Habitat Preferences of Blue Marlin (Makaira nigricans) and Black Marlin (Istiompax indica) in the Eastern Pacific Ocean

Overexploitation and climate change can reduce the abundance and shift the spatial distribution of marine species. Determining the habitat suitability of a mobile pelagic species, such as Makaira nigricans (BUM) and Istiompax indica (BLM), can help describe their spatiotemporal distribution patterns over a broad spatial scale, which is a crucial need for fisheries management. Using 14 years (1997-2010) of Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) catch data from purse-seine vessels in the eastern Pacific Ocean (EPO), we modeled the dynamic habitat suitability of BUM and BLM in response to environmental variables within the EPO using a species distribution model (MaxEnt) with occurrence data (n = 29,711) matched with high resolution remotely sensed oceanographic data. The spatial distribution of suitable habitat for BUM and BLM varied seasonally and in response to El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and correlated positively with chlorophyll-a concentrations (CHLA) and sea surface temperature (SST). Seasonal suitable habitat shifted between coastal (winter and spring) and oceanic (summer and fall) waters. During La Niña events, habitat suitability extended well offshore along the equator, whereas during El Niño suitable habitat shifted nearshore to the northern and southern waters of the EPO. Analyses on species’ centers of distribution (CSH) revealed that strength of ENSO events had a strong influence on displacing both species distribution closer or farther from shore. Our findings suggest that if climate change continues in the EPO, the suitable habitat of mobile pelagic species may shift shoreward, potentially making them more accessible to recreational anglers and increasing mortality rates

Continental drift and plateau uplift control origination and evolution of Asian and Australian monsoons

Evolutions of Asian and Australian monsoons have important significance for understanding the past global change but are still a controversial subject. Here, we explore systematically the effects of plate movement and plateau uplift on the formation and evolution of the Asian and Australian monsoons by numerical simulations based on land-sea distributions and topographic conditions for five typical geological periods during the Cenozoic. Our results suggest that the timings and causes of formation of the monsoons in South Asia, East Asia and northern Australia are different. The Indian Subcontinent, which was located in the tropical Southern Hemisphere in the Paleocene, was influenced by the austral monsoon system simulated at that time. Once it moved to the tropical Northern Hemisphere in the Eocene, the South Asian monsoon established and remained persistently thereafter. However, the monsoons of East Asia and northern Australia did not appear until the Miocene. The establishment of the simulated low-latitude South Asian (northern Australian) monsoon appeared to have strongly depended on the location of mainland India (Australia), associated with northward plate motion, without much relation to the plateau uplift. On the contrary, the establishment of the mid-latitude East Asian monsoon was mainly controlled by the uplift of Tibetan plateau

1-Ethyl-3-(2,4,6-trimethyl­phen­yl)imidazolium tetra­fluoro­borate

The title compound, C14H19N2 +·BF4 −, was obtained by reaction of 1-ethyl-3-(2,4,6-trimethyl­phen­yl)imidazolium tetra­fluoro­borate with sodium tetra­fluoro­borate. The imidazole ring makes a dihedral angle of 78.92 (13)° with the benzene ring

Source attack of decoy-state quantum key distribution using phase information

Quantum key distribution (QKD) utilizes the laws of quantum mechanics to achieve information-theoretically secure key generation. This field is now approaching the stage of commercialization, but many practical QKD systems still suffer from security loopholes due to imperfect devices. In fact, practical attacks have successfully been demonstrated. Fortunately, most of them only exploit detection-side loopholes which are now closed by the recent idea of measurement-device-independent QKD. On the other hand, little attention is paid to the source which may still leave QKD systems insecure. In this work, we propose and demonstrate an attack that exploits a source-side loophole existing in qubit-based QKD systems using a weak coherent state source and decoy states. Specifically, by implementing a linear-optics unambiguous-state-discrimination measurement, we show that the security of a system without phase randomization --- which is a step assumed in conventional security analyses but sometimes neglected in practice --- can be compromised. We conclude that implementing phase randomization is essential to the security of decoy-state QKD systems under current security analyses.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure

Effects of Substrate Temperature on the Properties of Indium Nitride Thin Films Grown on Flexible Prepared by Reactive Sputtering Method

In this study, indium nitride (InN) thin films were deposited on kapton polymide flexible substrate by reactive radio frequency (RF) sputtering method using indium target in a mixture of Ar and N2 gases. The InN thin films were deposited under different substrate temperatures, i.e., 1 00°C and 200°C. The effects of substrate temperature on structural, surface morphologies and optical properties of InN thin films were systematically investigated by using X-ray diffraction technique, field emission scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy