1,168 research outputs found
The political ecology of weeds : a scalar approach to landscape transformations
How do plants that move and spread across landscapes become branded as weeds and thereby objects of contention and control? We outline a political ecology approach that builds on a Lefebvrian understanding of the production of space, identifying three scalar moments that make plants into 'weeds' in different spatial contexts and landscapes. The three moments are: the operational scale, which relates to empirical phenomena in nature and society; the observational scale, which defines formal concepts of these phenomena and their implicit or explicit 'biopower' across institutional and spatial categories; and the interpretive scale, which is communicated through stories and actions expressing human feelings or concerns regarding the phenomena and processes of socio-spatial change. Together, these three scalar moments interact to produce a political ecology of landscape transformation, where biophysical and socio-cultural processes of daily life encounter formal categories and modes of control as well as emotive and normative expectations in shaping landscapes. Using three exemplar 'weeds' - acacia, lantana and ambrosia - our political ecology approach to landscape transformations shows that weeds do not act alone and that invasives are not inherently bad organisms. Humans and weeds go together; plants take advantage of spaces and opportunities that we create. Human desires for preserving certain social values in landscapes in contradiction to actual transformations is often at the heart of definitions of and conflicts over weeds or invasives
Information hiding and retrieval in Rydberg wave packets using half-cycle pulses
We demonstrate an information hiding and retrieval scheme with the relative
phases between states in a Rydberg wave packet acting as the bits of a data
register. We use a terahertz half-cycle pulse (HCP) to transfer phase-encoded
information from an optically accessible angular momentum manifold to another
manifold which is not directly accessed by our laser pulses, effectively hiding
the information from our optical interferometric measurement techniques. A
subsequent HCP acting on these wave packets reintroduces the information back
into the optically accessible data register manifold which can then be `read'
out.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
The history of introduction of the African baobab (Adansonia digitata, Malvaceae: Bombacoideae) in the Indian subcontinent
To investigate the pathways of introduction of the African baobab, Adansonia digitata, to the Indian subcontinent, we examined 10 microsatellite loci in individuals from Africa, India, the Mascarenes and Malaysia, and matched this with historical evidence of human interactions between source and destination regions. Genetic analysis showed broad congruence of African clusters with biogeographic regions except along the Zambezi (Mozambique) and Kilwa (Tanzania), where populations included a mixture of individuals assigned to at least two different clusters. Individuals from West Africa, the Mascarenes, southeast India and Malaysia shared a cluster. Baobabs from western and central India clustered separately from Africa. Genetic diversity was lower in populations from the Indian subcontinent than in African populations, but the former contained private alleles. Phylogenetic analysis showed Indian populations were closest to those from the Mombasa-Dar es Salaam coast. The genetic results provide evidence of multiple introductions of African baobabs to the Indian subcontinent over a longer time period than previously assumed. Individuals belonging to different genetic clusters in Zambezi and Kilwa may reflect the history of trafficking captives from inland areas to supply the slave trade between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries. Baobabs in the Mascarenes, southeast India and Malaysia indicate introduction from West Africa through eighteenth and nineteenth century European colonial networks
Statistical physics-based reconstruction in compressed sensing
Compressed sensing is triggering a major evolution in signal acquisition. It
consists in sampling a sparse signal at low rate and later using computational
power for its exact reconstruction, so that only the necessary information is
measured. Currently used reconstruction techniques are, however, limited to
acquisition rates larger than the true density of the signal. We design a new
procedure which is able to reconstruct exactly the signal with a number of
measurements that approaches the theoretical limit in the limit of large
systems. It is based on the joint use of three essential ingredients: a
probabilistic approach to signal reconstruction, a message-passing algorithm
adapted from belief propagation, and a careful design of the measurement matrix
inspired from the theory of crystal nucleation. The performance of this new
