Secalonic acid A from Pseudoparmelia sphaerospora (Nyl.) Hale and P. hypomilta (Fée) Hale (Parmeliaceae)

Secalonic acid A, a yellow pigment from fungal metabolism, was isolated from the lichens Pseudoparmelia sphaerospora and P. hypomilta. From P. sphaerospora was also isolated the depsidone hypostictic acid. The structure of these compounds was determined by spectroscopic methods and comparison with literature data

Vortex distribution in the Lowest Landau Level

We study the vortex distribution of the wave functions minimizing the Gross Pitaevskii energy for a fast rotating condensate in the Lowest Landau Level (LLL): we prove that the minimizer cannot have a finite number of zeroes thus the lattice is infinite, but not uniform. This uses the explicit expression of the projector onto the LLL. We also show that any slow varying envelope function can be approximated in the LLL by distorting the lattice. This is used in particular to approximate the inverted parabola and understand the role of ``invisible'' vortices: the distortion of the lattice is very small in the Thomas Fermi region but quite large outside, where the "invisible" vortices lie.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Gravitational wave bursts from cosmic (super)strings: Quantitative analysis and constraints

We discuss data analysis techniques that can be used in the search for gravitational wave bursts from cosmic strings. When data from multiple interferometers are available, we describe consistency checks that can be used to greatly reduce the false alarm rates. We construct an expression for the rate of bursts for arbitrary cosmic string loop distributions and apply it to simple known solutions. The cosmology is solved exactly and includes the effects of a late-time acceleration. We find substantially lower burst rates than previous estimates suggest and explain the disagreement. Initial LIGO is unlikely to detect field theoretic cosmic strings with the usual loop sizes, though it may detect cosmic superstrings as well as cosmic strings and superstrings with non-standard loop sizes (which may be more realistic). In the absence of a detection, we show how to set upper limits based on the loudest event. Using Initial LIGO sensitivity curves, we show that these upper limits may result in interesting constraints on the parameter space of theories that lead to the production of cosmic strings.Comment: Replaced with version accepted for publication in PR

Ecotoxicological characterization of biochars : role of feedstock and pyrolysis temperature

Seven contrasting feedstocks were subjected to slow pyrolysis at low (300 or 350 °C) and high temperature (550 or 600 °C), and both biochars and the corresponding feedstocks tested for short-term ecotoxicity using basal soil respiration and collembolan reproduction tests. After a 28-d incubation, soil basal respiration was not inhibited but stimulated by additions of feedstocks and biochars. However, variation in soil respiration was dependent on both feedstock and pyrolysis temperature. In the last case, respiration decreased with pyrolysis temperature (r = − 0.78; p < 0.0001, n = 21) and increased with a higher volatile matter content (r = 0.51; p < 0.017), these two variables being correlated (r = − 0.86, p < 0.0001). Collembolan reproduction was generally unaffected by any of the additions, but when inhibited, it was mostly influenced by feedstock, and generally without any influence of charring itself and pyrolysis temperature. Strong inhibition was only observed in uncharred food waste and resulting biochars. Inhibition effects were probably linked to high soluble Na and NH4 concentrations when both feedstocks and biochars were considered, but mostly to soluble Na when only biochars were taken into account. The general lack of toxicity of the set of slow pyrolysis biochars in this study at typical field application rates (≤ 20 Mg ha− 1) suggests a low short-term toxicity risk. At higher application rates (20-540 Mg ha− 1), some biochars affected collembolan reproduction to some extent, but only strongly in the food waste biochars. Such negative impacts were not anticipated by the criteria set in currently available biochar quality standards, pointing out the need to consider ecotoxicological criteria either explicitly or implicitly in biochar characterization schemes or in management recommendations

How higher-spin gravity surpasses the spin two barrier: no-go theorems versus yes-go examples

Aiming at non-experts, we explain the key mechanisms of higher-spin extensions of ordinary gravity. We first overview various no-go theorems for low-energy scattering of massless particles in flat spacetime. In doing so we dress a dictionary between the S-matrix and the Lagrangian approaches, exhibiting their relative advantages and weaknesses, after which we high-light potential loop-holes for non-trivial massless dynamics. We then review positive yes-go results for non-abelian cubic higher-derivative vertices in constantly curved backgrounds. Finally we outline how higher-spin symmetry can be reconciled with the equivalence principle in the presence of a cosmological constant leading to the Fradkin--Vasiliev vertices and Vasiliev's higher-spin gravity with its double perturbative expansion (in terms of numbers of fields and derivatives).Comment: LaTeX, 50 pages, minor changes, many refs added; version accepted for publication in Reviews of Modern Physic

Influence of the driving mechanism on the response of systems with athermal dynamics: the example of the random-field Ising model

We investigate the influence of the driving mechanism on the hysteretic response of systems with athermal dynamics. In the framework of local-mean field theory at finite temperature (but neglecting thermallly activated processes), we compare the rate-independent hysteresis loops obtained in the random field Ising model (RFIM) when controlling either the external magnetic field $H$ or the extensive magnetization $M$. Two distinct behaviors are observed, depending on disorder strength. At large disorder, the $H$-driven and $M$-driven protocols yield identical hysteresis loops in the thermodynamic limit. At low disorder, when the $H$-driven magnetization curve is discontinuous (due to the presence of a macroscopic avalanche), the $M$-driven loop is re-entrant while the induced field exhibits strong intermittent fluctuations and is only weakly self-averaging. The relevance of these results to the experimental observations in ferromagnetic materials, shape memory alloys, and other disordered systems is discussed.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figure

