400 research outputs found
Experimental quantum tossing of a single coin
The cryptographic protocol of coin tossing consists of two parties, Alice and
Bob, that do not trust each other, but want to generate a random bit. If the
parties use a classical communication channel and have unlimited computational
resources, one of them can always cheat perfectly. Here we analyze in detail
how the performance of a quantum coin tossing experiment should be compared to
classical protocols, taking into account the inevitable experimental
imperfections. We then report an all-optical fiber experiment in which a single
coin is tossed whose randomness is higher than achievable by any classical
protocol and present some easily realisable cheating strategies by Alice and
Bob.Comment: 13 page
Domain wall QCD with physical quark masses
We present results for several light hadronic quantities (, ,
, , , , ) obtained from simulations of 2+1
flavor domain wall lattice QCD with large physical volumes and nearly-physical
pion masses at two lattice spacings. We perform a short, O(3)%, extrapolation
in pion mass to the physical values by combining our new data in a simultaneous
chiral/continuum `global fit' with a number of other ensembles with heavier
pion masses. We use the physical values of , and to
determine the two quark masses and the scale - all other quantities are outputs
from our simulations. We obtain results with sub-percent statistical errors and
negligible chiral and finite-volume systematics for these light hadronic
quantities, including: = 130.2(9) MeV; = 155.5(8) MeV; the
average up/down quark mass and strange quark mass in the scheme
at 3 GeV, 2.997(49) and 81.64(1.17) MeV respectively; and the neutral kaon
mixing parameter, , in the RGI scheme, 0.750(15) and the
scheme at 3 GeV, 0.530(11).Comment: 131 pages, 30 figures. Updated to match published versio
Applications of Nanoscale Materials in the Fields of Electrochemistry and Photoelectrochemistry
We have illustrated the important role played by the nanoscale materials in three-up-to-date
energy topics
Clinical profiles and quality of care of subjects with type 2 diabetes according to their cardiovascular risk: an observational, retrospective study
Background: The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) recently defined cardiovascular risk classes for subjects with diabetes. Aim of this study was to explore the distribution of subjects with type 2 diabetes (T2D) by cardiovascular risk groups according to the ESC classification and to describe the quality indicators of care, with particular regard to cardiovascular risk factors. Methods: The study is based on data extracted from electronic medical records of patients treated at the 258 Italian diabetes centers participating in the AMD Annals initiative. Patients with T2D were stratified by cardiovascular risk. General descriptive indicators, measures of intermediate outcomes, intensity/appropriateness of pharmacological treatment for diabetes and cardiovascular risk factors, presence of other complications and overall quality of care were evaluated. Results: Overall, 473,740 subjects with type 2 diabetes (78.5% at very high cardiovascular risk, 20.9% at high risk and 0.6% at moderate risk) were evaluated. Among people with T2D at very high risk: 26.4% had retinopathy, 39.5% had albuminuria, 18.7% had a previous major cardiovascular event, 39.0% had organ damage, 89.1% had three or more risk factors. The use of DPP4-i markedly increased as cardiovascular risk increased. The prescription of secretagogues also increased and that of GLP1-RAs tended to increase. The use of SGLT2-i was still limited, and only slightly higher in subjects with very high cardiovascular risk. The overall quality of care, as summarized by the Q score, tended to be lower as the level of cardiovascular risk increased. Conclusions: A large proportion of subjects with T2D is at high or very high risk. Glucose-lowering drug therapies seem not to be adequately used with respect to their potential advantages in terms of cardiovascular risk reduction. Several actions are necessary to improve the quality of care
Ab-initio Determination of Light Hadron Masses
More than 99% of the mass of the visible universe is made up of protons and
neutrons. Both particles are much heavier than their quark and gluon
constituents, and the Standard Model of particle physics should explain this
difference. We present a full ab-initio calculation of the masses of protons,
neutrons and other light hadrons, using lattice quantum chromodynamics. Pion
masses down to 190 mega electronvolts are used to extrapolate to the physical
point with lattice sizes of approximately four times the inverse pion mass.
