Tunable coupling scheme for flux qubits at the optimal point

We discuss a practical design for tunably coupling a pair of flux qubits via the quantum inductance of a third high-frequency qubit. The design is particularly well suited for realizing a recently proposed microwave-induced parametric coupling scheme. This is attractive because the qubits can always remain at their optimal points. Furthermore, we will show that the resulting coupling also has an optimal point where it is insensitive to low-frequency flux noise. This is an important feature for the coherence of coupled qubits. The presented scheme is an experimentally realistic way of carrying out two-qubit gates and should be easily extended to multiqubit systems.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, minor change

Applying Complexity Theory to Solve Hospitality Contrarian Case Conundrums: Illuminating Happy-Low and Unhappy-High Performing Frontline Service Employees

Purpose: This paper aims to advance a configural asymmetric theory of the complex antecedents to hospitality employee happiness-at-work and managers’ assessments of employees’ quality of work performance. The study transcends variable and case-level analyses to go beyond prior statistical findings of small-to-medium effect sizes of happiness–performance relationships; the study here identifies antecedent paths involving high-versus-low happy employees associating with high-versus-low managers’ assessments of these employees’ performances. Design/methodology/approach: The study merges data from surveys of employees (n = 247) and surveys completed by their managers (n = 43) and by using qualitative comparative analysis via the software program, fsQCA.com. The study analyzes data from Janfusan Fancyworld, the largest (in revenues and number of employees) tourism business group in Taiwan; Janfusan Fancyworld includes tourist hotels, amusement parks, restaurants and additional firms in related service sectors. Findings: The findings support the four tenets of configural analysis and theory construction: recognize equifinality of different solutions for the same outcome, test for asymmetric solutions, test for causal asymmetric outcomes for very high versus very low happiness and work performance and embrace complexity.Research limitations/implications: Additional research in other firms and additional countries is necessary to confirm the usefulness of examining algorithms for predicting very high (low) happiness and very high (low) quality of work performance. The implications are substantial that configural theory and research will resolve perplexing happiness–performance conundrums. Practical implications: The study provides useful case-level algorithms involving employees’ demographic characteristics and their assessments of work facet-specifics which are useful for explaining very high happiness-at-work and high quality of work performance (as assessed by managers) – as well as algorithms explaining very low happiness and very low quality of work performance. Originality/value: The study is the first to propose and test the tenets of configural theory in the context of hospitality frontline service employees’ happiness-at-work and managers’ assessments of these employees’ quality of work performances

Impact of wild-type and genetically modified Pseudomonas fluorescens on soil enzyme activities and microbial population structure in the rhizosphere of pea

The definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.com. Copyright Blackwell Publishing DOI : 10.1046/j.1365-294x.1998.00367.xThe aim of this work was to determine the impact of wild type along with functionally and non-functionally modified Pseudomonas fluorescens strains in the rhizosphere. The wild type F113 strain carried a gene encoding the production of the antibiotic 2,4 diacetylphloroglucinol (DAPG) useful in plant disease control, and was marked with a lacZY gene cassette. The first modified strain was a functional modification of strain F113 with repressed production of DAPG, creating the DAPG negative strain F113 G22. The second paired comparison was a non-functional modification of wild type (unmarked) strain SBW25, constructed to carry marker genes only, creating strain SBW25 EeZY-6KX. Significant perturbations were found in the indigenous bacterial population structure, with the F113, (DAPG+) strain causing a shift towards slower growing colonies (K strategists) compared with the non-antibiotic producing derivative (F113 G22) and the SBW25 strains. The DAPG+ strain also significantly reduced, in comparison with the other inocula, the total Pseudomonas populations but did not affect the total microbial populations. The survival of F113 and F113 G22 were an order of magnitude lower than the SBW 25 strains. The DAPG+ strain caused a significant decrease in the shoot to root ratio in comparison to the control and other inoculants, indicating plant stress. F113 increased soil alkaline phosphatase, phosphodiesterase and aryl sulphatase activities compared to the other inocula, which themselves reduced the same enzyme activities compared to the control. In contrast to this, the -glucosidase, -galactosidase and N-acetyl glucosaminidase activities decreased with the inoculation of the DAPG+ strain. These results indicate that soil enzymes are sensitive to the impact of GMM inoculation.Peer reviewe

