Revealing Tripartite Quantum Discord with Tripartite Information Diagram

A new measure based on the tripartite information diagram is proposed for identifying quantum discord in tripartite systems. The proposed measure generalizes the mutual information underlying discord from bipartite to tripartite systems, and utilizes both one-particle and two-particle projective measurements to reveal the characteristics of the tripartite quantum discord. The feasibility of the proposed measure is demonstrated by evaluating the tripartite quantum discord for systems with states close to Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger, W, and biseparable states. In addition, the connections between tripartite quantum discord and two other quantum correlations---namely genuine tripartite entanglement and genuine tripartite Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering---are briefly discussed. The present study considers the case of quantum discord in tripartite systems. However, the proposed framework can be readily extended to general N-partite systems

Pricing and Diversification of Massive Online Open Course Platforms

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have recently received a great deal of attention in higher education. MOOCs demonstrate universities’ efforts in offering high-quality digital learning materials to everyone in the world, which should be encouraged. Nevertheless, as a MOOC platform must ensure its financial sustainability, it is questionable whether a platform’s profit-seeking pricing strategy will hurt the diversity of courses, such as eliminating courses with low certificate purchasing rates. To address this question, we adopt a game-theoretic framework to model the interaction and strategic choices of a MOOC platform, learners, and universities. Based on the certificate prices and revenue sharing ratios chosen by the platform for courses with various certificate purchasing rates, universities consider the competition intensity and decide their course quality levels, to attract learners. We conclude that all types of course will exists in equilibrium throughout the lifecycle of a MOOC platform, regardless of the technology maturity and competition intensity. We also find that course qualities may decrease when MOOCs become more accessible to learners. Finally, qualities of courses with different certificate purchasing rates are compared

Hafnium oxide-based ferroelectric thin-film transistor with a-InGaZnO channel fabricated at temperatures \u3c= 350°C

HfO2-based ferroelectric materials integrated with oxide-based thin-film transistors have been considered as potential candidates for back-end-of-line compatible ferroelectric field-effect transistors, which can be vertically stacked on silicon CMOS circuits to realize high-density neural network applications. However, the formation of ferroelectric orthorhombic phase in HfO2-based materials usually requires an annealing temperature of 400°C or higher. In this work, ferroelectric thin-film transistors (Fe-TFTs) were developed by monolithically integrating HfZrO2 (HZO) ferroelectric capacitors with amorphous indium-gallium-zinc oxide (a-IGZO) TFTs at a maximum processing temperature of 350°C on a glass substrate. A butterfly-shaped C-V curve was clearly observed in the low-temperature annealed metal-HZO-metal capacitor, indicating the formation of ferroelectricity in the HZO layer, as shown in Fig. 1. The positive and negative coercive voltages were 3 V and -2.4 V, respectively. The dielectric constant was 20.65. The field-effect mobility, threshold voltage, subthreshold swing and on/off current ratio of the a-IGZO TFT extracted from the transfer characteristics shown in Fig. 2 were 6.15 cm2V-1s-1, 1.5 V, 0.1 V/dec and 4.3´107, respectively. Fig. 3 shows the transfer hysteresis curves of the low-temperature Fe-TFTs in a metal-ferroelectric-metal-insulator-semiconductor configuration. The Fe-TFTs exhibited large hysteresis memory windows of 2.8 V and 3.8 V when the area ratios between ferroelectric capacitors and gate insulators (AFE / ADE) were 1/8 and 1/12, respectively. The result shows a great potential for back-end-of-line compatible memory applications. Please click Download on the upper right corner to see the full abstract

Critical Factors of Adopting Enterprise Application Integration Technology: An Empirical Study on Larger Hospitals

As hospitals extend their service scope, they adopt more information systems. These systems are implemented in different timelines and the interfaces of databases become varied. Frequently, the exchange of information between various systems requires additional coordination or even manual input for unifying data. To embrace automation, the solution is to adopt enterprise application integration (EAI) technology, the middleware, to convert data from among various information systems to enable an efficient flow of data in the hospital. In this paper, we discuss and verify the impact factors on the integration levels of EAI by surveying larger hospitals above the regional level in Taiwan and testing a proposed research model. The findings of this study show that information technology infrastructure, hospital size, external pressure, internal pressure, and external support significantly affect the EAI level

Proširenost bakterije Edwardsiella tarda u azijske školjke Corbicula fluminea na području Pasir Mas, Kelantan u Maleziji s naglaskom na antibiogram, podnošljivost na teške metale i genetsku raznolikost.

This paper deals with the antibiogram, heavy metal tolerance and genetic properties of Edwardsiella tarda colonizing live Asian Clam, Corbicula fluminea from Pasir Mas, Kelantan, Malaysia. Asian Clam is a popular snack for Malaysians. An antibiotic susceptibility test was carried out using the disc diffusion method against 19 types of antibiotics, namely: oxolinic acid, ampicillin, erythromycin, lincomycin, oleandomycin, amoxicillin, colistin sulphate, sulfamethoxazole, chloramphenicol, doxycycline, florfenicol, flumequine, kanamycin, nalidixic acid, novobiocin, tetracycline, fosfomycin, spiramycin and compound sulphonamides, whereas heavy metal tolerance of bacteria to Hg2+, Cd2+, Cr6+ and Cu2+ was tested using the two fold agar dilution method. The RAPD PCR profile of the bacteria was characterized using three different types of universal primers. It was found that there were most cases of antibiotic sensitivity (56.1%), followed by antibiotic resistance (38.6%) and antibiotic intermediate sensitivity (5.3%). Only kanamycin was found to be able to inhibit all the bacterial isolates present, whereas other bacterial isolates were resistant to fosfomycin, lincomycin, novobiocin and sulphamethoxazole. Additionally, all bacterial isolates were also resistant to all the heavy metals tested. The bacterial isolates present showed a percentage of genetic similarity ranging from 37.5% to 100%. In conclusion, the findings of the present study revealed that the sampled C. fluminea were highly exposed to antibiotic and heavy metal residues.U radu je prikazan antibiogram, podnošljivost na teške metale i genetska svojstva bakterije Edwardsiella tarda naseljene na živoj azijskoj školjci Corbicula fluminea na području Pasir Mas, Kelantan u Maleziji. Azijska se školjka često upotrebljava za zakusku prilikom razonode u Maleziji. Osjetljivost na antibiotike određena je disk difuzijskim postupkom na 19 vrsta antimikrobnih tvari: oksolinsku kiselinu, ampicilin, eritromicin, linkomicin, oleandomicin, amoksicilin, kolistin sulfat, sulfametoksazol, kloramfenikol, doksiciklin, florfenikol, flumekvin, kanamicin, nalidiksičnu kiseinu, novobiocin, tetraciklin, fosfomicin, spiramicin i sulfonamide. Podnošljivost bakterije na Hg2+, Cd2+, Cr6+ i Cu2+ određena je postupkom dvostrukog razrjeđenja agara. PCRom nasumično umnožena polimorfna DNA bakterije bila je određena upotrebom različitih tipova univerzalnih početnica. Ustanovljeno je da je 56,1% izolata bakterije bilo osjetljivo na antimikrobne tvari, 38,6% otporno, a 5,3% umjereno osjetljivo. Samo je kanamicin bio djelotvoran na sve pretražene izolate. Neki izolati bili su otporni na fosfomicin, linkomicin, novobiocin i sulfametoksazol. Svi bakterijski izolati bili su otporni na sve pretraživane teške metale. Genetska srodnost pretraženih izolata kretala se od 37,5% do 100%. Može se zaključiti da su uzorci školjke C. fluminea izloženi ostacima antibiotika i teških metala