1,020 research outputs found
Self-Assembly on a Cylinder: A Model System for Understanding the Constraint of Commensurability
A crystal lattice, when confined to the surface of a cylinder, must have a
periodic structure that is commensurate with the cylinder circumference. This
constraint can frustrate the system, leading to oblique crystal lattices or to
structures with a chiral seam known as a "line slip" phase, neither of which
are stable for isotropic particles in equilibrium on flat surfaces. In this
study, we use molecular dynamics simulations to find the steady-state structure
of spherical particles with short-range repulsion and long-range attraction far
below the melting temperature. We vary the range of attraction using the
Lennard-Jones and Morse potentials and find that a shorter-range attraction
favors the line-slip. We develop a simple model based only on geometry and bond
energy to predict when the crystal or line-slip phases should appear, and find
reasonable agreement with the simulations. The simplicity of this model allows
us to understand the influence of the commensurability constraint, an
understanding that might be extended into the more general problem of
self-assembling particles in strongly confined spaces.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures. Submitted for publication, 201
Egg crypsis in a ground-nesting shorebird influences nest survival
Coloration of exposed eggs of ground-nesting birds is thought to reduce predation, with camouflaged eggs that more closely match the area around the nest having greater survival. We tested this hypothesis using digital photographs of 374 Mountain Plover (Charadrius montanus) nests and the substrate surrounding each nest to produce covariates in nest survival models. Covariates included values representing the difference between the color of the eggs and that of the substrate, the average egg and substrate colors, and variation in both egg and substrate color. Nest survival decreased as the difference between the color of the eggs and substrate increased (accounted for by two different methods of quantifying color and increased with increasing variability in substrate color, although after model-averaging these effects were not well-supported. Model-averaged estimates of daily nest survival ranged from 0.90 to 0.98 (unconditional SEs from 0.004 to 0.129). Our results support the egg crypsis hypothesis because eggs that closely match their surroundings have greater survival
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