2,643 research outputs found
Exploring context dependency in ecoāevolutionary patterns with the stick insect Timema cristinae
Rapid evolution can influence the ecology of populations, communities, and ecosystems, but the importance of evolution for ecological dynamics remains unclear, largely because the contexts in which evolution is powerful are poorly resolved. Here, we carry out a large observational study to test hypotheses about context dependency of ecoāevolutionary patterns previously identified on the stick insect Timema cristinae . Experiments and observations conducted in 2011 and 2012 documented predatorāmediated negative effects of camouflage maladaptation (i.e., evolutionary dynamics) on: (a) T. cristinae abundance and, (b) species richness and abundance of other arthropods. Here we show that camouflage maladaptation does not correlate with T. cristinae abundance and, instead, is associated with increased abundance and species richness of cohabitating arthropods. We furthermore find that plants with high levels of Timema maladaptation tend to have higher foliar nitrogen, that is, higher nutritional value, and more positive massāabundance slopes in the coexisting arthropod communities. We propose explanations for the observed contrasting results, such as negative densityā and frequencyādependent selection, feedbacks between herbivore abundance and plant nutritional quality, and common effects of predation pressure on selection and prey abundance. Our results demonstrate the utility of observational studies to assess the context dependency of ecoāevolutionary dynamics patterns and provide testable hypotheses for future work
Visual test for detection of pathological glycosaminoglycans excretion in mucopolysaccharidoses. A diagnostic tool in paediatric rheumatology
PMH62 THE SPANISH VERSION OF THE TOOL QUESTIONNAIRE: VALIDATION OF A SPECIFIC MEASURE TO EVALUATE HEALTH RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE (HRQOL) IN PATIENTS WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA AND BIPOLAR DISORDER
MEG spectral analysis in subtypes of mild cognitive impairment
Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) has been described as an intermediate stage between normal aging and dementia. Previous studies characterized the alterations of brain oscillatory activity at this stage, but little is known about the differences between single and multidomain amnestic MCI patients. In order to study the patterns of oscillatory magnetic activity in amnestic MCI subtypes, a total of 105 subjects underwent an eyes-closed resting-state magnetoencephalographic recording: 36 healthy controls, 33 amnestic single domain MCIs (a-sd-MCI), and 36 amnestic multidomain MCIs (a-md-MCI). Relative power values were calculated and compared among groups. Subsequently, relative power values were correlated with neuropsychological tests scores and hippocampal volumes. Both MCI groups showed an increase in relative power in lower frequency bands (delta and theta frequency ranges) and a decrease in power values in higher frequency bands (alpha and beta frequency ranges), as compared with the control group. More importantly, clear differences emerged from the comparison between the two amnestic MCI subtypes. The a-md-MCI group showed a significant power increase within delta and theta ranges and reduced relative power within alpha and beta ranges. Such pattern correlated with the neuropsychological performance, indicating that the a-md-MCI subtype is associated not only with a "slowing" of the spectrum but also with a poorer cognitive status. These results suggest that a-md-MCI patients are characterized by a brain activity profile that is closer to that observed in Alzheimer disease. Therefore, it might be hypothesized that the likelihood of conversion to dementia would be higher within this subtype
Riparian reserves protect butterfly communities in selectively logged tropical forest
Selective logging is the most widespread habitat disturbance in tropical forests. Primary forest set-asides along riparian zones are mandated in many countries and a key question is whether these riparian reserves provide biodiversity conservation benefits. We characterise butterfly communities in fixed-width riparian reserves of 30ām on each bank along narrow streams (<10 m) paired with interior logged forest transects, and in primary forests within a selective logging concession in the south-western Brazilian Amazon. We found that primary forest species richness was more similar to riparian reserves than to paired interior logged forest points, whereas abundance remained higher in both riparian reserves and interior logged points, likely due to the intrusion of canopy-dwelling species in disturbed habitats, as previously reported in the literature. Butterfly assemblages within riparian reserves were more similar to unlogged primary forests than interior logged points, and canopy height in riparian reserves was associated with increased assemblage similarity to primary forest points. Changes in abundance relative to primary forest were of a larger magnitude in interior logged points than in riparian reserves within logged forests, highlighting the role of riparian reserves in maintaining primary forest-like communities. We found no particular primary forest butterfly clades to be more sensitive to changes in abundance than other clades. Synthesis and applications. Mandatory conservation set-asides around streams or rivers (riparian buffers) have an important role in protecting the abundance and composition of primary forest butterfly assemblages within selective logging concessions in tropical rainforests. This study highlights the need to assess the conservation value of protecting unlogged riparian forest strips in other taxa to inform policy
Quantization of pure gravitational plane waves
Pure gravitational plane waves are considered as a special case of spacetimes
with two commuting spacelike Killing vector fields. Starting with a
midisuperspace that describes this kind of spacetimes, we introduce
gauge-fixing and symmetry conditions that remove all non-physical degrees of
freedom and ensure that the classical solutions are plane waves. In this way,
we arrive at a reduced model with no constraints and whose only degrees of
freedom are given by two fields. In a suitable coordinate system, the reduced
Hamiltonian that generates the time evolution of this model turns out to
vanish, so that all relevant information is contained in the symplectic
structure. We calculate this symplectic structure and particularize our
discussion to the case of linearly polarized plane waves. The reduced phase
space can then be described by an infinite set of annihilation and creation
like variables. We finally quantize the linearly polarized model by introducing
a Fock representation for these variables.Comment: 11 pages, Revtex, no figure
Material resources, energy, and nutrient recovery from waste: are waste refineries the solution for the future?
Search for squarks and gluinos in events with isolated leptons, jets and missing transverse momentum at sā=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector
The results of a search for supersymmetry in final states containing at least one isolated lepton (electron or muon), jets and large missing transverse momentum with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider are reported. The search is based on proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy sā=8 TeV collected in 2012, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20 fbā1. No significant excess above the Standard Model expectation is observed. Limits are set on supersymmetric particle masses for various supersymmetric models. Depending on the model, the search excludes gluino masses up to 1.32 TeV and squark masses up to 840 GeV. Limits are also set on the parameters of a minimal universal extra dimension model, excluding a compactification radius of 1/R c = 950 GeV for a cut-off scale times radius (ĪR c) of approximately 30
Measurements of fiducial and differential cross sections for Higgs boson production in the diphoton decay channel at sā=8 TeV with ATLAS
Measurements of fiducial and differential cross sections are presented for Higgs boson production in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of sā=8 TeV. The analysis is performed in the H ā Ī³Ī³ decay channel using 20.3 fbā1 of data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The signal is extracted using a fit to the diphoton invariant mass spectrum assuming that the width of the resonance is much smaller than the experimental resolution. The signal yields are corrected for the effects of detector inefficiency and resolution. The pp ā H ā Ī³Ī³ fiducial cross section is measured to be 43.2 Ā±9.4(stat.) āā2.9 +ā3.2 (syst.) Ā±1.2(lumi)fb for a Higgs boson of mass 125.4GeV decaying to two isolated photons that have transverse momentum greater than 35% and 25% of the diphoton invariant mass and each with absolute pseudorapidity less than 2.37. Four additional fiducial cross sections and two cross-section limits are presented in phase space regions that test the theoretical modelling of different Higgs boson production mechanisms, or are sensitive to physics beyond the Standard Model. Differential cross sections are also presented, as a function of variables related to the diphoton kinematics and the jet activity produced in the Higgs boson events. The observed spectra are statistically limited but broadly in line with the theoretical expectations
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