The Architecture of a Novel Weighted Network: Knowledge Network

Networked structure emerged from a wide range of fields such as biological systems, World Wide Web and technological infrastructure. A deeply insight into the topological complexity of these networks has been gained. Some works start to pay attention to the weighted network, like the world-wide airport network and the collaboration network, where links are not binary, but have intensities. Here, we construct a novel knowledge network, through which we take the first step to uncover the topological structure of the knowledge system. Furthermore, the network is extended to the weighted one by assigning weights to the edges. Thus, we also investigate the relationship between the intensity of edges and the topological structure. These results provide a novel description to understand the hierarchies and organizational principles in knowledge system, and the interaction between the intensity of edges and topological structure. This system also provides a good paradigm to study weighted networks.Comment: 5 figures 11 page

Functional analysis of the Bunyamwera orthobunyavirus Gc glycoprotein

The virion glycoproteins Gn and Gc of Bunyamwera orthobunyavirus (family Bunyaviridae) are encoded by the M RNA genome segment and have roles in both viral attachment and membrane fusion. To investigate further the structure and function of the Gc protein in viral replication, we generated 12 mutants that contain truncations from the N terminus. The effects of these deletions were analysed with regard to Golgi targeting, low pH-dependent membrane fusion, infectious virus-like particle (VLP) formation and virus infectivity. Our results show that the N-terminal half (453 residues) of the Gc ectodomain (909 residues in total) is dispensable for Golgi trafficking and cell fusion. However, deletions in this region resulted in a significant reduction in VLP formation. Four mutant viruses that contained N-terminal deletions in their Gc proteins were rescued, and found to be attenuated to different degrees in BHK-21 cells. Taken together, our data indicate that the N-terminal half of the Gc ectodomain is dispensable for replication in cell culture, whereas the C-terminal half is required to mediate cell fusion. A model for the domain structure of the Gc ectodomain is proposed

Anomalous Phase Transition in Strained SrTiO3_3 Thin Films

We have studied the cubic to tetragonal phase transition in epitaxial SrTiO$_3$ films under various biaxial strain conditions using synchrotron X-ray diffraction. Measuring the superlattice peak associated with TiO$_6$ octahedra rotation in the low temperature tetragonal phase indicates the presence of a phase transition whose critical temperature is a strong function of strain, with T$_C$ as much as 50K above the corresponding bulk temperature. Surprisingly, the lattice constants evolve smoothly through the transition with no indication of a phase change. This signals an important change in the nature of the phase transition due to the epitaxy strain and substrate clamping effect. The internal degrees of freedom (TiO$_6$ rotations) have become uncoupled from the overall lattice shape.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, REVTeX

Three-Dimensional Spin-Orbit Coupling in a Trap

We investigate the properties of an atom under the influence of a synthetic three-dimensional spin-orbit coupling (Weyl coupling) in the presence of a harmonic trap. The conservation of total angular momentum provides a numerically efficient scheme for finding the spectrum and eigenfunctions of the system. We show that at large spin-orbit coupling the system undergoes dimensional reduction from three to one dimension at low energies, and the spectrum is approximately Landau level-like. At high energies, the spectrum is approximately given by the three-dimensional isotropic harmonic oscillator. We explore the properties of the ground state in both position and momentum space. We find the ground state has spin textures with oscillations set by the spin-orbit length scale

Teleoperation experiments with a Utah/MIT hand and a VPL DataGlove

A teleoperation system capable of controlling a Utah/MIT Dextrous Hand using a VPL DataGlove as a master is presented. Additionally the system is capable of running the dextrous hand in robotic (autonomous) mode as new programs are developed. The software and hardware architecture used is presented and the experiments performed are described. The communication and calibration issues involved are analyzed and applications to the analysis and development of automated dextrous manipulations are investigated

Commuting Quantum Circuits with Few Outputs are Unlikely to be Classically Simulatable

