Determination of prey capture rates in the stony coral Galaxea fascicularis: a critical reconsideration of the clearance rate concept

In order to determine optimal feeding regimes for captive corals, prey capture by the scleractinian coral Galaxea fascicularis was determined by measuring clearance of prey items from the surrounding water. Colonies of G. fascicularis (sized between 200 and 400 polyps) were incubated in 1300 ml incubation chambers. Nauplii of the brine shrimp Artemia sp. were used as the prey item. A series of incubation experiments was conducted to determine the maximal capture per feeding event and per day. To determine maximal capture per feeding event, total uptake of nauplii after one hour was determined for different prey item availabilities ranging from 50 to 4000 nauplii per polyp. To determine maximal capture per day, the corals were subjected to four repetitive feeding events at three different prey item densities (50, 100 and 150 nauplii per polyp). Alongside these quantitative experiments, it was tested to what extent the feeding response of corals is triggered by chemical cues. One hour after food addition, extract of Artemia nauplii was added to the incubation chambers to test its effect on subsequent prey capture rates. In all experiments, prey capture was expressed as the number of nauplii consumed per coral polyp. Total capture of Artemia nauplii by G. fascicularis after a single feeding event increased linearly up till a prey item availability of 2000 nauplii per polyp. Maximal capture per feeding event was estimated at 1200 nauplii per polyp, which is higher than rates reported in previous studies. It became apparent that at high densities of Artemia nauplii, the clearance rate method does not discriminate between active capture and passive sedimentation. Repetitive feeding with 50 nauplii per polyp resulted in a constant total prey capture per feeding event. At a supply of 100 nauplii per polyp, total capture decreased after the first feeding event, and remained constant during the subsequent feeding events at a level comparable to the lower food availability. However, at a supply of 150 nauplii per polyp, total capture per event was higher throughout the entire four-hour incubation period, which obfuscates an accurate estimation of the maximal daily food uptake. In all incubations, a decrease in capture efficiency was observed within the course of the feeding event. In all repetitive feeding experiments, capture efficiency increased immediately upon addition of a new batch of food. This increase in efficiency was not caused by a priming effect of extract of Artemia. The inconsistencies in the data show that estimates of prey capture based on clearance rates should be interpreted with caution, because this method does not take into account potential dynamics of prey capture and release

Nonsaturating magnetoresistance and nontrivial band topology of type-II Weyl semimetal NbIrTe4

Weyl semimetals, characterized by nodal points in the bulk and Fermi arc states on the surface, have recently attracted extensive attention due to the potential application on low energy consumption electronic materials. In this report, the thermodynamic and transport properties of a theoretically predicted Weyl semimetal NbIrTe4 is measured in high magnetic fields up to 35 T and low temperatures down to 0.4 K. Remarkably, NbIrTe4 exhibits a nonsaturating transverse magnetoresistance which follows a power-law dependence in B. Low-field Hall measurements reveal that hole-like carriers dominate the transport for T $>$ 80 K, while the significant enhancement of electron mobilities with lowering T results in a non-negligible contribution from electron-like carriers which is responsible for the observed non-linear Hall resistivity at low T. The Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations of the Hall resistivity under high B give the light effective masses of charge carriers and the nontrivial Berry phase associated with Weyl fermions. Further first-principles calculations confirm the existence of 16 Weyl points located at kz = 0, $\pm$0.02 and $\pm$0.2 planes in the Brillouin zone.Comment: 5 figures, 1 tabl

Human adult cardiac autonomic innervation : controversies in anatomical knowledge and relevance for cardiac neuromodulation

