The Civil War Gulf Blockade: The Unpublished Journal of a U.S. Navy Warrant Officer Aboard the USS Vincennes, 1861-1864

“This paper attempts to (1) describe the unpublished journal of Nicholas Lynch, Warrant Officer (Sailmaker), U.S. Navy; (2) expand upon the most remarkable incident in the journal, the Affair at the Passes of the Mississippi River, a minor disaster for the Union navy in the first year of the war; (3) discuss the thoughts and moods of Sailmaker Lynch during the Union blockade from 1861 through 1864. The journal offers rare insights about naval warfare from the point of view of a sailor of the line. It also reveals that officers and crew were unable to maintain discipline and esprit de corps when faced with years of monotony and inaction on blockade duty aboard a sailing vessel.”—Introduction to article

Book Reviews: If by Sea: The Forging of the American Navy—From the American Revolution to the War of 1812; The Age of the Ship of the Line: The British & French Navies, 1650-1815; Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy

This document is Dr. Oxley\u27s review of three books: If by Sea: The Forging of the American Navy--From the American Revolution to the War of 1812, by George C. Daughan. Basic Books, 2008. 563 pp. Maps, glossary, notes, bibliography, index. ISBN 978-0-465-01607-5 30; The Age of the Ship of the Line: The British & French Navies, 1650-1815, by Jonathan R. Dull. University of Nebraska Press, 2009. 260 pp. Maps, diagrams, notes, index. ISBN 978-0-8032-1930-4 29.95; and Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy, by Ian W. Toll. W.W. Norton, 2006. 560 pp. Illustrations, chronology, notes, bibliography, index. ISBN 978-0-393-33032-8 $16.9

On Local Equivalence, Surface Code States and Matroids

Recently, Ji et al disproved the LU-LC conjecture and showed that the local unitary and local Clifford equivalence classes of the stabilizer states are not always the same. Despite the fact this settles the LU-LC conjecture, a sufficient condition for stabilizer states that violate the LU-LC conjecture is missing. In this paper, we investigate further the properties of stabilizer states with respect to local equivalence. Our first result shows that there exist infinitely many stabilizer states which violate the LU-LC conjecture. In particular, we show that for all numbers of qubits $n\geq 28$, there exist distance two stabilizer states which are counterexamples to the LU-LC conjecture. We prove that for all odd $n\geq 195$, there exist stabilizer states with distance greater than two which are LU equivalent but not LC equivalent. Two important classes of stabilizer states that are of great interest in quantum computation are the cluster states and stabilizer states of the surface codes. To date, the status of these states with respect to the LU-LC conjecture was not studied. We show that, under some minimal restrictions, both these classes of states preclude any counterexamples. In this context, we also show that the associated surface codes do not have any encoded non-Clifford transversal gates. We characterize the CSS surface code states in terms of a class of minor closed binary matroids. In addition to making connection with an important open problem in binary matroid theory, this characterization does in some cases provide an efficient test for CSS states that are not counterexamples.Comment: LaTeX, 13 pages; Revised introduction, minor changes and corrections mainly in section V

Improvements in forecasting intense rainfall: results from the FRANC (forecasting rainfall exploiting new data assimilation techniques and novel observations of convection) project

The FRANC project (Forecasting Rainfall exploiting new data Assimilation techniques and Novel observations of Convection) has researched improvements in numerical weather prediction of convective rainfall via the reduction of initial condition uncertainty. This article provides an overview of the project’s achievements. We highlight new radar techniques: correcting for attenuation of the radar return; correction for beams that are over 90% blocked by trees or towers close to the radar; and direct assimilation of radar reflectivity and refractivity. We discuss the treatment of uncertainty in data assimilation: new methods for estimation of observation uncertainties with novel applications to Doppler radar winds, Atmospheric Motion Vectors, and satellite radiances; a new algorithm for implementation of spatially-correlated observation error statistics in operational data assimilation; and innovative treatment of moist processes in the background error covariance model. We present results indicating a link between the spatial predictability of convection and convective regimes, with potential to allow improved forecast interpretation. The research was carried out as a partnership between University researchers and the Met Office (UK). We discuss the benefits of this approach and the impact of our research, which has helped to improve operational forecasts for convective rainfall event

A Bacterial Glucanotransferase Can Replace the Complex Maltose Metabolism Required for Starch to Sucrose Conversion in Leaves at Night

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Economic Analysis of Knowledge: The History of Thought and the Central Themes

Following the development of knowledge economies, there has been a rapid expansion of economic analysis of knowledge, both in the context of technological knowledge in particular and the decision theory in general. This paper surveys this literature by identifying the main themes and contributions and outlines the future prospects of the discipline. The wide scope of knowledge related questions in terms of applicability and alternative approaches has led to the fragmentation of research. Nevertheless, one can identify a continuing tradition which analyses various aspects of the generation, dissemination and use of knowledge in the economy