Distributed quantum information processing with minimal local resources

We present a protocol for growing graph states, the resource for one-way quantum computing, when the available entanglement mechanism is highly imperfect. The distillation protocol is frugal in its use of ancilla qubits, requiring only a single ancilla qubit when the noise is dominated by one Pauli error, and two for a general noise model. The protocol works with such scarce local resources by never post-selecting on the measurement outcomes of purification rounds. We find that such a strategy causes fidelity to follow a biased random walk, and that a target fidelity is likely to be reached more rapidly than for a comparable post-selecting protocol. An analysis is presented of how imperfect local operations limit the attainable fidelity. For example, a single Pauli error rate of 20% can be distilled down to $\sim 10$ times the imperfection in local operations.Comment: 4 pages of main paper with an additional 1 page appendix, 5 figures. Please contact me with any comment

Suitability of borago officinalis for minimal processing as fresh-cut produce

Borage (Borago offcinalis L.) is a wild vegetable appreciated as a folk medicine and for culinary preparations. The introduction of borage as a specialized cultivation would allow for the diversification of vegetable crops and would widen the offerings of raw and minimally processed leafy vegetables. Thus, the aim of the research was to evaluate the quality and shelf-life of fresh-cut borage stored at different temperatures. Borage plants were grown during the autumn-winter season and immediately minimally processed after harvest. Fresh-cut borage leaves packed in sealed bags were stored at 2 or 6 °C for 21 d. Weight loss, total soluble solids (TSS), titratable acidity (TA), ascorbic acid, nitrates, leaf color characteristics and overall quality were determined through the storage period. Borage plants were deemed suitable for minimal processing. Storage temperature significantly influenced the rate of quality loss. Borage leaves had an initial nitrate content of 329.3 mg kg-1 FW that was not affected by temperature or storage. TSS and TA were higher in leaves stored at 6 °C. TSS, TA and ascorbic acid content increased during storage. Minimally processed borage leaves stored at 2 °C had lower weight loss and leaf color modifications during storage and a longer shelf life than those stored at 6 °C, so were still marketable after 21 d of storage

Processing strategies. QLIF subproject 5: Development of a framework for the design of minimum and low input processing strategies, that guarantee food quality and safety

Organic processing standards already prohibit the use of many chemicals, additives and preservatives, which are used in the processing of conventional foods. Yet, there are frequent discussions of the underlying principles on organic food processing regarding such aspects as environmentally friendly processing, minimal use of additives, sensory quality, and transportation. It is therefore essential to develop a framework or code of practice, which can be used to determine whether novel processing strategies are compatible with organic processing standards and principles as well as consumer demands and expectations in relation to quality characteristics of processed food. In the present subproject part of the research comprised an assessment of alternative sanitising protocols under controlled laboratory conditions in the processing of fresh cut lettuce and mixtures of fresh-cut-vegetables. During these studies it was found that, with regard to ecological aspects, ozone is a good alternative to the existing disinfectants, such as chlorine, in the organic field. Further research concerned an assessment of processing technologies that may improve the nutritional composition of dairy products, such as increased content of conjugated linolenic acids (CLA)

High-efficiency cell concepts on low-cost silicon sheets

The limitations on sheet growth material in terms of the defect structure and minority carrier lifetime are discussed. The effect of various defects on performance are estimated. Given these limitations designs for a sheet growth cell that will make the best of the material characteristics are proposed. Achievement of optimum synergy between base material quality and device processing variables is proposed. A strong coupling exists between material quality and the variables during crystal growth, and device processing variables. Two objectives are outlined: (1) optimization of the coupling for maximum performance at minimal cost; and (2) decoupling of materials from processing by improvement in base material quality to make it less sensitive to processing variables

Processing Games with Restricted Capacities

This paper analyzes processing problems and related cooperative games.In a processing problem there is a finite set of jobs, each requiring a specific amount of effort to be completed, whose costs depend linearly on their completion times.There are no restrictions whatsoever on the processing schedule.The main feature of the model is a capacity restriction, i.e., there is a maximum amount of effort per time unit available for handling jobs.Assigning to each job a player and letting each player have an individual capacity for handling jobs, each coalition of cooperating players in fact faces a processing problem with the coalitional capacity being the sum of the individual capacities of the members.The corresponding processing game summarizes the minimal joint costs for every coalition.It turns out that processing games are totally balanced.An explicit core element is constructed.games;capacity;scheduling;cooperation;allocation

Characterization of fluorescence collection optics integrated with a micro-fabricated surface electrode ion trap

One of the outstanding challenges for ion trap quantum information processing is to accurately detect the states of many ions in a scalable fashion. In the particular case of surface traps, geometric constraints make imaging perpendicular to the surface appealing for light collection at multiple locations with minimal cross-talk. In this report we describe an experiment integrating Diffractive Optic Elements (DOE's) with surface electrode traps, connected through in-vacuum multi-mode fibers. The square DOE's reported here were all designed with solid angle collection efficiencies of 3.58%; with all losses included a detection efficiency of 0.388% (1.02% excluding the PMT loss) was measured with a single Ca+ ion. The presence of the DOE had minimal effect on the stability of the ion, both in temporal variation of stray electric fields and in motional heating rates.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figure

ProteoClade: A taxonomic toolkit for multi-species and metaproteomic analysis

We present ProteoClade, a Python toolkit that performs taxa-specific peptide assignment, protein inference, and quantitation for multi-species proteomics experiments. ProteoClade scales to hundreds of millions of protein sequences, requires minimal computational resources, and is open source, multi-platform, and accessible to non-programmers. We demonstrate its utility for processing quantitative proteomic data derived from patient-derived xenografts and its speed and scalability enable a novel de novo proteomic workflow for complex microbiota samples

A parallel grid-based implementation for real time processing of event log data in collaborative applications

Collaborative applications usually register user interaction in the form of semi-structured plain text event log data. Extracting and structuring of data is a prerequisite for later key processes such as the analysis of interactions, assessment of group activity, or the provision of awareness and feedback. Yet, in real situations of online collaborative activity, the processing of log data is usually done offline since structuring event log data is, in general, a computationally costly process and the amount of log data tends to be very large. Techniques to speed and scale up the structuring and processing of log data with minimal impact on the performance of the collaborative application are thus desirable to be able to process log data in real time. In this paper, we present a parallel grid-based implementation for processing in real time the event log data generated in collaborative applications. Our results show the feasibility of using grid middleware to speed and scale up the process of structuring and processing semi-structured event log data. The Grid prototype follows the Master-Worker (MW) paradigm. It is implemented using the Globus Toolkit (GT) and is tested on the Planetlab platform