13,486 research outputs found
Constructed wetlands: Treatment of concentrated storm water runoff (part A)
The aim of this research was to assess the treatment efficiencies for gully pot liquor of experimental vertical-
flow constructed wetland filters containing Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. ex Steud. (common
reed) and filter media of different adsorption capacities. Six out of 12 filters received inflow water spiked
with metals. For 2 years, hydrated nickel and copper nitrate were added to sieved gully pot liquor to simulate
contaminated primary treated storm runoff. For those six constructed wetland filters receiving heavy
metals, an obvious breakthrough of dissolved nickel was recorded after road salting during the first winter.
However, a breakthrough of nickel was not observed, since the inflow pH was raised to eight after
the first year of operation. High pH facilitated the formation of particulate metal compounds such as nickel
hydroxide. During the second year, reduction efficiencies of heavy metal, 5-days at 20°C N-Allylthiourea
biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and suspended solids (SS) improved considerably. Concentrations of
BOD were frequently �20 mg/L. However, concentrations for SS were frequently �30 mg/L. These are
the two international thresholds for secondary wastewater treatment. The BOD removal increased over
time due to biomass maturation, and the increase of pH. An analysis of the findings with case-based reasoning
can be found in the corresponding follow-up paper (Part B)
Genes involved in barley yellow dwarf virus resistance of maize
KEY MESSAGE: The results of our study suggest that genes involved in general resistance mechanisms of plants contribute to variation of BYDV resistance in maize. ABSTRACT: With increasing winter temperatures in Europe, Barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV) is expected to become a prominent problem in maize cultivation. Breeding for resistance is the best strategy to control the disease and break the transmission cycle of the virus. The objectives of our study were (1) to determine genetic variation with respect to BYDV resistance in a broad germplasm set and (2) to identify single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers linked to genes that are involved in BYDV resistance. An association mapping population with 267 genotypes representing the world’s maize gene pool was grown in the greenhouse. Plants were inoculated with BYDV-PAV using viruliferous Rhopalosiphum padi. In the association mapping population, we observed considerable genotypic variance for the trait virus extinction as measured by double antibody sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (DAS-ELISA) and the infection rate. In a genome-wide association study, we observed three SNPs significantly [false discovery rate (FDR) = 0.05] associated with the virus extinction on chromosome 10 explaining together 25 % of the phenotypic variance and five SNPs for the infection rate on chromosomes 4 and 10 explaining together 33 % of the phenotypic variance. The SNPs significantly associated with BYDV resistance can be used in marker assisted selection and will accelerate the breeding process for the development of BYDV resistant maize genotypes. Furthermore, these SNPs were located within genes which were in other organisms described to play a role in general resistance mechanisms. This suggests that these genes contribute to variation of BYDV resistance in maize. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00122-014-2400-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users
Closed formula for the relative entropy of entanglement in all dimensions
The relative entropy of entanglement is defined in terms of the relative
entropy between an entangled state and its closest separable state (CSS). Given
a multipartite-state on the boundary of the set of separable states, we find a
closed formula for all the entangled state for which this state is a CSS. Quite
amazing, our formula holds for multipartite states in all dimensions. In
addition we show that if an entangled state is full rank, then its CSS is
unique. For the bipartite case of two qubits our formula reduce to the one
given in Phys. Rev. A 78, 032310 (2008).Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure, significantly revised; theorem 1 is now providing
necessary and sufficient conditions to determine if a state is CS
Constructed wetlands: Prediction of performance with case-based reasoning (part B)
The aim of this research was to assess the treatment efficiencies for gully pot liquor of experimental vertical-
flow constructed wetland filters containing Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. ex Steud. (common reed)
and filter media of different adsorption capacities. Six out of 12 filters received inflow water spiked with
metals. For 2 years, hydrated nickel and copper nitrate were added to sieved gully pot liquor to simulate
contaminated primary treated storm runoff. The findings were analyzed and discussed in a previous paper
(Part A). Case-based reasoning (CBR) methods were applied to predict 5 days at 20°C N-Allylthiourea biochemical
oxygen demand (BOD) and suspended solids (SS), and to demonstrate an alternative method of
analyzing water quality performance indicators. The CBR method was successful in predicting if outflow
concentrations were either above or below the thresholds set for water-quality variables. Relatively small
case bases of approximately 60 entries are sufficient to yield relatively high predictions of compliance of
at least 90% for BOD. Biochemical oxygen demand and SS are expensive to estimate, and can be cost-effectively
controlled by applying CBR with the input variables turbidity and conductivity
Improved Lower Bounds for Locally Decodable Codes and Private Information Retrieval
