ROV's Video Recordings as a Tool to Estimate Variation in Megabenthic Epifauna Diversity and Community Composition in the Guaymas Basin

Patterns in benthic megafauna diversity in littoral and intertidal zones in the Gulf of California have been associated with both habitat heterogeneity and substrate type. Current knowledge of invertebrate communities in hard bottom habitats at depths > 200 m in the Gulf is poor due to the methodological limitations inherent in sampling deep habitats. Using video imagery of benthic habitats coupled with environmental data from the Remotely Operated Vehicle Doc Ricketts, we documented variation in the diversity and community composition of the benthos from 849 to 990 m depth in the NW limit of the Guaymas Basin, in relation to dissolved oxygen and substrate characteristics. This depth range overlaps an oxygen minimum zone where oxygen drops to levels < 0.5 ml L-1 and strong gradients in a narrow depth range occur. Dissolved oxygen varied along our benthic survey from 0.200 to 0.135 ml L-1. We observed high taxonomic richness across an area of rocky outcrops through the lower transition zone. This megafaunal pattern differs from reports from other oxygen minimum zones characterized by a great abundance of a few species. Taxonomic richness diminished at depths with reduced dissolved oxygen in the lower boundary of the oxygen minimum zone with increasing soft sediment cover. We found that rocky outcrops and structure-forming organisms such as corals, sponges, and oyster aggregations supported a higher diversity (H' = 0.8) than soft sediment (H' = 0.7) as have been observed in other habitats such as seamounts. Environmental variables that explained most of the megafaunal variation were substrate type (18.4%), depth (1.14%) and temperature (0.9%). Salinity (0.45%) and dissolved oxygen (0.3%) were less important factors to explain the megafaunal composition variance. Substrate type played a key role in the diversity and composition of benthic megafauna. These results broaden our understanding concerning the potential roles of substrate characteristics in the community composition of the deep-sea benthic megafaunal assemblages in the Gulf of California and oxygen minimum zones in general

Quark mixings as a test of a new symmetry of quark Yukawa couplings

Based on the hierarchy exhibited by quarks masses at low energies, we assume that Yukawa couplings of up and down quarks are related by $Y_u\propto Y_d^2$ at grand unification scales. This ansatz gives rise to a symmetrical CKM matrix at the grand unification (GU) scale. Using three specific models as illustrative examples for the evolution down to low energies, we obtain the entries and asymmetries of the CKM matrix which are in very good agreement with their measured values. This indicates that the small asymmetry of the CKM matrix at low energies may be the effect of the renormalization group evolution only.Comment: LaTeX file, 10 pages including 1 tabl

Four dimensional Lie symmetry algebras and fourth order ordinary differential equations

Realizations of four dimensional Lie algebras as vector fields in the plane are explicitly constructed. Fourth order ordinary differential equations which admit such Lie symmetry algebras are derived. The route to their integration is described.Comment: 12 page

Confinement of electrons in layered metals

We analyze the out of plane hopping in models of layered systems where the in--plane properties deviate from Landau's theory of a Fermi liquid. We show that the hopping term acquires a non trivial energy dependence, due to the coupling to in plane excitations, and can be either relevant or irrelevant at low energies or temperatures. The latter is always the case if the Fermi level lies close to a saddle point in the dispersion relation.Comment: 4 pages, 1 eps figur

On the families of orthogonal polynomials associated to the Razavy potential

We show that there are two different families of (weakly) orthogonal polynomials associated to the quasi-exactly solvable Razavy potential V(x)=(\z \cosh 2x-M)^2 (\z>0, $M\in\mathbf N$). One of these families encompasses the four sets of orthogonal polynomials recently found by Khare and Mandal, while the other one is new. These results are extended to the related periodic potential U(x)=-(\z \cos 2x -M)^2, for which we also construct two different families of weakly orthogonal polynomials. We prove that either of these two families yields the ground state (when $M$ is odd) and the lowest lying gaps in the energy spectrum of the latter periodic potential up to and including the $(M-1)^{\rm th}$ gap and having the same parity as $M-1$. Moreover, we show that the algebraic eigenfunctions obtained in this way are the well-known finite solutions of the Whittaker--Hill (or Hill's three-term) periodic differential equation. Thus, the foregoing results provide a Lie-algebraic justification of the fact that the Whittaker--Hill equation (unlike, for instance, Mathieu's equation) admits finite solutions.Comment: Typeset in LaTeX2e using amsmath, amssymb, epic, epsfig, float (24 pages, 1 figure

