W. L. G. Joerg (1885-1952)

On 7 January 1952 one of America's leading geographers, W.L G. Joerg, Chief Archivist of the Cartographic Records Branch of the National Archives in Washington, D.C., died suddenly of cerebral hemorrhage at the age of sixty-six. Wolfgang Louis Gottfried Joerg was born in Brooklyn, New York, on 6 February 1885. His father, a German-born physician, and his mother, born in Geneva, Switzerland, recognized the aptitude of their son, and gave him every encouragement. After graduating from Brooklyn Polytechnic Preparatory School at fourteen he searched in vain among American institutions for well-rounded courses in geography. His remarkable fluency in European languages and the classics, made possible his successful studies at Thomas Gymnasium and the University of Leipzig in Germany from 1901-4. Following a year at Columbia University, New York City, completing courses in geography and surveying, he spent five profitable, happy years at the University of Gottingen in Germany. Fired with enthusiasm about the new science, geography, he joined the American Geographical Society in 1911, as an assistant to Cyrus C. Adams, Editor of the Bulletin. ... In April 1937 Mr. Joerg was appointed Chief of the newly created Division of Maps and Charts of the National Archives in Washington, D.C., a responsibility for which he was unusually well qualified. The geography, cartography, and exploration of the polar regions had fascinated him, Mr. Joerg once mentioned, at a very early age. It was, he said "a sign of the times." His interest was spurred by the expeditions of Peary and others, and matured during his studies at Gottingen under Professor Ludwig Mecking. Although Mr. Joerg had never seen the arctic and antarctic regions, he became so well versed in the literature and in the knowledge of their geography that very many explorers and scientists working in these regions sought his advice. Perhaps Mr. Joerg's first publication on the Arctic was his "brief statement as to the origin and scope of the Map of the Arctic Regions. . ." which appeared in the Bulletin of the American Geographical Society (Vol. 45 (1913) p. 610), and he was responsible for the "final version, exclusive of the soundings." In the late 1920's, when the American Geographical Society embarked on its program of polar research and publication Mr. Joerg, as Research Editor in charge, was responsible for publishing the 'Problems of polar research' and its companion volume 'The geography of the polar regions'. The editorial perfection which he achieved in preparing these and other contributions by polar experts went far towards establishing his reputation in that field. From the date of these volumes to the time of his death, he seldom passed a year without producing or collaborating in a major article on the polar regions. Some of these contributions resulted from his appointment as chairman of the Special Committee on Antarctic Names of the United States Board on Geographic Names, 1944-7, and as a member of its successor, the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names. Mr. Joerg's affiliations with and recognition by scientific societies throughout the world have been numerous. In May 1944 he attended the meeting in New York City, at which plans were initiated for the founding of the Arctic Institute of North America, and in 1949 he was elected a Fellow of the Institute. As geographers and kindred scientists read more of his published works they will respect him as one of the fathers of American geography and a specialist whose contributions to the literature of geography of the polar regions, rank not only as scholarly treatises but will remain for a long time as basic documents on the subject

Relativistic Quantum Teleportation with Superconducting Circuits

We study the effects of relativistic motion on quantum teleportation and propose a realizable experiment where our results can be tested. We compute bounds on the optimal fidelity of teleportation when one of the observers undergoes non-uniform motion for a finite time. The upper bound to the optimal fidelity is degraded due to the observer's motion however, we discuss how this degradation can be corrected. These effects are observable for experimental parameters that are within reach of cutting-edge superconducting technology. Our setup will further provide guidance for future space-based experiments.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, minor deviations from published version. I.F. previously published as Ivette Fuentes-Guridi and Ivette Fuentes-Schulle

Phloem of Primitive Angiosperms. II. P-Protein in Selected Species of the Ranalean Complex

A survey of the phloem-protein (P-protein) in species of primitive angiosperms was undertaken to provide possible evidence for P-protein function from a phylogenetic point of view. The ontogeny and substructure of P-protein in Liriodendron tulipifera and Magnolia soulangeana are similar to that of more advanced dicot species. In the light of this information the time of P-protein evolution seems to coincide with the development of the angiosperms themselves

Dissolution of calcium carbonate: observations and model results in the subpolar North Atlantic

We investigate the significance of in situ dissolution of calcium carbonate above its saturation horizons using observations from the open subpolar North Atlantic [sNA] and to a lesser extent a 3-D biogeochemical model. The sNA is particularly well suited for observation-based detections of in situ, i.e. shallow-depth CaCO3 dissolution [SDCCD] as it is a region of high CaCO3 production, deep CaCO3 saturation horizons, and precisely-defined pre-formed alkalinity. Based on the analysis of a comprehensive alkalinity data set we find that SDCCD does not appear to be a significant process in the open sNA. The results from the model support the observational findings by indicating that there is not a significant need of SDCCD to explain observed patterns of alkalinity in the North Atlantic. Instead our investigation points to the importance of mixing processes for the redistribution of alkalinity from dissolution of CaCO3 from below its saturation horizons. However, mixing has recently been neglected for a number of studies that called for SDCCD in the sNA and on global scale

Topology and Phases in Fermionic Systems

There can exist topological obstructions to continuously deforming a gapped Hamiltonian for free fermions into a trivial form without closing the gap. These topological obstructions are closely related to obstructions to the existence of exponentially localized Wannier functions. We show that by taking two copies of a gapped, free fermionic system with complex conjugate Hamiltonians, it is always possible to overcome these obstructions. This allows us to write the ground state in matrix product form using Grassman-valued bond variables, and show insensitivity of the ground state density matrix to boundary conditions.Comment: 4 pages, see also arxiv:0710.329

Trade-offs between precision and fluctuations in charging finite-dimensional quantum systems

Within quantum thermodynamics, many tasks are modelled by processes that require work sources represented by out-of-equilibrium quantum systems, often dubbed quantum batteries, in which work can be deposited or from which work can be extracted. Here we consider quantum batteries modelled as finite-dimensional quantum systems initially in thermal equilibrium that are charged via cyclic Hamiltonian processes. We present optimal or near-optimal protocols for $N$ identical two-level systems and individual $d$-level systems with equally spaced energy gaps in terms of the charging precision and work fluctuations during the charging process. We analyze the trade-off between these figures of merit as well as the performance of local and global operations.Comment: 14+2 pages, 7 figure