9,641 research outputs found
Using quality models in software package selection
The growing importance of commercial off-the-shelf software packages requires adapting some software engineering practices, such as requirements elicitation and testing, to this emergent framework. Also, some specific new activities arise, among which selection of software packages plays a prominent role. All the methodologies that have been proposed recently for choosing software packages compare user requirements with the packages' capabilities. There are different types of requirements, such as managerial, political, and, of course, quality requirements. Quality requirements are often difficult to check. This is partly due to their nature, but there is another reason that can be mitigated, namely the lack of structured and widespread descriptions of package domains (that is, categories of software packages such as ERP systems, graphical or data structure libraries, and so on). This absence hampers the accurate description of software packages and the precise statement of quality requirements, and consequently overall package selection and confidence in the result of the process. Our methodology for building structured quality models helps solve this drawback.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version
Understanding the saturation power of Josephson Parametric Amplifiers made from SQUIDs arrays
We report on the implementation and detailed modelling of a Josephson
Parametric Amplifier (JPA) made from an array of eighty Superconducting QUantum
Interference Devices (SQUIDs), forming a non-linear quarter-wave resonator.
This device was fabricated using a very simple single step fabrication process.
It shows a large bandwidth (45 MHz), an operating frequency tunable between 5.9
GHz and 6.8 GHz and a large input saturation power (-117 dBm) when biased to
obtain 20 dB of gain. Despite the length of the SQUID array being comparable to
the wavelength, we present a model based on an effective non-linear LC series
resonator that quantitatively describes these figures of merit without fitting
parameters. Our work illustrates the advantage of using array-based JPA since a
single-SQUID device showing the same bandwidth and resonant frequency would
display a saturation power 15 dB lower.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, Appendices include
Nonlinear resonant behavior of the dispersive readout scheme for a superconducting flux qubit
A nonlinear resonant circuit comprising a SQUID magnetometer and a parallel
capacitor is studied as a readout scheme for a persistent-current (PC) qubit.
The flux state of the qubit is detected as a change in the Josephson inductance
of the SQUID magnetometer, which in turn mediates a shift in the resonance
frequency of the readout circuit. The nonlinearity and resulting hysteresis in
the resonant behavior are characterized as a function of the power of both the
input drive and the associated resonance peak response. Numerical simulations
based on a phenomenological circuit model are presented which display the
features of the observed nonlinearity.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figure
A nonlinear mechanism of charge qubit decoherence in a lossy cavity: the quasi normal mode approach
In the viewpoint of quasi normal modes, we describe a novel decoherence
mechanism of charge qubit of Josephson Junctions (JJ) in a lossy micro-cavity,
which can appear in the realistic experiment for quantum computation based on
JJ qubit. We show that the nonlinear coupling of a charge qubit to quantum
cavity field can result in an additional dissipation of resonant mode due to
its effective interaction between those non-resonant modes and a resonant mode,
which is induced by the charge qubit itself. We calculate the characterized
time of the novel decoherence by making use of the system plus bath method.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figur
Testing collapse models with levitated nanoparticles: the detection challenge
We consider a nanoparticle levitated in a Paul trap in ultrahigh cryogenic
vacuum, and look for the conditions which allow for a stringent
noninterferometric test of spontaneous collapse models. In particular we
compare different possible techniques to detect the particle motion. Key
conditions which need to be achieved are extremely low residual pressure and
the ability to detect the particle at ultralow power. We compare three
different detection approaches based respectively on a optical cavity, optical
tweezer and a electrical readout, and for each one we assess advantages,
drawbacks and technical challenges
Improving chronic disease prevention and screening in primary care: results of the BETTER pragmatic cluster randomized controlled trial.
