Estimates of air–sea feedbacks on sea surface temperature anomalies in the southern ocean

Sea surface temperature (SST) air–sea feedback strengths and associated decay time scales in the Southern Ocean (SO) are estimated from observations and reanalysis datasets of SST, air–sea heat fluxes, and ocean mixed layer depths. The spatial, seasonal, and scale dependence of the air–sea heat flux feedbacks is mapped in circumpolar bands and implications for SST persistence times are explored. It is found that the damping effect of turbulent heat fluxes dominates over that due to radiative heat fluxes. The turbulent heat flux feedback acts to damp SSTs in all bands and spatial scales and in all seasons, at rates varying between 5 and 25 W m⁻² K⁻¹, while the radiative heat flux feedback has a more uniform spatial distribution with a magnitude rarely exceeding 5 W m⁻² K⁻¹. In particular, the implied net air–sea feedback (turbulent + radiative) on SST south of the polar front, and in the region of seasonal sea ice, is as weak as 5–10 W m⁻² K⁻¹ in the summertime on large spatial scales. Air–sea interaction alone thus allows SST signals induced around Antarctica in the summertime to persist for several seasons. The damping effect of mixed layer entrainment on SST anomalies averages to approximately 20 W m⁻² K⁻¹ across the ACC bands in the summer-to-winter entraining season and thereby reduces summertime SST persistence to less than half of that predicted by air–sea interaction alone (i.e., 3–6 months).National Science Foundation (U.S.). Frontiers in Earth System Dynamic

Models of hemispheric specialization in facial emotion perception - a reevaluation

A considerable amount of research on functional cerebral asymmetries (FCAs) for facial emotion perception has shown conflicting support for three competing models: (i) the Right Hemisphere Hypothesis, (ii) the Valence-Specific Hypothesis, and (iii) the Approach/Withdrawal model. However, the majority of studies evaluating the Right Hemisphere or the Valence-Specific Hypotheses are rather limited by the small number of emotional expressions used. In addition, it is difficult to evaluate the Approach/Withdrawal Hypothesis due to insufficient data on anger and FCAs. The aim of the present study was (a) to review visual half field (VHF) studies of hemispheric specialization in facial emotion perception and (b) to reevaluate empirical evidence with respect to all three partly conflicting hypotheses. Results from the present study revealed a left visual field (LVF)/right hemisphere advantage for the perception of angry, fearful, and sad facial expressions and a right visual field (RVF)/left hemisphere advantage for the perception of happy expressions. Thus, FCAs for the perception of specific facial emotions do not fully support the Right Hemisphere Hypothesis, the Valence-Specific Hypothesis, or the Approach/Withdrawal model. A systematic literature review, together with the results of the present study, indicate a consistent LVF/right hemisphere advantage only for a subset of negative emotions including anger, fear and sadness, rather suggesting a “negative (only) valence model.

The randomly driven Ising ferromagnet, Part I: General formalism and mean field theory

We consider the behavior of an Ising ferromagnet obeying the Glauber dynamics under the influence of a fast switching, random external field. After introducing a general formalism for describing such systems, we consider here the mean-field theory. A novel type of first order phase transition related to spontaneous symmetry breaking and dynamic freezing is found. The non-equilibrium stationary state has a complex structure, which changes as a function of parameters from a singular-continuous distribution with Euclidean or fractal support to an absolutely continuous one.Comment: 12 pages REVTeX/LaTeX format, 12 eps/ps figures. Submitted to Journal of Physics

The Dynamics of Nestedness Predicts the Evolution of Industrial Ecosystems

In economic systems, the mix of products that countries make or export has been shown to be a strong leading indicator of economic growth. Hence, methods to characterize and predict the structure of the network connecting countries to the products that they export are relevant for understanding the dynamics of economic development. Here we study the presence and absence of industries at the global and national levels and show that these networks are significantly nested. This means that the less filled rows and columns of these networks' adjacency matrices tend to be subsets of the fuller rows and columns. Moreover, we show that nestedness remains relatively stable as the matrices become more filled over time and that this occurs because of a bias for industries that deviate from the networks' nestedness to disappear, and a bias for the missing industries that reduce nestedness to appear. This makes the appearance and disappearance of individual industries in each location predictable. We interpret the high level of nestedness observed in these networks in the context of the neutral model of development introduced by Hidalgo and Hausmann (2009). We show that, for the observed fills, the model can reproduce the high level of nestedness observed in these networks only when we assume a high level of heterogeneity in the distribution of capabilities available in countries and required by products. In the context of the neutral model, this implies that the high level of nestedness observed in these economic networks emerges as a combination of both, the complementarity of inputs and heterogeneity in the number of capabilities available in countries and required by products. The stability of nestedness in industrial ecosystems, and the predictability implied by it, demonstrates the importance of the study of network properties in the evolution of economic networks.Comment: 26 page

A new fossil inchworm moth discovered in Miocene Dominican amber (Lepidoptera : Geometridae)

Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2019-000940-MWe report a fossil geometrid moth, a male, virtually complete, preserved in a clear piece of Miocene Dominican amber dating from 19 to 16 Mya. Fore- and hindwings appear partially overlapped, and all body characters are visible externally in dorsal and ventral views, including the outer surface of the valvae of the genitalia. The scale pattern on the wing membrane is preserved, whereas the wing color pattern is not. It belongs to the genus Dolichoneura (Geometridae: Desmobathrinae) and is named Dolichoneura jorelisae Sarto i Monteys, Hausmann, Baixeras and Peñalver sp. n., based on wing features. Because of the poor fossil record of lepidopterans, both in amber and compression rocks, the description of the available well-preserved specimens is of considerable interest for phylogenetic studies. Furthermore, it could also serve for calibrating molecular clocks and for paleobiogeographic inferences

Studies of aging and HV break down problems during development and operation of MSGC and GEM detectors for the Inner Tracking System of HERA-B

The results of five years of development of the inner tracking system of the HERA-B experiment and first experience from the data taking period of the year 2000 are reported. The system contains 184 chambers, covering a sensitive area of about 20 * 20 cm2 each. The detector is based on microstrip gas counters (MSGCs) with diamond like coated (DLC) glass wafers and gas electron multipliers (GEMs). The main problems in the development phase were gas discharges in intense hadron beams and aging in a high radiation dose environment. The observation of gas discharges which damage the electrode structure of the MSGC led to the addition of the GEM as a first amplification step. Spurious sparking at the GEM cannot be avoided completely. It does not affect the GEM itself but can produce secondary damage of the MSGC if the electric field between the GEM and the MSGC is above a threshold depending on operation conditions. We observed that aging does not only depend on the dose but also on the spot size of the irradiated area. Ar-DME mixtures had to be abandoned whereas a mixture of 70% Ar and 30% CO2 showed no serious aging effects up to about 40 mC/cm deposited charge on the anodes. X-ray measurements indicate that the DLC of the MSGC is deteriorated by the gas amplification process. As a consequence, long term gain variations are expected. The Inner Tracker has successfully participated in the data taking at HERA-B during summer 2000.Comment: 29 pages, 22 figure

Australian Sphingidae – DNA Barcodes Challenge Current Species Boundaries and Distributions

© 2014 Rougerie et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The attached file is the published version of the article