888 research outputs found
Controlled quantum evolutions and transitions
We study the nonstationary solutions of Fokker-Planck equations associated to
either stationary or nonstationary quantum states. In particular we discuss the
stationary states of quantum systems with singular velocity fields. We
introduce a technique that allows to realize arbitrary evolutions ruled by
these equations, to account for controlled quantum transitions. The method is
illustrated by presenting the detailed treatment of the transition
probabilities and of the controlling time-dependent potentials associated to
the transitions between the stationary, the coherent, and the squeezed states
of the harmonic oscillator. Possible extensions to anharmonic systems and mixed
states are briefly discussed and assessed.Comment: 24 pages, 4 figure
A stochastic-hydrodynamic model of halo formation in charged particle beams
The formation of the beam halo in charged particle accelerators is studied in
the framework of a stochastic-hydrodynamic model for the collective motion of
the particle beam. In such a stochastic-hydrodynamic theory the density and the
phase of the charged beam obey a set of coupled nonlinear hydrodynamic
equations with explicit time-reversal invariance. This leads to a linearized
theory that describes the collective dynamics of the beam in terms of a
classical Schr\"odinger equation. Taking into account space-charge effects, we
derive a set of coupled nonlinear hydrodynamic equations. These equations
define a collective dynamics of self-interacting systems much in the same
spirit as in the Gross-Pitaevskii and Landau-Ginzburg theories of the
collective dynamics for interacting quantum many-body systems. Self-consistent
solutions of the dynamical equations lead to quasi-stationary beam
configurations with enhanced transverse dispersion and transverse emittance
growth. In the limit of a frozen space-charge core it is then possible to
determine and study the properties of stationary, stable core-plus-halo beam
distributions. In this scheme the possible reproduction of the halo after its
elimination is a consequence of the stationarity of the transverse distribution
which plays the role of an attractor for every other distribution.Comment: 18 pages, 20 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. ST A
Levy-Student Distributions for Halos in Accelerator Beams
We describe the transverse beam distribution in particle accelerators within
the controlled, stochastic dynamical scheme of the Stochastic Mechanics (SM)
which produces time reversal invariant diffusion processes. This leads to a
linearized theory summarized in a Shchr\"odinger--like (\Sl) equation. The
space charge effects have been introduced in a recent paper~\cite{prstab} by
coupling this \Sl equation with the Maxwell equations. We analyze the space
charge effects to understand how the dynamics produces the actual beam
distributions, and in particular we show how the stationary, self--consistent
solutions are related to the (external, and space--charge) potentials both when
we suppose that the external field is harmonic (\emph{constant focusing}), and
when we \emph{a priori} prescribe the shape of the stationary solution. We then
proceed to discuss a few new ideas~\cite{epac04} by introducing the generalized
Student distributions, namely non--Gaussian, L\'evy \emph{infinitely divisible}
(but not \emph{stable}) distributions. We will discuss this idea from two
different standpoints: (a) first by supposing that the stationary distribution
of our (Wiener powered) SM model is a Student distribution; (b) by supposing
that our model is based on a (non--Gaussian) L\'evy process whose increments
are Student distributed. We show that in the case (a) the longer tails of the
power decay of the Student laws, and in the case (b) the discontinuities of the
L\'evy--Student process can well account for the rare escape of particles from
the beam core, and hence for the formation of a halo in intense beams.Comment: revtex4, 18 pages, 12 figure
L\'evy-Schr\"odinger wave packets
We analyze the time--dependent solutions of the pseudo--differential
L\'evy--Schr\"odinger wave equation in the free case, and we compare them with
the associated L\'evy processes. We list the principal laws used to describe
the time evolutions of both the L\'evy process densities, and the
L\'evy--Schr\"odinger wave packets. To have self--adjoint generators and
unitary evolutions we will consider only absolutely continuous, infinitely
divisible L\'evy noises with laws symmetric under change of sign of the
independent variable. We then show several examples of the characteristic
behavior of the L\'evy--Schr\"odinger wave packets, and in particular of the
bi-modality arising in their evolutions: a feature at variance with the typical
diffusive uni--modality of both the L\'evy process densities, and the usual
Schr\"odinger wave functions.Comment: 41 pages, 13 figures; paper substantially shortened, while keeping
intact examples and results; changed format from "report" to "article";
eliminated Appendices B, C, F (old names); shifted Chapters 4 and 5 (old
numbers) from text to Appendices C, D (new names); introduced connection
between Relativistic q.m. laws and Generalized Hyperbolic law
