Great Smoky Geography

In 2005 my life changed unexpectedly during a field experience to Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP). Professor Jay R. Harman, a faculty member within the Department of Geography at Michigan State University, organized the experience frequently over a career spanning more than four decades. As an introverted first-generation college student from a rural blue-collar town, attending this trip was out of my comfort zone. I recently completed a bachelor’s program in meteorology and research during my master’s program focused on synoptic-scale climatology. Until then my travel to n

A Hybrid Computer Case Study for Unconventional Virtual Computing

Improvements in computer efficiency are not always due to increasing computation speed. The mouse and GUI approach to OS’s actually slowed down computation, but sped up computing. This paper highlights the concept of Unconventional Virtual Computation (UVC). With the increasing virtualization of computers, and the recognition that this year’s virtual computers are as fast as the hardware computers of 10 years ago, it becomes clear that we are only limited in our modes of computation by our imagination. A form of UVC is presented called Pulsed Melodic Affective Processing, which utilizes melodies to perform affective computations. PMAP makes computation more human-friendly by making it audible – a PMAP data stream sounds like the emotion it represents. A hybrid computation system is presented combining UVC PMAP with a Photonic Quantum Computer, in which the PMAP musico-logic circuit keeps the QC in a state of entanglement

Calibration and High Fidelity Measurement of a Quantum Photonic Chip

Integrated quantum photonic circuits are becoming increasingly complex. Accurate calibration of device parameters and detailed characterization of the prepared quantum states are critically important for future progress. Here we report on an effective experimental calibration method based on Bayesian updating and Markov chain Monte Carlo integration. We use this calibration technique to characterize a two qubit chip and extract the reflectivities of its directional couplers. An average quantum state tomography fidelity of 93.79+/-1.05% against the four Bell states is achieved. Furthermore, comparing the measured density matrices against a model using the non-ideal device parameters derived from the calibration we achieve an average fidelity of 97.57+/-0.96%. This pinpoints non-ideality of chip parameters as a major factor in the decrease of Bell state fidelity. We also perform quantum state tomography for Bell states while continuously varying photon distinguishability and find excellent agreement with theory

Q-MUSE: A QUANTUM COMPUTER MUSIC SYSTEM DESIGNED FOR A PERFORMANCE FOR ORCHESTRA, ELECTRONICS AND LIVE INTERNET-CONNECTED PHOTONIC QUANTUM COMPUTER

Quantum computing is a form of unconventional computation utilizing quantum effects as a fundamental part of its calculations. It has already been used in practical signal encryption in the 2010 Soccer World Cup, and there is competition amongst many governments to build more powerful and practical quantum computers. Although quantum computing is the most widespread and invested in form of unconventional computation, there have been no implementations of artistic systems with live hardware quantum computers. Furthermore there is a vast gap between public understanding of classical digital computing and of quantum computing. Q-Muse is a quantum computer music system design for a specific performance. The Entangled Orchestra is a performance for Orchestra, Electronics and Live Internet-Connected Photonic Quantum Computer. There are many types of quantum computation hardware implementations including Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Trapped Ions, and Optical Computing. Q-Muse incorporates the third of these – a system that utilizes wave guides, phase-shifters and beam splitters to compute with entangled photons. The processor is located at University of Bristol in the UK is accessed over the cloud. It can implement a Controlled NOT gate (CNOT) – an essential component in the construction of quantum processors. The CNOT gate is part of a two gate set that can be used to build any type of quantum computing process. The resulting musical performance will provide not only a representation for the quantum processes in the chip, but a proof-of-concept for using hardware quantum computing processors in the computer-aided arts

Towards a killer app for the Semantic Web

Killer apps are highly transformative technologies that create new markets and widespread patterns of behaviour. IT generally, and the Web in particular, has benefited from killer apps to create new networks of users and increase its value. The Semantic Web community on the other hand is still awaiting a killer app that proves the superiority of its technologies. There are certain features that distinguish killer apps from other ordinary applications. This paper examines those features in the context of the Semantic Web, in the hope that a better understanding of the characteristics of killer apps might encourage their consideration when developing Semantic Web applications

Image annotation with Photocopain

Photo annotation is a resource-intensive task, yet is increasingly essential as image archives and personal photo collections grow in size. There is an inherent conflict in the process of describing and archiving personal experiences, because casual users are generally unwilling to expend large amounts of effort on creating the annotations which are required to organise their collections so that they can make best use of them. This paper describes the Photocopain system, a semi-automatic image annotation system which combines information about the context in which a photograph was captured with information from other readily available sources in order to generate outline annotations for that photograph that the user may further extend or amend

Population, sexual and reproductive health, rights and sustainable development: forging a common agenda.