BackgroundPrimary care provides most of the evidence-based chronic disease prevention and screening services offered by the healthcare system. However, there remains a gap between recommended preventive services and actual practice. This trial (the BETTER Trial) aimed to improve preventive care of heart disease, diabetes, colorectal, breast and cervical cancers, and relevant lifestyle factors through a practice facilitation intervention set in primary care.MethodsPragmatic two-way factorial cluster RCT with Primary Care Physicians' practices as the unit of allocation and individual patients as the unit of analysis. The setting was urban Primary Care Team practices in two Canadian provinces. Eight Primary Care Team practices were randomly assigned to receive the practice-level intervention or wait-list control; 4 physicians in each team (32 physicians) were randomly assigned to receive the patient-level intervention or wait-list control. Patients randomly selected from physicians' rosters were stratified into two groups: 1) general and 2) moderate mental illness. The interventions involved a multifaceted, evidence-based, tailored practice-level intervention with a Practice Facilitator, and a patient-level intervention involving a one-hour visit with a Prevention Practitioner where patients received a tailored 'prevention prescription'. The primary outcome was a composite Summary Quality Index of 28 evidence-based chronic disease prevention and screening actions with pre-defined targets, expressed as the ratio of eligible actions at baseline that were met at follow-up. A cost-effectiveness analysis was conducted.Results789 of 1,260 (63%) eligible patients participated. On average, patients were eligible for 8.96 (SD 3.2) actions at baseline. In the adjusted analysis, control patients met 23.1% (95% CI: 19.2% to 27.1%) of target actions, compared to 28.5% (95% CI: 20.9% to 36.0%) receiving the practice-level intervention, 55.6% (95% CI: 49.0% to 62.1%) receiving the patient-level intervention, and 58.9% (95% CI: 54.7% to 63.1%) receiving both practice- and patient-level interventions (patient-level intervention versus control, P < 0.001). The benefit of the patient-level intervention was seen in both strata. The extra cost of the intervention was 16 to $44) per additional action met.ConclusionsA Prevention Practitioner can improve the implementation of clinically important prevention and screening for chronic diseases in a cost-effective manner
Paramagnetic effect in YBaCuO grain boundary junctions
A detailed investigation of the magnetic response of YBaCuO grain boundary
Josephson junctions has been carried out using both radio-frequency
measurements and Scanning SQUID Microscopy. In a nominally zero-field-cooled
regime we observed a paramagnetic response at low external fields for 45 degree
asymmetric grain boundaries. We argue that the observed phenomenology results
from the d-wave order parameter symmetry and depends on Andreev bound states.Comment: To be published in Phys. Rev.
Josephson effect in a microbridge
We report DC Josephson effects observed in a microbridge prepared from an
individual crystalline growth domain of thin film. Josephson effects
were observed by periodic voltage modulations under external magnetic field
with the expected periodicity and by the temperature dependence
of the Josephson critical current . The shape of was
found to be asymmetric, as it is expected for microbridges. The dependence
follows the Ambegaokar-Baratoff relation, which is unexpected for
microbridges. Features in the dynamical resistance curves were attributed to
the periodic motion of Abricosov vortices within the microbridge.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Physica
BICEP2 II: Experiment and Three-Year Data Set
We report on the design and performance of the BICEP2 instrument and on its
three-year data set. BICEP2 was designed to measure the polarization of the
cosmic microwave background (CMB) on angular scales of 1 to 5 degrees
(=40-200), near the expected peak of the B-mode polarization signature of
primordial gravitational waves from cosmic inflation. Measuring B-modes
requires dramatic improvements in sensitivity combined with exquisite control
of systematics. The BICEP2 telescope observed from the South Pole with a 26~cm
aperture and cold, on-axis, refractive optics. BICEP2 also adopted a new
detector design in which beam-defining slot antenna arrays couple to
transition-edge sensor (TES) bolometers, all fabricated on a common substrate.
The antenna-coupled TES detectors supported scalable fabrication and
multiplexed readout that allowed BICEP2 to achieve a high detector count of 500
bolometers at 150 GHz, giving unprecedented sensitivity to B-modes at degree
angular scales. After optimization of detector and readout parameters, BICEP2
achieved an instrument noise-equivalent temperature of 15.8 K sqrt(s). The
full data set reached Stokes Q and U map depths of 87.2 nK in square-degree
pixels (5.2 K arcmin) over an effective area of 384 square degrees within
a 1000 square degree field. These are the deepest CMB polarization maps at
degree angular scales to date. The power spectrum analysis presented in a
companion paper has resulted in a significant detection of B-mode polarization
at degree scales.Comment: 30 pages, 24 figure
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