2,554 research outputs found
Germany and the East-West Crisis: The Decisive Challenge to American Policy. By William S. Schlamm.
Moisture, a Vital but Neglected Factor in the Seasonal Ecology of Insects: Hypotheses and Tests of Mechanisms
Of the major physical factors that influence insect seasonal ecology, moisture is least understood and least appreciated. It is our premise that experimental probing of insects from diverse zones and various habitats would reveal general patterns of insect responses to moisture that are as striking as those for photoperiod and temperature. Using the paradigms of photoperiod and temperature as ecophysiological determinants of insect seasonality, we hypothesize that moisture influences insect life cycles via one or more of three mechanismsâas a token stimulus for diapause, modulator of developmental or reproductive rates, or behavioral cue for vital seasonal events. For heuristic purposes, we offer each of these hypotheses in close association with approaches for testing their validity in insects that undergo dry-season dormancy. The approaches appear appropriate for examining the role of moisture in the life histories of terrestrial invertebrates other than insects, as well as plants and microbes that have a seasonal resting stage. Elucidating moisture's role in insect seasonal cycles is critical to the development of comprehensive phenological models, improved insect management systems, and identification of novel evolutionary mechanisms for adaptation to wet-dry seasons, especially in tropical, subtropical, and Mediterranean region
The angular power spectrum of radio emission at 2.3 GHz
We have analysed the Rhodes/HartRAO survey at 2326 MHz and derived the global
angular power spectrum of Galactic continuum emission. In order to measure the
angular power spectrum of the diffuse component, point sources were removed
from the map by median filtering. A least-square fit to the angular power
spectrum of the entire survey with a power law spectrum C_l proportional to
l^{-alpha}, gives alpha = 2.43 +/- 0.01 for l = 2-100. The angular power
spectrum of radio emission appears to steepen at high Galactic latitudes and
for observed regions with |b| > 20 deg, the fitted spectral index is alpha =
2.92 +/- 0.07. We have extrapolated this result to 30 GHz (the lowest frequency
channel of Planck) and estimate that no significant contribution to the sky
temperature fluctuation is likely to come from synchrotron at degree-angular
scalesComment: 10 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication by Astronomy &
Astrophysic
Analysis of CMB foregrounds using a database for Planck
Within the scope of the Planck IDIS (Integrated Data Information System)
project we have started to develop the data model for time-ordered data and
full-sky maps. The data model is part of the Data Management Component (DMC), a
software system designed according to a three-tier architecture which allows
complete separation between data storage and processing. The DMC is already
being used for simulation activities and the modeling of some foreground
components. We have ingested several Galactic surveys into the database and
used the science data-access interface to process the data. The data structure
for full-sky maps utilises the HEALPix tessellation of the sphere. We have been
able to obtain consistent measures of the angular power spectrum of the
Galactic radio continuum emission between 408 MHz and 2417 MHz.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures. To appear in the Proceedings of the MPA/ESO/MPE
Joint Astronomy Conference "Mining The Sky
Planck Observations of M33
We have performed a comprehensive investigation of the global integrated flux
density of M33 from radio to ultraviolet wavelengths, finding that the data
between 100 GHz and 3 THz are accurately described by a single modified
blackbody curve with a dust temperature of = 21.670.30 K
and an effective dust emissivity index of = 1.350.10,
with no indication of an excess of emission at millimeter/sub-millimeter
wavelengths. However, sub-dividing M33 into three radial annuli, we found that
the global emission curve is highly degenerate with the constituent curves
representing the sub-regions of M33. We also found gradients in
and across the disk of M33, with both
quantities decreasing with increasing radius. Comparing the M33 dust emissivity
with that of other Local Group members, we find that M33 resembles the
Magellanic Clouds rather than the larger galaxies, i.e., the Milky Way and M31.
In the Local Group sample, we find a clear correlation between global dust
emissivity and metallicity, with dust emissivity increasing with metallicity. A
major aspect of this analysis is the investigation into the impact of
fluctuations in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) on the integrated flux
density spectrum of M33. We found that failing to account for these CMB
fluctuations would result in a significant over-estimate of
by 5 K and an under-estimate of by 0.4.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA
On the relationship between cyclic and hierarchical three-species predator-prey systems and the two-species Lotka-Volterra model
We aim to clarify the relationship between interacting three-species models
and the two-species Lotka-Volterra (LV) model. We utilize mean-field theory and
Monte Carlo simulations on two-dimensional square lattices to explore the
temporal evolution characteristics of two different interacting three-species
predator-prey systems: (1) a cyclic rock-paper-scissors (RPS) model with
conserved total particle number but strongly asymmetric reaction rates that
lets the system evolve towards one corner of configuration space; (2) a
hierarchical food chain where an additional intermediate species is inserted
between the predator and prey in the LV model. For model variant (1), we
demonstrate that the evolutionary properties of both minority species in the
steady state of this stochastic spatial three-species corner RPS model are well
approximated by the LV system, with its emerging characteristic features of
localized population clustering, persistent oscillatory dynamics, correlated
spatio-temporal patterns, and fitness enhancement through quenched spatial
disorder in the predation rates. In contrast, we could not identify any regime
where the hierarchical model (2) would reduce to the two-species LV system. In
the presence of pair exchange processes, the system remains essentially
well-mixed, and we generally find the Monte Carlo simulation results for the
spatially extended model (2) to be consistent with the predictions from the
corresponding mean-field rate equations. If spreading occurs only through
nearest-neighbor hopping, small population clusters emerge; yet the requirement
of an intermediate species cluster obviously disrupts spatio-temporal
correlations between predator and prey, and correspondingly eliminates many of
the intriguing fluctuation phenomena that characterize the stochastic spatial
LV system.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures; to appear in Eur. Phys. J. B (2012
4-D Gradient Vector Flow : segmentation par surface active pour images multi-composantes
National audienceDans cet article, nous généralisons le flux de vecteurs gradients à la segmentation par surface active d'images 3-D à valeurs vectorielles. Nous basons notre méthode sur la définition d'un tenseur de structure multi-composantes pondéré exploitant l'intégralité de l'information de l'image pour réduire la sensibilité au bruit et améliorer la précision du modÚle. Appliquée à la segmentation de volumes biologiques en imagerie par tomographie d'émission de positrons (TEP) dynamique, nous validons notre méthode sur des simulations Monte Carlo réalistes d'images TEP de fantÎmes numériques
Attraction of Lacewings (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae) to Methyl Eugenol in Asia
The attraction of Ankylopteryx exquisita (Nakahara) (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae) to the fruit fly male lure methyl eugenol was observed during fly surveys in Cambodia, Laos, Nepal, Taiwan, and Thailand. All of the 622 adults attracted to the lure were male
Planck-LFI: Design and Performance of the 4 Kelvin Reference Load Unit
The LFI radiometers use a pseudo-correlation design where the signal from the
sky is continuously compared with a stable reference signal, provided by a
cryogenic reference load system. The reference unit is composed by small
pyramidal horns, one for each radiometer, 22 in total, facing small absorbing
targets, made of a commercial resin ECCOSORB CR (TM), cooled to approximately
4.5 K. Horns and targets are separated by a small gap to allow thermal
decoupling. Target and horn design is optimized for each of the LFI bands,
centered at 70, 44 and 30 GHz. Pyramidal horns are either machined inside the
radiometer 20K module or connected via external electro-formed bended
waveguides. The requirement of high stability of the reference signal imposed a
careful design for the radiometric and thermal properties of the loads.
Materials used for the manufacturing have been characterized for thermal, RF
and mechanical properties. We describe in this paper the design and the
performance of the reference system.Comment: This is an author-created, un-copyedited version of an article
accepted for publication in JINST. IOP Publishing Ltd is not responsible for
any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version
derived from it. The definitive publisher authenticated version is available
online at [10.1088/1748-0221/4/12/T12006]. 14 pages, 34 figure
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