Heat transfer simulation of evacuated tube collectors (ETC): An application to a prototype

Since fossil fuels shortages are predicted for the forthcoming generations, the use of renewable energy sources is playing a key role and is strongly recommended worldwide by national and international regulations. In this scenario, solar collectors for hot water preparation, space heating and cooling are becoming an increasingly interesting alternative, especially in the building sector because of population growth. Thus, the present paper is addressed to numerically investigate the thermal behaviour of a prototypal evacuated tube by solving the heat transfer differential equations using the Finite Element Method. This is to reproduce the heat transfer process occurring within the real system, helping the industry improve the prototype

Nonstationary probabilistic downscaling of extreme precipitation

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On Singularity formation for the L^2-critical Boson star equation

We prove a general, non-perturbative result about finite-time blowup solutions for the $L^2$-critical boson star equation $i\partial_t u = \sqrt{-\Delta+m^2} \, u - (|x|^{-1} \ast |u|^2) u$ in 3 space dimensions. Under the sole assumption that the solution blows up in $H^{1/2}$ at finite time, we show that $u(t)$ has a unique weak limit in $L^2$ and that $|u(t)|^2$ has a unique weak limit in the sense of measures. Moreover, we prove that the limiting measure exhibits minimal mass concentration. A central ingredient used in the proof is a "finite speed of propagation" property, which puts a strong rigidity on the blowup behavior of $u$. As the second main result, we prove that any radial finite-time blowup solution $u$ converges strongly in $L^2$ away from the origin. For radial solutions, this result establishes a large data blowup conjecture for the $L^2$-critical boson star equation, similar to a conjecture which was originally formulated by F. Merle and P. Raphael for the $L^2$-critical nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation in [CMP 253 (2005), 675-704]. We also discuss some extensions of our results to other $L^2$-critical theories of gravitational collapse, in particular to critical Hartree-type equations.Comment: 24 pages. Accepted in Nonlinearit

Temporal repeatability of behaviour in a lizard: implications for behavioural syndrome studies

It is well established that, across taxa, individuals within populations exhibit consistent differences in their behaviour across time and/or contexts. Further, the functional coupling of traits may result in the formation of a behavioural syndrome. Despite extensive evidence on the existence of consistent among-individual differences in behaviour and behavioural syndromes in the animal realm, these findings are predominately based upon short-term assessments, leading to questions regarding their stability over longer periods. Understanding if these estimates are temporally stable would allow predictions of individual behaviour to be made using short-term repeated measures. Here, we used 57 adult male delicate skinks (Lampropholis delicata) to evaluate the stability of behavioural variation observed both among (animal personality and behavioural plasticity) and within individuals (behavioural predictability), as well as behavioural syndromes, across short (four weeks) and long (five months) timeframes. To do so, we repeatedly assayed activity, exploration, and boldness five times per each individual. Overall, our study revealed complex patterns of behavioural variation and trait (co)variation over time. Activity was always repeatable across time intervals, whereas behavioural differences among individuals in exploration and boldness were not consistent. Yet a behavioural syndrome between activity and exploration was detected at both shorter and longer temporal scales, suggesting that syndrome structure in these traits does not vary as a function of time. Our findings indicate that, at least for some traits (e.g. activity) and studies, short-term measures may be adequate in serving as a proxy for long-term variation in individual behaviour, and to reveal the existence of behavioural syndromes at the population level

Sowing density effect on common bean leaf area development

Sowing density is a major management factor that affects growth and development of grain crops by modifying the canopy light environment and interplant competition for water and nutrients. While the effects of sowing density and plant architecture on static vegetative and reproductive growth traits have been explored previously in the common bean, few studies have focused on the impacts of sowing density on the dynamics of node addition and leaf area development. We present the results from two sites of field experiments where the effects of sowing densities (5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 35 plants m-2) and genotypes with contrasting plant architectures (two each from growth habits I through III) on the dynamics of node addition and leaf area were assessed. Analysis of the phyllochron (°C node-1) indicated genotype and density effects (but no interaction) on the rate of node addition. While significant, these differences amounted to less than two days of growth at either site. In terms of leaf area development, analysis using a power function reflected large differences in the dynamics and final size of individual plant leaf area between the lower density (20 plants m-2) at the growth habit, but not genotype level. These differences in node addition and leaf development dynamics translated to marked differences between growth habits and sowing densities in estimated leaf area indices, and consequently, in the estimated fraction of intercepted light at lower densities

Predicting the impacts of chemical pollutants on animal groups

Wildlife are exposed to an increasing number and diversity of chemical pollutants.Chemical pollutants can elicit a range of sublethal effects on individual organisms, but research on how these contaminants affect social interactions and animal groups is severely lacking.It is imperative that perspectives from behavioural ecology and ecotoxicology are integrated, to increase our understanding of how contaminant effects on individuals might cascade to group-level processes.We present a conceptual framework for researchers and practitioners to guide the study of how chemical pollutants might affect the emergence, organisation, and function of animal social groups.Chemical pollution is among the fastest-growing agents of global change. Synthetic chemicals with diverse modes-of-action are being detected in the tissues of wildlife and pervade entire food webs. Although such pollutants can elicit a range of sublethal effects on individual organisms, research on how chemical pollutants affect animal groups is severely lacking. Here we synthesise research from two related, but largely segregated fields – ecotoxicology and behavioural ecology – to examine pathways by which chemical contaminants could disrupt processes that govern the emergence, self-organisation, and collective function of animal groups. Our review provides a roadmap for prioritising the study of chemical pollutants within the context of sociality and highlights important methodological advancements for future research

