The Invasive Ant Fauna (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) of Laysan Island, Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge

Ants are not native to any of the Hawaiian Islands and invasive ant impacts on Hawaiian ecosystems have been profound, so documentation of ant diversity is crucial to understanding and managing these alien species. Changes to the invasive ant fauna on Laysan Island, Northwest Hawaiian Islands, were documented in 2005, fifteen years after the previous (1990) survey of the island. Six species were found on the island, all previously recorded. The common tramp ant Monomorium pharaonis was found to have greatly expanded its range to become the dominant ant on Laysan. During the same period, the range of the previously dominant ant species, Tetramorium bicarinatum, greatly decreased and the species was limited to the dense vegetation areas around the island’s central lake. Tetramorium simillimum, possibly the most recent introduction to the island, and previously the second most widespread species, was not located in surveys and is possibly extirpated. An invasive ant species has apparently not become established on Laysan in almost 20 years suggesting current quarantine measures are a successful deterrent to colonization events

Fast Quantum Search Algorithms in Protein Sequence Comparison - Quantum Biocomputing

Quantum search algorithms are considered in the context of protein sequence comparison in biocomputing. Given a sample protein sequence of length m (i.e m residues), the problem considered is to find an optimal match in a large database containing N residues. Initially, Grover's quantum search algorithm is applied to a simple illustrative case - namely where the database forms a complete set of states over the 2^m basis states of a m qubit register, and thus is known to contain the exact sequence of interest. This example demonstrates explicitly the typical O(sqrt{N}) speedup on the classical O(N) requirements. An algorithm is then presented for the (more realistic) case where the database may contain repeat sequences, and may not necessarily contain an exact match to the sample sequence. In terms of minimizing the Hamming distance between the sample sequence and the database subsequences the algorithm finds an optimal alignment, in O(sqrt{N}) steps, by employing an extension of Grover's algorithm, due to Boyer, Brassard, Hoyer and Tapp for the case when the number of matches is not a priori known.Comment: LaTeX, 5 page

Simulations of Nonthermal Electron Transport in Multidimensional Flows: Synthetic Observations of Radio Galaxies

We have applied an effective numerical scheme for cosmic-ray transport to 3D MHD simulations of jet flow in radio galaxies (see the companion paper by Jones et al. 1999). The marriage of relativistic particle and 3D magnetic field information allows us to construct a rich set of ``synthetic observations'' of our simulated objects. The information is sufficient to calculate the ``true'' synchrotron emissivity at a given frequency using explicit information about the relativistic electrons. This enables us to produce synchrotron surface-brightness maps, including polarization. Inverse-Compton X-ray surface-brightness maps may also be produced. First results intended to explore the connection between jet dynamics and electron transport in radio lobes are discussed. We infer lobe magnetic field values by comparison of synthetically observed X-ray and synchrotron fluxes, and find these ``inverse-Compton'' fields to be quite consistent with the actual RMS field averaged over the lobe. The simplest minimum energy calculation from the synthetic observations also seems to agree with the actual simulated source properties.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure; to appear in Life Cycles of Radio Galaxies, ed. J. Biretta et al., New Astronomy Review

A critique of avian CHD-based molecular sexing protocols illustrated by a Z-chromosome polymorphism detected in auklets

The sexes of non-ratite birds can be determined routinely by PCR amplification of the CHD-Z and CHD-W genes. CHD -based molecular sexing of four species of auklets revealed the presence of a polymorphism in the Z chromosome. No deviation from a 1:1 sex ratio was observed among the chicks, though the analyses were of limited power. Polymorphism in the CHD-Z gene has not been reported previously in any bird, but if undetected it could lead to the incorrect assignment of sex. We discuss the potential difficulties caused by a polymorphism such as that identified in auklets and the merits of alternative CHD -based sexing protocols and primers

Simulations of Nonthermal Electron Transport in Multidimensional Flows: Application to Radio Galaxies

