A Unitary Weights Based One-Iteration Quantum Perceptron Algorithm for Non-Ideal Training Sets

In order to solve the problem of non-ideal training sets (i.e., the less-complete or over-complete sets) and implement one-iteration learning, a novel efficient quantum perceptron algorithm based on unitary weights is proposed, where the singular value decomposition of the total weight matrix from the training set is calculated to make the weight matrix to be unitary. The example validation of quantum gates {H, S, T, CNOT, Toffoli, Fredkin} shows that our algorithm can accurately implement arbitrary quantum gates within one iteration. The performance comparison between our algorithm and other quantum perceptron algorithms demonstrates the advantages of our algorithm in terms of applicability, accuracy, and availability. For further validating the applicability of our algorithm, a quantum composite gate which consists of several basic quantum gates is also illustrated.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure

A Novel Quantum Visual Secret Sharing Scheme

Inspired by Naor et al.'s visual secret sharing (VSS) scheme, a novel n out of n quantum visual secret sharing (QVSS) scheme is proposed, which consists of two phases: sharing process and recovering process. In the first process, the color information of each pixel from the original secret image is encoded into an n-qubit superposition state by using the strategy of quantum expansion instead of classical pixel expansion, and then these n qubits are distributed as shares to n participants, respectively. During the recovering process, all participants cooperate to collect these n shares of each pixel together, then perform the corresponding measurement on them, and execute the n-qubit XOR operation to recover each pixel of the secret image. The proposed scheme has the advantage of single-pixel parallel processing that is not available in the existing analogous quantum schemes and perfectly solves the problem that in the classic VSS schemes the recovered image has the loss in resolution. Moreover, its experiment implementation with the IBM Q is conducted to demonstrate the practical feasibility.Comment: 19 pages, 13 figure

Difference between Pb and Cd Accumulation in 19 Elite Maize Inbred Lines and Application Prospects

In the last two decades, the accumulation of heavy metal in crop grains has become the study hotspot. In this study, 19 representative elite maize inbred lines and 3 hybrid varieties were investigated at the seedling stage, which can accumulate Pb and Cd in the stems and leaves, respectively. The results demonstrated that significant differences are among inbred lines for accumulation of heavy metals, implying that the Cd accumulation is significant correlation between the male parents and their hybrids and some inbred lines have been selected for cross-breeding with low Pb or Cd accumulation, such as S37, 9782, and ES40; Moreover, some inbred lines could be suitable for phytoremediation species for soil bioremediation with high levels of Pb and Cd accumulation, including 178, R08, 48-2, and Mo17ht

Joint compression and deadline optimization for wireless federated learning

Federated edge learning (FEEL) is a popular distributed learning framework for privacy-preserving at the edge, in which densely distributed edge devices periodically exchange model-updates with the server to complete the global model training. Due to limited bandwidth and uncertain wireless environment, FEEL may impose heavy burden to the current communication system. In addition, under the common FEEL framework, the server needs to wait for the slowest device to complete the update uploading before starting the aggregation process, leading to the straggler issue that causes prolonged communication time. In this paper, we propose to accelerate FEEL from two aspects: i.e., 1) performing data compression on the edge devices and 2) setting a deadline on the edge server to exclude the straggler devices. However, undesired gradient compression errors and transmission outage are introduced by the aforementioned operations respectively, affecting the convergence of FEEL as well. In view of these practical issues, we formulate a training time minimization problem, with the compression ratio and deadline to be optimized. To this end, an asymptotically unbiased aggregation scheme is first proposed to ensure zero optimality gap after convergence, and the impact of compression error and transmission outage on the overall training time are quantified through convergence analysis. Then, the formulated problem is solved in an alternating manner, based on which, the novel joint compression and deadline optimization (JCDO) algorithm is derived. Numerical experiments for different use cases in FEEL including image classification and autonomous driving show that the proposed method is nearly 30X faster than the vanilla FedSGD algorithm, and outperforms the state-of-the-art schemes

Heterosis in Early Maize Ear Inflorescence Development: A Genome-Wide Transcription Analysis for Two Maize Inbred Lines and Their Hybrid

Heterosis, or hybrid vigor, contributes to superior agronomic performance of hybrids compared to their inbred parents. Despite its importance, little is known about the genetic and molecular basis of heterosis. Early maize ear inflorescences formation affects grain yield, and are thus an excellent model for molecular mechanisms involved in heterosis. To determine the parental contributions and their regulation during maize ear-development-genesis, we analyzed genome-wide digital gene expression profiles in two maize elite inbred lines (B73 and Mo17) and their F1hybrid using deep sequencing technology. Our analysis revealed 17,128 genes expressed in these three genotypes and 22,789 genes expressed collectively in the present study. Approximately 38% of the genes were differentially expressed in early maize ear inflorescences from heterotic cross, including many transcription factor genes and some presence/absence variations (PAVs) genes, and exhibited multiple modes of gene action. These different genes showing differential expression patterns were mainly enriched in five cellular component categories (organelle, cell, cell part, organelle part and macromolecular complex), five molecular function categories (structural molecule activity, binding, transporter activity, nucleic acid binding transcription factor activity and catalytic activity), and eight biological process categories (cellular process, metabolic process, biological regulation, regulation of biological process, establishment of localization, cellular component organization or biogenesis, response to stimulus and localization). Additionally, a significant number of genes were expressed in only one inbred line or absent in both inbred lines. Comparison of the differences of modes of gene action between previous studies and the present study revealed only a small number of different genes had the same modes of gene action in both maize seedlings and ear inflorescences. This might be an indication that in different tissues or developmental stages, different global expression patterns prevail, which might nevertheless be related to heterosis. Our results support the hypotheses that multiple molecular mechanisms (dominance and overdominance modes) contribute to heterosis

Critical theory and tourism

La posición de la Teoría Crítica somete a juicio a las teorías y perspectivas que velan por lo dominador y la tendencia de explotar a otros como algo natural en los seres humanos. Para el turismo este tipo de teorías sirven para reflexionar no sólo sus contextos conflictivos, sino las tendencias alienantes y enajenadoras de la actualidad. La crítica no se conforma con determinados objetivos, es una “espiral” que no tiene fin, y que para los estudios del turismo esa espiral debe representar la crítica continua, siendo así un proyecto de transformación y cambio teóricoThe position of Critical Theory is against theories and perspectives that ensure the dominator and the tendency to exploit others as something natural in human beings. For tourism this type of theories are used to reflect not only their conflict contexts, but alienating and isolating trends of today. Criticism does not comply with agreed targets is a "spiral" that has no end, and that studies of tourism that should represent the critical spiral continues, making it a project of transformation and change theor