Quantum Merlin-Arthur proof systems for synthesizing quantum states

Complexity theory typically focuses on the difficulty of solving computational problems using classical inputs and outputs, even with a quantum computer. In the quantum world, it is natural to apply a different notion of complexity, namely the complexity of synthesizing quantum states. We investigate a state-synthesizing counterpart of the class NP, referred to as stateQMA, which is concerned with preparing certain quantum states through a polynomial-time quantum verifier with the aid of a single quantum message from an all-powerful but untrusted prover. This is a subclass of the class stateQIP recently introduced by Rosenthal and Yuen (ITCS 2022), which permits polynomially many interactions between the prover and the verifier. Our main result consists of error reduction of this class and its variants with an exponentially small gap or a bounded space, as well as how this class relates to other fundamental state synthesizing classes, i.e., states generated by uniform polynomial-time quantum circuits (stateBQP) and space-uniform polynomial-space quantum circuits (statePSPACE). Furthermore, we establish that the family of UQMA witnesses, considered as one of the most natural candidates, is in stateQMA. Additionally, we demonstrate that stateQCMA achieves perfect completeness.Comment: 31 pages. v2: minor changes. v3: add a new result - UQMA witness family is in stateQM

Les lecteurs de la bibliothèque municipale de Lyon au XIXe siècle

Cet article rend compte d'une étude approfondie des registres de prêt et de la correspondance de la bibliothèque municipale de Lyon à la fin du XIXe siècle, effectuée dans le cadre d'une recherche de maîtrise. Selon les termes du règlement adopté en 1875, le prêt d'ouvrages à domicile, suscitant alors de vifs débats et polémiques, est autorisé comme une pratique exceptionnelle soumise à l'accord individuel du maire et du bibliothécaire. Ce travail a permis d'étudier le processus de sélection des lecteurs autorisés par l’administration à emprunter des ouvrages, révélateur d'une représentation idéologique de la lecture et des missions de la bibliothèque, et de mesurer les différences et les évolutions dans la politique conservatoire des deux directeurs successifs. Il a également été l'occasion d'une analyse sociale du lectorat, révélant la fermeture numérique et sociologique du service de prêt, véritable conservatoire d'un ordre ancien de la lecture contre les mutations considérables du lectorat au XIXe siècle, et d'une analyse des pratiques de lecture, pouvant contribuer à une histoire du goût et de la réception littéraire.This article gives a report of a research degree studying the lending registers and correspondence of Lyon's main public library for the late XIXth century. The practice of lending library books to the readers was then a rather controversial subject, giving rise to a strong debate in french libraries : according to the 1875 regulations of Lyon's library, lending appears as an exceptional practice that had to be personnally authorized by the Mayor and the librarian. This research was an opportunity to study the way the authorities made a selection among potential readers, which reveals the way the librarian and Mayor used to conceive the tasks of a public library. Many differences have been noticed between the attitude and politics of two successive librarians towards the lending department. On the one hand, social analysis of the lending registers revealed the closeness and narrowness of the lending department audience, from a quantitative as well as sociological point of view. On the other hand, the study of the borrowers reading habits, the nature of lents and the titles of most claimed books, could contribute to  history of literature focused on the readers

A new Strategy to Improve Drug Delivery to the Maxillary Sinuses: The Frequency Sweep Acoustic Airflow

International audiencePurpose Enhancement of intra-nasal sinus drug deposition involves nebulization of a drug superimposed by the acoustic airflow characterized by a specific frequency. We investigated the impact of fixed frequency versus frequency sweep acoustic airflow on the improvement of aerosolized drug penetration into the maxillary sinuses.Methods Fixed frequency and frequency sweep acoustic airflow were generated using a prototype of variable frequency nebulizing system, and their effect on the intra-nasal sinus aerosol deposition in a ‘nasal replica’, a transparent, water-resistant, non-porous resin replica of the human plastinated cast created using a stereolithography technique, was tested. Sodium fluoride and gentamicin were chosen as markers. In addition to this, the effect of sweep cycle and intensity variation was also studied. Results Studies performed using fixed frequency acoustic airflow showed that each of the maxillary sinuses of the ‘nasal replica’ required specific frequency for the optimal intra-nasal sinus aerosol deposition; depending on the ostia of the left and right maxillary sinuses which are different. Intra-nasal sinus drug deposition experiments under the effect of the frequency sweep acoustic airflow showed an optimal aerosol deposition into both maxillary sinus of the ‘nasal replica’. Studies on the effect of the duration of the sweep cycle showed that the shorter the cycle the better the deposition.Conclusion Our study demonstrates the benefit of frequency sweep acoustic airflow on the drug deposition into maxillary sinuses of the ‘nasal replica’ characterized by ostia of different geometry. However, the delivery rates of the ‘nasal replica’ cannot be directly applied to real human chronic rhinosinusitis condition; further in vivo studies have to be conducted

