460 research outputs found
Partial reconstitution of DNA large loop repair with purified proteins from Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Ground-dwelling arthropod responses to succession in a pinyon-juniper woodland
Stand-replacing wildfire is an infrequent but important disturbance in southwestern pinyon-juniper woodlands. A typical successional cycle in these woodlands is approximately 300 years or more after a stand-replacing fire. Arthropods, especially ground-dwelling taxa, are one of the most abundant and diverse fauna in terrestrial ecosystems and are typically responsive to microhabitat change. Little is known regarding community responses of ground-dwelling arthropods to changes in woodland successional stages from early ecosystems dominated by grasses, herbaceous plants, and fire adapted shrubs to tree-dominated old-growth ecosystems. In 2007 and 2008, within Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado, we compared the community composition of ground-dwelling arthropods between old-growth pinyon-juniper stands that were 300–400 years old and early successional areas recovering from a stand-replacing fire in 2002. The 2002 fire eliminated the dominant woody vegetation, which was replaced by increased herbaceous vegetation and bare ground. The early successional arthropod community showed a significantly higher abundance in major arthropod taxonomic groups, except spiders, compared to old-growth woodland. Old-growth species richness was greater in late August–September, 2007 and greater in early successional habitats during April–July, 2008. Spatial variability of the habitat was much greater in the recently burned early successional plots than the old-growth late successional plots. The differences in habitat were strongly correlated with arthropod community composition, suggesting that ground-dwelling arthropods are very sensitive to habitat changes. Habitat affiliation was strong, with 83% (early succession ruderal) and 91% (old-growth woodland) of the species found primarily or exclusively in one habitat. Many habitat indicator species (defined as species found in significantly greater abundance in one habitat) were found in both burned and old-growth habitats. Several species were found to be strict specialists exclusive to only one of these habitats. Collectively, the results suggest that heightened concern over loss of old-growth woodlands is warranted, given the distinct nature of the ground-dwelling arthropod community in old-growth habitats
Conduction of Ultracold Fermions Through a Mesoscopic Channel
In a mesoscopic conductor electric resistance is detected even if the device
is defect-free. We engineer and study a cold-atom analog of a mesoscopic
conductor. It consists of a narrow channel connecting two macroscopic
reservoirs of fermions that can be switched from ballistic to diffusive. We
induce a current through the channel and find ohmic conduction, even for a
ballistic channel. An analysis of in-situ density distributions shows that in
the ballistic case the chemical potential drop occurs at the entrance and exit
of the channel, revealing the presence of contact resistance. In contrast, a
diffusive channel with disorder displays a chemical potential drop spread over
the whole channel. Our approach opens the way towards quantum simulation of
mesoscopic devices with quantum gases
The Composition Gradient in M101 Revisited. II. Electron Temperatures and Implications for the Nebular Abundance Scale
(Abridged) We use high S/N spectra of 20 HII regions in the giant spiral
galaxy M101 to derive electron temperatures for the HII regions and robust
metal abundances over radii R = 0.19-1.25 Ro (6-41 kpc). We compare the
consistency of electron temperatures measured from the [O III]4363, [N II]5755,
[S III]6312, and [O II]7325 auroral lines. Temperatures from [O III], [S III],
and [N II] are correlated with relative offsets that are consistent with
expectations from nebular photoionization models. However, the temperatures
derived from the [O II]7325 line show a large scatter and are nearly
uncorrelated with temperatures derived from other ions. Our derived oxygen
abundances O/H are well fitted by an exponential distribution over six disk
scale lengths, from approximately 1.3 solar in the center to 1/15 solar in the
outermost region studied (for solar 12 + log (O/H)=8.7). We measure significant
radial gradients in N/O and He/H abundance ratios, but relatively constant S/O
and Ar/O. Our abundances are systematically lower by 0.2-0.5 dex than those
derived from the most widely used strong-line "empirical" abundance indicators.
