Producing high fidelity single photons with optimal brightness via waveguided parametric down-conversion

Parametric down-conversion (PDC) offers the possibility to control the fabrication of non-Gaussian states such as Fock states. However, in conventional PDC sources energy and momentum conservation introduce strict frequency and photon number correlations, which impact the fidelity of the prepared state. In our work we optimize the preparation of single-photon Fock states from the emission of waveguided PDC via spectral filtering. We study the effect of correlations via photon number resolving detection and quantum interference. Our measurements show how the reduction of mixedness due to filtering can be evaluated. Interfering the prepared photon with a coherent state we establish an experimentally measured fidelity of the produced target state of 78%.Comment: 15 pages, 10 Figures, published versio

Face Video Competition

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-01793-3_73Person recognition using facial features, e.g., mug-shot images, has long been used in identity documents. However, due to the widespread use of web-cams and mobile devices embedded with a camera, it is now possible to realise facial video recognition, rather than resorting to just still images. In fact, facial video recognition offers many advantages over still image recognition; these include the potential of boosting the system accuracy and deterring spoof attacks. This paper presents the first known benchmarking effort of person identity verification using facial video data. The evaluation involves 18 systems submitted by seven academic institutes.The work of NPoh is supported by the advanced researcher fellowship PA0022121477of the Swiss NSF; NPoh, CHC and JK by the EU-funded Mobio project grant IST-214324; NPC and HF by the EPSRC grants EP/D056942 and EP/D054818; VS andNP by the Slovenian national research program P2-0250(C) Metrology and Biomet-ric System, the COST Action 2101 and FP7-217762 HIDE; and, AAS by the Dutch BRICKS/BSIK project.Poh, N.; Chan, C.; Kittler, J.; Marcel, S.; Mc Cool, C.; Rua, E.; Alba Castro, J.... (2009). Face Video Competition. En Advances in Biometrics: Third International Conference, ICB 2009, Alghero, Italy, June 2-5, 2009. Proceedings. 715-724. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-01793-3_73S715724Messer, K., Kittler, J., Sadeghi, M., Hamouz, M., Kostyn, A., Marcel, S., Bengio, S., Cardinaux, F., Sanderson, C., Poh, N., Rodriguez, Y., Kryszczuk, K., Czyz, J., Vandendorpe, L., Ng, J., Cheung, H., Tang, B.: Face authentication competition on the BANCA database. In: Zhang, D., Jain, A.K. (eds.) ICBA 2004. LNCS, vol. 3072, pp. 8–15. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)Messer, K., Kittler, J., Sadeghi, M., Hamouz, M., Kostin, A., Cardinaux, F., Marcel, S., Bengio, S., Sanderson, C., Poh, N., Rodriguez, Y., Czyz, J., Vandendorpe, L., McCool, C., Lowther, S., Sridharan, S., Chandran, V., Palacios, R.P., Vidal, E., Bai, L., Shen, L.-L., Wang, Y., Yueh-Hsuan, C., Liu, H.-C., Hung, Y.-P., Heinrichs, A., Muller, M., Tewes, A., vd Malsburg, C., Wurtz, R., Wang, Z., Xue, F., Ma, Y., Yang, Q., Fang, C., Ding, X., Lucey, S., Goss, R., Schneiderman, H.: Face authentication test on the BANCA database. In: Int’l. Conf. Pattern Recognition (ICPR), vol. 4, pp. 523–532 (2004)Phillips, P.J., Flynn, P.J., Scruggs, T., Bowyer, K.W., Chang, J., Hoffman, K., Marques, J., Min, J., Worek, W.: Overview of the Face Recognition Grand Challenge. In: IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, pp. 947–954 (2005)Bailly-Baillière, E., Bengio, S., Bimbot, F., Hamouz, M., Kittler, J., Marithoz, J., Matas, J., Messer, K., Popovici, V., Porée, F., Ruiz, B., Thiran, J.-P.: The BANCA Database and Evaluation Protocol. In: Kittler, J., Nixon, M.S. (eds.) AVBPA 2003. LNCS, vol. 2688. Springer, Heidelberg (2003)Turk, M., Pentland, A.: Eigenfaces for Recognition. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 3(1), 71–86 (1991)Martin, A., Doddington, G., Kamm, T., Ordowsk, M., Przybocki, M.: The DET Curve in Assessment of Detection Task Performance. In: Proc. Eurospeech 1997, Rhodes, pp. 1895–1898 (1997)Bengio, S., Marithoz, J.: The Expected Performance Curve: a New Assessment Measure for Person Authentication. In: The Speaker and Language Recognition Workshop (Odyssey), Toledo, pp. 279–284 (2004)Poh, N., Bengio, S.: Database, Protocol and Tools for Evaluating Score-Level Fusion Algorithms in Biometric Authentication. Pattern Recognition 39(2), 223–233 (2005)Martin, A., Przybocki, M., Campbell, J.P.: The NIST Speaker Recognition Evaluation Program, ch. 8. Springer, Heidelberg (2005

