Is Industrial Hemp Worth Further Study in the US? A Survey of the Literature

There has been considerable interest recently in alternative cropping opportunities for US grain producers. One crop that has received significant interest has been industrial hemp. Hemp production has essentially been non-existent in the US since the 1950's. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the current state of knowledge relative to opportunities for domestic commercial hemp production.

Heralded single-photon generation using imperfect single-photon sources and a two-photon-absorbing medium

We propose a setup for a heralded, i.e. announced generation of a pure single-photon state given two imperfect sources whose outputs are represented by mixtures of the single-photon Fock state $\ket{1}$ with the vacuum $\ket{0}$. Our purification scheme uses beam splitters, photodetection and a two-photon-absorbing medium. The admixture of the vacuum is fully eliminated. We discuss two potential realizations of the scheme.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figures (LaTeX). In version v2 we have slightly modified our setup so as to increase the success probability of single-photon generation by a factor of two. In addition, in an appendix we discuss alternative realizations of single-photon generation without a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. Three new figures have been added. Version v3 is a revised version published in Phys. Rev. A. It contains numerous minor corrections and clarifications. A new figure has been added in order to clarify our convention regarding labelling the field modes. The action of the beam splitters in the Schroedinger picture is introduced. A new reference has been include

Indeterminate-length quantum coding

The quantum analogues of classical variable-length codes are indeterminate-length quantum codes, in which codewords may exist in superpositions of different lengths. This paper explores some of their properties. The length observable for such codes is governed by a quantum version of the Kraft-McMillan inequality. Indeterminate-length quantum codes also provide an alternate approach to quantum data compression.Comment: 32 page

Calculation of steady and unsteady pressures at supersonic speeds with CAP-TSD

A finite difference technique is used to solve the transonic small disturbance flow equation making use of shock capturing to treat wave discontinuities. Thus the nonlinear effects of thickness and angle of attack are considered. Such an approach is made feasible by the development of a new code called CAP-TSD (Computational Aeroelasticity Program - Transonic Small Disturbance), and is based on a fully implicit approximate factorization (AF) finite difference method to solve the time dependent transonic small disturbance equation. The application of the CAP-TSD code to the calculation of low to moderate supersonic steady and unsteady flows is presented. In particular, comparisons with exact linear theory solutions are made for steady and unsteady cases to evaluate shock capturing and other features of the current method. In addition, steady solutions obtained from an Euler code are used to evaluate the small disturbance aspects of the code. Steady and unsteady pressure comparisons are made with measurements for an F-15 wing model and for the RAE tailplane model

Outcomes of pulmonary rehabilitation for COPD in older patients: a comparative study

Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) is established as an effective intervention in optimising function and quality of life in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, there are very limited data on the effectiveness of PR in older patients with COPD. We reviewed all patients attending an 8-week outpatient programme. Patients were divided into two groups; Group A (n = 202), below 70 years, and Group B (n = 122), above 70 years of age. Outcomes in both patient subgroups were compared using FEV1, Incremental Shuttle Walk Test (ISWT), Endurance Shuttle Walk Test (ESWT), Grip Strength, St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Score (HADS), and COPD Assessment Test (CAT) score. Statistical analysis was conducted using Mann-Whitney non-parametric testing and chi-square testing for comparison of clinically relevant improvements between groups. There was no significant difference in PR outcomes between Group A and Group B using absolute values. Mean changes in ISWT for Groups A and B 39.7 m vs. 32.8 m (p = 0.63), respectively, SGRQ −2.5 vs. −2.8 (p = 0.95), HADS anxiety score −0.83 vs. −0.57 (p = 0.43) and HADS depression score −0.69 vs. −0.39 (p = 0.48), respectively. There was no difference in the proportion of patients who achieved the minimal clinically significant improvement in Group A versus Group B for parameters ISWT (38.6% vs 42.7%), SGRQ (27.8% vs 21.3%), and HADS total score (20.5% vs 28.1%). These data suggest that benefits of PR in COPD are not age dependent. Age should not be a barrier to enrolling patients with COPD in PR programmes

