Coherence assisted resonance with sub-lifetime-limited linewidth

We demonstrate a novel approach to obtain resonance linewidth below that limited by coherence lifetime. Cross correlation between induced intensity modulation of two lasers coupling the target resonance exhibits a narrow spectrum. 1/30 of the lifetime-limited width was achieved in a proof-of-principle experiment where two ground states are the target resonance levels. Attainable linewidth is only limited by laser shot noise in principle. Experimental results agree with an intuitive analytical model and numerical calculations qualitatively. This technique can be easily implemented and should be applicable to many atomic, molecular and solid state spin systems for spectroscopy, metrology and resonance based sensing and imaging.Comment: 5 pages 5 figure

Experiment study on physical properties and motional characteristics of coral sand

Coral sand which mainly exist in tropical ocean environment is chemically composed of CaCO3 and\ud physically composed of debris and skeletal remains of coral reefs and marine lives under dynamic and weathering\ud effects. Due to its particular material composition, particle structure, migration pathway and depositional environment,\ud coral sand has different physical properties and motion characteristics with quartz sand. In this paper, the physical\ud properties such as proportion, porosity, psephicity and fragmentation of coral sand were analyzed, and the motional\ud characteristics in settlement and starting of coral sand were studied by physical model experiment using coral sand from\ud Nansha islands as test material. The results showed that: (1) the physical properties of coral sand show as high grain\ud density, high porosity, poor psephicity and high fragmentation; (2) water filling in the coral sand pore move with the\ud coral sand itself; (3) coral sand particles with large proportion have a lower starting velocity than the calculation value\ud considering the effect of water in the pore; (4) effective specific gravity controlled by the inner-pore volume should be\ud consider in movement of coral sand

The Value of Transportation for Improving the Quality of Life of the Rural Elderly

When an elderly individual living in a rural community is no longer able to drive, issues that come with living in an isolated area (i.e. limited access to health and personal services, distance between home and town centers) are exaggerated and the individual may experience a decrease in their quality of life. Public transportation that supports elderly individuals may be an important issue for rural communities to consider in creating an aging-friendly community and maintaining quality of life for residents who are no longer able to drive. The purpose of this research is to obtain an understanding of opinions about public transportation for the elderly held by rural county residents and their WTP for transportation options through an additional vehicle registration fee. To achieve this objective, a survey with choice experiments was distributed to residents in Atascosa and Polk County, Texas in September 2011. Researchers employed a conditional logit model to analyze the choice survey data and examine county residents’ WTP for various transportation options. The results of this study provide public transportation managers insights into the attributes taxpayers expect in transportation routes and programs.Elderly Transportation, Rural Transportation, Rural Elderly, Rural Quality of Life, Community/Rural/Urban Development,

Study on erosion condition and restoration countermeasures of Sanya bay beach

Sanya bay is located on the south end of Hainan Island, faced to the South China Sea. The bay is well known for the beautiful sandy beach in Sanya city. However, in the recent years, the coastal erosion and degradation induce serious landscape environment impairment. The coastal erosion and restoration come into notice.\ud In situ geographical investigation, fixed beach profile survey, model test studies were carried out during the last 5 years. The erosion condition and mechanism, and restoration countermeasures are introduced in this paper. Study shows, erosional stretches of the Sanya Bay are centered on the eastern and western ends of the beach. The seabed deeper than 3m from mean low water level is relatively stable. And the middle stretch of the beach is also stable. Erosion of the western stretch is mostly due to lack of sediment supply from the vicinal river. And the western end of the beach faced to the open sea, wave is the dominated force of coastal erosion. Cross-shore sediment transport is the main mode of sand losing. The eastern stretch of the beach is located in the downtown of Sanya city. The coastal areas are intensively developed, with seaside roads, recreation public squares, artificial island, seaports and so on. And much original vegetations were artificially replaced by landscape planting. Under this condition, the eastern stretch of the beach is seriously eroded, even though the eastern end of the bay is well sheltered by the natural headland, with weaker tidal current and wave than the middle and western parts of the bay. Erosion of the eastern stretch is mostly caused by mankind???s activities. Based on the erosion analysis, the corresponding countermeasures for restoration were presented. And beach nourishment and offshore break waters are designed for eastern and western stretchs respectively

Mutation of amphioxus Pdx and Cdx demonstrates conserved roles for ParaHox genes in gut, anus and tail patterning

Background: The homeobox genes Pdx and Cdx are widespread across the animal kingdom and part of the small ParaHox gene cluster. Gene expression patterns suggest ancient roles for Pdx and Cdx in patterning the through-gut of bilaterian animals although functional data are available for few lineages. To examine evolutionary conservation of Pdx and Cdx gene functions, we focus on amphioxus, small marine animals that occupy a pivotal position in chordate evolution and in which ParaHox gene clustering was first reported. Results: Using transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs), we engineer frameshift mutations in the Pdx and Cdx genes of the amphioxus Branchiostoma floridae and establish mutant lines. Homozygous Pdx mutants have a defect in amphioxus endoderm, manifest as loss of a midgut region expressing endogenous GFP. The anus fails to open in homozygous Cdx mutants, which also have defects in posterior body extension and epidermal tail fin development. Treatment with an inverse agonist of retinoic acid (RA) signalling partially rescues the axial and tail fin phenotypes indicating they are caused by increased RA signalling. Gene expression analyses and luciferase assays suggest that posterior RA levels are kept low in wild type animals by a likely direct transcriptional regulation of a Cyp26 gene by Cdx. Transcriptome analysis reveals extensive gene expression changes in mutants, with a disproportionate effect of Pdx and Cdx on gut-enriched genes and a colinear-like effect of Cdx on Hox genes. Conclusions: These data reveal that amphioxus Pdx and Cdx have roles in specifying middle and posterior cell fates in the endoderm of the gut, roles that likely date to the origin of Bilateria. This conclusion is consistent with these two ParaHox genes playing a role in the origin of the bilaterian through-gut with a distinct anus, morphological innovations that contributed to ecological change in the Cambrian. In addition, we find that amphioxus Cdx promotes body axis extension through a molecular mechanism conserved with vertebrates. The axial extension role for Cdx dates back at least to the origin of Chordata and may have facilitated the evolution of the post-anal tail and active locomotion in chordates

