Bell's Theorem and Nonlinear Systems

For all Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen-type experiments on deterministic systems the Bell inequality holds, unless non-local interactions exist between certain parts of the setup. Here we show that in nonlinear systems the Bell inequality can be violated by non-local effects that are arbitrarily weak. Then we show that the quantum result of the existing Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen-type experiments can be reproduced within deterministic models that include arbitrarily weak non-local effects.Comment: Accepted for publication in Europhysics Letters. 14 pages, no figures. In the Appendix (not included in the EPL version) the author says what he really thinks about the subjec

Parasitic copepods from Egyptian Red Sea fishes: Bomolochidae Claus, 1875

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Using a gamified monitoring app to change adolescents' snack intake : the development of the REWARD app and evaluation design

Background: As the snacking pattern of European adolescents is of great concern, effective interventions are necessary. Till now health promotion efforts in children and adolescents have had only limited success in changing adolescents' eating patterns and anthropometrics. Therefore, the present study proposes an innovative approach to influence dietary behaviors in youth based on new insights on effective behavior change strategies and attractive intervention channels to engage adolescents. This article describes the rationale, the development, and evaluation design of the 'Snack Track School' app. The aim of the app is to improve the snacking patterns of Flemish 14- to 16-year olds. Methods: The development of the app was informed by the systematic, stepwise, iterative, and collaborative principles of the Intervention Mapping protocol. A four week mHealth intervention was developed based on the dual-system model with behavioral change strategies targeting both the reflective (i.e., active learning, advance organizers, mere exposure, goal-setting, monitoring, and feedback) and automatic processes (i.e., rewards and positive reinforcement). This intervention will be evaluated via a controlled pre-post design in Flemish schools among 1400 adolescents. Discussion: When this intervention including strategies focused on both the reflective and automatic pathway proves to be effective, it will offer a new scientifically-based vision, guidelines and practical tools for public health and health promotion (i.e., incorporation of learning theories in intervention programs)

Exploring future agricultural development and biodiversity in Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi: a spatially explicit scenario-based assessment

Competition for land is increasing as a consequence of the growing demands for food and other commodities and the need to conserve biodiversity and ecosystem services. Land conversion and the intensification of current agricultural systems continues to lead to a loss of biodiversity and trade-offs among ecosystem functions. Decision-makers need to understand these trade-offs in order to better balance different demands on land and resources. There is an urgent need for spatially explicit information and analyses on the effects of different trajectories of human-induced landscape change in biodiversity and ecosystem services. We assess the potential implications of a set of plausible socio-economic and climate scenarios for agricultural production and demand and model-associated land use and land cover changes between 2005 and 2050 to assess potential impacts on biodiversity in Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. We show that different future socio-economic scenarios are consistent in their projections of areas of high agricultural development leading to similar spatial patterns of habitat and biodiversity loss. Yet, we also show that without protected areas, biodiversity losses are higher and that expanding protected areas to include other important biodiversity areas can help reduce biodiversity losses in all three countries. These results highlight the need for effective protection and the potential benefits of expanding the protected area network while meeting agricultural production needs

Crash-testing policies; How scenarios can support climate change policy formulation A methodological guide with case studies from Latin America

The objective of this handbook is to guide policy makers and practitioners from the public, private and research sector in the development and use of scenarios to support the inclusive formulation of policies and other decision-making processes related to complex issues taking place in changing environments. The lessons shared are based on nine policy formulation processes for climate in Latin America supported by the CCAFS future scenarios project since 2013. Five of these cases are discussed to exemplify the steps described to use scenarios and support the development of policies

Simulating stakeholder-driven food and climate scenarios for policy development in Africa, Asia and Latin America A multi-regional synthesis

The CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) engaged stakeholders in Africa, Asia and Latin America in the development of regional socioeconomic scenarios for policy development. These scenarios were framed and outlined by regional experts and then quantified using the IMPACT and GLOBIOM models. The scenarios were used in a number of policy design processes at national and regional levels. The model results show that investment in agriculture is essential to close yield gaps needed for growing demand, and that increases in production costs increases these yield gaps. However, even under high agricultural investments, regional production is unlikely to meet regional demand. In many cases, the socio-economic assumptions of the scenarios are more impactful than climate effects on yields. Increased yields can lead to crop area expansion, and the protection and enforcement of forests and biodiversity is essential, especially with increased investment in agriculture. The CCAFS scenarios process show the need to combine socio-economic and climate scenarios, to base these scenarios in regional expertise, and ways to make scenarios useful for policy design

Dynamic Interpretation of Hedgehog Signaling in the Drosophila Wing Disc

Morphogens are classically defined as molecules that control patterning by acting at a distance to regulate gene expression in a concentration-dependent manner. In the Drosophila wing imaginal disc, secreted Hedgehog (Hh) forms an extracellular gradient that organizes patterning along the anterior–posterior axis and specifies at least three different domains of gene expression. Although the prevailing view is that Hh functions in the Drosophila wing disc as a classical morphogen, a direct correspondence between the borders of these patterns and Hh concentration thresholds has not been demonstrated. Here, we provide evidence that the interpretation of Hh signaling depends on the history of exposure to Hh and propose that a single concentration threshold is sufficient to support multiple outputs. Using mathematical modeling, we predict that at steady state, only two domains can be defined in response to Hh, suggesting that the boundaries of two or more gene expression patterns cannot be specified by a static Hh gradient. Computer simulations suggest that a spatial “overshoot” of the Hh gradient occurs, i.e., a transient state in which the Hh profile is expanded compared to the Hh steady-state gradient. Through a temporal examination of Hh target gene expression, we observe that the patterns initially expand anteriorly and then refine, providing in vivo evidence for the overshoot. The Hh gene network architecture suggests this overshoot results from the Hh-dependent up-regulation of the receptor, Patched (Ptc). In fact, when the network structure was altered such that the ptc gene is no longer up-regulated in response to Hh-signaling activation, we found that the patterns of gene expression, which have distinct borders in wild-type discs, now overlap. Our results support a model in which Hh gradient dynamics, resulting from Ptc up-regulation, play an instructional role in the establishment of patterns of gene expression