The digitalization of supply chain: A review
The emergence of new digital technologies as part of Industry 4.0 has enabled the supply chain to be managed more efficiently. We talk about digitalization of the supply chain and this trend refers to the evolution towards a smarter model that involves digital technologies such as Blockchain, IoT, Machine Learning, etc. These technologies actually increase and enhance the ability to optimize planning, sourcing and procurement strategies. Since this topic is of relevant interest for the scientific community, this paper aims to investigate the main discussion themes related to supply chain digitalization using a keyword-based organizing framework to identify, classify and investigate relevant intellectual contributions in this field. Results showed which are the main issues regarding supply chain digitalization as well as promising future research avenues
The rna-binding ubiquitin ligase mex3a affects glioblastoma tumorigenesis by inducing ubiquitylation and degradation of rig-i
Glioblastoma multiforme (GB) is the most malignant primary brain tumor in humans, with an overall survival of approximatively 15 months. The molecular heterogeneity of GB, as well as its rapid progression, invasiveness and the occurrence of drug-resistant cancer stem cells, limits the efficacy of the current treatments. In order to develop an innovative therapeutic strategy, it is mandatory to identify and characterize new molecular players responsible for the GB malignant phenotype. In this study, the RNA-binding ubiquitin ligase MEX3A was selected from a gene expression analysis performed on publicly available datasets, to assess its biological and still-unknown activity in GB tumorigenesis. We find that MEX3A is strongly up-regulated in GB specimens, and this correlates with very low protein levels of RIG-I, a tumor suppressor involved in differentiation, apoptosis and innate immune response. We demonstrate that MEX3A binds RIG-I and induces its ubiquitylation and proteasome-dependent degradation. Further, the genetic depletion of MEX3A leads to an increase of RIG-I protein levels and results in the suppression of GB cell growth. Our findings unveil a novel molecular mechanism involved in GB tumorigenesis and suggest MEX3A and RIG-I as promising therapeutic targets in GB
Quantum Mechanical Interaction-Free Measurements
A novel manifestation of nonlocality of quantum mechanics is presented. It is
shown that it is possible to ascertain the existence of an object in a given
region of space without interacting with it. The method might have practical
applications for delicate quantum experiments.Comment: (revised file with no need for macro), 12, TAUP 1865-91
Synthesis and characterization of multifunctional nanovesicles composed of POPC lipid molecules for nuclear imaging
The integration of nuclear imaging analysis with nanomedicine has tremendously grown and represents a valid and powerful tool for the development and clinical translation of drug delivery systems. Among the various types of nanostructures used as drug carriers, nanovesicles represent intriguing platforms due to their capability to entrap both lipophilic and hydrophilic agents, and their well-known biocompatibility and biodegradability. In this respect, here we present the development of a labelling procedure of POPC (1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3- phosphocholine)-based liposomes incorporating an ad hoc designed lipophilic NOTA (1, 4, 7- triazacyclononane-1, 4, 7-triacetic acid) analogue, derivatized with an oleic acid residue, able to bind the positron emitter gallium-68(III). Based on POPC features, the optimal conditions for liposome labelling were studied with the aim of optimizing the Ga(III) incorporation and obtaining a significant radiochemical yield. The data presented in this work demonstrate the feasibility of the labelling procedure on POPC liposomes co-formulated with the ad hoc designed NOTA analogue. We thus provided a critical insight into the practical aspects of the development of vesicles for theranostic approaches, which in principle can be extended to other nanosystems exploiting a variety of bioconjugation protocols
Cutting Down on Prompts and Parameters: Simple Few-Shot Learning with Language Models
Prompting language models (LMs) with training examples and task descriptions has been seen as critical to recent successes in few-shot learning. In this work, we show that finetuning LMs in the few-shot setting can considerably reduce the need for prompt engineering. In fact, one can use null prompts, prompts that contain neither task-specific templates nor training examples, and achieve competitive accuracy to manually-tuned prompts across a wide range of tasks. While finetuning LMs does introduce new parameters for each downstream task, we show that this memory overhead can be substantially reduced-finetuning only the bias terms can achieve comparable or better accuracy than standard finetuning while only updating 0.1% of the parameters. All in all, we recommend finetuning LMs for few-shot learning as it is more accurate, has relatively stable performance across different prompts, and can be made nearly as efficient as using frozen LMs
- …