310 research outputs found
Distributional range, ecology, and mating system of the Cape mole-rat (Georychus capensis) family Bathyergidae
Abstract: Interpopulation variation in life-history patterns are influenced by intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Life-history patterns have been intensely studied in the eusocial African bathyergid species, largely neglecting the solitary species. Of these solitary genera, the Cape mole-rat (Georychus capensis (Pallas, 1778)) is endemic to South Africa with a disjunct distribution across its range. Knowledge regarding this species is rudimentary; therefore, this study aimed to investigate the current distribution of the species with particular attention to common ecological variables, differences in body size between localities and sexes, as well as its reproduction and mating system. Georychus is a habitat specialist restricted to specific ecological areas. A lack of sexual size dimorphism and correlation between male testis size and number of females in the population, suggests a polygynous mating system, facilitated by the spatial distribution of the sexes. A positive relationship between male testes size and percentage of females in populations sampled suggests that larger sperm reserves (i.e., larger testes) are required in populations with a higher percentage of females. In addition, mating variables (testicular size and litter size) are linked to ecological factors (elevation, aridity, soil type, and vegetation type) that could impact mate searching, mating success, and food resources
On the gravitational, dilatonic and axionic radiative damping of cosmic strings
We study the radiation reaction on cosmic strings due to the emission of
dilatonic, gravitational and axionic waves. After verifying the (on average)
conservative nature of the time-symmetric self-interactions, we concentrate on
the finite radiation damping force associated with the half-retarded minus
half-advanced ``reactive'' fields. We revisit a recent proposal of using a
``local back reaction approximation'' for the reactive fields. Using
dimensional continuation as convenient technical tool, we find, contrary to
previous claims, that this proposal leads to antidamping in the case of the
axionic field, and to zero (integrated) damping in the case of the
gravitational field. One gets normal positive damping only in the case of the
dilatonic field. We propose to use a suitably modified version of the local
dilatonic radiation reaction as a substitute for the exact (non-local)
gravitational radiation reaction. The incorporation of such a local
approximation to gravitational radiation reaction should allow one to complete,
in a computationally non-intensive way, string network simulations and to give
better estimates of the amount and spectrum of gravitational radiation emitted
by a cosmologically evolving network of massive strings.Comment: 48 pages, RevTex, epsfig, 1 figure; clarification of the domain of
validity of the perturbative derivation of the string equations of motion,
and of their renormalizabilit
Phosphorothioate antisense oligonucleotides induce the formation of nuclear bodies
Antisense oligonucleotides are powerful tools for the in vivo regulation of gene expression. We have characterized the intracellular distribution of fluorescently tagged phosphorothioate oligodeoxynucleotides (PS-ONs) at high resolution under conditions in which PS-ONs have the potential to display antisense activity. Under these conditions PS-ONs predominantly localized to the cell nucleus where they accumulated in 20-30 bright spherical foci designated phosphorothioate bodies (PS bodies), which were set against a diffuse nucleoplasmic population excluding nucleoli. PS bodies are nuclear structures that formed in cells after PS-ON delivery by transfection agents or microinjection but were observed irrespectively of antisense activity or sequence. Ultrastructurally, PS bodies corresponded to electron-dense structures of 150-300 nm diameter and resembled nuclear bodies that were found with lower frequency in cells lacking PS-ONs. The environment of a living cell was required for the de novo formation of PS bodies, which occurred within minutes after the introduction of PS-ONs. PS bodies were stable entities that underwent noticeable reorganization only during mitosis. Upon exit from mitosis, PS bodies were assembled de novo from diffuse PS-ON pools in the daughter nuclei. In situ fractionation demonstrated an association of PS-ONs with the nuclear matrix. Taken together, our data provide evidence for the formation of a nuclear body in cells after introduction of phosphorothioate oligodeoxynucleotides
Lepton Flavour Violating Leptonic/Semileptonic Decays of Charged Leptons in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model
We consider the leptonic and semileptonic (SL) lepton flavour violating (LFV)
decays of the charged leptons in the minimal supersymmetric standard model
(MSSM). The formalism for evaluation of branching fractions for the SL LFV
charged-lepton decays with one or two pseudoscalar mesons, or one vector meson
in the final state, is given. Previous amplitudes for the SL LFV charged-lepton
decays in MSSM are improved, for instance the -penguin amplitude is
corrected to assure the gauge invariance. The decays are studied not only in
the model-independent formulation of the theory in the frame of MSSM, but also
within the frame of the minimal supersymmetric SO(10) model within which the
parameters of the MSSM are determined. The latter model gives predictions for
the neutrino-Dirac Yukawa coupling matrix, once free parameters in the model
are appropriately fixed to accommodate the recent neutrino oscillation data.
Using this unambiguous neutrino-Dirac Yukawa couplings, we calculate the LFV
leptonic and SL decay processes assuming the minimal supergravity scenario. A
very detailed numerical analysis is done to constrain the MSSM parameters.
