2,348 research outputs found

    Setting Out the Curves of Wheel-Teeth.

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    Palm pairs and the general mass-transport principle

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    We consider a lcsc group G acting properly on a Borel space S and measurably on an underlying sigma-finite measure space. Our first main result is a transport formula connecting the Palm pairs of jointly stationary random measures on S. A key (and new) technical result is a measurable disintegration of the Haar measure on G along the orbits. The second main result is an intrinsic characterization of the Palm pairs of a G-invariant random measure. We then proceed with deriving a general version of the mass-transport principle for possibly non-transitive and non-unimodular group operations first in a deterministic and then in its full probabilistic form.Comment: 26 page

    Comparative assessment of diet and condition factor of Cyprinus carpio and Oreochromis leucostictus in Lake Naivasha, Kenya

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    The study compared and assessed the diet and condition factors of two fish species, Oreochromis leucostictus and Cyprinus carpio, in Lake Naivasha. Fish samples were collected monthly using gill nets (35-70 mm mesh size) from July to December 2013. Stomach contents of all the specimens were analysed using the point method. Results indicated that detritus was the most abundant food item in the diet of both O. leucostictus and C. carpio accounting for 50% and 63%, respectively, while benthic macroinvertebrates contributed the least with each fish having 2%. Rooting and digging behaviour of the carp probably led to both C. carpio and O. leucostictus ingesting the suspended detritus as their main source of food with C. carpio outcompeting O. leucostictus due to its prolific nature and better adaptability to benthic conditions. Fulton’s condition factor of all the fish samples had values of >1. A comparison of the two fish species showed C. carpio had a condition factor of 1.51 while O. leucostictus had 1.32. The higher condition factor of C. carpio in Lake Naivasha is an indication that the fish have better tissue energy reserves, greater reproductive potential and higher survival rates compared to O. leucostictus with a lower condition factor

    Bloch electron in a magnetic field and the Ising model

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    The spectral determinant det(H-\epsilon I) of the Azbel-Hofstadter Hamiltonian H is related to Onsager's partition function of the 2D Ising model for any value of magnetic flux \Phi=2\pi P/Q through an elementary cell, where P and Q are coprime integers. The band edges of H correspond to the critical temperature of the Ising model; the spectral determinant at these (and other points defined in a certain similar way) is independent of P. A connection of the mean of Lyapunov exponents to the asymptotic (large Q) bandwidth is indicated.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, REVTE

    Loss of buoyancy control in the copepod Calanus finmarchicus

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    A mechanism is demonstrated that could explain large-scale aggregations of lipid-rich copepods in the surface waters of marine environments. Laboratory experiments establish that changes in salinity and temperature induce lipid-mediated buoyancy instability that entrains copepods in surface waters. Reduced hydrostatic pressure associated with forced ascent of copepods at fjordic sills, shelf breaks and seamounts would also reduce the density of the lipid reserves, forcing copepods and particularly those in diapause to the surface. We propose that salinity, temperature and hydrodynamics of the physical environment, in conjunction with the biophysical properties of lipids, explain periodic high abundances of lipid-rich copepods in surface waters

    Enhanced ionization in small rare gas clusters

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    A detailed theoretical investigation of rare gas atom clusters under intense short laser pulses reveals that the mechanism of energy absorption is akin to {\it enhanced ionization} first discovered for diatomic molecules. The phenomenon is robust under changes of the atomic element (neon, argon, krypton, xenon), the number of atoms in the cluster (16 to 30 atoms have been studied) and the fluency of the laser pulse. In contrast to molecules it does not dissappear for circular polarization. We develop an analytical model relating the pulse length for maximum ionization to characteristic parameters of the cluster

