4,226 research outputs found
Restoration Ecology: Two-Sex Dynamics and Cost Minimization
We model a spatially detailed, two-sex population dynamics, to study the cost
of ecological restoration. We assume that cost is proportional to the number of
individuals introduced into a large habitat. We treat dispersal as homogeneous
diffusion. The local population dynamics depends on sex ratio at birth, and
allows mortality rates to differ between sexes. Furthermore, local density
dependence induces a strong Allee effect, implying that the initial population
must be sufficiently large to avert rapid extinction. We address three
different initial spatial distributions for the introduced individuals; for
each we minimize the associated cost, constrained by the requirement that the
species must be restored throughout the habitat. First, we consider spatially
inhomogeneous, unstable stationary solutions of the model's equations as
plausible candidates for small restoration cost. Second, we use numerical
simulations to find the smallest cluster size, enclosing a spatially
homogeneous population density, that minimizes the cost of assured restoration.
Finally, by employing simulated annealing, we minimize restoration cost among
all possible initial spatial distributions of females and males. For biased sex
ratios, or for a significant between-sex difference in mortality, we find that
sex-specific spatial distributions minimize the cost. But as long as the sex
ratio maximizes the local equilibrium density for given mortality rates, a
common homogeneous distribution for both sexes that spans a critical distance
yields a similarly low cost
Building Damage-Resilient Dominating Sets in Complex Networks against Random and Targeted Attacks
We study the vulnerability of dominating sets against random and targeted
node removals in complex networks. While small, cost-efficient dominating sets
play a significant role in controllability and observability of these networks,
a fixed and intact network structure is always implicitly assumed. We find that
cost-efficiency of dominating sets optimized for small size alone comes at a
price of being vulnerable to damage; domination in the remaining network can be
severely disrupted, even if a small fraction of dominator nodes are lost. We
develop two new methods for finding flexible dominating sets, allowing either
adjustable overall resilience, or dominating set size, while maximizing the
dominated fraction of the remaining network after the attack. We analyze the
efficiency of each method on synthetic scale-free networks, as well as real
complex networks
Communications Biophysics
Contains research objectives and reports on three research projects.U.S. Air Force under Contract AF19(604)-411
Body Composition Indices and Single and Clustered Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors in Adolescents: Providing Clinical-Based Cut-Points
ArticleThe aims of the present study in adolescents were 1) to examine how various body composition-screening tests relate to single and clustered cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors, 2) to examine how lean mass and body fatness (independently of each other) relate to clustered CVD risk factors and, 3) to calculate specific thresholds for body composition indices associated with an unhealthier clustered CVD risk. We measured 1089 European adolescents (46.7% boys, 12.5-17.49yr) in 2006-2007. CVD risk factors included: systolic blood pressure, maximum oxygen uptake, homeostasis model assessment, C-reactive protein (n=748), total cholesterol/high density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides. Body composition indices included: height, body mass index (BMI), lean mass, the sum of four skinfolds, central/peripheral skinfolds, waist circumference (WC), waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR). Most body composition indices are associated with single CVD risk factors. The sum of four skinfolds, WHtR, BMI, WC and lean mass are strong and positively associated with clustered CVD risk. Interestingly, lean mass is positively associated with clustered CVD risk independently of body fatness in girls. Moderate and highly accurate thresholds for the sum of four skinfolds, WHtR, BMI, WC and lean mass are associated with an unhealthier clustered CVD risk (all AUC > 0.773). In conclusion, our results support an association between most of the assessed body composition indices and single and clustered CVD risk factors. In addition, lean mass (independent of body fatness) is positively associated with clustered CVD risk in girls, which is a novel finding that helps to understand why an index such as BMI is a good index of CVD risk but a bad index of adiposity. Moderate to highly accurate thresholds for body composition indices associated with a healthier clustered CVD risk were found. Further studies with a longitudinal design are needed to confirm these findings
Thermal photons in QGP and non-ideal effects
We investigate the thermal photon production-rates using one dimensional
boost-invariant second order relativistic hydrodynamics to find proper time
evolution of the energy density and the temperature. The effect of
bulk-viscosity and non-ideal equation of state are taken into account in a
manner consistent with recent lattice QCD estimates. It is shown that the
\textit{non-ideal} gas equation of state i.e behaviour
of the expanding plasma, which is important near the phase-transition point,
can significantly slow down the hydrodynamic expansion and thereby increase the
photon production-rates. Inclusion of the bulk viscosity may also have similar
effect on the hydrodynamic evolution. However the effect of bulk viscosity is
shown to be significantly lower than the \textit{non-ideal} gas equation of
state. We also analyze the interesting phenomenon of bulk viscosity induced
cavitation making the hydrodynamical description invalid. We include the
viscous corrections to the distribution functions while calculating the photon
spectra. It is shown that ignoring the cavitation phenomenon can lead to
erroneous estimation of the photon flux.Comment: 11 pages, 13 figures; accepted for publication in JHE
Evidence That Descending Cortical Axons Are Essential for Thalamocortical Axons to Cross the Pallial-Subpallial Boundary in the Embryonic Forebrain
Developing thalamocortical axons traverse the subpallium to reach the cortex located in the pallium. We tested the hypothesis that descending corticofugal axons are important for guiding thalamocortical axons across the pallial-subpallial boundary, using conditional mutagenesis to assess the effects of blocking corticofugal axonal development without disrupting thalamus, subpallium or the pallial-subpallial boundary. We found that thalamic axons still traversed the subpallium in topographic order but did not cross the pallial-subpallial boundary. Co-culture experiments indicated that the inability of thalamic axons to cross the boundary was not explained by mutant cortex developing a long-range chemorepulsive action on thalamic axons. On the contrary, cortex from conditional mutants retained its thalamic axonal growth-promoting activity and continued to express Nrg-1, which is responsible for this stimulatory effect. When mutant cortex was replaced with control cortex, corticofugal efferents were restored and thalamic axons from conditional mutants associated with them and crossed the pallial-subpallial boundary. Our study provides the most compelling evidence to date that cortical efferents are required to guide thalamocortical axons across the pallial-subpallial boundary, which is otherwise hostile to thalamic axons. These results support the hypothesis that thalamic axons grow from subpallium to cortex guided by cortical efferents, with stimulation from diffusible cortical growth-promoting factors
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