The relationship between metabolic rate and sociability is altered by food-deprivation

Individuals vary in the extent to which they associate with conspecifics, but little is known about the energetic underpinnings of this variation in sociability. Group-living allows individuals to find food more consistently, but within groups, there can be competition for food items. Individuals with an increased metabolic rate could display decreased sociability to reduce competition. Long-term food deprivation (FD) may alter any links between sociability and metabolic rate by affecting motivation to find food. We examined these issues in juvenile qingbo carp Spinibarbus sinensis, to understand how FD and metabolic rate affect sociability. Like many aquatic ectotherms, this species experiences seasonal bouts of FD. Individuals were either: (i) food-deprived for 21 days; or (ii) fed a maintenance ration (control). Fish from each treatment were measured for standard metabolic rate (SMR) and tested for sociability twice: once in the presence of a control stimulus shoal and once with a food-deprived stimulus shoal. Control individuals ventured further from stimulus shoals over a 30-min trial, while food-deprived fish did not change their distance from stimulus shoals as trials progressed. Control fish with a higher SMR were least sociable. Well-fed controls showed decreased sociability when exposed to food-deprived stimulus shoals, but there was evidence of consistency in relative sociability between exposures to different shoal types. Results contrast with previous findings that several days of fasting causes individuals to decrease associations with conspecifics. Prolonged FD may cause individuals to highly prioritize food acquisition, and the decreased vigilance that would accompany continuous foraging may heighten the need for the antipredator benefits of shoaling. Conversely, decreased sociability in well-fed fish with a high SMR probably minimizes intraspecific competition, allowing them to satisfy an increased energetic demand while foraging. Together, these results suggest that FD – a challenge common for many ectothermic species – can affect individual sociability as well as the attractiveness of groups towards conspecifics. In addition, the lack of a link between SMR and sociability in food-deprived fish suggests that, in situations where group membership is linked to fitness, the extent of correlated selection on metabolic traits may be context-dependent

Josephson dynamics of a spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensate in a double well potential

We investigate the quantum dynamics of an experimentally realized spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensate in a double well potential. The spin-orbit coupling can significantly enhance the atomic inter-well tunneling. We find the coexistence of internal and external Josephson effects in the system, which are moreover inherently coupled in a complicated form even in the absence of interatomic interactions. Moreover, we show that the spin-dependent tunneling between two wells can induce a net atomic spin current referred as spin Josephson effects. Such novel spin Josephson effects can be observable for realistically experimental conditions.Comment: 8 page

Robust H∞ control for a class of nonlinear stochastic systems with mixed time delay

This is the post print version of the article. The official published version can be obtained from the link - Copyright 2007 Wiley-Blackwell LtdThis paper is concerned with the problem of robust H∞ control for a class of uncertain nonlinear Itô-type stochastic systems with mixed time delays. The parameter uncertainties are assumed to be norm bounded, the mixed time delays comprise both the discrete and distributed delays, and the sector nonlinearities appear in both the system states and delayed states. The problem addressed is the design of a linear state feedback controller such that, in the simultaneous presence of parameter uncertainties, system nonlinearities and mixed time delays, the resulting closed-loop system is asymptotically stable in the mean square and also achieves a prescribed H∞ disturbance rejection attenuation level. By using the Lyapunov stability theory and the Itô differential rule, some new techniques are developed to derive the sufficient conditions guaranteeing the existence of the desired feedback controllers. A unified linear matrix inequality is proposed to deal with the problem under consideration and a numerical example is exploited to show the usefulness of the results obtained.This work was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Grant Number: GR/S27658/01, Nuffield Foundation. Grant Number: NAL/00630/G, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, National Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Education Committee of China Grant Number: 06KJD110206, National Natural Science Foundation Grant Numbers: 10471119, 10671172, Scientific Innovation Fund of Yangzhou University of China. Grant Number: 2006CXJ002

Density Functional Theory Analysis of Surface Structures of Spinel LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 Cathode Materials

First-principle calculation was employed to investigate the surface stability for (100), (110) and (111) low index facets of LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 (LNMO) crystallographic structures with a P4332 space group and phase transitions at the surface regions of Ni0.5Mn1.5O4. The calculated surface energies of (100) and (111) facets with Li-terminations are 1.39 and 1.40 eV, respectively, indicating that both these facets of the LNMO are stable according to the calculation results. Defect formation energies and diffusion barriers of Ni and Mn in surface facets of the Ni0.5Mn1.5O4 are much lower than those in the bulk. This suggests that the Ni and Mn ions in the surface regions of the LNMO easily occupy the tetrahedral Li-positions during delithiation process, which supports the experimental results and explains the surface structure changes of the LNMO upon delithiation