CHORUSING PATTERNS OF A DIVERSE ANURAN COMMUNITY, WITH AN EMPHASIS ON SOUTHERN CRAWFISH FROGS (LITHOBATES AREOLATUS AREOLATUS)

Wildlife surveys have a critical role in conservation efforts and the collection of life history data. For anuran amphibians these surveys often focus on calling males. In order to further our understanding of anuran ecology, we used automated recording systems to monitor the calling activities of the anuran communities at two beaver-formed lakes and one cattle pond in southeastern Oklahoma. We documented 14 anuran species between 5 February and 28 April 2012. Temperature had a significant effect on the calling patterns of Eastern Narrow-mouthed Toads (Gastrophryne carolinensis), Green Treefrogs (Hyla cinerea), Gray Treefrogs (Hyla versicolor), Southern Crawfish Frogs (Lithobates areolatus areolatus), and Cajun Chorus Frogs (Pseudacris fouquettei). Temperature did not have a significant effect on the calling patterns of Dwarf American Toads (Anaxyrus americanus charlesmithi), American Bullfrogs (Lithobates catesbeianus), or Green Frogs (Lithobates clamitans). There was not a significant relationship between rainfall and calling for L. a. areolatus. The presence of several of these species, including L. a. areolatus and Hurter’s Spadefoots (Scaphiopus hurterii) was unusual because these anurans typically breed in ephemeral, fishless pools, but the beaver lakes are permanent and sustain populations of carnivorous fishes

Pressure-driven flow of solid helium

The recent torsional oscillator results of Kim and Chan suggest a supersolid phase transition in solid 4He. We have used a piezoelectrically driven diaphragm to study the flow of solid helium through an array of capillaries. Our measurements showed no indication of low temperature flow, placing stringent restrictions on supersolid flow in response to a pressure difference. The average flow speed at low temperatures was less than 1.2x10-14 m/s, corresponding to a supersolid velocity at least 7 orders of magnitude smaller than the critical velocities inferred from the torsional oscillator measurements.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Orbital magnetization in periodic insulators

Working in the Wannier representation, we derive an expression for the orbital magnetization of a periodic insulator. The magnetization is shown to be comprised of two contributions, an obvious one associated with the internal circulation of bulk-like Wannier functions in the interior, and an unexpected one arising from net currents carried by Wannier functions near the surface. Each contribution can be expressed as a bulk property in terms of Bloch functions in a gauge-invariant way. Our expression is verified by comparing numerical tight-binding calculations for finite and periodic samples.Comment: submitted to PRL; signs corrected in Eqs. (11), (12), (19), and (20

The demand for crop genetic resources: international use of the U.S. National Plant Germplasm System

In contrast to a perception that ex situ collections of germplasm are rarely used, this empirical case study reveals large quantities of germplasm samples distributed by the U.S. National Germplasm System to many types of scientific institutions located in numerous countries around the world. Distributions favor developing countries in several ways including the numbers of samples shipped, utilization rates in crop breeding programs, and the secondary benefits brought about through sharing this germplasm with other scientists. Expected future demand is also greater among scientists in developing countries. These findings underscore the importance to global science and technology of retaining such resources in the public domain.Germplasm resources, Plant Research., Germplasm conservation., Germplasm resources, Plant International cooperation. ,

Exploring the Interactive, Linguistic, and Conceptual Dimensions of Parent Input and Their Role in Children\u27s Pragmatic Development

The development of children’s pragmatic language, which can be defined as conversational competence in social contexts, has been attributed to variation in the language they hear in their environment. When studying the impact language input has on pragmatic development, it is important for clinicians and linguists to measure both the quantity and quality of this language input. Measures of quality, however, are much more relevant when studying the development of pragmatic language, as discussed in Zhang (2020) and Hirsh-Pasek et al. (2015). Rowe and Snow (2016) discussed three dimensions of language quality: interactive, linguistic and conceptual. There is a current gap in the literature of analyzing these language dimensions in relation to child pragmatic language use, and the current study seeks to determine which language dimension appears most frequently in parental speech, as well as which dimension or dimensions exert the most influence on child pragmatic language use. We analyzed 12 parent-child dyads, with a range of language abilities, focusing on the interactive and conceptual language dimensions. The findings of the current study have found the interactive dimension to be the more prevalent language dimension between the two dimensions in parental speech. Additionally, we found that, at school entry, parental interactive language, especially utterances that are well-timed, are associated with child pragmatic language use. Thus, parents and clinicians alike should focus on utterances that are well-timed compared to their children’s previous utterances to aid in use of pragmatic language

Parametric Studies Involving Community Noise Exposure Around Airports

This report uses a computer program to study the effects of the following parameters on noise exposure forecast contours: 1. Aircraft mix, 2. Aircraft track, 3. Number of operations, 4. Time of day and 5. Aircraft thrust

High Density Mesoscopic Atom Clouds in a Holographic Atom Trap

We demonstrate the production of micron-sized high density atom clouds of interest for meso- scopic quantum information processing. We evaporate atoms from 60 microK, 3x10^14 atoms/cm^3 samples contained in a highly anisotropic optical lattice formed by interfering di racted beams from a holographic phase plate. After evaporating to 1 microK by lowering the con ning potential, in less than a second the atom density reduces to 8x10^13 cm^- 3 at a phase space density approaching unity. Adiabatic recompression of the atoms then increases the density to levels in excess of 1x10^15 cm^-3. The resulting clouds are typically 8 microns in the longest dimension. Such samples are small enough to enable mesoscopic quantum manipulation using Rydberg blockade and have the high densities required to investigate new collision phenomena.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PR

Topological entropy of realistic quantum Hall wave functions

The entanglement entropy of the incompressible states of a realistic quantum Hall system are studied by direct diagonalization. The subdominant term to the area law, the topological entanglement entropy, which is believed to carry information about topologic order in the ground state, was extracted for filling factors 1/3, 1/5 and 5/2. The results for 1/3 and 1/5 are consistent with the topological entanglement entropy for the Laughlin wave function. The 5/2 state exhibits a topological entanglement entropy consistent with the Moore-Read wave function.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures; improved computations and graphics; added reference