We have developed an economical, effective numerical scheme for cosmic-ray transport suitable for treatment of electrons up to a few hundreds of GeV in multidimensional simulations of radio galaxies. The method follows the electron population in sufficient detail to allow computation of synthetic radio and X-ray observations of the simulated sources, including spectral properties (see the companion paper by Tregillis et al. 1999). The cosmic-ray particle simulations can follow the effects of shock acceleration, second-order Fermi acceleration as well as radiative and adiabatic energy losses. We have applied this scheme to 2-D and 3-D MHD simulations of jet-driven flows and have begun to explore links between dynamics and the properties of high energy electron populations in radio lobes. The key initial discovery is the great importance to the high energy particle population of the very unsteady and inhomogeneous flows, especially near the end of the jet. Because of this, in particular, our simulations show that a large fraction of the particle population flowing from the jet into the cocoon never passes through strong shocks. The shock strengths encountered are not simply predicted by 1-D models, and are quite varied. Consequently, the emergent electron spectra are highly heterogeneous. Rates of synchrotron aging in "hot-spots" seem similarly to be very uneven, enhancing complexity in the spectral properties of electrons as they emerge into the lobes and making more difficult the task of comparing dynamical and radiative ages.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure; to appear in Life Cycles of Radio Galaxies, ed. J. Biretta et al., New Astronomy Review

NMR quantum computation with indirectly coupled gates

An NMR realization of a two-qubit quantum gate which processes quantum information indirectly via couplings to a spectator qubit is presented in the context of the Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm. This enables a successful comprehensive NMR implementation of the Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm for functions with three argument bits and demonstrates a technique essential for multi-qubit quantum computation.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures. 10 additional figures illustrating output spectr

Implementation of a Deutsch-like quantum algorithm utilizing entanglement at the two-qubit level, on an NMR quantum information processor

We describe the experimental implementation of a recently proposed quantum algorithm involving quantum entanglement at the level of two qubits using NMR. The algorithm solves a generalisation of the Deutsch problem and distinguishes between even and odd functions using fewer function calls than is possible classically. The manipulation of entangled states of the two qubits is essential here, unlike the Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm and the Grover's search algorithm for two bits.Comment: 4 pages, two eps figure

Use of Quadrupolar Nuclei for Quantum Information processing by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance: Implementation of a Quantum Algorithm

Physical implementation of Quantum Information Processing (QIP) by liquid-state Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), using weakly coupled spin-1/2 nuclei of a molecule, is well established. Nuclei with spin$>$1/2 oriented in liquid crystalline matrices is another possibility. Such systems have multiple qubits per nuclei and large quadrupolar couplings resulting in well separated lines in the spectrum. So far, creation of pseudopure states and logic gates have been demonstrated in such systems using transition selective radio-frequency pulses. In this paper we report two novel developments. First, we implement a quantum algorithm which needs coherent superposition of states. Second, we use evolution under quadrupolar coupling to implement multi qubit gates. We implement Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm on a spin-3/2 (2 qubit) system. The controlled-not operation needed to implement this algorithm has been implemented here by evolution under the quadrupolar Hamiltonian. This method has been implemented for the first time in quadrupolar systems. Since the quadrupolar coupling is several orders of magnitude greater than the coupling in weakly coupled spin-1/2 nuclei, the gate time decreases, increasing the clock speed of the quantum computer.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figure

An NMR-based nanostructure switch for quantum logic

We propose a nanostructure switch based on nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) which offers reliable quantum gate operation, an essential ingredient for building a quantum computer. The nuclear resonance is controlled by the magic number transitions of a few-electron quantum dot in an external magnetic field.Comment: 4 pages, 2 separate PostScript figures. Minor changes included. One reference adde

Experimental requirements for Grover's algorithm in optical quantum computation

The field of linear optical quantum computation (LOQC) will soon need a repertoire of experimental milestones. We make progress in this direction by describing several experiments based on Grover's algorithm. These experiments range from a relatively simple implementation using only a single non-scalable CNOT gate to the most complex, requiring two concatenated scalable CNOT gates, and thus form a useful set of early milestones for LOQC. We also give a complete description of basic LOQC using polarization-encoded qubits, making use of many simplifications to the original scheme of Knill, Laflamme, and Milburn.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure