6,858 research outputs found

    Energy Dependence of the Delta Resonance: Chiral Dynamics in Action

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    There is an important connection between the low energy theorems of QCD and the energy dependence of the Delta resonance in pi-N scattering, as well as the closely related gamma^{*} N -> pi N reaction. The resonance shape is due not only to the strong pi-N interaction in the p wave but the small interaction in the s wave; the latter is due to spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking in QCD (i.e. the Nambu-Goldstone nature of the pion). A brief overview of experimental tests of chiral perturbation theory and chiral based models is presentedComment: 11 pages, 6 figures, Festschrift for S.N. yan

    To dash or to dawdle: verb-associated speed of motion influences eye movements during spoken sentence comprehension

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    In describing motion events verbs of manner provide information about the speed of agents or objects in those events. We used eye tracking to investigate how inferences about this verb-associated speed of motion would influence the time course of attention to a visual scene that matched an event described in language. Eye movements were recorded as participants heard spoken sentences with verbs that implied a fast (“dash”) or slow (“dawdle”) movement of an agent towards a goal. These sentences were heard whilst participants concurrently looked at scenes depicting the agent and a path which led to the goal object. Our results indicate a mapping of events onto the visual scene consistent with participants mentally simulating the movement of the agent along the path towards the goal: when the verb implies a slow manner of motion, participants look more often and longer along the path to the goal; when the verb implies a fast manner of motion, participants tend to look earlier at the goal and less on the path. These results reveal that event comprehension in the presence of a visual world involves establishing and dynamically updating the locations of entities in response to linguistic descriptions of events

    Observation of discrete time-crystalline order in a disordered dipolar many-body system

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    Understanding quantum dynamics away from equilibrium is an outstanding challenge in the modern physical sciences. It is well known that out-of-equilibrium systems can display a rich array of phenomena, ranging from self-organized synchronization to dynamical phase transitions. More recently, advances in the controlled manipulation of isolated many-body systems have enabled detailed studies of non-equilibrium phases in strongly interacting quantum matter. As a particularly striking example, the interplay of periodic driving, disorder, and strong interactions has recently been predicted to result in exotic "time-crystalline" phases, which spontaneously break the discrete time-translation symmetry of the underlying drive. Here, we report the experimental observation of such discrete time-crystalline order in a driven, disordered ensemble of 106\sim 10^6 dipolar spin impurities in diamond at room-temperature. We observe long-lived temporal correlations at integer multiples of the fundamental driving period, experimentally identify the phase boundary and find that the temporal order is protected by strong interactions; this order is remarkably stable against perturbations, even in the presence of slow thermalization. Our work opens the door to exploring dynamical phases of matter and controlling interacting, disordered many-body systems.Comment: 6 + 3 pages, 4 figure

    Electrically Tunable Excitonic Light Emitting Diodes based on Monolayer WSe2 p-n Junctions

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    Light-emitting diodes are of importance for lighting, displays, optical interconnects, logic and sensors. Hence the development of new systems that allow improvements in their efficiency, spectral properties, compactness and integrability could have significant ramifications. Monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides have recently emerged as interesting candidates for optoelectronic applications due to their unique optical properties. Electroluminescence has already been observed from monolayer MoS2 devices. However, the electroluminescence efficiency was low and the linewidth broad due both to the poor optical quality of MoS2 and to ineffective contacts. Here, we report electroluminescence from lateral p-n junctions in monolayer WSe2 induced electrostatically using a thin boron nitride support as a dielectric layer with multiple metal gates beneath. This structure allows effective injection of electrons and holes, and combined with the high optical quality of WSe2 it yields bright electroluminescence with 1000 times smaller injection current and 10 times smaller linewidth than in MoS2. Furthermore, by increasing the injection bias we can tune the electroluminescence between regimes of impurity-bound, charged, and neutral excitons. This system has the required ingredients for new kinds of optoelectronic devices such as spin- and valley-polarized light-emitting diodes, on-chip lasers, and two-dimensional electro-optic modulators.Comment: 13 pages main text with 4 figures + 4 pages upplemental material

    Angles in Fuzzy Disc and Angular Noncommutative Solitons

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    The fuzzy disc, introduced by the authors of Ref.[1], is a disc-shaped region in a noncommutative plane, and is a fuzzy approximation of a commutative disc. In this paper we show that one can introduce a concept of angles to the fuzzy disc, by using the phase operator and phase states known in quantum optics. We gave a description of a fuzzy disc in terms of operators and their commutation relations, and studied properties of angular projection operators. A similar construction for a fuzzy annulus is also given. As an application, we constructed fan-shaped soliton solutions of a scalar field theory on a fuzzy disc, which corresponds to a fan-shaped D-brane. We also applied this concept to the theory of noncommutative gravity that we proposed in Ref.[2]. In addition, possible connections to black hole microstates, holography and an experimental test of noncommutativity by laser physics are suggested.Comment: 24 pages, 12 figures; v2: minor mistake corrected in Eq.(3.21), and discussion adapted accordingly; v3: a further discussion on the algebra of the fuzzy disc added in subsection 3.2; v4: discussions improved and typos correcte

