Actions speak louder than words: designing transdisciplinary approaches to enact solutions

Sustainability science uses a transdisciplinary research process in which academic and non-academic partners collaborate to identify a common problem and co-produce knowledge to develop more sustainable solutions. Sustainability scientists have advanced the theory and practice of facilitating collaborative efforts such that the knowledge created is usable. There has been less emphasis, however, on the last step of the transdisciplinary process: enacting solutions. We analyzed a case study of a transdisciplinary research effort in which co-produced policy simulation information shaped the creation of a new policy mechanism. More specifically, by studying the development of a mechanism for conserving vernal pool ecosystems, we found that four factors helped overcome common challenges to acting upon new information: creating a culture of learning, co-producing policy simulations that acted as boundary objects, integrating research into solution development, and employing an adaptive management approach. With an increased focus on these four factors that enable action, we can better develop the same level of nuanced theoretical concepts currently characterizing the earlier phases of transdisciplinary research, and the practical advice for deliberately designing these efforts

The generalized Kochen-Specker theorem

A proof of the generalized Kochen-Specker theorem in two dimensions due to Cabello and Nakamura is extended to all higher dimensions. A set of 18 states in four dimensions is used to give closely related proofs of the generalized Kochen-Specker, Kochen-Specker and Bell theorems that shed some light on the relationship between these three theorems.Comment: 5 pages, 1 Table. A new third paragraph and an additional reference have been adde

Alcohol and healthy ageing: a challenge for alcohol policy

Objectives: This paper presents findings of a qualitative study of older people's use of alcohol during retirement and identifies ways that an improved understanding of older people's drinking can inform policy approaches to alcohol and active and healthy ageing. Study design: Qualitative semi-structured interviews conducted with a self-selecting sample of retired people. Methods: Participants were recruited from three geographical locations in the West of Scotland. A quota sampling design was used to ensure a broad spread of participants in terms of socio-economic position, age and gender. In total 40 participants were interviewed and the data analysed thematically using Braun and Clarke's (2006) approach. Results: Amongst those who used alcohol, it was most often framed in terms of pleasure, relaxation, socialising and as a way to mark the passage of time. Alcohol was often associated with social occasions and interactions both in private and in public spaces. There were also many examples of the use of imposed routines to limit alcohol use and of a decreasing volume of alcohol being consumed as participants aged. This suggests that older people are often active in constructing what they regard as ‘healthier’ routines around alcohol use. However, processes and circumstances associated with ageing can lead to risk of social isolation and/or increased alcohol consumption. Such processes include retirement from paid work and other ‘biographical disruptions’ such as caring for a partner, bereavement and/or loss of social networks. Conclusions: These findings highlight processes that can result in changes in drinking habits and routines. Whilst these processes can be associated with a reduction or cessation of alcohol use as people age, they can also be associated with increased risk of harmful alcohol consumption. Fractured or disrupted routines, particularly those associated with bereavement or the burden of caring responsibilities, through increasing the risk of loneliness and isolation, can construct increased risk of harmful alcohol consumption. These findings reframe the pathway of risk between ageing and alcohol-related harm by highlighting the vulnerability to harmful drinking practices brought by fracture or sudden change of routine. The findings point to a role for public health in supporting the reconstruction of routines that provide structure and meaning and can be used to actively manage the benefits and harms associated with drinking

Turning Contention into Collaboration: Engaging Power, Trust, and Learning in Collaborative Networks

Given the complexity and multiplicity of goals in natural resource governance, it is not surprising that policy debates are often characterized by contention and competition. Yet at times adversaries join together to collaborate to find creative solutions not easily achieved in polarizing forums. We employed qualitative interviews and a quantitative network analysis to investigate a collaborative network that formed to develop a resolution to a challenging natural resource management problem, the conservation of vernal pools. We found that power had become distributed among members, trust had formed across core interests, and social learning had resulted in shared understanding and joint solutions. Furthermore, institutions such as who and when new members joined, norms of inclusion and openness, and the use of small working groups helped create the observed patterns of power, trust, and learning

Quantum Preferred Frame: Does It Really Exist?

