An assessment of scup (Stenotomus chrysops) and black sea bass (Centropristas striata) discards in the directed otter trawl fisheries in the Mid-Atlantic Bight

This study was undertaken to re-assess the level of scup (Stenotomus chrysops) discards by weight and to evaluate the effect of various codend mesh sizes on the level of scup discards in the winter-trawl scup fishery. Scup discards were high in directed scup tows regardless of codend mesh — typically one to five times the weight of landings. The weight of scup discards in the present study did not differ significantly from that recorded in scup-targeted tows in the NMFS observer database. Most discards were required as such by the 22.86 cm TL (total length) fish-size limit for catches. Mesh sizes ≤12.7 cm, including the current legal mesh size (11.43 cm) did not adequately filter out scup smaller than 22.86 cm. The median length of scup discards was about 19.83 cm TL. Lowering the legal size for scup from 22.86 to 19.83 cm TL would greatly reduce discard mortality. Scup discards were a small fraction (0.4%) of black sea bass (Centropristis striata) landings in blacksea-bass−targeted tows. The black sea bass fishery is currently regulated under the small-mesh fishery gearrestricted area plan in which fishing is prohibited in some areas to reduce scup mortality. Our study found no evidence to support the efficacy of this management approach. The expectations that discarding would increase disproportionately as the trip limit (limit [in kilograms] on catch for a species) was reached towards the end of the trip and that discards would increase when the trip limit was reduced from 4536 kg to 454 kg at the end of the directed fishing season were not supported. Trip limits did not significantly affect discard mortality

Crystal Structure and Magnetism of the Linear-Chain Copper Oxides Sr5Pb3-xBixCuO12

The title quasi-1D copper oxides (0=< x =<0.4) were investigated by neutron diffraction and magnetic susceptibility studies. Polyhedral CuO4 units in the compounds were found to comprise linear-chains at inter-chain distance of approximately 10 A. The parent chain compound (x = 0), however, shows less anisotropic magnetic behavior above 2 K, although it is of substantially antiferromagnetic (mu_{eff}= 1.85 mu_{B} and Theta_{W} = -46.4 K) spin-chain system. A magnetic cusp gradually appears at about 100 K in T vs chi with the Bi substitution. The cusp (x = 0.4) is fairly characterized by and therefore suggests the spin gap nature at Delta/k_{B} ~ 80 K. The chain compounds hold electrically insulating in the composition range.Comment: To be published in PR

Proportion Regulation in Globally Coupled Nonlinear Systems

As a model of proportion regulation in differentiation process of biological system, globally coupled activator-inhibitor systems are studied. Formation and destabilization of one and two cluster state are predicted analytically. Numerical simulations show that the proportion of units of clusters is chosen within a finite range and it is selected depend on the initial condition.Comment: 11 pages (revtex format) and 5 figures (PostScript)

Study of the magnetic susceptibility in the spin-Peierls system CuGeO3_3

We study numerically, using a one-dimensional Heisenberg model, the spin-Peierls transition in the linear Cu$^{2+}$ spin-1/2 chains in the inorganic compound CuGeO$_3$ which has been recently observed experimentally. We suggest that the magnetic susceptibility, the temperature dependence of the spin gap and the spin-Peierls transition temperature of this material can be reasonably described by including nearest and next nearest neighbor antiferromagnetic interactions along the chain. We estimate that the nearest neighbor exchange parameter J is approximately $160\:\rm K$, and that the next nearest neighbor exchange parameter is approximately $0.36\:\rm J$.Comment: 14 pages, Revtex v2.0, 4 figures available upon reques

Magnetic excitations and effects of magnetic fields on the spin-Peierls transition in CuGeO3_3

We analyze the magnetic excitations of a spin-1/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model with alternating nearest neighbor interactions and uniform second neighbor interactions recently proposed to describe the spin-Peierls transition in CuGeO$_3$. We show that there is good agreement between the calculated excitation dispersion relation and the experimental one. We have also shown that this model reproduces satisfactorily the experimental results for the magnetization vs. magnetic field curve and its saturation value. The model proposed also reproduces qualitatively some features of the magnetic phase diagram of this compound and the overall behavior of the magnetic specific heat in the presence of applied magnetic fields.Comment: 12 pages Revtex v2.0 + 4 figures postscripts include

Pyrochlore Antiferromagnet: A Three-Dimensional Quantum Spin Liquid

The quantum pyrochlore antiferromagnet is studied by perturbative expansions and exact diagonalization of small clusters. We find that the ground state is a spin-liquid state: The spin-spin correlation functions decay exponentially with distance and the correlation length never exceeds the interatomic distance. The calculated magnetic neutron diffraction cross section is in very good agreement with experiments performed on Y(Sc)Mn2. The low energy excitations are singlet-singlet ones, with a finite spin gap.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Spin-Peierls Dimerization of a s=1/2 Heisenberg Antiferromagnet on a Square Lattice

Dimerization of a spin-half Heisenberg antiferromagnet on a square lattice is investigated for several possible dimerized configurations, some of which are shown to have lower ground state energies than the others. In particular, the lattice deformations resulting in alternate stronger and weaker couplings along both the principal axes of a square lattice are shown to result in a larger gain in magnetic energy. In addition, a `columnar' configuration is shown to have a lower ground state energy and a faster increase in the energy gap parameter than a `staggered' configuration. The inclusion of unexpanded exchange coupling leads to a power law behaviour for the magnetic energy gain and energy gap, which is qualitatively different from that reported earlier. Instead of increasing as $\delta ^{x}$, the two quantities depend on $\delta$ as $\delta ^{\nu}/| \ln \delta | .$ This is true both in the near critical regime $(0\leq \delta \leq 0.1)$ as well as in the far regime $(0\leq \delta <1)$. It is suggested that the unexpanded exchange coupling is as much a source of the logarithmic dependence as a correction due to the contribution of umklapp processes. Staggered magnetization is shown to follow the same $\delta$-dependence in all the configurations in the small $\delta$-regime, while for $0\leq \delta <1$, it follows the power law $\delta ^{x}$.Comment: 12 pages, 7 Postscript figures, RevTex forma

Structured evaluation of virtual environments for special-needs education

This paper describes the development of a structured approach to evaluate experiential and communication virtual learning environments (VLEs) designed specifically for use in the education of children with severe learning difficulties at the Shepherd special needs school in Nottingham, UK. Constructivist learning theory was used as a basis for the production of an evaluation framework, used to evaluate the design of three VLEs and how they were used by students with respect to this learning theory. From an observational field study of student-teacher pairs using the VLEs, 18 behaviour categories were identified as relevant to five of the seven constructivist principles defined by Jonassen (1994). Analysis of student-teacher behaviour was used to provide support for, or against, the constructivist principles. The results show that the three VLEs meet the constructivist principles in very different ways and recommendations for design modifications are put forward

Thermodynamic Properties and Elementary Excitations in Quantum Sine-Gordon Spin System KCuGaF6

Thermodynamic properties and elementary excitations in $S=1/2$ one-dimensional Heisenberg antiferromagnet KCuGaF$_6$ were investigated by magnetic susceptibility, specific heat and ESR measurements. Due to the Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interaction with alternating $D$-vectors and/or the staggered $g$-tensor, the staggered magnetic field is induced when subjected to external magnetic field. Specific heat in magnetic field clearly shows the formation of excitation gap, which is attributed to the staggered magnetic field. The specific heat data was analyzed on the basis of the quantum sine-Gordon (SG) model. We observed many ESR modes including one soliton and three breather excitations characteristic of the quantum SG model.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, to appear in J. Phys. Soc. Jpn., vol. 76, no.