Patents and Competition in the Automobile Industry

Methane (CH4) fluxes from world rivers are still poorly constrained, with measurements restricted mainly to temperate climates. Additional river flux measurements, including spatio-temporal studies, are important to refine extrapolations. Here we assess the spatio-temporal variability of CH4 fluxes from the Amazon and its main tributaries, the Negro, Solimoes, Madeira, Tapajos, Xingu, and Para Rivers, based on direct measurements using floating chambers. Sixteen of 34 sites were measured during low and high water seasons. Significant differences were observed within sites in the same river and among different rivers, types of rivers, and seasons. Ebullition contributed to more than 50% of total emissions for some rivers. Considering only river channels, our data indicate that large rivers in the Amazon Basin release between 0.40 and 0.58 Tg CH4 yr(-1). Thus, our estimates of CH4 flux from all tropical rivers and rivers globally were, respectively, 19-51% to 31-84% higher than previous estimates, with large rivers of the Amazon accounting for 22-28% of global river CH4 emissions.Funding Agencies|FAPESP [08/58089-9, 2011/06609-1, 2011/14502-2, 2012/17359-9]</p

Measuring the purity of a qubit state: entanglement estimation with fully separable measurements

Given a finite number $N$ of copies of a qubit state we compute the maximum fidelity that can be attained using joint-measurement protocols for estimating its purity. We prove that in the asymptotic $N\to\infty$ limit, separable-measurement protocols can be as efficient as the optimal joint-measurement one if classical communication is used. This in turn shows that the optimal estimation of the entanglement of a two-qubit state can also be achieved asymptotically with fully separable measurements. The relationship between our global Bayesian approach and the quantum Cramer-Rao bound is also discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, RevTeX, improved versio

Theoretical study of the HS (v',,j' = 1) + O2;(v''=0,j''=1) reaction

We report a theoretical study of the title four-atom reaction for a wide range of translational energies, considering the reactants in the ground vibrational state and also in some vibrationally excited levels of the HS radical. All calculations have employed the quasi-classical trajectory (QCT) method and a reported double many-body expansion potential energy surface for ground electronic state of HSO2. Cross sections as well as specific rate constants for HS elimination are reported and compared with literature data for such processes. To account the zero-point energy problem in QCT calculations, an internal energy quantum mechanics threshold (IEQMT) criteria is used. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 200

Analysis of a convenient information bound for general quantum channels

Open questions from Sarovar and Milburn (2006 J.Phys. A: Math. Gen. 39 8487) are answered. Sarovar and Milburn derived a convenient upper bound for the Fisher information of a one-parameter quantum channel. They showed that for quasi-classical models their bound is achievable and they gave a necessary and sufficient condition for positive operator-valued measures (POVMs) attaining this bound. They asked (i) whether their bound is attainable more generally, (ii) whether explicit expressions for optimal POVMs can be derived from the attainability condition. We show that the symmetric logarithmic derivative (SLD) quantum information is less than or equal to the SM bound, i.e.\ $H(\theta) \leq C_{\Upsilon}(\theta)$ and we find conditions for equality. As the Fisher information is less than or equal to the SLD quantum information, i.e. $F_M(\theta) \leq H(\theta)$, we can deduce when equality holds in $F_M(\theta) \leq C_{\Upsilon}(\theta)$. Equality does not hold for all channels. As a consequence, the attainability condition cannot be used to test for optimal POVMs for all channels. These results are extended to multi-parameter channels.Comment: 16 pages. Published version. Some of the lemmas have been corrected. New resuts have been added. Proofs are more rigorou

Genome-wide association study for feed efficiency in collective cage-raised rabbits under full and restricted feeding

Feed efficiency (FE) is one of the most economically and environmentally relevant traits in the animal production sector. The objective of this study was to gain knowledge about the genetic control of FE in rabbits. To this end, GWASs were conducted for individual growth under two feeding regimes (full feeding and restricted) and FE traits collected from cage groups, using 114 604 autosome SNPs segregating in 438 rabbits. Two different models were implemented: (1) an animal model with a linear regression on each SNP allele for growth trait; and (2) a two‐trait animal model, jointly fitting the performance trait and each SNP allele content, for FE traits. This last modeling strategy is a new tool applied to GWAS and allows information to be considered from non‐genotyped individuals whose contribution is relevant in the group average traits. A total of 189 SNPs in 17 chromosomal regions were declared to be significantly associated with any of the five analyzed traits at a chromosome‐wide level. In 12 of these regions, 20 candidate genes were proposed to explain the variation of the analyzed traits, including genes such as FTO, NDUFAF6 and CEBPA previously associated with growth and FE traits in monogastric species. Candidate genes associated with behavioral patterns were also identified. Overall, our results can be considered as the foundation for future functional research to unravel the actual causal mutations regulating growth and FE in rabbits.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Can we identify non-stationary dynamics of trial-to-trial variability?"

