10,274 research outputs found
Coccolithophore fluxes in the open tropical North Atlantic: influence of thermocline depth, Amazon water, and Saharan dust
Coccolithophores are calcifying phytoplankton and major contributors to both the organic and inorganic oceanic carbon pumps. Their export fluxes, species composition, and seasonal patterns were determined in two sediment trap moorings (M4 at 12 degrees N, 49 degrees W and M2 at 14 degrees N, 37 degrees W) collecting settling particles synchronously from October 2012 to November 2013 at 1200 m of water depth in the open equatorial North Atlantic. The two trap locations showed a similar seasonal pattern in total coccolith export fluxes and a predominantly tropical coccolithophore settling assemblage. Species fluxes were dominated throughout the year by lower photic zone (LPZ) taxa (Florisphaera profunda, Gladiolithus flabellatus) but also included upper photic zone (UPZ) taxa (Umbellosphaera spp., Rhabdosphaera spp., Umbilicosphaera spp., Helicosphaera spp.). The LPZ flora was most abundant during fall 2012, whereas the UPZ flora was more important during summer. In spite of these similarities, the western part of the study area produced persistently higher fluxes, averaging 241 x 10(7) +/- 76 x 10(7) coccoliths m(-2) d(-1) at station M4 compared to only 66 x 10(7) +/- 31 x 10(7) coccoliths m(-2) d(-1) at station M2. Higher fluxes at M4 were mainly produced by the LPZ species, favoured by the westward deepening of the thermocline and nutricline. Still, most UPZ species also contributed to higher fluxes, reflecting enhanced productivity in the western equatorial North Atlantic. Such was the case of two marked flux peaks of the more opportunistic species Gephyrocapsa muellerae and Emiliania huxleyi in January and April 2013 at M4, indicating a fast response to the nutrient enrichment of the UPZ, probably by wind-forced mixing. Later, increased fluxes of G. oceanica and E. huxleyi in October-November 2013 coincided with the occurrence of Amazon-River-affected surface waters. Since the spring and fall events of 2013 were also accompanied by two dust flux peaks, we propose a scenario in which atmospheric dust also provided fertilizing nutrients to this area. Enhanced surface buoyancy associated with the river plume indicates that the Amazon acted not only as a nutrient source, but also as a surface density retainer for nutrients supplied from the atmosphere. Nevertheless, lower total coccolith fluxes during these events compared to the maxima recorded in November 2012 and July 2013 indicate that transient productivity by opportunistic species was less important than "background" tropical productivity in the equatorial North Atlantic. This study illustrates how two apparently similar sites in the tropical open ocean actually differ greatly in ecological and oceanographic terms. The results presented here provide valuable insights into the processes governing the ecological dynamics and the downward export of coccolithophores in the tropical North Atlantic.Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) [822.01.008]; European Research Council (ERC) [311152]; University of Bremen; European Union [600411]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Magnetic field stabilization system for atomic physics experiments
Atomic physics experiments commonly use millitesla-scale magnetic fields to
provide a quantization axis. As atomic transition frequencies depend on the
amplitude of this field, many experiments require a stable absolute field. Most
setups use electromagnets, which require a power supply stability not usually
met by commercially available units. We demonstrate stabilization of a field of
14.6 mT to 4.3 nT rms noise (0.29 ppm), compared to noise of 100 nT
without any stabilization. The rms noise is measured using a field-dependent
hyperfine transition in a single Ca ion held in a Paul trap at the
centre of the magnetic field coils. For the Ca "atomic clock" qubit
transition at 14.6 mT, which depends on the field only in second order, this
would yield a projected coherence time of many hours. Our system consists of a
feedback loop and a feedforward circuit that control the current through the
field coils and could easily be adapted to other field amplitudes, making it
suitable for other applications such as neutral atom traps.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure
Inelastic scattering of light by a cold trapped atom: Effects of the quantum center-of-mass motion
The light scattered by a cold trapped ion, which is in the stationary state
of laser cooling, presents features due to the mechanical effects of
atom-photon interaction. These features appear as additional peaks (sidebands)
in the spectrum of resonance fluorescence. Among these sidebands the literature
has discussed the Stokes and anti-Stokes components, namely the sidebands of
the elastic peak. In this manuscript we show that the motion also gives rise to
sidebands of the inelastic peaks. These are not always visible, but, as we
