Novel designs for Penning ion traps

A number of alternative designs are presented for Penning ion traps suitable for quantum information processing (QIP) applications with atomic ions. The first trap design is a simple array of long straight wires, which allows easy optical access. A prototype of this trap has been built to trap Ca+ and a simple electronic detection scheme has been employed to demonstrate the operation of the trap. Another trap design consists of a conducting plate with a hole in it situated above a continuous conducting plane. The final trap design is based on an array of pad electrodes. Although this trap design lacks the open geometry of the other traps described above, the pad design may prove useful in a hybrid scheme in which information processing and qubit storage take place in different types of trap. The behaviour of the pad traps is simulated numerically and techniques for moving ions rapidly between traps are discussed. Future experiments with these various designs are discussed. All of the designs lend themselves to the construction of multiple trap arrays, as required for scalable ion trap QIP.

Feasibility study of biofuel production from freshwater fern, Azolla sp in Anzali Wetland

Production of bioethanol through acidic and enzymatic hydrolysis of aquatic Azolla sp., as a new source of bio-mass, has been performed, as a means to control increasing growth and reducing undesirable effects of this plant in Anzali lagoon. After sampling, drying and crushing, Azolla was hydrolyzed, using diluted acid and enzyme. Diluted acid hydrolysis was done using both autoclave and a high-pressure system (Batch Synth® Microwave synthesizer). The effects of temperature and time (in autoclave) and concentration of acid (in both) were compared. Cellubrix®, a ommercial cellulase source, was used for enzymatic hydrolysis process. The amounts of reducing sugars, glucose and furfural, released from hydrolyzate, were measured. To produce alcohol, Sacchromyces cerevisiae (to ferment sixcarbon sugars), Zygowilliopsis californica and Pichia stipitis (to ferment five-carbon and sixcarbon sugars) were used. Maximum amounts of glucose (4.83% w/w) and reducing sugars (14.15% w/w) were obtained using acid hydrolysis in autoclave. In the microwave oven, maximum glucose (5.04% w/w) and reducing sugars (13.27 w/w) were obtained at 180 and 200 °C, respectively. Under these conditions, maximum produced furfural was 1.54 g/L. The difference between amounts of furfural obtained from acid hydrolysis of Azolla in microwave oven compared to autoclave was statistically significant. Amounts of alcohol produced and its yields were 3.99 g/L and 33.13% for S. cerevisiae in 48 hours, 3.73 g/L and 30.45% for Pichia stipites in 48 hours, and 3.73 g/L and 30.45% for Z. californica in 24 hours after inoculation, respectively, with significant differences. Statistical comparison of results showed significant differences (P<0.05) in glucose production, at different conditions. Amounts of reducing sugars and glucose increased after optimization of levels of acid, time, and temperature. The overall optimum released sugar and glucose were obtained with 1.67% (w/v) acid using autoclave. Higher temperatures in microwave oven caused a significant increase (P<0.05) in furfural. Furfural severely inhibits fermentation. Hence, regarding the issues of energy consumption and time, amounts of inhibiting substances and sugar production, autoclave is found to be superior to the high temperature and pressure, generated in microwave oven, for hydrolyzing Azolla. Furthermore, given the amounts of Azolla in Anzali lagoon, it may be recommendable to use this plant as a biomass resource.

In vivo dynamics of the internal fibrous structure in smooth adhesive pads of insects.

Many insects with smooth adhesive pads can rapidly enlarge their contact area by centripetal pulls on the legs, allowing them to cope with sudden mechanical perturbations such as gusts of wind or raindrops. The short time scale of this reaction excludes any neuromuscular control; it is thus more likely to be caused by mechanical properties of the pad's specialized cuticle. This soft cuticle contains numerous branched fibrils oriented almost perpendicularly to the surface. Assuming a fixed volume of the water-filled cuticle, we hypothesized that pulls could decrease the fibril angle, thereby helping the contact area to expand laterally and longitudinally. Three-dimensional fluorescence microscopy on the cuticle of smooth stick insect pads confirmed that pulls significantly reduced the fibril angle. However, the fibril angle variation appeared insufficient to explain the observed increase in contact area. Direct strain measurements in the contact zone demonstrated that pulls not only expand the cuticle laterally, but also add new contact area at the pad's outer edge.

Statistical inference for single- and multi-band probabilistic amplitude demodulation.

