Southern Annular Mode response to volcanic eruptions: implications for ice core proxies

Large tropical volcanic eruptions have been observed to have a significant influence on the large-scale circulation patterns of the Northern Hemisphere, through mechanisms related to the radiative effects of the sulfate aerosols resulting from the volcanic injection of sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere. While no such volcanically induced anomalies in Southern Hemisphere circulation have yet been observed, we find that in general circulation model simulations, eruptions with sulfur dioxide injections larger than that of the 1991 Mt. Pinatubo eruption do result in significant circulation changes in the SH, specifically an enhanced positive phase of the Southern Annular Mode (SAM). We explore the mechanisms for such a SAM response, as well as the corresponding changes in SH temperature, sea ice and precipitation. We also explore how the anomalously strong zonal winds characteristic of the positive SAM regime affect the rate of sulfate deposition to the Antarctic ice-sheet. We suggest that the use of ice-core sulfate records as a proxy for past volcanic activity may benefit from including knowledge of, or better assumptions regarding the changes in large scale atmospheric circulation after large tropical eruptions

Entanglement and the Quantum Brachistochrone Problem

Entanglement is closely related to some fundamental features of the dynamics of composite quantum systems: quantum entanglement enhances the "speed" of evolution of certain quantum states, as measured by the time required to reach an orthogonal state. The concept of "speed" of quantum evolution constitutes an important ingredient in any attempt to determine the fundamental limits that basic physical laws impose on how fast a physical system can process or transmit information. Here we explore the relationship between entanglement and the speed of quantum evolution in the context of the quantum brachistochrone problem. Given an initial and a final state of a composite system we consider the amount of entanglement associated with the brachistochrone evolution between those states, showing that entanglement is an essential resource to achieve the alluded time-optimal quantum evolution.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures. Corrected typos in Eqs. 1 and

Noisy quantum Monty Hall game

The influence of spontaneous emission channel and generalized Pauli channel on quantum Monty Hall Game is analysed. The scheme of Flittney and Abbott is reformulated using the formalism of density matrices. Optimal classical strategies for given quantum strategies are found. The whole presented scheme illustrates how quantum noise may change the odds of a zero-sum game.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure

Client RTT and hop Count Distributions viewed from an Australian ‘Enemy Territory’ Server

Network game servers experience traffic caused by actual game players and by remote clients simply probing the game server’s current status. Game clients probe game servers for information such as the current map and number of current players on the server to enable players to fin d suitable games. The number of clients that probe a given server is orders of magnitudes higher than the number of eventual players. Network level round trip time (delay, or ‘la g’) between a client and server is a very important criterion for players when deciding which server to join. Often the round trip time is roughly proportional to hop count. In this paper we document and investigate the distributions of round trip time and hop count for game clients that only probe and clients that actually play on a public game server. We also examine the geographical distributions of both groups. Our data was gathered from a Wolfenstein Enemy Territory server operating in Melbourne, Australia, in late 2004

Quantum entanglement in a many-body system exhibiting multiple quantum phase transitions

We investigate the quantum entanglement-related features of the many-body model of Plastino and Moszkowski [N. Cimento 47 (1978) 470]. This is an exactly solvable N-body, SU2 two-level model exhibiting several quantum phase transitions. We show that these transitions happen to be also entanglement-transitions associated with different many-body Dicke states. The main properties of the model considered here make it particularly well suited to study, by recourse to exact analytical computations, some connections between quantum phase transitions and quantum entanglement-theory.Facultad de Ciencias Exacta

Some entanglement features exhibited by two, three and four qubits interacting with an environment in a non-Markovian regime

We explore various aspects of the quantum entanglement dynamics of systems of two, three and four qubits interacting with an environment at zero temperature in a non-Markovian regime, as described by the paradigmatic model recently studied by Bellomo et al (2007 Phys. Rev. Lett. 99 160502). We consider important families of initial states for the alluded systems. The average, typical entanglement evolution associated with each of these families is determined, and its relation with the evolution of the global degree of mixedness of the multi-qubit system is explored. For three and four qubits we consider the family of initial states equivalent under local unitary transformations to the |GHZ〉 and |W〉 states, and compare their average behavior with the average behavior exhibited by initial maximally entangled two-qubit states. Furthermore, in the case of two qubits, the evolution of other manifestations of entanglement, related to measurable quantities, is also investigated. In particular, we consider the Mintert-Buchleitner concurrence lower bound and an entanglement indicator based upon the violation of local uncertainty relations.Fil: Hamadou Ibrahim, A.. University of Pretoria; SudáfricaFil: Plastino, Ángel Ricardo. Universidad de Granada; España. Universidad Nacional de La Plata; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Zander, C.. University of Pretoria; Sudáfric

Boceprevir in combination with HIV protease inhibitors in patients with advanced fibrosis-altered drug-drug interactions?

