Universality classes in nonequilibrium lattice systems

This work is designed to overview our present knowledge about universality classes occurring in nonequilibrium systems defined on regular lattices. In the first section I summarize the most important critical exponents, relations and the field theoretical formalism used in the text. In the second section I briefly address the question of scaling behavior at first order phase transitions. In section three I review dynamical extensions of basic static classes, show the effect of mixing dynamics and the percolation behavior. The main body of this work is given in section four where genuine, dynamical universality classes specific to nonequilibrium systems are introduced. In section five I continue overviewing such nonequilibrium classes but in coupled, multi-component systems. Most of the known nonequilibrium transition classes are explored in low dimensions between active and absorbing states of reaction-diffusion type of systems. However by mapping they can be related to universal behavior of interface growth models, which I overview in section six. Finally in section seven I summarize families of absorbing state system classes, mean-field classes and give an outlook for further directions of research.Comment: Updated comprehensive review, 62 pages (two column), 29 figs included. Scheduled for publication in Reviews of Modern Physics in April 200

Physiological stress response, reflex impairment and delayed mortality of white sturgeon Acipenser transmontanus exposed to simulated fisheries stressors

White sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus) are the largest freshwater fish in North America and a species exposed to widespread fishing pressure. Despite the growing interest in recreational fishing for white sturgeon, little is known about the sublethal and lethal impacts of angling on released sturgeon. In summer (July 2014, mean water temperature 15.3°C) and winter (February 2015, mean water temperature 6.6°C), captive white sturgeon (n = 48) were exposed to a combination of exercise and air exposure as a method of simulating an angling event. After the stressor, sturgeon were assessed for a physiological stress response, and reflex impairments were quantified to determine overall fish vitality (i.e. capacity for survival). A physiological stress response occurred in all sturgeon exposed to a fishing-related stressor, with the magnitude of the res

Velocity-space sensitivity of the time-of-flight neutron spectrometer at JET

The velocity-space sensitivities of fast-ion diagnostics are often described by so-called weight functions. Recently, we formulated weight functions showing the velocity-space sensitivity of the often dominant beam-target part of neutron energy spectra. These weight functions for neutron emission spectrometry (NES) are independent of the particular NES diagnostic. Here we apply these NES weight functions to the time-of-flight spectrometer TOFOR at JET. By taking the instrumental response function of TOFOR into account, we calculate time-of-flight NES weight functions that enable us to directly determine the velocity-space sensitivity of a given part of a measured time-of-flight spectrum from TOFOR

Relationship of edge localized mode burst times with divertor flux loop signal phase in JET

A phase relationship is identified between sequential edge localized modes (ELMs) occurrence times in a set of H-mode tokamak plasmas to the voltage measured in full flux azimuthal loops in the divertor region. We focus on plasmas in the Joint European Torus where a steady H-mode is sustained over several seconds, during which ELMs are observed in the Be II emission at the divertor. The ELMs analysed arise from intrinsic ELMing, in that there is no deliberate intent to control the ELMing process by external means. We use ELM timings derived from the Be II signal to perform direct time domain analysis of the full flux loop VLD2 and VLD3 signals, which provide a high cadence global measurement proportional to the voltage induced by changes in poloidal magnetic flux. Specifically, we examine how the time interval between pairs of successive ELMs is linked to the time-evolving phase of the full flux loop signals. Each ELM produces a clear early pulse in the full flux loop signals, whose peak time is used to condition our analysis. The arrival time of the following ELM, relative to this pulse, is found to fall into one of two categories: (i) prompt ELMs, which are directly paced by the initial response seen in the flux loop signals; and (ii) all other ELMs, which occur after the initial response of the full flux loop signals has decayed in amplitude. The times at which ELMs in category (ii) occur, relative to the first ELM of the pair, are clustered at times when the instantaneous phase of the full flux loop signal is close to its value at the time of the first ELM

Effects of egg size, food supply and spawning time on early life history success of haddock Melanogrammus aeglefinus

