12,545 research outputs found
Some Spectral and Quasi-Spectral Characterizations of Distance-Regular Graphs
In this paper we consider the concept of preintersection numbers of a graph.
These numbers are determined by the spectrum of the adjacency matrix of the
graph, and generalize the intersection numbers of a distance-regular graph. By
using the preintersection numbers we give some new spectral and quasi-spectral
characterizations of distance-regularity, in particular for graphs with large
girth or large odd-girth
Subgroup analysis in burnout:Relations between fatigue, anxiety, and depression.
Several authors have suggested that burned out patients do not form a homogeneous group and that subgroups should be considered. The identification of these subgroups may contribute to a better understanding of the burnout construct and lead to more specific therapeutic interventions. Subgroup analysis may also help clarify whether burnout is a distinct entity and whether subgroups of burnout overlap with other disorders such as depression and chronic fatigue syndrome. In a group of 113 clinically diagnosed burned out patients, levels of fatigue, depression, and anxiety were assessed. In order to identify possible subgroups, we performed a two-step cluster analysis. The analysis revealed two clusters that differed from one another in terms of symptom severity on the three aforementioned measures. Depression appeared to be the strongest predictor of group membership. These results are considered in the light of the scientific debate on whether burnout can be distinguished from depression and whether burnout subtyping is useful. Finally, implications for clinical practice and future research are discussed
Modeling low order aberrations in laser guide star adaptive optics systems
When using a laser guide star (LGS) adaptive optics (AO) system, quasi-static aberrations are observed between the measured wavefronts from the LGS wavefront sensor (WFS) and the natural guide star (NGS) WFS. These LGS aberrations, which can be as much as 1200 nm RMS on the Keck II LGS AO system, arise due to the finite height and structure of the sodium layer. The LGS aberrations vary significantly between nights due to the difference in sodium structure. In this paper, we successfully model these LGS aberrations for the Keck II LGS AO system. We use this model to characterize the LGS aberrations as a function of pupil angle, elevation, sodium structure, uplink tip/tilt error, detector field of view, the number of detector pixels, and seeing. We also employ the model to estimate the LGS aberrations for the Palomar LGS AO system, the planned Keck I and the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) LGS AO systems. The LGS aberrations increase with increasing telescope diameter, but are reduced by central projection of the laser compared to side projection
Tight Noise Thresholds for Quantum Computation with Perfect Stabilizer Operations
We study how much noise can be tolerated by a universal gate set before it
loses its quantum-computational power. Specifically we look at circuits with
perfect stabilizer operations in addition to imperfect non-stabilizer gates. We
prove that for all unitary single-qubit gates there exists a tight depolarizing
noise threshold that determines whether the gate enables universal quantum
computation or if the gate can be simulated by a mixture of Clifford gates.
This exact threshold is determined by the Clifford polytope spanned by the 24
single-qubit Clifford gates. The result is in contrast to the situation wherein
non-stabilizer qubit states are used; the thresholds in that case are not
currently known to be tight.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Small is Unsustainable?:Alternative Food Movement in the Low Countries, 1969-1990
This article analyses how the alternative food movement in the Low Countries successfully promoted the ideal of small-scale production and consumption since the 1970s. This history highlights an interpretation of sustainability which addressed global problems by a return to the local. Operating on a small scale enabled the alternative food movement to bridge the gap between social and environmental concerns. Although alternative food remained marginal within the quickly expanding agricultural sector of both Belgium and the Netherlands, the movement enlarged its reach through eco-labels and cooperation with large retail chains. As a result, small-scale practices could not be maintained. In the Netherlands, the alternative food movement subsequently emphasised the environment, whereas the social dimension was more pronounced in Belgium. Small-scale production and consumption became firmly entrenched as ideals, but, in practice, the balance between social, environmental, and economic concerns that activists had hoped for, moved out of reach
Simple proof of equivalence between adiabatic quantum computation and the circuit model
We prove the equivalence between adiabatic quantum computation and quantum
computation in the circuit model. An explicit adiabatic computation procedure
is given that generates a ground state from which the answer can be extracted.
The amount of time needed is evaluated by computing the gap. We show that the
procedure is computationally efficient.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures. v2: improved gap estimates and added some more
detail
Factors Leading to White Blood Cell Misidentification
A study done to understand what factors lead to the correct identification of white blood cells (WBCs), and what factors are misleading. Research was conducted through an online survey where respondents who are trained to read peripheral blood smears were shown pictures of white blood cells, asked to identify them, and provide their reasoning
Hamiltonian Oracles
Hamiltonian oracles are the continuum limit of the standard unitary quantum
oracles. In this limit, the problem of finding the optimal query algorithm can
be mapped into the problem of finding shortest paths on a manifold. The study
of these shortest paths leads to lower bounds of the original unitary oracle
problem. A number of example Hamiltonian oracles are studied in this paper,
including oracle interrogation and the problem of computing the XOR of the
hidden bits. Both of these problems are related to the study of geodesics on
spheres with non-round metrics. For the case of two hidden bits a complete
description of the geodesics is given. For n hidden bits a simple lower bound
is proven that shows the problems require a query time proportional to n, even
in the continuum limit. Finally, the problem of continuous Grover search is
reexamined leading to a modest improvement to the protocol of Farhi and
Gutmann.Comment: 16 pages, REVTeX 4 (minor corrections in v2
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