Bayesian salamanders: analysing the demography of an underground population of the European plethodontid <i>Speleomantes strinatii</i> with state-space modelling

&lt;b&gt;Background&lt;/b&gt;: It has been suggested that Plethodontid salamanders are excellent candidates for indicating ecosystem health. However, detailed, long-term data sets of their populations are rare, limiting our understanding of the demographic processes underlying their population fluctuations. Here we present a demographic analysis based on a 1996 - 2008 data set on an underground population of Speleomantes strinatii (Aellen) in NW Italy. We utilised a Bayesian state-space approach allowing us to parameterise a stage-structured Lefkovitch model. We used all the available population data from annual temporary removal experiments to provide us with the baseline data on the numbers of juveniles, subadults and adult males and females present at any given time. &lt;b&gt;Results&lt;/b&gt;: Sampling the posterior chains of the converged state-space model gives us the likelihood distributions of the state-specific demographic rates and the associated uncertainty of these estimates. Analysing the resulting parameterised Lefkovitch matrices shows that the population growth is very close to 1, and that at population equilibrium we expect half of the individuals present to be adults of reproductive age which is what we also observe in the data. Elasticity analysis shows that adult survival is the key determinant for population growth. &lt;b&gt;Conclusion&lt;/b&gt;: This analysis demonstrates how an understanding of population demography can be gained from structured population data even in a case where following marked individuals over their whole lifespan is not practical

D=10 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory at alpha'^4

The $\alpha'^2$ deformation of D=10 SYM is the natural generalisation of the $F^4$ term in the abelian Born-Infeld theory. It is shown that this deformation can be extended to $\alpha'^4$ in a way which is consistent with supersymmetry. The latter requires the presence of higher-derivative and commutator terms as well as the symmetrised trace of the Born-Infeld $\alpha'^4$ term.Comment: 27 pages. Minor changes to text; references added

Study of thermal insulation for airborne liquid hydrogen fuel tanks

A concept for a fail-safe thermal protection system was developed. From screening tests, approximately 30 foams, adhesives, and reinforcing fibers using 0.3-meter square liquid nitrogen cold plate, CPR 452 and Stafoam AA1602, both reinforced with 10 percent by weight of 1/16 inch milled OCF Style 701 Fiberglas, were selected for further tests. Cyclic tests with these materials in 2-inch thicknesses bonded on a 0.6-meter square cold plate with Crest 7410 adhesive systems, were successful. Zero permeability gas barriers were identified and found to be compatible with the insulating concept

Geochemistry of HASP, VLT, and other glasses from double drive tube 79001/2

The Apollo 17 double drive tube 79001/2 (station 9, Van Serg Crater) is distinctive because of its extreme maturity, abundance, and variety of glass clasts. It contains mare glasses of both high Ti and very low Ti (VLT) compositions, and highland glasses of all compositions common in lunar regolith samples: highland basalt (feldspathic; Al2O3 greater than 23 wt percent), KREEP (Al2O3 less than 23 wt percent, K2O greater than 0.25 wt percent), and low-K Fra Mauro (LKFM; Al2O3 less than 23 wt percent, K2O less than 0.25 wt percent). It also contains rare specimens of high-alumina, silica-poor (HASP), and ultra Mg glasses. HASP glasses contain insufficient SiO2 to permit the calculation of a standard norm, and are thought to be the product of volatilization during impact melting. They have been studied by electron microprobe major-element analysis techniques but have not previously been analyzed for trace elements. The samples analyzed for this study were polished grain mounts of the 90-160 micron fraction of four sieved samples from the 79001/2 core (depth range 2.3-11.5 cm). A total of 80 glasses were analyzed by SEM/EDS and electron microprobe, and a subset of 33 of the glasses, representing a wide range of compositional types, was chosen for high-sensitivity INAA. A microdrilling device removed disks (mostly 50-100 micron diameter, weighing approx. 0.1-0.5 micro-g) for INAA. Preliminary data reported here are based only on short counts done within two weeks of irradiation

Magnetic field tuning of coplanar waveguide resonators

We describe measurements on microwave coplanar resonators designed for quantum bit experiments. Resonators have been patterned onto sapphire and silicon substrates, and quality factors in excess of a million have been observed. The resonant frequency shows a high sensitivity to magnetic field applied perpendicular to the plane of the film, with a quadratic dependence for the fundamental, second and third harmonics. Frequency shift of hundreds of linewidths can be obtained.Comment: Accepted for publication in AP

On the properties of superconducting planar resonators at mK temperatures

Planar superconducting resonators are now being increasingly used at mK temperatures in a number of novel applications. They are also interesting devices in their own right since they allow us to probe the properties of both the superconductor and its environment. We have experimentally investigated three types of niobium resonators - including a lumped element design - fabricated on sapphire and SiO_2/Si substrates. They all exhibit a non-trivial temperature dependence of their centre frequency and quality factor. Our results shed new light on the interaction between the electromagnetic waves in the resonator and two-level fluctuators in the substrate.Comment: V2 includes some minor corrections/changes. Submitted to PR

Ownership Change, Productivity, and Human Capital: New Evidence from Matched Employer-Employee Data in Swedish Manufacturing

Empirical studies of the impact of changes in ownership of manufacturing plants on productivity (e.g., Lichtenberg and Siegel (1987, 1990a, 1990b), McGuckin and Nguyen (1995, 2001), and Maksimovic and Phillips (2001)) have provided limited evidence on how such transactions affect investment in human capital and have been based strictly on U.S. and U.K. data. We attempt to fill these gaps, based on an analysis of matched employer-employee data from over 19,000 Swedish manufacturing plants for the years 1985-1998. The sample covers virtually the entire population of manufacturing plants with 20 or more employees and a probability-based sample of smaller plants. We assess whether there are differential effects on productivity and human capital for different types of ownership changes, such as partial and full acquisitions and divestitures, and related and unrelated acquisitions. Our results suggest that ownership change results in an increase in relative productivity. We also find that plants involved in these transactions experience increases in average employee age, experience, and the percentage of employees with a college education. Ownership change also leads to an increase in wages and a reduction in the percentage of female workers. All of these patterns emerge most strongly for full acquisitions and divestitures and unrelated acquisitions.

Data report for the Siple Coast (Antarctica) project

This report presents data collected during three field seasons of glaciological studies in the Antarctica and describes the methods employed. The region investigated covers the mouths of Ice Streams B and C (the Siple Coast) and Crary Ice Rise on the Ross Ice Shelf. Measurements included in the report are as follows: surface velocity and deformation from repeated satellite geoceiver positions; surface topography from optical levelling; radar sounding of ice thickness; accumulation rates; near-surface densities and temperature profiles; and mapping from aerial photography

Quantization of the First-Order Two-Dimensional Einstein-Hilbert Action

A canonical analysis of the first-order two-dimensional Einstein-Hilbert action has shown it to have no physical degrees of freedom and to possess an unusual gauge symmetry with a symmetric field $\xi_{\mu\nu}$ acting as a gauge function. Some consequences of this symmetry are explored. The action is quantized and it is shown that all loop diagrams beyond one-loop order vanish. Furthermore, explicit calculation of the one-loop two-point function shows that it too vanishes, with the contribution of the ghost loop cancelling that of the ``graviton'' loop