1,960 research outputs found
Ultimate Intelligence Part I: Physical Completeness and Objectivity of Induction
We propose that Solomonoff induction is complete in the physical sense via
several strong physical arguments. We also argue that Solomonoff induction is
fully applicable to quantum mechanics. We show how to choose an objective
reference machine for universal induction by defining a physical message
complexity and physical message probability, and argue that this choice
dissolves some well-known objections to universal induction. We also introduce
many more variants of physical message complexity based on energy and action,
and discuss the ramifications of our proposals.Comment: Under review at AGI-2015 conference. An early draft was submitted to
ALT-2014. This paper is now being split into two papers, one philosophical,
and one more technical. We intend that all installments of the paper series
will be on the arxi
Measuring Coverage of Prolog Programs Using Mutation Testing
Testing is an important aspect in professional software development, both to
avoid and identify bugs as well as to increase maintainability. However,
increasing the number of tests beyond a reasonable amount hinders development
progress. To decide on the completeness of a test suite, many approaches to
assert test coverage have been suggested. Yet, frameworks for logic programs
remain scarce.
In this paper, we introduce a framework for Prolog programs measuring test
coverage using mutations. We elaborate the main ideas of mutation testing and
transfer them to logic programs. To do so, we discuss the usefulness of
different mutations in the context of Prolog and empirically evaluate them in a
new mutation testing framework on different examples.Comment: 16 pages, Accepted for presentation in WFLP 201
Experimental Vacuum Squeezing in Rubidium Vapor via Self-Rotation
We report the generation of optical squeezed vacuum states by means of
polarization self-rotation in rubidium vapor following a proposal by Matsko et
al. [Phys. Rev. A 66, 043815 (2002)]. The experimental setup, involving in
essence just a diode laser and a heated rubidium gas cell, is simple and easily
scalable. A squeezing of 0.85+-0.05 dB was achieved
CWRML: representing crop wild relative conservation and use data in XML
Background
Crop wild relatives are wild species that are closely related to crops. They are valuable as potential gene donors for crop improvement and may help to ensure food security for the future. However, they are becoming increasingly threatened in the wild and are inadequately conserved, both in situ and ex situ. Information about the conservation status and utilisation potential of crop wild relatives is diverse and dispersed, and no single agreed standard exists for representing such information; yet, this information is vital to ensure these species are effectively conserved and utilised. The European Community-funded project, European Crop Wild Relative Diversity Assessment and Conservation Forum, determined the minimum information requirements for the conservation and utilisation of crop wild relatives and created the Crop Wild Relative Information System, incorporating an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) schema to aid data sharing and exchange.
Results
Crop Wild Relative Markup Language (CWRML) was developed to represent the data necessary for crop wild relative conservation and ensure that they can be effectively utilised for crop improvement. The schema partitions data into taxon-, site-, and population-specific elements, to allow for integration with other more general conservation biology schemata which may emerge as accepted standards in the future. These elements are composed of sub-elements, which are structured in order to facilitate the use of the schema in a variety of crop wild relative conservation and use contexts. Pre-existing standards for data representation in conservation biology were reviewed and incorporated into the schema as restrictions on element data contents, where appropriate.
Conclusion
CWRML provides a flexible data communication format for representing in situ and ex situ conservation status of individual taxa as well as their utilisation potential. The development of the schema highlights a number of instances where additional standards-development may be valuable, particularly with regard to the representation of population-specific data and utilisation potential. As crop wild relatives are intrinsically no different to other wild plant species there is potential for the inclusion of CWRML data elements in the emerging standards for representation of biodiversity data
Quantum information can be negative
Given an unknown quantum state distributed over two systems, we determine how
much quantum communication is needed to transfer the full state to one system.
