917 research outputs found
Error tolerance of two-basis quantum key-distribution protocols using qudits and two-way classical communication
We investigate the error tolerance of quantum cryptographic protocols using
-level systems. In particular, we focus on prepare-and-measure schemes that
use two mutually unbiased bases and a key-distillation procedure with two-way
classical communication. For arbitrary quantum channels, we obtain a sufficient
condition for secret-key distillation which, in the case of isotropic quantum
channels, yields an analytic expression for the maximally tolerable error rate
of the cryptographic protocols under consideration. The difference between the
tolerable error rate and its theoretical upper bound tends slowly to zero for
sufficiently large dimensions of the information carriers.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figur
Understanding Adoption of Internet Technologies Among SMEs
The Internet has been viewed as a powerful tool enabling small firms to "level the playing field" when competing with larger firms. Yet, the benefits of e-business are accruing to larger, rather than smaller, firms. While numerous studies have been conducted in other countries to examine the use of the Internet by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), similar studies focused on U.S. small firms have not yet emerged. Using the Commission of the European Communities' stringent definition of SMEs, this paper identifies significantly different patterns in e-business usage among 395 micro, small, and medium-sized firms. While using the Internet to find information and to enhance the company/image brand is important for all firms, the smallest of firms attach greater importance to using the Internet for research purposes and lesser for communication reasons (i.e., e-mail). This pattern is reversed for larger (i.e., small and medium sized) firms
Portal protein functions akin to a DNA-sensor that couples genome-packaging to icosahedral capsid maturation.
Tailed bacteriophages and herpesviruses assemble infectious particles via an empty precursor capsid (or \u27procapsid\u27) built by multiple copies of coat and scaffolding protein and by one dodecameric portal protein. Genome packaging triggers rearrangement of the coat protein and release of scaffolding protein, resulting in dramatic procapsid lattice expansion. Here, we provide structural evidence that the portal protein of the bacteriophage P22 exists in two distinct dodecameric conformations: an asymmetric assembly in the procapsid (PC-portal) that is competent for high affinity binding to the large terminase packaging protein, and a symmetric ring in the mature virion (MV-portal) that has negligible affinity for the packaging motor. Modelling studies indicate the structure of PC-portal is incompatible with DNA coaxially spooled around the portal vertex, suggesting that newly packaged DNA triggers the switch from PC- to MV-conformation. Thus, we propose the signal for termination of \u27Headful Packaging\u27 is a DNA-dependent symmetrization of portal protein
Mixing Times in Quantum Walks on Two-Dimensional Grids
Mixing properties of discrete-time quantum walks on two-dimensional grids
with torus-like boundary conditions are analyzed, focusing on their connection
to the complexity of the corresponding abstract search algorithm. In
particular, an exact expression for the stationary distribution of the coherent
walk over odd-sided lattices is obtained after solving the eigenproblem for the
evolution operator for this particular graph. The limiting distribution and
mixing time of a quantum walk with a coin operator modified as in the abstract
search algorithm are obtained numerically. On the basis of these results, the
relation between the mixing time of the modified walk and the running time of
the corresponding abstract search algorithm is discussed.Comment: 11 page
Hitting time for quantum walks on the hypercube
Hitting times for discrete quantum walks on graphs give an average time
before the walk reaches an ending condition. To be analogous to the hitting
time for a classical walk, the quantum hitting time must involve repeated
measurements as well as unitary evolution. We derive an expression for hitting
time using superoperators, and numerically evaluate it for the discrete walk on
the hypercube. The values found are compared to other analogues of hitting time
suggested in earlier work. The dependence of hitting times on the type of
unitary ``coin'' is examined, and we give an example of an initial state and
coin which gives an infinite hitting time for a quantum walk. Such infinite
hitting times require destructive interference, and are not observed
classically. Finally, we look at distortions of the hypercube, and observe that
a loss of symmetry in the hypercube increases the hitting time. Symmetry seems
to play an important role in both dramatic speed-ups and slow-downs of quantum
walks.Comment: 8 pages in RevTeX format, four figures in EPS forma
Tripartite to Bipartite Entanglement Transformations and Polynomial Identity Testing
We consider the problem of deciding if a given three-party entangled pure
state can be converted, with a non-zero success probability, into a given
two-party pure state through local quantum operations and classical
