Prevalence, intensity, and effect of a nematode (Philometra saltatrix) in the ovaries of bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix)

Examination of 203 adult bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix) from Long Island, New York, in 2002 and 2003 and 66 from the Outer Banks, North Carolina, in 2003 revealed the presence of dracunculoid nematodes (Philometra saltatrix) in the ovaries of female fish. Percent prevalence reached 88% in July and then decreased after the peak of the spawning season. Bluefish contained up to 100 parasites per fish. Infection was associated with a range of disorders, including hemorrhage, inf lammation, edema, prenecrotic and necrotic changes, and follicular atresia, that may prevent proper development of oocytes and probably affect bluefish fecundity. Historical occurrences, life cycle, and geographical distribution of this nematode remain largely unknown, but may play important roles in recruitment processes of bluefish

Simulation study of pressure and temperature dependence of the negative thermal expansion in Zn(CN)(2)

12 pages, 16 figures12 pages, 16 figures12 pages, 16 figures12 pages, 16 figure

First and second order magnetic and structural transitions in BaFe2(1−x)_{2(1-x)}Co2x_{2x}As2_{2}

We present here high resolution magnetization measurements on high-quality BaFe$_{2(1-x)}$Co$_{2x}$As$_{2}$, 0$\leq$x$\leq$0.046 as-grown single crystals. The results confirm the existence of a magnetic tricritical point in the ($x$,$T$) plane at x$^{m}_{tr}$$\approx$0.022 and reveal the emergence of the heat capacity anomaly associated with the onset of the structural transition at x$^{s}$$\approx$0.0064. We show that the samples with doping near x$^{m}_{tr}$ do not show superconductivity, but rather superconductivity emerges at a slightly higher cobalt doping, x$\approx$0.0315Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Rigid unit modes in tetrahedral crystals

The 'rigid unit mode' (RUM) model requires unit blocks, in our case tetrahedra of SiO_4 groups, to be rigid within first order of the displacements of the O-ions. The wave-vectors of the lattice vibrations, which obey this rigidity, are determined analytically. Lattices with inversion symmetry yield generically surfaces of RUMs in reciprocal space, whereas lattices without this symmetry yield generically lines of RUMs. Only in exceptional cases as in beta-quartz a surface of RUMs appears, if inversion symmetry is lacking. The occurence of planes and bending surfaces, straight and bent lines is discussed. Explicit calculations are performed for five modifications of SiO_2 crystals.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures, improved notatio

Dynamics from diffraction

A model-independent approach for the extraction of detailed lattice dynamical information from neutron powder diffraction data is described. The technique is based on a statistical analysis of atomistic configurations generated using reverse Monte Carlo structural refinement. Phonon dispersion curves extracted in this way are shown to reproduce many of the important features found in those determined independently using neutron triple-axis spectroscopy. The extent to which diffraction data are sensitive to lattice dynamics is explored in a range of materials. The prospect that such detailed dynamical information might be accessible using comparatively facile experiments such as neutron powder diffraction is incredibly valuable when studying systems for which established spectroscopic methods are prohibitive or inappropriate

CamGrid: Experiences in constructing a university-wide, Condor-based grid at the University of Cambridge

Proceedings of the 2004 UK e-Science All Hands Meeting, 31st August - 3rd September, Nottingham UKIn this article we describe recent work done in building a university-wide grid at the University of Cambridge based on the Condor middleware [1]. Once the issues of stakeholder concerns (e.g. security policies) and technical problems (e.g. firewalls and private IP addresses) have been taken into account, a solution based on two separate Condor environments was decided on. The first of these is a single large pool administered centrally by the University Computing Service (UCS) and the second a federated service of flocked Condor pools belonging to various departments and run over a Virtual Private Network (VPN). We report on the current status of this ongoing work

Monitoring the Short-Term Variability of Cyg X-1: Spectra and Timing

We present first results from the spectral and temporal analysis of an RXTE monitoring campaign of the black hole candidate Cygnus X-1 in 1999. The timing properties of this hard state black hole show considerable variability, even though the state does not change. This has previously been noted for the power spectral density, but is probably even more pronounced for the time lags. From an analysis of four monitoring observations of Cyg X-1, separated by 2 weeks from each other, we find that a shortening of the time lags is associated with a hardening of the X-ray spectrum, as well as with a longer characteristic ``shot time scale''. We briefly discuss possible physical/geometrical reasons for this variability of the hard state properties.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, Proc. of the 5th Compton Symposium, AIP, in pres