402 research outputs found
Macroinvertebrate Responses to Algal and Bacterial Manipulations in Streams
Our study was designed to assess the relative importance of algae and bacteria as sources of energy for stream macroinvertebrates. In one experiment, we manipulated algae by artificially shading six sections in each of two streams, one stream with an open canopy (clear-cut drainage basin) and the other with a closed canopy (forested drainage basin); both streams were in Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, New Hampshire, USA. Chlorophyll a concentrations were reduced from 0.2 to 0.05 μ g/cm 2 in artificially shaded sections of both streams. However, macroinvertebrates showed no response to these algal manipulations in either the clear-cut or forested stream. Nutrient concentrations (N and P) were low and limiting to primary production in both the clear-cut and forested streams. Additionally, both streams had relatively low macroinvertebrate densities suggesting bottom-up controls were important in macroinvertebrate abundance. However, the forested stream did have higher macroinvertebrate densities presumably because of higher inputs of coarse particulate organic matter from the riparian vegetation. In a second experiment, in Augusta Creek, Michigan, we manipulated both algae and bacteria. To reduce algae, we artificially shaded experimental stream channels so that chlorophyll a was reduced from natural levels of 3.0–5.6 to 0.4–0.7 μ g/cm 2 . Half of the shaded channels had dissolved organic carbon (DOC – sucrose) dripped into them to raise DOC levels by 2–3 mg/l and thus stimulate bacterial abundance. Open channels, with higher algal abundance, had higher densities of Ephemerella , but only in November when nymphs were larger. Channels with increased DOC had higher bacterial abundances, higher densities of Chironomidae and lower densities of Heptageniidae. Several other macroinvertebrate taxa that were at relatively low abundance in our samples showed no significant response to these manipulations. Our results suggest that early instar Ephemerella may not rely as heavily on algae as later instars. Also, certain taxa were able to use the heterotrophic microbial community, especially chironomids which increased in numbers when bacterial density increased; thus, the bacterial carbon source may be more important to some stream macroinvertebrates than previous studies have suggested.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/42901/1/10750_2004_Article_5271883.pd
An Assessment of Reduced Crew and Single Pilot Operations in Commercial Transport Aircraft Operations
Future reduced crew operations or even single pilot operations for commercial airline and on-demand mobility applications are an active area of research. These changes would reduce the human element and thus, threaten the precept that "a well-trained and well-qualified pilot is the critical center point of aircraft systems safety and an integral safety component of the entire commercial aviation system." NASA recently completed a pilot-in-the-loop high fidelity motion simulation study in partnership with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) attempting to quantify the pilot's contribution to flight safety during normal flight and in response to aircraft system failures. Crew complement was used as the experiment independent variable in a between-subjects design. These data show significant increases in workload for single pilot operations, compared to two-crew, with subjective assessments of safety and performance being significantly degraded as well. Nonetheless, in all cases, the pilots were able to overcome the failure mode effects in all crew configurations. These data reflect current-day flight deck equipage and help identify the technologies that may improve two-crew operations and/or possibly enable future reduced crew and/or single pilot operations
Opaque Branes in Warped Backgrounds
We examine localized kinetic terms for gauge fields which can propagate into
compact, warped extra dimensions. We show that these terms can have a relevant
impact on the values of the Kaluza-Klein (KK) gauge field masses, wave
functions, and couplings to brane and bulk matter. The resulting
phenomenological implications are discussed. In particular, we show that the
presence of opaque branes, with non-vanishing brane-localized gauge kinetic
terms, allow much lower values of the lightest KK mode than in the case of
transparent branes. Moreover, we show that if the large discrepancies among the
different determinations of the weak mixing angle would be solved in favor of
the value obtained from the lepton asymmetries, bulk electroweak gauge fields
in warped-extra dimensions may lead to an improvement of the agreement of the
fit to the electroweak precision data for a Higgs mass of the order of the weak
scale and a mass of the first gauge boson KK excitation most likely within
reach of the LHC.Comment: 37 pages, 12 figures, improved analysis of the precision electroweak
constraint
The Effective Lagrangian in the Randall-Sundrum Model and Electroweak Physics
We consider the two-brane Randall-Sundrum (RS) model with bulk gauge fields.
We carefully match the bulk theory to a 4D low-energy effective Lagrangian. In
addition to the four-fermion operators induced by KK exchange we find that
large negative S and T parameters are induced in the effective theory. This is
a tree-level effect and is a consequence of the shapes of the W and Z wave
functions in the bulk. Such effects are generic in extra dimensional theories
where the standard model (SM) gauge bosons have non-uniform wave functions
along the extra dimension. The corrections to precision electroweak observables
in the RS model are mostly dominated by S. We fit the parameters of the RS
model to the experimental data and find somewhat stronger bounds than
previously obtained; however, the standard model bound on the Higgs mass from
precision measurements can only be slightly relaxed in this theory.Comment: 16 pages, LaTeX, 1 figure included, uses JHEP.cls, extended
introduction, added reference
Oblique Parameter Constraints on Large Extra Dimensions
We consider the Kaluza-Klein scenario in which gravity propagates in the
dimensional bulk of spacetime and the Standard Model particles are
confined to a 3-brane. We calculate the gauge boson self-energy corrections
arising from the exchange of virtual gravitons and present our results in the
-formalism. We find that the new physics contributions to , and
decouple in the limit that the string scale goes to infinity. The oblique
parameters constrain the lower limit on . Taking the quantum gravity
cutoff to be ,
-parameter constraints impose TeV for at the 1
level. -parameter constraints impose TeV for .Comment: Version to appear in PR
Renormalization Group Flows for Brane Couplings
Field theories in the presence of branes encounter localized divergences that
renormalize brane couplings. The sources of these brane-localized divergences
are understood as arising either from broken translation invariance, or from
short distance singularities as the brane thickness vanishes. While the former
are generated only by quantum corrections, the latter can appear even at the
classical level. Using as an example six-dimensional scalar field theory in the
background of a 3-brane, we show how to interpret such classical divergences by
the usual regularization and renormalization procedure of quantum field theory.
In our example, the zero thickness divergences are logarithmic, and lead
classically to non-trivial renormalization group flows for the brane couplings.
We construct the tree level renormalization group equations for these couplings
as well as the one-loop corrections to these flows from bulk-to-brane
renormalization effects.Comment: 16 pages, LaTeX. References and an appendix adde
Stress-energy tensor for a quantised bulk scalar field in the Randall-Sundrum brane model
We calculate the vacuum expectation value of the stress-energy tensor for a
quantised bulk scalar field in the Randall-Sundrum model, and discuss the
consequences of its local behaviour for the self-consistency of the model. We
find that, in general, the stress-energy tensor diverges in the vicinity of the
branes. Our main conclusion is that the stress-energy tensor is sufficiently
complicated that it has implications for the effective potential, or radion
stabilisation, methods that have so far been used.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures. Minor changes made and references added. To
appear in Phys. Rev.
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