QPCF: higher order languages and quantum circuits

qPCF is a paradigmatic quantum programming language that ex- tends PCF with quantum circuits and a quantum co-processor. Quantum circuits are treated as classical data that can be duplicated and manipulated in flexible ways by means of a dependent type system. The co-processor is essentially a standard QRAM device, albeit we avoid to store permanently quantum states in between two co-processor's calls. Despite its quantum features, qPCF retains the classic programming approach of PCF. We introduce qPCF syntax, typing rules, and its operational semantics. We prove fundamental properties of the system, such as Preservation and Progress Theorems. Moreover, we provide some higher-order examples of circuit encoding

A Certified Study of a Reversible Programming Language

We advance in the study of the semantics of Janus, a C-like reversible programming language. Our study makes utterly explicit some backward and forward evaluation symmetries. We want to deepen mathematical knowledge about the foundations and design principles of reversible computing and programming languages. We formalize a big-step operational semantics and a denotational semantics of Janus. We show a full abstraction result between the operational and denotational semantics. Last, we certify our results by means of the proof assistant Matita

A Class of Reversible Primitive Recursive Functions

AbstractReversible computing is bi-deterministic which means that its execution is both forward and backward deterministic, i.e. next/previous computational step is uniquely determined. Various approaches exist to catch its extensional or intensional aspects and properties. We present a class RPRF of reversible functions which holds at bay intensional aspects and emphasizes the extensional side of the reversible computation by following the style of Dedekind-Robinson Primitive Recursive Functions. The class RPRF is closed by inversion, can only express bijections on integers — not only natural numbers —, and it is expressive enough to simulate Primitive Recursive Functions, of course, in an effective way

High-density balsamic vinegar: application of stable isotope ratio analysis to determine watering down

Balsamic vinegar of Modena (ABM) is a product obtained from concentrated grape must with the addition of wine vinegar. It can be adulterated with the addition of exogenous water. The official method EN16466-3, based on the analysis of the stable isotope ratio δ18O of the water, is not applicable to ABM with high density (above 1.20 at 20 °C). In this work, for the first time, the official method was modified, providing for a prior dilution of the sample and applying a correction of the data in order to eliminate the isotopic contribution of the diluent, whereupon the within- and between-day standard deviations of repeatability (Sr) were estimated. Considering the limit values of δ18O for vinegar and concentrated must, the threshold limit of δ18O, below which the ABM product can be considered adulterated, has been identified

Simultaneous sampling of vapor and particle-phase carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons on functionalized glass fiber filters

The sampling of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the atmosphere is often performed on filters, which retain only aerosol particles, disregarding the vapor fraction; after the filter, an adsorbent (e.g., polyurethane foam, PUF, or styrene/divinylbenzene, XAD) is sometimes used for sampling vapors not retained from the filter. However, the use of an adsorbent may lead to many disadvantages: contaminations, analysis time and costs, and size problems when developing automated or personal samplers. In this work, a functionalized glass fiber filter for the simultaneous sampling of aerosol particles and vapor fraction is presented for the sampling of PAHs in air. A low sampling efficiency was observed for 3 ring PAHs, but all carcinogenic PAHs (according to IARC) were totally retained on functionalized filters. On the other hand, a comparison with normal filter sampling was performed, and results obtained confirm that > 10% of benzo(a)pyrene can be lost from normal filters. Together with size reduction, another advantage of the functionalized filter is an enhancement in the extraction and purification recovery. © Taiwan Association for Aerosol Research

GC-C-IRMS on single fatty acids and EA-IRMS on bulk lipid to study the fractionation processes in bovine organism and to detect differences in four matrices of Simmental cows fed on C3 and C4 diets

