8,720 research outputs found
Hydrothermal activity lowers trophic diversity in Antarctic sedimented hydrothermal vents
Sedimented hydrothermal vents are those in which hydrothermal fluid vents through sediment and are among the least studied deep-sea ecosystems. We present a combination of microbial and biochemical data to assess trophodynamics between and within hydrothermally active and off-vent areas of the Bransfield Strait (1050–1647 m depth). Microbial composition, biomass and fatty acid signatures varied widely between and within vent and non-vent sites and provided evidence of diverse metabolic activity. Several species showed diverse feeding strategies and occupied different trophic positions in vent and non-vent areas and stable isotope values of consumers were generally not consistent with feeding structure morphology. Niche area and the diversity of microbial fatty acids reflected trends in species diversity and was lowest at the most hydrothermally active site. Faunal utilisation of chemosynthetic activity was relatively limited but was detected at both vent and non-vent sites as evidenced by carbon and sulphur isotopic signatures, suggesting that the hydrothermal activity can affect trophodynamics over a much wider area than previously thought
Time Dependent Development of the Coulomb Gap
We show that the time development of the Coulomb gap in a Coulomb glass can
involve very long relaxation times due to electron rearrangement and hopping.
We find that an applied magnetic field reduces the rate of electron hopping
and, hence, Coulomb gap formation. These results are consistent with recent
conductance experiments on thin semiconducting and metallic films.Comment: 4 pages, Latex, 3 encapsulated postscript figure
Structure and dynamics of colloidal depletion gels: coincidence of transitions and heterogeneity
Transitions in structural heterogeneity of colloidal depletion gels formed
through short-range attractive interactions are correlated with their dynamical
arrest. The system is a density and refractive index matched suspension of 0.20
volume fraction poly(methyl methacyrlate) colloids with the non-adsorbing
depletant polystyrene added at a size ratio of depletant to colloid of 0.043.
As the strength of the short-range attractive interaction is increased,
clusters become increasingly structurally heterogeneous, as characterized by
number-density fluctuations, and dynamically immobilized, as characterized by
the single-particle mean-squared displacement. The number of free colloids in
the suspension also progressively declines. As an immobile cluster to gel
transition is traversed, structural heterogeneity abruptly decreases.
Simultaneously, the mean single-particle dynamics saturates at a localization
length on the order of the short-range attractive potential range. Both
immobile cluster and gel regimes show dynamical heterogeneity. Non-Gaussian
distributions of single particle displacements reveal enhanced populations of
dynamical trajectories localized on two different length scales. Similar
dependencies of number density fluctuations, free particle number and dynamical
length scales on the order of the range of short-range attraction suggests a
collective structural origin of dynamic heterogeneity in colloidal gels.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figure
Managing Networks for School Improvement: Seven Lessons from the Field
In recent decades, new networks for school improvement (NSI) have proliferated across the country. These emerging organizational structures present education leaders with an opportunity to build dynamic infrastructures to engage schools in improvements to teaching and learning. NSI are diverse. Some NSI are part of school districts, while others are contracted by school districts to design blueprints for school improvement. What all NSI have in common is a central hub supporting a set of member schools, like the center of a wheel and its spokes.
In this guidebook, we focus on common lessons for designing improvement infrastructures from the perspective of leaders across four different types of networks, including: Local district superintendents who support schools in a particular geographic area; Field support centers, which partner with district superintendents in the intermediary space between the central office and schools; Affinity organizations, which are independent non-profit organizations that work under contract from the central district office to support a select group of district schools; and Charter school management organizations that operate outside the district, supporting their affiliated member schools.
Our aim was to better understand how NSI were responding to the increased demands of recent shifts to more rigorous college- and career-ready standards. These seven lessons emerged from interviews with central office administrators overseeing NSI and staff working in network hubs, as well as from observations of professional learning (PL) sessions provided by hubs. We hope these lessons are useful to your work improving teaching and learning in your school, network, or district
Step-Wise Computational Synthesis of Fullerene C60 derivatives. 1.Fluorinated Fullerenes C60F2k
The reactions of fullerene C60 with atomic fluorine have been studied by
unrestricted broken spin-symmetry Hartree-Fock (UBS HF) approach implemented in
semiempirical codes based on AM1 technique. The calculations were focused on a
sequential addition of fluorine atom to the fullerene cage following indication
of the cage atom highest chemical susceptibility that is calculated at each
step. The effectively-non-paired-electron concept of the fullerene atoms
chemical susceptibility lays the foundation of the suggested computational
synthesis. The obtained results are analyzed from energetic, symmetry, and the
composition abundance viewpoints. A good fitting of the data to experimental
findings proves a creative role of the suggested synthesis methodology.Comment: 33 pages, 11 figures, 2 tables, 2 chart
A conceptual design for the Thirty Meter Telescope adaptive optics systems
In this paper, we provide an overview of the adaptive optics (AO) program for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) project, including an update on requirements; the philosophical approach to developing an overall AO system architecture; the recently completed conceptual designs for facility and instrument AO systems; anticipated first light capabilities and upgrade options; and the hardware, software, and controls interfaces with the remainder of the observatory. Supporting work in AO component development, lab and field tests, and simulation and analysis is also discussed. Further detail on all of these subjects may be found in additional papers in this conference
The Ambivalence of Promising Technology
Issues of responsibility in the world of nanotechnology are becoming explicit with the emergence of a discourse on ‘responsible development’ of nanoscience and nanotechnologies. Much of this discourse centres on the ambivalences of nanotechnology and of promising technology in general. Actors must find means of dealing with these ambivalences. Actors’ actions and responses to ambivalence are shaped by their position and context, along with strategic games they are involved in, together with other actors. A number of interviews were conducted with industrial actors with the aim of uncovering their ethical stances towards responsible development of nanotechnology. The data shows that standard repertoires of justification of nanotechnological development were used. Thus, the industrial actors fell back on their position and associated responsibilities. Such responses reinforce a division of moral labour in which industrial actors and scientists can focus on the progress of science and technology, while other actors, such as NGOs, are expected to take care of broader considerations, such as ethical and social issues
Quantum picturalism for topological cluster-state computing
Topological quantum computing is a way of allowing precise quantum
computations to run on noisy and imperfect hardware. One implementation uses
surface codes created by forming defects in a highly-entangled cluster state.
Such a method of computing is a leading candidate for large-scale quantum
computing. However, there has been a lack of sufficiently powerful high-level
languages to describe computing in this form without resorting to single-qubit
operations, which quickly become prohibitively complex as the system size
increases. In this paper we apply the category-theoretic work of Abramsky and
Coecke to the topological cluster-state model of quantum computing to give a
high-level graphical language that enables direct translation between quantum
processes and physical patterns of measurement in a computer - a "compiler
language". We give the equivalence between the graphical and topological
information flows, and show the applicable rewrite algebra for this computing
model. We show that this gives us a native graphical language for the design
and analysis of topological quantum algorithms, and finish by discussing the
possibilities for automating this process on a large scale.Comment: 18 pages, 21 figures. Published in New J. Phys. special issue on
topological quantum computin
- …