Amplitude demodulation is an ill-posed problem and so it is natural to treat it from a Bayesian viewpoint, inferring the most likely carrier and envelope under probabilistic constraints. One such treatment is Probabilistic Amplitude Demodulation (PAD), which, whilst computationally more intensive than traditional approaches, offers several advantages. Here we provide methods for estimating the uncertainty in the PAD-derived envelopes and carriers, and for learning free-parameters like the time-scale of the envelope. We show how the probabilistic approach can naturally handle noisy and missing data. Finally, we indicate how to extend the model to signals which contain multiple modulators and carriers.

Balanced realisations of all-pass systems using exact arithmetic with application to the approximation of delay systems

Numerically well-conditioned state-space realisations for all-pass systems, such as Padé approximations to exp(-s), are derived that can be computed using exact integer arithmetic. This is then applied to the a series of functions of exp(-s). It is also shown that the H-infinity norm of the transfer function from the input to the state of a balanced realisation of the Padé approximation of exp(-s) is unity. © 2012 IEEE.

Functionally different pads on the same foot allow control of attachment: stick insects have load-sensitive "heel" pads for friction and shear-sensitive "toe" pads for adhesion.

Stick insects (Carausius morosus) have two distinct types of attachment pad per leg, tarsal "heel" pads (euplantulae) and a pre-tarsal "toe" pad (arolium). Here we show that these two pad types are specialised for fundamentally different functions. When standing upright, stick insects rested on their proximal euplantulae, while arolia were the only pads in surface contact when hanging upside down. Single-pad force measurements showed that the adhesion of euplantulae was extremely small, but friction forces strongly increased with normal load and coefficients of friction were [Formula: see text] 1. The pre-tarsal arolium, in contrast, generated adhesion that strongly increased with pulling forces, allowing adhesion to be activated and deactivated by shear forces, which can be produced actively, or passively as a result of the insects' sprawled posture. The shear-sensitivity of the arolium was present even when corrected for contact area, and was independent of normal preloads covering nearly an order of magnitude. Attachment of both heel and toe pads is thus activated partly by the forces that arise passively in the situations in which they are used by the insects, ensuring safe attachment. Our results suggest that stick insect euplantulae are specialised "friction pads" that produce traction when pressed against the substrate, while arolia are "true" adhesive pads that stick to the substrate when activated by pulling forces.

Surface contact and design of fibrillar 'friction pads' in stick insects (Carausius morosus): mechanisms for large friction coefficients and negligible adhesion.

Many stick insects and mantophasmids possess tarsal 'heel pads' (euplantulae) covered by arrays of conical, micrometre-sized hairs (acanthae). These pads are used mainly under compression; they respond to load with increasing shear resistance, and show negligible adhesion. Reflected-light microscopy in stick insects (Carausius morosus) revealed that the contact area of 'heel pads' changes with normal load on three hierarchical levels. First, loading brought larger areas of the convex pads into contact. Second, loading increased the density of acanthae in contact. Third, higher loads changed the shape of individual hair contacts gradually from circular (tip contact) to elongated (side contact). The resulting increase in real contact area can explain the load dependence of friction, indicating a constant shear stress between acanthae and substrate. As the euplantula contact area is negligible for small loads (similar to hard materials), but increases sharply with load (resembling soft materials), these pads show high friction coefficients despite little adhesion. This property appears essential for the pads' use in locomotion. Several morphological characteristics of hairy friction pads are in apparent contrast to hairy pads used for adhesion, highlighting key adaptations for both pad types. Our results are relevant for the design of fibrillar structures with high friction coefficients but small adhesion.

Revision of the labeonine genus Sinocrossocheilus (Teleostei : Cyprinidae) from South China

Sinocrossocheilus was recently diagnosed by Su et al. (2003) as consisting of nine species, i.e. S. bamaensis, S. guizhouensis, S. liuchengensis, S. longibullus, S. tridentis, S. microstomatus, S. nigrovittatus, S. labiatus, and S. papillolabrus. It is actually a catch-all genus that is composed of some species misidentified from Pseudocrossocheilus and Hongshuia. Sinocrossocheilus is here redefined based mainly on the details of the lower lip morphology; it is easily separated from all other Asian Labeonini genera in possessing a lower lip with its median lobe modified into a densely papillated, greatly protruded, crescentic fold and a papillose, slightly protruded, triangular fleshy pad which is posteriorly continuous with the mental region. Two species are recognized in this genus: S. guizhouensis and S. labiatus. Detailed redescriptions are given for the two species. All remaining species do not fit with the new definition of Sinocrossocheilus; six species, i.e. S. papillolabrus, S. nigrovittatus, S. bamaensis, S. longibullus, S. liuchengensis, and S. tridentis, should be moved to Pseudocrossocheilus and S. microstomatus to Hongshuia.

