Nitrogen uptake and the importance of internal nitrogen loading in Lake Balaton

1. The importance of various forms of nitrogen to the nitrogen supply of phytoplankton has been investigated in the mesotrophic eastern and eutrophic western basin of Lake Balaton.<br /> 2. Uptake rates of ammonium, urea, nitrate and carbon were measured simultaneously. The uptake rates were determined using N-15 and C-14 methodologies, and N-2-fixation was measured using the acetylene-reduction method. The light dependence of uptake was described with an exponential saturation equation and used to calculate surface-related (areal) daily uptake. <br /> 3. The contribution of ammonium, urea and nitrate to the daily nitrogen supply of phytoplankton varied between 11 and 80%, 17 and 73% and 1 and 15%, respectively. N- 2-fixation was negligible in the eastern basin and varied between 5 and 30% in the western region of the lake. The annual external nitrogen load was only 10% of that utilized by algae.<br /> 4. The predominant process supplying nitrogen to the phytoplankton in the lake is the rapid recycling of ammonium and urea in the water column, The importance of the internal nutrient loading is emphasized

Charged Particle Motion in a Highly Ionized Plasma

A recently introduced method utilizing dimensional continuation is employed to compute the energy loss rate for a non-relativistic particle moving through a highly ionized plasma. No restriction is made on the charge, mass, or speed of this particle. It is, however, assumed that the plasma is not strongly coupled in the sense that the dimensionless plasma coupling parameter g=e^2\kappa_D/ 4\pi T is small, where \kappa_D is the Debye wave number of the plasma. To leading and next-to-leading order in this coupling, dE/dx is of the generic form g^2 \ln[C g^2]. The precise numerical coefficient out in front of the logarithm is well known. We compute the constant C under the logarithm exactly for arbitrary particle speeds. Our exact results differ from approximations given in the literature. The differences are in the range of 20% for cases relevant to inertial confinement fusion experiments. The same method is also employed to compute the rate of momentum loss for a projectile moving in a plasma, and the rate at which two plasmas at different temperatures come into thermal equilibrium. Again these calculations are done precisely to the order given above. The loss rates of energy and momentum uniquely define a Fokker-Planck equation that describes particle motion in the plasma. The coefficients determined in this way are thus well-defined, contain no arbitrary parameters or cutoffs, and are accurate to the order described. This Fokker-Planck equation describes the longitudinal straggling and the transverse diffusion of a beam of particles. It should be emphasized that our work does not involve a model, but rather it is a precisely defined evaluation of the leading terms in a well-defined perturbation theory.Comment: Comments: Published in Phys. Rep. 410/4 (2005) 237; RevTeX, 111 Pages, 17 Figures; Transcription error corrected in temperature equilibration rate (3.61) and (12.44) which replaces \gamma-2 by \gamma-

Rigorous theory of nuclear fusion rates in a plasma

Real-time thermal field theory is used to reveal the structure of plasma corrections to nuclear reactions. Previous results are recovered in a fashion that clarifies their nature, and new extensions are made. Brown and Yaffe have introduced the methods of effective quantum field theory into plasma physics. They are used here to treat the interesting limiting case of dilute but very highly charged particles reacting in a dilute, one-component plasma. The highly charged particles are very strongly coupled to this background plasma. The effective field theory proves that this mean field solution plus the one-loop term dominate; higher loop corrections are negligible even though the problem involves strong coupling. Such analytic results for very strong coupling are rarely available, and they can serve as benchmarks for testing computer models.Comment: 4 pages and 2 figures, presented at SCCS 2005, June 20-25, Moscow, Russi

Critical behavior in an evolutionary Ultimatum Game

Experimental studies have shown the ubiquity of altruistic behavior in human societies. The social structure is a fundamental ingredient to understand the degree of altruism displayed by the members of a society, in contrast to individual-based features, like for example age or gender, which have been shown not to be relevant to determine the level of altruistic behavior. We explore an evolutionary model aiming to delve how altruistic behavior is affected by social structure. We investigate the dynamics of interacting individuals playing the Ultimatum Game with their neighbors given by a social network of interaction. We show that a population self-organizes in a critical state where the degree of altruism depends on the topology characterizing the social structure. In general, individuals offering large shares but in turn accepting large shares, are removed from the population. In heterogeneous social networks, individuals offering intermediate shares are strongly selected in contrast to random homogeneous networks where a broad range of offers, below a critical one, is similarly present in the population.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figure

How much does teenage parenthood affect long term outcomes? A systematic review.

Background: The rates of teenage pregnancy in the UK are relatively high. Although early entry to parenthood can be a positive experience, most studies find large adverse effects on long term outcomes for the mother, child and father, in addition to being costly for the NHS. This is why the government launched its Teenage Pregnancy Strategy in 1999. However, there is growing evidence that teenage pregnancy might be mainly an indicator of disadvantage which is the underlying cause of the negative outcomes. Methods: A systematic literature review was undertaken of studies which used a UK dataset to quantify any long term outcomes of a teenage birth upon the mother, father or child. Studies were included if they used appropriate methods to isolate the causal effect of early parenthood. The databases searched included Medline, Cochrane, EconLit and Web of Science. Results: Six studies were identified by the review; five studies considered the mother’s socioeconomic outcomes, one study reported the child’s outcomes, and no studies met the inclusion criteria for the father’s outcomes. The studies suggested that early motherhood accounts for relatively few of the negative long term socioeconomic outcomes and it is predominantly an indicator of a disadvantaged family background. Conclusion: Limited evidence is available to understand the long term outcomes associated with teenage birth within the UK for the mother, father and child. Current econometric studies suggest that effective interventions to prevent teenage pregnancies will not eradicate the poorer long term socioeconomic outcomes often associated with early motherhood. Thus policy should focus on reducing initial disadvantage in addition to preventing teenage pregnancy. Additional econometric analyses around the mothers’, fathers’ and children’s long term socioeconomic and health-related outcomes would be valuable

A supersymmetric model of gamma ray bursts

We propose a model for gamma ray bursts in which a star subject to a high level of fermion degeneracy undergoes a phase transition to a supersymmetric state. The burst is initiated by the transition of fermion pairs to sfermion pairs which, uninhibited by the Pauli exclusion principle, can drop to the ground state of minimum momentum through photon emission. The jet structure is attributed to the Bose statistics of sfermions whereby subsequent sfermion pairs are preferentially emitted into the same state (sfermion amplification by stimulated emission). Bremsstrahlung gamma rays tend to preserve the directional information of the sfermion momenta and are themselves enhanced by stimulated emission.Comment: published versio

Solution of the Bohr hamiltonian for soft triaxial nuclei

The Bohr-Mottelson model is solved for a generic soft triaxial nucleus, separating the Bohr hamiltonian exactly and using a number of different model-potentials: a displaced harmonic oscillator in $\gamma$, which is solved with an approximated algebraic technique, and Coulomb/Kratzer, harmonic/Davidson and infinite square well potentials in $\beta$, which are solved exactly. In each case we derive analytic expressions for the eigenenergies which are then used to calculate energy spectra. Here we study the chain of osmium isotopes and we compare our results with experimental information and previous calculations.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figure