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The first eigenvalue of the Laplacian on a surface can be viewed as a functional on the space of Riemannian metrics of a given area. Critical points of this functional are called extremal metrics. The only known extremal metrics are a round sphere, a standard projective plane, a Clifford torus and an equilateral torus. We construct an extremal metric on a Klein bottle. It is a metric of revolution, admitting a minimal isometric embedding into a 4-sphere by the first eigenfunctions. Also, this Klein bottle is a bipolar surface for the Lawson's {3,1}-torus. We conjecture that an extremal metric for the first eigenvalue on a Klein bottle is unique, and hence it provides a sharp upper bound for the first eigenvalue on a Klein bottle of a given area. We present numerical evidence and prove the first results towards this conjecture. 20 pages; minor corrections

In the title complex, [Ni(C30H23O2P2)I], the divalent Ni atom is coordinated by two P atoms and one C atom from the 1,3-bis­[(diphenyl­phosphan­yl)­oxy]benzene ligand; the distorted square-planar geometry is completed by an iodide ligand. The largest distortions from ideal square-planar geometry are reflected in the P—Ni—P angle of 164.20 (2)° and the P—Ni—C angles of 82.09 (6) and 82.11 (6)°. The rather short Ni—C bond length [1.890 (2) Å] is anti­cipated in light of the much stronger trans influence of the aryl moiety compared to the iodide ligand. The P-bound phenyl rings adopt different orientations to minimize steric repulsion among themselves.

An X-ray flaring source was found near the galaxy NGC 4697. Two flares were seen, separated by four years. The flux increased by a factor of 90 on a timescale of about one minute. Both flares were very brief. There is no optical counterpart at the position of the flares, but if the source was at the distance of NGC 4697, the luminosities were 10^39 erg/s. Here we report the results of a search of archival X-ray data for 70 nearby galaxies looking for similar such flares. We found two flaring sources in globular clusters or ultra-compact dwarf companions of parent elliptical galaxies. One source flared once to a peak luminosity of 9 x 10^40 erg/s, while the other flared five times to 10^40 erg/s. All of the flare rise times were <1 minute, and they then decayed over about an hour. When not flaring, the sources appear to be normal accreting neutron star or black hole X-ray binaries, but they are located in old stellar populations, unlike the magnetars, anomalous X-ray pulsars or soft gamma repeaters that have repetitive flares of similar luminosities. Published in the Oct 20 2016 issue of Nature

Cobalt (Co) is an important bioactive trace metal that is the metal cofactor in cobalamin (vitamin B12) which can limit or co-limit phytoplankton growth in many regions of the ocean. Total dissolved and labile Co measurements in the Canadian sector of the Arctic Ocean during the U.S. GEOTRACES Arctic expedition (GN01) and the Canadian International Polar Year GEOTRACES expedition (GIPY14) revealed a dynamic biogeochemical cycle for Co in this basin. The major sources of Co in the Arctic were from shelf regions and rivers, with only minimal contributions from other freshwater sources (sea ice, snow) and eolian deposition. The most striking feature was the extremely high concentrations of dissolved Co in the upper 100 m, with concentrations routinely exceeding 800 pmol L−1 over the shelf regions. This plume of high Co persisted throughout the Arctic basin and extended to the North Pole, where sources of Co shifted from primarily shelf-derived to riverine, as freshwater from Arctic rivers was entrained in the Transpolar Drift. Dissolved Co was also strongly organically complexed in the Arctic, ranging from 70 % to 100 % complexed in the surface and deep ocean, respectively. Deep-water concentrations of dissolved Co were remarkably consistent throughout the basin (∼55 pmol L−1), with concentrations reflecting those of deep Atlantic water and deep-ocean scavenging of dissolved Co. A biogeochemical model of Co cycling was used to support the hypothesis that the majority of the high surface Co in the Arctic was emanating from the shelf. The model showed that the high concentrations of Co observed were due to the large shelf area of the Arctic, as well as to dampened scavenging of Co by manganese-oxidizing (Mn-oxidizing) bacteria due to the lower temperatures. The majority of this scavenging appears to have occurred in the upper 200 m, with minimal additional scavenging below this depth. Evidence suggests that both dissolved Co (dCo) and labile Co (LCo) are increasing over time on the Arctic shelf, and these limited temporal results are consistent with other tracers in the Arctic. These elevated surface concentrations of Co likely lead to a net flux of Co out of the Arctic, with implications for downstream biological uptake of Co in the North Atlantic and elevated Co in North Atlantic Deep Water. Understanding the current distributions of Co in the Arctic will be important for constraining changes to Co inputs resulting from regional intensification of freshwater fluxes from ice and permafrost melt in response to ongoing climate change.

Construction labor productivity (CLP) is affected by various interconnected factors, such as crew motivation and working conditions. Improved CLP can benefit a construction project in many ways, such as a shortened project life cycle and lowering project cost. However, budget, time, and resource restrictions force companies to select and implement only a limited number of CLP improvement strategies. Therefore, a research gap exists regarding methods for supporting the selection of CLP improvement strategies for a given project by quantifying the impact of strategies on CLP with respect to interrelationships among CLP factors. This paper proposes a decision support model that integrates fuzzy multi-criteria decision making with fuzzy cognitive maps to prioritize CLP improvement strategies based on their impact on CLP, causal relationships among CLP factors, and project characteristics. The proposed model was applied to determine CLP improvement strategies for concrete-pouring activities in building projects as an illustrative example. This study contributes to the body of knowledge by providing a systematic approach for selecting appropriate CLP improvement strategies based on interrelationships among the factors affecting CLP and the impact of such strategies on CLP. The results are expected to support construction practitioners with identifying effective improvement strategies to enhance CLP in their projects.

