1,911 research outputs found
Measuring site fidelity and spatial segregation within animal societies
© 2017 The Authors. Methods in Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Ecological Society. Animals often display a marked tendency to return to previously visited locations that contain important resources, such as water, food, or developing brood that must be provisioned. A considerable body of work has demonstrated that this tendency is strongly expressed in ants, which exhibit fidelity to particular sites both inside and outside the nest. However, thus far many studies of this phenomena have taken the approach of reducing an animal's trajectory to a summary statistic, such as the area it covers. Using both simulations of biased random walks, and empirical trajectories from individual rock ants, Temnothorax albipennis, we demonstrate that this reductive approach suffers from an unacceptably high rate of false negatives. To overcome this, we describe a site-centric approach which, in combination with a spatially-explicit null model, allows the identification of the important sites towards which individuals exhibit statistically significant biases. Using the ant trajectories, we illustrate how the site-centric approach can be combined with social network analysis tools to detect groups of individuals whose members display similar space-use patterns. We also address the mechanistic origin of individual site fidelity; by examining the sequence of visits to each site, we detect a statistical signature associated with a self-attracting walk – a non-Markovian movement model that has been suggested as a possible mechanism for generating individual site fidelity
Universal Amplitude Ratios in the Ising Model in Three Dimensions
We use a high-precision Monte Carlo simulation to determine the universal
specific-heat amplitude ratio A+/A- in the three-dimensional Ising model via
the impact angle \phi of complex temperature zeros. We also measure the
correlation-length critical exponent \nu from finite-size scaling, and the
specific-heat exponent \alpha through hyperscaling. Extrapolations to the
thermodynamic limit yield \phi = 59.2(1.0) degrees, A+/A- = 0.56(3), \nu =
0.63048(32) and \alpha = 0.1086(10). These results are compatible with some
previous estimates from a variety of sources and rule out recently conjectured
exact values.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figure
On the low-temperature phase of the three-state antiferromagnetic Potts model on the simple cubic lattice
The three-state antiferromagnetic Potts model on the simple cubic lattice is
investigated using the cluster variation method in the cube and the star-cube
approximations. The broken-sublattice-symmetry phase is found to be stable in
the whole low-temperature region, contrary to previous results obtained using a
modified cluster variation method. The tiny free energy difference between the
broken-sublattice-symmetry and the permutationally-symmetric-sublattices phases
is calculated in the two approximations and turns out to be smaller in the
(more accurate) star-cube approximation than in the cube one.Comment: 4 pages REVTeX + 2 PostScript figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.
E as a Rapid Communicatio
Quantum Ising model in a transverse random field: A density-matrix renormalization group analysis
The spin-1/2 quantum Ising chain in a transverse random magnetic field is
studied by means of the density-matrix renormalization group. The system
evolves from an ordered to a paramagnetic state as the amplitude of the random
field is increased. The dependence of the magnetization on a uniform magnetic
field in the z direction and the spontaneous magnetization as a function of the
amplitude of the transverse random magnetic field are determined. The behavior
of the spin-spin correlation function both above and at criticality is studied.
The scaling laws for magnetization and correlation functions are tested against
previous numerical and renormalization-group results.Comment: 5 pages with 7 figures inside them, proper format of authors' names
use
Reduction of the sign problem using the meron-cluster approach
The sign problem in quantum Monte Carlo calculations is analyzed using the
meron-cluster solution. The concept of merons can be used to solve the sign
problem for a limited class of models. Here we show that the method can be used
to \textit{reduce} the sign problem in a wider class of models. We investigate
how the meron solution evolves between a point in parameter space where it
eliminates the sign problem and a point where it does not affect the sign
problem at all. In this intermediate regime the merons can be used to reduce
the sign problem. The average sign still decreases exponentially with system
size and inverse temperature but with a different prefactor. The sign exhibits
the slowest decrease in the vicinity of points where the meron-cluster solution
eliminates the sign problem. We have used stochastic series expansion quantum
Monte Carlo combined with the concept of directed loops.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figure
Topoisomer Differentiation of Molecular Knots by FTICR MS: Lessons from Class II Lasso Peptides
Lasso peptides constitute a class of bioactive peptides sharing a knotted
structure where the C-terminal tail of the peptide is threaded through and
trapped within an N-terminalmacrolactamring. The structural characterization of
lasso structures and differentiation from their unthreaded topoisomers is not
trivial and generally requires the use of complementary biochemical and
spectroscopic methods. Here we investigated two antimicrobial peptides
belonging to the class II lasso peptide family and their corresponding
unthreaded topoisomers: microcin J25 (MccJ25), which is known to yield
two-peptide product ions specific of the lasso structure under collisioninduced
dissociation (CID), and capistruin, for which CID does not permit to
unambiguously assign the lasso structure. The two pairs of topoisomers were