algorithm is analyzed by statistical physics methods. The obtained improvement
is confirmed by numerical studies of several cases.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures, 3 tables. Related codes and data are available
at http://aspics.krzakala.or
Information hiding and retrieval in Rydberg wave packets using half-cycle pulses
We demonstrate an information hiding and retrieval scheme with the relative phases between states in a Rydberg wave packet acting as the bits of a data register. We use a terahertz half-cycle pulse (HCP) to transfer phase-encoded information from an optically accessible angular momentum manifold to another manifold which is not directly accessed by our laser pulses, effectively hiding the information from our optical interferometric measurement techniques. A subsequent HCP acting on these wave packets reintroduces the information back into the optically accessible data register manifold which can then be read out
Overcoming the su(2^n) sufficient condition for the coherent control of n-qubit systems
We study quantum systems with even numbers N of levels that are completely
state-controlled by unitary transformations generated by Lie algebras
isomorphic to sp(N) of dimension N(N+1)/2. These Lie algebras are smaller than
the respective su(N) with dimension N^2-1. We show that this reduction
constrains the Hamiltonian to have symmetric energy levels. An example of such
a system is an n-qubit system. Using a geometric representation for the quantum
wave function of a finite system, we present an explicit example that shows a
two-qubit system can be controlled by the elements of the Lie algebra sp(4)
(isomorphic to spin(5) and so(5)) with dimension ten rather than su(4) with
dimension fifteen. These results enable one to envision more efficient
algorithms for the design of fields for quantum-state engineering, and they
provide more insight into the fundamental structure of quantum control.Comment: 13 pp., 2 figure
Pembelajaran Bangun Ruang Berbasis Augmented Reality dengan Metode Marker Augmented Reality
Siswa SMP merasa kesulitan dalam memahami materi bangun ruang, karena tanpa alat peraga mereka hanya mampu membayangkan saja atau mengimajinasikan sendiri objek bangun ruang tersebut. Karena itu dibutuhkan aplikasi yang dapat menampilkan bentuk bangun ruang 3 dimensi agar siswa dapat memahami bentuk dari masing -masing bangun ruang.
Pembelajaran bangun ruang berbasis augmented reality dengan metode marker augmented reality adalah aplikasi multimedia yang menggabungkan data grafis bentuk bangun ruang 3 dimensi dengan media buku. Menampilkan bangun ruang seperti kubus, balok, prisma, limas, tabung, kerucut, dan bola, beserta elemen -elemen dan rumus-rumus yang berlaku pada bangun ruang tersebut. Dengan metode marker augmented reality yang mengidentifikasi pola dari marker untuk menampilkan objek virtual kedunia nyata.
Dengan menggunakan tahapan pengembangan multimedia yaitu concept, design, material collecting, assembly, testing, dandistribution agar dalam membangun pembelajaran bangun ruang berbasis augmented reality dengan terstruktur. Aplikasi ini dapat menjadi salah satu media pembelajaran alternatif materi bangun ruang untuk tingkat SMP
Controllability and universal three-qubit quantum computation with trapped electron states
We show how to control and perform universal three-qubit quantum computation
with trapped electron quantum states. The three qubits are the electron spin,
and the first two quantum states of the cyclotron and axial harmonic
oscillators. We explicitly show how the universal gates can be performed. As an
example of a non-trivial quantum algorithm, we outline the implementation of
the Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm in this system.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure. Typos corrected. The original publication is
available at http://www.springerlink.co
Diagnostic Reasoning Prompts Reveal the Potential for Large Language Model Interpretability in Medicine
One of the major barriers to using large language models (LLMs) in medicine
is the perception they use uninterpretable methods to make clinical decisions
that are inherently different from the cognitive processes of clinicians. In
this manuscript we develop novel diagnostic reasoning prompts to study whether
LLMs can perform clinical reasoning to accurately form a diagnosis. We find
that GPT4 can be prompted to mimic the common clinical reasoning processes of
clinicians without sacrificing diagnostic accuracy. This is significant because
an LLM that can use clinical reasoning to provide an interpretable rationale
offers physicians a means to evaluate whether LLMs can be trusted for patient
care. Novel prompting methods have the potential to expose the black box of
LLMs, bringing them one step closer to safe and effective use in medicine
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