We present the discovery of a co-moving planetary-mass companion ~42" (~2000 AU) from a young M3 star, GU Psc, likely member of the young AB Doradus Moving Group (ABDMG). The companion was first identified via its distinctively red i - z color (> 3.5) through a survey made with Gemini-S/GMOS. Follow-up Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope/WIRCam near-infrared (NIR) imaging, Gemini-N/GNIRS NIR spectroscopy and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer photometry indicate a spectral type of T3.5+-1 and reveal signs of low gravity which we attribute to youth. Keck/Adaptive Optics NIR observations did not resolve the companion as a binary. A comparison with atmosphere models indicates Teff = 1000-1100 K and logg = 4.5-5.0. Based on evolution models, this temperature corresponds to a mass of 9-13 MJup for the age of ABDMG (70-130 Myr). The relatively well-constrained age of this companion and its very large angular separation to its host star will allow its thorough characterization and will make it a valuable comparison for planetary-mass companions that will be uncovered by forthcoming planet-finder instruments such as Gemini Planet Imager and SPHERE. 18 p., 10 fig., published in ApJ. May 20th, 2014: Small corrections compared to the journal version: 1) addition of the an important reference to 1RSX 1609-2105b from Lafreni\`ere et al. 2008, 2010, 2) update of the url for Andrew Mann metallicity calibration, 3) correction of a few factual mistakes in section 2.2.4), 4) aesthetic reformatting of urls

This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy and National Science Foundation; the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare; the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan; the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada; the National Science Council of the Republic of China; the Swiss National Science Foundation; the A. P. Sloan Foundation; the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, Germany; the Korean World Class University Program, the National Research Foundation of Korea; the Science and Technology Facilities Council and the Royal Society, United Kingdom; the Russian Foundation for Basic Research; the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, and Programa Consolider-Ingenio 2010, Spain; the Slovak R&D Agency; the Academy of Finland; the Australian Research Council (ARC); and the EU community Marie Curie Fellowship Contract No. 302103. This work was also supported by the Shrum Foundation, the Weizman Institute of Science and the Israel Science Foundation. Results of a study of the substructure of the highest transverse momentum (pT) jets observed by the CDF Collaboration are presented. Events containing at least one jet with pT>400 GeV/c in a sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.95 fb−1, collected in 1.96 TeV proton-antiproton collisions at the Fermilab Tevatron collider, are selected. A study of the jet mass, angularity, and planar-flow distributions is presented, and the measurements are compared with predictions of perturbative quantum chromodynamics. A search for boosted top-quark production is also described, leading to a 95% confidence level upper limit of 38 fb on the production cross section of top quarks with pT>400 GeV/c. Peer Reviewed et al.

In this paper, we study the semi-stable subcategories of the category of representations of a Euclidean quiver, and the possible intersections of these subcategories. Contrary to the Dynkin case, we find out that the intersection of semi-stable subcategories may not be semi-stable. However, only a finite number of exceptions occur, and we give a description of these subcategories. Moreover, one can attach a simplicial fan in $\mathbb{Q}^n$ to any acyclic quiver $Q$, and this simplicial fan allows one to completely determine the canonical presentation of any element in $\mathbb{Z}^n$. This fan has a nice description in the Dynkin and Euclidean cases: it is described using an arrangement of convex codimension-one subsets of $\mathbb{Q}^n$, each such subset being indexed by a real Schur root or a set of quasi-simple objects. This fan also characterizes when two different stability conditions give rise to the same semi-stable subcategory. 39 pages

This is an elementary review of our recent work on the classification of the spectra of those two-dimensional rational conformal field theories (RCFTs) whose (maximal) chiral algebras are current algebras. We classified all possible partition functions for such theories when the defining finite-dimensional Lie algebra is simple. The concepts underlying this work are emphasized, and are illustrated using simple examples. Comment: 10 pages, Plain Tex file plus 4 Postscript files (tarred, compressed and uuencoded together). epsf used to include figures

Aqueous L-selenomethionine (SeMet) embryo exposures represent a rapid and simplified method for investigating the embryotoxic effects of SeMet. Using zebrafish (Danio rerio) as a model organism, the objective of the present study was to characterize the effects of waterborne exposure to both SeMet and tert-butyl hydroperoxide (tBOOH) to early life stages of zebrafish pre-treated with the antioxidant tert-butyl hydroquinone (tBHQ) in an attempt to investigate the mechanism of Se toxicity as it relates to oxidative stress. During the initial concentration range finding experiment, recently fertilized embryos were exposed for five days to 5, 25, 125, and 625 µ g/L tBHQ pre-treatment. Survival, hatchability, time to hatch, the frequency and severity of deformities (total and type), and changes in the expression of seven antioxidant-associated genes were determined. Exposures to SeMet and tBOOH reduced hatchability, increased time to hatch, decreased survival, increased the incidence and severity of deformities, and increased glutathione-disulfide reductase (gsr) expression in the pre-treated tBOOH treatment group. g Se/L (as SeMet). These exposures informed the second experiment in which embryos were exposed to two concentrations of SeMet (25 and 125 µ g Se/L) and 75 mg/L tBOOH either with (tBOOH-t, 25-t, 125-t) or without (tBOOH, 25, 125) a 4 h 100 µ