We suspect that most of the disagreement with the strong-line abundances arises
from uncertainties in the nebular models that are used to calibrate the
"empirical" scale, and that strong-line abundances derived for HII regions and
emission-line galaxies are as much as a factor of two higher than the actual
oxygen abundances. However other explanations, such as the effects of
temperature fluctuations on the auroral line based abundances cannot be
completely ruled out. These results point to the need for direct abundance
determinations of a larger sample of extragalactic HII regions, especially for
objects more metal-rich than solar.Comment: 50 pages, 14 figures, 8 tables. Accepted by Ap
Exploring Halo Substructure with Giant Stars IV: The Extended Structure of the Ursa Minor Dwarf Spheroidal
We present a large area photometric survey of the Ursa Minor dSph. We
identify UMi giant star candidates extending to ~3 deg from the center of the
dSph. Comparison to previous catalogues of stars within the tidal radius of UMi
suggests that our photometric luminosity classification is 100% accurate. Over
a large fraction of the survey area, blue horizontal branch stars associated
with UMi can also be identified. The spatial distribution of both the UMi giant
stars and the BHB stars are remarkably similar, and a large fraction of both
samples of stars are found outside the tidal radius of UMi. An isodensity
contour map of the stars within the tidal radius of UMi reveals two
morphological peculiarities: (1) The highest density of dSph stars is offset
from the center of symmetry of the outer isodensity contours. (2) The overall
shape of the outer contours appear S-shaped. We find that previously determined
King profiles with ~50' tidal radii do not fit well the distribution of our UMi
stars. A King profile with a larger tidal radius produces a reasonable fit,
however a power law with index -3 provides a better fit for radii > 20'. The
existence of UMi stars at large distances from the core of the galaxy, the
peculiar morphology of the dSph within its tidal radius, and the shape of its
surface density profile all suggest that UMi is evolving significantly due to
the tidal influence of the Milky Way. However, the photometric data on UMi
stars alone does not allow us to determine if the candidate extratidal stars
are now unbound or if they remain bound to the dSph within an extended dark
matter halo. (Abridged)Comment: accepted by AJ, 32 pages, 15 figures, emulateapj5 styl
The QCD spectrum with three quark flavors
We present results from a lattice hadron spectrum calculation using three
flavors of dynamical quarks - two light and one strange, and quenched
simulations for comparison. These simulations were done using a one-loop
Symanzik improved gauge action and an improved Kogut-Susskind quark action. The
lattice spacings, and hence also the physical volumes, were tuned to be the
same in all the runs to better expose differences due to flavor number. Lattice
spacings were tuned using the static quark potential, so as a byproduct we
obtain updated results for the effect of sea quarks on the static quark
potential. We find indications that the full QCD meson spectrum is in better
agreement with experiment than the quenched spectrum. For the 0++ (a0) meson we
see a coupling to two pseudoscalar mesons, or a meson decay on the lattice.Comment: 38 pages, 20 figures, uses epsf. 5/29/01 revision responds to
referee's Comments, changes pion fits and tables, and corrects Fig. 10 and
some minor error
Zero temperature string breaking in lattice quantum chromodynamics
The separation of a heavy quark and antiquark pair leads to the formation of
a tube of flux, or "string", which should break in the presence of light
quark-antiquark pairs. This expected zero-temperature phenomenon has proven
elusive in simulations of lattice QCD. We study mixing between the string state
and the two-meson decay channel in QCD with two flavors of dynamical sea
quarks. We confirm that mixing is weak and find that it decreases at level
crossing. While our study does not show direct effects of internal quark loops,
our results, combined with unitarity, give clear confirmation of string
breaking.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures. With small clarifications and two additions to
references. Submitted to Phys. Rev.
Halogen Oxidation Reactions of (C5Ph5)Cr(CO)3 and Lewis Base Addition To [(C5Ph5)Cr(ÎĽ-X)X]2: Electrochemical, Magnetic, and Raman Spectroscopic Characterization of [(C5Ph5)CrX2]2 and (C5Ph5)CrX2(THF) (X = Cl, Br, I). X-ray Crystal Structure of [(C5Ph5)Cr(ÎĽ-Cl)Cl]2
The 17-electron complex (C5Ph5)Cr(CO)3 reacts with halogens (C6H5I•Cl2, Br2, and I2) in C6H6 to yield the dimeric oxidation products [(C5Ph5)Cr(m-X)X]2 as thermally stable solids. Reactions with other chlorinating agents similarly yield [(C5Ph5)CrCl2]2. An X-ray crystal structure of [(C5Ph5)Cr(m-Cl)Cl]2 was obtained. The magnetic properties of the Cl2 bridged dimer have been determined and modeled using the usual isotropic hamiltonian which yields J/k = –30 K. Low-temperature (77 K) Raman spectra of solid [(C5Ph5)CrX2]2 (X = Cl, I) allow assignments to be made for the metal-ring and metal halogen stretching modes in the low frequency region (\u3c 600 cm-1). Tetrahydrofuran (THF) cleaves these dimers to yield complexes of the form (C5Ph5)CrX2(THF)
Topological susceptibility with the improved Asqtad action
As a test of the chiral properties of the improved Asqtad (staggered fermion)
action, we have been measuring the topological susceptibility as a function of
quark masses for 2 + 1 dynamical flavors. We report preliminary results, which
show reasonable agreement with leading order chiral perturbation theory for
lattice spacing less than 0.1 fm. The total topological charge, however, shows
strong persistence over Monte Carlo time.Comment: Lattice2002(algor
Association of Clonal Hematopoiesis of Indeterminate Potential with Inflammatory Gene Expression in Patients with COPD
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a disease with an inflammatory pheno type with increasing prevalence in the elderly. Expanded population of mutant blood cells carrying
somatic mutations is termed clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP). The associ ation between CHIP and COPD and its relevant effects on DNA methylation in aging are mainly
unknown. Analyzing the deep-targeted amplicon sequencing from 125 COPD patients, we found
enhanced incidence of CHIP mutations (~20%) with a predominance of DNMT3A CHIP-mediated
hypomethylation of Phospholipase D Family Member 5 (PLD5), which in turn is positively correlated
with increased levels of glycerol phosphocholine, pro-inflammatory cytokines, and deteriorating
lung function
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