Comment on "Heavy element production in inhomogeneous big bang nucleosynthesis"

The work of Matsuura et al. [Phys. Rev. D 72, 123505 (2005); astro-ph/0507439] claims that heavy nuclei could have been produced in a combined p- and r-process in very high baryon density regions of an inhomogeneous big bang. However, they do not account for observational constraints and previous studies which show that such high baryon density regions did not significantly contribute to big bang abundances.Comment: 2 pages, submitted to Phys. Rev. D on Feb 23, 200

The apterous endemic genus Omphra Dejean (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Helluonini) of the Indian subcontinent : taxonomy with notes on habits and distributional patterns

Among the four oriental genera of the tribe Helluonini, Omphra Dejean (Coleoptera: Carabidae), is unique for its endemism to the Indian subcontinent and aptery. High intraspecies variability in morphological characters and limited diagnostic information makes species differentiation of the genus Omphra a complicated task. The present study provides a description of a new species, Omphra drumonti n. sp. from the Western Ghats, redescriptions and a key to the species of Omphra, details of intraspecies variation, discussion of relationships between taxa and distributional patterns of the genus. Based on the distributional patterns in the Indian subcontinent and flightlessness of the genus, inability to cross the physical barrier of the Ganges–Brahmaputra delta between north and peninsular India is indicated as the reason for its absence in the northeastern Indian subcontinent and endemism to the lower Indian subcontinent

Iso-array rewriting P systems with context-free iso-array rules

A new computing model called P system is a highly distributed and parallel theoretical model, which is proposed in the area of membrane computing. Ceterchi et al. initially proposed array rewriting P systems by extending the notion of string rewriting P systems to arrays (2003). A theoretical model for picture generation using context-free iso-array grammar rules and puzzle iso-array grammar rules are introduced by Kalyani et al. (2004, 2006). Also iso-array rewriting P systems for iso-picture languages have been studied by Annadurai et al. (2008). In this paper we consider the context-free iso-array rules and context-free puzzle iso-array rules in iso-array rewriting P systems and examine the generative powers of these P systems

Dung beetle (Coleoptera: Scarabaeinae) community structure across a forest- agriculture habitat ecotonein South Western Ghats

Ecotones are zones of transition between biomes or ecosystems.Ecotones, natural or anthropogenic, can greatly affect insect community structure across habitats.Scarabaeinae dung beetles are ideal biological indicators that are used to study effects of habitat modification, fragmentation and edge effects on biodiversity. Dung beetle community structure across a forest-agriculture habitat ecotone in South Western Ghats, a biodiversity hotspotin India was studied.Dung baited pitfall traps were used to collect dung beetles from forest, ecotone and agriculture habitat. Community attributes such as species richness, abundance, diversity,indicator and detector species were recorded in the study sites. Species composition varied between the three habitats. Greater similarity in species composition was observed between forest and ecotone. This isattributed to the presence of heliophilic species in the region, adapted to survive in forest and the open edge. Though forest recorded higher abundance,ecotone and agriculture habitat recorded higher species richness and diversity. Low diversity in forest resulted from decreased equitability in the overall forest assemblage resulting from increased dominance of few species such as Onthophagusfurcillifer and O. pacificus. Higher species richness in ecotone and agriculture habitat was associated with heliophilicspecies that respond positively to disturbance, whereas stenotopic species adapted to closed canopy were negatively affected in the region.Onthophagusfurcillifer, the indicator species in the forest and ecotone was also the detector species in agriculture habitat. Presence of such species in the region that are adapted to survive in widely different habitat types is a result of decades of forest degradation and fragmentation in the Western Ghats which led to the establishment of heliophiles andsynanthropic species in the region.Such increase in species richness in disturbed habitat is not considered a positive attribute, as original species composition is altered to favor disturbance adapted species in the region

Structurally adaptive space crane concept for assembling space systems on orbit

Many future human space exploration missions will probably require large vehicles that must be assembled on orbit. Thus, a device that can move, position, and assemble large and massive spacecraft components on orbit becomes essential for these missions. A concept is described for such a device: a space crane concept that uses erectable truss hardware to achieve high-stiffness and low-mass booms and uses articulating truss joints that can be assembled on orbit. The hardware has been tested and shown to have linear load-deflection response and to be structurally predictable. The hardware also permits the crane to be reconfigured into different geometries to satisfy future assembly requirements. A number of articulating and rotary joint concepts have been sized and analyzed, and the results are discussed. Two strategies were proposed to suppress motion-induced vibration: placing viscous dampers in selected truss struts and preshaping motion commands. Preliminary analyses indicate that these techniques have the potential to greatly enhance structural damping