Description of a new genus and two new species of labeonine fishes from South China (Teleostei : Cyprinidae)

A new genus and two new species are described from the Pearl River drainage in Guangxi Province, South China. Hongshuia, new genus, can be distinguished from all other Asian genera of the Labeonini by having a lower lip with its median lobe modified into a round, fleshy plate peripherally greatly protruded so as to form a ring-like fold that is posteromedially continuous with the mental region, and centrally sunken so as to form a round, flat, fleshy pad. This genus is distinct from all other Asian labeonine genera of the Garrina except for one newly described species of Parasinilabeo ( P. longibarbus), Pseudocrossocheilus, and Sinocrossocheilus, in the presence of well-developed maxillary barbels. Hongshuia differs from the above three genera in the lower lip morphology, and further from both Pseudocrossocheilus and Qianlabeo in the number of pharyngeal tooth rows and from Sinocrossocheilus in the colour pattern. Two new species, H. banmo and H. paoli, differ in the distribution density and degree of development of papillae on the rostral fold, depth of indentations on the distal edge of the rostral fold, presence or absence of papillae on the lower lip, size and shape of tubercles on the tip of the snout and anterior portion of the lachrymal, length, position and colour pattern of the dorsal fin, and snout length.

Molecular analysis of silver crucian carp (Carassius auratus gibelio Bloch) clones by SCAR markers

Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) molecular markers specific for one, two or three clones have been identified from five gynogenetic clones of silver crucian carp (Carassius auratus gibelio Bloch) using RAPD markers developed earlier. In this study, three RAPD markers (RA1-PA, RA2-EF and RA4-D) produced by Opj-1, and two RAPD DNA fragments (RA3-PAD and RA5-D) produced by Opj-7, were selected for molecular cloning and sequencing. Sequence data indicated that there were identical 801-bp nucleotide sequences in the shared marker RA1-PA cloned respectively from clones P and A, and the shared marker RA2-EF (which was cloned from clones E and F), were also of identical 958-by nucleotide sequences. The nucleotide sequences of the shared marker RA3-PAD fragments were also similar for 1181 by among clones P, A and D. The specific fragment RA4-D was composed of 628 bp, and the fragment RA5-D from clone D contained 385 nucleotides. According to the nucleotide sequences, we designed and synthesized five pairs of sequence characterized amplified regions (SCAR) primers to identify the specific fragments in these gynogenetic clones of silver crucian carp. Only individuals from clones P and A amplified a specific band using a pair of SCI-PA primers synthesized according to the marker RA1-PA sequences, whereas no products were detected in individuals from clones D, E and F. The PCR products amplified using SC2-EF and SC3-PAD primers were as expected. Furthermore, the pair of SC4-D primers amplified specific bands only in individuals from clone D, although weak bands could be produced in all individuals of the five clones when lower annealing temperatures were used. However, an additional pair of SC5-D primers designed from the RA5-D marker sequences could amplify a DNA band in individuals from clones P, A and D, and the same weak band was produced in clone E, whereas no products were detected in individuals from clone F. Searches in GenBank revealed that the 385-bp DNA fragment from RA5-D was homologous to the 5' end of gonadotropin I beta subunit 2 gene and growth hormone gene. No homologous sequences were found for other markers in GenBank. The SCAR markers identified in this study will offer a powerful, easy, and rapid method for discrimination of different clones and for genetic analyses that examine their origins and unique reproductive modes in crucian carp. Furthermore, they will likely benefit future selective breeding programs as reliable and reproducible molecular markers. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