Resistance of rumen bacteria murein to bovine gastric lysozyme

BACKGROUND: Lysozymes, enzymes mostly associated with defence against bacterial infections, are mureinolytic. Ruminants have evolved a gastric c type lysozyme as a digestive enzyme, and profit from digestion of foregut bacteria, after most dietary components, including protein, have been fermented in the rumen. In this work we characterized the biological activities of bovine gastric secretions against membranes, purified murein and bacteria. RESULTS: Bovine gastric extract (BGE) was active against both G+ and G- bacteria, but the effect against Gram- bacteria was not due to the lysozyme, since purified BGL had only activity against Gram+ bacteria. We were unable to find small pore forming peptides in the BGE, and found that the inhibition of Gram negative bacteria by BGE was due to an artefact caused by acetate. We report for first time the activity of bovine gastric lysozyme (BG lysozyme) against pure bacterial cultures, and the specific resistance of some rumen Gram positive strains to BGL. CONCLUSIONS: Some Gram+ rumen bacteria showed resistance to abomasum lysozyme. We discuss the implications of this finding in the light of possible practical applications of such a stable antimicrobial peptide

Dynamical formation of correlations in a Bose-Einstein condensate

We consider the evolution of $N$ bosons interacting with a repulsive short range pair potential in three dimensions. The potential is scaled according to the Gross-Pitaevskii scaling, i.e. it is given by $N^2V(N(x_i-x_j))$. We monitor the behavior of the solution to the $N$-particle Schr\"odinger equation in a spatial window where two particles are close to each other. We prove that within this window a short scale interparticle structure emerges dynamically. The local correlation between the particles is given by the two-body zero energy scattering mode. This is the characteristic structure that was expected to form within a very short initial time layer and to persist for all later times, on the basis of the validity of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation for the evolution of the Bose-Einstein condensate. The zero energy scattering mode emerges after an initial time layer where all higher energy modes disperse out of the spatial window. We can prove the persistence of this structure up to sufficiently small times before three-particle correlations could develop.Comment: 36 pages, latex fil

Social context mediates the expression of a personality trait in a gregarious lizard

The social environment is a key factor that influences behavioural traits across a wide array of species. Yet, when investigating individual differences in behaviour, studies tend to measure animals in isolation from other conspecifics-even in social species. Surprisingly, whether behavioural traits measured in isolation are predictive of individual-level behaviour when in social groups is still poorly understood. Here, we repeatedly measured risk-taking behaviour (i.e. boldness; 741 total trials) in both the presence and absence of conspecifics in a social lizard, the delicate skink (Lampropholis delicata). Further, we manipulated food availability during group trials to test whether the effect of the social environment on risk-taking behaviour was mediated by competition over resources. Using 105 lizards collected from three independent populations, we found that individual risk-taking behaviour was repeatable when measured in either social isolation or within groups both with and without food resources available. However, lizards that were bolder during individual trials were not also bolder when in groups, regardless of resource availability. This was largely driven by individual differences in social behavioural plasticity, whereby individual skinks responded differently to the presence of conspecifics. Together, this resulted in a rank order change of individual behavioural types across the social conditions. Our results highlight the importance of the social environment in mediating animal personality traits across varying levels of resource availability. Further, these findings suggest that behavioural traits when measured in isolation, may not reflect individual variation in behaviour when measured in more ecologically realistic social groups

Dynamical Collapse of Boson Stars

We study the time evolution in system of $N$ bosons with a relativistic dispersion law interacting through an attractive Coulomb potential with coupling constant $G$. We consider the mean field scaling where $N$ tends to infinity, $G$ tends to zero and $\lambda = G N$ remains fixed. We investigate the relation between the many body quantum dynamics governed by the Schr\"odinger equation and the effective evolution described by a (semi-relativistic) Hartree equation. In particular, we are interested in the super-critical regime of large $\lambda$ (the sub-critical case has been studied in \cite{ES,KP}), where the nonlinear Hartree equation is known to have solutions which blow up in finite time. To inspect this regime, we need to regularize the Coulomb interaction in the many body Hamiltonian with an $N$ dependent cutoff that vanishes in the limit $N\to \infty$. We show, first, that if the solution of the nonlinear equation does not blow up in the time interval $[-T,T]$, then the many body Schr\"odinger dynamics (on the level of the reduced density matrices) can be approximated by the nonlinear Hartree dynamics, just as in the sub-critical regime. Moreover, we prove that if the solution of the nonlinear Hartree equation blows up at time $T$ (in the sense that the $H^{1/2}$ norm of the solution diverges as time approaches $T$), then also the solution of the linear Schr\"odinger equation collapses (in the sense that the kinetic energy per particle diverges) if $t \to T$ and, simultaneously, $N \to \infty$ sufficiently fast. This gives the first dynamical description of the phenomenon of gravitational collapse as observed directly on the many body level.Comment: 40 page