A phylogenetic comparative analysis on the evolution of sequential hermaphroditism in seabreams (Teleostei : Sparidae)

The Sparids are an ideal group of fish in which to study the evolution of sexual systems since they exhibit a great sexual diversity, from gonochorism (separate sexes) to protandrous (male-first) and protogynous (female-first) sequential hermaphroditism (sex-change). According to the size-advantage model (SAM), selection should favour sex change when the second sex achieves greater reproductive success at a larger body size than the first sex. Using phylogenetic comparative methods and a sample of 68 sparid species, we show that protogyny and protandry evolve from gonochorism but evolutionary transitions between these two forms of sequential hermaphroditism are unlikely to happen. Using male gonadosomatic index (GSI) as a measure of investment in gametes and proxy for sperm competition, we find that, while gonochoristic and protogynous species support the predictions of SAM, protandrous species do not, as they exhibit higher GSI values than expected even after considering mating systems and spawning modes. We suggest that small males of protandrous species have to invest disproportionally more in sperm production than predicted not only when spawning in aggregations with high levels of sperm competition, but also when spawning in pairs due to the need to fertilize highly fecund females, much larger than themselves. We propose that this compensatory mechanism, together with Bateman’s principles in sequential hermaphrodites, should be formally incorporated in the SAM

Tensor products and statistics

AbstractA dictionary between operator-based and matrix-based languages in multivariate statistical analysis is proposed. Then this formulary is applied to asymptotic factorial analyses, especially for giving asymptotic covariance matrices and operators in an explicit form. Finally, we present the mathematical foundations on which are based the functional tools, i.e. tensor products of linear spaces, of vectors, and of operators

A Novel Use of Light Guides and Wavelength Shifting Plates for the Detection of Scintillation Photons in Large Liquid Argon Detectors

Scintillation light generated as charged particles traverse large liquid argon detectors adds valuable information to studies of weakly-interacting particles. This paper uses both laboratory measurements and cosmic ray data from the Blanche dewar facility at Fermilab to characterize the efficiency of the photon detector technology developed at Indiana University for the single phase far detector of DUNE. The efficiency of this technology was found to be 0.48% at the readout end when the detector components were characterized with laboratory measurements. A second determination of the efficiency using cosmic ray tracks is in reasonable agreement with the laboratory determination. The agreement of these two efficiency determinations supports the result that minimum ionizing muons generate ${\mathcal N}_{phot} = 40,000$ photons/MeV as they cross the LAr volume.Comment: Accepted version (without final editorial corrections

Climate and CO2 saturation in an alpine lake throughout the Holocene

This study shows that diatom sediment records can be used to investigate the long-term inorganic carbon dynamics in oligotrophic and poorly acid-buffered lakes. Using a training set of 115 high-mountain lakes in the Pyrenees, we found that both alkalinity and potential hydrogen (pH) independently explained some of the variability in diatom assemblages. Transfer functions for both variables were developed and applied to a Holocene record from Lake Redon and CO2 changes calculated. CO2 saturation broadly followed alkalinity, which in turn was related to summer and autumn air-temperature fluctuations. In general, warmer climate during the ice-free period led to higher supersaturation, due to increased alkalinity, which facilitated retention of CO2 from respiration, and decreased primary production (assessed by diatom fluxes). Only during the early Holocene, there were periods of extreme undersaturation, corresponding to cold periods of low alkalinity (<20 microequivalents per liter [meq L21]), and suggesting carbon limitation of primary production. The winter and spring climate, which determines the ice cover duration, appears to be relevant for CO2 saturation only during periods when the organic-matter content of the sediments was low (,22%). Longer periods of ice cover led to lower lake CO2 saturation, suggesting that the ice cover influence on internal nutrient loading may regulate lake productivity fluctuations under low allocthonous nutrient and organic-matter inputs. Alkalinity ,20 meq L21 and sediment organic matter ,22% appear as critical thresholds in the way lake CO2 levels respond to climate fluctuations.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Energy radiation of moving cracks

The energy radiated by moving cracks in a discrete background is analyzed. The energy flow through a given surface is expressed in terms of a generalized Poynting vector. The velocity of the crack is determined by the radiation by the crack tip. The radiation becomes more isotropic as the crack velocity approaches the instability threshold.Comment: 7 pages, embedded figure

Discrete time analysis of cognitive radio networks with imperfect sensing and saturated source of secondary users, Computer Communications

Sensing is one of the most challenging issues in cognitive radio networks. Selection of sensing parameters raises several tradeoffs between spectral efficiency, energy efficiency and interference caused to primary users (PUs). In this paper we provide representative mathematical models that can be used to analyze sensing strategies under a wide range of conditions. The activity of PUs in a licensed channel is modeled as a sequence of busy and idle periods, which is represented as an alternating Markov phase renewal process. The representation of the secondary users (SUs) behavior is also largely general: the duration of transmissions, sensing periods and the intervals between consecutive sensing periods are modeled by phase type distributions, which constitute a very versatile class of distributions. Expressions for several key performance measures in cognitive radio networks are obtained from the analysis of the model. Most notably, we derive the distribution of the length of an effective white space; the distributions of the waiting times until the SU transmits a given amount of data, through several transmission epochs uninterruptedly; and the goodput when an interrupted SU transmission has to be restarted from the beginning due to the presence of a PU. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.The research of A. S. Alfa was partially supported by the NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council) of Canada under Grant G00315156. Most of the contribution of V. Pla was done while visiting the University of Manitoba. This visit was supported by the Ministerio de Educacion of Spain under Grant PR2011-0055, and by the UPV through the Programa de Apoyo a la Investigacion y Desarrollo (PAID-00-12). The research of the authors from the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia was partially supported by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spain under Grant TIN2013-47272-C2-1-R.Alfa, AS.; Pla, V.; Martínez Bauset, J.; Casares Giner, V. (2016). Discrete time analysis of cognitive radio networks with imperfect sensing and saturated source of secondary users, Computer Communications. Computer Communications. 79:53-65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comcom.2015.11.012S53657