Invariant differential equations and the Adler-Gel'fand-Dikii bracket

In this paper we find an explicit formula for the most general vector evolution of curves on RP^{n-1} invariant under the projective action of SL(n,R). When this formula is applied to the projectivization of solution curves of scalar Lax operators with periodic coefficients, one obtains a corresponding evolution in the space of such operators. We conjecture that this evolution is identical to the second KdV Hamiltonian evolution under appropriate conditions. These conditions give a Hamiltonian interpretation of general vector differential invariants for the projective action of SL(n,R), namely, the SL(n,R) invariant evolution can be written so that a general vector differential invariant corresponds to the Hamiltonian pseudo-differential operator. We find common coordinates and simplify both evolutions so that one can attempt to prove the equivalence for arbitrary n

Egg development and toxicity of insecticides to eggs, neonate larvae and adults of Xylotrechus arvicola, a pest in Iberian grapevines

Xylotrechus arvicola (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) is a xylophagous species that is becoming an important pest in vineyards in the Iberian Peninsula. The most sensitive stages are adult and egg, but their neonate larvae can also be attacked during the first 24 h after hatching and before entering the wood. Adults were evaluated for seven days against the insecticides spinosad, Beauveria bassiana, imidacloprid and chlorpyrifos and neonate larvae (&lt; 24 h) and eggs of different ages against the described insecticides, as well as flufenoxuron and pyriproxyfen. All insecticides were applied in a Potter tower at a maximum and minimum commercial dose, and showed significant differences both among insecticides as between the applied doses. Most of the hatching occurs eight days after oviposition by X. arvicola females. Chlorpyrifos had a quick and total control of eggs of different ages, neonate larvae and adults in both dosis applied, but its effectiveness could cause serious effects on other non-target species. Pyriproxifen and flufenoxuron had the best ovicidal control when the age of eggs increases and, B.&nbsp;bassiana also had a good ovicidal control, due its capacity to invade the eggs actively through their shell and proliferate inside them. Biological insecticides such as B. bassiana and spinosad, with a total control on adults and good rates of mortality of neonate larvae and eggs can be a great instrument to biological control of this pest

Applications of Direct Injection Soft Chemical Ionisation-Mass Spectrometry for the Detection of Pre-blast Smokeless Powder Organic Additives

Analysis of smokeless powders is of interest from forensics and security perspectives. This article reports the detection of smokeless powder organic additives (in their pre-detonation condition), namely the stabiliser diphenylamine and its derivatives 2-nitrodiphenylamine and 4-nitrodiphenylamine, and the additives (used both as stabilisers and plasticisers) methyl centralite and ethyl centralite, by means of swab sampling followed by thermal desorption and direct injection soft chemical ionisation-mass spectrometry. Investigations on the product ions resulting from the reactions of the reagent ions H3O+ and O2+ with additives as a function of reduced electric field are reported. The method was comprehensively evaluated in terms of linearity, sensitivity and precision. For H3O+, the limits of detection (LoD) are in the range of 41-88 pg of additive, for which the accuracy varied between 1.5 and 3.2%, precision varied between 3.7 and 7.3% and linearity showed R20.9991. For O2+, LoD are in the range of 72 to 1.4 ng, with an accuracy of between 2.8 and 4.9% and a precision between 4.5 and 8.6% and R20.9914. The validated methodology was applied to the analysis of commercial pre-blast gun powders from different manufacturers.(VLID)4826148Accepted versio

Magnetized strangelets at finite temperature

The main properties of magnetized strangelets, namely, their energy per baryon, radius and electric charge, are studied. Temperature effects are also taken into account in order to study their stability compared to the 56Fe isotope and non-magnetized strangelets using the liquid drop model. Massive quarks are considered with the aim to have a more realistic description for strangelets in the astrophysical context and the environment of heavy ion colliders, playing also an important role in the thermodynamical quantities of the quark gas. It is concluded that the presence of a magnetic field tends to stabilize more the strangelets, even when temperature effects are taken into account. Magnetized strangelets in a paired superconductor phase (magnetized color flavor locked phase) are also discussed. It is shown that they are more stable than ordinary magnetized strangelets for typical gap values of the order of O(100) MeV.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures, discussion extended, new references adde