CO2-eq-emissions of organic and conventional foodstuffs in Austria

To date 74 products (in each case KONV, Bio-ZZU and, in part Bio-EU) have been evaluated: dairy products (47 products), fruit and vegetables (currently 15 products), bread products (currently 12 products). This summary only presents the results of selected products in the KONV and Bio-ZZU categories

The multifocal pattern electroretinogram in chloroquine retinopathy

Purpose: Optimal screening for ocular toxicity caused by chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine is still controversial. With the multifocal pattern electroretinogram (mfPERG), a new electrophysiological technique has recently become available to detect early changes of ganglion cells. In this study this new technique is applied to a series of 10 patients seen consecutively receiving long-term chloroquine medication. Methods: In 10 patients receiving chloroquine medication, clinical examination, Amsler visual field testing and computerized color vision testing were performed. If toxicity was suspected, automated perimetry was carried out. In addition, in all patients conventional pattern electroretinogram (PERG) and mfPERG testing were performed. Results: On clinical examination 8 patients showed no chloroquine-associated maculopathy, while 2 patients did. Of these 2, only 1 reported abnormalities when viewing the Amsler chart, while automated perimetry showed typical, ring-like paracentral scotomas in both affected patients and color vision was significantly abnormal. In the normal patients, 4 of 8 had a mild color vision disturbance, which correlated to age-related macular changes. The amplitudes of the PERG and the central (approximately 10degrees) responses of the mfPERG were markedly reduced in chloroquine maculopathy, while the latencies were unchanged. The peripheral rings of mfPERG (ranging to 48degrees) were not affected by chloroquine toxicity. Both PERG and mfPERG were less affected by age-related macular changes. Conclusions: The reduction of PERG and central mfPERG responses in chloroquine maculopathy may help with the early detection of toxicity. Copyright (C) 2004 S. Karger AG, Basel

On the Structure of the Observable Algebra of QCD on the Lattice

The structure of the observable algebra ${\mathfrak O}_{\Lambda}$ of lattice QCD in the Hamiltonian approach is investigated. As was shown earlier, ${\mathfrak O}_{\Lambda}$ is isomorphic to the tensor product of a gluonic $C^{*}$-subalgebra, built from gauge fields and a hadronic subalgebra constructed from gauge invariant combinations of quark fields. The gluonic component is isomorphic to a standard CCR algebra over the group manifold SU(3). The structure of the hadronic part, as presented in terms of a number of generators and relations, is studied in detail. It is shown that its irreducible representations are classified by triality. Using this, it is proved that the hadronic algebra is isomorphic to the commutant of the triality operator in the enveloping algebra of the Lie super algebra ${\rm sl(1/n)}$ (factorized by a certain ideal).Comment: 33 page

Algorithms (X,sigma,eta) : quasi-random mutations for Evolution Strategies

International audienceRandomization is an efficient tool for global optimization. We here define a method which keeps : - the order 0 of evolutionary algorithms (no gradient) ; - the stochastic aspect of evolutionary algorithms ; - the efficiency of so-called "low-dispersion" points ; and which ensures under mild assumptions global convergence with linear convergence rate. We use i) sampling on a ball instead of Gaussian sampling (in a way inspired by trust regions), ii) an original rule for step-size adaptation ; iii) quasi-monte-carlo sampling (low dispersion points) instead of Monte-Carlo sampling. We prove in this framework linear convergence rates i) for global optimization and not only local optimization ; ii) under very mild assumptions on the regularity of the function (existence of derivatives is not required). Though the main scope of this paper is theoretical, numerical experiments are made to backup the mathematical results. Algorithm XSE: quasi-random mutations for evolution strategies. A. Auger, M. Jebalia, O. Teytaud. Proceedings of EA'2005

Gauge Orbit Types for Theories with Classical Compact Gauge Group

We determine the orbit types of the action of the group of local gauge transformations on the space of connections in a principal bundle with structure group O(n), SO(n) or $Sp(n)$ over a closed, simply connected manifold of dimension 4. Complemented with earlier results on U(n) and SU(n) this completes the classification of the orbit types for all classical compact gauge groups over such space-time manifolds. On the way we derive the classification of principal bundles with structure group SO(n) over these manifolds and the Howe subgroups of SO(n).Comment: 57 page

Resistance to dislodgement: habitat and size-specific differences in morphology and tenacity in an intertidal snail

The authors quantified 1) shell size (defined as the maximum projected surface area, MPSA); 2) shell shape; 3) foot area; 4) maximum force to dislodge a snail in shear; and 5) tenacity (force per foot area required to dislodge) of the herbivorous Littorina obtusata. Wave-exposed snails were smaller (lower average MPSA), and were shorter and had larger foot area and greater dislodgement force than did protected snails of similar MPSA. The greater dislodgement force at the exposed site was due to larger foot area, not to greater tenacity. -from Author

Raman Spectroscopy Characterization of Aqueous Vanadate Species Interaction with Aluminum Alloy 2024-T3 Surfaces

Raman spectroscopy and electrochemical techniques were used to characterize the interactions of aqueous NaVO_3/NaCl and NH_4VO_3/oxalic acid with AA 2024-T3. The interaction of aqueous NaVO_3 with Cu^0 and Cu_2O was characterized. At potential values similar to the OCP of AA 2024-T3 in dilute NaCl, aqueous NaVO_3 formed a polyvanadate film on Cu_2O and formed little or no vanadate film on Cu^0. Treatment of AA 2024-T3 with basic, aqueous NaVO_3/NaCl resulted in a polyvanadate film on copper-rich intermetallic particles and the formation of monovanadates on the matrix. Treatment of AA 2024-T3 with acidic, aqueous NH_4VO_3/oxalic resulted in the formation of monovanadates on the matrix and provided no evidence of vanadate species on copper-rich particles. AA 2024-T3 samples pretreated with either aqueous vanadate salt solution displayed modest cathodic inhibition soon after treatment but inhibition degraded with aging. The formation of polymerized vanadates species on copper-rich particles supports the cathodic inhibition mechanism. The presence of vanadate species on copper-rich particles pretreated with aqueous NaVO_3/NaCl containing predominantly tetrahedral vanadates versus the lack of evidence for similar species on particles treated with aqueous NH_4VO_3/oxalic acid containing predominantly octahedral vanadates supports the importance of tetrahedrally coordinated vanadate species for corrosion inhibition

Quantum communication using a bounded-size quantum reference frame

Typical quantum communication schemes are such that to achieve perfect decoding the receiver must share a reference frame with the sender. Indeed, if the receiver only possesses a bounded-size quantum token of the sender's reference frame, then the decoding is imperfect, and we can describe this effect as a noisy quantum channel. We seek here to characterize the performance of such schemes, or equivalently, to determine the effective decoherence induced by having a bounded-size reference frame. We assume that the token is prepared in a special state that has particularly nice group-theoretic properties and that is near-optimal for transmitting information about the sender's frame. We present a decoding operation, which can be proven to be near-optimal in this case, and we demonstrate that there are two distinct ways of implementing it (corresponding to two distinct Kraus decompositions). In one, the receiver measures the orientation of the reference frame token and reorients the system appropriately. In the other, the receiver extracts the encoded information from the virtual subsystems that describe the relational degrees of freedom of the system and token. Finally, we provide explicit characterizations of these decoding schemes when the system is a single qubit and for three standard kinds of reference frame: a phase reference, a Cartesian frame (representing an orthogonal triad of spatial directions), and a reference direction (representing a single spatial direction).Comment: 17 pages, 1 figure, comments welcome; v2 published versio