3,592 research outputs found
Winter Conditions Influence Biological Responses of Migrating Hummingbirds
Conserving biological diversity given ongoing environmental changes requires the knowledge of how organisms respond biologically to these changes; however, we rarely have this information. This data deficiency can be addressed with coordinated monitoring programs that provide field data across temporal and spatial scales and with process-based models, which provide a method for predicting how species, in particular migrating species that face different conditions across their range, will respond to climate change. We evaluate whether environmental conditions in the wintering grounds of broad-tailed hummingbirds influence physiological and behavioral attributes of their migration. To quantify winter ground conditions, we used operative temperature as a proxy for physiological constraint, and precipitation and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) as surrogates of resource availability. We measured four biological response variables: molt stage, timing of arrival at stopover sites, body mass, and fat. Consistent with our predictions, we found that birds migrating north were in earlier stages of molt and arrived at stopover sites later when NDVI was low. These results indicate that wintering conditions impact the timing and condition of birds as they migrate north. In addition, our results suggest that biologically informed environmental surrogates provide a valuable tool for predicting how climate variability across years influences the animal populations
Phenolic cutter for machining foam insulation
Pre-pregged fiber glass is an efficient abrasive for machining polystyrene and polyurethane foams. It bonds easily to any cutter base made of aluminum, steel, or phenolic, is inexpensive, and is readily available
Ideal Spin Filters: Theoretical Study of Electron Transmission Through Ordered and Disordered Interfaces Between Ferromagnetic Metals and Semiconductors
It is predicted that certain atomically ordered interfaces between some
ferromagnetic metals (F) and semiconductors (S) should act as ideal spin
filters that transmit electrons only from the majority spin bands or only from
the minority spin bands of the F to the S at the Fermi energy, even for F with
both majority and minority bands at the Fermi level. Criteria for determining
which combinations of F, S and interface should be ideal spin filters are
formulated. The criteria depend only on the bulk band structures of the S and F
and on the translational symmetries of the S, F and interface. Several examples
of systems that meet these criteria to a high degree of precision are
identified. Disordered interfaces between F and S are also studied and it is
found that intermixing between the S and F can result in interfaces with spin
anti-filtering properties, the transmitted electrons being much less spin
polarized than those in the ferromagnetic metal at the Fermi energy. A patent
application based on this work has been commenced by Simon Fraser University.Comment: RevTeX, 12 pages, 5 figure
Spin wave excitations: The main source of the temperature dependence of Interlayer exchange coupling in nanostructures
Quantum mechanical calculations based on an extended Heisenberg model are
compared with ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) experiments on prototype trilayer
systems Ni_7/Cu_n/Co_2/Cu(001) in order to determine and separate for the first
time quantitatively the sources of the temperature dependence of interlayer
exchange coupling. Magnon excitations are responsible for about 75% of the
reduction of the coupling strength from zero to room temperature. The remaining
25% are due to temperature effects in the effective quantum well and the
spacer/magnet interfaces.Comment: accepted for publication in PR
Adaptive filtering of radar images for autofocus applications
Autofocus techniques are being designed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to automatically choose the filter parameters (i.e., the focus) for the digital synthetic aperture radar correlator; currently, processing relies upon interaction with a human operator who uses his subjective assessment of the quality of the processed SAR data. Algorithms were devised applying image cross-correlation to aid in the choice of filter parameters, but this method also has its drawbacks in that the cross-correlation result may not be readily interpretable. Enhanced performance of the cross-correlation techniques of JPL was hypothesized given that the images to be cross-correlated were first filtered to improve the signal-to-noise ratio for the pair of scenes. The results of experiments are described and images are shown
Distortion of the Stoner-Wohlfarth astroid by a spin-polarized current
The Stoner-Wohlfarth astroid is a fundamental object in magnetism. It
separates regions of the magnetic field space with two stable magnetization
equilibria from those with only one stable equilibrium and it characterizes the
magnetization reversal of nano-magnets induced by applied magnetic fields. On
the other hand, it was recently demonstrated that transfer of spin angular
momentum from a spin-polarized current provides an alternative way of switching
the magnetization. Here, we examine the astroid of a nano-magnet with uniaxial
magnetic anisotropy under the combined influence of applied fields and
spin-transfer torques. We find that spin-transfer is most efficient at
modifying the astroid when the external field is applied along the easy-axis of
magnetization. On departing from this situation, a threshold current appears
below which spin-transfer becomes ineffective yielding a current-induced dip in
the astroid along the easy-axis direction. An extension of the Stoner-Wohlfarth
model is outlined which accounts for this phenomenon.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure
Anatomy of Spin-Transfer Torque
Spin-transfer torques occur in magnetic heterostructures because the
transverse component of a spin current that flows from a non-magnet into a
ferromagnet is absorbed at the interface. We demonstrate this fact explicitly
using free electron models and first principles electronic structure
calculations for real material interfaces. Three distinct processes contribute
to the absorption: (1) spin-dependent reflection and transmission; (2) rotation
of reflected and transmitted spins; and (3) spatial precession of spins in the
ferromagnet. When summed over all Fermi surface electrons, these processes
reduce the transverse component of the transmitted and reflected spin currents
to nearly zero for most systems of interest. Therefore, to a good
approximation, the torque on the magnetization is proportional to the
transverse piece of the incoming spin current.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
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