7,826 research outputs found
Nuclear Spins as Quantum Memory in Semiconductor Nanostructures
We theoretically consider solid state nuclear spins in a semiconductor
nanostructure environment as long-lived, high-fidelity quantum memory. In
particular, we calculate, in the limit of a strong applied magnetic field, the
fidelity versus time of P donor nuclear spins in random bath environments of Si
and GaAs, and the lifetime of excited intrinsic spins in polarized Si and GaAs
environments. In the former situation, the nuclear spin dephases due to
spectral diffusion induced by the dipolar interaction among nuclei in the bath.
We calculate the decay of nuclear spin quantum memory in the context of Hahn
and Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG) refocused spin echoes using a formally
exact cluster expansion technique which has previously been successful in
dealing with electron spin dephasing in a solid state nuclear spin bath. With
decoherence dominated by transverse dephasing (T2), we find it feasible to
maintain high fidelity (losses of less than 10^{-6}) quantum memory on nuclear
spins for times of the order of 100 microseconds (GaAs:P) and 1 to 2
milliseconds (natural Si:P) using CPMG pulse sequences of just a few (~2-4)
applied pulses. We also consider the complementary situation of a central
flipped intrinsic nuclear spin in a bath of completely polarized nuclear spins
where decoherence is caused by the direct flip-flop of the central spin with
spins in the bath. Exact numerical calculations that include a sufficiently
large neighborhood of surrounding nuclei show lifetimes on the order of 1-5 ms
for both GaAs and natural Si. Our calculated nuclear spin coherence times may
have significance for solid state quantum computer architectures using
localized electron spins in semiconductors where nuclear spins have been
proposed for quantum memory storage
Storing entanglement of nuclear spins via Uhrig Dynamical Decoupling
Stroboscopic spin flips have already been shown to prolong the coherence
times of quantum systems under noisy environments. Uhrig's dynamical decoupling
scheme provides an optimal sequence for a quantum system interacting with a
dephasing bath. Several experimental demonstrations have already verified the
efficiency of such dynamical decoupling schemes in preserving single qubit
coherences. In this work we describe the experimental study of Uhrig's
dynamical decoupling in preserving two-qubit entangled states using an ensemble
of spin-1/2 nuclear pairs in solution state. We find that the performance of
odd-order Uhrig sequences in preserving entanglement is superior to both
even-order Uhrig sequences and periodic spin-flip sequences. We also find that
there exists an optimal length of the Uhrig sequence at which the decoherence
time gets boosted from a few seconds to about 30 seconds.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figure
Anorectal malformations
Anorectal malformations comprise a wide spectrum of diseases, which can affect boys and girls, and involve the distal anus and rectum as well as the urinary and genital tracts. They occur in approximately 1 in 5000 live births. Defects range from the very minor and easily treated with an excellent functional prognosis, to those that are complex, difficult to manage, are often associated with other anomalies, and have a poor functional prognosis. The surgical approach to repairing these defects changed dramatically in 1980 with the introduction of the posterior sagittal approach, which allowed surgeons to view the anatomy of these defects clearly, to repair them under direct vision, and to learn about the complex anatomic arrangement of the junction of rectum and genitourinary tract. Better imaging techniques, and a better knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the pelvic structures at birth have refined diagnosis and initial management, and the analysis of large series of patients allows better prediction of associated anomalies and functional prognosis. The main concerns for the surgeon in correcting these anomalies are bowel control, urinary control, and sexual function. With early diagnosis, management of associated anomalies and efficient meticulous surgical repair, patients have the best chance for a good functional outcome. Fecal and urinary incontinence can occur even with an excellent anatomic repair, due mainly to associated problems such as a poorly developed sacrum, deficient nerve supply, and spinal cord anomalies. For these patients, an effective bowel management program, including enema and dietary restrictions has been devised to improve their quality of life
High prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors and insulin resistance 6 years after hyperglycemia first detected in pregnancy in Cape Town, South Africa