Preserving entanglement under decoherence and sandwiching all separable states

Every entangled state can be perturbed, for instance by decoherence, and stay entangled. For a large class of pure entangled states, we show how large the perturbation can be. Our class includes all pure bipartite and all maximally entangled states. For an entangled state, E, the constucted neighborhood of entangled states is the region outside two parallel hyperplanes, which sandwich the set of all separable states. The states for which these neighborhoods are largest are the maximally entangled ones. As the number of particles, or the dimensions of the Hilbert spaces for two of the particles increases, the distance between two of the hyperplanes which sandwich the separable states goes to zero. It is easy to decide if a state Q is in the neighborhood of entangled states we construct for an entangled state E. One merely has to check if the trace of EQ is greater than a constant which depends upon E and which we determine.Comment: Corrected first author's e-mail address. All the rest remains unchange

The Laser Astrometric Test of Relativity: Science, Technology, and Mission Design

The Laser Astrometric Test of Relativity (LATOR) experiment is designed to explore general theory of relativity in the close proximity to the Sun -- the most intense gravitational environment in the solar system. Using independent time-series of highly accurate measurements of the Shapiro time-delay (interplanetary laser ranging accurate to 3 mm at 2 AU) and interferometric astrometry (accurate to 0.01 picoradian), LATOR will measure gravitational deflection of light by the solar gravity with accuracy of 1 part in a billion -- a factor ~30,000 better than currently available. LATOR will perform series of highly-accurate tests in its search for cosmological remnants of scalar field in the solar system. We present science, technology and mission design for the LATOR mission.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures. To appear in the proceedings of the International Workshop "From Quantum to Cosmos: Fundamental Physics Research in Space", 21-24 May 2006, Warrenton, Virginia, USA http://physics.jpl.nasa.gov/quantum-to-cosmos

The Affect Effect: State Affect, Cognitions and IT Usage

This study presents state affect as a necessary theoretical and empirical component of information systems (IS) research models addressing the cognitions regarding, and usage of, information technology (IT). We position state affect as a powerful predictor of trusting cognitions and explain how state affect may also directly impact IT use. We tested our research model using data from 376 users of Microsoft Excel. Results indicate that positive and negative affect influence various trusting cognitions as well as directly impact post-adoptive use intentions. Our findings offer particular implications IS research models intending to comprehensively model cognitions and attitudes regarding IT and IT usage

NASA ExoPAG Study Analysis Group 11: Preparing for the WFIRST Microlensing Survey

NASA's proposed WFIRST-AFTA mission will discover thousands of exoplanets with separations from the habitable zone out to unbound planets, using the technique of gravitational microlensing. The Study Analysis Group 11 of the NASA Exoplanet Program Analysis Group was convened to explore scientific programs that can be undertaken now, and in the years leading up to WFIRST's launch, in order to maximize the mission's scientific return and to reduce technical and scientific risk. This report presents those findings, which include suggested precursor Hubble Space Telescope observations, a ground-based, NIR microlensing survey, and other programs to develop and deepen community scientific expertise prior to the mission.Comment: 35 pages, 5 Figures. A brief overview of the findings is presented in the Executive Summary (2 pages

Evolución del diseño de interiores en los grandes Centros Comerciales de Lima Central Sur en las últimas tres décadas

La investigación responde a una problemática que se evidencia a través de una serie de debilidades que repercuten en el diseño de dichos centros comerciales. El conocimiento de nuevas tecnologías para el diseño interior era escaso, no había conocimientos de enchapes, acabados finos, iluminación decorativa y diseño interior en general. Los materiales tampoco eran de gran ayuda, solo se conocían las estructuras comunes, como el cemento y el acero. Tampoco había conocimientos sobre técnicas constructivas