THREE-DIMENSIONAL DATA MODELLING FOR UNDERGROUND UTILITY NETWORK MAPPING

Cities around the world face an increasing need for land as density in urban areas increases rapidly. The pressure to expand a city’s space is especially acute for a city-state like Singapore. How to make better use of underground space? This issue becomes much more emergent in the urban development. In the big data era, a data-driven approach of underground spaces is necessary for the sustainable development of a city along with rapid urbanization. A reliable three dimensional (3D) digital map of utility networks is crucial for urban planners to understand one of the most impactful aspects of the underground space planning. The mapping underground utility networks is a challenging task, especially for cities with limited land resources, congested underground spaces, and a lack of uniform existing practices. This paper proposes a framework to organise the workflow from an underground utility data survey to data use. This framework includes two core parts: A 3D utility network data model that aims to convert utility survey data to 3D geospatial information, and a 3D utility cadastral data model that supports utility ownership management. It is expected that reliable and accurate information on underground utility networks can lead to a better understanding and management of underground space, which eventually contributes to better city planning, making the unseen structures visible

Wireless local area network in a prehospital environment

BACKGROUND: Wireless local area networks (WLANs) are considered the next generation of clinical data network. They open the possibility for capturing clinical data in a prehospital setting (e.g., a patient's home) using various devices, such as personal digital assistants, laptops, digital electrocardiogram (EKG) machines, and even cellular phones, and transmitting the captured data to a physician or hospital. The transmission rate is crucial to the applicability of the technology in the prehospital setting. METHODS: We created two separate WLANs to simulate a virtual local are network environment such as in a patient's home or an emergency room (ER). The effects of different methods of data transmission, number of clients, and roaming among different access points on the file transfer rate were determined. RESULTS: The present results suggest that it is feasible to transfer small files such as patient demographics and EKG data from the patient's home to the ER at a reasonable speed. Encryption, user control, and access control were implemented and results discussed. CONCLUSIONS: Implementing a WLAN in a centrally managed and multiple-layer-controlled access control server is the key to ensuring its security and accessibility. Future studies should focus on product capacity, speed, compatibility, interoperability, and security management

A FRAMEWORK FOR RELIABLE THREE-DIMENSIONAL UNDERGROUND UTILITY MAPPING FOR URBAN PLANNING

To optimise the use of limited available land, land-scarce cities such as Singapore are increasingly looking towards the underground in search of more space. A good understanding of what already exists underground is essential for the planning of underground spaces. In particular, utility services make up a significant part of what exists underground. To meet planning needs, the Singapore government has initiated efforts towards bringing records of existing utility networks together in a single database and share its contents to support planning, design, and construction of underground developments. However, these records can not be relied on to support these critical processes: They are not guaranteed to represent today’s state of the underground, are not accurate or of unknown accuracy, are inconsistently modelled, and may indicate as-design information instead of as-built information. This lack of reliability leads to an increase in cost and a loss in efficiency caused by the need to repeatedly survey to locate existing utility services on-site, and can have potentially disastrous outcomes when an excavation would damage existing services. Technological advances in utility surveying and mapping devices such as Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and gyroscopic pipeline mapping devices offer the potential of accurately mapping utilities in three dimensions (3D) at a large scale and high speed. However, a better understanding of the benefits and limitations of these technologies in a practical context is needed, as well as their suitability for mapping to support applications such as urban planning and land administration. The Digital Underground project is a collaboration between Singapore-ETH Centre, Singapore Land Authority and the City of Zürich that aims to develop a roadmap towards a reliable 3D utility map of Singapore. To enable the development of utility mapping standards and guidelines, the 3D mapping workflow for underground utilities is studied extensively based on market research, literature study, and case studies. This work presents the beginnings of a framework for 3D mapping of underground utilities as one of the initial results of the Digital Underground project as it is in progress. From these experiences, it can be concluded that, together with existing data, data captured using various surveying methods can indeed contribute to the establishment and maintenance of a consolidated and reliable utility map. To this end, a multi-sensor, multi-data 3D mapping workflow is proposed to integrate data captured using different surveying techniques during different moments in the development lifecycle of utilities. Based on this framework, this work also identifies areas for improvement and critical gaps to be bridged that will ultimately form part of the roadmap

