Immature stages of Plain Tiger, Danaus chrysippus chrysippus a rare butterfly of Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Insecta: Lepidoptera: Rhopalocera: Danaidae)

The plain Tiger Danaus chrysippus chrysippus (Linnaeus) (Insecta: Lepidoptera: Rhopalocera: Danaidae) is a widely distributed butterfly is rare in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The scarcity of food plant Calotropis in the islands is the reason for rarity. The immature stages of the butterfly are discussed in the paper with some unusual observations such as laying of eggs in cluster and on the upper side of food plant, showing stress on survival of the fly

Cosmic (super)string constraints from 21 cm radiation

We calculate the contribution of cosmic strings arising from a phase transition in the early universe, or cosmic superstrings arising from brane inflation, to the cosmic 21 cm power spectrum at redshifts z > 30. Future experiments can exploit this effect to constrain the cosmic string tension Gu and probe virtually the entire brane inflation model space allowed by current observations. Although current experiments with a collecting area of ~ 1 km^2 will not provide any useful constraints, future experiments with a collecting area of 10^4-10^6 km^2 covering the cleanest 10% of the sky can in principle constrain cosmic strings with tension Gu > 10^(-10) to 10^(-12) (superstring/phase transition mass scale >10^13 GeV).Comment: Accepted for publication in PR

Knowledge of and Adherence to Health Advice among Adults with Diabetes in Libya

Background: Non-adherence to medical and health care advice is a common problem, though reasons for non-adherence can differ across different groups and societies as well as between individuals. Objective: to examine diabetes knowledge among people with both type1 and type2 diabetes in Libya and explore any other factors that enhance adherence to treatment and management of the condition. Methods: A cross-sectional survey design was used to collect data from adults with type1 or type2 diabetes who have been diagnosed for 12 months or more, in Benghazi Diabetes Centre, which is one of the oldest and largest diabetes registries in Libya. A total of 855 participants were asked to fill in two questionnaires; the Michigan Diabetes Knowledge Test to investigate the level of diabetes knowledge and the Confidence in diabetes Self-care Scale to assess self-efficacy. For the purpose of the study descriptive statistics and inferential statistical tests were conducted. Results: Diabetes knowledge is very poor especially among females and those classed as illiterate within the sample. The Mean HbA1c of 9.39 was higher than the recommended levels. Four variables namely knowledge about diabetes, duration of illness, family history and self-efficacy significantly predicted levels of HBA1c. Conclusion: Based on the above findings two different programmes of diabetes education would be recommended. The first programme of education would focus primarily on those with inadequate levels of knowledge about diabetes, particularly female and people with long duration diabetes. The second programme would be for both healthcare professionals and people with type 1 and type2 diabetes, which would consider the psychological factors that are involved in the process of diabetes management

Development of a new data-processing method for SKYNET sky radiometer observations

In order to reduce uncertainty in the estimation of Direct Aerosol Radiative Forcing (DARF), it is important to improve the estimation of the single scattering albedo (SSA). In this study, we propose a new data processing method to improve SSA retrievals for the SKYNET sky radiometer network, which is one of the growing number of networks of sun-sky photometers, such as NASA AERONET and others. There are several reports that SSA values from SKYNET have a bias compared to those from AERONET, which is regarded to be the most accurate due to its rigorous calibration routines and data quality and cloud screening algorithms. We investigated possible causes of errors in SSA that might explain the known biases through sensitivity experiments using a numerical model, and also using real data at the SKYNET sites at Pune (18.616° N/73.800° E) in India and Beijing (39.586° N/116.229° E) in China. Sensitivity experiments showed that an uncertainty of the order of ±0.03 in the SSA value can be caused by a possible error in the ground surface albedo or solid view angle assumed for each observation site. Another candidate for possible error in the SSA was found in cirrus contamination generated by imperfect cloud screening in the SKYNET data processing. Therefore, we developed a new data quality control method to get rid of low quality or cloud contamination data, and we applied this method to the real observation data at the Pune site in SKYNET. After applying this method to the observation data, we were able to screen out a large amount of cirrus-contaminated data and to reduce the deviation in the SSA value from that of AERONET. We then estimated DARF using data screened by our new method. The result showed that the method significantly reduced the difference of 5 W m−2 that existed between the SKYNET and AERONET values of DARF before screening. The present study also suggests the necessity of preparing suitable a priori information on the distribution of coarse particles ranging in radius between 10 μm and 30 μm for the analysis of heavily dust-laden atmospheric case

Efecto de los parámetros del proceso sobre la estabilidad de la emulsión y el tamaño de la gota de aceite de granada en agua

The development of efficient emulsion is essential and requires a good understanding of the parameters that govern the formation and stability of the emulsion. The droplet size significantly affects the stability of the emulsion. In this study, the stability of pomegranate oil-in-water emulsions (0.5 to 7.0% v/v) was investigated using various emulsifiers in terms of droplet size and instability index during 16 days of storage. The Mastersizer and Lumisizer were used to measure the droplet size and instability index. It was observed that the minimum droplet size was achieved by using 0.3% carboxy methyl cellulose (5.37 μm) and maximum with 1.0/2.5% whey protein/maltodextrin (24.26 μm). The Lumisizer results during storage revealed the higher emulsion stability of carboxy methyl cellulose due to smaller droplet size and high thickness as compared to other emulsions studied. The findings of the present study would be useful for food applications to obtain fine and stable microcapsules.El desarrollo de una emulsión eficiente es esencial y requiere una buena comprensión de los parámetros que rigen la formación y la estabilidad de la emulsión. El tamaño de la gota afecta significativamente a la estabilidad de la emulsión. En este estudio, se investigó la estabilidad de las emulsiones de aceite de granada en agua (0,5 a 7,0% v/v) usando varios emulsionantes, en términos de tamaño de gota e índice de inestabilidad, durante 16 días de almacenamiento. El Mastersizer y el Lumisizer se usaron para medir el tamaño de gota y el índice de inestabilidad. Se observó que, el tamaño mínimo de gota se logró utilizando 0,3% de carboximetilcelulosa (5,37 μm) y el máximo (24,26 μm), con 1,0/2,5% de proteína de suero/maltodextrina Los resultados del Lumisizer, durante el almacenamiento, revelaron una mayor estabilidad de la emulsión de carboximetilcelulosa debido al tamaño de gota más pequeño y al alto espesor en comparación con otras emulsiones estudiadas. Los resultados del presente estudio se utilizarían en aplicaciones alimentarias para obtener microcápsulas finas y estables