We prove new lower bounds for locally decodable codes and private information
retrieval. We show that a 2-query LDC encoding n-bit strings over an l-bit
alphabet, where the decoder only uses b bits of each queried position of the
codeword, needs code length m = exp(Omega(n/(2^b Sum_{i=0}^b {l choose i})))
Similarly, a 2-server PIR scheme with an n-bit database and t-bit queries,
where the user only needs b bits from each of the two l-bit answers, unknown to
the servers, satisfies t = Omega(n/(2^b Sum_{i=0}^b {l choose i})). This
implies that several known PIR schemes are close to optimal. Our results
generalize those of Goldreich et al. who proved roughly the same bounds for
linear LDCs and PIRs. Like earlier work by Kerenidis and de Wolf, our classical
lower bounds are proved using quantum computational techniques. In particular,
we give a tight analysis of how well a 2-input function can be computed from a
quantum superposition of both inputs.Comment: 12 pages LaTeX, To appear in ICALP '0
The - divergence and Mixing times of quantum Markov processes
We introduce quantum versions of the -divergence, provide a detailed
analysis of their properties, and apply them in the investigation of mixing
times of quantum Markov processes. An approach similar to the one presented in
[1-3] for classical Markov chains is taken to bound the trace-distance from the
steady state of a quantum processes. A strict spectral bound to the convergence
rate can be given for time-discrete as well as for time-continuous quantum
Markov processes. Furthermore the contractive behavior of the
-divergence under the action of a completely positive map is
investigated and contrasted to the contraction of the trace norm. In this
context we analyse different versions of quantum detailed balance and, finally,
give a geometric conductance bound to the convergence rate for unital quantum
Markov processes
Interplay between computable measures of entanglement and other quantum correlations
Composite quantum systems can be in generic states characterized not only by
entanglement, but also by more general quantum correlations. The interplay
between these two signatures of nonclassicality is still not completely
understood. In this work we investigate this issue focusing on computable and
observable measures of such correlations: entanglement is quantified by the
negativity N, while general quantum correlations are measured by the
(normalized) geometric quantum discord D_G. For two-qubit systems, we find that
the geometric discord reduces to the squared negativity on pure states, while
the relationship holds for arbitrary mixed states. The latter
result is rigorously extended to pure, Werner and isotropic states of two-qudit
systems for arbitrary d, and numerical evidence of its validity for arbitrary
states of a qubit and a qutrit is provided as well. Our results establish an
interesting hierarchy, that we conjecture to be universal, between two relevant
and experimentally friendly nonclassicality indicators. This ties in with the
intuition that general quantum correlations should at least contain and in
general exceed entanglement on mixed states of composite quantum systems.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure
Atemporal diagrams for quantum circuits
A system of diagrams is introduced that allows the representation of various
elements of a quantum circuit, including measurements, in a form which makes no
reference to time (hence ``atemporal''). It can be used to relate quantum
dynamical properties to those of entangled states (map-state duality), and
suggests useful analogies, such as the inverse of an entangled ket. Diagrams
clarify the role of channel kets, transition operators, dynamical operators
(matrices), and Kraus rank for noisy quantum channels. Positive (semidefinite)
operators are represented by diagrams with a symmetry that aids in
understanding their connection with completely positive maps. The diagrams are
used to analyze standard teleportation and dense coding, and for a careful
study of unambiguous (conclusive) teleportation. A simple diagrammatic argument
shows that a Kraus rank of 3 is impossible for a one-qubit channel modeled
using a one-qubit environment in a mixed state.Comment: Minor changes in references. Latex 32 pages, 13 figures in text using
PSTrick
Quantum Nonlocal Boxes Exhibit Stronger Distillability
The hypothetical nonlocal box (\textsf{NLB}) proposed by Popescu and Rohrlich
allows two spatially separated parties, Alice and Bob, to exhibit stronger than
quantum correlations. If the generated correlations are weak, they can
sometimes be distilled into a stronger correlation by repeated applications of
the \textsf{NLB}. Motivated by the limited distillability of \textsf{NLB}s, we
initiate here a study of the distillation of correlations for nonlocal boxes
that output quantum states rather than classical bits (\textsf{qNLB}s). We
propose a new protocol for distillation and show that it asymptotically
distills a class of correlated quantum nonlocal boxes to the value , whereas in contrast, the optimal non-adaptive
parity protocol for classical nonlocal boxes asymptotically distills only to
the value 3.0. We show that our protocol is an optimal non-adaptive protocol
for 1, 2 and 3 \textsf{qNLB} copies by constructing a matching dual solution
for the associated primal semidefinite program (SDP). We conclude that
\textsf{qNLB}s are a stronger resource for nonlocality than \textsf{NLB}s. The
main premise that develops from this conclusion is that the \textsf{NLB} model
is not the strongest resource to investigate the fundamental principles that
limit quantum nonlocality. As such, our work provides strong motivation to
reconsider the status quo of the principles that are known to limit nonlocal
correlations under the framework of \textsf{qNLB}s rather than \textsf{NLB}s.Comment: 25 pages, 7 figure
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