2,485 research outputs found
Indoor Navigation with MEMS sensors
AbstractAccurate positioning becomes extremely important for modern application like indoor navigation and location-based services. Standalone GPS cannot meet this accuracy. In this paper a method to couple GPS and a high resolution MEMS pressure sensor is presented to improve vertical as well as horizontal (in urban canyon environment) positioning. Further, a step counter based on an accelerometer is improved with an altimeter for stair detection and automatic step length adaptation for dead reckoning inside buildings. Finally, a stand-alone system accurately tracks floor levels inside buildings, using only a pressure sensor
Differences in daptomycin and vancomycin ex vivo behaviour can lead to false interpretation of negative blood cultures
AbstractIn clinical studies on bacteraemia, the negativity of blood cultures is an important endpoint for comparing the efficacy of different therapeutic regimens. In FAN° anaerobic blood culture medium (BacT/ALERT system), daptomycin displayed increased MIC against Staphylococcus aureus and improved abolishment of its carryover effect in charcoal when compared with vancomycin. Differences between these two drugs can lead to a false interpretation of negative blood cultures. To compare different antibiotic regimens for the treatment of bacteraemia, preliminary studies are mandatory to ensure that ex vivo antibiotic behaviour is similar in the blood-culture system used
Cooling atoms into entangled states
We discuss the possibility of preparing highly entangled states by simply
cooling atoms into the ground state of an applied interaction Hamiltonian. As
in laser sideband cooling, we take advantage of a relatively large detuning of
the desired state, while all other qubit states experience resonant laser
driving. Once spontaneous emission from excited atomic states prepares the
system in its ground state, it remains there with a very high fidelity for a
wide range of experimental parameters and all possible initial states. After
presenting the general theory, we discuss concrete applications with one and
two qubits.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, typos correcte
Robustness of adiabatic passage trough a quantum phase transition
We analyze the crossing of a quantum critical point based on exact results
for the transverse XY model. In dependence of the change rate of the driving
field, the evolution of the ground state is studied while the transverse
magnetic field is tuned through the critical point with a linear ramping. The
excitation probability is obtained exactly and is compared to previous studies
and to the Landau-Zener formula, a long time solution for non-adiabatic
transitions in two-level systems. The exact time dependence of the excitations
density in the system allows to identify the adiabatic and diabatic regions
during the sweep and to study the mesoscopic fluctuations of the excitations.
The effect of white noise is investigated, where the critical point transmutes
into a non-hermitian ``degenerate region''. Besides an overall increase of the
excitations during and at the end of the sweep, the most destructive effect of
the noise is the decay of the state purity that is enhanced by the passage
through the degenerate region.Comment: 16 pages, 15 figure
Approximating Fractional Time Quantum Evolution
An algorithm is presented for approximating arbitrary powers of a black box
unitary operation, , where is a real number, and
is a black box implementing an unknown unitary. The complexity of
this algorithm is calculated in terms of the number of calls to the black box,
the errors in the approximation, and a certain `gap' parameter. For general
and large , one should apply a total of times followed by our procedure for approximating the fractional
power . An example is also given where for
large integers this method is more efficient than direct application of
copies of . Further applications and related algorithms are also
discussed.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figure
MicroRNA profiling reveals marker of motor neuron disease in ALS models
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder marked by the loss of motor neurons (MNs) in the brain and spinal cord, leading to fatally debilitating weakness. Because this disease predominantly affects MNs, we aimed to characterize the distinct expression profile of that cell type to elucidate underlying disease mechanisms and to identify novel targets that inform on MN health during ALS disease time course. microRNAs (miRNAs) are short, noncoding RNAs that can shape the expression profile of a cell and thus often exhibit cell-type-enriched expression. To determine MN-enriched miRNA expression, we used Cre recombinase-dependent miRNA tagging and affinity purification in mice. By defining thein vivomiRNA expression of MNs, all neurons, astrocytes, and microglia, we then focused on MN-enriched miRNAs via a comparative analysis and found that they may functionally distinguish MNs postnatally from other spinal neurons. Characterizing the levels of the MN-enriched miRNAs in CSF harvested from ALS models of MN disease demonstrated that one miRNA (miR-218) tracked with MN loss and was responsive to an ALS therapy in rodent models. Therefore, we have used cellular expression profiling tools to define the distinct miRNA expression of MNs, which is likely to enrich future studies of MN disease. This approach enabled the development of a novel, drug-responsive marker of MN disease in ALS rodents.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTAmyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease in which motor neurons (MNs) in the brain and spinal cord are selectively lost. To develop tools to aid in our understanding of the distinct expression profiles of MNs and, ultimately, to monitor MN disease progression, we identified small regulatory microRNAs (miRNAs) that were highly enriched or exclusive in MNs. The signal for one of these MN-enriched miRNAs is detectable in spinal tap biofluid from an ALS rat model, where its levels change as disease progresses, suggesting that it may be a clinically useful marker of disease status. Furthermore, rats treated with ALS therapy have restored expression of this MN RNA marker, making it an MN-specific and drug-responsive marker for ALS rodents.</jats:p
Landau-Zener transitions in qubits controlled by electromagnetic fields
We investigate the influence of a dipole interaction with a classical
radiation field on a qubit during a continuous change of a control parameter.
In particular, we explore the non-adiabatic transitions that occur when the
qubit is swept with linear speed through resonances with the time-dependent
interaction. Two classical problems come together in this model: the
Landau-Zener and the Rabi problem. The probability of Landau-Zener transitions
now depends sensitively on the amplitude, the frequency and the phase of the
Rabi interaction. The influence of the static phase turns out to be
particularly strong, since this parameter controls the time-reversal symmetry
of the Hamiltonian. In the limits of large and small frequencies, analytical
results obtained within a rotating-wave approximation compare favourably with a
numerically exact solution. Some physical realizations of the model are
discussed, both in microwave optics and in magnetic systems.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure
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