In HIV/HCV co-infected patients improved treatment outcomes have been reported for the HCV protease inhibitors (PIs) boceprevir (BOC) and telaprevir (TVR), reaching SVR rates of up to 70% in pilot trials. Due to complex drug-drug-interactions triple therapy is substantially limited in HIV/HCV-coinfected individuals. Co-administration of BOC with the commonly available HIV PIs has been reported not only to decrease the level of BOC but also to lead to relevant decreases in the respective HIV PI. Here, we report on two patients who received BOC-containing HCV triple therapy in combination with a HIV PI. Patient 1 was on darunavir 800 mg/ritonavir 100 mg once-daily mono-therapy. Using FibroScan a liver stiffness of 34 kPa suggested liver cirrhosis prior to start of HCV triple therapy. At week 5 of HCV triple therapy darunavir trough concentration was measured in the reference range with 3777 ng/ml (reference trough concentration 2400–4600 ng/ml). HCV-RNA became negative at week 10 and HIV-RNA was below detection limit (<40 copies/ml) at all times. Patient 2 was on a simplified FTC qd and fos-amprenavir 700 mg/ritonavir 100 mg bid regimen. Liver disease had also progressed to liver cirrhosis, confirmed in FibroScan, with a liver stiffness of 32 kPa. At week 8 of HCV triple therapy fos-amprenavir trough level was measured in the normal reference range with 1699 ng/ml (reference trough concentration 750–2500 ng/ml). At week 11 HCV-RNA was <12 IU/ml and HIV viral load was below detection limit of <40 copies/ml at all times. Our clinical data suggest that in patients with advanced liver disease possibly drug levels of HIV PIs which are coadministered with BOC may be within the normal range. In order to better understand the true amount of drug interactions between BOC and commonly used HIV PIs in HIV/HCV-coinfected patients with more advanced liver fibrosis, urgently more PK studies are required to make HCV triple therapy accessible for a wider number of HIV/HCV-coinfected patients in desperate need of these drugs

Measurements of CH4, N2O, CO, H2O and O3 in the middle atmosphere by the ATMOS experiment on Spacelab 3

The volume mixing ratios of five minor gases (CH4, N2O, CO, H2O, and O3) were retrieved through the middle atmosphere from the analysis of 0.01/cm resolution infrared solar occultation spectra recorded near 28 N and 48 S latitudes with the ATMOS (Atmospheric Trace Molecule Spectroscopy) instrument, flown on board Spacelab 3. The results, which constitute the first simultaneous observations of continuous profiles through the middle atmosphere for these gases, are in general agreement with reported measurements from ground, balloon and satellite-based instruments for the same seasons. In detail, the vertical profiles of these gases show the effects of the upper and middle atmospheric transport patterns dominant during the season of these observations. The profiles inferred at different longitudes around 28 N suggest a near-uniform zonal distribution of these gases. Although based on fewer observations, the sunrise occultation measurements point to a larger variability in the vertical distribution of these gases at 48 S

Statistical estimation of trailing edge noise from finite wall-mounted airfoils

The 2016 Joint Conference of The Australian Acoustical Society and The Acoustical Society of New Zealand. Acoustics2016 - The Second Australasian Acoustical Societies ConferenceIt is important to be able to accurately model the flow and noise generated by finite wall-mounted airfoil flows because of the many engineering applications in which these flows occur. One method for predicting turbulent trailing edge noise is the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes based statistical noise model (RSNM) of Doolan et al. (Proceedings of 20th International Congress on Acoustics, ICA 2010). The RSNM method has previously been used successfully on a range of two-dimensional geometry-flow cases. In this paper a new turbulent velocity cross-spectrum model and improved implementation are proposed to allow the RSNM method to be used to effectively and efficiently predict turbulent trailing edge noise from more complex three-dimensional cases. Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulations of a series of wing-in-junction cases are used in combination with the developed acoustic model to predict the far-field noise and compared against experimental noise measurements.Jesse Coombs, Con Doolan, Anthony Zander, Danielle Moreau and Laura Brook