Modelling bark beetle disturbances in a large scale forest scenario model to assess climate change impacts and evaluate adaptive management strategies

To study potential consequences of climate-induced changes in the biotic disturbance regime at regional to national scale we integrated a model of Ips typographus (L. Scol. Col.) damages into the large-scale forest scenario model EFISCEN. A two-stage multivariate statistical meta-model was used to upscale stand level damages by bark beetles as simulated in the hybrid forest patch model PICUS v1.41. Comparing EFISCEN simulations including the new bark beetle disturbance module against a 15-year damage time series for Austria showed good agreement at province level (R² between 0.496 and 0.802). A scenario analysis of climate change impacts on bark beetle-induced damages in Austria¿s Norway spruce [Picea abies (L.) Karst.] forests resulted in a strong increase in damages (from 1.33 Mm³ a¿1, period 1990¿2004, to 4.46 Mm³ a¿1, period 2095¿2099). Studying two adaptive management strategies (species change) revealed a considerable time-lag between the start of adaptation measures and a decrease in simulated damages by bark beetle

Adiabatic connection at negative coupling strengths

The adiabatic connection of density functional theory (DFT) for electronic systems is generalized here to negative values of the coupling strength $\alpha$ (with {\em attractive} electrons). In the extreme limit $\alpha\to-\infty$ a simple physical solution is presented and its implications for DFT (as well as its limitations) are discussed. For two-electron systems (a case in which the present solution can be calculated exactly), we find that an interpolation between the limit $\alpha\to-\infty$ and the opposite limit of infinitely strong repulsion ($\alpha\to+\infty$) yields a rather accurate estimate of the second-order correlation energy E\cor\glt[\rho] for several different densities $\rho$, without using virtual orbitals. The same procedure is also applied to the Be isoelectronic series, analyzing the effects of near-degeneracy.Comment: 9 pages, submitted to PR

Modelling understorey dynamics in temperate forests under global change : challenges and perspectives

The understorey harbours a substantial part of vascular plant diversity in temperate forests and plays an important functional role, affecting ecosystem processes such as nutrient cycling and overstorey regeneration. Global change, however, is putting these understorey communities on trajectories of change, potentially altering and reducing their functioning in the future. Developing mitigation strategies to safeguard the diversity and functioning of temperate forests in the future is challenging and requires improved predictive capacity. Process-based models that predict understorey community composition over time, based on first principles of ecology, have the potential to guide mitigation endeavours but such approaches are rare. Here, we review fourteen understorey modelling approaches that have been proposed during the last three decades. We evaluate their inclusion of mechanisms that are required to predict the impact of global change on understorey communities. We conclude that none of the currently existing models fully accounts for all processes that we deem important based on empirical and experimental evidence. Based on this review, we contend new models are needed to project the complex impacts of global change on forest understoreys. Plant functional traits should be central to such future model developments, as they drive community assembly processes and provide valuable information on the functioning of the understorey. Given the important role of the overstorey, a coupling of understorey models to overstorey models will be essential to predict the impact of global change on understorey composition and structure, and how it will affect the functioning of temperate forests in the future

Spin dependent fragmentation function at Belle

The measurement of the so far unknown chiral-odd quark transverse spin distribution in either semi-inclusive DIS (SIDIS) or inclusive measurements in pp collisions at RHIC has an additional chiral-odd fragmentation function appearing in the cross section. These chiral-odd fragmentation functions (FF) can for example be the so-called Collins FF or the Interference FF. HERMES has given a first hint that these FFs are nonzero, however in order to measure the transversity one needs these FFs to be precisely known. We have used 29.0 fb$^{-1}$ of data collected by the Belle experiment at the KEKB $e^+e^-$ collider to measure azimuthal asymmetries for different charge combinations of pion pairs and thus access the Collins FF.Comment: Results presented at the DIS 2006 conference in Tsukuba, Japa

Double transverse spin asymmetry in the p↑pˉ↑p^\uparrow\bar{p}^\uparrow Drell-Yan process from Sivers functions

We show that the transverse double spin asymmetry (DSA) in the Drell-Yan process contributed only from the Sivers functions can be picked out by the weighting function $\frac{Q_T}{M^2}(\cos(\phi-\phi_{S_1})\cos(\phi-\phi_{S_2})+3\sin(\phi-\phi_{S_1})\sin(\phi-\phi_{S_2}))$. The asymmetry is proportional to the product of two Sivers functions from each hadron $f_{1T}^{\perp(1)}\times f_{1T}^{\perp (1)}$. Using two sets of Sivers functions extracted from the semi-inclusive deeply elastic scattering data at HERMES, we estimate this asymmetry in the $p^\uparrow\bar{p}^\uparrow$ Drell-Yan process which is possible to be performed in HESR at GSI. The prediction of DSA in the Drell-Yan process contributed by the function g_{1T}(x,\Vec k_T^2), which can be extracted by the weighting function $\frac{Q_T}{M^2}(3\cos(\phi-\phi_{S_1})\cos(\phi-\phi_{S_2})+\sin(\phi-\phi_{S_1})\sin(\phi-\phi_{S_2}))$, is also given at GSI.Comment: 6 latex pages, 2 figures, to appear in PR

The Fermionic Density-functional at Feshbach Resonance

We consider a dilute gas of neutral unpolarized fermionic atoms at zero temperature.The atoms interact via a short range (tunable) attractive interaction. We demonstrate analytically a curious property of the gas at unitarity. Namely, the correlation energy of the gas, evaluated by second order perturbation theory, has the same density dependence as the first order exchange energy, and the two almost exactly cancel each other at Feshbach resonance irrespective of the shape of the potential, provided $(\mu r_s) >> 1$. Here $(\mu)^{-1}$ is the range of the two-body potential, and $r_s$ is defined through the number density $n=3/(4\pi r_s^3)$. The implications of this result for universality is discussed.Comment: Five pages, one table. accepted for publication in PR

Synthesis for Polynomial Lasso Programs

We present a method for the synthesis of polynomial lasso programs. These programs consist of a program stem, a set of transitions, and an exit condition, all in the form of algebraic assertions (conjunctions of polynomial equalities). Central to this approach is the discovery of non-linear (algebraic) loop invariants. We extend Sankaranarayanan, Sipma, and Manna's template-based approach and prove a completeness criterion. We perform program synthesis by generating a constraint whose solution is a synthesized program together with a loop invariant that proves the program's correctness. This constraint is non-linear and is passed to an SMT solver. Moreover, we can enforce the termination of the synthesized program with the support of test cases.Comment: Paper at VMCAI'14, including appendi