This communication measures the "partial information" one system needs
conditioned on it's prior information. It turns out to be given by an extremely
simple formula, the conditional entropy. In the classical case, partial
information must always be positive, but we find that in the quantum world this
physical quantity can be negative. If the partial information is positive, its
sender needs to communicate this number of quantum bits to the receiver; if it
is negative, the sender and receiver instead gain the corresponding potential
for future quantum communication. We introduce a primitive "quantum state
merging" which optimally transfers partial information. We show how it enables
a systematic understanding of quantum network theory, and discuss several
important applications including distributed compression, multiple access
channels and multipartite assisted entanglement distillation (localizable
entanglement). Negative channel capacities also receive a natural
interpretation
The Higgs boson in the MSSM in light of the LHC
We investigate the expectations for the light Higgs signal in the MSSM in
different search channels at the LHC. After taking into account dark matter and
flavor constraints in the MSSM with eleven free parameters, we show that the
light Higgs signal in the channel is expected to be at most at
the level of the SM Higgs, while the from W fusion
and/or the can be enhanced. For the main discovery
mode, we show that a strong suppression of the signal occurs in two different
cases: low or large invisible width. A more modest suppression is
associated with the effect of light supersymmetric particles. Looking for such
modification of the Higgs properties and searching for supersymmetric partners
and pseudoscalar Higgs offer two complementary probes of supersymmetry.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figure
Topics in Quantum Computers
I provide an introduction to quantum computers, describing how they might be
realized using language accessible to a solid state physicist. A listing of the
minimal requirements for creating a quantum computer is given. I also discuss
several recent developments in the area of quantum error correction, a subject
of importance not only to quantum computation, but also to some aspects of the
foundations of quantum theory.Comment: 22 pages, Latex, 1 eps figure, Paper to be published in "Mesoscopic
Electron Transport", edited by L. Kowenhoven, G. Schoen and L. Sohn, NATO ASI
Series E, Kluwer Ac. Publ., Dordrecht. v2: typos in refrences fixe
Pulmonary ORMDL3 is critical for induction of Alternaria -induced allergic airways disease
Genome-wide association studies have identified the ORM (yeast)-like protein isoform 3 (ORMDL3) gene locus on human chromosome 17q to be a highly significant risk factor for childhood-onset asthma.
Objective
We sought to investigate in vivo the functional role of ORMDL3 in disease inception.
Methods
An Ormdl3-deficient mouse was generated and the role of ORMDL3 in the generation of allergic airways disease to the fungal aeroallergen Alternaria alternata was determined. An adeno-associated viral vector was also used to reconstitute ORMDL3 expression in airway epithelial cells of Ormdl3 knockout mice.
Results
Ormdl3 knockout mice were found to be protected from developing allergic airways disease and showed a marked decrease in pathophysiology, including lung function and airway eosinophilia induced by Alternaria. Alternaria is a potent inducer of cellular stress and the unfolded protein response, and ORMDL3 was found to play a critical role in driving the activating transcription factor 6–mediated arm of this response through Xbp1 and downstream activation of the endoplasmic reticulum–associated degradation pathway. In addition, ORMDL3 mediated uric acid release, another marker of cellular stress. In the knockout mice, reconstitution of Ormdl3 transcript levels specifically in the bronchial epithelium resulted in reinstatement of susceptibility to fungal allergen–induced allergic airways disease.
Conclusions
This study demonstrates that ORMDL3, an asthma susceptibility gene identified by genome-wide association studies, contributes to key pathways that promote changes in airway physiology during allergic immune responses
Urinary biomarker concentrations of captan, chlormequat, chlorpyrifos and cypermethrin in UK adults and children living near agricultural land
There is limited information on the exposure to pesticides experienced by UK residents living near agricultural land. This study aimed to investigate their pesticide exposure in relation to spray events. Farmers treating crops with captan, chlormequat, chlorpyrifos or cypermethrin provided spray event information. Adults and children residing ≤100 m from sprayed fields provided first-morning void urine samples during and outwith the spray season. Selected samples (1–2 days after a spray event and at other times (background samples)) were analysed and creatinine adjusted. Generalised Linear Mixed Models were used to investigate if urinary biomarkers of these pesticides were elevated after spray events. The final data set for statistical analysis contained 1518 urine samples from 140 participants, consisting of 523 spray event and 995 background samples which were analysed for pesticide urinary biomarkers. For captan and cypermethrin, the proportion of values below the limit of detection was greater than 80%, with no difference between spray event and background samples. For chlormequat and chlorpyrifos, the geometric mean urinary biomarker concentrations following spray events were 15.4 μg/g creatinine and 2.5 μg/g creatinine, respectively, compared with 16.5 μg/g creatinine and 3.0 μg/g creatinine for background samples within the spraying season. Outwith the spraying season, concentrations for chlorpyrifos were the same as those within spraying season backgrounds, but for chlormequat, lower concentrations were observed outwith the spraying season (12.3 μg/g creatinine). Overall, we observed no evidence indicative of additional urinary pesticide biomarker excretion as a result of spray events, suggesting that sources other than local spraying are responsible for the relatively low urinary pesticide biomarkers detected in the study population
Designing spin-1 lattice models using polar molecules
We describe how to design a large class of always on spin-1 interactions
between polar molecules trapped in an optical lattice. The spin degrees of
freedom correspond to the hyperfine levels of a ro-vibrational ground state
molecule. Interactions are induced using a microwave field to mix ground states
in one hyperfine manifold with the spin entangled dipole-dipole coupled excited
states. Using multiple fields anistropic models in one, two, or three
dimensions, can be built with tunable spatial range. An illustrative example in
one dimension is the generalized Haldane model, which at a specific parameter
has a gapped valence bond solid ground state. The interaction strengths are
large compared to decoherence rates and should allow for probing the rich phase
structure of strongly correlated systems, including dimerized and gapped
phases.Comment: 24 pages, 5 figure
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