    Circadian Clock Involvement in Zooplankton Diel Vertical Migration

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    Biological clocks are a ubiquitous ancient and adaptive mechanism enabling organisms to anticipate environmental cycles and to regulate behavioral and physiological processes accordingly [1]. Although terrestrial circadian clocks are well understood, knowledge of clocks in marine organisms is still very limited [2, 3, 4, 5]. This is particularly true for abundant species displaying large-scale rhythms like diel vertical migration (DVM) that contribute significantly to shaping their respective ecosystems [6]. Here we describe exogenous cycles and endogenous rhythms associated with DVM of the ecologically important and highly abundant planktic copepod Calanus finmarchicus. In the laboratory, C. finmarchicus shows circadian rhythms of DVM, metabolism, and most core circadian clock genes (clock, period1, period2, timeless, cryptochrome2, and clockwork orange). Most of these genes also cycle in animals assessed in the wild, though expression is less rhythmic at depth (50–140 m) relative to shallow-caught animals (0–50 m). Further, peak expressions of clock genes generally occurred at either sunset or sunrise, coinciding with peak migration times. Including one of the first field investigations of clock genes in a marine species [5, 7], this study couples clock gene measurements with laboratory and field data on DVM. While the mechanistic connection remains elusive, our results imply a high degree of causality between clock gene expression and one of the planet’s largest daily migrations of biomass. We thus suggest that circadian clocks increase zooplankton fitness by optimizing the temporal trade-off between feeding and predator avoidance, especially when environmental drivers are weak or absent [8]

    Calanus finmarchicus seasonal cycle and diapause in relation to gene expression, physiology, and endogenous clocks: Calanus finmarchicus seasonal rhythmicity

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    The copepod Calanus finmarchicus plays a crucial role in the north Atlantic food web. Its seasonal life cycle involves reproduction and development in surface waters before overwintering in diapause at depth. Although diapause has been studied for more than a century, the factors responsible for the initiation and termination of it are still unclear. Endogenous clocks have been identified as potent tools for photoperiod measurement and seasonal rhythmicity in many terrestrial species, but knowledge of these remains scarce in the marine realm. Focusing on the dominant CV copepodid stage, we sampled a population of C. finmarchicus from a Scottish sea loch to characterize population dynamics, several physiological parameters, and diel and seasonal expression rhythms of 35 genes representing different metabolic pathways, including the circadian clock machinery. This generated a detailed overview of the seasonal cycle of C. finmarchicus including the most extensive field dataset on circadian clock gene expression in a marine species to date. Gene expression patterns revealed distinct gene clusters upregulated at different phases of the copepod's seasonal cycle. While diel clock cycling was restricted to the active spring/summer phase, many clock genes exhibited the highest expression during diapause. Our results provide new insights into diapause on physiological and genetic levels. We suggest that photoperiod, in interaction with internal and external factors (lipid content, temperature, food availability) and the endogenous clock mechanism, plays an important role in the timing of diapause in C. finmarchicus

    Generic Continuous Spectrum for Ergodic Schr"odinger Operators

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    We consider discrete Schr"odinger operators on the line with potentials generated by a minimal homeomorphism on a compact metric space and a continuous sampling function. We introduce the concepts of topological and metric repetition property. Assuming that the underlying dynamical system satisfies one of these repetition properties, we show using Gordon's Lemma that for a generic continuous sampling function, the associated Schr"odinger operators have no eigenvalues in a topological or metric sense, respectively. We present a number of applications, particularly to shifts and skew-shifts on the torus.Comment: 14 page

    Direct Observation of Hyperfine Quenching of the (2)3p0 Level in Helium-Like Nickel

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    Journals published by the American Physical Society can be found at http://publish.aps.org/We report a clear demonstration of the effect of hyperfine quenching of a forbidden transition by direct comparison of the lifetimes of the 2 3P0 level in the heliumlike isotopes Ni-61(26+) and Ni-58(26+). We find the quenched lifetime of the 2 3P0 level in Ni-61(26+) to be 470(50) ps. From this we deduce the 2 3P0-2 3P1 energy splitting to be 2.33(15) eV. We also report a measurement of the lifetime of the 2 3P2 level in Ni-58(26+), which is found to be 70(3) ps
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