Aeroelastic implications of active winglet concept aimed to improve civil transport aircraft performances

Reduction of aircraft environmental footprint has become over years a key objective for the industry. Particularly, for decades winglets have been proven to eficiently reduce drag and fuel consumption. However, the design of those wingtip extensions mainly relies on an aerodynamic shape optimisation for a given cruise condition resulting in suboptimal behaviour for the rest of the flight. Active winglet concept proposes to optimise the winglet cant angle along the flight to compensate the loss of eficiency inherent to fixed designs. The variation of winglet deflection impacts the lift distribution with repercussion on wing deformation that must be investigated. Besides, the presence of moving masses at the tip of the wing also has influence on dynamic response and particularly on flutter onset. This work proposes to evaluate those impacts through an aeroelastic analysis of both static and dynamic implications of active winglets combined with an aerodynamic performances optimisation. The XRF1, an Airbus provided industrial standard multi- disciplinary research test case representing a typical configuration for wide body long- range aircraft, is used as the baseline aircraft. Coupled CFD/CSM computations are performed to assess the evolution of wing shape with respect to winglets deflections and the consequences on mission performance optimisation. While a parametric flutter analysis is carried-out to highlight the dependence of critical flutter speed on winglet cant angle

Parametric Analysis of an Active Winglet Concept for High Aspect Ratio Wing Using CFD/CSM Computations

This paper presents a parametric analysis of an active winglet concept applied to a high aspect ratio wing. The technology studied here only consists in a single degree of freedom wing-tip whose only the cant angle deflection can be controlled. The main parameters under study are the hinge line location and its orientation with respect to the longitudinal axis of the aircraft. High-fidelity aerodynamic and structural computations are used to assess the impact of the device on both drag and loads. The influence of cant angle deflections on flutter characteristics is also evaluated. First a "wing only" configuration is studied and the results are compared with complete aircraft computations to take into account the contributions due to the trim. It is shown that the hinge line parameters highly influence the drag evolution with cant angle but with limited impact on the minimum area - in which we are interested in. Loads are significantly impacted by both cant variations and hinge line geometry. Regarding dynamic characteristics, the mode sequence is dependent on the cant deflection and massively impacts flutter onset

Aircraft fleet models using a bottom-up approach for simulating aviation technological prospective scenarios

Modeling prospective scenarios for aviation in the context of climate issues is a scientific topic of major interest. For this purpose, the development of models to integrate technological improvements in these scenarios is necessary. This paper focuses on the use of a bottom-up approach to establish aircraft fleet models, in order to integrate them into CAST, an open-source tool for simulating and evaluating prospective scenarios for air transport. These models are based on logistic functions which allow representing the gradual replacement of current aircraft by future aircraft architectures obtained from overall aircraft design. The efficiency improvement of the aircraft fleet can then be assessed. To illustrate the use of the models, some case studies, considering for example turboprop and hydrogen aircraft, are performed for analyzing efficiency scenarios for air transport. Also, the effect of accelerated fleet renewal and earlier introduction of new aircraft architectures is studied

One Health Surveillance: A Matrix to Evaluate Multisectoral Collaboration

The international community and governmental organizations are actively calling for the implementation of One Health (OH) surveillance systems to target health hazards that involve humans, animals, and their environment. In our view, the main characteristic of a OH surveillance system is the collaboration across institutions and disciplines operating within the different sectors to plan, coordinate, and implement the surveillance process. However, the multisectoral organizational models and possible collaborative modalities implemented throughout the surveillance process are multi-fold and depend on the objective and context of the surveillance. The purpose of this study is to define a matrix to evaluate the quality and appropriateness of multisectoral collaboration through an in-depth analysis of its organization, implementation, and functions. We developed a first list of evaluation attributes based on (i) the characteristics of the organization, implementation, and functionality of multisectoral surveillance systems; and (ii) the existing attributes for the evaluation of health surveillance systems and OH initiatives. These attributes were submitted to two rounds of expert-opinion elicitation for review and validation. The final list of attributes consisted of 23 organizational attributes and 9 functional attributes, to which 3 organizational indexes were added measuring the overall organization of collaboration. We then defined 75 criteria to evaluate the level of satisfaction for the attributes and indexes. The criteria were scored following a four-tiered scoring grid. Graphical representations allowed for an easy overview of the evaluation results for both attributes and indexes. This evaluation matrix is the first to allow an in-depth analysis of collaboration in a multisectoral surveillance system and is the preliminary step toward the creation of a fully standalone tool for the evaluation of collaboration. After its practical application and adaptability to different contexts are field-tested, this tool could be very useful in identifying the strengths and weaknesses of collaboration occurring in a multisectoral surveillance system