    Prediction of the yield of grains through artificial intelligence

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    Grass turns out to be an appropriate food for cattle, mainly in tropical climate countries such as Latin American countries. This is due to the high number of species that can be used, the possibility of growing them year-round, the ability of the ruminant to use fibrous supplies and be an economic source (Sánchez et al., Data mining and big data. DMBD 2018. Lecture notes in computer science, vol 10943. Springer, Cham, 2018, [1]). In this work, an application of neural networks was carried out in the forecasting of more accurate values of production and quality of grasslands

    Historical Comparison of Perfluorooctanesulfonate, Perfluorooctanoate, and Other Fluorochemicals in Human Blood

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    The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether there has been a change in the human blood concentration of perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS), perfluorooctanoate (PFOA), and five other fluorochemicals since 1974. Blood samples were collected in 1974 (serum) and 1989 (plasma) from volunteer participants of a large community health study. The study included a total of 356 samples (178 from each time period). These samples were analyzed by high-pressure liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry methods. The median 1974 and 1989 fluorochemical concentrations, respectively, were as follows: PFOS, 29.5 ng/mL vs. 34.7 ng/mL; PFOA, 2.3 ng/mL vs. 5.6 ng/mL; perfluorohexanesulfonate (PFHS), 1.6 ng/mL vs. 2.4 ng/mL; and N-ethyl perfluorooctanesulfonamidoacetate (PFOSAA), less than the lower limit of quantitation (LLOQ; 1.6 ng/mL, vs. 3.4 ng/mL). For N-methyl perfluorooctanesulfonamidoacetate (M570), perfluorooctanesulfonamide, and perfluorooctanesulfonamidoacetate, median serum concentrations in both years were less than the LLOQ values (1.0, 1.0, and 2.5 ng/mL, respectively). Statistical analysis of 58 paired samples indicated that serum concentrations of PFOS, PFOSAA, PFOA, PFHS, and M570 were significantly (p < 0.001) higher in 1989 than in 1974. The data from 1989 were then compared with geometric mean fluorochemical concentrations of serum samples collected in 2001 from 108 American Red Cross adult blood donors from the same region. Except for M570, there were no statistically significant (p < 0.05) geometric mean fluorochemical concentration differences between the 1989 and 2001 samples. In conclusion, based on this study population, PFOS and other serum fluorochemical concentrations have increased between 1974 and 1989. Comparison with other regional data collected in 2001 did not suggest a continued increase in concentrations since 1989

    Care during the third stage of labour: obstetricians views and practice in an Albanian maternity hospital

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    <p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Relatively little is known about current practice during the third stage of labour in low and middle income countries. We conducted a survey of attitudes and an audit of practice in a large maternity hospital in Albania.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Survey of 35 obstetricians and audit of practice during the third stage was conducted in July 2008 at a tertiary referral hospital in Tirana. The survey questionnaire was self completed. Responses were anonymous. For the audit, information collected included time of administration of the uterotonic drug, gestation at birth, position of the baby before cord clamping, cord traction, and need for resuscitation.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>77% (27/35) of obstetricians completed the questionnaire, of whom 78% (21/27) reported always or usually using active management, and 22% (6/27) always or usually using physiological care. When using active management: 56% (15/27) gave the uterotonic after cord clamping; intravenous oxytocin was almost always the drug used; and 71% (19/27) clamped the cord within one minute. For physiological care: 42% (8/19) clamped the cord within 20 seconds, and 96% (18/19) within one minute. 93% would randomise women to a trial of early versus late cord clamping.</p> <p>Practice was observed for 156 consecutive births, of which 26% (42/156) were by caesarean section. A prophylactic uterotonic was used for 87% (137/156): this was given after cord clamping for 55% (75/137), although timing of administration was not recorded for 21% (29/137). For 85% of births (132/156) cord clamping was within 20 seconds, and for all babies it was within 50 seconds. Controlled cord traction was used for 49% (76/156) of births.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Most obstetricians reported always or usually using active management for the third stage of labour. For timing and choice of the uterotonic drug, reported practice was similar to actual practice. Although some obstetricians reported they waited longer than one minute before clamping the cord, this was not observed in practice. Controlled cord traction was used for half the births.</p

    Blind topological measurement-based quantum computation

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    Blind quantum computation is a novel secure quantum-computing protocol that enables Alice, who does not have sufficient quantum technology at her disposal, to delegate her quantum computation to Bob, who has a fully fledged quantum computer, in such a way that Bob cannot learn anything about Alice's input, output and algorithm. A recent proof-of-principle experiment demonstrating blind quantum computation in an optical system has raised new challenges regarding the scalability of blind quantum computation in realistic noisy conditions. Here we show that fault-tolerant blind quantum computation is possible in a topologically protected manner using the Raussendorf-Harrington-Goyal scheme. The error threshold of our scheme is 0.0043, which is comparable to that (0.0075) of non-blind topological quantum computation. As the error per gate of the order 0.001 was already achieved in some experimental systems, our result implies that secure cloud quantum computation is within reach.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figure
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