Time-reversal symmetric resolution of unity without background integrals in open quantum systems

We present a new complete set of states for a class of open quantum systems, to be used in expansion of the Green's function and the time-evolution operator. A remarkable feature of the complete set is that it observes time-reversal symmetry in the sense that it contains decaying states (resonant states) and growing states (anti-resonant states) parallelly. We can thereby pinpoint the occurrence of the breaking of time-reversal symmetry at the choice of whether we solve Schroedinger equation as an initial-condition problem or a terminal-condition problem. Another feature of the complete set is that in the subspace of the central scattering area of the system, it consists of contributions of all states with point spectra but does not contain any background integrals. In computing the time evolution, we can clearly see contribution of which point spectrum produces which time dependence. In the whole infinite state space, the complete set does contain an integral but it is over unperturbed eigenstates of the environmental area of the system and hence can be calculated analytically. We demonstrate the usefulness of the complete set by computing explicitly the survival probability and the escaping probability as well as the dynamics of wave packets. The origin of each term of matrix elements is clear in our formulation, particularly the exponential decays due to the resonance poles.Comment: 62 pages, 13 figure

Thread-Modular Static Analysis for Relaxed Memory Models

We propose a memory-model-aware static program analysis method for accurately analyzing the behavior of concurrent software running on processors with weak consistency models such as x86-TSO, SPARC-PSO, and SPARC-RMO. At the center of our method is a unified framework for deciding the feasibility of inter-thread interferences to avoid propagating spurious data flows during static analysis and thus boost the performance of the static analyzer. We formulate the checking of interference feasibility as a set of Datalog rules which are both efficiently solvable and general enough to capture a range of hardware-level memory models. Compared to existing techniques, our method can significantly reduce the number of bogus alarms as well as unsound proofs. We implemented the method and evaluated it on a large set of multithreaded C programs. Our experiments showthe method significantly outperforms state-of-the-art techniques in terms of accuracy with only moderate run-time overhead.Comment: revised version of the ESEC/FSE 2017 pape

ITPA gene variant may protect against anemia induced during pegylated interferon alfa and ribavirin combination treatment in Ukrainian patients with chronic hepatitis C

The aim of this study was to clarify the association between the inosine triphosphate pyrophosphatase (ITPA) gene variants and PEG-IFNα/RBV combination treatment induced anemia in chronic hepatitis C (CHC) Ukrainian patients. The data were collected from 80 CHC patients with HCV genotype 1 infection. All study participants received standard doses of PEG-IFNα and RBV. According to the Hb level changes patients were distributed into: case group—42 patients with combination treatment induced anemia, and control group—38 patients with no signs of anemia. Genotyping for ITPA gene rs1127354 and rs7270101 variants was performed using PCR followed by RFLP assay. Fisher’s exact test was used to estimate the difference in genotype and allelic distribution. Distribution of rs7270101 genotypes was not significantly different between groups of CHC patients with RBV-induced anemia and without it. The frequency of rs1127354 A allele carriers was significantly higher (P < 0.05) in group of CHC patients without anemia (23.7%) comparing to the group of patients with anemia (7.3%). The respective allele frequency in control group (13.2%) was almost 3-fold higher (P < 0.05) comparing to the case group (4.9%). Significant association of ITPA gene rs1127354 with protection against RBV-induced hemolytic anemia was found in Ukrainian patients with CHC infection. Rs1127354 variant may assist as a pharmacogenetic marker in HCV antiviral therapy correction for side effect avoidance.Целью настоящего исследования было изучить ассоциацию аллельных вариантов гена инозин трифосфат пирофосфатазы (ITPA) с анемией, индуцированной комбинированной терапией пегилированным интерфероном (PEG-IFNα) и рибавирином (RBV) у пациентов из Украины с хроническим гепатитом С (ХГС). Данные собраны у 80 пациентов с ХГС, которые имели первый генотип вируса. Все участники исследования получали стандартные дозы PEG – IFNα и RBV. В соответствии с изменениями уровня гемоглобина пациенты были разделены на исследуемую группу (42 пациента с анемией) и контрольную (38 пациентов без признаков анемии). Ге-нотипирование полиморфных вариантов rs1127354 и rs7270101 гена ITPA проводили с помощью ПЦР с последующим ПДРФ анализом. Распределение генотипов по полиморфному варианту rs7270101 достоверно не отличалось в группе ХГС пациентов с RBV-индуцированной анемией и без нее. Частота носителей аллеля rs1127354 A была выше в группе пациентов c ХГС без анемии (23,7 %) по сравнению с группой пациентов с анемией. Частота соответствующего аллеля в контрольной группе (13,2 %) была выше, чем в группе пациентов с анемией (4,9 %)почти втрое. Найдена достоверная ассоциация полиморфного варианта rs1127354 гена ITPA с протекцией против рибавирин-индуцированной гемолитической анемии у пациентов из Украины с ХГС. Полиморфный вариант rs1127354 может служить фармакогенетическим маркером для коррекции противовирусной терапии гепатита С во избежание побочных эффектов.Метою даного дослідження було вивчити асоціацію алельних варіантів гена інозин трифосфат пірофосфатази (ITPA) з анемією, індукованою комбінованою терапією пегильованим інтерфероном (PEG-IFNα) і рибавірином (RBV) у пацієнтів з України з хронічним гепатитом С (ХГС). Дані були зібрані у 80 пацієнтів з ХГС, які мали 1-ий генотип вірусу. Всі учасники дослідження отримували стандартні дози PEG-IFNα та RBV. Відповідно до змін рівня гемоглобіну, пацієнти були розподілені на: групу дослідження – 42 пацієнти з анемією, індукованою комбінованою терапією, та контрольну групу – 38 пацієнтів без ознак анемії. Генотипування поліморфних варіантів rs1127354 та rs7270101 гена ITPA проводили за допомогою ПЛР з наступним ПДРФ аналізом. З метою оцінки достовірності відмінностей в розподілі генотипів та алелів використовували точний тест Фішера. Розподіл генотипів за поліморфним варіантом rs7270101 достовірно не відрізнявся в групі ХГС пацієнтів з RBV-індукованою анемією та без неї. Частота носіїв алеля rs1127354 A була достовірно вище (P<0,05) в групі ХГС пацієнтів без анемії (23,7%), порівняно з групою пацієнтів з анемією. Частота відповідного алеля в контрольній групі була також достовірно вищою (P<0,05) та перевищувала таку в групі пацієнтів з анемією(4,9%) майже втричі. Було знайдено достовірну асоціацію поліморного варіанта rs1127354 гена ITPA із захистом проти рибавірин-індукованої гемолітичної анемії у пацієнтів з хронічним гепатитом С з України. Поліморфний варіант rs1127354 може слугувати фармакогенетичних маркером для корекції противірусної терапії гепатиту С з метою уникнення побічних ефектів