Objective To investigate the prevalence and associated cardiovascular risk factors 6 years after hyperglycemia first detected in pregnancy (HFDP) in Cape Town, South Africa. Research design and methods Data were collected during the index pregnancy from all women diagnosed with HFDP at a major referral hospital in Cape Town. Participants were evaluated 6 years later using a cross-sectional study. At follow-up participants had a 75 g oral glucose tolerance test, fasting lipogram, blood pressure and anthropometric measurements, and a fieldworker administered the questionnaire. We used the Adult Treatment Panel III criteria for the diagnosis of metabolic syndrome and individual risk factors. Insulin resistance was assessed using the homeostatic model of insulin resistance. Results At follow-up 220 women were reviewed. Their mean age at follow-up was 37.2 (SD 6.0) years. The prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors was 60.9% (95% CI 54.3 to 67.2) for metabolic syndrome, 75% (95% CI 65.9 to 82.3) for insulin resistance, 62.3% (95% CI 55.6 to 68.5) for dysglycemia, 41.4% (95% CI 35.0 to 48.0) for raised blood pressure, and 74.6% (95% CI 683 to 79.9) for dyslipidemia. Women with diabetes in pregnancy compared with those with gestational diabetes during the index pregnancy had a higher prevalence of metabolic syndrome (74.3% vs 54.7%, p=0.010) and dysglycemia (88.6% vs 50.0%, p<0.001) at follow-up. Lower school education attainment, having a subsequent pregnancy, waist circumference at follow-up, and fasting blood glucose at HFDP diagnosis were associated with metabolic syndrome. Conclusion We found a high prevalence of CVD risk factors in South African women within 6 years of HFDP, which highlights the need to develop and evaluate interventions optimizing the cardiometabolic health of this vulnerable group. The main limitations of our research are the lack of a comparative group of women without HFDP and that we did not assess for CVD risk factors before HFDP. - Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2019. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.Funding This research was funded by the Chronic Disease Initiative for Africa. We acknowledge funding from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) (fund number: 411592) for TC (under the IINDIAGO project).Scopu
Quantum information processing using strongly-dipolar coupled nuclear spins
Dipolar coupled homonuclear spins present challenging, yet useful systems for
quantum information processing. In such systems, eigenbasis of the system
Hamiltonian is the appropriate computational basis and coherent control can be
achieved by specially designed strongly modulating pulses. In this letter we
describe the first experimental implementation of the quantum algorithm for
numerical gradient estimation on the eigenbasis of a four spin system.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, Accepted in PR
Twisted Conjugacy Classes in Lattices in Semisimple Lie Groups
Given a group automorphism , one has an action of
on itself by -twisted conjugacy, namely, .
The orbits of this action are called -conjugacy classes. One says that
has the -property if there are infinitely many
-conjugacy classes for every automorphism of . In this
paper we show that any irreducible lattice in a connected semi simple Lie group
having finite centre and rank at least 2 has the -property.Comment: 6 page
Rhetoric in the language of real estate marketing
âDes. Res.â, ârarely availableâ, âviewing essentialâ â these are all part of the peculiar parlance of housing advertisements which contain a heady mix of euphemism, hyperbole and superlative. Of interest is whether the selling agentâs penchant for rhetoric is spatially uniform or whether there are variations across the urban system. We are also interested in how the use of superlatives varies over the market cycle and over the selling season. For example, are estate agents more inclined to use hyperbole when the market is buoyant or when it is flat, and does it matter whether a house is marketed in the summer or winter? This paper attempts to answer these questions by applying textual analysis to a unique dataset of 49,926 records of real estate transactions in the Strathclyde conurbation over the period 1999 to 2006. The analysis opens up a new avenue of research into the use of real estate rhetoric and its interaction with agency behaviour and market dynamics
A First Principles Theory of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance J-Coupling in solid-state systems
A method to calculate NMR J-coupling constants from first principles in
extended systems is presented. It is based on density functional theory and is
formulated within a planewave-pseudopotential framework. The all-electron
properties are recovered using the projector augmented wave approach. The
method is validated by comparison with existing quantum chemical calculations
of solution-state systems and with experimental data. The approach has been
applied to verify measured J-coupling in a silicophosphate structure,
Si5O(PO4)6Comment: 9 page
Forced motion of a probe particle near the colloidal glass transition
We use confocal microscopy to study the motion of a magnetic bead in a dense
colloidal suspension, near the colloidal glass transition volume fraction
. For dense liquid-like samples near , below a threshold force
the magnetic bead exhibits only localized caged motion. Above this force, the
bead is pulled with a fluctuating velocity. The relationship between force and
velocity becomes increasingly nonlinear as is approached. The
threshold force and nonlinear drag force vary strongly with the volume
fraction, while the velocity fluctuations do not change near the transition.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures revised version, accepted for publication in
Europhysics Letter
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