Telomere length is highly repeatable and declines with more elaborate sexual ornamentation in a short-lived passerine

Quantifying an individual’s state as fitness proxy has proven challenging, but accumulating evidence suggests that telomere length and attrition may indicate individual somatic state and success at self-maintenance, respectively. Sexual ornamentation is also thought to signal phenotypic quality, but links between telomeres and sexual ornamentation have been little explored. To address this issue, we examined whether telomere length and dynamics are predicted by the expression of a sexually selected ornament, the length of outermost tail feathers (streamers), using longitudinal data from a population of European barn swallows (Hirundo rustica). We further assessed associations of telomere length with age, sex, breeding status and survival. Telomere length showed high individual repeatability (R = 0.97) across years while shortening with age in both sexes. Telomere length and dynamics were not significantly associated with survival to the next year, remaining lifespan or reproduction status (comparing breeding and non-breeding yearlings). Tail streamer length was negatively associated with telomere length, independent of sex. Thus, telomere length may reflect the costs of carrying an elaborated sexual ornament, although ornament size did not significantly predict telomere shortening. In conclusion, telomere length in adult barn swallows is a highly consistent trait and shows a negative relationship with sexual ornamentation, suggesting a trade-off between sexual ornamentation and telomere length.

Emergence of transverse size in electric streamers

<p>The accurate determination of parameters of electric streamer propagation in air, such as their velocity, transverse size (radius) and the maximum field at the tip, is extremely important, e.g., for the studies of further lightning development and acceleration of electrons at the tip, which may lead to generation of x-rays. Relations between these parameters produce a family of streamer-shaped solutions, while the radius remains undetermined. We hypothesize that all these solutions are, in fact, valid solutions of hydrodynamic equations, but the physical radius emerges when one solution is selected by the condition of being maximally unstable, i.e., having the highest velocity.</p><p>Direct verification of this hypothesis by hydrodynamic simulations is complicated by the fact that the streamer length is one of the background conditions which determine its parameters, and in a propagating streamer the length is constantly changing. To circumvent this, we simulate a `steady-state' streamer, such that its length is kept constant by synchronizing the motion of the electrode to which it is attached. We show that the predicted maximally-unstable selected solution does, in fact, emerge in the infinite time limit of the simulation. We note, however, that we were yet unable to test the first part of the hypothesis, i.e. to produce the non-selected solutions in the predicted family, as they are quickly replaced by the selected one.</p><p>We present the calculated streamer parameter dependence on external uniform field and streamer length for an isolated streamer and streamers propagating parallel to each other. In the latter case, the field of neighboring streamers makes the streamer propagation independent of its length when it exceeds the inter-streamer distance. We draw parallels of this situation to the selected solution for a viscous Saffman-Taylor finger of infinite length in a narrow channel [Luque et al, 2008, doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.78.016206].</p><p>The practical interest of this work lies in reducing the complexity of streamer propagation modeling, by avoiding detailed simulation of the streamer head, if we can calculate the parameters by a simpler algorithm.</p>

Radio emission from fast streamers

<p>A new computational approach, based on treating an electric streamer as a nonlinear instability, allows to determine unambiguously its parameters, for a given streamer length and external electric field, which may be nonuniform. Among the determined parameters are the speed, current and conductivity inside the streamer. These parameters may vary over orders of magnitude, depending on external conditions.</p><p>We use these parameters to calculate the radio emissions which would be observed on the ground from fast discharges produced in lightning, in which streamer velocities approach a significant fraction of the speed of light. Fast discharges play an important role in lightning initiation and may be responsible for production of Terrestrial Gamma Flashes (TGF). They manifest themselves in ground-based radio observations as Narrow Bipolar Events (NBE), to which the calculation results are compared.</p><p>We will discuss conditions, the effect of which on streamer propagation (and therefore electromagnetic radiation) may be quantified with the used computational method. These include (i) the external electric field modification due to charges deposited by previous streamers; and (ii) electron attachment inside the streamer channel, which is strongly affected by cloud humidity.</p>