Quantum lost property: a possible operational meaning for the Hilbert-Schmidt product

Minimum error state discrimination between two mixed states \rho and \sigma can be aided by the receipt of "classical side information" specifying which states from some convex decompositions of \rho and \sigma apply in each run. We quantify this phenomena by the average trace distance, and give lower and upper bounds on this quantity as functions of \rho and \sigma. The lower bound is simply the trace distance between \rho and \sigma, trivially seen to be tight. The upper bound is \sqrt{1 - tr(\rho\sigma)}, and we conjecture that this is also tight. We reformulate this conjecture in terms of the existence of a pair of "unbiased decompositions", which may be of independent interest, and prove it for a few special cases. Finally, we point towards a link with a notion of non-classicality known as preparation contextuality.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure. v2: Less typos in text and less punctuation in titl

Marine crude-oil biodegradation: a central role for interspecies interactions

The marine environment is highly susceptible to pollution by petroleum, and so it is important to understand how microorganisms degrade hydrocarbons, and thereby mitigate ecosystem damage. Our understanding about the ecology, physiology, biochemistry and genetics of oil-degrading bacteria and fungi has increased greatly in recent decades; however, individual populations of microbes do not function alone in nature. The diverse array of hydrocarbons present in crude oil requires resource partitioning by microbial populations, and microbial modification of oil components and the surrounding environment will lead to temporal succession. But even when just one type of hydrocarbon is present, a network of direct and indirect interactions within and between species is observed. In this review we consider competition for resources, but focus on some of the key cooperative interactions: consumption of metabolites, biosurfactant production, provision of oxygen and fixed nitrogen. The emphasis is largely on aerobic processes, and especially interactions between bacteria, fungi and microalgae. The self-construction of a functioning community is central to microbial success, and learning how such " microbial modules" interact will be pivotal to enhancing biotechnological processes, including the bioremediation of hydrocarbons. © 2012 McGenity et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

The Hot Topic Community: Videoconferencing to reduce the professional isolation of teachers in rural Western Australia

Access to quality professional learning and the opportunity to collaborate with other educators can be limited for teachers in rural and remote areas of Western Australia. A recognised need to enhance the skills of rural teaching professionals and encourage teachers in small communities to join collegial networks was established by the members of several professional organisations. A working group consisting of representatives from the Australian College of Educators-WA (ACE-WA), the Rural and Remote Education Advisory Council (RREAC), the Society for the Provision of Education in Rural Australia (SPERA) and the School of Isolated and Distance Education (SIDE) provided teachers in rural areas with the opportunity to reduce professional isolation through the provision of relevant, convenient, and cost effective in-service education. Through a videoconferencing system, accessed within the Western Australian Telecentre Network and other educational organisations, the audience connected and participated with the presenter and studio based audience for two Hot Topics Seminars in 2008. This paper reports on the challenges and successes encountered by the working group and the findings of the research conducted throughout 2008

Extremely Halophilic Archaeal Communities are Resilient to Short‐Term Entombment in Halite

Some haloarchaea avoid the harsh conditions present in evaporating brines by entombment in brine inclusions within forming halite crystals, where a subset of haloarchaea survives over geological time. However, shifts in the community structure of halite‐entombed archaeal communities remain poorly understood. Therefore, we analysed archaeal communities from in situ hypersaline brines collected from Trapani saltern (Sicily) and their successional changes in brines versus laboratory‐grown halite over 21 weeks, using high‐throughput sequencing. Haloarchaea were dominant, comprising >95% of the archaeal community. Unexpectedly, the OTU richness of the communities after 21 weeks was indistinguishable from the parent brine and overall archaeal abundance in halite showed no clear temporal trends. Furthermore, the duration of entombment was less important than the parent brine from which the halite derived in determining the community composition and relative abundances of most genera in halite‐entombed communities. These results show that halite‐entombed archaeal communities are resilient to entombment durations of up to 21 weeks, and that entombment in halite may be an effective survival strategy for near complete communities of haloarchaea. Additionally, the dominance of ‘halite specialists’ observed in ancient halite must occur over periods of years, rather than months, hinting at long‐term successional dynamics in this environment

Supplementing Rumen Undegradable Protein to Grazing Cattle

A pooled-analysis of previous Nebraska Beef Report Articles examined the impact of rumen undegradable protein (RUP) supplementation for cattle grazing different types of forage. Each lb of RUP supplement increased ADG by 0.63 lb/d when cattle were grazing smooth brome and 0.43 lb/d when grazing warm season grasses. Cattle did not respond to RUP when grazing summer annuals which were high (18.2%) in CP

Cadmium hyperaccumulation protects Thlaspi caerulescens from leaf feeding damage by thrips (Frankliniella occidentalis)