communication. We show that this question is equivalent to the well-known
computational problem of deciding if a multivariate polynomial is identically
zero. Efficient randomized algorithms developed to study the latter can thus be
applied to the question of tripartite to bipartite entanglement
transformations
LINVIEW: Incremental View Maintenance for Complex Analytical Queries
Many analytics tasks and machine learning problems can be naturally expressed
by iterative linear algebra programs. In this paper, we study the incremental
view maintenance problem for such complex analytical queries. We develop a
framework, called LINVIEW, for capturing deltas of linear algebra programs and
understanding their computational cost. Linear algebra operations tend to cause
an avalanche effect where even very local changes to the input matrices spread
out and infect all of the intermediate results and the final view, causing
incremental view maintenance to lose its performance benefit over
re-evaluation. We develop techniques based on matrix factorizations to contain
such epidemics of change. As a consequence, our techniques make incremental
view maintenance of linear algebra practical and usually substantially cheaper
than re-evaluation. We show, both analytically and experimentally, the
usefulness of these techniques when applied to standard analytics tasks. Our
evaluation demonstrates the efficiency of LINVIEW in generating parallel
incremental programs that outperform re-evaluation techniques by more than an
order of magnitude.Comment: 14 pages, SIGMO
Adenomatoid odontogenic tumor with impacted mandibular canine: a case report
The Adenomatoid Odontogenic Tumor (AOT) is a rare, slow growing, benign, odontogenic epithelial tumor with
characteristic clinical and histological features; which usually arise in the second or third decade. It is a tumor
composed of odontogenic epithelium in a variety of histoarchitectural patterns which are embedded in a mature
connective tissue stroma. It is mostly encountered in young patients with a greater predilection for females. Maxilla
is the predilection site of occurrence, most commonly associated with an unerupted maxillary canine. It presents
as a symptom-free lesion and is frequently discovered during routine radiographic examination. This case report
describes an unusual case of 20 year old male with only a one month history of tumor in the anterior mandible. The
tumor was a well circumscribed intraosseous lesion with an embedded tooth. Histological evidence of calcification
was present. The present case lends support to the categorization of AOT as a mixed odontogenic tumo
On Profit-Maximizing Pricing for the Highway and Tollbooth Problems
In the \emph{tollbooth problem}, we are given a tree \bT=(V,E) with
edges, and a set of customers, each of whom is interested in purchasing a
path on the tree. Each customer has a fixed budget, and the objective is to
price the edges of \bT such that the total revenue made by selling the paths
to the customers that can afford them is maximized. An important special case
of this problem, known as the \emph{highway problem}, is when \bT is
restricted to be a line.
For the tollbooth problem, we present a randomized -approximation,
improving on the current best -approximation. We also study a
special case of the tollbooth problem, when all the paths that customers are
interested in purchasing go towards a fixed root of \bT. In this case, we
present an algorithm that returns a -approximation, for any
, and runs in quasi-polynomial time. On the other hand, we rule
out the existence of an FPTAS by showing that even for the line case, the
problem is strongly NP-hard. Finally, we show that in the \emph{coupon model},
when we allow some items to be priced below zero to improve the overall profit,
the problem becomes even APX-hard
Thresholded Covering Algorithms for Robust and Max-Min Optimization
The general problem of robust optimization is this: one of several possible
scenarios will appear tomorrow, but things are more expensive tomorrow than
they are today. What should you anticipatorily buy today, so that the
worst-case cost (summed over both days) is minimized? Feige et al. and
Khandekar et al. considered the k-robust model where the possible outcomes
tomorrow are given by all demand-subsets of size k, and gave algorithms for the
set cover problem, and the Steiner tree and facility location problems in this
model, respectively.
In this paper, we give the following simple and intuitive template for
k-robust problems: "having built some anticipatory solution, if there exists a
single demand whose augmentation cost is larger than some threshold, augment
the anticipatory solution to cover this demand as well, and repeat". In this
paper we show that this template gives us improved approximation algorithms for
k-robust Steiner tree and set cover, and the first approximation algorithms for
k-robust Steiner forest, minimum-cut and multicut. All our approximation ratios
(except for multicut) are almost best possible.
As a by-product of our techniques, we also get algorithms for max-min
problems of the form: "given a covering problem instance, which k of the
elements are costliest to cover?".Comment: 24 page
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