87,254 research outputs found
Construction and performance of a novel capture-mark-release moth trap
Mark-recapture studies can provide important information about moth movement as well as habitat preference across a landscape, but to date, such studies tend to be species-specific or require labor-intensive methodologies. To address this challenge, we designed a capture-mark-release-trap (CMRT) featuring a cooling unit attached to a black light trap. The CMRT captures and incapacitates moths throughout the night until the morning, when they can be marked on-site and released. Moths captured with the CMRT during summer of 2016 had a recapture rate of 1.6%, similar to those of previous studies. Importantly, because moths are immobilized by the CMRT, they can be handled and marked with ease, reducing the opportunities to damage specimens prior to release. The CMRT trap can capture a wide array of moth species and may facilitate an increase in the monitoring of moth movement across landscapes
Preduals of semigroup algebras
For a locally compact group G, the measure convolution algebra M(G) carries a natural coproduct. In previous work, we showed that the canonical predual C 0(G) of M(G) is the unique predual which makes both the product and the coproduct on M(G) weak*-continuous. Given a discrete semigroup S, the convolution algebra ℓ 1(S) also carries a coproduct. In this paper we examine preduals for ℓ 1(S) making both the product and the coproduct weak*-continuous. Under certain conditions on S, we show that ℓ 1(S) has a unique such predual. Such S include the free semigroup on finitely many generators. In general, however, this need not be the case even for quite simple semigroups and we construct uncountably many such preduals on ℓ 1(S) when S is either ℤ+×ℤ or (ℕ,⋅)
Assessment of institutional barriers to the use of natural gas fuel in automotive vehicle fleets
Institutional barriers to the use of natural gas as a fuel for motor vehicle fleets were identified. Recommendations for barrier removal were developed. Eight types of institutional barriers were assessed: (1) lack of a national standard for the safe design and certification of natural gas vehicles and refueling stations; (2) excessively conservative or misapplied state and local regulations, including bridge and tunnel restrictions, restrictions on types of vehicles that may be fueled by natural gas, zoning regulations that prohibit operation of refueling stations, parking restrictions, application of LPG standards to LNG vehicles, and unintentionally unsafe vehicle or refueling station requirements; (3) need for clarification of EPA's tampering enforcement policy; (4) the U.S. hydrocarbon standard; (5) uncertainty concerning state utility commission jurisdiction; (6) sale for resale prohibitions imposed by natural gas utility companies or state utility commissions; (7) uncertainty of the effects of conversions to natural gas on vehicle manufactures warranties; and (8) need for a natural gas to gasoline equivalent units conversion factor for use in calculation of state road use taxes
Probing the Statistics of the Temperature-Density Relation of the IGM
Gravitational instability induces a simple correlation between the large and
small scale fluctuations of the Ly-alpha flux spectrum. However,
non-gravitational processes involved in structure formation and evolution will
alter such a correlation. In this paper we explore how scatter in the
temperature-density relation of the IGM reduces the gravitationally induced
scale-scale correlation. By examining whether or not observations of the
correlation are close to that predicted by pure gravity, this puts constraints
on the scatter in the temperature-density relation and in turn on any physical
process which would lead to scatter, e.g. strong fluctuations in the UV
background or radiative transfer effects. By applying this method to high
resolution Keck spectra of Q 1422+231 and HS 1946+7658, we find the predicted
correlation signal induced by gravity, and the diminishing of this correlation
signal at small scales. This suggests extra physics affects the small-scale
structure of the forest, and we can constrain the scatter in the
temperature-density relation to a conservative 20% upper limit. A crude model
suggests, if there is any spatial correlation of temperature, the coherence
length scale must be smaller than ~ 0.3/h Mpc to be consistent with the Keck
data.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. Minor revisions, accepted by ApJ Letter
Ground State Properties of the Doped 3-Leg t-J Ladder
Results for a doped 3-leg t-J ladder obtained using the density matrix
renormalization group are reported. At low hole doping, the holes form a dilute
gas with a uniform density. The momentum occupation of the odd band shows a
sharp decrease at a large value of k_F similar to the behavior of a lightly
doped t-J chain, while the even modes appear gapped. The spin-spin correlations
decay as a power law consistent with the absence of a spin gap, but the pair
field correlations are negligible. At larger doping we find evidence for a spin
gap and as x increases further we find 3-hole diagonal domain walls. In this
regime there are pair field correlations and the internal pair orbital has
d_x^2-y^2 - like symmetry. However, the pair field correlations appear to fall
exponentially at large distances.Comment: 14 pages, 11 postscript figure
X-ray Binaries and Globular Clusters in Elliptical Galaxies
The X-ray emission from normal elliptical galaxies has two major components:
soft emission from diffuse gas and harder emission from populations of
accreting (low-mass) stellar X-ray binaries (LMXB). If LMXB populations are
tied to the field stellar populations in galaxies, their total X-ray
luminosities should be proportional to the optical luminosities of galaxies.
However, recent ASCA and Chandra X-ray observations show that the global
luminosities of LMXB components in ellipticals exhibit significant scatter at a
given optical luminosity. This scatter may reflect a range of evolutionary
stages among LMXB populations in ellipticals of different ages. If so, the
ratio of the global LMXB X-ray luminosity to the galactic optical luminosity,
L_LMXB/L_opt, may be used to determine when the bulk of stars were formed in
individual ellipticals. To test this, we compare variations in L_LMXB/L_opt for
LMXB populations in ellipticals to optically-derived estimates of stellar ages
in the same galaxies. We find no correlation, implying that L_LMXB/L_opt
variations are not good age indicators for ellipticals. Alternatively, LMXBs
may be formed primarily in globular clusters (through stellar tidal
interactions), rather than in the stellar fields of galaxies. Since elliptical
galaxies exhibit a wide range of globular cluster populations for a given
galaxian luminosity, this may induce a dispersion in the LMXB populations of
ellipticals with similar optical luminosities. Indeed, we find that
L_LMXB/L_opt ratios for LMXB populations are strongly correlated with the
specific globular cluster frequencies in elliptical galaxies. This suggests
that most LMXBs were formed in globular clusters.Comment: 5 pages, emulateapj5 style, 2 embedded EPS figures, to appear in ApJ
Letter
Paleobiomarkers and defining exobiology experiments for future Mars experiments
Mars is a cold, dry planet with an oxidizing surface bombarded by ultraviolet and ionizing radiation, making prospects for an extant Mars biota bleak. Yet, it is suggested that early Earth and early Mars were similar enought that life may have evoled on Mars. If life did evolve on Mars, what evidence for its existence might we find? What constitutes a Martian paleobiomarker, and how can we distinguish such a marker from abiotically produced substances? The topics studied to answer this question include carbon and nitrogen cycling, as well as the stability and relative abundance of their intermediates in microbially dominated ecosystems. The microbially dominated ecosystems studied are the crytoendolithic microbial community living within sand rocks, the endoevaporite microbial community living inside salt crystals, and the microbial communities living beneath perennially ice-covered lakes and hypersaline ponds. The nitrogen cycle of these communities ranges from simple, where only assimilation occurs, to the more complex, where a complete cycle occurs. The carbon cycle of these communities appears to be complete
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