Fatty acids (FAs), carboxylic acids with a long aliphatic chain, detectable in both adipose tissue and muscle of animals, strongly contribute to different aspects of meat quality and are central to the nutritional value of this product [1]. Focusing of bovine meat, we must consider that the FAs may derive either from the animal diet only, as is the case with essential linoleic and linolenic acid, or from de novo endogenous synthesis, or both [2]. As for the biosynthetic pathway the FAs follow in cow organism, dietary FAs undergo substantial transformations into the digestive tract before depositing into the tissues. First, the hydrolyzation of complex lipids deriving from the diet, carried out by bacteria and protozoa in the rumen, produces long chain fatty acids (LCFAs) and other organic compounds [3]. Then, the free FAs released during hydrolysis are converted to saturated ones, primarily stearic and secondarily palmitic acid through biohydrogenation [3]. On exiting the rumen, the FAs flow into the duodenum, where the absorption takes place. Furthermore, the FAs reach the liver carried by the blood, whose flow, together with the FAs concentration, influences their supply to this organ [5]. In this work, two groups of multiparous cull cows fed according to two different dietary regimes (based on products deriving from plants characterized by either C3 or C4 photosynthetic cycle) were considered. The different paths C3 and C4 plants follow for CO2 fixations result in discriminating carbon isotopic ratios (δ13C). Therefore, the ability to distinguish between animals directly comes from the isotopic differences in the feeding regimes. Different cow compartments (rumen, duodenum, liver and meat) led to the diet-based discrimination of the animals. The presented results were obtained by analysing the δ13C of both the bulk lipidic extract through EA-IRMS and six FAs through GC-IRMS in each compartment. Furthermore, it is worth considering that several chemical reactions resulting in isotopic fractionation take place in the bovine organism. On this basis, the compound-specific analysis of the fatty acids in the different compartments of all cows gave the opportunity to compare the fractionation processes taking place in the bovine organism and to highlight differences depending on the dietary regime of the cows, whether C3- or C4- base

Categorical Models for a Semantically Linear Lambda-calculus

This paper is about a categorical approach to model a very simple Semantically Linear lambda calculus, named Sll-calculus. This is a core calculus underlying the programming language SlPCF. In particular, in this work, we introduce the notion of Sll-Category, which is able to describe a very large class of sound models of Sll-calculus. Sll-Category extends in the natural way Benton, Bierman, Hyland and de Paiva's Linear Category, in order to soundly interpret all the constructs of Sll-calculus. This category is general enough to catch interesting models in Scott Domains and Coherence Spaces

PRECURSORI DEI TIOLI VARIETALI DURANTE LA MATURAZIONE E LA PRESSATURA DELLE UVE DEL TRAMINER AROMATICO

Gli autori riportano l'evoluzione, in crescita in prossimit\ue0 della raccolta tecnologica indipendentemente dalle condizioni climatiche dell'annata, del glutationil- e del cisteinil-3-mercaptoesanolo, precursori dei tioli varietali. Ne riportano, inoltre, la concentrazione nelle diverse frazioni di pressatura. Tali precursori sono responsabili, previa fermentazione con adeguati ceppi di lievito, di note tropicali-agrumate che contribuiscono alla tipicit\ue0 del Traminer. Bench\ue9 il Traminer aromatico o Gew\ufcrztraminer (GWT) sia una variet\ue0 internazionale nota per l'elevata aromaticit\ue0 di origine terpenica riconducibile - a livello di uva - principalmente a geraniolo, citronellolo, nerolo e ossido di rosa, altre molecole varietali sono state riportate pi\uf9 recentemente fra quelle in grado di rivestire un ruolo tecnologico operativo. \uc8 il caso specificatamente dei cosiddetti tioli varietali e dei loro precursori, presenti questi ultimi nelle uve come risultante di diverse vie biosintetiche e/o tecnogeniche. Non \ue8 certamente questa la sede per una disanima di tali vie di formazione, vale per\uf2 la pena ricordare almeno che: \u2022 i principali, bench\ue9 non esclusivi, precursori sono il glutationil-3-mercaptoesanolo (GSH-3MH) e il cisteinil-3-mercaptoesanolo (Cys-3MH) (Dubordieu e Tominaga 2009; Roland et al. 2010 a, b; Concejero et al. 2014; Rom\ue1n Villegas et al. 2016; Nicolini et al. 2019) e che: \u2022 il manifestarsi delle interessanti note da frutta tropicale, frutto della passione e pompelmo passa attraverso la liberazione dei sopraccitati precursori dalla componente azotata e la successiva acetilazione fermentativa del 3-mercaptesanolo ad acetato di mercaptoesile, avendo come risultante, nei vini GWT, un apprezzato incremento della tipicit\ue0 (Rom\ue1n et al. 2018). In questa breve nota gli autori intendono presentare l'evoluzione dei precursori tiolici del 3-mercaptoesanolo durante la maturazione delle uve Traminer aromatico, cos\uec come osservata in Trentino Alto- Adige in due annate, il 2014 e il 2018, molto differenti dal punto di vista climatico e produttivo; il 2014 \ue8 stato infatti caratterizzato da temperature particolarmente fredde e significativa piovosit\ue0, mentre il 2018 da ben pi\uf9 favorevoli condizioni di clima e piovosit\ue0, associate per\uf2 a livelli di produzione decisamente elevati (Bottura 2015, 2019)