Constraint Propagation for the Dial-a-Ride Problem with Split Loads

International audienceAbstract. This paper deals with a new problem: the Dial and Ride Problem with Split Loads (DARPSL), while using randomized greedy insertion techniques together with constraint propagation techniques. Though it focuses here on the static versions of Dial and Ride, it takes into account the fact that practical DARP has to be handled according to a dynamical point of view, and even, in some case, in real time contexts. So, the kind of algorithmic solution which is proposed here, aim at making easier to bridge both points of view. First, we propose the general framework of the model and discuss the link with dynamical DARP, second, we describe the two algorithms (DARP and DARPSL), and lastly, show numerical experiments for both

Effects of anti-triadin antibody on Ca2+ release from sarcoplasmic reticulum

AbstractThe monoclonal antibody, mAb GE 4.90, raised against triadin, a 95 kDa protein of sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR), inhibits the slow phase of Ca2+ release from SR following depolarization of the T-tubule moiety of the triad. The antibody has virtually no effect on the fast phase of depolarization-induced Ca2+ release nor on caffeine-induced Ca2+ release. Since the slow phase of depolarization-induced Ca2+ release is also inhibited by dihydropyridines (DHP), these results suggest that triadin may be involved in the functional coupling between the DHP receptor and the SR Ca2+ channel

The influence of Arctic Fe and Atlantic fixed N on summertime primary production in Fram Strait, North Greenland Sea

Climate change has led to a ~ 40% reduction in summer Arctic sea-ice cover extent since the 1970s. Resultant increases in light availability may enhance phytoplankton production. Direct evidence for factors currently constraining summertime phytoplankton growth in the Arctic region is however lacking. GEOTRACES cruise GN05 conducted a Fram Strait transect from Svalbard to the NE Greenland Shelf in summer 2016, sampling for bioessential trace metals (Fe, Co, Zn, Mn) and macronutrients (N, Si, P) at ~ 79°N. Five bioassay experiments were conducted to establish phytoplankton responses to additions of Fe, N, Fe + N and volcanic dust. Ambient nutrient concentrations suggested N and Fe were deficient in surface seawater relative to typical phytoplankton requirements. A west-to-east trend in the relative deficiency of N and Fe was apparent, with N becoming more deficient towards Greenland and Fe more deficient towards Svalbard. This aligned with phytoplankton responses in bioassay experiments, which showed greatest chlorophyll-a increases in + N treatment near Greenland and + N + Fe near Svalbard. Collectively these results suggest primary N limitation of phytoplankton growth throughout the study region, with conditions potentially approaching secondary Fe limitation in the eastern Fram Strait. We suggest that the supply of Atlantic-derived N and Arctic-derived Fe exerts a strong control on summertime nutrient stoichiometry and resultant limitation patterns across the Fram Strait region.S.K. was financed by GEOMAR and the German Research Foundation (DFG Award Number AC 217/1-1 to E.P.A). T.J.B. acknowledges funding from a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral European Fellowship (OceanLiNES; Project ID 658035). Open Access funding provided by Projekt DEAL

Parallel pumping of electrons

We present simultaneous operation of ten single-electron turnstiles leading to one order of magnitude increase in current level up to 100 pA. Our analysis of device uniformity and background charge stability implies that the parallelization can be made without compromising the strict requirements of accuracy and current level set by quantum metrology. In addition, we discuss how offset charge instability limits the integration scale of single-electron turnstiles.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl