658 research outputs found
Conservation Biology in Sub-Saharan Africa
Conservation Biology in Sub-Saharan Africa comprehensively explores the challenges and potential solutions to key conservation issues in Sub-Saharan Africa. Easy to read, this lucid and accessible textbook includes fifteen chapters that cover a full range of conservation topics, including threats to biodiversity, environmental laws, and protected areas management, as well as related topics such as sustainability, poverty, and human-wildlife conflict. This rich resource also includes a background discussion of what conservation biology is, a wide range of theoretical approaches to the subject, and concrete examples of conservation practice in specific African contexts. Strategies are outlined to protect biodiversity whilst promoting economic development in the region. Boxes covering specific themes written by scientists who live and work throughout the region are included in each chapter, together with recommended readings and suggested discussion topics. Each chapter also includes an extensive bibliography. Conservation Biology in Sub-Saharan Africa provides the most up-to-date study in the field. It is an essential resource, available on-line without charge, for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as a handy guide for professionals working to stop the rapid loss of biodiversity in Sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere
Understanding large-scale structure in the SSA22 protocluster region using cosmological simulations
We investigate the nature and evolution of large-scale structure within the
SSA22 protocluster region at using cosmological simulations. A
redshift histogram constructed from current spectroscopic observations of the
SSA22 protocluster reveals two separate peaks at (blue) and (red). Based on these data, we report updated overdensity and mass
calculations for the SSA22 protocluster. We find ,
for the blue and red peaks, respectively, and
for the entire region. These overdensities
correspond to masses of , , and
for the red, blue, and
total peaks, respectively. We use the Small MultiDark Planck (SMDPL) simulation
to identify comparably massive protoclusters, and uncover the
underlying structure and ultimate fate of the SSA22 protocluster. For this
analysis, we construct mock redshift histograms for each simulated
protocluster, quantitatively comparing them with the observed SSA22 data. We
find that the observed double-peaked structure in the SSA22 redshift histogram
corresponds not to a single coalescing cluster, but rather the proximity of a
protocluster and at least one cluster progenitor. Such associations in the SMDPL simulation are
easily understood within the framework of hierarchical clustering of dark
matter halos. We finally find that the opportunity to observe such a phenomenon
is incredibly rare, with an occurrence rate of 7.4h^3 \mbox{ Gpc}^{-3}.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, Accepted to Ap
Conservation Biology in Sub-Saharan Africa
"Conservation Biology in Sub-Saharan Africa comprehensively explores the challenges and potential solutions to key conservation issues in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Easy to read, this lucid and accessible textbook includes fifteen chapters that cover a full range of conservation topics, including threats to biodiversity, environmental laws, and protected areas management, as well as related topics such as sustainability, poverty, and human-wildlife conflict. This rich resource also includes a background discussion of what conservation biology is, a wide range of theoretical approaches to the subject, and concrete examples of conservation practice in specific African contexts. Strategies are outlined to protect biodiversity whilst promoting economic development in the region.
Boxes covering specific themes written by scientists who live and work throughout the region are included in each chapter, together with recommended readings and suggested discussion topics. Each chapter also includes an extensive bibliography.
Conservation Biology in Sub-Saharan Africa provides the most up-to-date study in the field. It is an essential resource, available on-line without charge, for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as a handy guide for professionals working to stop the rapid loss of biodiversity in Sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere.
The Milky Way as a Kiloparsec-Scale Axionscope
Very high energy gamma-rays are expected to be absorbed by the extragalactic
background light over cosmological distances via the process of
electron-positron pair production. Recent observations of cosmologically
distant gamma-ray emitters by ground based gamma-ray telescopes have, however,
revealed a surprising degree of transparency of the universe to very high
energy photons. One possible mechanism to explain this observation is the
oscillation between photons and axion-like-particles (ALPs). Here we explore
this possibility further, focusing on photon-ALP conversion in the magnetic
fields in and around gamma-ray sources and in the magnetic field of the Milky
Way, where some fraction of the ALP flux is converted back into photons. We
show that this mechanism can be efficient in allowed regions of the ALP
parameter space, as well as in typical configurations of the Galactic Magnetic
Field. As case examples, we consider the spectrum observed from two HESS
sources: 1ES1101-232 at redshift z=0.186 and H 2356-309 at z=0.165. We also
discuss features of this scenario which could be used to distinguish it from
standard or other exotic models.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures. Matches published versio
Hierarchy and Wave Functions in a Simple Quantum Cosmology
Astrophysical observations indicate the expansion of the universe is
accelerating. Applying the holographic entropy conjecture to the cosmological
horizon in an accelerating universe suggests the universe has only a finite
number of degrees of freedom. This is consistent with a closed universe arising
from a quantum fluctuation, with zero total quantum numbers. If space-time has
eleven dimensions, and the universe began as a closed force-symmetric
ten-dimensional space with characteristic dimension L, seven of the space
dimensions must have collapsed to generate the three large space dimensions we
see. The holographic conjecture then suggests the initial length scale L must
be roughly twenty orders of magnitude larger than the Planck length.