Numerical results for SL LFV processes are given, for instance for tau -> e
(mu) pi0, tau -> e (mu) eta, tau -> e (mu) eta', tau -> e (mu) rho0, tau -> e
(mu) phi, tau -> e (mu) omega, etc.Comment: 36 pages, 3 tables, 5 .eps figure
Constrained Supersymmetric Flipped SU(5) GUT Phenomenology
We explore the phenomenology of the minimal supersymmetric flipped SU(5) GUT
model (CFSU(5)), whose soft supersymmetry-breaking (SSB) mass parameters are
constrained to be universal at some input scale, , above the GUT scale,
. We analyze the parameter space of CFSU(5) assuming that the lightest
supersymmetric particle (LSP) provides the cosmological cold dark matter,
paying careful attention to the matching of parameters at the GUT scale. We
first display some specific examples of the evolutions of the SSB parameters
that exhibit some generic features. Specifically, we note that the relationship
between the masses of the lightest neutralino and the lighter stau is sensitive
to , as is the relationship between the neutralino mass and the masses
of the heavier Higgs bosons. For these reasons, prominent features in generic
planes such as coannihilation strips and rapid-annihilation
funnels are also sensitive to , as we illustrate for several cases with
tan(beta)=10 and 55. However, these features do not necessarily disappear at
large , unlike the case in the minimal conventional SU(5) GUT. Our
results are relatively insensitive to neutrino masses.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figures; (v2) added explanations and corrected typos,
version to appear in EPJ
Proximity effect at superconducting Sn-Bi2Se3 interface
We have investigated the conductance spectra of Sn-Bi2Se3 interface junctions
down to 250 mK and in different magnetic fields. A number of conductance
anomalies were observed below the superconducting transition temperature of Sn,
including a small gap different from that of Sn, and a zero-bias conductance
peak growing up at lower temperatures. We discussed the possible origins of the
smaller gap and the zero-bias conductance peak. These phenomena support that a
proximity-effect-induced chiral superconducting phase is formed at the
interface between the superconducting Sn and the strong spin-orbit coupling
material Bi2Se3.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figure
Centrality Dependence of the High p_T Charged Hadron Suppression in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 130 GeV
PHENIX has measured the centrality dependence of charged hadron p_T spectra
from central Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=130 GeV. The truncated mean p_T
decreases with centrality for p_T > 2 GeV/c, indicating an apparent reduction
of the contribution from hard scattering to high p_T hadron production. For
central collisions the yield at high p_T is shown to be suppressed compared to
binary nucleon-nucleon collision scaling of p+p data. This suppression is
monotonically increasing with centrality, but most of the change occurs below
30% centrality, i.e. for collisions with less than about 140 participating
nucleons. The observed p_T and centrality dependence is consistent with the
particle production predicted by models including hard scattering and
subsequent energy loss of the scattered partons in the dense matter created in
the collisions.Comment: 7 pages text, LaTeX, 6 figures, 2 tables, 307 authors, resubmitted to
Phys. Lett. B. Revised to address referee concerns. Plain text data tables
for the points plotted in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications
are publicly available at
http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/phenix/WWW/run/phenix/papers.htm
Formation of dense partonic matter in relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions at RHIC: Experimental evaluation by the PHENIX collaboration
Extensive experimental data from high-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions were
recorded using the PHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider
(RHIC). The comprehensive set of measurements from the first three years of
RHIC operation includes charged particle multiplicities, transverse energy,
yield ratios and spectra of identified hadrons in a wide range of transverse
momenta (p_T), elliptic flow, two-particle correlations, non-statistical
fluctuations, and suppression of particle production at high p_T. The results
are examined with an emphasis on implications for the formation of a new state
of dense matter. We find that the state of matter created at RHIC cannot be
described in terms of ordinary color neutral hadrons.Comment: 510 authors, 127 pages text, 56 figures, 1 tables, LaTeX. Submitted
to Nuclear Physics A as a regular article; v3 has minor changes in response
to referee comments. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures
for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be) publicly available
at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm
The PHENIX Experiment at RHIC
The physics emphases of the PHENIX collaboration and the design and current
status of the PHENIX detector are discussed. The plan of the collaboration for
making the most effective use of the available luminosity in the first years of
RHIC operation is also presented.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure. Further details of the PHENIX physics program
available at http://www.rhic.bnl.gov/phenix
Genome-wide meta-analyses reveal novel loci for verbal short-term memory and learning
Understanding the genomic basis of memory processes may help in combating neurodegenerative disorders. Hence, we examined the associations of common genetic variants with verbal short-term memory and verbal learning in adults without dementia or stroke (N = 53,637). We identified novel loci in the intronic region of CDH18, and at 13q21 and 3p21.1, as well as an expected signal in the APOE/APOC1/TOMM40 region. These results replicated in an independent sample. Functional and bioinformatic analyses supported many of these loci and further implicated POC1. We showed that polygenic score for verbal learning associated with brain activation in right parieto-occipital region during working memory task. Finally, we showed genetic correlations of these memory traits with several neurocognitive and health outcomes. Our findings suggest a role of several genomic loci in verbal memory processes
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