Prepose: privacy, security, and reliability for gesture-based programming

With the rise of sensors such as Microsoft Kinect, gesture-based interfaces have become practical. However, to recognize such gestures, applications need access to users' depth and video, exposing sensitive data about individuals and their environment. Prepose, a domain-specific language for building gesture recognizers, combined with a system architecture that protects privacy, security, and reliability with untrusted applications, addresses these threats

Program boosting: program synthesis via crowd-sourcing

In this paper, we investigate an approach to program synthesis that is based on crowd-sourcing. With the help of crowd-sourcing, we aim to capture the "wisdom of the crowds" to find good if not perfect solutions to inherently tricky programming tasks, which elude even expert developers and lack an easy-to-formalize specification. We propose an approach we call program boosting, which involves crowd-sourcing imperfect solutions to a difficult programming problem from developers and then blending these programs together in a way that improves their correctness. We implement this approach in a system called CROWDBOOST and show in our experiments that interesting and highly non-trivial tasks such as writing regular expressions for URLs or email addresses can be effectively crowd-sourced. We demonstrate that carefully blending the crowd-sourced results together consistently produces a boost, yielding results that are better than any of the starting programs. Our experiments on 465 program pairs show consistent boosts in accuracy and demonstrate that program boosting can be performed at a relatively modest monetary cost

Study on occurrence of the IVS8-5T allele of the CFTR gene in Ukrainian males with spermatogenesis failure

Aim. To study the IVS8-5T allele of the CFTR gene and it is involvement in spermatogenesis failure in men with azoospermia and oligozoospermia. Methods. The IVS8-nT polymorphism was analyzed by PCR followed by «A.L.F.-express» fragment analysis in the infertile men group, consisting of 113 azoospermic and 217 oligozoospermic patients, and the control group of 150 fertile men with proven paternity. Results. The frequency of the IVS8-5T allele among infertile males was higher than in controls. A statistically significant difference (P < 0.05) was observed in the frequencies of the IVS8-5T allele in azoospermia patients (5.3 %) when compared with the control group (2.0 %). Conclusions. The IVS8-5T allele of the CFTR gene contributes to spermatogenesis failure and/or sperm maturation

Sawja: Static Analysis Workshop for Java

Static analysis is a powerful technique for automatic verification of programs but raises major engineering challenges when developing a full-fledged analyzer for a realistic language such as Java. This paper describes the Sawja library: a static analysis framework fully compliant with Java 6 which provides OCaml modules for efficiently manipulating Java bytecode programs. We present the main features of the library, including (i) efficient functional data-structures for representing program with implicit sharing and lazy parsing, (ii) an intermediate stack-less representation, and (iii) fast computation and manipulation of complete programs

Annual Thermodynamic Analysis of Solar Power with Steam Injection Gas Turbine (STIG) Cycle for Indian Conditions

AbstractSolar thermal energy is now being widely utilized to meet the world's energy demand due to its huge potential. Power generation from solar is varying and high cost of solar thermal energy systems that makes sense only in regions with high solar insolation. In order to overcome these practical issues, low cost solar hybrid steam injection gas turbine (STIG) cycle is adapted. Both gas turbine exhaust stream and solar heat are used for steam generation, and then it is injected into the combustor. The steam injection reduces NOX and CO2 emission in addition to increased power output and plant efficiency compared to the simple cycle. It offers a path for high conversion efficiency without the requirement of operating at high temperature and high pressure in the solar components. The objective of the proposed work is to investigate a conversion method for solar radiation that offers potentially high conversion efficiency and for increased competitiveness against fossil fuels. The annual performance of the cycle for sites in India with local climatic conditions such as ambient temperature, relative humidity and availability of direct normal irradiance to the solar concentrators under two modes of constant and variable power is presented in this paper. The results reveal that the solar to electricity efficiency of solar hybrid STIG plant with a simple Parabolic Trough Collector (PTC) is similar to existing solar thermal technologies and higher solar share is obtained. The study also reveals that the annual CO2 emission is similar to combined cycle plants and lower than gas turbine technologies