784 research outputs found
Nitrogen sources, transport and processing in peri-urban floodplains
Peri-urban floodplains are an important interface between developed land and the aquatic environment and may act as a source or sink for contaminants moving from urban areas towards surface water courses. With increasing pressure from urban development the functioning of floodplains is coming under greater scrutiny. A number of peri-urban sites have been found to be populated with legacy landfills which could potentially cause pollution of adjacent river bodies. Here, a peri-urban floodplain adjoining the city of Oxford, UK, with the River Thames has been investigated over a period of three years through repeated sampling of groundwaters from existing and specially constructed piezometers. A nearby landfill has been found to have imprinted a strong signal on the groundwater with particularly high concentrations of ammonium and generally low concentrations of nitrate and dissolved oxygen. An intensive study of nitrogen dynamics through the use of N-species chemistry, nitrogen isotopes and dissolved nitrous oxide reveals that there is little or no denitrification in the majority of the main landfill plume, and neither is the ammonium significantly retarded by sorption to the aquifer sediments. A simple model has determined the flux of total nitrogen and ammonium from the landfill, through the floodplain and into the river. Over an 8 km reach of the river, which has a number of other legacy landfills, it is estimated that 27.5 tonnes of ammonium may be delivered to the river annually. Although this is a relatively small contribution to the total river nitrogen, it may represent up to 15% of the ammonium loading at the study site and over the length of the reach could increase in-stream concentrations by nearly 40%. Catchment management plans that encompass floodplains in the peri-urban environment need to take into account the likely risk to groundwater and surface water quality that these environments pose
Effect of intraoperative fluid optimisation on renal function in patients undergoing emergency abdominal surgery; a randomised controlled pilot study (ISRCTN 11799696) Fluid optimisation for emergency surgery
<b>Background:</b>
Emergency abdominal surgery carries a high risk of postoperative morbidity and mortality. Goal directed therapy has been advocated to improve outcome in high-risk surgery. The aim of the present pilot study was to examine the effect of goal directed therapy using fluid alone on postoperative renal function and organ failure score in patients undergoing emergency abdominal surgery.
<b>Methods:</b>
This prospective randomised pilot study included patients over the age of 50 undergoing emergency abdominal surgery. In the intervention group pulse pressure variation measurements were used to guide fluid boluses of 6% Hydroxyethylstarch 130/0.4. The control group received standard care. Serum urea, creatinine and cystatin C levels were measured prior to and at the end of surgery and postoperatively on day 1, day 3 and day 5.
<b>Results:</b>
Thirty patients were recruited. One patient died prior to surgery and was excluded from the analysis. The intervention group received a median of 750ml of hydroxyethylstarch. The peak values of postoperative urea were 6.9 (2.7–31.8) vs. 6.4 (3.5–11.5)mmol/l (p=0.425), creatinine 100 (60–300) vs. 85 (65–150) μmol/l (p=0.085) and cystatin C 1.09 (0.66–4.94) vs. 1.01 (0.33–2.29)mg/dl (p=0.352) in the control and intervention group, respectively.
<b>Conclusions:</b>
In the present pilot study replacing the identified fluid deficit was not associated with a change in renal function. These results do not preclude that goal directed therapy using fluid alone may have an effect on renal function but they would suggest that the effect size of fluid optimisation alone on renal function is small
Classification of multipartite entangled states by multidimensional determinants
We find that multidimensional determinants "hyperdeterminants", related to
entanglement measures (the so-called concurrence or 3-tangle for the 2 or 3
qubits, respectively), are derived from a duality between entangled states and
separable states. By means of the hyperdeterminant and its singularities, the
single copy of multipartite pure entangled states is classified into an onion
structure of every closed subset, similar to that by the local rank in the
bipartite case. This reveals how inequivalent multipartite entangled classes
are partially ordered under local actions. In particular, the generic entangled
class of the maximal dimension, distinguished as the nonzero hyperdeterminant,
does not include the maximally entangled states in Bell's inequalities in
general (e.g., in the qubits), contrary to the widely known
bipartite or 3-qubit cases. It suggests that not only are they never locally
interconvertible with the majority of multipartite entangled states, but they
would have no grounds for the canonical n-partite entangled states. Our
classification is also useful for the mixed states.Comment: revtex4, 10 pages, 4 eps figures with psfrag; v2 title changed, 1
appendix added, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Tailoring Single and Multiphoton Probabilities of a Single Photon On-Demand Source
As typically implemented, single photon sources cannot be made to produce
single photons with high probability, while simultaneously suppressing the
probability of yielding two or more photons. Because of this, single photon
sources cannot really produce single photons on demand. We describe a
multiplexed system that allows the probabilities of producing one and more
photons to be adjusted independently, enabling a much better approximation of a
source of single photons on demand.Comment: 4 pages, LaTex, 2 figures, twocolumn and RevTex Style for PR
Geometric Strategy for the Optimal Quantum Search
We explore quantum search from the geometric viewpoint of a complex
projective space , a space of rays. First, we show that the optimal quantum
