Response of Fishes to Revetment Placement

Routine fish sampling with hoop nets was conducted monthly from April through December 1978 along natural and revetted riverbanks on the lower Mississippi River near Eudora, Arkansas, to monitor changes in fish populations affected by placement of new revetment for bank protection. Eighteen species of fish were collected with four species comprising over 75% of the total catch. During the months prior to revetment placement, freshwater drum, Aplodinotus grunniens, was the most abundant (32.7% of the catch) species collected. Following in abundance were the flathead catfish, Pylodictis olivaris, (9.8%), common carp, Cyprinus carpio, (7.8%), and blue catfish, Ictalurus furcatus, (3.3%). After revetment placement in August 1978, the freshwater drum was again the most abundant component, comprising 9.7% of the catch. Gizzard shad, Dorosoma cepedianum, flathead catfish, and blue catfish followed in abundance and comprised 8.9, 4.1, and 3.4% of the total catch, respectively. Catch per effort data indicated that fish were generally more abundant at natural bank stations than revetted bank stations but the difference was not significant. The study suggests that fish inhabiting natural riverbank habitat recover quite rapidly from bank perturbation caused by the placement of revetment

Are Fruit Juice Categories Separable?

Supermarket shelves are saturated with numerous varieties and brands of juice beverages. This high level of assortment has dramatically changed beverage consumption patterns and trends throughout the United States. In fact, during 2004-2005, energy and sport drinks experienced significant increases in sales, 65.9% and 20.6 %, respectively. During the same period of time, refrigerated juice sales increased a mere 2.2%, shelved non-fruit drinks decreased 0.9%, bottled juices and cocktails both decreased 1.5 % and frozen juice decreased by 12.8% (Food Industry Review 2006). The beverage industry has undergone many transformations, but consumer theory states that a shift in demand for one good has to be compensated by a shift in the opposite directions in the demand for the other good. Thus, with more brands competing for consumers’ dollars, it is important for brand managers, retailers, and other industry officials to understand demand interrelationships among various beverages. This study examines the competitiveness and structure of the beverage industry. Existing research suggests the demand for fruit beverages is independent from other food and non-food groups (Heien 1982; Lee 1984); therefore, information pertaining to other goods can be omitted without compromising the validity of the study. Our study will allow us to better understand how consumers make decisions concerning purchases patterns of beverage expenditures.Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Farm Management, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Industrial Organization,

The Impacts of Retail Promotions on the Demand for Orange Juice: A Study of a Retail Chain

This study examined the impacts of retail promotions on the demand for five brands of orange juices for a retail chain (referred to as Retailer X) and its competitors using the Rotterdam model. Results show that the combination of feature ads and displays had the largest impacts on retail revenue among the four promotional tactics considered, while temporary price reductions had no additional advertising impacts other than price impacts on retail revenues. Results also show that when Retailer X promotes an OJ brand using any of the tactics studied, a larger portion of the increased demand for the promoted brand came from reduced demand for other brands of OJ in the same store and a smaller portion came from the decreased demand in competing stores in the same trading area.Demand and Price Analysis, Marketing,

Cytometric analysis, genetic manipulation and antibiotic selection of the snail embryonic cell line Bge from Biomphalaria glabrata, the intermediate host of Schistosoma mansoni.