Optical Sorter-Based Selection Effectively Identifies Soft Red Winter Wheat Breeding Lines with \u3cem\u3eFhb1\u3c/em\u3e and Enhances FHB Resistance in Lines with and without \u3cem\u3eFhb1\u3c/em\u3e

Previous results from our lab have shown that using an optical sorter to identify Fusarium head blight (FHB) resistant breeding lines was effective at reducing the toxin deoxynivalenol (DON) and FHB-associated kernel damage. In this paper we quantified the proportion of desirable genotypes at FHB resistance QTL in lines from three selection cycles of optical sorting. Breeding lines were genotyped at loci on chromosomes 3BS, 2DL, and 5A using the following DNA markers: TaHRC, CFD233, and GWM304. TaHRC is a KASP marker for Fhb1, a major FHB resistance QTL on chromosome 3BS. CFD233 is an SSR marker for Qfhs.nau-2DL on chromosome 2DL. GWM304 is an SSR marker for Qfhs.ifa-5A on chromosome 5A. Sorter selection was effective at identifying lines that had the resistant genotype at TaHRC; in other words, the sorter was able to identify lines with resistance alleles at Fhb1. The sorter was less effective at selecting for the resistant genotype at CFD233 and GWM304. However, the proportion of lines with resistant genotypes at GWM304 did increase with additional sorter selection, just not to the degree that was observed for the Fhb1-associated marker. The proportion of lines with resistant alleles at CFD233 did not show a consistent trend. In addition to increasing the proportion of lines with Fhb1 and Qfhs.ifa-5A each selection cycle, optical sorter-based mass selection enhanced FHB resistance in different marker genotype combinations evaluated in this study. For example, there were net reductions in DON and kernel damage after two cycles of sorter selection in 15X110601S07002, a line with Fhb1, with Qfhs.nau-2DL, and with Qfhs.ifa-5A; final C3 DON levels were 63% of the resistant check (KY02C-3005-25). Kernel damage was also reduced in 15X110601A08221 a line without Fhb1, without Qfhs.nau-2DL, and without Qfhs.ifa-5A. Our findings suggest the increased resistance observed in different marker genotype combinations was conferred by QTL other than Fhb1, QFhs.nau-2DL, and Qfhs.ifa-5, and validate our previous results that the optical sorter is effective at selecting FHB-resistant breeding material

Assessing the molecular genetics of attention networks

BACKGROUND: Current efforts to study the genetic underpinnings of higher brain functions have been lacking appropriate phenotypes to describe cognition. One of the problems is that many cognitive concepts for which there is a single word (e.g. attention) have been shown to be related to several anatomical networks. Recently, we have developed an Attention Network Test (ANT) that provides a separate measure for each of three anatomically defined attention networks. RESULTS: In this study we have measured the efficiency of neural networks related to aspects of attention using the ANT in a population of 200 adult subjects. We then examined genetic polymorphisms in four candidate genes (DRD4, DAT, COMT and MAOA) that have been shown to contribute to the risk of developing various psychiatric disorders where attention is disrupted. We find modest associations of several polymorphisms with the efficiency of executive attention but not with overall performance measures such as reaction time. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that genetic variation may underlie inter-subject variation in the efficiency of executive attention. This study also shows that genetic influences on executive attention may be specific to certain anatomical networks rather than affecting performance in a global or non-specific manner. Lastly, this study further validates the ANT as an endophenotypic assay suitable for assessing how genes influence certain anatomical networks that may be disrupted in various psychiatric disorders

Pyroxene structures, cathodoluminescence and the thermal history of the enstatite chondrites

In order to explore the thermal history of enstatite chondrites, we examined the cathodoluminescence (CL) and thermoluminescence (TL) properties of 15 EH chondrites and 21 EL chondrites, including all available petrographic types, both textural types 3-6 and mineralogical types alpha-delta. The CL properties of EL3(alpha) and EH3(alpha) chondrites are similar. Enstatite grains high in Mn and other transition metals display red CL, while enstatite with low concentrations of these elements show blue CL. A few enstatite grains with greater than 5 wt% FeO display no CL. In contrast, the luminescent properties of the metamorphosed EH chondrites are very different from those of metamorphosed EL chondrites. While the enstatites in metamorphosed EH chondrites display predominantly blue CL, the enstatites in metamorphosed EL chondrites display a distinctive magenta CL with blue and red peaks of approximately equal intensity in their spectra. The TL sensitivities of the enstatite chondrites correlate with the intensity of the blue CL and, unlike other meteorite classes, are not simply related to metamorphism. The different luminescent properties of metamorphosed EH and EL chondrites cannot readily be attributed to compositional differences. But x-ray diffraction data suggests that the enstatite in EH5(gamma),(delta) chondrites is predominantly disordered orthopyroxene, while enstatite in EL6(beta) chondrites is predominantly ordered orthopyroxene. The difference in thermal history of metamorphosed EL and EH chondrites is so marked that the use of single 'petrographic' types is misleading, and separate textural and mineralogical types are preferable. Our data confirm earlier suggestions that metamorphosed EH chondrites underwent relatively rapid cooling, and the metamorphosed EL chondrites cooled more slowly and experienced prolonged heating in the orthopyroxene field