black-Capped Chickadees: Settlement Based on Conspecific Attraction?

Female Black-capped Chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) solicit extrapair copulations (EPCs) from neighboring high-ranking males, and these EPCs result in extrapair young. Females might choose to locate their nests near the territory boundaries of attractive males to facilitate access to EPCs. Other hypotheses might also explain choice of nest site, namely (1) habitat characteristics, (2) prey abundance, and (3) previous experience. We tested these four hypotheses in 1996 and 1997. Out of 27 habitat characteristics measured, we found only one that was significantly different between nests and control sites in both years. The abundance of large trees was lower at nest sites than at control sites in each year and when years were pooled. Relative prey abundance did not differ between nests and control sites for either year of the study. We found no different in interyear nest placement based on female experience; experienced females nester farther than 60 m from their previous nest sites in both years of the study. In 1996, females whose neighboring males were higher ranked than their social partner located their nests significantly closer to territory boundaries than did females whose nearest neighbors were lower ranked than their social partner. In 1997, all pairs nested near territory boundaries. We conclude that choice of nest location in Black-capped Chickadees is influenced by conspecific attraction based on mating tactics

Reionization from cosmic string loops

Loops formed from a cosmic string network at early times would act as seeds for early formation of halos, which would form galaxies and lead to early reionization. With reasonable guesses about astrophysical and string parameters, the cosmic string scale $G\mu$ must be no more than about $3\times 10^{-8}$ to avoid conflict with the reionization redshift found by WMAP. The bound is much stronger for superstring models with a small string reconnection probability. For values near the bound, cosmic string loops may explain the discrepancy between the WMAP value and theoretical expectations.Comment: 7 pp., RevTeX, no figure

Subspace Variational Quantum Simulator

Quantum simulation is one of the key applications of quantum computing, which can accelerate research and development in chemistry, material science, etc. Here, we propose an efficient method to simulate the time evolution driven by a static Hamiltonian, named subspace variational quantum simulator (SVQS). SVQS employs the subspace-search variational eigensolver (SSVQE) to find a low-energy subspace and further extends it to simulate dynamics within the low-energy subspace. More precisely, using a parameterized quantum circuit, the low-energy subspace of interest is encoded into a computational subspace spanned by a set of computational basis, where information processing can be easily done. After the information processing, the computational subspace is decoded to the original low-energy subspace. This allows us to simulate the dynamics of low-energy subspace with lower overhead compared to existing schemes. While the dimension is restricted for feasibility on near-term quantum devices, the idea is similar to quantum phase estimation and its applications such as quantum linear system solver and quantum metropolis sampling. Because of this simplicity, we can successfully demonstrate the proposed method on the actual quantum device using Regetti Quantum Cloud Service. Furthermore, we propose a variational initial state preparation for SVQS, where the initial states are searched from the simulatable eigensubspace. Finally, we demonstrate SVQS on Rigetti Quantum Cloud Service

Klotho mice: a novel wound model of aged skin.

BackgroundAs the elderly population continues to expand, it becomes increasingly important to develop treatments to improve wound healing in the elderly. One problem limiting the research is the lack of appropriate animal models for wound healing in elderly patients. We hypothesized that the Klotho mouse of premature aging is a suitable animal model to shed light on many of the biological processes involved in aging skin.MethodsKlotho mice (kl/kl), Klotho-heterozygous mice (kl/+), and wild-type mice (+/+) were wounded, and the area of the wound was measured every 3 days until the wound was healed. To compare the klotho phenotype with wild-type mice, wounds were also harvested at 4 and 7 days after wounding. For histological examination, paraffin-embedded sections were stained with hematoxylin and eosin and Masson trichrome. Collagen expression in the wound was also studied by analyzing messenger RNA using real-time polymerase chain reaction.ResultsKlotho mice showed a significantly slower rate of wound closure compared with Klotho-heterozygous mice and wild-type mice. Histology showed substantial less healing and collagen deposition in the wounds of the Klotho mice. The expression of collagen messenger RNA in Klotho mice was also less than that in heterozygous and wild-type mice. The Klotho mice exhibited significant phenotypic similarities with aged skin, such as atrophy and delayed wound healing.ConclusionThese preliminary data suggest that the Klotho mouse may be a model to further investigate wound healing in the elderly

Periodic-orbit approach to the nuclear shell structures with power-law potential models: Bridge orbits and prolate-oblate asymmetry

Deformed shell structures in nuclear mean-field potentials are systematically investigated as functions of deformation and surface diffuseness. As the mean-field model to investigate nuclear shell structures in a wide range of mass numbers, we propose the radial power-law potential model, V \propto r^\alpha, which enables a simple semiclassical analysis by the use of its scaling property. We find that remarkable shell structures emerge at certain combinations of deformation and diffuseness parameters, and they are closely related to the periodic-orbit bifurcations. In particular, significant roles of the "bridge orbit bifurcations" for normal and superdeformed shell structures are pointed out. It is shown that the prolate-oblate asymmetry in deformed shell structures is clearly understood from the contribution of the bridge orbit to the semiclassical level density. The roles of bridge orbit bifurcations in the emergence of superdeformed shell structures are also discussed.Comment: 20 pages, 23 figures, revtex4-1, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Green's Function Method for Line Defects and Gapless Modes in Topological Insulators : Beyond Semiclassical Approach

Defects which appear in heterostructure junctions involving topological insulators are sources of gapless modes governing the low energy properties of the systems, as recently elucidated by Teo and Kane [Physical Review B82, 115120 (2010)]. A standard approach for the calculation of topological invariants associated with defects is to deal with the spatial inhomogeneity raised by defects within a semiclassical approximation. In this paper, we propose a full quantum formulation for the topological invariants characterizing line defects in three-dimensional insulators with no symmetry by using the Green's function method. On the basis of the full quantum treatment, we demonstrate the existence of a nontrivial topological invariant in the topological insulator-ferromagnet tri-junction systems, for which a semiclassical approximation fails to describe the topological phase. Also, our approach enables us to study effects of electron-electron interactions and impurity scattering on topological insulators with spatial inhomogeneity which gives rise to the Axion electrodynamics responses.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figure