618 research outputs found
The role of asymmetric interactions on the effect of habitat destruction in mutualistic networks
Plant-pollinator mutualistic networks are asymmetric in their interactions:
specialist plants are pollinated by generalist animals, while generalist plants
are pollinated by a broad involving specialists and generalists. It has been
suggested that this asymmetric ---or disassortative--- assemblage could play an
important role in determining the equal susceptibility of specialist and
generalist plants under habitat destruction. At the core of the argument lies
the observation that specialist plants, otherwise candidates to extinction,
could cope with the disruption thanks to their interaction with generalist
pollinators. We present a theoretical framework that supports this thesis. We
analyze a dynamical model of a system of mutualistic plants and pollinators,
subject to the destruction of their habitat. We analyze and compare two
families of interaction topologies, ranging from highly assortative to highly
disassortative ones, as well as real pollination networks. We found that
several features observed in natural systems are predicted by the mathematical
model. First, there is a tendency to increase the asymmetry of the network as a
result of the extinctions. Second, an entropy measure of the differential
susceptibility to extinction of specialist and generalist species show that
they tend to balance when the network is disassortative. Finally, the
disappearance of links in the network, as a result of extinctions, shows that
specialist plants preserve more connections than the corresponding plants in an
assortative system, enabling them to resist the disruption.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figure
Effective Lagrangian approach to vector mesons, their structure and decays
An improved update of the structure and decays of , and
mesons based on a chiral SU(3) Lagrangian, including anomaly terms is
presented. We demonstrate that a consistent and quantitatively successful
description of both pion and kaon electromagnetic form factors can be achieved.
We also discuss the cross section, the Dalitz
decay and aspects of and mixing. Relations to previous versions of the Vector Meson Dominance
model will be examined.Comment: 35 pages, TeX, 14 ps figures, submitted to Z.Phys.
Investigating human audio-visual object perception with a combination of hypothesis-generating and hypothesis-testing fMRI analysis tools
Primate multisensory object perception involves distributed brain regions. To investigate the network character of these regions of the human brain, we applied data-driven group spatial independent component analysis (ICA) to a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data set acquired during a passive audio-visual (AV) experiment with common object stimuli. We labeled three group-level independent component (IC) maps as auditory (A), visual (V), and AV, based on their spatial layouts and activation time courses. The overlap between these IC maps served as definition of a distributed network of multisensory candidate regions including superior temporal, ventral occipito-temporal, posterior parietal and prefrontal regions. During an independent second fMRI experiment, we explicitly tested their involvement in AV integration. Activations in nine out of these twelve regions met the max-criterion (A < AV > V) for multisensory integration. Comparison of this approach with a general linear model-based region-of-interest definition revealed its complementary value for multisensory neuroimaging. In conclusion, we estimated functional networks of uni- and multisensory functional connectivity from one dataset and validated their functional roles in an independent dataset. These findings demonstrate the particular value of ICA for multisensory neuroimaging research and using independent datasets to test hypotheses generated from a data-driven analysis
Assessment of yield losses caused by chickpea chlorotic dwarf geminivirus in chickpea (Cicer arietinum) in India
Inhibition of 11βHSD1 with the S-phenylethylaminothiazolone BVT116429 increases adiponectin concentrations and improves glucose homeostasis in diabetic KKAy mice
Diversity amongst farm households and achievements from multi-stakeholder innovation platform approach: lessons from Balaka Malawi
Topological Cluster Analysis Reveals the Systemic Organization of the Caenorhabditis elegans Connectome
The modular organization of networks of individual neurons interwoven through synapses has not been fully explored due to the incredible complexity of the connectivity architecture. Here we use the modularity-based community detection method for directed, weighted networks to examine hierarchically organized modules in the complete wiring diagram (connectome) of Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) and to investigate their topological properties. Incorporating bilateral symmetry of the network as an important cue for proper cluster assignment, we identified anatomical clusters in the C. elegans connectome, including a body-spanning cluster, which correspond to experimentally identified functional circuits. Moreover, the hierarchical organization of the five clusters explains the systemic cooperation (e.g., mechanosensation, chemosensation, and navigation) that occurs among the structurally segregated biological circuits to produce higher-order complex behaviors
Measuring the impact of cancer: a comparison of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and breast cancer survivors
Introduction Self-report instruments such as the Impact of Cancer (IOC) are designed to measure quality of life (QOL) impacts that cancer survivors attribute to their cancer experience. Generalizability of QOL findings across dis-tinct diagnostic categories of survivors is untested. W
A review of elliptical and disc galaxy structure, and modern scaling laws
A century ago, in 1911 and 1913, Plummer and then Reynolds introduced their
models to describe the radial distribution of stars in `nebulae'. This article
reviews the progress since then, providing both an historical perspective and a
contemporary review of the stellar structure of bulges, discs and elliptical
galaxies. The quantification of galaxy nuclei, such as central mass deficits
and excess nuclear light, plus the structure of dark matter halos and cD galaxy
envelopes, are discussed. Issues pertaining to spiral galaxies including dust,
bulge-to-disc ratios, bulgeless galaxies, bars and the identification of
pseudobulges are also reviewed. An array of modern scaling relations involving
sizes, luminosities, surface brightnesses and stellar concentrations are
presented, many of which are shown to be curved. These 'redshift zero'
relations not only quantify the behavior and nature of galaxies in the Universe
today, but are the modern benchmark for evolutionary studies of galaxies,
whether based on observations, N-body-simulations or semi-analytical modelling.
For example, it is shown that some of the recently discovered compact
elliptical galaxies at 1.5 < z < 2.5 may be the bulges of modern disc galaxies.Comment: Condensed version (due to Contract) of an invited review article to
appear in "Planets, Stars and Stellar
Systems"(www.springer.com/astronomy/book/978-90-481-8818-5). 500+ references
incl. many somewhat forgotten, pioneer papers. Original submission to
Springer: 07-June-201
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