Fluctuating thermal environments of shallow-water rocky reefs in the Gulf of California, Mexico.

As part of a broad-scale study of the biogeography of rocky reefs in the Gulf of California, Mexico (GOC), we collected a continuous 1-yr temperature time series at ~5 m water depth at 16 sites spanning 5° of latitude and ~700 km along the western boundary of the basin. Throughout the region, thermal conditions were most variable in summer with fluctuations concentrated at diurnal and semi-diurnal frequencies, likely associated with solar and wind forcing and vertical water column oscillations forced by internal waves. Temperatures in winter were less variable than in summer, and minimum temperatures also differed among sites. Thermal variability integrated across the diurnal and semi-diurnal frequency bands was greatest near the Midriff Islands in the northern GOC and decreased toward the southern sites. Diurnal variability was greater than semi-diurnal variability at 13 of the 16 sites. A statistic-of-extremes analysis indicated shortest return times for cooling events in summer, and reef organisms at many of the sites may experience anomalous 2 to 5 °C cooling events multiple times per month. The significant extent of local temperature variability may play important roles in limiting species occurrences among sites across this biogeographic region

Quasi-Adiabatic Continuation in Gapped Spin and Fermion Systems: Goldstone's Theorem and Flux Periodicity

We apply the technique of quasi-adiabatic continuation to study systems with continuous symmetries. We first derive a general form of Goldstone's theorem applicable to gapped nonrelativistic systems with continuous symmetries. We then show that for a fermionic system with a spin gap, it is possible to insert $\pi$-flux into a cylinder with only exponentially small change in the energy of the system, a scenario which covers several physically interesting cases such as an s-wave superconductor or a resonating valence bond state.Comment: 19 pages, 2 figures, final version in press at JSTA

Enhancing Perceptual Attributes with Bayesian Style Generation

Deep learning has brought an unprecedented progress in computer vision and significant advances have been made in predicting subjective properties inherent to visual data (e.g., memorability, aesthetic quality, evoked emotions, etc.). Recently, some research works have even proposed deep learning approaches to modify images such as to appropriately alter these properties. Following this research line, this paper introduces a novel deep learning framework for synthesizing images in order to enhance a predefined perceptual attribute. Our approach takes as input a natural image and exploits recent models for deep style transfer and generative adversarial networks to change its style in order to modify a specific high-level attribute. Differently from previous works focusing on enhancing a specific property of a visual content, we propose a general framework and demonstrate its effectiveness in two use cases, i.e. increasing image memorability and generating scary pictures. We evaluate the proposed approach on publicly available benchmarks, demonstrating its advantages over state of the art methods.Comment: ACCV-201

Developing the evidence base for adult social care practice: The NIHR School for Social Care Research

In a foreword to 'Shaping the Future of Care Together', Prime Minister Gordon Brown says that a care and support system reflecting the needs of our times and meeting our rising aspirations is achievable, but 'only if we are prepared to rise to the challenge of radical reform'. A number of initiatives will be needed to meet the challenge of improving social care for the growing older population. Before the unveiling of the green paper, The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) announced that it has provided 15m pounds over a five-year period to establish the NIHR School for Social Care Research. The School's primary aim is to conduct or commission research that will help to improve adult social care practice in England. The School is seeking ideas for research topics, outline proposals for new studies and expert advice in developing research methods

An analytical and experimental evaluation of a Fresnel lens solar concentrator

An analytical and experimental evaluation of line focusing Fresnel lenses with application potential in the 200 to 370 C range was studied. Analytical techniques were formulated to assess the solar transmission and imaging properties of a grooves down lens. Experimentation was based on a 56 cm wide, f/1.0 lens. A Sun tracking heliostat provided a nonmoving solar source. Measured data indicated more spreading at the profile base than analytically predicted, resulting in a peak concentration 18 percent lower than the computed peak of 57. The measured and computed transmittances were 85 and 87 percent, respectively. Preliminary testing with a subsequent lens indicated that modified manufacturing techniques corrected the profile spreading problem and should enable improved analytical experimental correlation

[Open peer commentary] Is genomics bad for you?

The plasticity of the genome complicates genetic causation, but should be investigated from a functional perspective. Specific adaptive hypotheses are referenced in the target article, but it is also necessary to explain how the integrity of the genome is maintained despite processes that tend towards its diversification and degradation. These include the accumulation of deleterious changes and intra-genomic conflict

Multiscaling at Point J: Jamming is a Critical Phenomenon

We analyze the jamming transition that occurs as a function of increasing packing density in a disordered two-dimensional assembly of disks at zero temperature for ``Point J'' of the recently proposed jamming phase diagram. We measure the total number of moving disks and the transverse length of the moving region, and find a power law divergence as the packing density increases toward a critical jamming density. This provides evidence that the T = 0 jamming transition as a function of packing density is a {\it second order} phase transition. Additionally we find evidence for multiscaling, indicating the importance of long tails in the velocity fluctuations.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures; extensive new numerical data; final version in press at PR

A short proof of stability of topological order under local perturbations

Recently, the stability of certain topological phases of matter under weak perturbations was proven. Here, we present a short, alternate proof of the same result. We consider models of topological quantum order for which the unperturbed Hamiltonian $H_0$ can be written as a sum of local pairwise commuting projectors on a $D$-dimensional lattice. We consider a perturbed Hamiltonian $H=H_0+V$ involving a generic perturbation $V$ that can be written as a sum of short-range bounded-norm interactions. We prove that if the strength of $V$ is below a constant threshold value then $H$ has well-defined spectral bands originating from the low-lying eigenvalues of $H_0$. These bands are separated from the rest of the spectrum and from each other by a constant gap. The width of the band originating from the smallest eigenvalue of $H_0$ decays faster than any power of the lattice size.Comment: 15 page

Noise data for a twin-engine commercial jet aircraft flying conventional, steep, and two-segment approaches

Center-line noise measurements of a twin-engine commercial jet aircraft were made during steep landing approach profiles, and during two-segment approach profiles for comparison with similar measurements made during conventional approaches. The steep and two-segment approaches showed significant noise reductions when compared with the -3 deg base line. The measured noise data were also used to develop a method for estimating the noise under the test aircraft at thrust and altitude conditions typical of current landing procedures and of landing procedures under development for the Advanced Air Traffic Control System