This article suggests that sexual and reproductive health and rights activists seeking to influence the post-2015 international development paradigm must work with sustainable development advocates concerned with a range of issues, including climate change, environmental issues, and food and water security, and that a way of building bridges with these communities is to demonstrate how sexual and reproductive health and rights are relevant for these issues. An understanding of population dynamics, including urbanization and migration, as well as population growth, can help to clarify these links. This article therefore suggests that whether or not sexual and reproductive health and rights activists can overcome resistance to discussing "population", become more knowledgeable about other sustainable development issues, and work with others in those fields to advance the global sustainable development agenda are crucial questions for the coming months. The article also contends that it is possible to care about population dynamics (including ageing and problems faced by countries with a high proportion of young people) and care about human rights at the same time. It expresses concern that, if sexual and reproductive health and rights advocates do not participate in the population dynamics discourse, the field will be left free for those for whom respecting and protecting rights may be less of a priority

Reconfigurable controlled two-qubit operation on a quantum photonic chip

Integrated quantum photonics is an appealing platform for quantum information processing, quantum communication and quantum metrology. In all these applications it is necessary not only to be able to create and detect Fock states of light but also to program the photonic circuits that implements some desired logical operation. Here we demonstrate a reconfigurable controlled two-qubit operation on a chip using a multiwaveguide interferometer with a tunable phase shifter. We find excellent agreement between theory and experiment, with a 0.98 \pm 0.02 average similarity between measured and ideal operations

Salmonella Typhimurium in the Australian egg industry: multidisciplinary approach to addressing the public health challenge and future directions

In Australia, numerous egg related human Salmonella Typhimurium outbreaks have prompted significant interest amongst public health authorities and the egg industry to jointly address this human health concern. Nationwide workshops on Salmonella and eggs were conducted in Australia for egg producers and regulatory authorities. State and National regulators representing Primary Production, Communicable Disease Control, Public Health and Food Safety and Food Standards Australia and New Zealand. All attendees participated in discussions aimed at evaluating current evidence based information, issues related to quality egg production and how to ensure safe eggs in the supply chain, identifying research gaps and practical recommendations. The perceptions from egg producers and regulatory authorities from various states were recorded during the workshops. We presented the issues discussed during the workshops including Salmonella in the farm environment, Salmonella penetration across egg shell, virulence in humans, food/egg handling in the supply chain and intervention strategies. We also discussed the perceptions from egg producers and regulators. Recommendations placed emphasis on future research needs, communication between industry and regulatory authorities and education of food handlers. Communication between regulators and industry is pivotal to control egg borne S. Typhimurium outbreaks and collaborative efforts are required to design effective and appropriate control strategies.Kapil K. Chousalkar, Margaret Sexton, Andrea McWhorter, Kylie Hewson, Glen Martin, Craig Shadbolt & Paul Goldsmit

Witnessing eigenstates for quantum simulation of Hamiltonian spectra

The efficient calculation of Hamiltonian spectra, a problem often intractable on classical machines, can find application in many fields, from physics to chemistry. Here, we introduce the concept of an "eigenstate witness" and through it provide a new quantum approach which combines variational methods and phase estimation to approximate eigenvalues for both ground and excited states. This protocol is experimentally verified on a programmable silicon quantum photonic chip, a mass-manufacturable platform, which embeds entangled state generation, arbitrary controlled-unitary operations, and projective measurements. Both ground and excited states are experimentally found with fidelities >99%, and their eigenvalues are estimated with 32-bits of precision. We also investigate and discuss the scalability of the approach and study its performance through numerical simulations of more complex Hamiltonians. This result shows promising progress towards quantum chemistry on quantum computers.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, plus Supplementary Material [New version with minor typos corrected.