Fundamental quantum interferometry bound for the squeezed-light-enhanced gravitational-wave detector GEO600

The fundamental quantum interferometry bound limits the sensitivity of an interferometer for a given total rate of photons and for a given decoherence rate inside the measurement device.We theoretically show that the recently reported quantum-noise limited sensitivity of the squeezed-light-enhanced gravitational-wave detector GEO600 is exceedingly close to this bound, given the present amount of optical loss. Furthermore, our result proves that the employed combination of a bright coherent state and a squeezed vacuum state is generally the optimum practical approach for phase estimation with high precision on absolute scales. Based on our analysis we conclude that neither the application of Fock states nor N00N states or any other sophisticated nonclassical quantum states would have yielded an appreciably higher quantum-noise limited sensitivity.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Power poses – where do we stand?

<p>Dynamic results for Scenario 2.</p

Overweight People Have Low Levels of Implicit Weight Bias, but Overweight Nations Have High Levels of Implicit Weight Bias

Although a greater degree of personal obesity is associated with weaker negativity toward overweight people on both explicit (i.e., self-report) and implicit (i.e., indirect behavioral) measures, overweight people still prefer thin people on average. We investigated whether the national and cultural context - particularly the national prevalence of obesity predicts attitudes toward overweight people independent of personal identity and weight status. Data were collected from a total sample of 338,121 citizens from 71 nations in 22 different languages on the Project Implicit website (https://implicit.harvard.edu/) between May 2006 and October 2010. We investigated the relationship of the explicit and implicit weight bias with the obesity both at the individual (i.e., across individuals) and national (i.e., across nations) level. Explicit weight bias was assessed with self-reported preference between overweight and thin people; implicit weight bias was measured with the Implicit Association Test (IAT). The national estimates of explicit and implicit weight bias were obtained by averaging the individual scores for each nation. Obesity at the individual level was defined as Body Mass Index (BMI) scores, whereas obesity at the national level was defined as three national weight indicators (national BMI, national percentage of overweight and underweight people) obtained from publicly available databases. Across individuals, greater degree of obesity was associated with weaker implicit negativity toward overweight people compared to thin people. Across nations, in contrast, a greater degree of national obesity was associated with stronger implicit negativity toward overweight people compared to thin people. This result indicates a different relationship between obesity and implicit weight bias at the individual and national levels

GestaltMatcher Database - A global reference for facial phenotypic variability in rare human diseases

The most important factor that complicates the work of dysmorphologists is the significant phenotypic variability of the human face. Next-Generation Phenotyping (NGP) tools that assist clinicians with recognizing characteristic syndromic patterns are particularly challenged when confronted with patients from populations different from their training data. To that end, we systematically analyzed the impact of genetic ancestry on facial dysmorphism. For that purpose, we established the GestaltMatcher Database (GMDB) as a reference dataset for medical images of patients with rare genetic disorders from around the world. We collected 10,980 frontal facial images - more than a quarter previously unpublished - from 8,346 patients, representing 581 rare disorders. Although the predominant ancestry is still European (67%), data from underrepresented populations have been increased considerably via global collaborations (19% Asian and 7% African). This includes previously unpublished reports for more than 40% of the African patients. The NGP analysis on this diverse dataset revealed characteristic performance differences depending on the composition of training and test sets corresponding to genetic relatedness. For clinical use of NGP, incorporating non-European patients resulted in a profound enhancement of GestaltMatcher performance. The top-5 accuracy rate increased by +11.29%. Importantly, this improvement in delineating the correct disorder from a facial portrait was achieved without decreasing the performance on European patients. By design, GMDB complies with the FAIR principles by rendering the curated medical data findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable. This means GMDB can also serve as data for training and benchmarking. In summary, our study on facial dysmorphism on a global sample revealed a considerable cross ancestral phenotypic variability confounding NGP that should be counteracted by international efforts for increasing data diversity. GMDB will serve as a vital reference database for clinicians and a transparent training set for advancing NGP technology.</p

Advances in photonic quantum sensing

Quantum sensing has become a mature and broad field. It is generally related with the idea of using quantum resources to boost the performance of a number of practical tasks, including the radar-like detection of faint objects, the readout of information from optical memories or fragile physical systems, and the optical resolution of extremely close point-like sources. Here we first focus on the basic tools behind quantum sensing, discussing the most recent and general formulations for the problems of quantum parameter estimation and hypothesis testing. With this basic background in our hands, we then review emerging applications of quantum sensing in the photonic regime both from a theoretical and experimental point of view. Besides the state-of-the-art, we also discuss open problems and potential next steps.Comment: Review in press on Nature Photonics. This is a preliminary version to be updated after publication. Both manuscript and reference list will be expande

Implicit Personality Self-Concept

In meiner Dissertationsschrift unterschied ich zwischen expliziten und impliziten Repräsentationen der eigenen Persönlichkeit und konzeptualisierte diese als Teile des reflektiven bzw. impulsiven Systems (Strack & Deutsch, in press). Am Beispiel der Persönlichkeitseigenschaften Schüchternheit, Ängstlichkeit und Ärgerlichkeit erfasste ich implizite Repräsentationen des Persönlichkeits-Selbstkonzeptes mit Hilfe von Impliziten Assoziations Tests (IATs, Greenwald, McGhee & Schwartz, 1998) und den neuen Impliziten Assoziations Prozeduren (IAPs) als indirekte Messverfahren. Im Gegensatz zu direkten Fragebogen-Verfahren, die das explizite Persönlichkeits-Selbstkonzept erfassen, stellen indirekte Verfahren chronometrische Messverfahren dar, die das direkte Fragen nach Selbsteinschätzungen vermeiden. Die Ergebnisse zeigten vier wichtige Dissoziationen zwischen direkten und indirekten Verfahren bei der Messung des Persönlichkeits-Selbstkonzeptes. Erstens waren indirekte Verfahren robuster gegen Verfälschungsinstruktionen als direkte Verfahren. Zweitens war die konvergente Validität zwischen indirekten Verfahren geringer als zwischen direkten Verfahren. Drittens leisteten indirekte Verfahren einen inkrementellen Beitrag zur Vorhersage von Verhalten. Viertens waren indirekte Verfahren weniger geeignet für das gleichzeitige Erfassen von zwei unterschiedlichen Eigenschaften als direkte Verfahren.In my dissertation thesis I differentiated between explicit and implicit representations of one’s own personality and considered them as elements of reflective and impulsive information processing, respectively (Strack & Deutsch, in press). Using the traits of shyness, anxiousness, and angriness as examples, I assessed implicit representations of the personality self-concept with the Implicit Association Tests (IATs, Greenwald McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998) and the new Implicit Association Procedures (IAPs) as the tools for indirect measures. In contrast to direct questionnaire measures that assess the explicit personality self-concept, indirect measures are chronometric procedures that avoid asking direct self-judgment questions. The results showed four important dissociations between direct and indirect measures in the assessment of the personality self-concept. First, indirect measures were more robust against faking than direct measures. Second, the convergent validity between indirect measures was lower than that between direct measures. Third, indirect measures added incremental validity to the prediction of behavior. Fourth, indirect measures were less apt for the concurrent assessment of two traits within one sample than direct measures