21,670 research outputs found
The Role of Tree Clinics in Urban Forestry
A tree clinic analyzes tree problems and recommends appropriate actions to the public. The objective of tree clinics is to inform the citizen about urban trees. This paper is based on the experiences of 30 tree clinics held in Ann Arbor during the last eight years. The ingredients necessary for a successful tree clinic are discussed: (I) active sponsor, (2) suitable date and time, (3) good location, (4) proper publicity, (5) diversified experts, (6) proper organization, (7) sizable public turnout, and (8) follow-up publicity and acknowledgments
Convex Rank Tests and Semigraphoids
Convex rank tests are partitions of the symmetric group which have desirable
geometric properties. The statistical tests defined by such partitions involve
counting all permutations in the equivalence classes. Each class consists of
the linear extensions of a partially ordered set specified by data. Our methods
refine existing rank tests of non-parametric statistics, such as the sign test
and the runs test, and are useful for exploratory analysis of ordinal data. We
establish a bijection between convex rank tests and probabilistic conditional
independence structures known as semigraphoids. The subclass of submodular rank
tests is derived from faces of the cone of submodular functions, or from
Minkowski summands of the permutohedron. We enumerate all small instances of
such rank tests. Of particular interest are graphical tests, which correspond
to both graphical models and to graph associahedra
Implicit cognition is impaired and dissociable in a head-injured group with executive deficits
Implicit or non-conscious cognition is traditionally assumed to be robust to pathology but Gomez-Beldarrain et al (1999, 2002) recently showed deficits on a single implicit task after head injury. Laboratory research suggests that implicit processes dissociate. This study therefore examined implicit cognition in 20 head-injured patients and age- and I.Q.-matched controls using a battery of four implicit cognition tasks: a Serial Reaction Time task (SRT), mere exposure effect task, automatic stereotype activation and hidden co-variation detection. Patients were assessed on an extensive neuropsychological battery, and MRI scanned. Inclusion criteria included impairment on at least one measure of executive function. The patient group was impaired relative to the control group on all the implicit cognition tasks except automatic stereotype activation. Effect size analyses using the control mean and standard deviation for reference showed further dissociations across patients and across implicit tasks. Patients impaired on implicit tasks had more cognitive deficits overall than those unimpaired, and a larger Dysexecutive Self/Other discrepancy (DEX) score suggesting greater behavioural problems. Performance on the SRT task correlated with a composite measure of executive function. Head-injury thus produced heterogeneous impairments in the implicit acquisition of new information. Implicit activation of existing knowledge structures appeared intact. Impairments in implicit cognition and executive function may interact to produce dysfunctional behaviour after head-injury. Future comparisons of implicit and explicit cognition should use several measures of each function, to ensure that they measure the latent variable of interest
Hi-C and AIA observations of transverse magnetohydrodynamic waves in active regions
The recent launch of the High resolution Coronal imager (Hi-C) provided a unique opportunity of studying the EUV corona with unprecedented spatial resolution. We utilize these observations to investigate the properties of low-frequency (50−200 s) active region transverse waves, whose omnipresence had been suggested previously. The five-fold improvement in spatial resolution over SDO/AIA reveals coronal loops with widths 150−310 km and that these loops support transverse waves with displacement amplitudes <50 km. However, the results suggest that wave activity in the coronal loops is of low energy, with typical velocity amplitudes <3 km s-1. An extended time-series of SDO data suggests that low-energy wave behaviour is typical of the coronal structures both before and after the Hi-C observations
Coherence of Spin Qubits in Silicon
Given the effectiveness of semiconductor devices for classical computation
one is naturally led to consider semiconductor systems for solid state quantum
information processing. Semiconductors are particularly suitable where local
control of electric fields and charge transport are required. Conventional
semiconductor electronics is built upon these capabilities and has demonstrated
scaling to large complicated arrays of interconnected devices. However, the
requirements for a quantum computer are very different from those for classical
computation, and it is not immediately obvious how best to build one in a
semiconductor. One possible approach is to use spins as qubits: of nuclei, of
electrons, or both in combination. Long qubit coherence times are a
prerequisite for quantum computing, and in this paper we will discuss
measurements of spin coherence in silicon. The results are encouraging - both
electrons bound to donors and the donor nuclei exhibit low decoherence under
the right circumstances. Doped silicon thus appears to pass the first test on
the road to a quantum computer.Comment: Submitted to J Cond Matter on Nov 15th, 200
Quantum computing with an electron spin ensemble
We propose to encode a register of quantum bits in different collective
electron spin wave excitations in a solid medium. Coupling to spins is enabled
by locating them in the vicinity of a superconducting transmission line cavity,
and making use of their strong collective coupling to the quantized radiation
field. The transformation between different spin waves is achieved by applying
gradient magnetic fields across the sample, while a Cooper Pair Box, resonant
with the cavity field, may be used to carry out one- and two-qubit gate
operations.Comment: Several small corrections and modifications. This version is
identical to the version published in Phys. Rev. Let
The interaction of unidirectional winds with an isolated barchan sand dune
Velocity profile measurements are determined on and around a barchan dune model inserted in the roughness layer on the tunnel floor. A theoretical investigation is made into the factors influencing the rate of sand flow around the dune. Flow visualization techniques are employed in the mapping of streamlines of flow on the dune's surface. Maps of erosion and deposition of sand are constructed for the barchan model, utilizing both flow visualization techniques and friction velocities calculated from the measured velocity profiles. The sediment budget found experimentally for the model is compared to predicted and observed results reported. The comparison shows fairly good agreement between the experimentally determined and predicted sediment budgets
Global Optical Control of a Quantum Spin Chain
Quantum processors which combine the long decoherence times of spin qubits
together with fast optical manipulation of excitons have recently been the
subject of several proposals. I show here that arbitrary single- and entangling
two-qubit gates can be performed in a chain of perpetually coupled spin qubits
solely by using laser pulses to excite higher lying states. It is also
demonstrated that universal quantum computing is possible even if these pulses
are applied {\it globally} to a chain; by employing a repeating pattern of four
distinct qubit units the need for individual qubit addressing is removed. Some
current experimental qubit systems would lend themselves to implementing this
idea.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Remote capacitive sensing in two-dimension quantum-dot arrays
We investigate gate-defined quantum dots in silicon on insulator nanowire
field-effect transistors fabricated using a foundry-compatible fully-depleted
silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI) process. A series of split gates wrapped over the
silicon nanowire naturally produces a bilinear array of quantum
dots along a single nanowire. We begin by studying the capacitive coupling of
quantum dots within such a 22 array, and then show how such couplings
can be extended across two parallel silicon nanowires coupled together by
shared, electrically isolated, 'floating' electrodes. With one quantum dot
operating as a single-electron-box sensor, the floating gate serves to enhance
the charge sensitivity range, enabling it to detect charge state transitions in
a separate silicon nanowire. By comparing measurements from multiple devices we
illustrate the impact of the floating gate by quantifying both the charge
sensitivity decay as a function of dot-sensor separation and configuration
within the dual-nanowire structure.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, 35 cites and supplementar
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