9,943 research outputs found
Double-impulse magnetic focusing of launched cold atoms.
We have theoretically investigated three-dimensional focusing of a launched cloud of cold atoms using a pair of magnetic lens pulses (the alternate-gradient method). Individual lenses focus radially and defocus axially or vice versa. The performance of the two possible pulse sequences are compared and found to be ideal for loading both 'pancake' and 'sausage' shaped magnetic/optical microtraps. It is shown that focusing aberrations are considerably smaller for double-impulse magnetic lenses compared to single-impulse magnetic lenses. An analysis of clouds focused by the double-impulse technique is presented
Directional genetic differentiation and asymmetric migration
Understanding the population structure and patterns of gene flow within
species is of fundamental importance to the study of evolution. In the fields
of population and evolutionary genetics, measures of genetic differentiation
are commonly used to gather this information. One potential caveat is that
these measures assume gene flow to be symmetric. However, asymmetric gene flow
is common in nature, especially in systems driven by physical processes such as
wind or water currents. Since information about levels of asymmetric gene flow
among populations is essential for the correct interpretation of the
distribution of contemporary genetic diversity within species, this should not
be overlooked. To obtain information on asymmetric migration patterns from
genetic data, complex models based on maximum likelihood or Bayesian approaches
generally need to be employed, often at great computational cost. Here, a new
simpler and more efficient approach for understanding gene flow patterns is
presented. This approach allows the estimation of directional components of
genetic divergence between pairs of populations at low computational effort,
using any of the classical or modern measures of genetic differentiation. These
directional measures of genetic differentiation can further be used to
calculate directional relative migration and to detect asymmetries in gene flow
patterns. This can be done in a user-friendly web application called
divMigrate-online introduced in this paper. Using simulated data sets with
known gene flow regimes, we demonstrate that the method is capable of resolving
complex migration patterns under a range of study designs.Comment: 25 pages, 8 (+3) figures, 1 tabl
On the complexity of strongly connected components in directed hypergraphs
We study the complexity of some algorithmic problems on directed hypergraphs
and their strongly connected components (SCCs). The main contribution is an
almost linear time algorithm computing the terminal strongly connected
components (i.e. SCCs which do not reach any components but themselves).
"Almost linear" here means that the complexity of the algorithm is linear in
the size of the hypergraph up to a factor alpha(n), where alpha is the inverse
of Ackermann function, and n is the number of vertices. Our motivation to study
this problem arises from a recent application of directed hypergraphs to
computational tropical geometry.
We also discuss the problem of computing all SCCs. We establish a superlinear
lower bound on the size of the transitive reduction of the reachability
relation in directed hypergraphs, showing that it is combinatorially more
complex than in directed graphs. Besides, we prove a linear time reduction from
the well-studied problem of finding all minimal sets among a given family to
the problem of computing the SCCs. Only subquadratic time algorithms are known
for the former problem. These results strongly suggest that the problem of
computing the SCCs is harder in directed hypergraphs than in directed graphs.Comment: v1: 32 pages, 7 figures; v2: revised version, 34 pages, 7 figure
Historical changes in the phenology of British Odonata are related to climate
Responses of biota to climate change take a number of forms including distributional shifts, behavioural changes and life history changes. This study examined an extensive set of biological records to investigate changes in the timing of life history transitions (specifically emergence) in British Odonata between 1960 and 2004. The results show that there has been a significant, consistent advance in phenology in the taxon as a whole over the period of warming that is mediated by life history traits. British odonates significantly advanced the leading edge (first quartile date) of the flight period by a mean of 1.51 ±0.060 (SEM, n=17) days per decade or 3.08±1.16 (SEM, n=17) days per degree rise in temperature when phylogeny is controlled for. This study represents the first review of changes in odonate phenology in relation to climate change. The results suggest that the damped temperature oscillations experienced by aquatic organisms compared with terrestrial organisms are sufficient to evoke phenological responses similar to those of purely terrestrial taxa
Probing the first galaxies with the SKA
Observations of anisotropies in the brightness temperature of the 21 cm line
of neutral hydrogen from the period before reionization would shed light on the
dawn of the first stars and galaxies. In this paper, we use large-scale
semi-numerical simulations to analyse the imprint on the 21 cm signal of
spatial fluctuations in the Lyman-alpha flux arising from the clustering of the
first galaxies. We show that an experiment such as the Square Kilometer Array
(SKA) can probe this signal at the onset of reionization, giving us important
information about the UV emission spectra of the first stars and characterizing
their host galaxies. SKA-pathfinders with ~ 10% of the full collecting area
should be capable of making a statistical detection of the 21 cm power spectrum
at redshifts z 67 MHz). We then show
that the SKA should be able to measure the three dimensional power spectrum as
a function of the angle with the line of sight and discuss the use of the
redshift space distortions as a way to separate out the different components of
the 21 cm power spectrum. We demonstrate that, at least on large scales where
the Lyman-alpha fluctuations are linear, they can be used as a model
independent way to extract the power spectra due to these Lyman-alpha
fluctuations.Comment: 13 pages, 17 figures. New version to match version accepted by A&A.
Improved discussions on the Lyman-alpha simulation, adiabatic cooling
fluctuations, the Fisher matrix approach and the Poisson term calculation.
New version of the code available at: http://www.SimFast21.or
Global 21cm signal experiments: a designer's guide
[Abridged] The spatially averaged global spectrum of the redshifted 21cm line
has generated much experimental interest, for it is potentially a direct probe
of the Epoch of Reionization and the Dark Ages. Since the cosmological signal
here has a purely spectral signature, most proposed experiments have little
angular sensitivity. This is worrisome because with only spectra, the global
21cm signal can be difficult to distinguish from foregrounds such as Galactic
synchrotron radiation, as both are spectrally smooth and the latter is orders
of magnitude brighter. We establish a mathematical framework for global signal
data analysis in a way that removes foregrounds optimally, complementing
spectra with angular information. We explore various experimental design
trade-offs, and find that 1) with spectral-only methods, it is impossible to
mitigate errors that arise from uncertainties in foreground modeling; 2)
foreground contamination can be significantly reduced for experiments with fine
angular resolution; 3) most of the statistical significance in a positive
detection during the Dark Ages comes from a characteristic high-redshift trough
in the 21cm brightness temperature; and 4) Measurement errors decrease more
rapidly with integration time for instruments with fine angular resolution. We
show that if observations and algorithms are optimized based on these findings,
an instrument with a 5 degree beam can achieve highly significant detections
(greater than 5-sigma) of even extended (high Delta-z) reionization scenarios
after integrating for 500 hrs. This is in contrast to instruments without
angular resolution, which cannot detect gradual reionization. Abrupt ionization
histories can be detected at the level of 10-100's of sigma. The expected
errors are also low during the Dark Ages, with a 25-sigma detection of the
expected cosmological signal after only 100 hrs of integration.Comment: 34 pages, 30 figures. Replaced (v2) to match accepted PRD version
(minor pedagogical additions to text; methods, results, and conclusions
unchanged). Fixed two typos (v3); text, results, conclusions etc. completely
unchange
Effect of Dietary Energy Source on Age and Weight at Puberty of Beef Heifers
Forty-four Angus and Simmental sired crossbred heifers were fed two diets of differing composition (high forage or high concentrate). Diets were fed to achieve the same average daily gain to evaluate the effect of energy source on age and weight at puberty. Age at puberty, conception rate, pregnancy rate, weight at puberty, glucose and insulin were not significantly different between treatments
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