Buoyant Venus station feasibility study. Volume IV - Communications and power Final report

Telecommunication and power supply requirements for inflatable buoyant Venus statio

Environmental Effects on Limit-Fed Feedlot Finishing Diets

Ninety-six crossbred yearling steers were allotted to either ad libitum or 93% of ad libitum intake treatments in a 117-day winter finishing trial. Intake restriction began once the 93% treatment group was started on its finishing diet. Finishing diets were formulated to result in similar absolute intakes of nutrients and feed additives. Restricted treatment dry matter intake was lower than ad libitum as intended (P\u3c.05), but average daily gain was also less, 3.71 and 3.50 Ib per day (P\u3c.05) and resulted in similar feed/gain, 6.01 and 6.07 (P\u3e.82). These results are in contrast to two previous trials conducted during summer and mild winter/spring conditions and suggest that cold stress may affect the response to limit-feeding of feedlot finishing diets

Hybridization between white-headed ducks and introduced ruddy ducks in Spain

The ruddy duck, Oxyura jamaicensis , was introduced to Great Britain in the mid-20th century and has recently spread to other Western European countries. In Spain, ruddy ducks hybridize with the globally endangered white-headed duck, Oxyura leucocephala . We assessed the effects of hybridization on the Spanish white-headed ducks, which constitute 25% of the global population of this species, using a panel of eight nuclear intron markers, 10 microsatellite loci, and mtDNA control region sequences. These data allowed parental individuals, F 1 hybrids, and the progeny of backcrossing to be reliably distinguished. We show that hybrids between the two species are fertile and produce viable offspring in backcrosses with both parental species. To date, however, we found no extensive introgression of ruddy duck genes into the Spanish white-headed duck population, probably due to the early implementation of an effective ruddy duck and hybrid control programme. We also show that genetic diversity in the expanding European ruddy duck population, which was founded by just seven individuals, exceeds that of the native Spanish white-headed duck population, which recently recovered from a severe bottleneck. Unless effective control of ruddy ducks is continued, genetic introgression will compromise the unique behavioural and ecological adaptations of white-headed ducks and consequently their survival as a genetically and evolutionary distinct species.Peer reviewe

Review of methods applicable to the assessment of mold exposure to children.

This article presents discussion of the assessment of the exposure of children to fungi, substances derived from fungi, and the environmental conditions that may lead to exposure. The principles driving investigations of fungal contamination and subsequent exposure are presented as well as guidelines for conducting these investigations. A comprehensive description of available research sampling and analysis techniques is also presented

Dynamic optical lattices: two-dimensional rotating and accordion lattices for ultracold atoms

We demonstrate a novel experimental arrangement which rotates a 2D optical lattice at frequencies up to several kilohertz. Ultracold atoms in such a rotating lattice can be used for the direct quantum simulation of strongly correlated systems under large effective magnetic fields, allowing investigation of phenomena such as the fractional quantum Hall effect. Our arrangement also allows the periodicity of a 2D optical lattice to be varied dynamically, producing a 2D accordion lattice.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, final versio

Bragg spectroscopy of a cigar shaped Bose condensate in optical lattices

We study properties of excited states of an array of weakly coupled quasi-two-dimensional Bose condensates by using the hydrodynamic theory. We calculate multibranch Bogoliubov-Bloch spectrums and its corresponding eigenfunctions. The spectrum of the axial excited states and its eigenfunctions strongly depends on the coupling among various discrete radial modes within a given symmetry. This mode coupling is due to the presence of radial trapping potential. The multibranch nature of the Bogoliubov-Bloch spectrum and its dependence on the mode-coupling can be realized by analyzing dynamic structure factor and momentum transferred to the system in Bragg spectroscopy experiments. We also study dynamic structure factor and momentum transferred to the condensate due to the Bragg spectroscopy experiment.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, to appear in Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular & Optical Physic

Does coevolution promote species richness in parasitic cuckoos?

Why some lineages have diversified into larger numbers of species than others is a fundamental but still relatively poorly understood aspect of the evolutionary process. Coevolution has been recognized as a potentially important engine of speciation, but has rarely been tested in a comparative framework. We use a comparative approach based on a complete phylogeny of all living cuckoos to test whether parasite–host coevolution is associated with patterns of cuckoo species richness. There are no clear differences between parental and parasitic cuckoos in the number of species per genus. However, a cladogenesis test shows that brood parasitism is associated with both significantly higher speciation and extinction rates. Furthermore, subspecies diversification rate estimates were over twice as high in parasitic cuckoos as in parental cuckoos. Among parasitic cuckoos, there is marked variation in the severity of the detrimental effects on host fitness; chicks of some cuckoo species are raised alongside the young of the host and others are more virulent, with the cuckoo chick ejecting or killing the eggs/young of the host. We show that cuckoos with a more virulent parasitic strategy have more recognized subspecies. In addition, cuckoo species with more recognized subspecies have more hosts. These results hold after controlling for confounding geographical effects such as range size and isolation in archipelagos. Although the power of our analyses is limited by the fact that brood parasitism evolved independently only three times in cuckoos, our results suggest that coevolutionary arms races with hosts have contributed to higher speciation and extinction rates in parasitic cuckoos