892 research outputs found
Le thon : enjeux et stratégies pour l'océan Indien
Le problĂšme de l'accĂšs aux ressources et aux droits de pĂȘche est une des questions majeures qui se pose Ă l'Ă©chelle des ressources mondiales et doit ĂȘtre abordĂ© et structurĂ© selon deux voies : le mode d'allocation des droits de pĂȘche et le mode de retour des revenus de l'exploitation au propriĂ©taire dĂ©tenteur gestionnaire initial, lĂ©gitime. Ce problĂšme ne se pose pas dans une pĂȘcherie ouverte en libre accĂšs ou non gĂ©rĂ©e, bien que la participation Ă cette forme d'exploitation non rĂ©glementĂ©e induit une forme de rente ou de quasi-rente. Le document prĂ©sente une dĂ©finition de la rente Ă©conomique dans le contexte d'une pĂȘcherie gĂ©rĂ©e, rĂ©glementĂ©e et la distingue d'autres types de rentes qui peuvent provenir de la mise en oeuvre d'autres facteurs de production. La mesure de cette rente de pĂȘche est ainsi dĂ©crite en illustrant les principales difficultĂ©s provenant de l'Ă©valuation prĂ©cise de la valeur de cette rente. Les bĂ©nĂ©fices et les coĂ»ts d'opĂ©ration de pĂȘche par des flottilles Ă©trangĂšres sont examinĂ©s dans le contexte et la perspective d'une participation des propriĂ©taires de la ressource locale, domestique, dans la pĂȘcherie. (RĂ©sumĂ© d'auteur
Nonlocality in mesoscopic Josephson junctions with strip geometry
We study the current in a clean superconductor-normal-metal-superconductor
junction of length d and width w in the presence of an applied magnetic field
H. We show that both the geometrical pattern of the current density and the
critical current as a function of the total flux in the junction, depend on the
ratio of the Josephson vortex distance a_0 and the range r of the nonlocal
electrodynamics. In particular, the critical current has the periodicity of the
superconducting flux quantum only for r<a_0 and acquires, due to boundary
effects, the double (pseudo-) periodicity for strong nonlocality, r>a_0.
Comparing our results to recent experiments of Heida et al. [Phys. Rev. B 57,
R5618 (1998)] we find good agreement.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, to be published in the RC section of Phys. Rev.
TGFÎČ inhibition stimulates collagen maturation to enhance bone repair and fracture resistance in a murine myeloma model
Multiple myeloma is a plasma cell malignancy that causes debilitating bone disease and fractures, in which TGFÎČ plays a central role. Current treatments do not repair existing damage and fractures remain a common occurrence. We developed a novel low tumour phase murine model mimicking the plateau phase in patients, as we hypothesized this would be an ideal time to treat with a bone anabolic. Using in vivo microCT we show substantial and rapid bone lesion repair (and prevention) driven by SDâ208 (TGFÎČ receptor I kinase inhibitor) and chemotherapy (bortezomib and lenalidomide) in mice with human U266âGFPâluc myeloma. We discovered that lesion repair occurred via an intramembranous fracture repairâlike mechanism and that SDâ208 enhanced collagen matrix maturation to significantly improve fracture resistance. Lesion healing was associated with VEGFA expression in woven bone, reduced osteocyteâderived PTHrP, increased osteoblasts, decreased osteoclasts and lower serum TRACPâ5b. SDâ208 also completely prevented bone lesion development mice with aggressive JJN3 tumors, and was more effective than an antiâTGFÎČ neutralizing antibody (1D11). We also discovered that SDâ208 promoted osteoblastic differentiation (and overcame the TGFÎČâinduced block in osteoblastogenesis) in myeloma patient bone marrow stromal cells in vitro, comparable to normal donors. The improved bone quality and fractureâresistance with SDâ208 provides incentive for clinical translation to improve myeloma patient quality of life by reducing fracture risk and fatality
Fuzzy logic modelling of snow leopard populations in response to threats from climate change
The snow leopard population in Kazakhstan represents a small but important component of the species range, making up around 2.7% of the global range, of which 18,673 km2 lies within protected areas. The most recent population estimate, by Jackson et al. (2008), suggests that there are around 180-200 individuals. Prior to this study there were no reliable estimates of snow leopard numbers in Almaty State Nature Reserve, one of the only two stable populations of snow leopards in Kazakhstan. In total 40 camera traps were deployed for a total of 5152 traps nights and yielded 50 independent capture events of snow leopards (with between 1 and 10 images per event), 275 capture events of primary prey and 68 capture events of secondary prey. The study capture rate of 0.97 independent capture events per 100 trap nights is at the higher end of the range experienced by other studies (see McCarthy et al., 2008) and mark-recapture modelling estimated 11-18 individual snow leopards in the study area which suggests density between 4.4 and 7.2 individuals per 100km2. Our population estimate for the whole reserve is 39.6 individuals, with a standard error of 5.44536 individuals and a 95% confidence interval of 39 to 64. Analysis of movement patterns suggests that individuals frequently crossed valley bottoms and used densely forested habitat in winter, which may indicated prey switching from ibex to forest ungulates. The University of Cumbria has developed a fuzzy logic model which aggregates a wide range of socio-economic and ecological data and provides a tool that can be used to inform the sustainable natural resource and landscape management decision-making process. Our model predicts the consistent negative impact of climate change (warming) at elevations below the tree line; this is particularly significant as the potential positive impacts for snow leopards at high elevation are slower to kick in thereby increasing the habitat squeeze associated with climate change in mountain habitats
Structural and Functional Changes across the Visual Cortex of a Patient with Visual Form Agnosia
