The 2010 spring drought reduced primary productivity in southwestern China

Many parts of the world experience frequent and severe droughts. Summer drought can significantly reduce primary productivity and carbon sequestration capacity. The impacts of spring droughts, however, have received much less attention. A severe and sustained spring drought occurred in southwestern China in 2010. Here we examine the influence of this spring drought on the primary productivity of terrestrial ecosystems using data on climate, vegetation greenness and productivity. We first assess the spatial extent, duration and severity of the drought using precipitation data and the Palmer drought severity index. We then examine the impacts of the drought on terrestrial ecosystems using satellite data for the period 2000–2010. Our results show that the spring drought substantially reduced the enhanced vegetation index (EVI) and gross primary productivity (GPP) during spring 2010 (March–May). Both EVI and GPP also substantially declined in the summer and did not fully recover from the drought stress until August. The drought reduced regional annual GPP and net primary productivity (NPP) in 2010 by 65 and 46 Tg C yr−1, respectively. Both annual GPP and NPP in 2010 were the lowest over the period 2000–2010. The negative effects of the drought on annual primary productivity were partly offset by the remarkably high productivity in August and September caused by the exceptionally wet conditions in late summer and early fall and the farming practices adopted to mitigate drought effects. Our results show that, like summer droughts, spring droughts can also have significant impacts on vegetation productivity and terrestrial carbon cycling

Theory, figures of merit, and design recipe of the plasmonic structure composed of a nano-slit aperture surrounded by surface corrugations

We theoretically investigate a widely-used plasmonic structure composed of a nano-slit aperture surrounded by surface corrugations. A systematical semi-analytical theory in form of two nested coupled-mode models is developed to provide intuitive physical pictures. Based on the theory, figures of merit (FoMs) of the structures designed for normal and for oblique incidence/beaming are defined for the first time to incorporate the interlinks among key structural parameters, making global optimization simple and efficient. Both the theory and the FoMs are quantitatively validated with exhaustive calculations and shown to be highly accurate on performance prediction and structural optimization. With the theory and the FoMs, an efficient, effective and standard recipe is introduced for optimal structure design. We believe this work will help to understand the mechanisms of and to facilitate the design of such a structure in various configurations used in various applications

Partial wave analysis of decays with arbitrary spins

In this paper, we propose a method to construct the decay amplitudes in the orbital ($L$) and spin ($S$) coupling scheme for particles with arbitrary spins. For the $1\to 2$ decay with only massive particles involved, the angular dependence is completely encoded in the angular momentum part, and the spins of daughter particles are coupled in the rest frame of the mother particle, which contributes only a constant factor. For the sequential decay, the total amplitude is constructed by the two $1\to2$ amplitudes evaluated in the rest frame of their own mother particles, and then they are transformed to the common frame, usually chosen as the laboratory frame, by certain Lorentz transformations. In this way, it is easy to add the amplitudes of possible different decay chains coherently. If massless particles show up in the final states, the polarizations are expressed in helicity basis and the amplitudes are modified correspondingly.Comment: 12 pages, 0 figure

The Construction of a Williams Design and Randomization in Cross-Over Clinical Trials Using SAS

A Williams design is a special and useful type of cross-over design. Balance is achieved by using only one particular Latin square if there are even numbers of treatments, and by using only two appropriate squares if there are odd numbers of treatments. PROC PLAN of SAS/STAT is a practical tool, not only for random construction of the Williams square, but also for randomly assigning treatment sequences to the subjects, which makes integration of the two procedures possible. The present paper provides a general SAS program for the random construction of a Williams design and the relevant procedure for randomization. Examples of a three-treatment, three-period (3 x 3) and a four-treatment, four-period (4 x 4) cross-over designs are given to illustrate the function of the SAS program. The results can be regenerated and replicated with the same random number seed. The general SAS program meets the practical needs of researchers in the application of Williams designs

Single-photon transport and mechanical NOON state generation in microcavity optomechanics

We investigate the single-photon transport in a single-mode optical fiber coupled to an optomechanical system in the single-photon strong-coupling regime. The single-photon transmission amplitude is analytically obtained with a real-space approach and the effects of thermal noises are studied via master-equation simulations. The results provide an explicit understanding of optomechanical interaction and offer a useful guide for manipulating single photons in optomechanical systems. Based on the theoretical framework, we further propose a scheme to generate the mechanical NOON states with arbitrary phonon numbers by measuring the sideband photons. The probability for generating the NOON state with five phonons is over 0.15.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure