Assessment of the Nexus between Groundwater Extraction and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Employing Aquifer Modelling

AbstractOne of the main sources of Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) is electricity consumption which is getting used for different purposes.Water pumping, especially, pumping from deep groundwater resources consumes a lot of energy. In arid and semi-arid areas, in which groundwater is the only source of water, water pumping is done for different purposes such as agricultural, industrial and urban uses. Kerman plain is one of these arid and semi-arid areas which is located in South East of Iran. Groundwater reliance and aquifer decline are the most prominent challenges that this area is faced with in recent years. This challenges increase the demand for more electricity consumption to pump water from the aquifer so that CO2 emissions will be increased. A large percentage of water extraction from the aquifer is used for agricultural purposes. In this paper, by modelling Kerman plain aquifer with MODFLOW software by using Geographical Information System (GIS) database and also studying height of groundwater table from 1999 to 2012, electricity energy consumption of groundwater extraction for agricultural, industrial and urban water supply is calculated and the CO2 emissions trends resulted from electricity energy consumption is evaluated. Then model results are examined for a business as usual (BAU) scenario of changes in water resources. As a result the amount of CO2 emitted from groundwater abstraction by three mentioned sectors is calculated for specified time horizon. Finally, some suggestions are presented for reducing greenhouse gas emissions for the time horizon

Implications of surface noise for the motional coherence of trapped ions

Electric noise from metallic surfaces is a major obstacle towards quantum applications with trapped ions due to motional heating of the ions. Here, we discuss how the same noise source can also lead to pure dephasing of motional quantum states. The mechanism is particularly relevant at small ion-surface distances, thus imposing a new constraint on trap miniaturization. By means of a free induction decay experiment, we measure the dephasing time of the motion of a single ion trapped 50~$\mu$m above a Cu-Al surface. From the dephasing times we extract the integrated noise below the secular frequency of the ion. We find that none of the most commonly discussed surface noise models for ion traps describes both, the observed heating as well as the measured dephasing, satisfactorily. Thus, our measurements provide a benchmark for future models for the electric noise emitted by metallic surfaces.Comment: (5 pages, 4 figures

Long-Lived Ultracold Molecules with Electric and Magnetic Dipole Moments

We create fermionic dipolar $^{23}$Na$^6$Li molecules in their triplet ground state from an ultracold mixture of $^{23}$Na and $^6$Li. Using magneto-association across a narrow Feshbach resonance followed by a two-photon STIRAP transfer to the triplet ground state, we produce $3\,{\times}\,10^4$ ground state molecules in a spin-polarized state. We observe a lifetime of $4.6\,\text{s}$ in an isolated molecular sample, approaching the $p$-wave universal rate limit. Electron spin resonance spectroscopy of the triplet state was used to determine the hyperfine structure of this previously unobserved molecular state.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Leaves of more cold hardy grapes have a higher density of small, sunken stomata

Leaf stomatal density, index and size are known to be affected by the growing conditions, presumably to provide a better function for plant development. The question was whether there is a difference in stomatal parameters between grape species with different cold hardiness: V. riparia and V. vinifera; and the V. vinifera cultivars 'Riesling', 'Chardonnay', 'Sauvignon Blanc' and 'Merlot'. Analysis by scanning electron microscopy allowed the observation of 3 types of stomata in developing and mature leaves of all examined grape leaves. Stomatal parameters were found to be significantly affected by species or cultivar and growing conditions but not rootstock. A higher stomatal density and index were determined for the more cold hardy V. riparia and V. vinifera 'Riesling', whereby the higher number of stomata in 'Riesling' was found to be due to a higher number of small, sunken stomata. These findings might indicate a strategy of grape plants to optimize growth under low temperatures by using fast-acting stomata whose gas and water exchange are less affected than for larger stomata