干旱对不同抗旱性冬小麦旗叶光合及主茎干物质转运的影响

以冬小麦品种长武134(抗旱性强)和陕253(抗旱性弱)为材料,研究干旱对旗叶净光合速率和叶绿素含量、主茎及其组成节间花前积累干物质的转运及其对穗粒重贡献的影响。结果表明,干旱条件下长武134主茎穗粒重降幅小于陕253;干旱缩短了小麦花后旗叶光合速率高值持续期(PAD)和叶绿素含量缓降期(RSP),长武134受影响程度较小。长武134除穗下节外,其余各节间及茎杆干物质转运量及对籽粒贡献率降幅均大于陕253;干旱提高了陕253穗下节和倒二节干物质转运率,降低了倒三节和下部节干物质转运率,茎杆干物质转运率无明显变化;长武134除穗下节外其余各节间及茎杆干物质转运率均明显低于对照,而且距离穗部越远的节位降低幅度越大。上述结果表明,干旱条件下不同节位干物质转运能力变化与距离穗远近有关,花前茎杆干物质转运并不能补偿籽粒产量的损失,花后旗叶光合功能期延长是小麦抗旱高产的主要原因。

干旱对不同冬小麦旗叶光合产物供应能力的影响

研究干旱对小麦旗叶光合产物供应能力的影响,揭示小麦抗旱高产的生理机制,为提高小麦的抗旱能力及高产稳产提供理论依据。【方法】在防雨池栽培条件下,以旱地冬小麦品种长武134(抗旱性强)和水地冬小麦品种陕253(抗旱性弱)为试材,以适宜水分处理为对照(CK,土壤含水量为田间持水量的70%～75%),研究干旱处理(土壤含水量为田间持水量的50%～55%)对不同冬小麦旗叶光合产物供应速率(净光合速率和蔗糖合成能力)和供应持续期的影响。【结果】与对照相比,干旱处理降低了冬小麦灌浆中后期旗叶净光合速率,缩短了净光合速率高值持续期(PAD),其中长武134降幅较小,净光合速率较高;干旱处理提高了冬小麦灌浆初期旗叶的蔗糖磷酸合成酶(SPS)活性,其中长武134增幅较大,且在灌浆中后期依然能保持相对较高的蔗糖供应能力;干旱处理缩短了冬小麦叶绿素含量缓降期(RSP),提高了丙二醛(MDA)含量,加速了旗叶的衰老,缩短了光合产物的供应持续期,其中长武134受干旱影响较小;干旱处理降低了冬小麦灌浆中后期主茎穗粒质量积累量及其速率,其中长武134降幅较小。【结论】干旱条件下,抗旱品种长武134旗叶在灌浆中后期可维持较高的光合产物...

光子晶体的微腔特性

为了设计一种高品质因子的光子晶体微腔和研究单缺陷光子晶体微腔谐振模波长随晶格常数的变化规律,使用时域有限差分法（difference time-domain method）和基于Baker算法的Padé近似方法计算了半导体材料上空气孔阵列光子晶体微腔的谐振模波长和品质因子.得到的新型光子晶体微腔的品质因子达246510,单缺陷光子晶体微腔模波长随晶格常数α和孔半径r的近似为线性变化关系

Fabrication of an AlAs/In0.53Ga0.47As/InAs Resonant Tunneling Diode on InP Substrate for High-Speed Circuit Applications

A high performance AlAs/In0.53 Ga0.47 As/InAs resonant tunneling diode （RTD） on InP substrate is fabricated by inductively coupled plasma etching. This RTD has a peak-to-valley current ratio （PVCR） of 7. 57 and a peak current density Jp = 39.08kA/cm^2 under forward bias at room temperature. Under reverse bias, the corresponding values are 7.93 and 34.56kA/cm^2 . A resistive cutoff frequency of 18.75GHz is obtained with the effect of a parasitic probe pad and wire. The slightly asymmetrical current-voltage characteristics with a nominally symmetrical structure are also discussed.

Applicatioo of Pade Approximation in Simulating Photonic Crystals

To save finite-difference time-domain(FDTD) computing time, several methods are proposed to convert the time domain FDTD output into frequency domain. The Padé approximation with Baker's algorithm and the program are introduced to simulate photonic crystal structures. For a simple pole system with frequency 160THz and quality factor of 5000,the intensity spectrum obtained by the Padé approximation from a 28-item sequence output is more exact than that obtained by fast Fourier transformation from a 220-item sequence output. The mode frequencies and quality factors are calculated at different wave vectors for the photonic crystal slab from a much shorter FDTD output than that required by the FFT method,and then the band diagrams are obatined. In addition,mode frequencies and Q-factors are calculated for photonic crystal microcavity.