Flea beetles (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Alticinae) collected by malaise trap method in Gölcük Natural Park (Isparta, Turkey), with a new record for Turkish fauna

This study is based on Alticinae (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) material collected by Malaise trapping which is different from other standardized collecting methods. A total of 19 flea beetle species belonging to 6 genera were collected from Gölcük Natural Park, Isparta (Turkey) during 2009. The species are listed in a table together with distributional data in Turkey. Among them, Longitarsus curtus (Allard, 1860) is recorded for the first time in Turkey. L. monticola Kutschera, 1863 and L. curtus are recently separated synonyms and thus all data referring to the distribution of both species are currently important. Hence, the zoogeographical distribution of the new record is reviewed with some remarks; habitus and genitalia are illustrated

Unraveling the nature of magnetism of the 5d4\boldsymbol{d^4} double perovskite Ba2_2YIrO6_6

We report electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy results on the double perovskite Ba$_2$YIrO$_6$. On general grounds, this material is expected to be nonmagnetic due to the strong coupling of the spin and orbital momenta of Ir$^{5+}$ (5$d^4$) ions. However, controversial experimental reports on either strong antiferromagnetism with static order at low temperatures or just a weakly paramagnetic behavior have triggered a discussion on the breakdown of the generally accepted scenario of the strongly spin-orbit coupled ground states in the 5$d^4$ iridates and the emergence of a novel exotic magnetic state. Our data evidence that the magnetism of the studied material is solely due to a few percent of Ir$^{4+}$ and Ir$^{6+}$ magnetic defects while the regular Ir$^{5+}$ sites remain nonmagnetic. Remarkably, the defect Ir$^{6+}$ species manifest magnetic correlations in the ESR spectra at $T\lesssim 20$ K suggesting a long-range character of superexchange in the double prevoskites as proposed by recent theories

Non-parametric comparison of histogrammed two-dimensional data distributions using the Energy Test

When monitoring complex experiments, comparison is often made between regularly acquired histograms of data and reference histograms which represent the ideal state of the equipment. With the larger HEP experiments now ramping up, there is a need for automation of this task since the volume of comparisons could overwhelm human operators. However, the two-dimensional histogram comparison tools available in ROOT have been noted in the past to exhibit shortcomings. We discuss a newer comparison test for two-dimensional histograms, based on the Energy Test of Aslan and Zech, which provides more conclusive discrimination between histograms of data coming from different distributions than methods provided in a recent ROOT release.The Science and Technology Facilities Council, U

Transcriptome analysis of porcine M. semimembranosus divergent in intramuscular fat as a consequence of dietary protein restriction

peer-reviewedBackground: Intramuscular fat (IMF) content is positively correlated with aspects of pork palatability, including flavour, juiciness and overall acceptability. The ratio of energy to protein in the finishing diet of growing pigs can impact on IMF content with consequences for pork quality. The objective of this study was to compare gene expression profiles of Musculus semimembranosus (SM) of animals divergent for IMF as a consequence of protein dietary restriction in an isocaloric diet. The animal model was derived through the imposition of low or high protein diets during the finisher stage in Duroc gilts. RNA was extracted from post mortem SM tissue, processed and hybridised to Affymetrix porcine GeneChip® arrays. Results: IMF content of SM muscle was increased on the low protein diet (3.60 ± 0.38% versus 1.92 ± 0.35%). Backfat depth was also greater in animals on the low protein diet, and average daily gain and feed conversion ratio were lower, but muscle depth, protein content and moisture content were not affected. A total of 542 annotated genes were differentially expressed (DE) between animals on low and high protein diets, with 351 down-regulated and 191 up-regulated on the low protein diet. Transcript differences were validated for a subset of DE genes by qPCR. Alterations in functions related to cell cycle, muscle growth, extracellular matrix organisation, collagen development, lipogenesis and lipolysis, were observed. Expression of adipokines including LEP, TNFα and HIF1α were increased and the hypoxic stress response was induced. Many of the identified transcriptomic responses have also been observed in genetic and fetal programming models of differential IMF accumulation, indicating they may be robust biological indicators of IMF content. Conclusion: An extensive perturbation of overall energy metabolism in muscle occurs in response to protein restriction. A low protein diet can modulate IMF content of the SM by altering gene pathways involved in lipid biosynthesis and degradation; however this nutritional challenge negatively impacts protein synthesis pathways, with potential consequences for growth.Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Ireland - Food Institutional Research Measur

A model for shock wave chaos

We propose the following model equation: $$u_{t}+1/2(u^{2}-uu_{s})_{x}=f(x,u_{s}),$$ that predicts chaotic shock waves. It is given on the half-line $x<0$ and the shock is located at $x=0$ for any $t\ge0$. Here $u_{s}(t)$ is the shock state and the source term $f$ is assumed to satisfy certain integrability constraints as explained in the main text. We demonstrate that this simple equation reproduces many of the properties of detonations in gaseous mixtures, which one finds by solving the reactive Euler equations: existence of steady traveling-wave solutions and their instability, a cascade of period-doubling bifurcations, onset of chaos, and shock formation in the reaction zone.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

The iridium double perovskite Sr2YIrO6 revisited: A combined structural and specific heat study

Recently, the iridate double perovskite Sr$_2$YIrO$_6$ has attracted considerable attention due to the report of unexpected magnetism in this Ir$^{5+}$ (5d$^4$) material, in which according to the J$_{eff}$ model, a non-magnetic ground state is expected. However, in recent works on polycrystalline samples of the series Ba$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$YIrO$_6$ no indication of magnetic transitions have been found. We present a structural, magnetic and thermodynamic characterization of Sr$_2$YIrO$_6$ single crystals, with emphasis on the temperature and magnetic field dependence of the specific heat. Here, we demonstrate the clue role of single crystal X-ray diffraction on the structural characterization of the Sr$_2$YIrO$_6$ double perovskite crystals by reporting the detection of a $\sqrt{2}a \times \sqrt{2}a \times 1c$ supercell, where $a$, $b$ and $c$ are the unit cell dimensions of the reported monoclinic subcell. In agreement with the expected non-magnetic ground state of Ir$^{5+}$ (5d$^4$) in Sr$_2$YIrO$_6$, no magnetic transition is observed down to 430~mK. Moreover, our results suggest that the low temperature anomaly observed in the specific heat is not related to the onset of long-range magnetic order. Instead, it is identified as a Schottky anomaly caused by paramagnetic impurities present in the sample, of the order of $n \sim 0.5(2)$ \%. These impurities lead to non-negligible spin correlations, which nonetheless, are not associated with long-range magnetic ordering.Comment: 20 pages, 10 figure