3,836 research outputs found
PHYLOGENY OF ACRIDOCARPUS-BRACHYLOPHON (MALPIGHIACEAE): IMPLICATIONS FOR TERTIARY TROPICAL FLORAS AND AFROASIAN BIOGEOGRAPHY
A major tenet of African Tertiary biogeography posits that lowland rainforest dominated much of Africa in the late Cretaceous and was replaced by xeric vegetation as a response to continental uplift and consequent widespread aridification beginning in the late Paleogene. The aridification of Africa is thought to have been a major factor in the extinction of many African humid-tropical lineages, and in the present-day disparity of species diversity between Africa and other tropical regions. This primarily geologically based model can be tested with independent phylogenetic evidence from widespread African plant groups containing both humid- and xeric-adapted species. We estimated the phylogeny and lineage divergence times within one such angiosperm group, the acridocarpoid clade (Malpighiaceae), with combined ITS, ndhF , and trnL-F data from 15 species that encompass the range of morphological and geographic variation within the group. Dispersal-vicariance analysis and divergence-time estimates suggest that the basal acridocarpoid divergence occurred between African and Southeast Asian lineages approximately 50 million years ago (mya), perhaps after a southward ancestral retreat from high-latitude tropical forests in response to intermittent Eocene cooling. Dispersion of Acridocarpus from Africa to Madagascar is inferred between approximately 50 and 35 mya, when lowland humid tropical forest was nearly continuous between these landmasses. A single dispersal event within Acridocarpus is inferred from western Africa to eastern Africa between approximately 23 and 17 mya, coincident with the widespread replacement of humid forests by savannas in eastern Africa. Although the spread of xeric environments resulted in the extinction of many African plant groups, our data suggest that for others it provided an opportunity for further diversification.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72798/1/j.0014-3820.2002.tb00165.x.pd
J.S. Bell's Concept of Local Causality
John Stewart Bell's famous 1964 theorem is widely regarded as one of the most
important developments in the foundations of physics. It has even been
described as "the most profound discovery of science." Yet even as we approach
the 50th anniversary of Bell's discovery, its meaning and implications remain
controversial. Many textbooks and commentators report that Bell's theorem
refutes the possibility (suggested especially by Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen
in 1935) of supplementing ordinary quantum theory with additional ("hidden")
variables that might restore determinism and/or some notion of an
observer-independent reality. On this view, Bell's theorem supports the
orthodox Copenhagen interpretation. Bell's own view of his theorem, however,
was quite different. He instead took the theorem as establishing an "essential
conflict" between the now well-tested empirical predictions of quantum theory
and relativistic \emph{local causality}. The goal of the present paper is, in
general, to make Bell's own views more widely known and, in particular, to
explain in detail Bell's little-known mathematical formulation of the concept
of relativistic local causality on which his theorem rests. We thus collect and
organize many of Bell's crucial statements on these topics, which are scattered
throughout his writings, into a self-contained, pedagogical discussion
including elaborations of the concepts "beable", "completeness", and
"causality" which figure in the formulation. We also show how local causality
(as formulated by Bell) can be used to derive an empirically testable Bell-type
inequality, and how it can be used to recapitulate the EPR argument.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figure
HighâLatitude Tertiary Migrations of an Exclusively Tropical Clade: Evidence from Malpighiaceae
Diffuse Galactic Gamma Rays from Shock-Accelerated Cosmic Rays
A shock-accelerated particle flux \propto p^-s, where p is the particle
momentum, follows from simple theoretical considerations of cosmic-ray
acceleration at nonrelativistic shocks followed by rigidity-dependent escape
into the Galactic halo. A flux of shock-accelerated cosmic-ray protons with s ~
2.8 provides an adequate fit to the Fermi-LAT gamma-ray emission spectra of
high-latitude and molecular cloud gas when uncertainties in nuclear production
models are considered. A break in the spectrum of cosmic-ray protons claimed by
Neronov, Semikoz, & Taylor (PRL, 108, 051105, 2012) when fitting the gamma-ray
spectra of high-latitude molecular clouds is a consequence of using a
cosmic-ray proton flux described by a power law in kinetic energy.Comment: Version to correspond to published letter in PRL; corrected Fig.
Numerical Models of Viscous Accretion Flows Near Black Holes
We report on a numerical study of viscous fluid accretion onto a black hole.
