Chelarctus and Crenarctus (Crustacea: Scyllaridae) from Coral Sea waters, with molecular identification of their larvae

Chelarctus Holthuis, 2002 is widely distributed throughout the Indo-West Pacific, but its biogeographic patterns are unknown because Southern Hemisphere areas, such as the Coral Sea, remained poorly explored. Recent cruises organized by the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle of Paris and the Australian Institute of Marine Science allowed the molecular identification of Crenarctus crenatus (Whitelegge, 1900), Chelarctus aureus (Holthuis, 1963) and Chelarctus crosnieri Holthuis, 2002 phyllosomae. The Coral Sea C. crenatus larvae are identical to stages IX and X of Scyllarus sp. Z, described in detail by Webber and Booth (2001). Descriptions of phyllosoma stages VI, IX and X of Ch. aureus and stages IX and X of Ch. crosnieri are also presented here. Morphological differences between Crenarctus and Chelarctus larvae are established for the first time and previous misidentifications in the literature are re-assessed

Geometric Integration of Hamiltonian Systems Perturbed by Rayleigh Damping

Explicit and semi-explicit geometric integration schemes for dissipative perturbations of Hamiltonian systems are analyzed. The dissipation is characterized by a small parameter $\epsilon$, and the schemes under study preserve the symplectic structure in the case $\epsilon=0$. In the case $0<\epsilon\ll 1$ the energy dissipation rate is shown to be asymptotically correct by backward error analysis. Theoretical results on monotone decrease of the modified Hamiltonian function for small enough step sizes are given. Further, an analysis proving near conservation of relative equilibria for small enough step sizes is conducted. Numerical examples, verifying the analyses, are given for a planar pendulum and an elastic 3--D pendulum. The results are superior in comparison with a conventional explicit Runge-Kutta method of the same order

Estudio taxonómico y arqueológico de la colección de malacofauna procedente de la "colonia Augusta Emerita" (Mérida) con especial atención al uso de "pecten maximus" en el tocador de la mujer romana

Este trabajo presenta un análisis taxonómico de la colección de malacofauna del Museo Nacional de Arte Romano de Mérida (en adelante MNAR), un repertorio interesante desde el punto de vista histórico, ya que prácticamente en su totalidad está inédita. El estudio centra además su análisis en el caso específico de los ejemplares de Pecten maximus (L, 1758), cuyo uso parece estar asociado de manera recurrente al ámbito de la toilette de la mujer romana, con ejemplos muy destacados de reproducciones en materiales nobles, como plata o ámbar.This paper presents a taxonomic analysis of the collection of malacofauna of the National Museum of Roman Art of Mérida, an interesting collection from the historical point of view, since practically in its totality it is unpublished. This work also focuses its analysis on the specific case of the specimens of Pecten maximus (L, 1758), whose use seems to be associated in a recurrent way with the toilette of the Roman woman, with very outstanding examples of noble materials such as silver or amber

Fluctuating "Pulled" Fronts: the Origin and the Effects of a Finite Particle Cutoff

Recently it has been shown that when an equation that allows so-called pulled fronts in the mean-field limit is modelled with a stochastic model with a finite number $N$ of particles per correlation volume, the convergence to the speed $v^*$ for $N \to \infty$ is extremely slow -- going only as $\ln^{-2}N$. In this paper, we study the front propagation in a simple stochastic lattice model. A detailed analysis of the microscopic picture of the front dynamics shows that for the description of the far tip of the front, one has to abandon the idea of a uniformly translating front solution. The lattice and finite particle effects lead to a ``stop-and-go'' type dynamics at the far tip of the front, while the average front behind it ``crosses over'' to a uniformly translating solution. In this formulation, the effect of stochasticity on the asymptotic front speed is coded in the probability distribution of the times required for the advancement of the ``foremost bin''. We derive expressions of these probability distributions by matching the solution of the far tip with the uniformly translating solution behind. This matching includes various correlation effects in a mean-field type approximation. Our results for the probability distributions compare well to the results of stochastic numerical simulations. This approach also allows us to deal with much smaller values of $N$ than it is required to have the $\ln^{-2}N$ asymptotics to be valid.Comment: 26 pages, 11 figures, to appear in Phys. rev.

