Neutral Community Theory: How Stochasticity and Dispersal-Limitation Can Explain Species Coexistence

Neutral community theory explains biodiversity, i.e. the coexistence of several species, as the result of a stochastic balance between immigration and extinction on a local level, and between speciation and extinction on a regional level. The most popular model, presented by Hubbell in 2001, has seen many analytical developments in recent years, which can be used in model analysis, model testing and model comparison. We review these developments here, and present alternative derivations and shine previously unnoticed lights on them.     

The Systematics of Muonium Hyperfine Constants

The hyperfine constants for muonium in elemental and binary inorganic solids suggest formation of three different families of defect centre, with distinct electronic structures. The overall range of values, spanning nearly five orders of magnitude, and their correlation with host properties such as band gap and electron affinity, reveal a deep-to-shallow instability which has profound implications for the electrical properties of hydrogen impurity in electronic materials, both semiconducting and dielectric.     

100-TW femtosecond laser based on parametric amplification

In experiments on the parametrical amplification of femtosecond pulses in wide-aperture DKDP crystals, a power of more than 100 TW has been reached, which is much higher than the record level achieved in such lasers. The energy efficiency obtained for the parametric amplifier is equal to 27%. The energy of a 72-fs pulse is equal to 10 J.     

Change in the intensity of light scattering in a magnetite colloid under the simultaneous action of electric and magnetic fields

The change in the intensity of light scattering in a colloidal solution of magnetite particles in kerosene under the simultaneous action of coaxial and mutually perpendicular electric and magnetic fields has been studied. It has been found that, at certain strengths of mutually perpendicular fields, the change in the scattering intensity is maximal. The effect observed has been interpreted on the basis of the Rayleigh-Debye-Gans anisotropic approximation within the model of orientation of aggregates of magnetite particles under the joint action of the fields.     

Nonlinear optical properties of regioregular main‐chain polyesters

We have prepared new polyesters containing quadratic, nonlinear optical (NLO) active chromophores covalently incorporated into the main chain. In these polymers, the sequence of the chromophore units along the main chain is rigorously head to tail. All the polyesters are processable, both in the melt and in solution. For one polyester, a full second‐order NLO characterization has been performed. An out‐of‐resonance d₃₃ coefficient of 21 pm/V at 1368 nm has been measured. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 45: 2719–2725, 2007     

Carbide precipitates in solution-quenched PH13-8 Mo stainless steel: A small-angle neutron scattering investigation

This paper deals with the small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) investigation on solution-quenched PH13-8 Mo stainless steel. From the nature of the variation of the functionality of the profiles for varying specimen thickness and also from the transmission electron microscopy (TEM), it has been established that the small-angle scattering signal predominantly originates from the block-like metallic carbide precipitates in the specimen. The contribution due to double Bragg reflection is not significant in the present case. The single scattering profile has been extracted from the experimental profiles corresponding to different values of specimen thickness. In order to avoid complexity and non-uniqueness of the multi-parameter minimization for randomly oriented polydisperse block-like precipitate model, the data have been analyzed assuming randomly oriented polydisperse cylindrical particle model with a locked aspect ratio.     

<Superscript>6</Superscript>He + <Superscript>6</Superscript>He Clustering of <Superscript>12</Superscript>Be in a Microscopic Algebraic Approach

The norm kernel of the A=12 system composed of two ⁶He clusters, and the L=0 basis functions (in the SU(3) and angular momentum-coupled schemes) are analytically obtained in the Fock-Bargmann space. The norm kernel has a diagonal form in the former basis, but the asymptotic conditions are naturally defined in the latter one. The system is a good illustration for the method of projection of the norm kernel to the basis functions in the presence of SU(3) degeneracy that was proposed by the authors. The coupled-channel problem is considered in the algebraic version of the resonating-group method, with the multiple decay thresholds being properly accounted for. The structure of the ground state of ¹²Be obtained in the approximation of zero-range nuclear force is compared with the shell-model predictions. In the continuum part of the spectrum, the S-matrix is constructed, the asymptotic normalization coefficients are deduced and their energy dependence is analyzed.     

Computation of triple differential cross-sections with the inclusion of exchange effects in atomic K-shell ionization by relativistic electrons for symmetric geometry

The triple differential cross-section for K-shell ionization of silver and copper atoms by relativistic electrons have been computed in the coplanar symmetric geometry with the inclusion of exchange effects following the multiple scattering theory of Das and Seal [1] multiplied by suitable spinors. Present computed results are marginally improved in some cases from the previous computed results [2]. Present results are compared with measured values [3] and with previous computation results [2]. Some other theoretical computational results are also presented here for comparison.      

Searching for extensible Korobov rules

Extensible lattice sequences have been proposed and studied in [F.J. Hickernell, H.S. Hong, Computing multivariate normal probabilities using rank-1 lattice sequences, in: G.H. Golub, S.H. Lui, F.T. Luk, R.J. Plemmons (Eds.), Proceedings of the Workshop on Scientific Computing (Hong Kong), Singapore, Springer, Berlin, 1997, pp. 209–215; F.J. Hickernell, H.S. Hong, P. L’Ecuyer, C. Lemieux, Extensible lattice sequences for quasi-Monte Carlo quadrature, SIAM J. Sci. Comput. 22 (2001) 1117–1138; F.J. Hickernell, H.Niederreiter, The existence of good extensible rank-1 lattices, J. Complexity 19 (2003) 286–300]. For the special case of extensible Korobov sequences, parameters can be found in [F.J. Hickernell, H.S. Hong, P. L’Ecuyer, C.Lemieux, Extensible lattice sequences for quasi-Monte Carlo quadrature, SIAM J. Sci. Comput. 22 (2001) 1117–1138]. The searches made to obtain these parameters were based on quality measures that look at several projections of the lattice. Because it is often the case in practice that low-dimensional projections are very important, it is of interest to find parameters for these sequences based on measures that look more closely at these projections. In this paper, we prove the existence of “good” extensible Korobov rules with respect to a quality measure that considers two-dimensional projections. We also report results of experiments made on different problems where the newly obtained parameters compare favorably with those given in [F.J. Hickernell, H.S. Hong, P. L’Ecuyer, C. Lemieux, Extensible lattice sequences for quasi-Monte Carlo quadrature, SIAM J. Sci. Comput. 22 (2001) 1117–1138].     

Polarization locking and nonparaxial spatial solitons in media with electronic Kerr nonlinearity

The polarization structure of nonparaxial spatial solitons in a transparent medium with the electronic mechanism of Kerr nonlinearity is studied theoretically. It is demonstrated analytically in the weak nonparaxiality approximation that the regime of polarization locking, in which all the field components have the same propagation constant, is the only stable regime. Estimates of the rate of transition of the initial metastable regime of rotation of the polarization ellipse to the regime of polarization locking are presented. Based on a numerical solution of the nonlinear Maxwell equations, the presence of the nonparaxial regime of polarization locking is confirmed and the main characteristics of the corresponding spatial solitons are obtained.