A quantitative ecological study of selected nearshore marine plants and animals at the Diablo Canyon power plant site: a pre-operational baseline, 1973-1978

Biologists of the California Department of Fish and Game, under contract with the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, conducted surveys or intertidal and subtidal plants and animals 1n the vicinity of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant for the summer of 1973 through 1978. Abundances of the dominant plants and animals were obtained at random as well as permanent stations in Diablo Cove as well as nearby control areas. A total of 643 permanent and random stations were surveyed, 262 in the intertidal and 381 in the subtidal. Natural as well as man-caused occurrences have resulted in several significant changes in plant and animal abundance in the study areas; these include the arrival of the southern front or the sea otter population in Diablo Cove in 1974; a strong red tide bloom in the fall of 1974; and the release of copper ions from the power plant condenser tubes into Diablo Cove during the summer of 1974. Our intertidal and subtidal random station data have shown a strong decline in giant red sea urchin, Strongylocentrotus franciscanus, densities and the surface canopy kelp, Nereocystis/leutkeana, and a corresponding increase in the subcanopy kelps, Pterygophora and Laminaria. Seasonal patterns of abundance of foliose red algae at random intertidal stations occurred at all study areas. Several species intertidal and subtidal invertebrates showed increasing or decreasing trends in levels of abundance during the five year study period covered by the report. Some of these changes in abundance may be related to the natural man-caused impacts mentioned above. (Document has 728 pages

Pre-operational baseline studies of selected nearshore marine biota at the Diablo Canyon power plant site: 1979-1982

This is the final report of the California Department of Fish and Games intertidal and subtidal surveys of plants and animals in the vicinity of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant. These studies cover the period from 1979 through 1982. Our previous report (Gotshall, et al. 1984) covered the period from 1973 through 1978. The report includes abundances and statistical analyses of comparisons of abundances between years and study areas for selected intertidal and subtidal plants and animals. A total of 556 random subtidal stations, 540 intertidal stations and 67 permanent abalone transects were completed during this report period. Trends in abundances of most species observed during our 1973 through 1978 studies continued, i.e. the population of giant red sea urchins remained at a very low level, bull kelp Nereocystis leutkeana densities continued to decline in Diablo Cove and North Control. These two trends are probably due to the effects of continued sea otter foraging in the study area. Our observations of the presence or absence of fishes at subtidal 30m stations indicate a continued decline in the abundances of lingcod, Ophiodon elongatus and a decline in the abundance of blue rockfish since the 1973 through 1978 study period. A new study was begun during this study period, the use of baited stations to obtain relative abundance indices for those species of fishes attracted to the bait. Black-and-yellow rockfish were the most frequently observed fishes at Diablo Cove stations, while blue rockfish were the most frequently observed fish at North control baited stations. (Document has 393 pages

A Generalization of the Goldberg-Sachs Theorem and its Consequences

The Goldberg-Sachs theorem is generalized for all four-dimensional manifolds endowed with torsion-free connection compatible with the metric, the treatment includes all signatures as well as complex manifolds. It is shown that when the Weyl tensor is algebraically special severe geometric restrictions are imposed. In particular it is demonstrated that the simple self-dual eigenbivectors of the Weyl tensor generate integrable isotropic planes. Another result obtained here is that if the self-dual part of the Weyl tensor vanishes in a Ricci-flat manifold of (2,2) signature the manifold must be Calabi-Yau or symplectic and admits a solution for the source-free Einstein-Maxwell equations.Comment: 14 pages. This version matches the published on

Wave attenuation and dispersion due to floating ice covers

Experiments investigating the attenuation and dispersion of surface waves in a variety of ice covers are performed using a refrigerated wave flume. The ice conditions tested in the experiments cover naturally occurring combinations of continuous, fragmented, pancake and grease ice. Attenuation rates are shown to be a function of ice thickness, wave frequency, and the general rigidity of the ice cover. Dispersion changes were minor except for large wavelength increases when continuous covers were tested. Results are verified and compared with existing literature to show the extended range of investigation in terms of incident wave frequency and ice conditions

Quantum fluctuations in coupled dark solitons in trapped Bose-Einstein condensates

We show that the quantum fluctuations associated with the Bogoliubov quasiparticle vacuum can be strongly concentrated inside dark solitons in a trapped Bose Einstein condensate. We identify a finite number of anomalous modes that are responsible for such quantum phenomena. The fluctuations in these anomalous modes correspond to the `zero-point' oscillations in coupled dark solitons.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Leptogenesis implications in models with Abelian family symmetry and one extra real Higgs singlet

We show that the neutrino models, as suggested by Low, which have an additional Abelian family symmetry and a real Higgs singlet to the default see-saw do not hinder the possibility of successful thermal leptogenesis. For these models (neglecting radiative effects), we have investigated the situation of strong washout in both the one-flavor approximation and when flavor effects are included. The result is that while such models predict that theta_{13}=0 and that one light neutrino to be massless, they do not modify or provide significant constraints on the typical leptogenesis scenario where the final asymmetry is dominated by the decays of the lightest right-handed neutrinos.Comment: 18 pages, RevTeX4, accepted by Phys. Rev. D. v2: minor corrections, note and 1 ref. added, same content as published versio

pH‐sensitive residues in the p19 RNA silencing suppressor protein from carnation Italian ringspot virus affect siRNA binding stability

Tombusviruses , such as Carnation Italian ringspot virus (CIRV), encode a protein homodimer called p19 that is capable of suppressing RNA silencing in their infected hosts by binding to and sequestering short‐interfering RNA (siRNA) away from the RNA silencing pathway. P19 binding stability has been shown to be sensitive to changes in pH but the specific amino acid residues involved have remained unclear. Using constant pH molecular dynamics simulations, we have identified key pH‐dependent residues that affect CIRV p19–siRNA binding stability at various pH ranges based on calculated changes in the free energy contribution from each titratable residue. At high pH, the deprotonation of Lys60, Lys67, Lys71, and Cys134 has the largest effect on the binding stability. Similarly, deprotonation of several acidic residues (Asp9, Glu12, Asp20, Glu35, and/or Glu41) at low pH results in a decrease in binding stability. At neutral pH, residues Glu17 and His132 provide a small increase in the binding stability and we find that the optimal pH range for siRNA binding is between 7.0 and 10.0. Overall, our findings further inform recent experiments and are in excellent agreement with data on the pH‐dependent binding profile.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/97527/1/2243_ftp.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/97527/2/PRO_2243_sm_SuppInfo.pd