Structural Evolution of a Composite Middle to Lower Crustal Section: The Sierra de Pie de Palo, Northwest Argentina

The Sierra de Pie de Palo of northwest Argentina preserves middle to lower crustal metamorphic rocks that were penetratively deformed during Ordovician accretion of the Precordillera terrane to the Gondwana margin. New structural, petrologic, and geochronologic data from a 40 km structural transect reveals that the Sierra de Pie de Palo preserves a middle to lower crustal ductile thrust complex consisting of individual structural units and not an intact ophiolite and cover sequence. Top-to-the-west thrusting occurred intermittently on discrete ductile shear zones from ∼515 to ∼417 Ma and generally propagated toward the foreland with progressive deformation. Ordovician crustal shortening and peak metamorphic temperatures in the central portion of the Sierra de Pie de Palo were synchronous with retro-arc shortening and magmatic flare-up within the Famatina arc. Accretion of the Precordillera terrane resulted in the end of arc flare-up and the onset of synconvergent extension by ∼439 Ma. Continued synextensional to postextensional convergence was accommodated along progressively lower grade shear zones following terrane accretion and the establishment of a new plate margin west of the Precordillera terrane. The results support models of Cordilleran orogens that link voluminous arc magmatism to periods of regional shortening. The deformation, metamorphic, and magmatic history within the Sierra de Pie de Palo is consistent with models placing the region adjacent to the Famatina margin in the middle Cambrian and not as basement to the Precordillera terrane

Structure of the Cytoplasmic Loop between Putative Helices II and III of the Mannitol Permease of Escherichia coli: A Tryptophan and 5-Fluorotryptophan Spectroscopy Study

In this work, four single tryptophan (Trp) mutants of the dimeric mannitol transporter of Escherichia coli, EIImtl, are characterized using Trp and 5-fluoroTrp (5-FTrp) fluorescence spectroscopy. The four positions, 97, 114, 126, and 133, are located in a region shown by recent studies to be involved in the mannitol translocation process. To spectroscopically distinguish between the Trp positions in each subunit of dimeric EIImtl, 5-FTrp was biosynthetically incorporated because of its much simpler photophysics compared to those of Trp. The steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence methodologies used point out that all four positions are in structured environments, both in the absence and in the presence of a saturating concentration of mannitol. The fluorescence decay of all 5-FTrp-containing mutants was highly homogeneous, suggesting similar microenvironments for both probes per dimer. However, Stern-Volmer quenching experiments using potassium iodide indicate different solvent accessibilities for the two probes at positions 97 and 133. A 5 Å two-dimensional (2D) projection map of the membrane-embedded IICmtl dimer showing 2-fold symmetry is available. The results of this work are in better agreement with a 7 Å projection map from a single 2D crystal on which no symmetry was imposed.

Separation of the guajira-bonaire pair: 65-50ma exhumation followed by 300 km right-lateral transtensional deformation

Zapata, S.1, Cardona, A.2, Montes, C3, Valencia, V.4, Vervoort, J.4 and amp; Reiners, P.5 1 Corporación Geológica Ares, Calle 57 No. 23-09 of 202, Bogotá, Colombia. [email protected] 2 Departamento de Procesos y Energía, Universidad Nacional de Colombia Sede Medellín, Medellín, Colombia [email protected] 3 Geociencias, Universidad de Los Andes, Departamento de Geología, Bogotá, Colombia. 4 School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Washington State University, Pullman, USA 5Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA Upper Eocene fluvial strata in the Island of Bonaire contain detrital components that were tracked to the basement massifs of the Guajira Peninsula in northern of Colombia. These components confirm previous hypothesis that the Guajira-Bonaire pair constitute a tectonic piercing point along the southern Caribbean Plate margin that was right-laterally displaced approximately 300km after middle Eocene times. Other possible sources, the nearby Curaҫao and the far away Santa Marta Massif, did not pass statistical similarity and overlap tests. U-Pb LA-ICP-MS from the metamorphic boulders of the Soebi Blanco Formation in Bonaire yields Grenvillian ages (1084Ma, 1130Ma and 1184Ma), while the detrital zircons recovered from the sandy matrix of the conglomerates contain populations with peaks of 1000 - 1200Ma, 750 - 950Ma and 200 – 300 Ma. Overlap and similarity tests run between these populations and published data from Guajira yield values of 0.750 and 0.680, which are significantly higher than the same comparison against the Santa Marta Massif (0.637 and 0.522), and the Curaҫao Island (0.629 and 0.467). Thermogeochronological results from the metamorphic clasts yield Paleocene-middle Eocene ages (65 – 50Ma) that confirm not only a regional-scale cooling event in this time period, but also help constrain the maximum depositional age (50Ma) of the poorly dated Soebi Blanco Formation