Modeling gross primary production of two steppes in Northern China using MODIS time series and climate data

AbstractTerrestrial carbon cycle plays an important role in global climate change. As a key component of terrestrial carbon cycle, gross primary production (GPP) is a major determinant of the exchange of carbon between the atmosphere and terrestrial ecosystems. With rapid advancement of remote-sensing technology, it has become a common practice to utilize parameters derived from remote-sensing data to estimate GPP at a regional or global scale. In this study, a satellite-driven model, Vegetation Photosynthesis Model (VPM) was introduced to estimate GPP of two steppes, Xilinhot (XH, 43.5544°N, 116.6714°E) and Duolun (DL, 42.0467°N, 116.2836°E), at Inner Mongolia in Northern China, by integrating moderate resolution imaging spectral radiometer (MODIS) and meteorological measurements at the two flux towers. As defined by the input variables of VPM, two improved vegetation indices (enhanced vegetation index (EVI) and land surface water index (LSWI)) derived from the standard data product MOD09A1 of MODIS, air temperature and photosynthetic active radiation at the flux towers, were included for the model calculating. Canopy-level maximum light use efficiency, a key parameter for VPM, was estimated by using the observed CO2 flux data and photosynthetic active radiation (PAR). Observed GPP derived from flux data were then used to critically evaluate the performance of the model. The results indicate that the seasonal dynamics of GPP predicted by the VPM model agreed well with measured GPP by the flux towers. The determination coefficient (R2) of predicted GPP with measured GPP was 0.86 and 0.79 in 2006, 0.66 and 0.76 in 2007 for DL and XH, respectively. Further, time-series data for the EVI have a stronger linear relationship with the GPP than those for the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index. Results of this study demonstrate that the satellite-driven VPM has been potential for estimating site-level or regional grassland GPP, and might be an effective tool for scaling-up carbon fluxes

Model anionic block copolymer vesicles provide important design rules for efficient nanoparticle occlusion within calcite

Nanoparticle occlusion within growing crystals is of considerable interest because (i) it can enhance our understanding of biomineralization and (ii) it offers a straightforward route for the preparation of novel nanocomposites. However, robust design rules for efficient occlusion remain elusive. Herein, we report the rational synthesis of a series of silica-loaded poly(glycerol monomethacrylate)-poly(2-hydroxypropyl methacrylate)-poly(ethylene glycol dimethacrylate)-poly(methacrylic acid) tetrablock copolymer vesicles using polymerization-induced self-assembly. The overall vesicle dimensions remain essentially constant for this series; hence systematic variation of the mean degree of polymerization (DP) of the anionic poly(methacrylic acid) steric stabilizer chains provides an unprecedented opportunity to investigate the design rules for efficient nanoparticle occlusion within host inorganic crystals such as calcite. Indeed, the stabilizer DP plays a decisive role in dictating both the extent of occlusion and the calcite crystal morphology: sufficiently long stabilizer chains are required to achieve extents of vesicle occlusion of up to 41 vol %, but overly long stabilizer chains merely lead to significant changes in the crystal morphology, rather than promoting further occlusion. Furthermore, steric stabilizer chains comprising anionic carboxylate groups lead to superior occlusion performance compared to those composed of phosphate, sulfate, or sulfonate groups. Moreover, occluded vesicles are subjected to substantial deformation forces, as shown by the significant change in shape after their occlusion. It is also demonstrated that such vesicles can act as "Trojan horses", enabling the occlusion of non-functional silica nanoparticles within calcite. In summary, this study provides important new physical insights regarding the efficient incorporation of guest nanoparticles within host inorganic crystals

What dictates the spatial distribution of nanoparticles within calcite?

Crystallization is widely used by synthetic chemists as a purification technique because it usually involves the expulsion of impurities. In this context, the efficient occlusion of guest nanoparticles within growing host crystals can be regarded as a formidable technical challenge. Indeed, although there are various reports of successful nanoparticle occlusion within inorganic crystals in the literature, robust design rules remain elusive. Herein, we report the synthesis of two pairs of sterically stabilized diblock copolymer nanoparticles with identical compositions but varying particle size, morphology, stabilizer chain length, and stabilizer chain surface density via polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA). The mean degree of polymerization of the stabilizer chains dictates the spatial distribution of these model anionic nanoparticles within calcite (CaCO3): relatively short stabilizer chains merely result in near-surface occlusion, whereas sufficiently long stabilizer chains are essential to achieve uniform occlusion. This study reconciles the various conflicting literature reports of occluded nanoparticles being either confined to surface layers or uniformly occluded throughout the host matrix and hence provides important new insights regarding the criteria required for efficient nanoparticle occlusion within inorganic crystals

Coupled superconducting qudit-resonator system: Energy spectrum, state population, and state transition under microwave drive

