Characterizing Schwarz maps by tracial inequalities

Let $\phi$ be a linear map from the $n\times n$ matrices ${\mathcal M}_n$ to the $m\times m$ matrices ${\mathcal M}_m$. It is known that $\phi$ is $2$-positive if and only if for all $K\in {\mathcal M}_n$ and all strictly positive $X\in {\mathcal M}_n$, $\phi(K^*X^{-1}K) \geq \phi(K)^*\phi(X)^{-1}\phi(K)$. This inequality is not generally true if $\phi$ is merely a Schwarz map. We show that the corresponding tracial inequality ${\rm Tr}[\phi(K^*X^{-1}K)] \geq {\rm Tr}[\phi(K)^*\phi(X)^{-1}\phi(K)]$ holds for a wider class of positive maps that is specified here. We also comment on the connections of this inequality with various monotonicity that have found wide use in mathematical physics, and apply it, and a close relative, to obtain some new, definitive results.Comment: v4 corrects a number of small typos and includes some additional results and discussio

American Domination of the Net: A Preliminary Ethnographic Exploration of Causes, Economic Implications for Europe, and Future Prospects

European executives largely agree that American operators of online platforms dominate online business in the EU. There is less consensus on the reasons for American domination and on the possible economic consequences of this domination for the growth of EU business, for employment, for the strength of the EU economies, or for the national security of individual EU member states. With a series of interviews with German executives in a range of industries we examine opinions of the causes of American domination of the net, the current consequences, and the potential for future economic harm. We develop a set of hypotheses, which can be examined with a larger survey and with econometric analysis

Computing and Social Welfare: Minimizing the Societal Harm From Digital Transfor-mation While Preserving the Benefits of Innovation

Social Welfare Computing is an emerging discipline that seeks to direct technology to cause minimum social disruption, and in particular seeks to minimize the harm caused directly by technology. This is markedly different from the better understood strategic use of technology to create value or to address existing social needs. Innovative technologies that are widely adopted created significant value for their users; otherwise they would not be widely adopted. Often the companies that create them obtain new sources of wealth and power, which inevitably lead to new abuses of power and new forms of societal disruption. Societal disruption in turn requires social adaptation, including new regulations to influence the behavior of firms and to define and to protect the rights of an individual in the changed society. Social Welfare Computing seeks to guide social adaptation, combining insights from disciplines as varied as anthropology, business strategy, economics, strategic planning, and law

Deep Learning of ab initio Hessians for Transition State Optimization

Identifying transition states -- saddle points on the potential energy surface connecting reactant and product minima -- is central to predicting kinetic barriers and understanding chemical reaction mechanisms. In this work, we train an equivariant neural network potential, NewtonNet, on an ab initio dataset of thousands of organic reactions from which we derive the analytical Hessians from the fully differentiable machine learning (ML) model. By reducing the computational cost by several orders of magnitude relative to the Density Functional Theory (DFT) ab initio source, we can afford to use the learned Hessians at every step for the saddle point optimizations. We have implemented our ML Hessian algorithm in Sella, an open source software package designed to optimize atomic systems to find saddle point structures, in order to compare transition state optimization against quasi-Newton Hessian updates using DFT or the ML model. We show that the full ML Hessian robustly finds the transition states of 240 unseen organic reactions, even when the quality of the initial guess structures are degraded, while reducing the number of optimization steps to convergence by 2--3$\times$ compared to the quasi-Newton DFT and ML methods. All data generation, NewtonNet model, and ML transition state finding methods are available in an automated workflow

Gas Plasma-Conditioned Ringer’s Lactate Enhances the Cytotoxic Activity of Cisplatin and Gemcitabine in Pancreatic Cancer In Vitro and In Ovo

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most aggressive tumor entities. Diffuse metastatic infiltration of vessels and the peritoneum restricts curative surgery. Standard chemotherapy protocols include the cytostatic drug gemcitabine with limited efficacy at considerable toxicity. In search of a more effective and less toxic treatment modality, we tested in human pancreatic cancer cells (MiaPaca and PaTuS) a novel combination therapy consisting of cytostatic drugs (gemcitabine or cisplatin) and gas plasma-conditioned Ringer’s lactate that acts via reactive oxygen species. A decrease in metabolic activity and viability, change in morphology, and cell cycle arrest was observed in vitro. The combination treatment was found to be additively toxic. The findings were validated utilizing an in ovo tumor model of solid pancreatic tumors growing on the chorionallantois membrane of fertilized chicken eggs (TUM-CAM). The combination of the drugs (especially cisplatin) with the plasma-conditioned liquid significantly enhanced the anti-cancer effects, resulting in the induction of cell death, cell cycle arrest, and inhibition of cell growth with both of the cell lines tested. In conclusion, our novel combination approach may be a promising new avenue to increase the tolerability and efficacy of locally applied chemotherapeutic in diffuse metastatic peritoneal carcinomatosis of the pancreas. © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

GERMINAÇÃO DO PEPINO EM SISTEMA AQUAPÔNICO GERMINATION OF CUCUMBER IN AQUAPONIC SYSTEM

A aquaponia tem objetivo principal de fornecer para as plantas a água rica emmatéria orgânica e nutrientes provenientes do criatório de peixes, tornando o sistemamais sustentável. O objetivo foi verificar a germinação de mudas de pepino nosistema de aquaponia. O projeto foi realizado na sede do IFC - Campus Rio do Sul.Foi utilizado para a realização do projeto quatro variedades de pepino sendo elasAodai, Wisconsin, Atlântida e Branco, tendo sido plantadas 12 sementes de cadavariedade. O objetivo foi atingido e como resultado obteve-se 97,91% de germinaçãodo total de sementes plantadas

Laboratory and Clinical Studies of Cardiac Transplantation

Cardiac transplantation was carried out on four patients at the Medical College of Virginia between May and October of 1968, in an effort to salvage them from the terminal stages of otherwise uncorrectable heart disease. Despite a strikingly good early recovery from operation in each case, three of the patients died of acute homograft rejection in one to three weeks; our second case is living and well, ten months after operation, and is at this writing the world\u27s third longest survivor. The world experience to June of 1969 includes about 130 cardiac transplants. Of the first 100 patients operated on over six months ago, 20 are surviving, and the majority of these have returned to a productive existence, demonstrating the feasibility of complete rehabilitation of at least some terminal patients after cardiac transplantation. The high mortality rate--significantly higher than was anticipated--has resulted from acute and chronic homograft rejection and from the equally difficult problem of infection. Certain lessons have been learned from our own experience and from the world experience with this procedure, and these will be reviewed in an attempt to establish the current status and future potential of cardiac transplantation