Ag on Ge(111): 2D X-ray structure analysis of the (Wurzel)3 x (Wurzel)3 superstructure

We have studied the Ag/Ge(111)(Wurzel)3 x (Wurzel)3 superstructure by grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction. In our structural analysis we find striking similarities to the geometry of Au on Si(111). The Ag atoms form trimer clusters with an Ag-Ag distance of 2.94+-0.04°A with the centers of the trimers being located at the origins of the (Wurzel)3 x (Wurzel)3 lattice. The Ag layer is incomplete and at least one substrate layer is distorted

Evidence of strong dynamic core excitation in 19^{19}C resonant break-up

The resonant break-up of $^{19}$C on protons measured at RIKEN [Phys. Lett. B 660, 320 (2008)] is analyzed in terms of a valence-core model for $^{19}$C including possible core excitations. The analysis of the angular distribution of a prominent peak appearing in the relative-energy spectrum could be well described with this model and is consistent with the previous assignment of $5/2^{+}$ for this state. Inclusion of core-excitation effects are found to be essential to give the correct magnitude of the cross section for this state. By contrast, the calculation assuming an inert $^{18}$C core is found to largely underestimate the data.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, to be submitte

“One does not simply categorize a meme”: A dual classification system for visual-textual internet memes

Internet memes are a popular and long-standing genre of discourse on social media platforms, used to express everything from emotional states to political opinions. Dancygier and Vandelanotte (2017) define internet memes as intertextual, multimodal discourses that combine text with images. In order to capture and compare these rapidly-changing discourses, we propose a descriptive dual classification system for memes with two components: meme composition and multimodal quality. Meme composition categorizes memes by their structure—beyond the individual images they employ—and thus explains how memes recontextualize images and text to create new meanings. Multimodal quality serves to describe the way(s) that the text interacts with the image in the meme: as a caption, label, and/or utterance. Combining one meme composition with one or more multimodal qualities classifies an individual meme structurally and provides a basis for explaining its intertextuality, modality, and meaning-making. We apply the dual classification system to English language data collected in its naturally-occurring context on the social media platform Instagram from 2019 to 2021. Analysis of these data shows that the dual classification system is a flexible and robust approach which provides a vocabulary for discussing the creative agency exerted by meme creators in a wide range of communities. We argue that the dual classification system affords researchers the ability to study memes linguistically across a variety of platforms and over time

The Impact of Rubber Mats on the Health, Behavior and Welfareof Group-Housed Sows at Breeding

Lameness and leg injuries are common in the swine industry and are a serious welfare concern. The impact of rubber mats on measures of sow health, behavior and welfare were evaluated during 10 days at breeding. Sows preferred to rest in stalls with mats, showed a reduction in lesions and an increase in postural changes. The provision of rubber mats should be considered to improve sow welfare

Core excitation effects in the breakup of halo nuclei

The role of core excitation in the structure and dynamics of two-body halo nuclei is investigated. We present calculations for the resonant breakup of 11Be on protons at an incident energy of 63.7 MeV/nucleon, where core excitation effects were shown to be important. To describe the reaction, we use a recently developed extension of the DWBA formalism which incorporates these core excitation effects within the no-recoil approximation. The validity of the no-recoil approximation is also examined by comparing with DWBA calculations which take into account core recoil. In addition, calculations with two different continuum representations are presented and compared.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación FIS2011-28738-c02-01, FPA2009- 07653, FPA2009-08848, CSD2007-00042Junta de Andalucía FQM160, P07-FQM-0289

The Value of Environmental Enrichments to Gestating Sows

Housing swine in unstimulating environments can lead to increases in abnormal and harmful social behavior, stress and impaired immune function. Environmental enrichments can alleviate the negative impacts of unstimulating housing and can improve sow welfare. In a series of studies, we asked sows which enrichments they found most valuable. Behavior and motivation measures revealed that sows valued access to an enriched group pen, though sow social status impacted enrichment use. Rubber mats were preferred and shared in a group pen, though were not as highly valued by individual sows. Stall-housed sows valued compost in a trough and straw in a rack, though showed little interest in a hanging cotton rope. The addition of enrichments, which sows find valuable, to unstimulating environments should be considered as a method to improve sow welfare

Growth and Reproductive Development of Male Piglets Are More Vulnerable to Midgestation Maternal Stress Than That of Female Piglets