Metal hyperaccumulation has been proposed as a plant defensive strategy. Here, we investigated whether cadmium (Cd) hyperaccumulation protected Thlaspi caerulescens from leaf feeding damage by thrips (Frankliniella occidentalis). Two ecotypes differing in Cd accumulation, Ganges (high) and Prayon (low), were grown in compost amended with 0-1000 mg Cd kg(-1) in two experiments under glasshouse conditions. F-2 and F-3 plants from the Prayon x Ganges crosses were grown with 5 mg Cd kg(-1). Plants were naturally colonized by thrips and the leaf feeding damage index (LFDI) was assessed. The LFDI decreased significantly with increasing Cd in both ecotypes, and correlated with shoot Cd concentration in a log-linear fashion. Prayon was more attractive to thrips than Ganges, but the ecotypic difference in the LFDI was largely accounted for by the shoot Cd concentration. In the F-2 and F-3 plants, the LFDI correlated significantly and negatively with shoot Cd, but not with shoot zinc (Zn) or sulphur (S) concentrations. We conclude that Cd hyperaccumulation deters thrips from feeding on T. caerulescens leaves, which may offer an adaptive benefit to the plant

Diversity of Bacillus-like organisms isolated from deep-sea hypersaline anoxic sediments

Abstract Background The deep-sea, hypersaline anoxic brine lakes in the Mediterranean are among the most extreme environments on earth, and in one of them, the MgCl2-rich Discovery basin, the presence of active microbes is equivocal. However, thriving microbial communities have been detected especially in the chemocline between deep seawater and three NaCl-rich brine lakes, l'Atalante, Bannock and Urania. By contrast, the microbiota of these brine-lake sediments remains largely unexplored. Results Eighty nine isolates were obtained from the sediments of four deep-sea, hypersaline anoxic brine lakes in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea: l'Atalante, Bannock, Discovery and Urania basins. This culture collection was dominated by representatives of the genus Bacillus and close relatives (90% of all isolates) that were investigated further. Physiological characterization of representative strains revealed large versatility with respect to enzyme activities or substrate utilization. Two third of the isolates did not grow at in-situ salinities and were presumably present as endospores. This is supported by high numbers of endospores in Bannock, Discovery and Urania basins ranging from 3.8 × 105 to 1.2 × 106 g-1 dw sediment. However, the remaining isolates were highly halotolerant growing at salinities of up to 30% NaCl. Some of the novel isolates affiliating with the genus Pontibacillus grew well under anoxic conditions in sulfidic medium by fermentation or anaerobic respiration using dimethylsulfoxide or trimethylamine N-oxide as electron acceptor. Conclusion Some of the halophilic, facultatively anaerobic relatives of Bacillus appear well adapted to life in this hostile environment and suggest the presence of actively growing microbial communities in the NaCl-rich, deep-sea brine-lake sediments. </jats:sec

Cryptic microbial hydrocarbon cycling.

Cyanobacteria, which produce ~25% of global oxygen, also release around 100 times more hydrocarbons into the ocean than all petroleum sources. A cryptic microbial cycle explains why these hydrocarbons do not accumulate in the sea

Effect of Ad libitum Feeding of Gilt Developer Diets Differing in Standard Ileal Digestive Lysine Concentrations on Growth Traits

An experiment was conducted to determine the optimum dietary lysine concentration for optimum growth rate of replacement gilts during the growing-finishing period. A total of 2,960 gilts (Large White x Landrace), 42.3±7.0 kg average BW were allotted to randomized completely block design (RCBD). Three grower and finisher diets were formulated to contain low lysine (0.68 and 0.52% standard ileal digestible (SID) lysine), medium lysine (0.79 and 0.60% SID lysine), and high lysine (0.90 and 0.68 % SID lysine) at data recording day (142, 160 and 200 d of age). Covariate of body weight at 100 days was included in the models and it had significant influence on growth traits (P \u3c 0.05). Gilts fed the high lysine treatment had increased body weight (BW), flank-to-flank, backfat thickness, loin depth, fat-free-lean, and average daily gain (ADG) (P \u3c 0.05) when compared to gilts fed the medium and low lysine treatments. The results indicated that gilts require higher dietary lysine concentrations to maximize growth rate and high lysine diet may useful to impact growth traits when fed to developing gilt from 142 to 200 kg BW

Confined Cow-Calf Production System and Post-Weaning Management Impact on Calf Production

Calf performance was measured in a 3-yr study with a 2 × 2 factorial treatment design: 1) cow-calf production system (dry lot feeding or grazing corn residue) and 2) directly finishing calves or growing prior to finishing. Calves wintered on cornstalks were lighter at weaning than calves wintered in the dry-lot. However, following the finishing period, there were no effects of pre-weaning production system on final body weight or hot carcass weight. Calves directly adapted to a finishing diet had greater gain and improved efficiency compared to calves fed a grower diet prior to finishing. However, calves that were grown first produced 51 lb greater hot carcass weight. Directly finishing calves resulted in greater net profit as the extra hot carcass weight did not offset the cost of the additional 49 days in the feedlot. Wintering cows with calves on cornstalks instead of in a dry-lot resulted in lighter calves, but calves compensated in the feedlot