Loss of shape recognition in visual-form agnosia occurs without equivalent losses in the use of vision to guide actions, providing support
for the hypothesis of two visual systems (for âperceptionâ and âactionâ). The human individual DF received a toxic exposure to carbon
monoxide some years ago, which resulted in a persisting visual-form agnosia that has been extensively characterized at the behavioral
level.We conducted a detailed high-resolution MRI study of DFâs cortex, combining structural andfunctional measurements.We present
the first accurate quantification of the changes in thickness across DFâs occipital cortex, finding the most substantial loss in the lateral
occipital cortex (LOC). There are reduced white matter connections between LOC and other areas. Functional measures show pockets of
activity that survive within structurally damaged areas. The topographic mapping of visual areas showed that ordered retinotopic maps
were evident for DF in the ventral portions of visual cortical areas V1, V2, V3, and hV4. Although V1 shows evidence of topographic order
in its dorsal portion, such maps could not befound inthe dorsal parts of V2 and V3. We concludethat it is not possibleto understandfully
the deficits in object perception in visual-form agnosia without the exploitation of both structural and functional measurements. Our
results also highlight for DF the cortical routes through which visual information is able to pass to support her well-documented abilities
to use visual information to guide actions
Split-off dimer defects on the Si(001)2x1 surface
Dimer vacancy (DV) defect complexes in the Si(001)2x1 surface were
investigated using high-resolution scanning tunneling microscopy and first
principles calculations. We find that under low bias filled-state tunneling
conditions, isolated 'split-off' dimers in these defect complexes are imaged as
pairs of protrusions while the surrounding Si surface dimers appear as the
usual 'bean-shaped' protrusions. We attribute this to the formation of pi-bonds
between the two atoms of the split-off dimer and second layer atoms, and
present charge density plots to support this assignment. We observe a local
brightness enhancement due to strain for different DV complexes and provide the
first experimental confirmation of an earlier prediction that the 1+2-DV
induces less surface strain than other DV complexes. Finally, we present a
previously unreported triangular shaped split-off dimer defect complex that
exists at SB-type step edges, and propose a structure for this defect involving
a bound Si monomer.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Subjective expectations of medical expenditures and insurance in rural Ethiopia
Little is known about perceptions of medical expenditure risks despite their presumed relevance to health insurance demand. This paper reports on a unique elicitation of subjective probabilities of medical expenditures from rural Ethiopians who are offered the opportunity to purchase health insurance. We find that expectations are positively correlated with past expenses to a degree that exceeds the serial correlation in realized expenditures, suggesting overestimation of persistence and underestimation of the potential gains from insurance. Despite the fact that forecast expenditures do predict realized expenditures to some extent, there is no evidence that expectations influence the decision to take out health insurance, although plans to insure are positively related to the perce
Dilatonic global strings
We examine the field equations of a self-gravitating global string in low
energy superstring gravity, allowing for an arbitrary coupling of the global
string to the dilaton. Massive and massless dilatons are considered. For the
massive dilaton the spacetime is similar to the recently discovered
non-singular time-dependent Einstein self-gravitating global string, but the
massless dilaton generically gives a singular spacetime, even allowing for
time-dependence. We also demonstrate a time-dependent non-singular
string/anti-string configuration, in which the string pair causes a
compactification of two of the spatial dimensions, albeit on a very large
scale.Comment: 18 pages RevTeX, 3 figures, references amende
Measurement of and charged current inclusive cross sections and their ratio with the T2K off-axis near detector
We report a measurement of cross section and the first measurements of the cross section
and their ratio
at (anti-)neutrino energies below 1.5
GeV. We determine the single momentum bin cross section measurements, averaged
over the T2K -flux, for the detector target material (mainly
Carbon, Oxygen, Hydrogen and Copper) with phase space restricted laboratory
frame kinematics of 500 MeV/c. The
results are and $\sigma(\nu)=\left( 2.41\
\pm0.022{\rm{(stat.)}}\pm0.231{\rm (syst.)}\ \right)\times10^{-39}^{2}R\left(\frac{\sigma(\bar{\nu})}{\sigma(\nu)}\right)=
0.373\pm0.012{\rm (stat.)}\pm0.015{\rm (syst.)}$.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figure
Magnetic Field Amplification in Galaxy Clusters and its Simulation
We review the present theoretical and numerical understanding of magnetic
field amplification in cosmic large-scale structure, on length scales of galaxy
clusters and beyond. Structure formation drives compression and turbulence,
which amplify tiny magnetic seed fields to the microGauss values that are
observed in the intracluster medium. This process is intimately connected to
the properties of turbulence and the microphysics of the intra-cluster medium.
Additional roles are played by merger induced shocks that sweep through the
intra-cluster medium and motions induced by sloshing cool cores. The accurate
simulation of magnetic field amplification in clusters still poses a serious
challenge for simulations of cosmological structure formation. We review the
current literature on cosmological simulations that include magnetic fields and
outline theoretical as well as numerical challenges.Comment: 60 pages, 19 Figure
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