10,984 research outputs found
Plasma arginine vasopressin concentrations in epileptics under monotherapy
Plasma arginine vasopressin concentrations were determined by radio-immunoassay in 112 adult epileptics who were taking carbamazepine, phenytoin, primidone, or sodium valproate in long-term monotherapy, and in 19 controls. No significant difference was found between the groups, but some epileptics taking carbamazepine and primidone showed low values. Serum
concentrations of carbamazepine did not correlate with the concentrations of plasma arginine vasopressin.
In conclusion, there was no evidence of a stimulating
effect of chronic carbamazepine medication or a special inhibiting effect of phenytoin on the release of vasopressin arginine from the posterior pituitary
Accuracy threshold for concatenated error detection in one dimension
Estimates of the quantum accuracy threshold often tacitly assume that it is
possible to interact arbitrary pairs of qubits in a quantum computer with a
failure rate that is independent of the distance between them. None of the many
physical systems that are candidates for quantum computing possess this
property. Here we study the performance of a concatenated error-detection code
in a system that permits only nearest-neighbor interactions in one dimension.
We make use of a new message-passing scheme that maximizes the number of errors
that can be reliably corrected by the code. Our numerical results indicate that
arbitrarily accurate universal quantum computation is possible if the
probability of failure of each elementary physical operation is below
approximately 10^{-5}. This threshold is three orders of magnitude lower than
the highest known.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, now with error bar
Asymmetric quantum error correction via code conversion
In many physical systems it is expected that environmental decoherence will
exhibit an asymmetry between dephasing and relaxation that may result in qubits
experiencing discrete phase errors more frequently than discrete bit errors. In
the presence of such an error asymmetry, an appropriately asymmetric quantum
code - that is, a code that can correct more phase errors than bit errors -
will be more efficient than a traditional, symmetric quantum code. Here we
construct fault tolerant circuits to convert between an asymmetric subsystem
code and a symmetric subsystem code. We show that, for a moderate error
asymmetry, the failure rate of a logical circuit can be reduced by using a
combined symmetric asymmetric system and that doing so does not preclude
universality.Comment: 5 pages, 8 figures, presentation revised, figures and references
adde
HST-NICMOS Observations of M31's Metal Rich Globular Clusters and Their Surrounding Fields: I. Techniques
We have obtained HST-NICMOS observations of five of M31's most metal rich
globular clusters. These data allow photometry of individual stars in the
clusters and their surrounding fields. However, to achieve our goals -- obtain
accurate luminosity functions to compare with their Galactic counterparts,
determine metallicities from the slope of the giant branch, identify long
period variables, and estimate ages from the AGB tip luminosity, we must be
able to disentangle the true properties of the population from the
observational effects associated with measurements made in very crowded fields.
In this paper we present a careful analysis of photometry in crowded regions,
and show how image blending affects the results and interpretation of such
data. Although this analysis is specifically for our NICMOS observations in
M31, the techniques we develop can be applied to any imaging data taken in
crowded fields; we show how the effects of image blending will even limit NGST.
We use three different techniques to analyze the effects of crowding on our
data, including the insertion of artificial stars (traditional completeness
tests) and the creation of completely artificial clusters. They are used to
derive threshold- and critical-blending radii for each cluster, which determine
how close to the cluster center reliable photometry can be achieved. The
simulations also allow us to quantify and correct for the effects of blending
on the slope and width of the RGB at different surface brightness levels.Comment: AAS LaTeX v5.0, 18 pages. Submitted to the A
Self-organization, scaling and collapse in a coupled automaton model of foragers and vegetation resources with seed dispersal
We introduce a model of traveling agents ({\it e.g.} frugivorous animals) who
feed on randomly located vegetation patches and disperse their seeds, thus
modifying the spatial distribution of resources in the long term. It is assumed
that the survival probability of a seed increases with the distance to the
parent patch and decreases with the size of the colonized patch. In turn, the
foraging agents use a deterministic strategy with memory, that makes them visit
the largest possible patches accessible within minimal travelling distances.
The combination of these interactions produce complex spatio-temporal patterns.
If the patches have a small initial size, the vegetation total mass (biomass)
increases with time and reaches a maximum corresponding to a self-organized
critical state with power-law distributed patch sizes and L\'evy-like movement
patterns for the foragers. However, this state collapses as the biomass sharply
decreases to reach a noisy stationary regime characterized by corrections to
scaling. In systems with low plant competition, the efficiency of the foraging
rules leads to the formation of heterogeneous vegetation patterns with
frequency spectra, and contributes, rather counter-intuitively,
to lower the biomass levels.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure
Closed-circuit television welding- electrode guidance system
Closed-circuit TV camera is mounted parallel to electrode and moves along with it. Camera is scanned along seam so seam is viewed parallel with scan lines on TV monitor. Two fiber optics illuminators are attached to guidance system; they illuminate seam for TV camera
Experimental Predictions of The Functional Response of A Freshwater Fish
The functional response is the relationship between the feeding rate of an animal and its food density. It is reliant on two basic parameters; the volume searched for prey per unit time (searching rate) and the time taken to consume each prey item (handling time). As fish functional responses can be difficult to determine directly, it may be more feasible to measure their underlying behavioural parameters in controlled conditions and use these to predict the functional response. Here, we tested how accurately a Type II functional response model predicted the observed functional response of roach Rutilus rutilus, a visually foraging fish, and compared it with Type I functional response. Foraging experiments were performed by exposing fish in tank aquaria to a range of food densities, with their response captured using a two-camera videography system. This system was validated and was able to accurately measure fish behaviour in the aquaria, and enabled estimates of fish reaction distance, swimming speed (from which searching rate was calculated) and handling time to be measured. The parameterised Type II functional response model accurately predicted the observed functional response and was superior to the Type I model. These outputs suggest it will be possible to accurately measure behavioural parameters in other animal species and use these to predict the functional response in situations where it cannot be observed directly
Temperature and orientation dependence of kinetic roughening during homoepitaxy: A quantitative x-ray-scattering study of Ag
URL:http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevB.54.17938
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevB.54.17938Kinetic roughening during homoepitaxial growth was studied for Ag(111) and Ag(001). For Ag(111), from 150 to 500 K, the rms roughness exhibits a power law, σ∝tβ over nearly three decades in thickness. β≈1/2 at low temperatures, and there is an abrupt transition to smaller values above 300 K. In contrast, Ag(001) exhibits layer-by-layer growth with a significantly smaller β. These results are the first to establish the evolution of surface roughness quantitatively for a broad thickness and temperature range, as well as for the case where growth kinetics are dominated by a step-ledge diffusion barrier.Support is acknowledged from the University of Missouri Research Board, the NSF under Contract Nos. DMR-9202528 and DMR-9623827, and the Midwest Superconductivity Consortium ~MISCON! under DOE Grant No. DE-FG02-90ER45427. The SUNY X3 beamline is supported by the DOE under Contract No. DE-FG02-86ER45231, and the NSLS is supported by the DOE, Div. of Materials Sciences and Div. of Chemical Sciences. One of us
~W.C.E.! acknowledges support from the GAANN program of the U.S. Department of Education. We thank Ian Robinson for the Ag~111! crystal
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