In many mammalian species, prenatal stress masculinizes female and feminizes male offspring impairing their reproductive capacity. Regrouping gestating sows is a common, stressful production practice, but its impact on the developing pigs of the sow is not fully known. This study examined the effects of regrouping gestating sows and the administration of exogenous glucocorticoids on the growth and external reproductive morphology of pigs. At 37.2 ± 0.26 d of gestation, 6 cohorts of 18 sows (N = 108) were placed in 1 of 3 treatments: socially stable (Stable), hydrocortisone acetate (HCA), or mixed (Mixed). The HCA sows were administered 70 mg HCA, a synthetic glucocorticoid, twice daily during the 21 d experimental period. Each Mixed sow was penned with 2 companion sows (Companion) and regrouped on d 7 and 14 with 2 different Companion sows in a new pen. Stable and HCA sows were penned in treatment groups of 3 sows. Sow social rank was assessed weekly during feeding. After the 21 d experimental period, all sows were housed in gestation stalls for the duration of pregnancy. During the 21 d, Companion sows gained more weight than HCA and Mixed sows (P \u3c 0.05) with Stable sows intermediate. High ranked sows gained more weight than middle and low ranked sows (P \u3c 0.05). Mixed sows had greater head lesion scores than Stable and HCA sows (P \u3c 0.05) with Companion sows intermediate. Head lesions increased with lower social rank (P \u3c 0.001). Sow treatment did not affect farrowing rate, litter size, or sex ratio (P \u3e 0.10). Social rank also had no effect on farrowing rate (P \u3e 0.10), but affected total litter size (P = 0.03). High ranked sows bore and weaned more live females than low ranked sows (P \u3c 0.05), in part due to differential preweaning mortality among female pigs (P = 0.01). Only male pigs were affected by sow treatment. Preweaning mortality was higher among male pigs from HCA than from Mixed sows (P = 0.04) with other treatments intermediate. Despite no weight differences in the preweaning period, at 160 d of age males from HCA sows weighed more than males from Stable sows (P = 0.01) with other treatments intermediate. Males born to Companion sows had longer relative anogenital distances, a marker of fetal testosterone exposure, than males from Mixed sows (P = 0.03) with other treatments intermediate. The prenatal environment affected the pigs in a sex-specific manner altering the growth and reproductive morphology of the males more than that of the females

Validation of linearity assumptions for using tsunami waveforms in joint inversion of kinematic rupture models: Application to the 2010 Mentawai M_w 7.8 tsunami earthquake

Tsunami observations have particular importance for resolving shallow offshore slip in finite-fault rupture model inversions for large subduction zone earthquakes. However, validations of amplitude linearity and choice of subfault discretization of tsunami Green's functions are essential when inverting tsunami waveforms. We explore such validations using four tsunami recordings of the 25 October 2010 Mentawai M_w 7.8 tsunami earthquake, jointly inverted with teleseismic body waves and 1 Hz GPS (high-rate GPS) observations. The tsunami observations include near-field and far-field deep water recordings, as well as coastal and island tide gauge recordings. A nonlinear, dispersive modeling code, NEOWAVE, is used to construct tsunami Green's functions from seafloor excitation for the linear inversions, along with performing full-scale calculations of the tsunami for the inverted models. We explore linearity and finiteness effects with respect to slip magnitude, variable rake determination, and subfault dimensions. The linearity assumption is generally robust for the deep water recordings, and wave dispersion from seafloor excitation is important for accurate description of near-field Green's functions. Breakdown of linearity produces substantial misfits for short-wavelength signals in tide gauge recordings with large wave heights. Including the tsunami observations in joint inversions provides improved resolution of near-trench slip compared with inversions of only seismic and geodetic data. Two rupture models, with fine-grid (15 km) and coarse-grid (30 km) spacing, are inverted for the Mentawai event. Stronger regularization is required for the fine model representation. Both models indicate a shallow concentration of large slip near the trench with peak slip of ~15 m. Fully nonlinear forward modeling of tsunami waveforms confirms the validity of these two models for matching the tsunami recordings along with the other data

Probing Local Wind and Temperature Structure Using Infrasound from Volcan Villarrica (Chile)

We use the continuous and intense (∼107 W) infrasound produced by Volcan Villarrica (Chile) to invert for the local dynamic wind and temperature structure of the atmosphere. Infrasound arrays deployed in March 2011 at the summit (2826 m) and on the NNW flank (∼8 km distant at 825 m) were used to track infrasound propagation times and signal power. We model an atmosphere with vertically varying temperature and horizontal winds and use propagation times (ranging from 23 to 24 s) to invert for horizontal slowness (2.75–2.94 s/km) and average effective sound speeds (328–346 m/s) for NNW propagating infrasound. The corresponding ratio of recorded acoustic power at proximal versus distal arrays was also variable (ranging between 0.15 to 1.5 for the peak 0.33–1 Hz infrasound band). Through application of geometrical ray theory in a uniform gradient atmosphere, these \u27amplification factors\u27 are modeled by effective sound speed lapse rates ranging from −15 to +4 m/s per km. NNW-projected wind speeds ranging from −20 m/s to +20 m/s at 2826 m and wind gradients ranging from −11 to +10 m/s per km are inferred from the difference between effective sound speed profiles and adiabatic sound speeds derived from local temperature observations. The sense of these winds is in general agreement with regional meteorological observations recorded with radiosondes. We suggest that infrasound probing can provide useful spatially averaged estimates of atmospheric wind structure that has application for both meteorological observation and volcanological plume dispersal modeling

Will Sows Fight With Former Neighbors When Mixed?

A recent pork checkoff-funded research study investigated whether or not newly mixed sows would fight if they had previously been housed in close proximity in breeding barn stalls