Fast and secure key distribution using mesoscopic coherent states of light

This work shows how two parties A and B can securely share sequences of random bits at optical speeds. A and B possess true-random physical sources and exchange random bits by using a random sequence received to cipher the following one to be sent. A starting shared secret key is used and the method can be described as an unlimited one-time-pad extender. It is demonstrated that the minimum probability of error in signal determination by the eavesdropper can be set arbitrarily close to the pure guessing level. Being based on the $M$-ry encryption protocol this method also allows for optical amplification without security degradation, offering practical advantages over the BB84 protocol for key distribution.Comment: 11 pages and 4 figures. This version updates the one published in PRA 68, 052307 (2003). Minor changes were made in the text and one section on Mutual Information was adde

Viscous Cosmology

We discuss the possibility to implement a viscous cosmological model, attributing to the dark matter component a behaviour described by bulk viscosity. Since bulk viscosity implies negative pressure, this rises the possibility to unify the dark sector. At the same time, the presence of dissipative effects may alleviate the so called small scale problems in the $\Lambda$CDM model. While the unified viscous description for the dark sector does not lead to consistent results, the non-linear behaviour indeed improves the situation with respect to the standard cosmological model.Comment: Latex file, 7 pages, 6 figures. To appear in the proceedings of the XIIth International Conference on Gravitation, Astrophysics and Cosmology, June 28-July 5, 2015, PFUR, Moscow, Russi

Aporte de serrapilheira ao solo em estágios sucessionais florestais na reserva biológica de Poço das Antas, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.

Foram definidos mosaícos de fitofisionomias temporais em sistemas tropicais de baixada localizados na REBIO de Poço das Antas, RJ - Brasil. A serrapilheira foi quantificada com coletas quinzenais e determinada sua concentração de nutrientes via fração foliar em intervalos bimestrais. A floresta avançada apresentou o maior aporte de 6,9 mais ou menos 1,1 ton ha-1 ano-1 total, o estágio intermediário com 5,5 mais ou menos 0,5 ton ha-1 ano-1 total e para o plantio 3 mais ou menos 0,7 ton ha-1 ano-1 total. As concentrações via serrapilheira (fração foliar) dos nutrientes N, P, K e Ca foram maiores com o uso de Mimosa bimucronata (DC) O. kuntze nos reflorestamentos, demonstrando ser esta uma espécie de potencial elevado quanto ao conteúdo nutricional à recomposição de ecossistemas. Sua estratégia de renovação foliar ocorre sob o ritmo perenifólio, com maior contribuição na estação chuvosa e sincronizado a fase reprodutiva. A magnitude de transferência dos nutrientes na fração foliar para os estágios estudados segue a ordem de concentração: P < K < Mg < Ca < N < C. Não foram encontradas diferenças significativas quanto as concentrações de entrada dos nutrientes entre as estações nos estágios estudados. Gaps of temporal fitofisionoms were defined on lowland tropical systems localized in the Biologic Reserve of Poço das Antas RJ - Brazil. The litter-fall was quantificated by each fifteen days and was determinated the nutrient concentration of foliar fraction each two months. The oldest forest had the major litter-fall, 6.9 l l.l ton ha-1 total as the other fractions, when compared with the intermediate age forest with 5.5 1 0.5 ton ha-1 year-1 total. The plantation had the lowest values, 3.0 1 0.7 ton ha-1 year1 total. The foliar litter-fall concentration of N, P, K, Ca nutrients were bigger for Mimosa bimucronata (DC.). O. kuntze crop, showing then the great ecosystems nutritional recomposition potential of this specie with foliar renovation strategy occurs under perenifolial rhythm, mostly in the rain season synchronized to the reproduction phase. The transference rate of nutrients in the studied foliar fraction follows this concentration order: P < K < Mg < Ca < N < C.Parceria: UFRRJ

Diffusion behavior of water confined in deformed carbon nanotubes

We use molecular dynamics simulations to study the diffusion of water inside deformed carbon nanotubes, with different degrees of eccentricity at 300K. We found a water structural transition between tubular-like to single-file for the (7,7) nanotubes associated with a change from a high to low mobility regimes. The water which in the undeformed (9,9) nanotubes is frozen, becomes liquid for the distortion above a certain threshold. These water diffusion enhancement (suppresion) is related to a reduction (increase) in the number of hydrogen bonds. This suggests that the shape of the nanotube is a particularly important ingredient when considering the dynamical and structural properties of confined water.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figure

Sunyaev - Zel'dovich fluctuations from spatial correlations between clusters of galaxies

