3,974 research outputs found
Assessing environmental awareness towards protection of the Alps: a case study
The paper focuses on environmental awareness towards the protection of Alpine areas, and presents the results of a research aimed at assessing people\u2019s awareness in regards to certain topical environmental issues such as protected areas, ecological connectivity, and wildlife. The study area is the Julian Prealps Natural Park, in the region of Friuli Venezia Giulia (Northeast Italy). In order to obtain a measure of \u201cenvironmental awareness\u201d, the Rasch model was applied. It allowed us first to identify which items are most suitable for this. The results obtained show that people are quite aware of some issues, e.g. that wellbeing is related to greener areas and that they can change things to solve environmental problems. We also found that it is easier to agree with items relating to the environment in general than with more specific issues, probably due to a lack of knowledge. However, the provision of pertinent information, in our case on ecological connectivity, can increase the level of environmental awareness. The model also showed that the level varies according to certain sociodemographic characteristics, particularly gender and age. These results could serve as a starting point for planning effective information activities aimed at raising environmental awareness and, possibly, bolstering participation in initiatives for protecting Alpine areas
Breaking quantum linearity: constraints from human perception and cosmological implications
Resolving the tension between quantum superpositions and the uniqueness of
the classical world is a major open problem. One possibility, which is
extensively explored both theoretically and experimentally, is that quantum
linearity breaks above a given scale. Theoretically, this possibility is
predicted by collapse models. They provide quantitative information on where
violations of the superposition principle become manifest. Here we show that
the lower bound on the collapse parameter lambda, coming from the analysis of
the human visual process, is ~ 7 +/- 2 orders of magnitude stronger than the
original bound, in agreement with more recent analysis. This implies that the
collapse becomes effective with systems containing ~ 10^4 - 10^5 nucleons, and
thus falls within the range of testability with present-day technology. We also
compare the spectrum of the collapsing field with those of known cosmological
fields, showing that a typical cosmological random field can yield an efficient
wave function collapse.Comment: 13 pages, LaTeX, 3 figure
Kinin-B1 receptors in ischaemia-induced pancreatitis: Functional importance and cellular localisation
In this study we compare the role of kininB1 and B2 receptors during ischaemia/reperfusion of rat pancreas. Our investigations were prompted by the observation that infusion of a kininB2 receptor antagonist produced significant improvement in acute experimental pancreatitis. In an acute model with two hours of ischaemia/two hours of reperfusion, application of the kininB1 receptor antagonist (CP-0298) alone, or in combination with kininB2 receptor antagonist (CP-0597), significantly reduced the number of adherent leukocytes in postcapillary venules. In a chronic model with five days of reperfusion, the continuous application of kininB1 receptor antagonist or a combination of kininB1 and B2 receptor antagonists markedly reduced the survival rate. In kininreceptor binding studies kininB1 receptor showed a 22-fold increase in expression during the time of ischaemia/ reperfusion. Carboxypeptidase M activity was upregulated 10-fold following two hours of ischaemia and two hours of reperfusion, provided the appropriate specific ligand, desArg10-kallidin and/or desArg9-bradykinin, was used. The occurrence of kininB1 receptor binding sites on acinar cell membranes was demonstrated by microautoradiography. With a specific antibody, the localisation of kininB1 receptor protein was confirmed at the same sites. In conclusion, we have demonstrated the upregulation of the pancreatic acinar cell kininB1 receptors during ischaemia/reperfusion. The novel functional finding was that antagonism of the kininB1 receptors decreased the survival rate in an experimental model of pancreatitis
Towards Quantum Superpositions of a Mirror: an Exact Open Systems Analysis
We analyze the recently proposed mirror superposition experiment of Marshall,
Simon, Penrose, and Bouwmeester, assuming that the mirror's dynamics contains a
non-unitary term of the Lindblad type proportional to -[q,[q,\rho]], with q the
position operator for the center of mass of the mirror, and \rho the
statistical operator. We derive an exact formula for the fringe visibility for
this system. We discuss the consequences of our result for tests of
environmental decoherence and of collapse models. In particular, we find that
with the conventional parameters for the CSL model of state vector collapse,
maintenance of coherence is expected to within an accuracy of at least 1 part
in 10^{8}. Increasing the apparatus coupling to environmental decoherence may
lead to observable modifications of the fringe visibility, with time dependence
given by our exact result.Comment: 4 pages, RevTeX. Substantial changes mad
Collapse models with non-white noises
We set up a general formalism for models of spontaneous wave function
collapse with dynamics represented by a stochastic differential equation driven
by general Gaussian noises, not necessarily white in time. In particular, we
show that the non-Schrodinger terms of the equation induce the collapse of the
wave function to one of the common eigenstates of the collapsing operators, and
that the collapse occurs with the correct quantum probabilities. We also
develop a perturbation expansion of the solution of the equation with respect
to the parameter which sets the strength of the collapse process; such an
approximation allows one to compute the leading order terms for the deviations
of the predictions of collapse models with respect to those of standard quantum
mechanics. This analysis shows that to leading order, the ``imaginary'' noise
trick can be used for non-white Gaussian noise.Comment: Latex, 20 pages;references added and minor revisions; published as J.
Phys. A: Math. Theor. {\bf 40} (2007) 15083-1509
Noise gates for decoherent quantum circuits
A major problem in exploiting microscopic systems for developing a new
technology based on the principles of Quantum Information is the influence of
noise which tends to work against the quantum features of such systems. It
becomes then crucial to understand how noise affects the evolution of quantum
circuits: several techniques have been proposed among which stochastic
differential equations (SDEs) can represent a very convenient tool. We show how
SDEs naturally map any Markovian noise into a linear operator, which we will
call a noise gate, acting on the wave function describing the state of the
circuit, and we will discuss some examples. We shall see that these gates can
be manipulated like any standard quantum gate, thus simplifying in certain
circumstances the task of computing the overall effect of the noise at each
stage of the protocol. This approach yields equivalent results to those derived
from the Lindblad equation; yet, as we show, it represents a handy and fast
tool for performing computations, and moreover, it allows for fast numerical
simulations and generalizations to non Markovian noise. In detail we review the
depolarizing channel and the generalized amplitude damping channel in terms of
this noise gate formalism and show how these techniques can be applied to any
quantum circuit.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures: journal reference added + some typos correcte
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