Cyclic feeding of low and high protein diets reduces production cost of Labeo rohita (Hamilton, 1822)

Eighty four days feeding trial (3 feeding cycle ; each cycle of 28 days comprising 21 days with low protein and 7 days with normal or high protein diets) was conducted with Labeo rohita fingerlings to investigate the growth performance. Four diets; D1 (10% CP); D2 (30% CP); D3 (35% CP) and D4 (40% CP) were prepared. A total of 225 fingerlings were distributed randomly into five treatments in triplicates. T1 and T2 groups were fed with D1 and D2 diets respectively throughout the experimental period. The feeding cycle of 28 days consisted of 21 days feeding with D1 and 7 days with D2 (T3); D3 (T4) or D4 (T5). Higher growth rate in terms of specific growth rate, feed conversion ratio and apparent net protein utilisation were found in T2 and T3 group compared to T4 and T5. However, protein efficiency ratio of T3 group was significantly higher than the T2 group (p<0.05). Highest and lowest content of protein and lipid was observed in T2 group, whereas, the ash content was highest in T1 group. Feeding cost was considerably reduced with T3 group of low protein intake (43.63%) registering 20.17% saving in production cost. The results indicate that fish fed with cyclic feeding schedule of 21 days with D1 (10% CP) followed by 7 days with a normal diet, D2 (30% CP) could reduce the production cost with considerable savings in feed cost

Electron‐impact spectroscopy of various diketone compounds

The spectra of the diketone compounds biacetyl, acetylacetone, acetonylacetone, 1,2‐cyclohexanedione, and 1,4‐cyclohexanedione have been investigated by the technique of low‐energy variable‐angle electron energy‐loss spectroscopy. With this method low‐lying, spin‐forbidden transitions have been observed. The energy difference between the lowest spin‐allowed and spin‐forbidden n→π∗ excitations in the acyclic diketones is found to be 0.35 eV, on average, which is nearly the same as that of comparable acyclic monoketone compounds; in 1,2‐cyclohexanedione, however, this energy difference is 0.84 eV, more than twice as large. This discrepancy in the magnitude of the n→π∗ singlet–triplet splittings may be attributed to differing amounts of overlap between the initial and final orbitals

Future challenges in cephalopod research

We thank Anto´nio M. de Frias Martins, past President of the Unitas Malacologica and Peter Marko, President of the American Malacological Society for organizing the 2013 World Congress of Malacology, and the Cephalopod International Advisory Committee for endorsing a symposium held in honour of Malcolm R. Clarke. In particular, we would like to thank the many professional staff from the University of the Azores for their hospitality, organization, troubleshooting and warm welcome to the Azores. We also thank Malcolm Clarke’s widow, Dorothy, his daughter Zoe¨, Jose´ N. Gomes-Pereira and numerous colleagues and friends of Malcolm’s from around the world for joining us at Ponta Delgada. We are grateful to Lyndsey Claro (Princeton University Press) for granting copyright permissions.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

A Deep Search For Faint Galaxies Associated With Very Low-redshift C IV Absorbers: III. The Mass- and Environment-dependent Circumgalactic Medium

Using Hubble Space Telescope Cosmic Origins Spectrograph observations of 89 QSO sightlines through the Sloan Digital Sky Survey footprint, we study the relationships between C IV absorption systems and the properties of nearby galaxies as well as large-scale environment. To maintain sensitivity to very faint galaxies, we restrict our sample to 0.0015 < z < 0.015, which defines a complete galaxy survey to L > 0.01 L* or stellar mass log M_* > 8 Msun. We report two principal findings. First, for galaxies with impact parameter rho < 1 rvir, C IV detection strongly depends on the luminosity/stellar mass of the nearby galaxy. C IV is preferentially associated with galaxies with log M_* > 9.5 Msun; lower mass galaxies rarely exhibit significant C IV absorption (covering fraction f = 9 +12-6% for 11 galaxies with log M_* < 9.5 Msun). Second, C IV detection within the log M_* > 9.5 Msun population depends on environment. Using a fixed-aperture environmental density metric for galaxies with rho < 160 kpc at z < 0.055, we find that 57+/-12% (8/14) of galaxies in low-density regions (regions with fewer than seven L > 0.15 L* galaxies within 1.5 Mpc) have affiliated C IV absorption; however, none (0/7) of the galaxies in denser regions show C IV. Similarly, the C IV detection rate is lower for galaxies residing in groups with dark-matter halo masses of log Mhalo > 12.5 Msun. In contrast to C IV, H I is pervasive in the CGM without regard to mass or environment. These results indicate that C IV absorbers with log N(C IV) > 13.5 cm^-2 trace the halos of log M_* > 9.5 Msun galaxies but also reflect larger scale environmental conditions.Comment: 26 pages, 13 figures. ApJ, in pres