Issues in Forest Restoration: Forest Service Contracting: A Basic Guide for Restoration Practitioners

During the past ten years, the array of administrative tools available to the Forest Service for restoration has changed and been enhanced. This guide provides an overview of the contracts, agreements, and permits available to pursue restoration work on national forests, and provides contractors with information on how to find and bid on restoration contracts

Recirculation of Laser Power in an Atomic Fountain

A new technique for laser-cooling atoms in a cesium atomic fountain frequency standard relies on recirculation of laser light through the atom-collection region of the fountain. The recirculation, accomplished by means of reflections from multiple fixed beam-splitter cubes, is such that each of two laser beams makes three passes. As described below, this recirculation scheme offers several advantages over prior designs, including simplification of the laser system, greater optical power throughput, fewer optical and electrical connections, and simplification of beam power balancing. A typical laser-cooled cesium fountain requires the use of six laser beams arranged as three orthogonal pairs of counter-propagating beams to decelerate the atoms and hold them in a three-dimensional optical trap in vacuum. Typically, these trapping/cooling beams are linearly polarized and are positioned and oriented so that (1) counter-propagating beams in each pair have opposite linear polarizations and (2) three of the six orthogonal beams have the sum of their propagation directions pointing up, while the other three have the sum of their propagation directions pointing down. In a typical prior design, two lasers are used - one to generate the three "up" beams, the other to generate the three "down" beams. For this purpose, the output of each laser is split three ways, then the resulting six beams are delivered to the vacuum system, independently of each other, via optical fibers. The present recirculating design also requires two lasers, but the beams are not split before delivery. Instead, only one "up" beam and one oppositely polarized "down" beam are delivered to the vacuum system, and each of these beams is sent through the collection region three times. The polarization of each beam on each pass through the collection region is set up to yield the same combination of polarization and propagation directions as described above. In comparison with the prior design, the present recirculating design utilizes the available laser light more efficiently, making it possible to trap more atoms at a given laser power or the same number of atoms at a lower laser power. The present design is also simpler in that it requires fewer optical fibers, fiber couplings, and collimators, and fewer photodiodes for monitoring beam powers. Additionally, the present design alleviates the difficulty of maintaining constant ratios among power levels of the beams within each "up" or "down" triplet

Observation of power-law scaling for phase transitions in linear trapped ion crystals

We report an experimental confirmation of the power-law relationship between the critical anisotropy parameter and ion number for the linear-to-zigzag phase transition in an ionic crystal. Our experiment uses laser cooled calcium ions confined in a linear radio-frequency trap. Measurements for up to 10 ions are in good agreement with theoretical and numeric predictions. Implications on an upper limit to the size of data registers in ion trap quantum computers are discussed.Comment: Physical Review Letters in press, 4 pages, 4 figure

Gemini Principles

Up to 30% of annual spend across the built environment is lost in inefficiencies related to poor quality data1. This is seen in lost productivity due to underperforming economic and social infrastructure. Effective information management will enable better decisions, leading to financial savings, improved performance and service, and better outcomes for business and society per whole-life pound. To make this possible an information management framework is necessary. This paper seeks to build consensus on foundational definitions and guiding values – the Gemini Principles – and to begin enabling alignment on the approach to information management across the built environment.Funded by the Centre for Digital Built Britai

Designing spin-spin interactions with one and two dimensional ion crystals in planar micro traps

We discuss the experimental feasibility of quantum simulation with trapped ion crystals, using magnetic field gradients. We describe a micro structured planar ion trap, which contains a central wire loop generating a strong magnetic gradient of about 20 T/m in an ion crystal held about 160 \mu m above the surface. On the theoretical side, we extend a proposal about spin-spin interactions via magnetic gradient induced coupling (MAGIC) [Johanning, et al, J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 42 (2009) 154009]. We describe aspects where planar ion traps promise novel physics: Spin-spin coupling strengths of transversal eigenmodes exhibit significant advantages over the coupling schemes in longitudinal direction that have been previously investigated. With a chip device and a magnetic field coil with small inductance, a resonant enhancement of magnetic spin forces through the application of alternating magnetic field gradients is proposed. Such resonantly enhanced spin-spin coupling may be used, for instance, to create Schr\"odinger cat states. Finally we investigate magnetic gradient interactions in two-dimensional ion crystals, and discuss frustration effects in such two-dimensional arrangements.Comment: 20 pages, 13 figure

Chaos in a double driven dissipative nonlinear oscillator

We propose an anharmonic oscillator driven by two periodic forces of different frequencies as a new time-dependent model for investigating quantum dissipative chaos. Our analysis is done in the frame of statistical ensemble of quantum trajectories in quantum state diffusion approach. Quantum dynamical manifestation of chaotic behavior, including the emergence of chaos, properties of strange attractors, and quantum entanglement are studied by numerical simulation of ensemble averaged Wigner function and von Neumann entropy.Comment: 9 pages, 18 figure

Sub-Poissonian statistics in order-to-chaos transition

We study the phenomena at the overlap of quantum chaos and nonclassical statistics for the time-dependent model of nonlinear oscillator. It is shown in the framework of Mandel Q-parameter and Wigner function that the statistics of oscillatory excitation number is drastically changed in order-to chaos transition. The essential improvement of sub-Poissonian statistics in comparison with an analogous one for the standard model of driven anharmonic oscillator is observed for the regular operational regime. It is shown that in the chaotic regime the system exhibits the range of sub- and super-Poissonian statistics which alternate one to other depending on time intervals. Unusual dependence of the variance of oscillatory number on the external noise level for the chaotic dynamics is observed.Comment: 9 pages, RevTeX, 14 figure

Frequency of GP communication addressing the patient's resources and coping strategies in medical interviews: a video-based observational study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>There is increasing focus on patient-centred communicative approaches in medical consultations, but few studies have shown the extent to which patients' positive coping strategies and psychological assets are addressed by general practitioners (GPs) on a regular day at the office. This study measures the frequency of GPs' use of questions and comments addressing their patients' coping strategies or resources.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Twenty-four GPs were video-recorded in 145 consultations. The consultations were coded using a modified version of the Roter Interaction Analysis System. In this study, we also developed four additional coding categories based on cognitive therapy and solution-focused therapy: attribution, resources, coping, and solution-focused techniques.</p> <p>The reliability between coders was established, a factor analysis was applied to test the relationship between the communication categories, and a tentative validating exercise was performed by reversed coding.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Cohen's kappa was 0.52 between coders. Only 2% of the utterances could be categorized as resource or coping oriented. Six GPs contributed 59% of these utterances. The factor analysis identified two factors, one task oriented and one patient oriented.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The frequency of communication about coping and resources was very low. Communication skills training for GPs in this field is required. Further validating studies of this kind of measurement tool are warranted.</p