1,094 research outputs found
Contrasting patterns of litterfall seasonality and seasonal changes in litter decomposability in a tropical rainforest region
The seasonality of litter inputs in forests has important implications for understanding ecosystem processes and biogeochemical cycles. We quantified the drivers of seasonality in litterfall and leaf decomposability using plots throughout the Australian wet tropical region. Litter fell mostly in the summer (wet, warm) months in the region, but other peaks occurred throughout the year. Litterfall seasonality was modelled well with the level of deciduousness of the site (plots with more deciduous species had lower seasonality than evergreen plots), temperature (higher seasonality in the uplands), disturbance (lower seasonality with more early secondary species) and soil fertility (higher seasonality with higher N : P/P limitation) (SL total litterfall model 1 = deciduousness + soil N : P + early secondary sp.: r2 = 0.63, n = 30; model 2 = temperature + early secondary sp. + soil N : P: r2 = 0.54, n = 30; SL leaf = temperature + early secondary sp. + rainfall seasonality: r2 = 0.39, n = 30). Leaf litter decomposability was lower in the dry season than in the wet season, driven by higher phenolic concentrations in the dry, with the difference exacerbated particularly by lower dry season moisture. Our results are contrary to the global trend for tropical rainforests; in that seasonality of litterfall input was generally higher in wetter, cooler, evergreen forests, compared to generally drier, warmer, semi-deciduous sites that had more uniform monthly inputs. We consider this due to more diverse litter shedding patterns in semi-deciduous and raingreen rainforest sites, and an important consideration for ecosystem modellers. Seasonal changes in litter quality are likely to have impacts on decomposition and biogeochemical cycles in these forests due to the litter that falls in the dry season being more recalcitrant to decay
Lattice-gas Monte Carlo study of adsorption in pores
A lattice gas model of adsorption inside cylindrical pores is evaluated with
Monte Carlo simulations. The model incorporates two kinds of site: (a line of)
``axial'' sites and surrounding ``cylindrical shell'' sites, in ratio 1:7. The
adsorption isotherms are calculated in either the grand canonical or canonical
ensembles. At low temperature, there occur quasi-transitions that would be
genuine thermodynamic transitions in mean-field theory. Comparison between the
exact and mean-field theory results for the heat capacity and adsorption
isotherms are provided
Child malnutrition and antenatal care: Evidence from three Latin American countries
The importance of ever-earlier interventions to help children reach their physical and cognitive potential is increasingly being recognized. In part, as a result of this, in developing countries, antenatal care is becoming an important element of strategies to prevent child stunting in utero and later. Notwithstanding their policy relevance and substantial expansion, empirical evidence on the role of antenatal care (ANC) programs in combating stunting is scarce. This study analyzes the role of ANC programs in determining the level and distribution of child stunting in three Andean countries - Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru - where since the 1990s, expanding access to such care has been an explicit policy intervention to tackle child malnutrition. We find that the use of such services is associated with a reduction in the level of malnutrition and at the same time access to such services is relatively equally distributed. While this is a positive sign, it also suggests that further expansion of ANC programs is unlikely to play a large role in reducing inequalities in malnutrition
Child malnutrition and prenatal care: Evidence from three Latin American countries
Objective. To examine the effect of prenatal care (PNC) on the level and distribution of child stunting in three Andean countries-Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru-where expanding access to such care has been an explicit policy intervention to tackle child malnutrition in utero and during early childhood. Methods. An econometric analysis of cross-sectional Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data was conducted. The analysis included ordinary least-squares (OLS) regressions, estimates of concentration curves, and decompositions of a concentration index. Results. The analysis shows that the use of PNC in Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru is only weakly associated with a reduction in the level of child malnutrition. Conclusions. Further expansion of PNC programs is unlikely to play a large role in reducing inequalities in malnutrition
Renormalization Group Approach to the Coulomb Pseudopotential for C_{60}
A numerical renormalization group technique recently developed by one of us
is used to analyse the Coulomb pseudopotential () in
for a variety of bare potentials. We find a large reduction in due to
intraball screening alone, leading to an interesting non-monotonic dependence
of on the bare interaction strength.
We find that is positive for physically reasonable bare parameters,
but small enough to make the electron-phonon coupling a viable mechanism for
superconductivity in alkali-doped fullerides. We end with some open problems.Comment: 12 pages, latex, 7 figures available from [email protected]
Field dependence of the vortex structure in chiral p-wave superconductors
To investigate the different vortex structure between two chiral pairing p_x
+(-) i p_y, we calculate the pair potential, the internal field, the local
density of states, and free energy in the vortex lattice state based on the
quasiclassical Eilenberger theory, and analyze the magnetic field dependence.
The induced opposite chiral component of the pair potential plays an important
role in the vortex structure. It also produces H^{1/2}-behavior of the
zero-energy density of states at higher field. These results are helpful when
we understand the vortex states in Sr2RuO4.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.
Evidence of Color Coherence Effects in W+jets Events from ppbar Collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.8 TeV
We report the results of a study of color coherence effects in ppbar
collisions based on data collected by the D0 detector during the 1994-1995 run
of the Fermilab Tevatron Collider, at a center of mass energy sqrt(s) = 1.8
TeV. Initial-to-final state color interference effects are studied by examining
particle distribution patterns in events with a W boson and at least one jet.
The data are compared to Monte Carlo simulations with different color coherence
implementations and to an analytic modified-leading-logarithm perturbative
calculation based on the local parton-hadron duality hypothesis.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures. Submitted to Physics Letters
An Integrated TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource to Drive High-Quality Survival Outcome Analytics
For a decade, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) program collected clinicopathologic annotation data along with multi-platform molecular profiles of more than 11,000 human tumors across 33 different cancer types. TCGA clinical data contain key features representing the democratized nature of the data collection process. To ensure proper use of this large clinical dataset associated with genomic features, we developed a standardized dataset named the TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource (TCGA-CDR), which includes four major clinical outcome endpoints. In addition to detailing major challenges and statistical limitations encountered during the effort of integrating the acquired clinical data, we present a summary that includes endpoint usage recommendations for each cancer type. These TCGA-CDR findings appear to be consistent with cancer genomics studies independent of the TCGA effort and provide opportunities for investigating cancer biology using clinical correlates at an unprecedented scale. Analysis of clinicopathologic annotations for over 11,000 cancer patients in the TCGA program leads to the generation of TCGA Clinical Data Resource, which provides recommendations of clinical outcome endpoint usage for 33 cancer types
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