Challenges in Open-air Microwave Quantum Communication and Sensing

Quantum communication is a holy grail to achieve secure communication among a set of partners, since it is provably unbreakable by physical laws. Quantum sensing employs quantum entanglement as an extra resource to determine parameters by either using less resources or attaining a precision unachievable in classical protocols. A paradigmatic example is the quantum radar, which allows one to detect an object without being detected oneself, by making use of the additional asset provided by quantum entanglement to reduce the intensity of the signal. In the optical regime, impressive technological advances have been reached in the last years, such as the first quantum communication between ground and satellites, as well as the first proof-of-principle experiments in quantum sensing. The development of microwave quantum technologies turned out, nonetheless, to be more challenging. Here, we will discuss the challenges regarding the use of microwaves for quantum communication and sensing. Based on this analysis, we propose a roadmap to achieve real-life applications in these fields.Comment: Long version of the article published in the Proceeding

Exact renormalization in quantum spin chains

We introduce a real-space exact renormalization group method to find exactly solvable quantum spin chains and their ground states. This method allows us to provide a complete list for exact solutions within SU(2) symmetric quantum spin chains with $S\leq 4$ and nearest-neighbor interactions, as well as examples with S=5. We obtain two classes of solutions: One of them converges to the fixed points of renormalization group and the ground states are matrix product states. Another one does not have renormalization fixed points and the ground states are partially ferromagnetic states.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, references added, published versio

Distribution of the Southeastern Shrew (Sorex longirostris longirostris) in Arkansas

The southeastern shrew (Sorex longirostris longirostris) is considered uncommon and, due to a lack of knowledge, a Species of Greatest Conservation Need in Arkansas. Also, eastern Arkansas may represent a gap in the species’ distribution. Therefore, we evaluated persistence at previous capture sites, surveyed additional counties, quantified microhabitat at our capture locations, and compiled occurrences. Since Sealander and Heidt’s (1990) Arkansas Mammals detailed its occurrence, additional captures by Huston and Nelson (1994), Showen (2006), and this study document new counties (Pope and Searcy) and a new ecoregion (Arkansas Valley). Number of specimens in Arkansas has increased to 17 in 11 counties within the Ozark Highlands, Boston Mountains, Ouachita Mountains, and Arkansas Valley Ecoregions. Our efforts to assess a potential distribution gap within the Mississippi Alluvial Plain produced only specimens of other shrew species; therefore, possible factors affecting connectivity across the Mississippi Alluvial Plain and river basin are discussed. Given sparse records in Arkansas, uncommon and Species of Greatest Conservation Need designations are warranted for the southeastern shrew

Garbage collection auto-tuning for Java MapReduce on Multi-Cores

MapReduce has been widely accepted as a simple programming pattern that can form the basis for efficient, large-scale, distributed data processing. The success of the MapReduce pattern has led to a variety of implementations for different computational scenarios. In this paper we present MRJ, a MapReduce Java framework for multi-core architectures. We evaluate its scalability on a four-core, hyperthreaded Intel Core i7 processor, using a set of standard MapReduce benchmarks. We investigate the significant impact that Java runtime garbage collection has on the performance and scalability of MRJ. We propose the use of memory management auto-tuning techniques based on machine learning. With our auto-tuning approach, we are able to achieve MRJ performance within 10% of optimal on 75% of our benchmark tests

Consolidation of massive bone allografts in limb-preserving operations for bone tumours

This study analysed the influence of several factors affecting the consolidation time of 83 massive bone allografts in 79 patients with malignant bone tumours: osteosarcoma 57; Ewing's sarcoma 8; malignant fibrous histiocytoma 3; chondrosarcoma 4; fibrosarcoma 5; and giant cell tumours 2. The mean age of the patients was 19 years and the mean length of the allografts was 18 cm. The minimum follow up was for 12 months. The mean consolidation time for metaphyseal and diaphyseal osteotomies was 6.5 and 16 months respectively. Fifteen diaphyseal osteotomies required autologous cancellous grafting. There were 8 allograft fractures after consolidation. The following factors which might influence consolidation were analysed: age of the host and donor; allograft length and site; type of osteotomy and osteosynthesis; intra-arterial and systemic chemotherapy; intraoperative and external radio-therapy. In diaphyseal osteotomies there were statistically significant differences in consolidation time with the use of systemic chemotherapy, external radiotherapy and the recipient's age

