High-voltage spark carbon-fiber sticky-tape data analyzer

An efficient method for detecting carbon fibers collected on a stick tape monitor was developed. The fibers were released from a simulated crash fire situation containing carbon fiber composite material. The method utilized the ability of the fiber to initiate a spark across a set of alternately biased high voltage electrodes to electronically count the number of fiber fragments collected on the tape. It was found that the spark, which contains high energy and is of very short duration, is capable of partially damaging or consuming the fiber fragments. It also creates a mechanical disturbance which ejects the fiber from the grid. Both characteristics were helpful in establishing a single discharge pulse for each fiber segment

Design and analysis of a wire-driven flexible manipulator for bronchoscopic interventions

Bronchoscopic interventions are widely performed for the diagnosis and treatment of lung diseases. However, for most endobronchial devices, the lack of a bendable tip restricts their access ability to get into distal bronchi with complex bifurcations. This paper presents the design of a new wire-driven continuum manipulator to help guide these devices. The proposed manipulator is built by assembling miniaturized blocks that are featured with interlocking circular joints. It has the capability of maintaining its integrity when the lengths of actuation wires change due to the shaft flex. It allows the existence of a relatively large central cavity to pass through other instruments and enables two rotational degrees of freedom. All these features make it suitable for procedures where tubular anatomies are involved and the flexible shafts have to be considerably bent in usage, just like bronchoscopic interventions. A kinematic model is built to estimate the relationship between the translations of actuation wires and the manipulator tip position. A scale-up model is produced for evaluation experiments and the results validate the performance of the proposed mechanism

Light Reflectance Characteristics and Remote Sensing of Waterlettuce

Waterlettuce ( Pistia stratiotes L.) is a free-floating exotic aquatic weed that often invades and clogs waterways in the southeastern United States. A study was conducted to evaluate the potential of using remote sensing technology to distinguish infestations of waterlettuce in Texas waterways. Field reflectance measurements showed that waterlettuce had higher visible green reflectance than associated plant species. Waterlettuce could be detected in both aerial color- infrared (CIR) photography and videography where it had light pink to pinkish-white image tonal responses. Computer analysis of CIR photographic and videographic images had overall accuracy assessments of 86% and 84%, respectively. (PDF contains 6 pages.

Quantum steering of electron wave function in an InAs Y-branch switch

We report experiments on gated Y-branch switches made from InAs ballistic electron wave guides. We demonstrate that gating modifies the electron wave functions as well as their interference pattern, causing the anti-correlated, oscillatory transconductances. Such previously unexpected phenomenon provides evidence of steering the electron wave function in a multi-channel transistor structure.Comment: 15 pages, including 3 figure

Efecto del estrés producido por la mezcla de sales en la concentración de aldehído malónico, proteínas y enzimas antioxidantes de Leymus chinensis de tres colores foliares diferentes