A spatial multi-scale fluorescence microscopy toolbox discloses entry checkpoints of SARS-CoV-2 variants in Vero E6 cells

: We exploited a multi-scale microscopy imaging toolbox to address some major issues related to SARS-CoV-2 interactions with host cells. Our approach harnesses both conventional and super-resolution fluorescence microscopy and easily matches the spatial scale of single-virus/cell checkpoints. After its validation through the characterization of infected cells and virus morphology, we leveraged this toolbox to reveal subtle issues related to the entry phase of SARS-CoV-2 variants in Vero E6 cells. Our results show that in Vero E6 cells the B.1.1.7 strain (aka Alpha Variant of Concern) is associated with much faster kinetics of endocytic uptake compared to its ancestor B.1.177. Given the cell-entry scenario dominated by the endosomal "late pathway", the faster internalization of B.1.1.7 could be directly related to the N501Y mutation in the S protein, which is known to strengthen the binding of Spike receptor binding domain with ACE2. Remarkably, we also directly observed the central role of clathrin as a mediator of endocytosis in the late pathway of entry. In keeping with the clathrin-mediated endocytosis, we highlighted the non-raft membrane localization of ACE2. Overall, we believe that our fluorescence microscopy-based approach represents a fertile strategy to investigate the molecular features of SARS-CoV-2 interactions with cells

Characterization of binding and quantification of human autoantibodies to PDGFRα using a biosensor-based approach

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a chronic autoimmune disease of the connective tissue. The variety and clinical relevance of autoantibodies in SSc patients have been extensively studied, eventually identifying agonistic autoantibodies targeting the platelet-derived growth factor receptor alpha (PDGFRα), and representing potential biomarkers for SSc. We used a resonant mirror biosensor to characterize the binding between surface-blocked PDGFRα and PDGFRα-specific recombinant human monoclonal autoantibodies (mAbs) produced by SSc B cells, and detect/quantify serum autoimmune IgG with binding characteristics similar to the mAbs. Kinetic data showed a conformation-specific, high-affinity interaction between PDGFRα and mAbs, with equilibrium dissociation constants in the low-to-high nanomolar range. When applied to total serum IgG, the assay discriminated between SSc patients and healthy controls, and allowed the rapid quantification of autoimmune IgG in the sera of SSc patients, with anti-PDGFRα IgG falling in the range 3.20–4.67 neq/L of SSc autoantibodies. The test was validated by comparison to direct and competitive anti-PDGFRα antibody ELISA. This biosensor assay showed higher sensibility with respect to ELISA, and other major advantages such as the specificity, rapidity, and reusability of the capturing surface, thus representing a feasible approach for the detection and quantification of high affinity, likely agonistic, SSc-specific anti-PDGFRα autoantibodies