analyzed by electrospray ionization Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance
mass spectrometry (ESI-FTICR MS) upon CID, infrared multiple photon
dissociation (IRMPD), and electron capture dissociation (ECD). CID and
ECDspectra clearly permitted to differentiate MccJ25 from its non-lasso
topoisomer MccJ25-Icm, while for capistruin, only ECD was informative and
showed different extent of hydrogen migration (formation of c\bullet/z from
c/z\bullet) for the threaded and unthreaded topoisomers. The ECD spectra of the
triply-charged MccJ25 and MccJ25-lcm showed a series of radical b-type product
ions {\eth}b0In{\TH}. We proposed that these ions are specific of
cyclic-branched peptides and result from a dual c/z\bullet and y/b
dissociation, in the ring and in the tail, respectively. This work shows the
potentiality of ECD for structural characterization of peptide topoisomers, as
well as the effect of conformation on hydrogen migration subsequent to electron
capture
Influences of state anxiety on gaze behavior and stepping accuracy in older adults during adaptive locomotion
This article is available open access through the publisher’s website at the link below. Copyright © The Authors 2011.OBJECTIVES: Older adults deemed to be at a high risk of falling transfer their gaze from a stepping target earlier than their low-risk counterparts. The extent of premature gaze transfer increases with task complexity and is associated with a decline in stepping accuracy. This study tests the hypothesis that increased anxiety about upcoming obstacles is associated with (a) premature transfers of gaze toward obstacles (i.e., looking away from a target box prior to completing the step on it in order to fixate future constraints in the walkway) and (b) reduced stepping accuracy on the target in older adults. METHODS: High-risk (9) and low-risk (8) older adult participants walked a 10-m pathway containing a stepping target area followed by various arrangements of obstacles, which varied with each trial. Anxiety, eye movements, and movement kinematics were measured. RESULTS: Progressively increasing task complexity resulted in associated statistically significant increases in measures of anxiety, extent of early gaze transfer, and stepping inaccuracies in the high-risk group. DISCUSSION: These results provide evidence that increased anxiety about environmental hazards is related to suboptimal visual sampling behavior which, in turn, negatively influences stepping performance, potentially contributing to increased falls risk in older adults.Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Counci
Global Bethe lattice consideration of the spin-1 Ising model
The spin-1 Ising model with bilinear and biquadratic exchange interactions
and single-ion crystal field is solved on the Bethe lattice using exact
recursion equations. The general procedure of critical properties investigation
is discussed and full set of phase diagrams are constructed for both positive
and negative biquadratic couplings. In latter case we observe all remarkable
features of the model, uncluding doubly-reentrant behavior and ferrimagnetic
phase. A comparison with the results of other approximation schemes is done.Comment: Latex, 11 pages, 13 ps figures available upon reques
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The JAK inhibitor tofacitinib suppresses synovial JAK1-STAT signalling in rheumatoid arthritis.
ObjectiveTofacitinib is an oral Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The pathways affected by tofacitinib and the effects on gene expression in situ are unknown. Therefore, tofacitinib effects on synovial pathobiology were investigated.MethodsA randomised, double-blind, phase II serial synovial biopsy study (A3921073; NCT00976599) in patients with RA with an inadequate methotrexate response. Patients on background methotrexate received tofacitinib 10 mg twice daily or placebo for 28 days. Synovial biopsies were performed on Days -7 and 28 and analysed by immunoassay or quantitative PCR. Clinical response was determined by disease activity score and European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) response on Day 28 in A3921073, and at Month 3 in a long-term extension study (A3921024; NCT00413699).ResultsTofacitinib exposure led to EULAR moderate to good responses (11/14 patients), while placebo was ineffective (1/14 patients) on Day 28. Tofacitinib treatment significantly reduced synovial mRNA expression of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-1 and MMP-3 (p<0.05) and chemokines CCL2, CXCL10 and CXCL13 (p<0.05). No overall changes were observed in synovial inflammation score or the presence of T cells, B cells or macrophages. Changes in synovial phosphorylation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 (STAT1) and STAT3 strongly correlated with 4-month clinical responses (p<0.002). Tofacitinib significantly decreased plasma CXCL10 (p<0.005) at Day 28 compared with placebo.ConclusionsTofacitinib reduces metalloproteinase and interferon-regulated gene expression in rheumatoid synovium, and clinical improvement correlates with reductions in STAT1 and STAT3 phosphorylation. JAK1-mediated interferon and interleukin-6 signalling likely play a key role in the synovial response.Trial registration numberNCT00976599
Spin-Peierls phases in pyrochlore antiferromagnets
In the highly frustrated pyrochlore magnet spins form a lattice of corner
sharing tetrahedra. We show that the tetrahedral ``molecule'' at the heart of
this structure undergoes a Jahn-Teller distortion when lattice motion is
coupled to the antiferromagnetism. We extend this analysis to the full
pyrochlore lattice by means of Landau theory and argue that it should exhibit
spin-Peierls phases with bond order but no spin order. We find a range of Neel
phases, with collinear, coplanar and noncoplanar order. While collinear Neel
phases are easiest to generate microscopically, we also exhibit an interaction
that gives rise to a coplanar state instead.Comment: REVTeX 4, 14 pages, 12 figures (best viewed in color
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