Seed germination and seedling establishment of some wild almond species

Wild almond species are important genetic resources for resistance to unsuitable condition, especially drought stress. They have been used traditionally as rootstocks in some areas of Iran. So far, 21 wild almond species and 7 inter species hybrids have been identified in Iran. To study seed germination and seedling establishment of some of these species, three separate experiments were designed. In the first experiment, the application of gibberellic acid (GA3) (0, 250, 500 and 750 ppm) for 24 h was studied on germination characteristics of four wild almond accessions after stratification at 5 ± 0.5°C in Perlite media. Germination percentage, index vigor and root initiation factors were different in almond accessions, but were not affected by hormonal treatments. In the second experiment, seeds of another six wild almond accessions were stratified to compare their germination ability. Germination percentage, index vigor and root initiation were different among accessions significantly. In the last experiment, the establishment and vigor of 14 accessions from eight almond species have been evaluated in plastic bags in outdoor conditions. Two ecotypes of Prunus spp. had the highest stem diameter and length at all growing stages.Keywords: Amygdalus, germination percentage, index vigor, root initiation, stem length, stem diameter

The effect of resveratrol on the expression of MDR1 gene in leukemic lymphoblast's of acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients

Background: Chemotherapy plays a very important role in the treatment of leukemia but the resistance properties of the lymphoblasts limit the effect of chemotherapy. One of the main mechanisms of resistance to chemotherapy is the increased expression of MDR1 gene. The aim of this study was to explore the effect of resveratrol on the expression of MDR1 gene in leukemic lymphoblast of new cases of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) patients in vitro. Methods: Separation of lymphoblasts of 5 new case ALL patients from peripheral blood was performed by ficoll density gradient centrifugation. Lymphoblasts were cultured in RPMI 1640 medium. Lymphoblasts were treated with 50μmol/L resveratrol for 48 h. Total RNA was extracted with guanidine isothiocyanate. RNA was converted to cDNA. Real time PCR was used to detect mRNA expression of MDR1. Results: The results of gene detection showed that the expression of MDR1 did not change significantly in the patients however, in one patient expression of MDR1 increased upon treatment with resveratrol. Conclusion: The results of this study did not support resveratrol as a compound to reverse multidrug resistance in leukemic lymphoblasts

A quantum processor based on coherent transport of entangled atom arrays

The ability to engineer parallel, programmable operations between desired qubits within a quantum processor is central for building scalable quantum information systems. In most state-of-the-art approaches, qubits interact locally, constrained by the connectivity associated with their fixed spatial layout. Here, we demonstrate a quantum processor with dynamic, nonlocal connectivity, in which entangled qubits are coherently transported in a highly parallel manner across two spatial dimensions, in between layers of single- and two-qubit operations. Our approach makes use of neutral atom arrays trapped and transported by optical tweezers; hyperfine states are used for robust quantum information storage, and excitation into Rydberg states is used for entanglement generation. We use this architecture to realize programmable generation of entangled graph states such as cluster states and a 7-qubit Steane code state. Furthermore, we shuttle entangled ancilla arrays to realize a surface code with 19 qubits and a toric code state on a torus with 24 qubits. Finally, we use this architecture to realize a hybrid analog-digital evolution and employ it for measuring entanglement entropy in quantum simulations, experimentally observing non-monotonic entanglement dynamics associated with quantum many-body scars. Realizing a long-standing goal, these results pave the way toward scalable quantum processing and enable new applications ranging from simulation to metrology.Comment: 23 pages, 14 figures; movie attached as ancillary fil

Controlling quantum many-body dynamics in driven Rydberg atom arrays

The control of nonequilibrium quantum dynamics in many-body systems is challenging because interactions typically lead to thermalization and a chaotic spreading throughout Hilbert space. We investigate nonequilibrium dynamics after rapid quenches in a many-body system composed of 3 to 200 strongly interacting qubits in one and two spatial dimensions. Using a programmable quantum simulator based on Rydberg atom arrays, we show that coherent revivals associated with so-called quantum many-body scars can be stabilized by periodic driving, which generates a robust subharmonic response akin to discrete time-crystalline order. We map Hilbert space dynamics, geometry dependence, phase diagrams, and system-size dependence of this emergent phenomenon, demonstrating new ways to steer complex dynamics in many-body systems and enabling potential applications in quantum information science