Reproduction of Endangered Big-Headed Turtle, \u3cem\u3ePlatysternon megacephalum\u3c/em\u3e (Reptilia: Testudines: Platysternidae)

The big-headed turtle (Platysternon megacephalum) is heavily harvested to support tremendous demands from food and pet markets, and thus its ecology remains poorly understood. The presence of self-sustaining populations in Hong Kong (22°09’-22°37’N, 113°50’-114°30’E) provides important opportunities to advance our understanding of this species. We employed mark-recapture surveying, radio-tracking of two gravid females, and directed streamside searches to document the reproductive ecology of the species between September 2009 and June 2011 in Hong Kong. We found seven gravid females between 20-27 June 2010 and 2011, and which subsequently oviposited on average three eggs (range 2-8), with mean length and width of 36 mm and 21 mm, in early July. There was positive correlation between the size of females and clutch sizes. We found one clutch in leaf litter 1.6 m away from the stream, which hatched between 14 to 18 October. The incubation period was estimated to be between 103 and 110 days. The results of this study provide important information to formulate conservation plan for this endangered species

Correlated Errors in Quantum Error Corrections

We show that errors are not generated correlatedly provided that quantum bits do not directly interact with (or couple to) each other. Generally, this no-qubits-interaction condition is assumed except for the case where two-qubit gate operation is being performed. In particular, the no-qubits-interaction condition is satisfied in the collective decoherence models. Thus, errors are not correlated in the collective decoherence. Consequently, we can say that current quantum error correcting codes which correct single-qubit-errors will work in most cases including the collective decoherence.Comment: no correction, 3 pages, RevTe

Reproduction of endangered Big-headed Turtle, Platysternon megacephalum (Reptilia: Testudines: Platysternidae)

The big-headed turtle (Platysternon megacephalum) is heavily harvested to support tremendous demands from food and pet markets, and thus its ecology remains poorly understood. The presence of self-sustaining populations in Hong Kong (22°09’-22°37’N, 113°50’-114°30’E) provides important opportunities to advance our understanding of this species. We employed mark-recapture surveying, radio-tracking of two gravid females, and directed streamside searches to document the reproductive ecology of the species between September 2009 and June 2011 in Hong Kong. We found seven gravid females between 20-27 June 2010 and 2011, and which subsequently oviposited on average three eggs (range 2-8), with mean length and width of 36 mm and 21 mm, in early July. There was positive correlation between the size of females and clutch sizes. We found one clutch in leaf litter 1.6 m away from the stream, which hatched between 14 to 18 October. The incubation period was estimated to be between 103 and 110 days. The results of this study provide important information to formulate conservation plan for this endangered species

Colección José Arencibia [Material gráfico]

Copia digital. Madrid : Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte, 201

Enhancement of service life of polymer electrolyte fuel cells through application of nanodispersed ionomer

Copyright © 2020 The Authors, some rights reserved.In polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs), protons from the anode are transferred to the cathode through the ionomer membrane. By impregnating the ionomer into the electrodes, proton pathways are extended and high proton transfer efficiency can be achieved. Because the impregnated ionomer mechanically binds the catalysts within the electrode, the ionomer is also called a binder. To yield good electrochemical performance, the binder should be homogeneously dispersed in the electrode and maintain stable interfaces with other catalyst components and the membrane. However, conventional binder materials do not have good dispersion properties. In this study, a facile approach based on using a supercritical fluid is introduced to prepare a homogeneous nanoscale dispersion of the binder material in aqueous alcohol. The prepared binder exhibited high dispersion characteristics, crystallinity, and proton conductivity. High performance and durability were confirmed when the binder material was applied to a PEFC cathode electrode11sciescopu

Quantum Gambling Using Two Nonorthogonal States

We give a (remote) quantum gambling scheme that makes use of the fact that quantum nonorthogonal states cannot be distinguished with certainty. In the proposed scheme, two participants Alice and Bob can be regarded as playing a game of making guesses on identities of quantum states that are in one of two given nonorthogonal states: if Bob makes a correct (an incorrect) guess on the identity of a quantum state that Alice has sent, he wins (loses). It is shown that the proposed scheme is secure against the nonentanglement attack. It can also be shown heuristically that the scheme is secure in the case of the entanglement attack.Comment: no essential correction, 4 pages, RevTe