Accordingly, the nuclear force must be roughly forty orders of magnitude
stronger than gravity, possibly resolving the force hierarchy problem. A
wavefunction for the radius of curvature of the universe can be obtained from
the Schrodinger equation derived by Elbaz and Novello. The product of this
wavefunction and its complex conjugate can be interpreted as the probability
density for finding a given radius of curvature in one of the infinity of
measurements of the radius of curvature possible (in principle) at any location
in a homogeneous isotropic universe.Comment: 4 pages, no figures, abstract corrected to insert omitted word
Evidence for an axion-like particle from PKS 1222+216?
The surprising discovery by MAGIC of an intense, rapidly varying emission in
the energy range 70 - 400 GeV from the flat spectrum radio quasar PKS 1222+216
represents a challenge for all interpretative scenarios. Indeed, in order to
avoid absorption of \gamma rays in the dense ultraviolet radiation field of the
broad line region (BLR), one is forced to invoke some unconventional
astrophysical picture, like for instance the existence of a very compact (r\sim
10^{14} cm) emitting blob at a large distance (R \sim10^{18} cm) from the jet
base. We offer the investigation of a scenario based on the standard blazar
model for PKS 1222+216 where \gamma rays are produced close to the central
engine, but we add the new assumption that inside the source photons can
oscillate into axion-like particles (ALPs), which are a generic prediction of
several extensions of the Standard Model of elementary particle interactions.
As a result, a considerable fraction of very-high-energy photons can escape
absorption from the BLR through the mechanism of photon-ALP oscillations much
in the same way as they largely avoid absorption from extragalactic background
light when propagating over cosmic distances in the presence of large-scale
magnetic fields in the nG range. In addition we show that the above MAGIC
observations and the simultaneous Fermi/LAT observations in the energy range
0.3 - 3 GeV can both be explained by a standard spectral energy distribution
for experimentally allowed values of the model parameters. In particular, we
need a very light ALP just like in the case of photon-ALP oscillations in
cosmic space. Moreover, we find it quite tantalizing that the most favorable
value of the photon-ALP coupling happens to be the same in both situations.
Although our ALPs cannot contribute to the cold dark matter, they are a viable
candidate for the quintessential dark energy. [abridged]Comment: 32 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review
On the Accuracy of the Semiclassical Trace Formula
The semiclassical trace formula provides the basic construction from which
one derives the semiclassical approximation for the spectrum of quantum systems
which are chaotic in the classical limit. When the dimensionality of the system
increases, the mean level spacing decreases as , while the
semiclassical approximation is commonly believed to provide an accuracy of
order , independently of d. If this were true, the semiclassical trace
formula would be limited to systems in d <= 2 only. In the present work we set
about to define proper measures of the semiclassical spectral accuracy, and to
propose theoretical and numerical evidence to the effect that the semiclassical
accuracy, measured in units of the mean level spacing, depends only weakly (if
at all) on the dimensionality. Detailed and thorough numerical tests were
performed for the Sinai billiard in 2 and 3 dimensions, substantiating the
theoretical arguments.Comment: LaTeX, 31 pages, 14 figures, final version (minor changes
Spatially resolved kinematics in the central 1 kpc of a compact star-forming galaxy at z=2.3 from ALMA CO observations
We present high spatial resolution (FWHM0.14'') observations of the
CO() line in GDS-14876, a compact star-forming galaxy at with
total stellar mass of . The spatially resolved
velocity map of the inner ~kpc reveals a continous velocity
gradient consistent with the kinematics of a rotating disk with km s and . The
gas-to-stellar ratios estimated from CO() and the dust continuum emission
span a broad range, and
, but are nonetheless consistent given the
uncertainties in the conversion factors. The dynamical modeling yields a
dynamical mass of which is
lower, but still consistent with the baryonic mass, (M=
M + M/M), if the smallest
CO-based gas fraction is assumed. Despite a low, overall gas fraction, the
small physical extent of the dense, star-forming gas probed by CO(),
smaller than the stellar size, implies a strong concentration
that increases the gas fraction up to
in the central 1 kpc. Such a gas-rich center, coupled with a high
star-formation rate, SFR 500 M yr, suggests that
GDS-14876 is quickly assembling a dense stellar component (bulge) in a strong
nuclear starburst. Assuming its gas reservoir is depleted without
replenishment, GDS-14876 will quickly ( Myr) become a
compact quiescent galaxy that could retain some fraction of the observed
rotational support.Comment: Accepted for Publication in ApJL. Kinematic maps are shown in Figures
2 and
A Statistical Estimator for Determining the Limits of Contemporary and Historic Phenology
Climate change affects not just where species are found, but also when species’ key life-history events occur—their phenology. Measuring such changes in timing is often hampered by a reliance on biased survey data: surveys identify that an event has taken place (for example, the flower is in bloom), but not when that event happened (for example, the flower bloomed yesterday). Here, we show that this problem can be circumvented using statistical estimators, which can provide accurate and unbiased estimates from sparsely sampled observations. We demonstrate that such methods can resolve an ongoing debate about the relative timings of the onset and cessation of flowering, and allow us to place modern observations reliably within the context of the vast wealth of historical data that reside in herbaria, museum collections, and written records. We also analyse large-scale citizen science data from the United States National Phenology Network and reveal not just earlier but also potentially more variable flowering in recent years. Evidence for greater variability through time is important because increases in variation are characteristic of systems approaching a state change
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