The idea of the preferred frame as a remedy for difficulties of the relativistic quantum mechanics in description of the non-local quantum phenomena was undertaken by such physicists as J. S. Bell and D. Bohm. The possibility of the existence of preferred frame was also seriously treated by P. A. M. Dirac. In this paper, we propose an Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen-type experiment for testing the possible existence of a quantum preferred frame. Our analysis suggests that to verify whether a preferred frame of reference in the quantum world exists it is enough to perform an EPR type experiment with pair of observers staying in the same inertial frame and with use of the massive EPR pair of spin one-half or spin one particles.Comment: 5 pp., 6 fig

Discrete Wigner functions and quantum computational speedup

In [Phys. Rev. A 70, 062101 (2004)] Gibbons et al. defined a class of discrete Wigner functions W to represent quantum states in a finite Hilbert space dimension d. I characterize a set C_d of states having non-negative W simultaneously in all definitions of W in this class. For d<6 I show C_d is the convex hull of stabilizer states. This supports the conjecture that negativity of W is necessary for exponential speedup in pure-state quantum computation.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, RevTeX. v2: clarified discussion on dynamics, added refs., published versio

Short range correlations in relativistic nuclear matter models

Short range correlations are introduced using unitary correlation method in a relativistic approach to the equation of state of the infinite nuclear matter in the framework of the Hartree-Fock approximation. It is shown that the correlations give rise to an extra node in the ground-state wave-function in the nucleons, contrary to what happens in non-relativistic calculations with a hard core. The effect of the correlations in the ground state properties of the nuclear matter and neutron matter is studied. The nucleon effective mass and equation of state (EOS) are very sensitive to short range correlations. In particular, if the pion contact term is neglected a softening of the EOS is predicted. Correlations have also an important effect on the neutron matter EOS which presents no binding but only a very shallow minimum contrary to the Walecka model.Comment: 8pages, 4 figure

A Meaner King uses Biased Bases

The mean king problem is a quantum mechanical retrodiction problem, in which Alice has to name the outcome of an ideal measurement on a d-dimensional quantum system, made in one of (d+1) orthonormal bases, unknown to Alice at the time of the measurement. Alice has to make this retrodiction on the basis of the classical outcomes of a suitable control measurement including an entangled copy. We show that the existence of a strategy for Alice is equivalent to the existence of an overall joint probability distribution for (d+1) random variables, whose marginal pair distributions are fixed as the transition probability matrices of the given bases. In particular, for d=2 the problem is decided by John Bell's classic inequality for three dichotomic variables. For mutually unbiased bases in any dimension Alice has a strategy, but for randomly chosen bases the probability for that goes rapidly to zero with increasing d.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur

Implementation of the 64-meter-diameter Antennas at the Deep Space Stations in Australia and Spain

The management and construction aspects of the Overseas 64-m Antenna Project in which two 64-m antennas were constructed at the Tidbinbilla Deep Space Communications Complex in Australia, and at the Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex in Spain are described. With the completion of these antennas the Deep Space Network is equipped with three 64-m antennas spaced around the world to maintain continuous coverage of spacecraft operations. These antennas provide approximately a 7-db gain over the capabilities of the existing 26-m antenna nets. The report outlines the project organization and management, resource utilization, fabrication, quality assurance, and construction methods by which the project was successfully completed. Major problems and their solutions are described as well as recommendations for future projects

Full characterization of a three-photon GHZ state using quantum state tomography

We have performed the first experimental tomographic reconstruction of a three-photon polarization state. Quantum state tomography is a powerful tool for fully describing the density matrix of a quantum system. We measured 64 three-photon polarization correlations and used a "maximum-likelihood" reconstruction method to reconstruct the GHZ state. The entanglement class has been characterized using an entanglement witness operator and the maximum predicted values for the Mermin inequality was extracted.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figure