search can be geometrically identified with the shortest path along the
geodesic joining a target state, an element of the computational basis, and
such an initial state as overlaps equally, up to phases, with all the elements
of the computational basis. Second, we calculate the entanglement through the
algorithm for any number of qubits as the minimum Fubini-Study distance to
the submanifold formed by separable states in Segre embedding, and find that
entanglement is used almost maximally for large . The computational time
seems to be optimized by the dynamics as the geodesic, running across entangled
states away from the submanifold of separable states, rather than the amount of
entanglement itself.Comment: revtex, 10 pages, 7 eps figures, uses psfrag packag
The epidemiology of kuru: monitoring the epidemic from its peak to its end
Kuru is a fatal transmissible spongiform encephalopathy restricted to the Fore people and their neighbours in a remote region of the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea. When first investigated in 1957 it was found to be present in epidemic proportions, with approximately 1000 deaths in the first 5 years, 1957–1961. The changing epidemiological patterns and other significant findings such as the transmissibility of kuru are described in their historical progression. Monitoring the progress of the epidemic has been carried out by epidemiological surveillance in the field for 50 years. From its peak, the number of deaths from kuru declined to 2 in the last 5 years, indicating that the epidemic is approaching its end. The mode of transmission of the prion agent of kuru was the local mortuary practice of transumption. The prohibition of this practice in the 1950s led to the decline in the epidemic, which has been prolonged into the present century by incubation periods that may exceed 50 years. Currently, the epidemiological surveillance is being maintained and further studies on human genetics and the past mortuary practices are being conducted in the kuru-affected region and in communities beyond it
Forages for Conservation and Improved Soil Quality
Forages provide several soil benefits, including reduced soil erosion, reduced water runoff, improved soil physical properties, increased soil carbon, increased soil biologic activity, reduced soil salinity, and improved land stabilization and restoration when grown continuously or as part of a crop rotation. Ongoing research and synthesis of knowledge have improved our understanding of how forages alter and protect soil resources, thus providing producers, policymakers, and the general public information regarding which forage crops are best suited for a specific area or use (e.g. hay, grazing or bioenergy feedstock). Forages can be produced in forestland, range, pasture, and cropland settings. These land use types comprise 86% of non-Federal United States rural lands (Table 12.1). In the United States, active forage production occurs on 22.6 million ha and is used for hay, haylage, grass silage, and greenchop (Table 12.2). Forages are used as cover crops in several production systems, and approximately 4.2 million ha were recently planted in cover crops (Table 12.3). Currently, the highest cover crop use rates, as a percentage of total cropland within a given state, occur in the northeastern United States. Globally, permanent meadows and pastures account for over 3.3 billion ha, greater than arable land and permanent crops combined (Table 12.4). Within all regions of the world, except Europe, permanent meadows and pastures are a greater proportion of land cover than permanent crops. Pasture management information and resources are available for countries around the world (FAO 2017a,b). As seen in Tables 12.1–12.4, forages are used globally and can provide soil benefits across varied soil and climate types
Engineering Entanglement between two cavity modes
We present scheme for generation of entanglement between different modes of
radiation field inside high-Q superconducting cavities. Our scheme is based on
the interaction of a three-level atom with the cavity field for pre-calculated
interaction times with each mode. This work enables us to generate complete set
of Bell basis states and GHZ state
Statistical mechanics of topological phase transitions in networks
We provide a phenomenological theory for topological transitions in
restructuring networks. In this statistical mechanical approach energy is
assigned to the different network topologies and temperature is used as a
quantity referring to the level of noise during the rewiring of the edges. The
associated microscopic dynamics satisfies the detailed balance condition and is
equivalent to a lattice gas model on the edge-dual graph of a fully connected
network. In our studies -- based on an exact enumeration method, Monte-Carlo
simulations, and theoretical considerations -- we find a rich variety of
topological phase transitions when the temperature is varied. These transitions
signal singular changes in the essential features of the global structure of
the network. Depending on the energy function chosen, the observed transitions
can be best monitored using the order parameters Phi_s=s_{max}/M, i.e., the
size of the largest connected component divided by the number of edges, or
Phi_k=k_{max}/M, the largest degree in the network divided by the number of
edges. If, for example the energy is chosen to be E=-s_{max}, the observed
transition is analogous to the percolation phase transition of random graphs.
For this choice of the energy, the phase-diagram in the [,T] plane is
constructed. Single vertex energies of the form
E=sum_i f(k_i), where k_i is the degree of vertex i, are also studied.
Depending on the form of f(k_i), first order and continuous phase transitions
can be observed. In case of f(k_i)=-(k_i+c)ln(k_i), the transition is
continuous, and at the critical temperature scale-free graphs can be recovered.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figures, minor changes, added a new refernce, to appear
in PR
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