The mixed salt stress is common in nature. Salt stressalways affects plant growth. Different plant species have different adaptive capacity to salty soil. Leymus chinensis is an herbaceous plant with different leaf colors. However, little research was conducted to explore the different tolerance mechanisms to salt stress among the three different leaf colour genotypes of Leymus chinensis (grey green, transitional color, yellow green). Pot experiments for Leymus chinensis in three leaf colors were conducted under mixed salt treatments in 2010. Malondialdehyde (MDA) and protein concentrations, and the activity of various antioxidant enzymes [i.e., superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), glutathione reductase (GR), dehydroascorbate reductase (DHAR) and monodehydroascorbate reductase (MDHAR)] were determined and compared among the three leaf color genotypes of Leymus chinensis. The concentrations of MDA and protein, and the activity of antioxidant enzymes showed an increasing trend with increasing pHs in almost all three leaf colors, and all of them became highest when salt stress and pH values were also highest. Moreover, antioxidant enzymes were the highest in the grey-green leaf color, and the lowest in the yellow green leaf color after exposure to the same pH treatment. The results suggested that all three leaf colors of Leymus chinensis were tolerant to salt stress, and the salt-tolerance declined according to the order of grey green > transitional color > yellow green of Leymus chinensis. This study can give us a better understanding of the intra-species adaptation to mixed salt soils.El estrés causado por mezcla de sales en el suelo es común en la naturaleza. El estrés salino siempre afecta el crecimiento de las plantas. Plantas de especies diferentes difieren en su capacidad de adaptación al estrés por sales en el suelo. Leymus chinensis es una planta herbácea con diferentes colores foliares. Sin embargo, se han conducido pocos estudios tendientes a determinar los diferentes mecanismos de tolerancia al estrés salino entre los tres genotipos de color foliar diferente de L. chinensis (grisáceo verdoso, color intermedio, amarillo verdoso). En 2010, se condujeron experimentos en macetas usando genotipos de L. chinensis de tres colores diferentes de hoja expuestos o no a tratamientos conteniendo una mezcla de sales. Las concentraciones de aldehído malónico (MDA) y proteínas, y la actividad de varias enzimas antioxidantes [es decir, la superóxido dismutasa (SOD), catalasa (CAT), ascórbico peroxidasa (APX), glutatión reductasa (GR), dehidroascórbico reductasa (DHAR) y monodehidroascórbico reductasa (MDHAR)] se determinaron y compararon entre los tres genotipos de color foliar diferente de L. chinensis. Las concentraciones de MDA y proteínas, y la actividad de enzimas antioxidantes mostraron una tendencia a incrementarse a mayores pHs en casi todos los colores foliares, y las tendencias en los tres colores foliares alcanzaron su punto máximo cuando el estrés salino y los valores de pH fueron máximos. Más aún, las concentraciones de las enzimas antioxidantes fueron las más altas en el color grisáceo verdoso, intermedias en el color intermedio, y las más bajas en el color amarillo verdoso después de la exposición al mismo tratamiento de pH. Los resultados sugirieron que los genotipos de los tres colores foliares de L. chinensis fueros tolerantes al estrés salino, y la tolerancia a la sal declinó de acuerdo al orden grisáceo verdoso > color intermedio > amarillo verdoso de L. chinensis. Este estudio puede proveer un mejor entendimiento de la adaptación intraespecífica de L. chinensis a suelos salinos.Fil: Zhou, C.. Chinese Academy of Science; China. Liaoning University; ChinaFil: Busso, Carlos Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Centro de Recursos Naturales Renovables de la Zona Semiárida. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Centro de Recursos Naturales Renovables de la Zona Semiárida; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Agronomía; ArgentinaFil: Yang, Y. G.. Liaoning University; ChinaFil: Zhang, Z.. Shenyang University; ChinaFil: Wang, Z. W.. Chinese Academy of Science; ChinaFil: Yang, Y. F.. Northeast Normal University; ChinaFil: Han, X. G.. Chinese Academy of Science; Chin

Entangled inputs cannot make imperfect quantum channels perfect

Entangled inputs can enhance the capacity of quantum channels, this being one of the consequences of the celebrated result showing the non-additivity of several quantities relevant for quantum information science. In this work, we answer the converse question (whether entangled inputs can ever render noisy quantum channels have maximum capacity) to the negative: No sophisticated entangled input of any quantum channel can ever enhance the capacity to the maximum possible value; a result that holds true for all channels both for the classical as well as the quantum capacity. This result can hence be seen as a bound as to how "non-additive quantum information can be". As a main result, we find first practical and remarkably simple computable single-shot bounds to capacities, related to entanglement measures. As examples, we discuss the qubit amplitude damping and identify the first meaningful bound for its classical capacity.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, an error in the argument on the quantum capacity corrected, version to be published in the Physical Review Letter

Universal Control of Nuclear Spins Via Anisotropic Hyperfine Interactions

We show that nuclear spin subsystems can be completely controlled via microwave irradiation of resolved anisotropic hyperfine interactions with a nearby electron spin. Such indirect addressing of the nuclear spins via coupling to an electron allows us to create nuclear spin gates whose operational time is significantly faster than conventional direct addressing methods. We experimentally demonstrate the feasibility of this method on a solid-state ensemble system consisting of one electron and one nuclear spin.Comment: RevTeX4, 8 pages, 8 figure