show, can be measured in parameter regimes which are experimentally accessible.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Polycation-siRNA nanoparticles can disassemble at the kidney glomerular basement membrane
Despite being engineered to avoid renal clearance, many cationic polymer (polycation)-based siRNA nanoparticles that are used for systemic delivery are rapidly eliminated from the circulation. Here, we show that a component of the renal filtration barrier—the glomerular basement membrane (GBM)—can disassemble cationic cyclodextrin-containing polymer (CDP)-based siRNA nanoparticles and, thereby, facilitate their rapid elimination from circulation. Using confocal and electron microscopies, positron emission tomography, and compartment modeling, we demonstrate that siRNA nanoparticles, but not free siRNA, accumulate and disassemble in the GBM. We also confirm that the siRNA nanoparticles do not disassemble in blood plasma in vitro and in vivo. This clearance mechanism may affect any nanoparticles that assemble primarily by electrostatic interactions between cationic delivery components and anionic nucleic acids (or other therapeutic entities)
Generation of Arbitrary Frequency Chirps with a Fiber-Based Phase Modulator and Self-Injection-Locked Diode Laser
We present a novel technique for producing pulses of laser light whose
frequency is arbitrarily chirped. The output from a diode laser is sent through
a fiber-optical delay line containing a fiber-based electro-optical phase
modulator. Upon emerging from the fiber, the phase-modulated pulse is used to
injection-lock the laser and the process is repeated. Large phase modulations
are realized by multiple passes through the loop while the high optical power
is maintained by self-injection-locking after each pass. Arbitrary chirps are
produced by driving the modulator with an arbitrary waveform generator
Benchmarking Quantum Processor Performance at Scale
As quantum processors grow, new performance benchmarks are required to
capture the full quality of the devices at scale. While quantum volume is an
excellent benchmark, it focuses on the highest quality subset of the device and
so is unable to indicate the average performance over a large number of
connected qubits. Furthermore, it is a discrete pass/fail and so is not
reflective of continuous improvements in hardware nor does it provide
quantitative direction to large-scale algorithms. For example, there may be
value in error mitigated Hamiltonian simulation at scale with devices unable to
pass strict quantum volume tests. Here we discuss a scalable benchmark which
measures the fidelity of a connecting set of two-qubit gates over qubits by
measuring gate errors using simultaneous direct randomized benchmarking in
disjoint layers. Our layer fidelity can be easily related to algorithmic run
time, via defined in Ref.\cite{berg2022probabilistic} that can be used
to estimate the number of circuits required for error mitigation. The protocol
is efficient and obtains all the pair rates in the layered structure. Compared
to regular (isolated) RB this approach is sensitive to crosstalk. As an example
we measure a qubit layer fidelity on a 127 qubit fixed-coupling
"Eagle" processor (ibm\_sherbrooke) of 0.26(0.19) and on the 133 qubit
tunable-coupling "Heron" processor (ibm\_montecarlo) of 0.61(0.26). This can
easily be expressed as a layer size independent quantity, error per layered
gate (EPLG), which is here for
ibm\_sherbrooke and for ibm\_montecarlo.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures (including appendices
Detecting host-parasitoid interactions in an invasive Lepidopteran using nested tagging DNA metabarcoding
Determining the host-parasitoid interactions and parasitism rates for invasive species entering novel environments is an important first step in assessing potential routes for biocontrol and integrated pest management. Conventional insect rearing techniques followed by taxonomic identification are widely used to obtain such data, but this can be time consuming and prone to biases. Here we present a Next Generation Sequencing approach for use in ecological studies which allows for individual level metadata tracking of large numbers of invertebrate samples through the use of hierarchically organised molecular identification tags. We demonstrate its utility using a sample data set examining both species identity and levels of parasitism in late larval stages of the Oak Processionary Moth (Thaumetopoea processionea - Linn. 1758), an invasive species recently established in the UK. Overall we find that there are two main species exploiting the late larval stages of Oak Processionary Moth in the UK with the main parasitoid (Carcelia iliaca - Ratzeburg, 1840) parasitising 45.7% of caterpillars, while a rare secondary parasitoid (Compsilura conccinata - Meigen, 1824) was also detected in 0.4% of caterpillars. Using this approach on all life stages of the Oak Processionary Moth may demonstrate additional parasitoid diversity. We discuss the wider potential of nested tagging DNA-metabarcoding for constructing large, highly-resolved species interaction networks
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