Computation using Noise-based Logic: Efficient String Verification over a Slow Communication Channel

Utilizing the hyperspace of noise-based logic, we show two string verification methods with low communication complexity. One of them is based on continuum noise-based logic. The other one utilizes noise-based logic with random telegraph signals where a mathematical analysis of the error probability is also given. The last operation can also be interpreted as computing universal hash functions with noise-based logic and using them for string comparison. To find out with 10^-25 error probability that two strings with arbitrary length are different (this value is similar to the error probability of an idealistic gate in today's computer) Alice and Bob need to compare only 83 bits of the noise-based hyperspace.Comment: Accepted for publication in European Journal of Physics B (November 10, 2010

Retrieval of characteristic parameters for water vapour transmittance in the development of ground based Sun-Sky radiometric measurements of columnar water vapour

Sunsky radiometers are instruments created for aerosol study, but they can measure in the water vapour absorption band allowing the estimation of columnar water vapour in clear sky simultaneously with aerosol characteristics, with high temporal resolution. A new methodology is presented for estimating calibration parameters (i.e. characteristic parameters of the atmospheric transmittance and solar calibration constant) directly from the sunsky radiometer measurements. The methodology is based on the hypothesis that characteristic parameters of the atmospheric transmittance are dependent on vertical profiles of pressure, temperature and moisture occurring at each site of measurement. To obtain the parameters from the proposed methodology some seasonal independent measurements of columnar water vapour taken over a large range of solar zenith angle simultaneously with the sunsky radiometer measurements, are needed. In this work high time resolution columnar water vapour measurements by GPS were used as independent data set, but also the case when such measurements are not available was considered by developing the surface humidity method (SHM). This methodology makes it possible to retrieve the needed independent data set of columnar water vapour using the standard surface meteorological observations (temperature, pressure and relative humidity) more readily available. The time pattern of columnar water vapour from sunsky radiometer retrieved using both the methodologies was compared with simultaneous measurements from microwave radiometer, radiosondings and GPS. Water vapour from sunsky radiometer, obtained using GPS independent measurements, was characterized by an error varying from 1% up to 5%, whereas water vapour from SHM showed an error from 1% up to 11%, depending on the local columnar water occurring at the site during the year. These errors were estimated by comparing water vapour series from sunsky radiometer against measurements taken by GPS at a nearby station. The accordance between retrievals from sunsky radiometer and simultaneous measurements from the other instruments was found always within the error both in the case of SHM and of the GPS independent data set. Water vapour obtained using characteristic parameters of the atmospheric transmittance dependent on water vapour was also compared against GPS retrievals, showing a clear improvement with respect to the case when these parameters are kept fixed

Structural and magnetic properties of an InGaAs/Fe3_3Si superlattice in cylindrical geometry

The structure and the magnetic properties of an InGaAs/Fe3Si superlattice in a cylindrical geometry are investigated by electron microscopy techniques, x-ray diffraction and magnetometry. To form a radial superlattice, a pseudomorphic InGaAs/Fe3As bilayer has been released from its substrate self-forming into a rolled-up microtube. Oxide-free interfaces as well as areas of crystalline bonding are observed and an overall lattice mismatch between succeeding layers is determined. The cylindrical symmetry of the final radial superlattice shows a significant effect on the magnetization behavior of the rolled-up layers

Quantum-assisted quantum compiling

Compiling quantum algorithms for near-term quantum computers (accounting for connectivity and native gate alphabets) is a major challenge that has received significant attention both by industry and academia. Avoiding the exponential overhead of classical simulation of quantum dynamics will allow compilation of larger algorithms, and a strategy for this is to evaluate an algorithm's cost on a quantum computer. To this end, we propose a variational hybrid quantum-classical algorithm called quantum-assisted quantum compiling (QAQC). In QAQC, we use the overlap between a target unitary $U$ and a trainable unitary $V$ as the cost function to be evaluated on the quantum computer. More precisely, to ensure that QAQC scales well with problem size, our cost involves not only the global overlap ${\rm Tr} (V^\dagger U)$ but also the local overlaps with respect to individual qubits. We introduce novel short-depth quantum circuits to quantify the terms in our cost function, and we prove that our cost cannot be efficiently approximated with a classical algorithm under reasonable complexity assumptions. We present both gradient-free and gradient-based approaches to minimizing this cost. As a demonstration of QAQC, we compile various one-qubit gates on IBM's and Rigetti's quantum computers into their respective native gate alphabets. Furthermore, we successfully simulate QAQC up to a problem size of 9 qubits, and these simulations highlight both the scalability of our cost function as well as the noise resilience of QAQC. Future applications of QAQC include algorithm depth compression, black-box compiling, noise mitigation, and benchmarking.Comment: 19 + 10 pages, 14 figures. Added larger scale implementations and proof that cost function is DQC1-har