483 research outputs found
Tuning gastropod locomotion: Modeling the influence of mucus rheology on the cost of crawling
Common gastropods such as snails crawl on a solid substrate by propagating
muscular waves of shear stress on a viscoelastic mucus. Producing the mucus
accounts for the largest component in the gastropod's energy budget, more than
twenty times the amount of mechanical work used in crawling. Using a simple
mechanical model, we show that the shear-thinning properties of the mucus favor
a decrease in the amount of mucus necessary for crawling, thereby decreasing
the overall energetic cost of locomotion.Comment: Corrected typo
Morphospecies and Taxonomic Species Comparison for Hymenoptera
The use of morphospecies as surrogates for taxonomic species has been proposed as an alternative to overcome the identification difficulties associated with many invertebrate studies, such as biodiversity surveys. Hymenoptera specimens were collected by beating and pitfall traps, and were separated into morphospecies by a non-specialist with no prior training, and later identified by an expert taxonomist. The number of Hymenoptera morphospecies and taxonomic species was 37 and 42, respectively, representing an underestimation error of 12%. Different families presented varying levels of difficulty, and although the species estimation provided by the use of morphospecies initially appeared to have a relatively minor error rate, this was actually an artefact. Splitting and lumping errors balanced each other out, wrongly suggesting that morphospecies were reasonable surrogates for taxonomic species in the Hymenoptera. The use of morphospecies should be adopted only for selected target groups, which have been assessed as reliable surrogates for taxonomic species beforehand, and some prior training to the non-specialist is likely to be of primary importance
Dilepton production in proton-proton collisions at BEVALAC energies
The dilepton production in elementary reactions at
BEVALAC energies GeV is investigated. The calculations
include direct decays of the vector mesons , , and , Dalitz decays of the -, -, -, -, and -mesons, and of the baryon resonances
. The subthreshold vector meson production cross sections in
collisions are treated in a way sufficient to avoid double counting with the
inclusive vector meson production. The vector meson dominance model for the
transition form factors of the resonance Dalitz decays is
used in an extended form to ensure correct asymptotics which are in agreement
with the quark counting rules. Such a modification gives an unified and
consistent description of both radiative decays and meson decays.
The effect of multiple pion production on the experimental efficiency for the
detection of the dilepton pairs is studied. We find the dilepton yield in
reasonable agreement with the experimental data for the set of intermediate
energies whereas at the highest energy GeV the number of
dilepton pairs is likely to be overestimated experimentally in the mass range
MeV.Comment: 25 pages (IOP style), 5 figures, revised manuscript accepted for
publication in JP
Determination of pi-N scattering lengths from pionic hydrogen and pionic deuterium data
The pi-N s-wave scattering lengths have been inferred from a joint analysis
of the pionic hydrogen and the pionic deuterium x-ray data using a
non-relativistic approach in which the pi-N interaction is simulated by a
short-ranged potential. The pi-d scattering length has been calculated exactly
by solving the Faddeev equations and also by using a static approximation. It
has been shown that the same very accurate static formula for pi-d scattering
length can be derived (i) from a set of boundary conditions; (ii) by a
reduction of Faddeev equations; and (iii) through a summation of Feynman
diagrams. By imposing the requirement that the pi-d scattering length,
resulting from Faddeev-type calculation, be in agreement with pionic deuterium
data, we obtain bounds on the pi-N scattering lengths. The dominant source of
uncertainty on the deduced values of the pi-N scattering lengths are the
experimental errors in the pionic hydrogen data.Comment: RevTeX, 20 pages,4 PostScript figure
Wielding the brazen serpent:The variety and power of biblical typology in early modern Scotland
Community first responders and responder schemes in the United Kingdom: systematic scoping review
Background: Community First Responder (CFR) schemes support lay people to respond to medical emergencies,
working closely with ambulance services. They operate widely in the UK. There has been no previous review of UK
literature on these schemes. This is the first systematic scoping review of UK literature on CFR schemes, which
identifies the reasons for becoming a CFR, requirements for training and feedback and confusion between the CFR
role and that of ambulance service staff. This study also reveals gaps in the evidence base for CFR schemes.
Methods: We conducted a systematic scoping review of the published literature, in the English language from
2000 onwards using specific search terms in six databases. Narrative synthesis was used to analyse article content.
Results: Nine articles remained from the initial search of 15,969 articles after removing duplicates, title and abstract
and then full text review.
People were motivated to become CFRs through an altruistic desire to help others. They generally felt rewarded by
their work but recognised that the help they provided was limited by their training compared with ambulance
staff. There were concerns about the possible emotional impact on CFRs responding to incidents. CFRs felt that
better feedback would enhance their learning. Ongoing training and support were viewed as essential to enable
CFRs to progress. They perceived that public recognition of the CFR role was low, patients sometimes confusing
them with ambulance staff. Relationships with the ambulance service were sometimes ambivalent due to confusion
over roles. There was support for local autonomy of CFR schemes but with greater sharing of best practice.