Superconducting quantum multilevel systems coupled to resonators have recently been considered in some applications such as microwave lasing and high-fidelity quantum logical gates. In this work, using an rf-SQUID type phase qudit coupled to a microwave coplanar waveguide resonator, we study both theoretically and experimentally the energy spectrum of the system when the qudit level spacings are varied around the resonator frequency by changing the magnetic flux applied to the qudit loop. We show that the experimental result can be well described by a theoretical model that extends from the usual two-level Jaynes-Cummings system to the present four-level system. It is also shown that due to the small anharmonicity of the phase device a simplified model capturing the leading state interactions fits the experimental spectra very well. Furthermore we use the Lindblad master equation containing various relaxation and dephasing processes to calculate the level populations in the simpler qutrit-resonator system, which allows a clear understanding of the dynamics of the system under the microwave drive. Our results help to better understand and perform the experiments of coupled multilevel and resonator systems and can be applied in the case of transmon or Xmon qudits having similar anharmonicity to the present phase device.This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (Grants No. 2014CB921202, No. 2015CB921104, and No. 2016YFA0300601),the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants No. 91321208 and No. 11674380)the Key Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDPB08-3)S.H. acknowledges support by the US NSF (PHY-1314861)

Transport Measurements on Nano-engineered Two Dimensional Superconducting Wire Networks

Superconducting triangular Nb wire networks with high normal-state resistance are fabricated by using a negative tone hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ) resist. Robust magnetoresistance oscillations are observed up to high magnetic fields and maintained at low temperatures, due to the eective reduction of wire dimensions. Well-defined dips appear at integral and rational values (1/2, 1/3, 1/4) of the reduced flux f = Phi/Phi_0, which is the first observation in the triangular wire networks. These results are well consistent with theoretical calculations for the reduced critical temperature as a function of f.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Polarized Tops from Stop Decays at the LHC

In supersymmetric models, scalar top quarks, or stops, generically have parity-violating couplings to top quarks. As a result, tops produced in stop decays should be polarized. In this paper, we will argue that this effect may be observable at the LHC with realistic integrated luminosities, provided that one of the stops is copiously produced and can decay to a top and a neutralino. We define the "effective" stop mixing angle, which determines the degree of top polarization, and discuss the prospects for a measurement of this angle at the LHC. If some information about the neutralino mixing matrix is available, this measurement can be used to constrain the mixing angle in the stop sector, one of the most important ingredients in assessing the naturalness of electroweak symmetry breaking in the MSSM.Comment: 19 pages, 9 figures, reference and note adde

Pair production of neutralinos via gluon-gluon collisions

The production of a neutralino pair via gluon-gluon fusion is studied in the minimal supersymmetric model(MSSM) at proton-proton colliders. The numerical analysis of their production rates are carried out in the mSUGRA scenario. The results show that this cross section may reach about 80 femto barn for $\tilde{\chi}^{0}_{1}\tilde{\chi}^{0}_{2}$ pair production and 23 femto barn for $\tilde{\chi}^{0}_{2}\tilde{\chi}^{0}_{2}$ pair production with suitable input parameters at the future LHC collider. It shows that this loop mediated process can be competitive with the quark-antiquark annihilation process at the LHC.Comment: LaTex file, l4 pages, 5 EPS figure

Family Unification on an Orbifold

We construct a family-unified model on a Z_2xZ_2 orbifold in five dimensions. The model is based on a supersymmetric SU(7) gauge theory. The gauge group is broken by orbifold boundary conditions to a product of grand unified SU(5) and SU(2)xU(1) flavor symmetry. The structure of Yukawa matrices is generated by an interplay between spontaneous breaking of flavor symmetry and geometric factors arising due to field localization in the extra dimension.Comment: 13 page

Cellular Array Morphology During Directional Solidification

Cellular array morphology has been examined in the shallow cell, deep cell, and cell-to-dendrite transition regime in Pb-2.2 wt pct Sb and Al-4.1 wt pct Cu alloy single-crystal samples that were directionally solidified along [100]. Statistical analysis of the cellular spacing distribution on transverse sections has been carried out using minimum spanning tree (MST), Voronoi polygons, radial distribution factor, and fast Fourier transform (FFT) techniques. The frequency distribution of the number of nearest neighbors and the MST parameters suggest that the arrangement of cells may be visualized as a hexagonal tessellation with superimposed 50 pct random noise. However, the power spectrum of the Fourier transform of the cell centers shows a diffused single-ring pattern that does not agree with the power spectrum from the hexagonal tessellation having a 50 pct superimposed random (uniformly distributed or Gaussian) noise. The radial distribution factor obtained from the cells is similar to that of liquids. An overall steady-state distribution in terms of the mean primary spacing is achieved after directional solidification of about three mushy-zone lengths. However, the process of nearest-neighbor interaction continues throughout directional solidification, as indicated by about 14 pct of the cells undergoing submerging in the shallow cell regime or by an increasing first and second nearest-neighbor ordering along the growth direction for the cells at the cell-to-dendrite transition. The nature of cell distribution in the Al-Cu alloy appears to be the same as that in the Pb-Sb. The ratio between the upper and lower limits of the primary spacing, as defined by the largest and the smallest 10 pct of the population, respectively, is constant: 1.43 +/- 0.11. It does not depend upon the solidification processing conditions