We present angular power spectra of the cosmic microwave background radiation anisotropy due to fluctuations of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect through clusters of galaxies. A contribution from the correlation among clusters is especially focused on, which has been neglected in the previous analyses. Employing the evolving linear bias factor based on the Press-Schechter formalism, we find that the clustering contribution amounts to 20-30% of the Poissonian one at degree angular scales. If we exclude clusters in the local universe, it even exceeds the Poissonian noise, and makes dominant contribution to the angular power spectrum. As a concrete example, we demonstrate the subtraction of the ROSAT X-ray flux-limited cluster samples. It indicates that we should include the clustering effect in the analysis of the SZ fluctuations. We further find that the degree scale spectra essentially depend upon the normalization of the density fluctuations, i.e., \sigma_8, and the gas mass fraction of the cluster, rather than the density parameter of the universe and details of cluster evolution models. Our results show that the SZ fluctuations at the degree scale will provide a possible measure of \sigma_8, while the arc-minute spectra a probe of the cluster evolution. In addition, the clustering spectrum will give us valuable information on the bias at high redshift, if we can detect it by removing X-ray luminous clusters.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Astrophysical Journa

A multi-scale comparison of texture descriptors extracted from the wavelet and curvelet domains for small bowel tumor detection in capsule endoscopy exams

Traditional endoscopic methods do not reach the entire Gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Wireless Capsule Endoscopy (CE) is a diagnostic procedure that allows the visualization of the whole GI tract, acquiring video frames, at a rate of two frames per second, while travels through the GI tract, resulting in huge amounts of data per exam. These frames possess rich information about the condition of the stomach and intestine mucosa, encoded as color and texture patterns. It is known for a long time that human perception of texture is based in a multi-scale analysis of patterns, which can be modeled by multi-resolution approaches. Therefore, in the present paper it is proposed a frame classification scheme, based in different combinations of texture descriptors taken at different detail levels of the Discrete Wavelet Transform and Discrete Curvelet Transform domains, in order to compare the classification performance of these multi-resolution representations of the information within the CE frames. The classification step is performed by a multilayer perceptron neural network. The proposed method has been applied in real data taken from several capsule endoscopic exams and reaches 91.7% of sensitivity and 89.4% specificity for features extracted from the DWT domain and 94.1% of sensitivity and 92.4% specificity for features extracted from the DCT domain. These promising results support the feasibility of the proposed method.Center Algoritm

Entropy, diffusivity and the energy landscape of a water-like fluid

Molecular dynamics simulations and instantaneous normal mode (INM) analysis of a fluid with core-softened pair interactions and water-like liquid-state anomalies are performed to obtain an understanding of the relationship between thermodynamics, transport properties and the poten- tial energy landscape. Rosenfeld-scaling of diffusivities with the thermodynamic excess and pair correlation entropy is demonstrated for this model. The INM spectra are shown to carry infor- mation about the dynamical consequences of the interplay between length scales characteristic of anomalous fluids, such as bimodality of the real and imaginary branches of the frequency distribu- tion. The INM spectral information is used to partition the liquid entropy into two contributions associated with the real and imaginary frequency modes; only the entropy contribution from the imaginary branch captures the non-monotonic behaviour of the excess entropy and diffusivity in the anomalous regime of the fluid

Time-evolution of the Rule 150 cellular automaton activity from a Fibonacci iteration

The total activity of the single-seeded cellular rule 150 automaton does not follow a one-step iteration like other elementary cellular automata, but can be solved as a two-step vectorial, or string, iteration, which can be viewed as a generalization of Fibonacci iteration generating the time series from a sequence of vectors of increasing length. This allows to compute the total activity time series more efficiently than by simulating the whole spatio-temporal process, or even by using the closed expression.Comment: 4 pages (3 figs included

Automatic detection of small bowel tumors in capsule endoscopy based on color curvelet covariance statistical texture descriptors

Traditional endoscopic methods do not allow the visualization of the entire Gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Wireless Capsule Endoscopy (CE) is a diagnostic procedure that overcomes this limitation of the traditional endoscopic methods. The CE video frames possess rich information about the condition of the stomach and intestine mucosa, encoded as color and texture patterns. It is known for a long time that human perception of texture is based in a multi-scale analysis of patterns, which can be modeled by multi-resolution approaches. Furthermore, modeling the covariance of textural descriptors has been successfully used in classification of colonoscopy videos. Therefore, in the present paper it is proposed a frame classification scheme based on statistical textural descriptors taken from the Discrete Curvelet Transform (DCT) domain, a recent multi-resolution mathematical tool. The DCT is based on an anisotropic notion of scale and high directional sensitivity in multiple directions, being therefore suited to characterization of complex patterns as texture. The covariance of texture descriptors taken at a given detail level, in different angles, is used as classification feature, in a scheme designated as Color Curvelet Covariance. The classification step is performed by a multilayer perceptron neural network. The proposed method has been applied in real data taken from several capsule endoscopic exams and reaches 97.2% of sensitivity and 97.4% specificity. These promising results support the feasibility of the proposed method.Centre Algoritm