831 research outputs found
The evolution of age-dependent plasticity
When organisms encounter environments that are heterogeneous in time, phenotypic plasticity is often favored by selection. The degree of such plasticity can vary during an organism's lifetime, but the factors promoting differential plastic responses at different ages or life stages remain poorly understood. Here we develop and analyze an evolutionary model to investigate how environmental information is optimally collected and translated into phenotypic adjustments at different ages. We demonstrate that plasticity must often be expected to vary with age in a nonmonotonic fashion. Early in life, it is generally optimal to delay phenotypic adjustments until sufficient information has been collected about the state of the environment to warrant a costly phenotypic adjustment. Toward the end of life, phenotypic adjustments are disfavored as well because their beneficial effects can no longer be fully reaped before death. Our analysis clarifies how patterns of age-dependent plasticity are shaped by the interplay of environmental uncertainty, the accuracy of perceived information, and the costs of phenotypic adjustments with life-history determinants such as the relative strengths of fecundity and viability selection experienced by the organism over its lifetime. We conclude by comparing our results with expectations for alternative mechanisms, including developmental constraints, that promote age-dependent plasticity
Efficient Seeds Computation Revisited
The notion of the cover is a generalization of a period of a string, and
there are linear time algorithms for finding the shortest cover. The seed is a
more complicated generalization of periodicity, it is a cover of a superstring
of a given string, and the shortest seed problem is of much higher algorithmic
difficulty. The problem is not well understood, no linear time algorithm is
known. In the paper we give linear time algorithms for some of its versions ---
computing shortest left-seed array, longest left-seed array and checking for
seeds of a given length. The algorithm for the last problem is used to compute
the seed array of a string (i.e., the shortest seeds for all the prefixes of
the string) in time. We describe also a simpler alternative algorithm
computing efficiently the shortest seeds. As a by-product we obtain an
time algorithm checking if the shortest seed has length at
least and finding the corresponding seed. We also correct some important
details missing in the previously known shortest-seed algorithm (Iliopoulos et
al., 1996).Comment: 14 pages, accepted to CPM 201
Errors in device localization in MRI using Z-frames.
The use of a passive MRI-visible tracking frame is a common method of localizing devices in MRI space for MRI-guided procedures. One of the most common tracking frame designs found in the literature is the z-frame, as it allows six degree-of-freedom pose estimation using only a single image slice. Despite the popularity of this design, it is susceptible to errors in pose estimation due to various image distortion mechanisms in MRI. In this paper, the absolute error in using a z-frame to localize a tool in MRI is quantified over various positions of the z-frame relative to the MRI isocenter, and for various levels of static magnetic field inhomogeneity. It was found that the error increases rapidly with distance from the isocenter in both the horizontal and vertical directions, but the error is much less sensitive to position when multiple contiguous slices are used with slice-select gradient nonlinearity correction enabled, as opposed to the more common approach of only using a single image slice. In addition, the error is found to increase rapidly with an increasing level of static field inhomogeneity, even with the z-frame placed within 10 cm of the isocenter
List of New Names of Plant Pathogenic Bacteria (2008-2010)
In 2010 the International Society of Plant Pathology Committee on the Taxonomy of Plant Pathogenic Bacteria published the Comprehensive List of Names of Plant Pathogenic Bacteria, 1980-2007 to provide an authoritative register of names of plant pathogens. In this manuscript we update the list of names by cataloguing names published from 2008 to 2010. We provide those names that have been validly and effectively published in this time frame, the proposed names that we judged to be invalid and names published earlier that did not make the previous lists. We also discuss problems that arise in the naming of strains that fall into the status Candidatus and nomenclatural problems in the genus Xanthomonas
Large-eddy simulation of the lid-driven cubic cavity flow by the spectral element method
This paper presents the large-eddy simulation of the lid-driven cubic cavity
flow by the spectral element method (SEM) using the dynamic model. Two spectral
filtering techniques suitable for these simulations have been implemented.
