Quantifying inbreeding avoidance through extra-pair reproduction

© 2014 The Author(s). Evolution © 2014 The Society for the Study of Evolution.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Is the Screening Test of the French Version of the Dementia Quality of Life Questionnaire Indispensable?

The aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of the screening questions in the French version of the Dementia Quality of Life (DQoL) questionnaire. To assess the psychometric properties of the French DQoL, 155 patients with mild-to-moderate dementia were recruited. Here, we compared the psychometric properties of the instrument between patients who passed the screening test (n = 109) and the whole study population (n = 155). The French DQoL version showed a good test-retest reliability at a 2-week interval (0.95 ≤ intraclass correlation coefficients ≤ 1.0), and an average internal consistency (0.58 ≤ Cronbach's α ≤ 0.87) for the 2 study groups. Significant differences were observed in the 2 groups for 4 dimensions of the DQoL regarding dementia severity (Cornell scale), and for 3 dimensions evaluating depression (MMSE). Convergent validity with the Duke Health Profile revealed many significant correlations between dimensions not only in the 109 patients, but also in the whole study population. Our study demonstrated that patients who failed the screening procedure nonetheless seemed to be able to answer the DQoL questionnaire, the whole study group showing acceptable psychometric properties

Molten Salt Thermal Energy Storage Systems

The feasibility of storing thermal energy at temperatures of 450 C to 535 C in the form of latent heat of fusion was examined for over 30 inorganic salts and salt mixtures. Alkali carbonate mixtures were chosen as phase-change storage materials in this temperature range because of their relatively high storage capacity and thermal conductivity, moderate cost, low volumetric expansion upon melting, low corrosivity, and good chemical stability. Means of improving heat conduction through the solid salt were explored

Pair formation and collapse in imbalanced Fermion populations with unequal masses

We present an exact Quantum Monte Carlo study of the effect of unequal masses on pair formation in Fermionic systems with population imbalance loaded into optical lattices. We have considered three forms of the attractive interaction and find in all cases that the system is unstable and collapses as the mass difference increases and that the ground state becomes an inhomogeneous collapsed state. We also address the question of canonical vs grand canonical ensemble and its role, if any, in stabilizing certain phases

Cohomological tautness for Riemannian foliations

In this paper we present some new results on the tautness of Riemannian foliations in their historical context. The first part of the paper gives a short history of the problem. For a closed manifold, the tautness of a Riemannian foliation can be characterized cohomologically. We extend this cohomological characterization to a class of foliations which includes the foliated strata of any singular Riemannian foliation of a closed manifold

On Some Geometric Structures Associated to a k-Symplectic Manifold

A canonical connection is attached to any k-symplectic manifold. We study the properties of this connection and its geometric applications to k-symplectic manifolds. In particular we prove that, under some natural assumption, any ksymplectic manifold admits an Ehresmann connection, discussing some corollaries of this result, and we find vanishing theorems for characteristic classes on a k-symplectic manifold.Comment: To appear on J. Phys. A: Math. Theo

A Giant Water Maser Flare in the Galactic Source IRAS 18316-0602

The results of long-term monitoring of the Galactic maser source IRAS 18316-0602 (G25.65+1.05) in the water-vapor line at frequency f = 22.235 GHz (6_16-5_23 transitioin) carried out on the 22-m Simeiz, 26-m HartRAO, and 26-m Torun radio telescopes are reported. The source has been episodically observed on the Simeiz telescope since 2000, with more regular observations beginning in 2017. A double flare was observed beginning in September 2017 and continuing to February 2018, which was the most powerful flare registered over the entire history of observations of this object. Most of the monitoring of the flare was carried out in a daily regime. Detailed analysis of the variations of the flux density, which reached a maximum value P ≈ 1.3 × 10^5 Jy, have led to important scientific conclusions about possible mechanisms for the emission in this water line. The exponential growth in the flux density in this double flare testifies that it was associated with a maser that was unsaturated right up to the maximum flux densities observed. An additional argument suggesting the maser was unsaturated is the relatively moderate degree of linear polarization (≈30%), nearly half the value displayed by the Galactic kilomasers in Orion KL. The accurate distance estimate for IRAS 18316-0602 (12.5 kpc) and the flux density at the flare maximum (≈1.3 × 10^5 Jy) makes this the most powerful Galactic kilomaser known. The double form of the flare with exponential rises in flux density rules out the possibility that the flare is the effect of directivity of a radiation beam relative to the observer. The physical nature of the flare is most likely related to internal parameters of the medium in which the maser clumps radiating in the water line are located. A rapid, exponential growth in the flux density of a kilomaser and associated exponential decays requires the presence of an explosive increase in the density of the medium and the photon flux, leading to an increase in the temperature by 10-40 K above the initial base level. A mechanism for the primary energy release in IRAS 18316-0602 is proposed, which is associated with a multiple massive star system located in a stage of evolution preceding its entry onto the main sequence. A flare in this object could initiate gravitational interaction between the central star and a massive companion at its periastron. The resulting powerful gravitational perturbation could lead to the ejection of the envelope of the central supermassive star, which gives rise to an explosive increase in the density and temperature of the associate gas-dust medium when it reaches the disk, where the maser clumps are located

Modified differentials and basic cohomology for Riemannian foliations

We define a new version of the exterior derivative on the basic forms of a Riemannian foliation to obtain a new form of basic cohomology that satisfies Poincar\'e duality in the transversally orientable case. We use this twisted basic cohomology to show relationships between curvature, tautness, and vanishing of the basic Euler characteristic and basic signature.Comment: 20 pages, references added, minor corrections mad