Multipartite entanglement for entanglement teleportation

The scheme for entanglement teleportation is proposed to incorporate multipartite entanglement of four qubits as a quantum channel. Based on the invariance of entanglement teleportation under arbitrary two-qubit unitary transformation, we derive relations of separabilities for joint measurements at a sending station and for unitary operations at a receiving station. From the relations of separabilities it is found that an inseparable quantum channel always leads to a total teleportation of entanglement with an inseparable joint measurement and/or a nonlocal unitary operation.Comment: slightly modifie

Accidental benzene release risk assessment in an urban area using an atmospheric dispersion model

This study applied the American Meteorological Society and Environmental Protection Agency Regulatory Model (AERMOD) to assess the risk caused by an accidental release and dispersion of the toxic chemical benzene in the vicinity of a highly populated urban area. The modeling domain encompasses the Korean megacity of Ulsan, which includes two national industrial complexes and is characterized by a complex coastal terrain. Multiple AERMOD simulations were conducted for an assumed emission scenario using background wind data from August between 2009 and 2013. The series of experiments produced the spatial accident probability patterns for different concentration levels during daytime and nighttime scenarios based on the corresponding dominant wind patterns. This study further quantifies the potential accident risk based on the number of affected individuals by combining the accident probability with the indoor and outdoor population estimates. The chemical gas dispersion characteristics depend on various local meteorological conditions, such as the land-sea breeze direction, which alternates between daytime and nighttime, and the atmospheric stability. The results reveal that benzene dispersion affects a much larger area during the nighttime owing to the presence of a nocturnal stable boundary layer with significant temperature stratification. The affected area is smaller during the daytime owing to decreased stability and enhanced vertical mixing in the boundary layer. The results include a high degree of uncertainty during the nighttime owing to weak wind speeds and the lack of a prevailing wind direction, which impact the vulnerable area. However, vulnerable areas are more effectively identified during the daytime, when more consistent meteorological conditions exist. However, the potential risk becomes much lower during the nighttime owing to a substantial reduction of the outdoor population.ope

Production and Decay of D_1(2420)^0 and D_2^*(2460)^0

We have investigated $D^{+}\pi^{-}$ and $D^{*+}\pi^{-}$ final states and observed the two established $L=1$ charmed mesons, the $D_1(2420)^0$ with mass $2421^{+1+2}_{-2-2}$ MeV/c$^{2}$ and width $20^{+6+3}_{-5-3}$ MeV/c$^{2}$ and the $D_2^*(2460)^0$ with mass $2465 \pm 3 \pm 3$ MeV/c$^{2}$ and width $28^{+8+6}_{-7-6}$ MeV/c$^{2}$. Properties of these final states, including their decay angular distributions and spin-parity assignments, have been studied. We identify these two mesons as the $j_{light}=3/2$ doublet predicted by HQET. We also obtain constraints on {\footnotesize $\Gamma_S/(\Gamma_S + \Gamma_D)$} as a function of the cosine of the relative phase of the two amplitudes in the $D_1(2420)^0$ decay.Comment: 15 pages in REVTEX format. hardcopies with figures can be obtained by sending mail to: [email protected]

Measurement of the branching fraction for Υ(1S)→τ+τ−\Upsilon (1S) \to \tau^+ \tau^-

We have studied the leptonic decay of the $\Upsilon (1S)$ resonance into tau pairs using the CLEO II detector. A clean sample of tau pair events is identified via events containing two charged particles where exactly one of the particles is an identified electron. We find $B(\Upsilon(1S) \to \tau^+ \tau^-) = (2.61~\pm~0.12~{+0.09\atop{-0.13}})$. The result is consistent with expectations from lepton universality.Comment: 9 pages, RevTeX, two Postscript figures available upon request, CLNS 94/1297, CLEO 94-20 (submitted to Physics Letters B