The flow is axisymmetric and uses a pseudo-Newtonian potential to model
relativistic effects near the event horizon. The numerical method is a variant
of the ZEUS code. As a test of our numerical scheme, we are able to reproduce
results from earlier, similar work by Igumenshchev and Abramowicz and Stone et
al. We consider models in which mass is injected onto the grid as well as
models in which an initial equilibrium torus is accreted. In each model we
measure three ``eigenvalues'' of the flow: the accretion rate of mass, angular
momentum, and energy. We find that the eigenvalues are sensitive to r_{in}, the
location of the inner radial boundary. Only when the flow is always supersonic
on the inner boundary are the eigenvalues insensitive to small changes in
r_{in}. We also report on the sensitivity of the results to other numerical
parameters.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables, to appear in v573 n2 pt1 ApJ July 10,
200
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Synthetically Encoded Ultrashort-Channel Nanowire Transistors for Fast, Pointlike Cellular Signal Detection
Nanostructures, which have sizes comparable to biological functional units involved in cellular communication, offer the potential for enhanced sensitivity and spatial resolution compared to planar metal and semiconductor structures. Silicon nanowire (SiNW) field-effect transistors (FETs) have been used as a platform for biomolecular sensors, which maintain excellent signal-to-noise ratios while operating on lengths scales that enable efficient extra- and intracellular integration with living cells. Although the NWs are tens of nanometers in diameter, the active region of the NW FET devices typically spans micrometers, limiting both the length and time scales of detection achievable with these nanodevices. Here, we report a new synthetic method that combines gold-nanocluster-catalyzed vaporâliquidâsolid (VLS) and vaporâsolidâsolid (VSS) NW growth modes to produce synthetically encoded NW devices with ultrasharp (<5 nm) n-type highly doped to lightly doped (n) transitions along the NW growth direction, where regions serve as source/drain (S/D) electrodes and the n-region functions as an active FET channel. Using this method, we synthesized short-channel SiNW FET devices with independently controllable diameters and channel lengths. SiNW devices with channel lengths of 50, 80, and 150 nm interfaced with spontaneously beating cardiomyocytes exhibited well-defined extracellular field potential signals with signal-to-noise values of ca. 4 independent of device size. Significantly, these âpointlikeâ devices yield peak widths of , which is comparable to the reported time constant for individual sodium ion channels. Multiple FET devices with device separations smaller than were also encoded on single SiNWs, thus enabling multiplexed recording from single cells and cell networks with device-to-device time resolution on the order of a few microseconds. These short-channel SiNW FET devices provide a new opportunity to create nanoscale biomolecular sensors that operate on the length and time scales previously inaccessible by other techniques but necessary to investigate fundamental, subcellular biological processes.Chemistry and Chemical BiologyEngineering and Applied Science
Nonlinear Outcome of Gravitational Instability in Cooling, Gaseous Disks
Thin, Keplerian accretion disks generically become gravitationally unstable
at large radius. I investigate the nonlinear outcome of such instability in
cool disks using razor-thin, local, numerical models. Cooling, characterized by
a constant cooling time t_c, drives the instability. I show analytically that,
if the disk can reach a steady state in which heating by dissipation of
turbulence balances cooling, then the dimensionless angular momentum flux
density \alpha = ((9/4) \gamma (\gamma-1) \Omega t_c)^{-1}. Numerical
experiments show that: (1) if t_c \gtrsim 3\Omega^{-1} then the disk reaches a
steady, gravito-turbulent state in which Q \sim 1 and cooling is balanced by
heating due to dissipation of turbulence; (2) if t_c \lesssim 3\Omega^{-1},
then the disk fragments, possibly forming planets or stars; (3) in a steady,
gravito-turbulent state, surface density structures have a characteristic
physical scale \sim 64 G \Sigma/\Omega^2 that is independent of the size of the
computational domain.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures, aastex 5.0, to appear in Ap
Saving the Polar Bear, Saving the World:Can the Capabilities Approach do Justice to Humans, Animals <em>and</em> Ecosystems?
1943: Abilene Christian College Bible Lectures - Full Text
Delivered in the Auditorium of Abilene Christian College
February, 1943
Price: $1.00
FIRM FOUNDATION PUBLISHING HOUSE
Austin, Texas
Copyright, 1943
By Firm Foundation Publishing House
Austin, Texa
Giant Thermoelectric Effect from Transmission Supernodes
We predict an enormous order-dependent quantum enhancement of thermoelectric
effects in the vicinity of a higher-order `supernode' in the transmission
spectrum of a nanoscale junction. Single-molecule junctions based on
3,3'-biphenyl and polyphenyl ether (PPE) are investigated in detail. The
nonequilibrium thermodynamic efficiency and power output of a thermoelectric
heat engine based on a 1,3-benzene junction are calculated using many-body
theory, and compared to the predictions of the figure-of-merit ZT.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure
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