Numerical results for Reynolds number are showing very good
agreement with other experimental and DNS results found in the literature
Hole Dispersions for Antiferromagnetic Spin-1/2 Two-Leg Ladders by Self-Similar Continuous Unitary Transformations
The hole-doped antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 two-leg ladder is an important
model system for the high- superconductors based on cuprates. Using the
technique of self-similar continuous unitary transformations we derive
effective Hamiltonians for the charge motion in these ladders. The key
advantage of this technique is that it provides effective models explicitly in
the thermodynamic limit. A real space restriction of the generator of the
transformation allows us to explore the experimentally relevant parameter
space. From the effective Hamiltonians we calculate the dispersions for single
holes. Further calculations will enable the calculation of the interaction of
two holes so that a handle of Cooper pair formation is within reach.Comment: 16 pages, 26 figure
List of New Names of Plant Pathogenic Bacteria (2011-2012)
The International Society of Plant Pathology Committee on the Taxonomy of Plant Pathogenic Bacteria has responsibility to evaluate the names of newly proposed pathovars for adherence to the International Standards for Naming Pathovars of Phytopathogenic Bacteria. Currently, the Comprehensive List of Names and the List of New Names of Plant Pathogenic Bacteria provide the authoritative register of names of bacterial plant pathogens. In this manuscript we up-date the list of names by cataloguing and evaluating names of plant pathogenic bacteria published in 2011 and 2012. We provide those names that have been validly and effectively published in this time frame, the proposed names that we judged to be invalid, and names published earlier that did not make the previous lists
Effective nonlinear optical properties of composite media of graded spherical particles
We have developed a nonlinear differential effective dipole approximation
(NDEDA), in an attempt to investigate the effective linear and third-order
nonlinear susceptibility of composite media in which graded spherical
inclusions with weak nonlinearity are randomly embedded in a linear host
medium. Alternatively, based on a first-principles approach, we derived exactly
the linear local field inside the graded particles having power-law dielectric
gradation profiles. As a result, we obtain also the effective linear dielectric
constant and third-order nonlinear susceptibility. Excellent agreement between
the two methods is numerically demonstrated. As an application, we apply the
NDEDA to investigate the surface plasma resonant effect on the optical
absorption, optical nonlinearity enhancement, and figure of merit of
metal-dielectric composites. It is found that the presence of gradation in
metal particles yields a broad resonant band in the optical region, and further
enhances the figure of merit.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figure
Cluster Spin Glass Distribution Functions in LaSrCuO
Signatures of the cluster spin glass have been found in a variety of
experiments, with an effective onset temperature that is frequency
dependent. We reanalyze the experimental results and find that they are
characterized by a distribution of activation energies, with a nonzero glass
transition temperature . While the distribution of activation
energies is the same, the distribution of weights depends on the process.
Remarkably, the weights are essentially doping independent.Comment: 5 pages, 5 ps figure
The one dimensional Hydrogen atom revisited
The one dimensional Schroedinger hydrogen atom is an interesting mathematical
and physical problem to study bound states, eigenfunctions and quantum
degeneracy issues. This 1D physical system gave rise to some intriguing
controversy over more than four decades. Presently, still no definite consensus
seems to have been reached. We reanalyzed this apparently controversial
problem, approaching it from a Fourier transform representation method combined
with some fundamental (basic) ideas found in self-adjoint extensions of
symmetric operators. In disagreement with some previous claims, we found that
the complete Balmer energy spectrum is obtained together with an odd parity set
of eigenfunctions. Closed form solutions in both coordinate and momentum spaces
were obtained. No twofold degeneracy was observed as predicted by the
degeneracy theorem in one dimension, though it does not necessarily have to
hold for potentials with singularities. No ground state with infinite energy
exists since the corresponding eigenfunction does not satisfy the Schroedinger
equation at the origin.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Canadian Journal of Physics, July
28th, 200
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