The invertebrate cell line, Bge, from embryos of the snail Biomphalaria glabrata, remains to date the only established cell line from any species of the Phylum Mollusca. Since its establishment in 1976 by Eder Hansen, few studies have focused on profiling its cytometrics, growth characteristics or sensitivity to xenobiotics. Bge cells are reputed to be challenging to propagate and maintain. Therefore, even though this cell line is a noteworthy resource, it has not been studied widely. With growing interest in functional genomics, including genetic transformation, to elucidate molecular aspects of the snail intermediate hosts responsible for transmission of schistosomiasis, and aiming to enhance the convenience of maintenance of this molluscan cell line, we deployed the xCELLigene real time approach to study Bge cells. Doubling times for three isolates of Bge, termed CB, SL and UK, were longer than for mammalian cell lines - longer than 40 h in complete Bge medium supplemented with 7% fetal bovine serum at 25 °C, ranging from ∼42 h to ∼157 h when 40,000 cells were seeded. To assess the potential of the cells for genetic transformation, antibiotic selection was explored. Bge cells were sensitive to the aminonucleoside antibiotic puromycin (from Streptomyces alboniger) from 5 μg/ml to 200 ng/ml, displaying a half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) of ∼1.91 μg/ml. Sensitivity to puromycin, and a relatively quick kill time (<48 h in 5 μg/ml) facilitated use of this antibiotic, together with the cognate resistance gene (puromycin N-acetyl-transferase) for selection of Bge cells transformed with the PAC gene (puroR). Bge cells transfected with a plasmid encoding puroR were partially rescued when cultured in the presence of 5 μg/ml of puromycin. These findings pave the way for the development of functional genomic tools applied to the host-parasite interaction during schistosomiasis and neglected tropical trematodiases at large

Photon polarisation entanglement from distant dipole sources

It is commonly believed that photon polarisation entanglement can only be obtained via pair creation within the same source or via postselective measurements on photons that overlapped within their coherence time inside a linear optics setup. In contrast to this, we show here that polarisation entanglement can also be produced by distant single photon sources in free space and without the photons ever having to meet, if the detection of a photon does not reveal its origin -- the which way information. In the case of two sources, the entanglement arises under the condition of two emissions in certain spatial directions and leaves the dipoles in a maximally entangled state.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, revised version, accepted for publication in J. Phys.

Nonclassicality of a photon-subtracted Gaussian field

Published versio

A matrix-valued point interactions model

We study a matrix-valued Schr\"odinger operator with random point interactions. We prove the absence of absolutely continuous spectrum for this operator by proving that away from a discrete set its Lyapunov exponents do not vanish. For this we use a criterion by Gol'dsheid and Margulis and we prove the Zariski denseness, in the symplectic group, of the group generated by the transfer matrices. Then we prove estimates on the transfer matrices which lead to the H\"older continuity of the Lyapunov exponents. After proving the existence of the integrated density of states of the operator, we also prove its H\"older continuity by proving a Thouless formula which links the integrated density of states to the sum of the positive Lyapunov exponents

Efficient one- and two-qubit pulsed gates for an oscillator stabilized Josephson qubit

We present theoretical schemes for performing high-fidelity one- and two-qubit pulsed gates for a superconducting flux qubit. The "IBM qubit" consists of three Josephson junctions, three loops, and a superconducting transmission line. Assuming a fixed inductive qubit-qubit coupling, we show that the effective qubit-qubit interaction is tunable by changing the applied fluxes, and can be made negligible, allowing one to perform high fidelity single qubit gates. Our schemes are tailored to alleviate errors due to 1/f noise; we find gates with only 1% loss of fidelity due to this source, for pulse times in the range of 20-30ns for one-qubit gates (Z rotations, Hadamard), and 60ns for a two-qubit gate (controlled-Z). Our relaxation and dephasing time estimates indicate a comparable loss of fidelity from this source. The control of leakage plays an important role in the design of our shaped pulses, preventing shorter pulse times. However, we have found that imprecision in the control of the quantum phase plays the major role in the limitation of the fidelity of our gates.Comment: Published version. Added references. Corrected minor typos. Added discussion on how the influence of 1/f noise is modeled. 36 pages, 11 figure

Measuring the quantum statistics of an atom laser beam

We propose and analyse a scheme for measuring the quadrature statistics of an atom laser beam using extant optical homodyning and Raman atom laser techniques. Reversal of the normal Raman atom laser outcoupling scheme is used to map the quantum statistics of an incoupled beam to an optical probe beam. A multimode model of the spatial propagation dynamics shows that the Raman incoupler gives a clear signal of de Broglie wave quadrature squeezing for both pulsed and continuous inputs. Finally, we show that experimental realisations of the scheme may be tested with existing methods via measurements of Glauber's intensity correlation function.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure