Bottlenose Dolphins, Tursiops truncatus, Removing By-catch from Prawn-trawl Codends During Fishing in New South Wales, Australia

During a fishing trip to record video footage of fish escaping from a by-catch reducing device located in a commercial prawn trawl, two bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops truncatus, were observed to actively manipulate the codend at the seabed, removing and consuming components of catch (mostly juvenile whiting, Sillago spp.). The observed feeding pattern suggests a well established behavioral response to trawling activities and is discussed with respect to (1) the potential nutritional benefit that dolphins may derive from such activities and (2) the effects that scavenging may have on selectivity of the gear

Transcendental numbers and the topology of three-loop bubbles

We present a proof that all transcendental numbers that are needed for the calculation of the master integrals for three-loop vacuum Feynman diagrams can be obtained by calculating diagrams with an even simpler topology, the topology of spectacles.Comment: 4 pages in REVTeX, 1 PostScript figure included, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Spectral Functions for Heavy-Light Currents and Form Factor Relations in Hqet

We derive relations among form factors describing the current-induced transitions: (vacuum) $\rightarrow B,B^{*}, B \pi, B^{*} \pi, B \rho$ and $B^{*} \rho$ using heavy quark symmetry. The results are compared to corresponding form factor relations following from identities between scalar and axial vector, and pseudoscalar and vector spectral functions in the heavy quark limit.Comment: LaTeX, 7 pages, UCT-TP 188/92, MZ-TH/92-5

Capturing the scale and pattern of recurrent care proceedings: initial observations from a feasibility study

This article reports the initial findings of a feasibility study that has captured the scale and pattern of recurrent care proceedings. Although frontline professionals have reported long-standing concerns about the repeat clients of public law proceedings, prior to the study we report, the scale of the problem has been unknown. With funding from the Nuffield Foundation and support from the Child and Family Court Advisory Service (CAFCASS) and the President of the Family Division, the research team has arrived at a first estimate of prevalence, confirming that recurrence is a sizeable problem for the English family court. Based on cases that completed during the observational window 2007-2013 (calendar years), 7,143 birth mothers appeared in 15,645 recurrent care applications concerning 22,790 infants and children. Moreover, the study most likely underestimates recurrence, because reliable data concerning completed cases is not available before 2007. Initial observations are that the spacing between recurrent care proceedings is very short, which raises searching questions about prevention. Where episodes of care proceedings follow in swift succession, most likely prompted by the birth of another infant, this affords mothers little opportunity to effect change. Unless, this ‘status quo’ is tackled, it is difficult to envisage how vulnerable birth mothers can exit this cycle. Preliminary recommendations are made in respect of policy and practice change

Using the Hopf Algebra Structure of QFT in Calculations

We employ the recently discovered Hopf algebra structure underlying perturbative Quantum Field Theory to derive iterated integral representations for Feynman diagrams. We give two applications: to massless Yukawa theory and quantum electrodynamics in four dimensions.Comment: 28 p, Revtex, epsf for figures, minor changes, to appear in Phys.Rev.

Precise LIGO Lensing Rate Predictions for Binary Black Holes

We show how LIGO is expected to detect coalescing binary black holes at $z>1$, that are lensed by the intervening galaxy population. Gravitational magnification, $\mu$, strengthens gravitational wave signals by $\sqrt{\mu}$, without altering their frequencies, which if unrecognised leads to an underestimate of the event redshift and hence an overestimate of the binary mass. High magnifications can be reached for coalescing binaries because the region of intense gravitational wave emission during coalescence is so small ($\sim$100km), permitting very close projections between lensing caustics and gravitational-wave events. Our simulations incorporate accurate waveforms convolved with the LIGO power spectral density. Importantly, we include the detection dependence on sky position and orbital orientation, which for the LIGO configuration translates into a wide spread in observed redshifts and chirp masses. Currently we estimate a detectable rate of lensed events \rateEarly{}, that rises to \rateDesign{}, at LIGO's design sensitivity limit, depending on the high redshift rate of black hole coalescence.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Modified sorting technique to mitigate the collateral mortality of trawled school prawns (Metapenaeus macleayi)

The potential for changes to onboard handling practices in order to improve the fate of juvenile school prawns (Metapenaeus macleayi) discarded during trawling were investigated in two Australian rivers (Clarence and Hunter) by comparing a purpose-built, water-filled sorting tray against a conventional dry tray across various conditions, including the range of typical delays before the start of sorting the catch (2 min vs. 15 min). Juvenile school prawns (n= 5760), caught during 32 and 16 deployments in each river, were caged and sacrificed at four times: immediately (T0), and at 24 (T24), 72 (T72), and 120 (T12 0) hours after having been discarded. In both rivers, most mortalities occurred between T0 and T24 and, after adjusting for control deaths (<12%), were greatest for the 15-min conventional treatment (up to 41% at T120). Mixed-effects logistic models revealed that in addition to the sampling time, method of sorting, and delay in sorting, the weight of the catch, salinity, and percentage cloud cover were significant predictors of mortality. Although trawling caused some mortalities and comparable stress (measured as L -lactate) in all school prawns, use of the water tray lessened the negative impacts of some of the above factors across both the 2-min and 15-min delays in sorting so that the overall discard mortality was reduced by more than a third. When used in conjunction with selective trawls, widespread application of the water tray should help to improve the sustainability of trawling for school prawns

Dimensional renormalization: ladders to rainbows

Renormalization factors are most easily extracted by going to the massless limit of the quantum field theory and retaining only a single momentum scale. We derive factors and renormalized Green functions to all orders in perturbation theory for rainbow graphs and vertex (or scattering diagrams) at zero momentum transfer, in the context of dimensional renormalization, and we prove that the correct anomalous dimensions for those processes emerge in the limit D -> 4.Comment: RevTeX, no figure

High-precision epsilon expansions of single-mass-scale four-loop vacuum bubbles

In this article we present a high-precision evaluation of the expansions in \e=(4-d)/2 of (up to) four-loop scalar vacuum master integrals, using the method of difference equations developed by S. Laporta. We cover the complete set of `QED-type' master integrals, i.e. those with a single mass scale only (i.e. $m_i\in\{0,m\}$) and an even number of massive lines at each vertex. Furthermore, we collect all that is known analytically about four-loop `QED-type' masters, as well as about {\em all} single-mass-scale vacuum integrals at one-, two- and three-loop order.Comment: 25 pages, uses axodraw.st