Background: Cardiac sympathetic blockade is a therapeutic approach for arrhythmias and heart failure and may be a beneficial effect of high thoracic epidural anesthesia. These treatments require detailed knowledge of the spatial location and distribution of cardiac autonomic nerves, however, there are controversies on this subject in humans. Objective: To provide a systematic overview of current knowledge on human anatomy of the cardiac autonomic nervous system. Results: In contrast to the often claimed assumption that human preganglionic sympathetic cardiac neurons originate mainly from thoracic spinal segments T1-T4 or T5, there is ample evidence indicating involvement of cervical spinal segment C8 and thoracic spinal segments below T5. Whether cervical ganglia besides the stellate ganglion play a role in transmission of cardiac sympathetic signals is unclear. Similarly, there is debate on the origin of cardiac nerves from different thoracic ganglia. Most human studies report thoracic cardiac nerves emerging from the first to fourth thoracic paravertebral ganglia; others report contributions from the fifth, sixth and even the seventh thoracic ganglia. There is no agreement on the precise composition of nerve plexuses at the cardiac level. After years of debate, it is generally accepted that the vagal nerve contributes to ventricular innervation. Vagal distribution appears higher in atria, whereas adrenergic fibers exceed the number of vagal fibers in the ventricles. Conclusion: Anatomy of the human cardiac autonomic nervous system is highly variable and likely extends beyond generally assumed boundaries. This information is relevant for thoracic epidural anesthesia and procedures targeting neuronal modulation of cardiac sympathetic innervation

Electron-Hole Tunneling Revealed by Quantum Oscillations in the Nodal-Line Semimetal HfSiS

We report a study of quantum oscillations in the high-field magnetoresistance of the nodal-line semimetal HfSiS. In the presence of a magnetic field up to 31 T parallel to the c axis, we observe quantum oscillations originating both from orbits of individual electron and hole pockets, and from magnetic breakdown between these pockets. In particular, we reveal a breakdown orbit enclosing one electron and one hole pocket in the form of a “figure of eight,” which is a manifestation of Klein tunneling in momentum space, although in a regime of partial transmission due to the finite separation between the pockets. The observed very strong dependence of the oscillation amplitude on the field angle and the cyclotron masses of the orbits are in agreement with the theoretical predictions for this novel tunneling phenomenon

Field-induced quasi-particle tunneling in the nodal-line semimetal HfSiS revealed by de Haas-van Alphen quantum oscillations

We present a de Haas–van Alphen quantum oscillation study of the Dirac nodal-line semimetal HfSiS up to 32 T to unravel the structure of the high-frequency magnetic breakdown spectrum that was previously obscured in transport experiments. Despite a threefold enhanced gap between adjacent electron and hole pockets relative to the sister compound ZrSiS, a large number of large-area magnetic breakdown orbits enclosing the nodal-loop are identified. All breakdown orbits are assigned by extracting their cyclotron masses. Moreover, one additional low-frequency magnetic breakdown orbit, previously absent in ZrSiS, is observed and attributed to the larger spin-orbit interaction in HfSiS

Dephasing in Metals by Two-Level Systems in the 2-Channel-Kondo Regime

We point out a novel, non-universal contribution to the dephasing rate 1/\tau_\phi \equiv \gamma_\phi of conduction electrons in metallic systems: scattering off non-magnetic two-level systems (TLSs) having almost degenerate Kondo ground states. In the regime \Delta_{ren} < T < T_K (\Delta_{ren} = renormalized level splitting, T_K = Kondo temperature), such TLSs exhibit non-Fermi-liquid physics that can cause \gamma_\phi, which generally decreases with decreasing T, to seemingly saturate in a limited temperature range before vanishing for T \to 0. This could explain the saturation of dephasing recently observed in gold wires [Mohanty et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 78, 3366 (1997)].Comment: Final published version, including minor improvements suggested by referees. 4 pages, Revtex, 1 figur

Quantum tunneling of two coupled single-molecular magnets

Two single-molecule magnets are coupled antiferromagnetically to form a supramolecule dimer. We study the coupling effect and tunneling process by means of the numerical exact diagonalization method, and apply them to the recently synthesized supramoleculer dimer [Mn4]2 The model parameters are calculated for the dimer based on the tunneling process. The absence of tunneling at zero field and sweeping rate effect on the step height in the hysterisis loops are understood very well in this theory.Comment: 4 pages including 3 figure and 1 tabl