Three lattice spacings are used for a continuum extrapolation. Our results
completely agree with experimental observations and represent a quantitative
confirmation of this aspect of the Standard Model with fully controlled
uncertainties.Comment: 22 pages, 3 Tables, 8 Figures. Published in Science (21 November
2008) with Supporting Online Material. Submission to arXiv has been delayed
by 6 months to respect the journal's embargo polic
Distribution of killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors genes in the Italian Caucasian population
BACKGROUND: Killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs) are a family of inhibitory and activatory receptors that are expressed by most natural killer (NK) cells. The KIR gene family is polymorphic: genomic diversity is achieved through differences in gene content and allelic polymorphism. The number of KIR loci has been reported to vary among individuals, resulting in different KIR haplotypes. In this study we report the genotypic structure of KIRs in 217 unrelated healthy Italian individuals from 22 immunogenetics laboratories, located in the northern, central and southern regions of Italy. METHODS: Two hundred and seventeen DNA samples were studied by a low resolution PCR-SSP kit designed to identify all KIR genes. RESULTS: All 17 KIR genes were observed in the population with different frequencies than other Caucasian and non-Caucasian populations; framework genes KIR3DL3, KIR3DP1, KIR2DL4 and KIR3DL2 were present in all individuals. Sixty-five different profiles were found in this Italian population study. Haplotype A remains the most prevalent and genotype 1, with a frequency of 28.5%, is the most commonly observed in the Italian population. CONCLUSION: The Italian Caucasian population shows polymorphism of the KIR gene family like other Caucasian and non-Caucasian populations. Although 64 genotypes have been observed, genotype 1 remains the most frequent as already observed in other populations. Such knowledge of the KIR gene distribution in populations is very useful in the study of associations with diseases and in selection of donors for haploidentical bone marrow transplantation
PLR (Plastic Lithium Rechargeable) Batteries Using Nanoscale Materials: A Convenient Electrical Energy Power for the Future?
This communication describes the synthesis of: (i) non toxic and low cost nanocrystalline
electrode materials which can be advantageously prepared at low temperature; (ii) highly
conductive electrolyte membranes formed by the nano-encapsulation within a poly
(acrylonitrile)-based polymer matrix of a solution of LiPF6 in organic solvants. The
performances of rechargeable PLR (Plastic Lithium Rechargeable) batteries using the
above mentioned components are presented
Estimating the predictability of an oceanic time series using linear and nonlinear methods
Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2004. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research 109 (2004): C08002, doi:10.1029/2003JC002148.This study establishes a series of tests to examine the relative utility of nonlinear time series analysis for oceanic data. The performance of linear autoregressive models and nonlinear delay coordinate embedding methods are compared for three numerical and two observational data sets. The two observational data sets are (1) an hourly near-bottom pressure time series from the South Atlantic Bight and (2) an hourly current-meter time series from the Middle Atlantic Bight (MAB). The nonlinear methods give significantly better predictions than the linear methods when the underlying dynamics have low dimensionality. When the dimensionality is high, the utility of nonlinear methods is limited by the length and quality of the time series. On the application side we mainly focus on the MAB data set. We find that the slope velocities are much less predictable than shelf velocities. Predictability on the slope after several hours is no better than the statistical mean. On the other hand, significant predictability of shelf velocities can be obtained for up to at least 12 hours.This research was supported by
Office of Naval Research grants N00014-01-1-0260, N00014-92-J-1481,
and N10014-99-1-0258
An Assessment of the Impact of Hafting on Paleoindian Point Variability
It has long been argued that the form of North American Paleoindian points was affected by hafting. According to this hypothesis, hafting constrained point bases such that they are less variable than point blades. The results of several studies have been claimed to be consistent with this hypothesis. However, there are reasons to be skeptical of these results. None of the studies employed statistical tests, and all of them focused on points recovered from kill and camp sites, which makes it difficult to be certain that the differences in variability are the result of hafting rather than a consequence of resharpening. Here, we report a study in which we tested the predictions of the hafting hypothesis by statistically comparing the variability of different parts of Clovis points. We controlled for the potentially confounding effects of resharpening by analyzing largely unused points from caches as well as points from kill and camp sites. The results of our analyses were not consistent with the predictions of the hypothesis. We found that several blade characters and point thickness were no more variable than the base characters. Our results indicate that the hafting hypothesis does not hold for Clovis points and indicate that there is a need to test its applicability in relation to post-Clovis Paleoindian points
Hidden charm molecules in finite volume
In the present paper we address the interaction of pairs of charmed mesons with hidden charm in a finite box. We use the interaction from a recent model based on heavy-quark spin symmetry that predicts molecules of hidden charm in the infinite volume. The energy levels in the box are generated within this model, and from them some synthetic data are generated. These data are then employed to study the inverse problem of getting the energies of the bound states and phase shifts for D (D) over bar or D*(D) over bar*. Different strategies are investigated using the lowest two levels for different values of the box size, and the errors produced are studied. Starting from the upper level, fits to the synthetic data are carried out to determine the scattering length and effective range plus the binding energy of the ground state. A similar strategy using the effective range formula is considered with a simultaneous fit to the two levels-one above and the other one below the threshold. This method turns out to be more efficient than the previous one. Finally, a method based on the fit to the data by means of a potential and a conveniently regularized loop function, turns out to be very efficient and allows us to produce accurate results in the infinite volume starting from levels of the box with errors far larger than the uncertainties obtained in the final results. A regularization method based on Gaussian wave functions turns out to be rather efficient in the analysis and as a byproduct a practical and fast method to calculate the Luscher function with high precision is presented
- …