Producing Bose condensates using optical lattices

We relate the entropies of ensembles of atoms in optical lattices to atoms in simple traps. We then determine which ensembles of lattice-bound atoms will adiabatically transform into a Bose condensate. This shows a feasible approach to Bose condensation without evaporative cooling.Comment: RevTeX, 5 pages, 5 eps-figure

Landscape Agency and Evenki-Iakut Reindeer Husbandry Along the Zhuia River, Eastern Siberia

This article is dedicated to the memory of Vasilii Nikolaeich Maksimov who drowned with his son while crossing the Zhuia River in 2012. The field research and laboratory analysis for this article was sponsored mainly by a grant from the Research Council of Norway (NFR 179316) within the multinational research framework “BOREAS: Histories from the North” organized by the European Science Foundation EUROCORES programme. A portion of the laboratory work, and the time for writing an analysis was made possible by an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (ERC AdG 295458). The research could not have been carried out without the in-kind support, equipment and expertise of the Irkutsk State Technological University and the logistical support of the mining enterprise ‘Svetlyi’ based in Bodaibo. We are grateful to Iurii Vasil’evich Zharkov of the goldmining company Vitim and his uncle Iurii Alekseevich Zharkov of Svetlyi Ltd for professionally and reliably arranging ground transport for us and our equipment to and from the banks of the Zhuia River. We are also grateful to Iurii Konstantinovich Polititsyn, a lifetime resident of Svetlyi, who gave advice on sites of previous Evenki occupation and whose family helped us to navigate the river and organise the fieldwork. For this article, DGA was the principal investigator of the two grants, participated in most of the fieldwork, and composed this English text consulting Russian-language drafts prepared by EMI and OPV. EMI organized the fieldwork, conducted the trench digging, and prepared preliminary versions of the maps. OPV participated in the fieldwork, collected botanical samples, and participated in the interpretation of the pollen diagrams. ML participated in the fieldwork and conducted the phosphate analysis. The arduous work of identifying and counting the pollen grains, fungal spores and charcoal fragments was done by NVK in her laboratory in Irkutsk. We are indebted to our colleagues Drs. Ed Schofield and Dmitryi Mauquoy of the School of Geosciences at the University of Aberdeen for drafting the pollen diagrams and constructing the age-depth model and to Paul Ledger and Ilse Kamerling, also of the University of Aberdeen, for helping draft the final versions of the maps and figures.Peer reviewedPostprin

The Etnos Archipelago : Sergei M. Shirokogoroff and the Life History of a Controversial Anthropological Concept

We thank the 12 commentators for their insights and their invitations for fresh research. The new intellectual terrain of this concept, adopted by Kremlin politicians and social movements alike, deserves more anthropological attention.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Book reviews

Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

A Physiologically Inspired Method for Audio Classification

We explore the use of physiologically inspired auditory features with both physiologically motivated and statistical audio classification methods. We use features derived from a biophysically defensible model of the early auditory system for audio classification using a neural network classifier. We also use a Gaussian-mixture-model (GMM)-based classifier for the purpose of comparison and show that the neural-network-based approach works better. Further, we use features from a more advanced model of the auditory system and show that the features extracted from this model of the primary auditory cortex perform better than the features from the early auditory stage. The features give good classification performance with only one-second data segments used for training and testing

Teaching Hardware Design of Fixed-Point Digital Signal Processing Systems

Signal processing theory and practice are enabling and driving forces behind multimedia devices, communications systems, and even such diverse fields as automotive and medical systems. Over 90 % of the signal processing systems on the market used fixed-point arithmetic because of the cost, power, and area savings that fixed-point systems provide. However, most colleges and universities do not teach or teach only a very little fixed-point signal processing. This issue is being addressed slowly around the country but now a new challenge or opportunity presents itself. As reconfigurable logic technology matures, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are increasingly used for signal processing systems. They have the advantage of tremendous throughput, great flexibility, and system integration. The challenge is that signal processing in FPGAs is a much less constrained problem than signal processing in special purpose microprocessors. The opportunity arises in that it is now possible to explore more options and, more especially, to take a more systems-level approach to signal processing systems. In short, designing a signal processing system using FPGAs provides opportunities to look at many system design issues and trade-offs in a classroom setting. We have developed a course to teach signal processing in FPGAs at Georgia Institute of Technology and in this paper we consider the challenges and methods of teaching fixedpoint system design in this course. We discuss the topics chosen and how they differ from traditional microprocessor-based courses. We also discuss how systems engineering concepts are woven into the course.