Identifying sources of the apparent variability in non-stationary scenarios is a fundamental problem in many biological data analysis settings. For instance, neurophysiological responses to the same task often vary from each repetition of the same experiment (trial) to the next. The origin and functional role of this observed variability is one of the fundamental questions in neuroscience. The nature of such trial-to-trial dynamics however remains largely elusive to current data analysis approaches. A range of strategies have been proposed in modalities such as electro-encephalography but gaining a fundamental insight into latent sources of trial-to-trial variability in neural recordings is still a major challenge. In this paper, we present a proof-of-concept study to the analysis of trial-to-trial variability dynamics founded on non-autonomous dynamical systems. At this initial stage, we evaluate the capacity of a simple statistic based on the behaviour of trajectories in classification settings, the trajectory coherence, in order to identify trial-to-trial dynamics. First, we derive the conditions leading to observable changes in datasets generated by a compact dynamical system (the Duffing equation). This canonical system plays the role of a ubiquitous model of non-stationary supervised classification problems. Second, we estimate the coherence of class-trajectories in empirically reconstructed space of system states. We show how this analysis can discern variations attributable to non-autonomous deterministic processes from stochastic fluctuations. The analyses are benchmarked using simulated and two different real datasets which have been shown to exhibit attractor dynamics. As an illustrative example, we focused on the analysis of the rat's frontal cortex ensemble dynamics during a decision-making task. Results suggest that, in line with recent hypotheses, rather than internal noise, it is the deterministic trend which most likely underlies the observed trial-to-trial variability. Thus, the empirical tool developed within this study potentially allows us to infer the source of variability in in-vivo neural recordings

A note on a result of Guo and Isaacs about p-supersolubility of finite groups

In this note, global information about a finite group is obtained by assuming that certain subgroups of some given order are S-semipermutable. Recall that a subgroup H of a finite group G is said to be S-semipermutable if H permutes with all Sylow subgroups of G of order coprime to |H|. We prove that for a fixed prime p, a given Sylow p-subgroup P of a finite group G, and a power d of p dividing |G| such that 1≤dd . This extends the main result of Guo and Isaacs in (Arch. Math. 105:215-222 2015). We derive some theorems that extend some known results concerning S-semipermutable subgroups

Characterization of the Hamamatsu S8664 Avalanche Photodiode for X-Ray and VUV-light detection

We present the first operation of the Avalanche Photodiode (APD) from Hamamatsu to xenon scintillation light and to direct X-rays of 22.1 keV and 5.9 keV. A large non-linear response was observed for the direct X-ray detection. At 415 V APD bias voltage it was of about 30 % for 22.1 keV and about 45 % for 5.9 keV. The quantum efficiency for 172 nm photons has been measured to be 69 +/- 15 %.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Elsevie

On a graph related to permutability in finite groups

This paper has been published in Annali di Matematica Pura ed Applicata. Series IV, 189(4):567-570 (2010). Copyright 2010 by Springer-Verlag. The final publication is available at www.springerlink.com. http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10231-009-0124-7 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10231-009-0124-7For a finite group G we define the graph $\Gamma(G)$ to be the graph whose vertices are the conjugacy classes of cyclic subgroups of G and two conjugacy classes $\{\mathcal {A}, \mathcal {B}\}$ are joined by an edge if for some $\{A \in \mathcal {A},\, B \in \mathcal {B}\, A\}$ and B permute. We characterise those groups G for which $\Gamma(G)$ is complete.This paper has been suported by the research grants MTM2007-68010-C03-02 from MEC (Spain) and FEDER (European Union) and GV/2007/243 from Generalitat (Valencian Community).http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10231-009-0124-7Ballester Bolinches, A.; Cossey, J.; Esteban Romero, R. (2010). On a graph related to permutability in finite groups. Annali di Matematica Pura ed Applicata. 4(189). doi:10.1007/s10231-009-0124-74189Abe S., Iiyori N.: A generalization of prime graphs of finite groups. Hokkaido Math. J. 29(2), 391–407 (2000)Agrawal R.K.: Finite groups whose subnormal subgroups permute with all Sylow subgroups. Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 47(1), 77–83 (1975)Alejandre M.J., Ballester-Bolinches A., Pedraza-Aguilera M.C.: Finite soluble groups with permutable subnormal subgroups. J. Algebra 240(2), 705–722 (2001)Ballester-Bolinches A., Esteban-Romero R.: Sylow permutable subnormal subgroups of finite groups. J. Algebra 251(2), 727–738 (2002)Cooper C.D.H.: Power automorphisms of a group. Math. Z. 107, 335–356 (1968)Herzog M., Longobardi P., Maj M.: On a commuting graph on conjugacy classes of groups. Commun. Algebra 37(10), 3369–3387 (2009)Huppert B.: Endliche Gruppen I, vol. 134 of Grund. Math. Wiss. Springer, Berlin (1967)Longobardi P.: Gruppi finite a fattoriali modulari. Note Math. II, 73–100 (1982)Neumann B.: A problem of Paul Erdős on groups. J. Austral. Math. Soc. Ser. A 21, 467–472 (1976)Ore O.: Contributions to the theory of groups of finite order. Duke Math. J. 5, 431–460 (1939)Schmidt R.: Subgroup lattices of groups. De Gruyter Expositions in Mathematics, vol. 14. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin (1994)Zacher G.: I gruppi risolubli finiti in cui i sottogruppi di composizione coincidono con i sottogrupi quasi-normali. Atti Accad. Naz. Lincei Rend. cl. Sci. Fis. Mat. Natur. 37(8), 150–154 (1964