We study the classical simulatability of commuting quantum circuits with n input qubits and O(log n) output qubits, where a quantum circuit is classically simulatable if its output probability distribution can be sampled up to an exponentially small additive error in classical polynomial time. First, we show that there exists a commuting quantum circuit that is not classically simulatable unless the polynomial hierarchy collapses to the third level. This is the first formal evidence that a commuting quantum circuit is not classically simulatable even when the number of output qubits is exponentially small. Then, we consider a generalized version of the circuit and clarify the condition under which it is classically simulatable. Lastly, we apply the argument for the above evidence to Clifford circuits in a similar setting and provide evidence that such a circuit augmented by a depth-1 non-Clifford layer is not classically simulatable. These results reveal subtle differences between quantum and classical computation.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures; v2: Theorems 1 and 3 improved, proofs modifie

Structural phase transitions in epitaxial perovskite films

Three different film systems have been systematically investigated to understand the effects of strain and substrate constraint on the phase transitions of perovskite films. In SrTiO$_3$ films, the phase transition temperature T$_C$ was determined by monitoring the superlattice peaks associated with rotations of TiO$_6$ octahedra. It is found that T$_C$ depends on both SrTiO$_3$ film thickness and SrRuO$_3$ buffer layer thickness. However, lattice parameter measurements showed no sign of the phase transitions, indicating that the tetragonality of the SrTiO$_3$ unit cells was no longer a good order parameter. This signals a change in the nature of this phase transition, the internal degree of freedom is decoupled from the external degree of freedom. The phase transitions occur even without lattice relaxation through domain formation. In NdNiO$_3$ thin films, it is found that the in-plane lattice parameters were clamped by the substrate, while out-of-plane lattice constant varied to accommodate the volume change across the phase transition. This shows that substrate constraint is an important parameter for epitaxial film systems, and is responsible for the suppression of external structural change in SrTiO$_3$ and NdNiO$_3$ films. However, in SrRuO$_3$ films we observed domain formation at elevated temperature through x-ray reciprocal space mapping. This indicated that internal strain energy within films also played an important role, and may dominate in some film systems. The final strain states within epitaxial films were the result of competition between multiple mechanisms and may not be described by a single parameter.Comment: REVTeX4, 14 figure

Dynamics of Weyl Scale Invariant non-BPS p=3 Branes

In this paper a Weyl scale invariant $p=3$ brane scenario is introduced, with the brane embedded in a higher dimensional bulk space with $N=1, 5D$ Super--Weyl symmetry. Its action, which describes its long wave oscillation modes into the ambient superspace and breaks the target symmetry down to the lower dimensional Weyl W(1,3) symmetry, is constructed by the approach of coset method.Comment: 12 pages, modified versio

Mechanical breakdown of bent silicon nanowires imaged by coherent x-ray diffraction

We have developed a method of coherent x-ray diffractive imaging to surmount its inability to image the structure of strongly strained crystals. We used calculated models from finite–element analysis to guide an iterative algorithm to fit experimental data from a series of increasingly bent wires cut into silicon-on-insulator films. Just before mechanical fracture, the wires were found to contain new phase structures, which are identified as dislocations associated with crossing the elastic limit

Bragg projection ptychography on niobium phase domains

Bragg projection ptychography (BPP) is a coherent x-ray diffraction imaging technique which combines the strengths of scanning microscopy with the phase contrast of x-ray ptychography. Here we apply it for high resolution imaging of the phase-shifted crystalline domains associated with epitaxial growth. The advantages of BPP are that the spatial extent of the sample is arbitrary, it is nondestructive, and it gives potentially diffraction limited spatial resolution. Here we demonstrate the application of BPP for revealing the domain structure caused by epitaxial misfit in a nanostructured metallic thin film. Experimental coherent diffraction data were collected from a niobium thin film, epitaxially grown on a sapphire substrate as the beam was scanned across the sample. The data were analyzed by BPP using a carefully selected combination of refinement procedures. The resulting image shows a close packed array of epitaxial domains, shifted with respect to each other due to misfit between the film and its substrate