EDBL: a General Lexical Basis for the Automatic Processing of Basque

EDBL (Euskararen Datu-Base Lexikala) is a general-purpose lexical database used in Basque text-processing tasks. It is a large repository of lexical knowledge (currently around 80,000 entries) that acts as basis and support in a number of different NLP tasks, thus providing lexical information for several language tools: morphological analysis, spell checking and correction, lemmatization and tagging, syntactic analysis, and so on. It has been designed to be neutral in relation to the different linguistic formalisms, and flexible and open enough to accept new types of information. A browser-based user interface makes the job of consulting the database, correcting and updating entries, adding new ones, etc. easy to the lexicographer. The paper presents the conceptual schema and the main features of the database, along with some problems encountered in its design and implementation in a commercial DBMS. Given the diversity of the lexical entities and the complex relationships existing among them, three total specializations have been defined under the main class of the hierarchy that represents the conceptual schema. The first one divides all the entries in EDBL into Basque standard and non-standard entries. The second divides the units in the database into dictionary entries (classified into the different parts-of-speech) and other entries (mainly non-independent morphemes and irregularly inflected forms). Finally, another total specialization has been established between single-word entries and multiword lexical units; this permits us to describe the morphotactics of single-word entries, and the constitution and surface realization schemas of multiword lexical units.A hierarchy of typed feature structures (FS) has been designed to map the entities and relationships in the database conceptual schema. The FSs are coded in TEI-conformant SGML, and Feature Structure Declarations (FSD) have been made for all the types of the hierarchy. Feature structures are used as a delivery format to export the lexical information from the database. The information coded in this way is subsequently used as input by the different language analysis tools

Activation of Gαi3 triggers cell migration via regulation of GIV

During migration, cells must couple direction sensing to signal transduction and actin remodeling. We previously identified GIV/Girdin as a Gαi3 binding partner. We demonstrate that in mammalian cells Gαi3 controls the functions of GIV during cell migration. We find that Gαi3 preferentially localizes to the leading edge and that cells lacking Gαi3 fail to polarize or migrate. A conformational change induced by association of GIV with Gαi3 promotes Akt-mediated phosphorylation of GIV, resulting in its redistribution to the plasma membrane. Activation of Gαi3 serves as a molecular switch that triggers dissociation of Gβγ and GIV from the Gi3–GIV complex, thereby promoting cell migration by enhancing Akt signaling and actin remodeling. Gαi3–GIV coupling is essential for cell migration during wound healing, macrophage chemotaxis, and tumor cell migration, indicating that the Gαi3–GIV switch serves to link direction sensing from different families of chemotactic receptors to formation of the leading edge during cell migration

Implementation of a Large-Scale Platform for Cyber-Physical System Real-Time Monitoring

The emergence of Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things (IoT) has meant that the manufacturing industry has evolved from embedded systems to cyber-physical systems (CPSs). This transformation has provided manufacturers with the ability to measure the performance of industrial equipment by means of data gathered from on-board sensors. This allows the status of industrial systems to be monitored and can detect anomalies. However, the increased amount of measured data has prompted many companies to investigate innovative ways to manage these volumes of data. In recent years, cloud computing and big data technologies have emerged among the scientific communities as key enabling technologies to address the current needs of CPSs. This paper presents a large-scale platform for CPS real-time monitoring based on big data technologies, which aims to perform real-time analysis that targets the monitoring of industrial machines in a real work environment. This paper is validated by implementing the proposed solution on a real industrial use case that includes several industrial press machines. The formal experiments in a real scenario are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of this solution and also its adequacy and scalability for future demand requirements. As a result of the implantation of this solution, the overall equipment effectiveness has been improved.The authors are grateful to Goizper and Fagor Arrasate for providing the industrial case study, and specifically Jon Rodriguez and David Chico (Fagor Arrasate) for their help and support. Any opinions, findings and conclusions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding agencies