686 research outputs found
Long-distance dispersal of pigeons and doves generated new ecological opportunities for host-switching and adaptive radiation by their parasites.
Adaptive radiation is an important mechanism of organismal diversification and can be triggered by new ecological opportunities. Although poorly studied in this regard, parasites are an ideal group in which to study adaptive radiations because of their close associations with host species. Both experimental and comparative studies suggest that the ectoparasitic wing lice of pigeons and doves have adaptively radiated, leading to differences in body size and overall coloration. Here, we show that long-distance dispersal by dove hosts was central to parasite diversification because it provided new ecological opportunities for parasites to speciate after host-switching. We further show that among extant parasite lineages host-switching decreased over time, with cospeciation becoming the more dominant mode of parasite speciation. Taken together, our results suggest that host dispersal, followed by host-switching, provided novel ecological opportunities that facilitated adaptive radiation by parasites
Large Deviations for Random Trees
We consider large random trees under Gibbs distributions and prove a Large
Deviation Principle (LDP) for the distribution of degrees of vertices of the
tree. The LDP rate function is given explicitly. An immediate consequence is a
Law of Large Numbers for the distribution of vertex degrees in a large random
tree. Our motivation for this study comes from the analysis of RNA secondary
structures.Comment: 10 page
Boundedness, compactness and Schatten-class membership of weighted composition operators
The boundedness and compactness of weighted composition operators on the
Hardy space of the unit disc is analysed. Particular reference
is made to the case when the self-map of the disc is an inner function.
Schatten-class membership is also considered; as a result, stronger forms of
the two main results of a recent paper of Gunatillake are derived. Finally,
weighted composition operators on weighted Bergman spaces are considered, and the results of Harper and Smith,
linking their properties to those of Carleson embeddings, are extended to this
situation.Comment: 12 page
Challenges of open innovation: the paradox of firm investment in open-source software
Open innovation is a powerful framework encompassing the generation, capture, and employment of intellectual property at the firm level. We identify three fundamental challenges for firms in applying the concept of open innovation: finding creative ways to exploit internal innovation, incorporating external innovation into internal development, and motivating outsiders to supply an ongoing stream of external innovations. This latter challenge involves a paradox, why would firms spend money on R&D efforts if the results of these efforts are available to rival firms? To explore these challenges, we examine the activity of firms in opensource software to support their innovation strategies. Firms involved in open-source software often make investments that will be shared with real and potential rivals. We identify four strategies firms employ – pooled R&D/product development, spinouts, selling complements and attracting donated complements – and discuss how they address the three key challenges of open innovation. We conclude with suggestions for how similar strategies may apply in other industries and offer some possible avenues for future research on open innovation
Supernovae, Hypernovae and Color Superconductivity
We argue that Color Superconductivity (CSC, Cooper pairing in quark matter
leading to the breaking of SU(3) color symmetry) may play a role in triggering
the explosive endpoint of stellar evolution in massive stars (M > 8 M_{\odot}).
We show that the binding energy release in the transition of a sub-core region
to the CSC phase can be of the same order of magnitude as the gravitational
binding energy release from core collapse. The core temperature during collapse
is likely below the critical temperature for CSC, and the transition is first
order, proceeding on Fermi timescales when the pressure reaches a critical
value of several times nuclear density. We also discuss the implications for
hypernova events with total ejecta energy of 10-100 times that of type II
supernova.Comment: 8 pages, LaTe
Exploring the association between maternal prenatal multivitamin use and early infant growth: The Healthy Start Study
Background: Prenatal multivitamin supplementation is recommended to improve offspring outcomes, but effects on early infant growth are unknown. Objectives: We examined whether multivitamin supplementation in the year before delivery predicts offspring mass, body composition and early infant growth. Methods: Multivitamin use was assessed longitudinally in 626 women from the Healthy Start Study. Offspring body size and composition was measured with air displacement plethysmography at birth (<3 days) and postnatally (median 5.2 months). Separate multiple linear regressions assessed the relationship of weeks of daily multivitamin use with offspring mass, body composition and postnatal growth, after adjustment for potential confounders (maternal age, race, pre-pregnant body mass index; offspring gestational age at birth, sex; breastfeeding exclusivity). Results: Maternal multivitamin use was not related to offspring mass or body composition at birth, or rate of change in total or fat-free mass in the first 5 months. Multivitamin use was inversely associated with average monthly growth in offspring percent fat mass (β = −0.009, p = 0.049) between birth and postnatal exam. Offspring of non-users had a monthly increase in percent fat mass of 3.45%, while offspring at the top quartile of multivitamin users had a monthly increase in percent fat mass of 3.06%. This association was not modified by exclusive breastfeeding. Conclusions: Increased multivitamin use in the pre-conception and prenatal periods was associated with a slower rate of growth in offspring percent fat mass in the first 5 months of life. This study provides further evidence that in utero nutrient exposures may affect offspring adiposity beyond birth
Blood pressure during pregnancy, neonatal size and altered body composition: The Healthy Start study
Objective: The objective of this study is to estimate associations between changes in maternal arterial pressure during normotensive pregnancies and offspring birth weight and body composition at birth. Study Design: Prospective study of 762 pregnant normotensive Colorado women, recruited from outpatient obstetrics clinics. Repeated arterial pressure measurements during pregnancy were averaged within the second and third trimesters, respectively. Multivariable regression models estimated associations between second to third trimester changes in arterial pressure and small-for-gestational-age birth weight, fat mass, fat-free mass and percent body fat. Results: A greater second to third trimester increase in maternal arterial pressure was associated with greater odds of small-for-gestational-age birth weight. Greater increases in maternal diastolic blood pressure were associated with reductions in offspring percent body fat (-1.1% in highest vs lowest quartile of increase, 95% confidence interval: -1.9%, -0.3%). Conclusion: Mid-to-late pregnancy increases in maternal arterial pressure, which do not meet clinical thresholds for hypertension are associated with neonatal body size and composition
Fermat-linked relations for the Boubaker polynomial sequences via Riordan matrices analysis
The Boubaker polynomials are investigated in this paper. Using Riordan
matrices analysis, a sequence of relations outlining the relations with
Chebyshev and Fermat polynomials have been obtained. The obtained expressions
are a meaningful supply to recent applied physics studies using the Boubaker
polynomials expansion scheme (BPES).Comment: 12 pages, LaTe
Astrophysical structures from primordial quantum black holes
The characteristic sizes of astrophysical structures, up to the whole
observed Universe, can be recovered, in principle, assuming that gravity is the
overall interaction assembling systems starting from microscopic scales, whose
order of magnitude is ruled by the Planck length and the related Compton
wavelength. This result agrees with the absence of screening mechanisms for the
gravitational interaction and could be connected to the presence of Yukawa
corrections in the Newtonian potential which introduce typical interaction
lengths. This result directly comes out from quantization of primordial black
holes and then characteristic interaction lengths directly emerge from quantum
field theory.Comment: 11 page
Weak lensing, dark matter and dark energy
Weak gravitational lensing is rapidly becoming one of the principal probes of
dark matter and dark energy in the universe. In this brief review we outline
how weak lensing helps determine the structure of dark matter halos, measure
the expansion rate of the universe, and distinguish between modified gravity
and dark energy explanations for the acceleration of the universe. We also
discuss requirements on the control of systematic errors so that the
systematics do not appreciably degrade the power of weak lensing as a
cosmological probe.Comment: Invited review article for the GRG special issue on gravitational
lensing (P. Jetzer, Y. Mellier and V. Perlick Eds.). V3: subsection on
three-point function and some references added. Matches the published versio
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