25,745 research outputs found
Macroevolutionary Patterns In The Evolutionary Radiation Of Archosaurs (Tetrapoda: Diapsida)
The rise of archosaurs during the Triassic and Early Jurassic has been treated as a classic example of an evolutionary radiation in the fossil record. This paper reviews published studies and provides new data on archosaur lineage origination, diversity and lineage evolution, morphological disparity, rates of morphological character change, and faunal abundance during the TriassicâEarly Jurassic. The fundamental archosaur lineages originated early in the Triassic, in concert with the highest rates of character change. Disparity and diversity peaked later, during the Norian, but the most significant increase in disparity occurred before maximum diversity. Archosaurs were rare components of EarlyâMiddle Triassic faunas, but were more abundant in the Late Triassic and pre-eminent globally by the Early Jurassic. The archosaur radiation was a drawn-out event and major components such as diversity and abundance were discordant from each other. Crurotarsans (crocodile-line archosaurs) were more disparate, diverse, and abundant than avemetatarsalians (bird-line archosaurs, including dinosaurs) during the Late Triassic, but these roles were reversed in the Early Jurassic. There is no strong evidence that dinosaurs outcompeted or gradually eclipsed crurotarsans during the Late Triassic. Instead, crurotarsan diversity decreased precipitously by the end-Triassic extinction, which helped usher in the age of dinosaurian dominance
Carrier dynamics in ion-implanted GaAs studied by simulation and observation of terahertz emission
We have studied terahertz (THz) emission from arsenic-ion implanted GaAs both
experimentally and using a three-dimensional carrier dynamics simulation. A
uniform density of vacancies was formed over the optical absorption depth of
bulk GaAs samples by performing multi-energy implantations of arsenic ions (1
and 2.4MeV) and subsequent thermal annealing. In a series of THz emission
experiments the frequency of peak THz power was found to increase significantly
from 1.4 to 2.2THz when the ion implantation dose was increased from 10^13 to
10^16 cm-3. We used a semi-classical Monte-Carlo simulation of ultra-fast
carrier dynamics to reproduce and explain these results. The effect of the
ion-induced damage was included in the simulation by considering carrier
scattering at neutral and charged impurities, as well as carrier trapping at
defect sites. Higher vacancy concentrations and shorter carrier trapping times
both contributed to shorter simulated THz pulses, the latter being more
important over experimentally realistic parameter ranges.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figure
âMad, bad, or possessedâ? Perceptions of Self-Harm and Mental Illness in Evangelical Christian Communities
Mental illness within evangelical Christian communities is frequently stigmatised, with many attributing it exclusively to demonic possession, lack of faith, personal sin, or other negative spiritual influences. This study explores perceptions of self-harm in the context of evangelical Christian faith communities using the novel qualitative story completion task. A convenience sample of 101 UK-based evangelical Christians completed a third-person fictional story stem featuring a devout female Christian who self-harms. A contextualist informed thematic analysis was carried out focusing on perceptions of cause, cure, and treatment. Most stories positioned spiritual causes of mental illness (that is, demonic possession or personal sin) as harmful to the individual by rendering individuals as stigmatised objects or as socially displaced. The stories also provided insight into negative perceptions of females experiencing mental illness within evangelical communities. The stories suggested that these views often led to stigma and shame, which ultimately exacerbated illness and led to reduced help-seeking. Conversely, stories depicting the integration of relational care alongside spiritual resources frequently led to recovery. That the stories represented the need for relational support, within a spiritually syntonic framework, for recovery from mental illness highlights the limitations of a dichotomised approach to pastoral care. Methodologically, the study demonstrates the usefulness of a seldom-used tool within the pastoral psychology context â the story completion task â for accessing sociocultural discourses and wider representations surrounding stigmatised topics or populations
Quantum Error Correction on Linear Nearest Neighbor Qubit Arrays
A minimal depth quantum circuit implementing 5-qubit quantum error correction
in a manner optimized for a linear nearest neighbor architecture is described.
The canonical decomposition is used to construct fast and simple gates that
incorporate the necessary swap operations. Simulations of the circuit's
performance when subjected to discrete and continuous errors are presented. The
relationship between the error rate of a physical qubit and that of a logical
qubit is investigated with emphasis on determining the concatenated error
correction threshold.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Ground-layer wavefront reconstruction from multiple natural guide stars
Observational tests of ground layer wavefront recovery have been made in open
loop using a constellation of four natural guide stars at the 1.55 m Kuiper
telescope in Arizona. Such tests explore the effectiveness of wide-field seeing
improvement by correction of low-lying atmospheric turbulence with ground-layer
adaptive optics (GLAO). The wavefronts from the four stars were measured
simultaneously on a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor (WFS). The WFS placed a 5 x
5 array of square subapertures across the pupil of the telescope, allowing for
wavefront reconstruction up to the fifth radial Zernike order. We find that the
wavefront aberration in each star can be roughly halved by subtracting the
average of the wavefronts from the other three stars. Wavefront correction on
this basis leads to a reduction in width of the seeing-limited stellar image by
up to a factor of 3, with image sharpening effective from the visible to near
infrared wavelengths over a field of at least 2 arc minutes. We conclude that
GLAO correction will be a valuable tool that can increase resolution and
spectrographic throughput across a broad range of seeing-limited observations.Comment: 25 pages, 8 figures, to be published in Astrophys.
Polarisation-sensitive terahertz detection by multicontact photoconductive receivers
We have developed a terahertz radiation detector that measures both the
amplitude and polarization of the electric field as a function of time. The
device is a three-contact photoconductive receiver designed so that two
orthogonal electric-field components of an arbitrary polarized electromagnetic
wave may be detected simultaneously. The detector was fabricated on Fe+
ion-implanted InP. Polarization-sensitive detection is demonstrated with an
extinction ratio better than 100:1. This type of device will have immediate
application in studies of birefringent and optically active materials in the
far-infrared region of the spectrum.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figure
Eigenvector Approximation Leading to Exponential Speedup of Quantum Eigenvalue Calculation
We present an efficient method for preparing the initial state required by
the eigenvalue approximation quantum algorithm of Abrams and Lloyd. Our method
can be applied when solving continuous Hermitian eigenproblems, e.g., the
Schroedinger equation, on a discrete grid. We start with a classically obtained
eigenvector for a problem discretized on a coarse grid, and we efficiently
construct, quantum mechanically, an approximation of the same eigenvector on a
fine grid. We use this approximation as the initial state for the eigenvalue
estimation algorithm, and show the relationship between its success probability
and the size of the coarse grid.Comment: 4 page
Quantum information transport to multiple receivers
The importance of transporting quantum information and entanglement with high
fidelity cannot be overemphasized. We present a scheme based on adiabatic
passage that allows for transportation of a qubit, operator measurements and
entanglement, using a 1-D array of quantum sites with a single sender (Alice)
and multiple receivers (Bobs). Alice need not know which Bob is the receiver,
and if several Bobs try to receive the signal, they obtain a superposition
state which can be used to realize two-qubit operator measurements for the
generation of maximally entangled states.Comment: Modified in view of referee's comments, new author added, natural
scheme for operator measurements identified, hence W state preparation
replaced with GHZ state preparation via operator measurements. 4 pages, 3
figure
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