1,044 research outputs found

    The molluscan fisheries of Germany

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    The German molluscan fishery has always concentrated on the North Sea. Mollusks occur in the Baltic Sea, but are not as marketable. In prehistory and the Middle Ages, coastal inhabitants gathered mussels, Mytilus edulis, cockles, Cerastoderma edule, and flat oysters, Ostrea edulis, for food and also used mussels as agricultural fertilizer. An organized oyster fishery developed in the 16th century and had considerable economic importance for 300 years. Oysters were dredged with sailing vessels near the coast, as well as far offshore. Catches peaked in the second half of the l 9th century at 3-5 million oysters per year. They declined dramatically in the following decades due to permanent recruitment failures, and the flat oyster finally disappeared from the German coast in the l 950's. An organized fishery for freshwater pearl mussels, Margaritifera margaritifera, also developed at the end of the Middle Ages, but mismanagement and environmental degradation since the late 19th century have brought this species to the brink of extinction as well. Other mollusks harvested on a smaller scale in the past have been softshell clams, Mya arenaria, and whelks, Buccinum undatum. The modern mussel fishery for human food began in 1929 with the introduction of novel dredging methods. Annual catches were in the order of a few thousand tons during the first half of this century and have attained 20,000-60,000 tons since the early l980's; concomitantly, prices have increased five-fold in recent decades. The fishery is now based on 14 highly specialized vessels harvesting from 3,800 ha (9,500 acres) of culture plots which are seeded with mussels from natural beds. Pacific oysters, Crassostrea gigas, were first introduced in the l970's, and a natural population has recently begun to establish itself. They are cultured by one company which imports half-grown seed from the British Isles. A nearshore hydraulic dredge fishery for cockles began in 1973, but was banned for political reasons in 1992. It was replaced by a new offshore fishery for hard clams, Spisula solida, which ended when the clam stock suffered total mortality in the 1995-96 ice winter. The molluscan fisheries and aquaculture sector (production and processing) in 1995 employed almost 100 people year-round and another 50-100 seasonally. The annual product is about US$35 million

    Quantized Vortex States of Strongly Interacting Bosons in a Rotating Optical Lattice

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    Bose gases in rotating optical lattices combine two important topics in quantum physics: superfluid rotation and strong correlations. In this paper, we examine square two-dimensional systems at zero temperature comprised of strongly repulsive bosons with filling factors of less than one atom per lattice site. The entry of vortices into the system is characterized by jumps of 2 pi in the phase winding of the condensate wavefunction. A lattice of size L X L can have at most L-1 quantized vortices in the lowest Bloch band. In contrast to homogeneous systems, angular momentum is not a good quantum number since the continuous rotational symmetry is broken by the lattice. Instead, a quasi-angular momentum captures the discrete rotational symmetry of the system. Energy level crossings indicative of quantum phase transitions are observed when the quasi-angular momentum of the ground-state changes.Comment: 12 Pages, 13 Figures, Version

    Novel functional roles for \u3cem\u3ePERIANTHIA\u3c/em\u3e and \u3cem\u3eSEUSS\u3c/em\u3e during floral organ identity specification, floral meristem termination, and gynoecial development

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    The gynoecium is the female reproductive structure of angiosperm flowers. In Arabidopsis thaliana the gynoecium is composed of two carpels that are fused into a tube-like structure. As the gynoecial primordium arises from the floral meristem, a specialized meristematic structure, the carpel margin meristem (CMM), develops from portions of the medial gynoecial domain. The CMM is critical for reproductive competence because it gives rise to the ovules, the precursors of the seeds. Here we report a functional role for the transcription factor PERIANTHIA (PAN) in the development of the gynoecial medial domain and the formation of ovule primordia. This function of PAN is revealed in pan aintegumenta (ant) as well as seuss (seu) pan double mutants that form reduced numbers of ovules. Previously, PAN was identified as a regulator of perianth organ number and as a direct activator of AGAMOUS (AG) expression in floral whorl four. However, the seu pan double mutants display enhanced ectopic AG expression in developing sepals and the partial transformation of sepals to petals indicating a novel role for PAN in the repression of AG in floral whorl one. These results indicate that PAN functions as an activator or repressor of AG expression in a whorl-specific fashion. The seu pan double mutants also display enhanced floral indeterminacy, resulting in the formation of fifth whorl structures and disruption of WUSCHEL (WUS) expression patterns revealing a novel role for SEU in floral meristem termination

    Novel functional roles for \u3cem\u3ePERIANTHIA\u3c/em\u3e and \u3cem\u3eSEUSS\u3c/em\u3e during floral organ identity specification, floral meristem termination, and gynoecial development

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    The gynoecium is the female reproductive structure of angiosperm flowers. In Arabidopsis thaliana the gynoecium is composed of two carpels that are fused into a tube-like structure. As the gynoecial primordium arises from the floral meristem, a specialized meristematic structure, the carpel margin meristem (CMM), develops from portions of the medial gynoecial domain. The CMM is critical for reproductive competence because it gives rise to the ovules, the precursors of the seeds. Here we report a functional role for the transcription factor PERIANTHIA (PAN) in the development of the gynoecial medial domain and the formation of ovule primordia. This function of PAN is revealed in pan aintegumenta (ant) as well as seuss (seu) pan double mutants that form reduced numbers of ovules. Previously, PAN was identified as a regulator of perianth organ number and as a direct activator of AGAMOUS (AG) expression in floral whorl four. However, the seu pan double mutants display enhanced ectopic AG expression in developing sepals and the partial transformation of sepals to petals indicating a novel role for PAN in the repression of AG in floral whorl one. These results indicate that PAN functions as an activator or repressor of AG expression in a whorl-specific fashion. The seu pan double mutants also display enhanced floral indeterminacy, resulting in the formation of fifth whorl structures and disruption of WUSCHEL (WUS) expression patterns revealing a novel role for SEU in floral meristem termination

    Knight Shift Anomalies in Heavy Electron Materials

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    We calculate non-linear Knight Shift KK vs. susceptibility χ\chi anomalies for Ce ions possessing local moments in metals. The ions are modeled with the Anderson Hamiltonian and studied within the non-crossing approximation (NCA). The Kvs.χK-vs.- \chi non-linearity diminishes with decreasing Kondo temperature T0T_0 and nuclear spin- local moment separation. Treating the Ce ions as an incoherent array in CeSn3_3, we find excellent agreement with the observed Sn K(T)K(T) data.Comment: 4 pages, Revtex, 3 figures available upon request from [email protected]

    Theory of One-Channel vs. Multi-Channel Kondo Effects for Ce3+^{3+} Impurities

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    We introduce a model for Ce3+^{3+} impurities in cubic metals which exhibits competition between the Fermi-liquid fixed point of the single channel Kondo model and the non-Fermi-liquid fixed point of the two- and three-channel Kondo models. Using the non-crossing approximation and scaling theory, we find: (i) A possible three-channel Kondo effect between the one- and two-channel regimes in parameter space. (ii) The sign of the thermopower is a fixed point diagnostic. (iii) Our results will likely survive the introduction of additional f2f^2 and conduction states. We apply this model to interpret the non-Fermi liquid alloy La1x_{1-x}Cex_xCu2.2_{2.2}Si2_2.Comment: 13 pages, Revtex, To appear in Phys. Rev. Let

    Calculations of the Knight Shift Anomalies in Heavy Electron Materials

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    We have studied the Knight shift K(r,T)K(\vec r, T) and magnetic susceptibility χ(T)\chi(T) of heavy electron materials, modeled by the infinite U Anderson model with the NCA method. A systematic study of K(r,T)K(\vec r, T) and χ(T)\chi(T) for different Kondo temperatures T0T_0 (which depends on the hybridization width Γ\Gamma) shows a low temperature anomaly (nonlinear relation between KK and χ\chi) which increases as the Kondo temperature T0T_0 and distance rr increase. We carried out an incoherent lattice sum by adding the K(r)K(\vec r) of a few hundred shells of rare earth atoms around a nucleus and compare the numerically calculated results with the experimental results. For CeSn_3, which is a concentrated heavy electron material, both the ^{119}Sn NMR Knight shift and positive muon Knight shift are studied. Also, lattice coherence effects by conduction electron scattering at every rare earth site are included using the average-T matrix approximation. Also NMR Knight shifts for YbCuAl and the proposed quadrupolar Kondo alloy Y_{0.8}U_{0.2}Pd_{3} are studied.Comment: 31 pages of RevTex, 22 Postscript figures, submmitted to PRB, some figures are delete

    Perceptions of knowledge sharing among small family firm leaders: a structural equation model

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    Small family firms have many unique relational qualities with implications for how knowledge is passed between individuals. Extant literature posits leadership approach as important in explaining differences in knowledge-sharing climate from one firm to another. This study investigates how leadership approaches interact with family influence to inform perceptions of knowledge sharing. We utilize survey data (n = 110) from owner-managers of knowledge-intensive small family firms in Scotland. Our findings present a choice in leadership intention, contrasting organization-focused participation against family-influenced guidance. Insight is offered on the implications of this leadership choice at both organizational and familial level

    Non-Fermi Liquid Behavior In Quantum Critical Systems

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    The problem of an electron gas interacting via exchanging transverse gauge bosons is studied using the renormalization group method. The long wavelength behavior of the gauge field is shown to be in the Gaussian universality class with a dynamical exponent z=3z=3 in dimensions D2D \geq 2. This implies that the gauge coupling constant is exactly marginal. Scattering of the electrons by the gauge mode leads to non-Fermi liquid behavior in D3D \leq 3. The asymptotic electron and gauge Green's functions, interaction vertex, specific heat and resistivity are presented.Comment: 9 pages in REVTEX 2.0. Submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett. 3 figures in postscript files can be obtained at [email protected]. The filename is gan.figures.tar.z and it's compressed. You can uncompress it by using commands: "uncompress gan.figures.tar.z" and "tar xvf gan.figures.tar

    Empirical Investigation on Agile Methods Usage: Issues Identified from Early Adopters in Malaysia

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    Agile Methods are a set of software practices that can help to produce products faster and at the same time deliver what customers want. Despite the benefits that Agile methods can deliver, however, we found few studies from the Southeast Asia region, particularly Malaysia. As a result, less empirical evidence can be obtained in the country making its implementation harder. To use a new method, experience from other practitioners is critical, which describes what is important, what is possible and what is not possible concerning Agile. We conducted a qualitative study to understand the issues faced by early adopters in Malaysia where Agile methods are still relatively new. The initial study involves 13 participants including project managers, CEOs, founders and software developers from seven organisations. Our study has shown that social and human aspects are important when using Agile methods. While technical aspects have always been considered to exist in software development, we found these factors to be less important when using Agile methods. The results obtained can serve as guidelines to practitioners in the country and the neighbouring regions
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