168 research outputs found
Boundary critical behavior at m-axial Lifshitz points for a boundary plane parallel to the modulation axes
The critical behavior of semi-infinite -dimensional systems with
-component order parameter and short-range interactions is
investigated at an -axial bulk Lifshitz point whose wave-vector instability
is isotropic in an -dimensional subspace of . The associated
modulation axes are presumed to be parallel to the surface, where . An appropriate semi-infinite model representing the
corresponding universality classes of surface critical behavior is introduced.
It is shown that the usual O(n) symmetric boundary term
of the Hamiltonian must be supplemented by one of the form involving a
dimensionless (renormalized) coupling constant . The implied boundary
conditions are given, and the general form of the field-theoretic
renormalization of the model below the upper critical dimension
is clarified. Fixed points describing the ordinary, special,
and extraordinary transitions are identified and shown to be located at a
nontrivial value if . The surface
critical exponents of the ordinary transition are determined to second order in
. Extrapolations of these expansions yield values of these
exponents for in good agreement with recent Monte Carlo results for the
case of a uniaxial () Lifshitz point. The scaling dimension of the surface
energy density is shown to be given exactly by , where
is the anisotropy exponent.Comment: revtex4, 31 pages with eps-files for figures, uses texdraw to
generate some graphs; to appear in PRB; v2: some references and additional
remarks added, labeling in figure 1 and some typos correcte
Effects of Cooking in Solutions of Varying pH on the Dietary Fiber Components of Vegetables
To study the effect of pH on dietary fiber components of vegetables, beans, cauliflower, potatoes, peas and corn were cooked in buffers of pH 2, 4, 6, and 10. Water-soluble pectin and hemicellulose, water-insoluble pectin and hemicellulose, cellulose and lignin were quantitated in raw, cooked vegetables and cooking medium. Tenderness and pH of raw and cooked vegetables were determined. Texture varied with cooking medium. Cooked vegetables were most firm at pH 4 and softest at pH 10. Dietary components found in cooking medium reflected these textural changes. Vegetables which showed greater pH effects exhibited greater changes in fiber components.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73821/1/j.1365-2621.1984.tb13237.x.pd
Can forest management based on natural disturbances maintain ecological resilience?
Given the increasingly global stresses on forests, many ecologists argue that managers must maintain ecological resilience: the capacity of ecosystems to absorb disturbances without undergoing fundamental change. In this review we ask: Can the emerging paradigm of natural-disturbance-based management (NDBM) maintain ecological resilience in managed forests? Applying resilience theory requires careful articulation of the ecosystem state under consideration, the disturbances and stresses that affect the persistence of possible alternative states, and the spatial and temporal scales of management relevance. Implementing NDBM while maintaining resilience means recognizing that (i) biodiversity is important for long-term ecosystem persistence, (ii) natural disturbances play a critical role as a generator of structural and compositional heterogeneity at multiple scales, and (iii) traditional management tends to produce forests more homogeneous than those disturbed naturally and increases the likelihood of unexpected catastrophic change by constraining variation of key environmental processes. NDBM may maintain resilience if silvicultural strategies retain the structures and processes that perpetuate desired states while reducing those that enhance resilience of undesirable states. Such strategies require an understanding of harvesting impacts on slow ecosystem processes, such as seed-bank or nutrient dynamics, which in the long term can lead to ecological surprises by altering the forest's capacity to reorganize after disturbance
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