Discussion: Most studies dated from 2005 and were descriptive rather than analytical. In the UK and Australia CFRs
are usually lay volunteers equipped with basic skills for responding to medical emergencies, whereas in the US they
include other emergency staff as well as lay people.
Conclusion: Opportunities for future research include exploring experiences and perceptions of patients who have
been treated by CFRs and other stakeholders, while also evaluating the effectiveness and costs of CFR schemes
Listening In on the Past: What Can Otolith δ18O Values Really Tell Us about the Environmental History of Fishes?
Oxygen isotope ratios from fish otoliths are used to discriminate marine stocks and reconstruct past climate, assuming that variations in otolith δ18O values closely reflect differences in temperature history of fish when accounting for salinity induced variability in water δ18O. To investigate this, we exploited the environmental and migratory data gathered from a decade using archival tags to study the behaviour of adult plaice (Pleuronectes platessa L.) in the North Sea. Based on the tag-derived monthly distributions of the fish and corresponding temperature and salinity estimates modelled across three consecutive years, we first predicted annual otolith δ18O values for three geographically discrete offshore sub-stocks, using three alternative plausible scenarios for otolith growth. Comparison of predicted vs. measured annual δ18O values demonstrated >96% correct prediction of sub-stock membership, irrespective of the otolith growth scenario. Pronounced inter-stock differences in δ18O values, notably in summer, provide a robust marker for reconstructing broad-scale plaice distribution in the North Sea. However, although largely congruent, measured and predicted annual δ18O values of did not fully match. Small, but consistent, offsets were also observed between individual high-resolution otolith δ18O values measured during tag recording time and corresponding δ18O predictions using concomitant tag-recorded temperatures and location-specific salinity estimates. The nature of the shifts differed among sub-stocks, suggesting specific vital effects linked to variation in physiological response to temperature. Therefore, although otolith δ18O in free-ranging fish largely reflects environmental temperature and salinity, we counsel prudence when interpreting otolith δ18O data for stock discrimination or temperature reconstruction until the mechanisms underpinning otolith δ18O signature acquisition, and associated variation, are clarified
Single Spin Asymmetry in Polarized Proton-Proton Elastic Scattering at GeV
We report a high precision measurement of the transverse single spin
asymmetry at the center of mass energy GeV in elastic
proton-proton scattering by the STAR experiment at RHIC. The was measured
in the four-momentum transfer squared range \GeVcSq, the region of a significant interference between the
electromagnetic and hadronic scattering amplitudes. The measured values of
and its -dependence are consistent with a vanishing hadronic spin-flip
amplitude, thus providing strong constraints on the ratio of the single
spin-flip to the non-flip amplitudes. Since the hadronic amplitude is dominated
by the Pomeron amplitude at this , we conclude that this measurement
addresses the question about the presence of a hadronic spin flip due to the
Pomeron exchange in polarized proton-proton elastic scattering.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure
The spin dependence of high energy proton scattering
Motivated by the need for an absolute polarimeter to determine the beam
polarization for the forthcoming RHIC spin program, we study the spin
dependence of the proton-proton elastic scattering amplitudes at high energy
and small momentum transfer.We examine experimental evidence for the existence
of an asymptotic part of the helicity-flip amplitude phi_5 which is not
negligible relative to the largely imaginary average non-flip amplitude phi_+.
We discuss theoretical estimates of r_5, essentially the ratio of phi_5 to
phi_+, based upon extrapolation of low and medium energy Regge phenomenological
results to high energies, models based on a hybrid of perturbative QCD and
non-relativistic quark models, and models based on eikonalization techniques.
We also apply the model-independent methods of analyticity and unitarity.The
preponderence of evidence at available energy indicates that r_5 is small,
probably less than 10%. The best available experimental limit comes from
Fermilab E704:those data indicate that |r_5|<15%. These bounds are important
because rigorous methods allow much larger values. In contradiction to a
widely-held prejudice that r_5 decreases with energy, general principles allow
it to grow as fast as ln(s) asymptotically, and some models show an even faster
growth in the RHIC range. One needs a more precise measurement of r_5 or to
bound it to be smaller than 5% in order to use the classical Coulomb-nuclear
interference technique for RHIC polarimetry. As part of this study, we
demonstrate the surprising result that proton-proton elastic scattering is
self-analysing, in the sense that all the helicity amplitudes can, in
principle, be determined experimentally at small momentum transfer without a
knowledge of the magnitude of the beam and target polarization
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