101,845 research outputs found
Bottom sediments of Lake Rotoma
Lake Rotoma is a deep (70-80 m), oligotrophic, warm monomictic lake of volcanic origin with insignificant stream inflow and no clearly defined outflow. For at least 60 years up to 1972 the lake level fluctuated markedly about an overall rising trend of some 6-10 m. Nearshore profiles are related to the prevailing wave climate superimposed upon the overall rising lake level, shelves being wider, less steep, and deeper about the more exposed eastern and southern shorelines. The outer portions of shelves extending well below modern storm wave base into waters as deep as 15-25 m are relict features from lower lake level stands. Sediments fine from sand-gravel mixtures nearshore to silts in basinal areas. Their composition reflects a composite provenance involving the lavas and tephras about the lake, as well as intralake diatom frustules and organic matter. The distribution pattern of surficial bottom sediments is an interplay between grains of both biological and terrigenous origin, supplied presently and in the past by a variety of processes, that have been dispersed either by the modern hydrodynamic regime or by former ones associated with lower lake levels. These interrelationships are structured by erecting 5 process-age sediment classes in the lake, namely neoteric, amphoteric, proteric, palimpsest, and relict sediments, analogous to categories postulated for sediments on oceanic continental shelves. Short-core stratigraphy includes the Kaharoa (A.D. -1020) and Tarawera (A.D. 1886) tephras. The rates of sedimentation of diatomaceous silts in basinal areas have more than doubled since the Tarawera eruption, indicating an overall increase in the fertility level of lake waters associated, perhaps, with recent farm development in the catchment
Angular Power Spectra with Finite Counts
Angular anisotropy techniques for cosmic diffuse radiation maps are powerful
probes, even for quite small data sets. A popular observable is the angular
power spectrum; we present a detailed study applicable to any unbinned source
skymap S(n) from which N random, independent events are observed. Its exact
variance, which is due to the finite statistics, depends only on S(n) and N; we
also derive an unbiased estimator of the variance from the data. First-order
effects agree with previous analytic estimates. Importantly, heretofore
unidentified higher-order effects are found to contribute to the variance and
may cause the uncertainty to be significantly larger than previous analytic
estimates---potentially orders of magnitude larger. Neglect of these
higher-order terms, when significant, may result in a spurious detection of the
power spectrum. On the other hand, this would indicate the presence of
higher-order spatial correlations, such as a large bispectrum, providing new
clues about the sources. Numerical simulations are shown to support these
conclusions. Applying the formalism to an ensemble of Gaussian-distributed
skymaps, the noise-dominated part of the power spectrum uncertainty is
significantly increased at high multipoles by the new, higher-order effects.
This work is important for harmonic analyses of the distributions of diffuse
high-energy gamma-rays, neutrinos, and charged cosmic rays, as well as for
populations of sparse point sources such as active galactic nuclei.Comment: 27 pages, 8 figure
A dissipative scheme to approach the boundary of two-qubit entangled mixed states
We discuss the generation of states close to the boundary-family of maximally
entangled mixed states as defined by the use of concurrence and linear entropy.
The coupling of two qubits to a dissipation-affected bosonic mode is able to
produce a bipartite state having, for all practical purposes, the entanglement
and purity properties of one of such boundary states. We thoroughly study the
effects that thermal and squeezed character of the bosonic mode have in such a
process and we discuss tolerance to qubit phase-damping mechanisms. The
non-demanding nature of the scheme makes it realizable in a matter-light based
physical set-up, which we address in some details.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, RevTeX4, Accepted for publication by Physics
Review
Misinterpreting p-values in research
The overuse of p-values to dichotomize the results of research studies as being either significant or non-significant has taken some investigators away from the main task of determining the size of the difference between groups and the precision with which it is measured. Presenting the results of research as statements such as “p 0.05”, “NS” or as precise p-values has the effect of oversimplifying study findings. Further information regarding the size of the difference between groups is required. Presenting confidence intervals for the difference in effect, of say two treatments, in
addition to p-values, has the distinct advantage of presenting imprecision on the scale of the original measurement. A statistically significant test also does not imply that the observed difference is clinically important or meaningful, and their meanings are often confused
Kinetics of viral self-assembly: the role of ss RNA antenna
A big class of viruses self-assemble from a large number of identical capsid
proteins with long flexible N-terminal tails and ss RNA. We study the role of
the strong Coulomb interaction of positive N-terminal tails with ss RNA in the
kinetics of the in vitro virus self-assembly. Capsid proteins stick to
unassembled chain of ss RNA (which we call "antenna") and slide on it towards
the assembly site. We show that at excess of capsid proteins such
one-dimensional diffusion accelerates self-assembly more than ten times. On the
other hand at excess of ss RNA, antenna slows self-assembly down. Several
experiments are proposed to verify the role of ss RNA antenna.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, several experiments are proposed, a new idea of
experiment is adde
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