The p.R1109X mutation in SH3TC2 gene is predominant in Spanish Gypsies with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 4

[EN] Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease type 4 (CMT4) is the name given to autosomal recessive forms of hereditary motor and sensory neuropathy (HMSN). When we began this study, three genes or loci associated with inherited peripheral neuropathies had already been identified in the European Gypsy population: HMSN-Lom (MIM 601455), HMSN-Russe (MIM 605285) and the congenital cataracts facial dysmorphism neuropathy syndrome (MIM 604168). We have carried out genetic analyses in a series of 20 Spanish Gypsy families diagnosed with a demyelinating CMT disease compatible with an autosomal recessive trait. We found the p.R148X mutation in the N-myc downstream-regulated gene 1 gene to be responsible for the HMSN-Lom in four families and also possible linkage to the HMSN-Russe locus in three others. We have also studied the CMT4C locus because of the clinical similarities and showed that in 10 families, the disease is caused by mutations located on the SH3 domain and tetratricopeptide repeats 2 (SH3TC2) gene: p.R1109X in 20 out of 21 chromosomes and p.C737_P738delinsX in only one chromosome. Moreover, the SH3TC2 p.R1109X mutation is associated with a conserved haplotype and, therefore, may be a private founder mutation for the Gypsy population. Estimation of the allelic age revealed that the SH3TC2 p.R1109X mutation may have arisen about 225 years ago, probably as the consequence of a bottleneck.We are grateful for the kind collaboration of patients and families. This work was supported by the Fondo de Investigacio¿n Sanitaria (grant PI040932) and the Spanish Network on Cerebellar Ataxias of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (grant G03/56). English text was revised by F Barraclough.Claramunt, R.; Sevilla, T.; Lupo, V.; Cuesta, A.; Millán, J.; Vilchez, JJ.; Palau, F.... (2007). The p.R1109X mutation in SH3TC2 gene is predominant in Spanish Gypsies with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 4. Clinical Genetics. 71(4):343-349. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1399-0004.2007.00774.x34334971

Asymptotic Scaling of the Diffusion Coefficient of Fluctuating "Pulled" Fronts

We present a (heuristic) theoretical derivation for the scaling of the diffusion coefficient $D_f$ for fluctuating ``pulled'' fronts. In agreement with earlier numerical simulations, we find that as $N\to\infty$, $D_f$ approaches zero as $1/\ln^3N$, where $N$ is the average number of particles per correlation volume in the stable phase of the front. This behaviour of $D_f$ stems from the shape fluctuations at the very tip of the front, and is independent of the microscopic model.Comment: Some minor algebra corrected, to appear in Rapid Comm., Phys. Rev.

Kinematic reduction of reaction-diffusion fronts with multiplicative noise: Derivation of stochastic sharp-interface equations

We study the dynamics of generic reaction-diffusion fronts, including pulses and chemical waves, in the presence of multiplicative noise. We discuss the connection between the reaction-diffusion Langevin-like field equations and the kinematic (eikonal) description in terms of a stochastic moving-boundary or sharp-interface approximation. We find that the effective noise is additive and we relate its strength to the noise parameters in the original field equations, to first order in noise strength, but including a partial resummation to all orders which captures the singular dependence on the microscopic cutoff associated to the spatial correlation of the noise. This dependence is essential for a quantitative and qualitative understanding of fluctuating fronts, affecting both scaling properties and nonuniversal quantities. Our results predict phenomena such as the shift of the transition point between the pushed and pulled regimes of front propagation, in terms of the noise parameters, and the corresponding transition to a non-KPZ universality class. We assess the quantitative validity of the results in several examples including equilibrium fluctuations, kinetic roughening, and the noise-induced pushed-pulled transition, which is predicted and observed for the first time. The analytical predictions are successfully tested against rigorous results and show excellent agreement with numerical simulations of reaction-diffusion field equations with multiplicative noise.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figure

Overdamped sine-Gordon kink in a thermal bath

We study the sine-Gordon kink diffusion at finite temperature in the overdamped limit. By means of a general perturbative approach, we calculate the first- and second-order (in temperature) contributions to the diffusion coefficient. We compare our analytical predictions with numerical simulations. The good agreement allows us to conclude that, up to temperatures where kink-antikink nucleation processes cannot be neglected, a diffusion constant linear and quadratic in temperature gives a very accurate description of the diffusive motion of the kink. The quadratic temperature dependence is shown to stem from the interaction with the phonons. In addition, we calculate and compute the average value $$ of the wave function as a function of time and show that its width grows with $\sqrt{t}$. We discuss the interpretation of this finding and show that it arises from the dispersion of the kink center positions of individual realizations which all keep their width.Comment: REVTeX, 12 pages, 10 figures, to appear in Phys Rev

Bayesian estimation of incomplete data using conditionally specified priors

In this paper, a class of conjugate prior for estimating incomplete count data based on a broad class of conjugate prior distributions is presented. The new class of prior distributions arises from a conditional perspective, making use of the conditional specification methodology and can be considered as the generalisation of the form of prior distributions that have been used previously in the estimation of in- complete count data well. Finally, some examples of simulated and real data are given

The universality class of fluctuating pulled fronts

It has recently been proposed that fluctuating ``pulled'' fronts propagating into an unstable state should not be in the standard KPZ universality class for rough interface growth. We introduce an effective field equation for this class of problems, and show on the basis of it that noisy pulled fronts in {\em d+1} bulk dimensions should be in the universality class of the {\em (d+1)+1}D KPZ equation rather than of the {\em d+1}D KPZ equation. Our scenario ties together a number of heretofore unexplained observations in the literature, and is supported by previous numerical results.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure