Ecosystem energetic implications of parasite and free-living biomass in three estuaries

Parasites can have strong impacts but are thought to contribute little biomass to ecosystems. We quantified the biomass of free-living and parasitic species in three estuaries on the Pacific coast of California and Baja California. Here we show that parasites have substantial biomass in these ecosystems. We found that parasite biomass exceeded that of top predators. The biomass of trematodes was particularly high, being comparable to that of the abundant birds, fishes, burrowing shrimps and polychaetes. Trophically transmitted parasites and parasitic castrators subsumed more biomass than did other parasitic functional groups. The extended phenotype biomass controlled by parasitic castrators sometimes exceeded that of their uninfected hosts. The annual production of free-swimming trematode transmission stages was greater than the combined biomass of all quantified parasites and was also greater than bird biomass. This biomass and productivity of parasites implies a profound role for infectious processes in these estuaries.     

Modeling large reversible electric-field-induced strain in ferroelectric materials using 90° orientation switching

Reversible large electric-field-induced strain caused by reversible orientation switchings in BaTiO3 is modeled using the Landau's theory of phase transition.A triple well free energy function is constructed.Each of its minima is associated with one of the polarization orientations involved.Nonlinear constitutive laws accounting for reversible orientation switchings and electrostriction effects are obtained by using thermodynamic equilibrium conditions.Hysteretic dynamics of onedimensional structures is des...     

Probing Local Lattice Fluctautions in Cuprates and Manganites by High k—Resolution EXAFS

ＩｎｔｒｏｄｕｃｔｉｏｎＴｈｅｈｉｇｈＴｃｓｕｐｅｒｃｏｎｄｕｃｔｏｒｓａｒｅｌａｙｅｒｅｄｍａｔｅｒｉａｌｓｗｉｔｈＣｕＯ2 ｐｌａｎｅｓ ,ｓｅｐａｒａｔｅｄｂｙｉｎｓｕｌａｔｉｎｇｒｏｃｋ ｓａｌｔｏｘｉｄｅｌａｙｅｒｓ.ＴｈｅｉｍｐｏｒｔａｎｃｅｏｆｔｈｅＣｕＯ2 ｐｌａｎｅｓｈａｓｃｒｅａｔｅｄｍａｊｏｒｉｎｔｅｒｅｓｔｔｏｓｔｕｄｙｔｈｅｅｌｅｃｔｒｏｎｉｃａｎｄｓｔｒｕｃｔｕｒａｌｂｅｈａｖｉｏｕｒｏｆｔｈｅｓｅｓｔｒｕｃｔｕｒａｌｅｌｅｍｅｎｔｓｓｉｎｃｅｔｈｅｄｉｓｃｏｖｅｒｙｏｆｔｈ…