Eggs and larvae produced by pairs of spawning haddock Melanogrammus aeglefinus were monitored between 2001 and 2003 to determine the effects of spawning time, egg size and food supply on early life history success. Females usually released eggs at 3 d intervals. All females exhibited a continuous decrease in egg diameter and dry weight with consecutive batches, but the decrease in size did not influence fertilization or hatching success. Larval size (standard length and dry weight), yolk area, eye diameter, myotome height, and finfold area were all positively related to egg size and therefore decreased between early- and late-season larvae produced by the same spawning pairs. Differences in larval morphology persisted for at least the first 5 d after hatching. Jaws were not developed at hatching (5°C), but jaw length did show a strong positive relationship with egg size at 5 d post-hatch (dph). The ability of newly hatched larvae to withstand periods of starvation was directly related to initial egg size. Under high prey abundance (5000 l-1) larval survival to 20 dph was highly variable (1.8 to 50.7%) with no differences in survivorship or specific growth rate (0.818 to 0.936% d-1 in standard length) for larvae from early-, middle- and late-season egg batches. With low prey density (1000 l-1) survival of larvae from late-season egg batches was significantly lower (0.4%) than those from early egg batches (1.8%). No differences in larval specific growth rate existed between early and late batches, but growth rate was reduced in both cases with low food abundance (0.683 to 0.690 d-1 in standard length). Results suggest that smaller larvae produced late in the spawning season have reduced feeding capabilities and may experience lower survivorship in the ocean than larger, early-season larvae

Stochastic feeding in fish larvae and their metabolic handling of starvation.

Developmental patterns of yolk-sac larvae are well captured by the standard deb model: (i) when feeding is delayed post birth the size at which post-feeding growth begins is reduced but the rate of growth post-feeding is unaffected and (ii) maternal effects (initial energy in egg) show up as differences in condition at birth and maximum length of non fed individuals. We extended the standard deb model in two ways to account for starvation. (I): if somatic maintenance can no longer be paid structure is also mobilized to cover the costs, but at an extra cost-conversion efficiency of structure to energy. Death occurs if structure reaches a fraction of the maximum at the onset of shrinking. (II): if maturity maintenance can no longer be paid then maturity level decays exponentially (rejuvenation). Hazard due to rejuvenation is proportional to the difference between maturity and the maximum maturity at the onset of rejuvenation.We performed Monte Carlo simulation studies which treat feeding as a random process to evaluate the contribution of the metabolic handling of starvation to early teleost life history. The simulations suggest that food density strongly impacts growth, energy reserves, mineral fluxes, hazard and mortality from shrinking. Environmental factors can soon override maternal induced differences between individuals. Moreover in the low food density, simulated individuals from eggs of lower caloric content experience mortality from shrinking earlier than their counterparts issued from higher energy eggs. Empirically observed patterns of real data, i.e. high scatter in respiration in combination with low scatter in lengths, can be expected when the metabolism is treated as a deterministic system while behaviourally controlled input is stochastic. At low food densities where mortality from shrinking reaches 10% almost all individuals experience hazard due to rejuvenation. This hazard is difficult to access experimentally but represents moments of heightened susceptibility to pathogens and toxicants and could be ecologically significant. © 2011 Elsevier B.V

Immediate physiological and behavioural response from catch-and-release of wild white sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus Richardson, 1836)

White sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus) are anadromous and the largest fish occurring in fresh-water habitats in North America. The largest population is found in the lower Fraser River (LFR), British Columbia, Canada where anglers target the species in a catch-and-release (C&R) recreational fishery. Yet, little is known about the consequences of C&R on these wild fish. Sixty-three angled sturgeon had blood samples taken to assess the physiological stress response relative to fight times. Seven sturgeon were also fitted with acoustic transmitters equipped with accelerometer sensors to assess immediate post-release locomotor behaviour. To understand

Linking environmental factors with reflex action mortality predictors, physiological stress, and post-release movement behaviour to evaluate the response of white sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus Richardson, 1836) to catch-and-release angling

White sturgeon are the largest freshwater fish in North America and are the focus of an intense catch-and-release (C&R) fishery; the effects are largely unknown. We assessed the effect of fight and handling t