The relationship between metabolic rate and sociability is altered by food-deprivation

Individuals vary in the extent to which they associate with conspecifics, but little is known about the energetic underpinnings of this variation in sociability. Group-living allows individuals to find food more consistently, but within groups, there can be competition for food items. Individuals with an increased metabolic rate could display decreased sociability to reduce competition. Long-term food deprivation (FD) may alter any links between sociability and metabolic rate by affecting motivation to find food. We examined these issues in juvenile qingbo carp Spinibarbus sinensis, to understand how FD and metabolic rate affect sociability. Like many aquatic ectotherms, this species experiences seasonal bouts of FD. Individuals were either: (i) food-deprived for 21 days; or (ii) fed a maintenance ration (control). Fish from each treatment were measured for standard metabolic rate (SMR) and tested for sociability twice: once in the presence of a control stimulus shoal and once with a food-deprived stimulus shoal. Control individuals ventured further from stimulus shoals over a 30-min trial, while food-deprived fish did not change their distance from stimulus shoals as trials progressed. Control fish with a higher SMR were least sociable. Well-fed controls showed decreased sociability when exposed to food-deprived stimulus shoals, but there was evidence of consistency in relative sociability between exposures to different shoal types. Results contrast with previous findings that several days of fasting causes individuals to decrease associations with conspecifics. Prolonged FD may cause individuals to highly prioritize food acquisition, and the decreased vigilance that would accompany continuous foraging may heighten the need for the antipredator benefits of shoaling. Conversely, decreased sociability in well-fed fish with a high SMR probably minimizes intraspecific competition, allowing them to satisfy an increased energetic demand while foraging. Together, these results suggest that FD – a challenge common for many ectothermic species – can affect individual sociability as well as the attractiveness of groups towards conspecifics. In addition, the lack of a link between SMR and sociability in food-deprived fish suggests that, in situations where group membership is linked to fitness, the extent of correlated selection on metabolic traits may be context-dependent

Pulse-duration dependence of high-order harmonic generation with coherent superposition state

We make a systematic study of high-order harmonic generation (HHG) in a He$^+$-like model ion when the initial states are prepared as a coherent superposition of the ground state and an excited state. It is found that, according to the degree of the ionization of the excited state, the laser intensity can be divided into three regimes in which HHG spectra exhibit different characteristics. The pulse-duration dependence of the HHG spectra in these regimes is studied. We also demonstrate evident advantages of using coherent superposition state to obtain high conversion efficiency. The conversion efficiency can be increased further if ultrashort laser pulses are employed