Quantum teleportation using active feed-forward between two Canary Islands

Quantum teleportation [1] is a quintessential prerequisite of many quantum information processing protocols [2-4]. By using quantum teleportation, one can circumvent the no-cloning theorem [5] and faithfully transfer unknown quantum states to a party whose location is even unknown over arbitrary distances. Ever since the first experimental demonstrations of quantum teleportation of independent qubits [6] and of squeezed states [7], researchers have progressively extended the communication distance in teleportation, usually without active feed-forward of the classical Bell-state measurement result which is an essential ingredient in future applications such as communication between quantum computers. Here we report the first long-distance quantum teleportation experiment with active feed-forward in real time. The experiment employed two optical links, quantum and classical, over 143 km free space between the two Canary Islands of La Palma and Tenerife. To achieve this, the experiment had to employ novel techniques such as a frequency-uncorrelated polarization-entangled photon pair source, ultra-low-noise single-photon detectors, and entanglement-assisted clock synchronization. The average teleported state fidelity was well beyond the classical limit of 2/3. Furthermore, we confirmed the quality of the quantum teleportation procedure (without feed-forward) by complete quantum process tomography. Our experiment confirms the maturity and applicability of the involved technologies in real-world scenarios, and is a milestone towards future satellite-based quantum teleportation

Synthesis of titanium decorated graphene for renewable energy applications

Reduced graphene oxide (RGO) was prepared from natural graphite by Hummers method. Few layers graphene was decorated with titanium by an incipient wetness impregnation method. The pristine graphene shows hydrogen storage capacity equal to 1.3 wt % while graphene decorated by titanium (RGO-Ti) enhanced hydrogen storage capacity to 1.4 wt%. We showed that titanium addition improved hydrogen storage capacity by chemical interactions. These interactions can be used for fabrication of different graphene-based materials as potential candidates for developing new absorbents for energy application

The impact of atrial fibrillation on prognosis in aortic stenosis

Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) and aortic stenosis (AS) are both highly prevalent and often coexist. Various studies have focused on the prognostic value of AF in patients with AS, but rarely considered left ventricular (LV) diastolic function as a prognostic factor. Objective: To evaluate the prognostic impact of AF in patients with AS while correcting for LV diastolic function. Methods: Patients with first diagnosis of significant AS were selected and stratified according to history of AF. The endpoint was all-cause mortality. Results: In total, 2849 patients with significant AS (mean age 72 +/- 12 years, 54.8% men) were evaluated, and 686 (24.1%) had a history of AF. During a median follow-up of 60 (30-97) months, 1182 (41.5%) patients died. Ten-year mortality rate in patients with AF was 46.8% compared to 36.8% in patients with sinus rhythm (SR) (log-rank P P P = 0.026), AF was independently associated with mortality. However, when correcting for indexed left atrial volume, E/e' or both, AF was no longer independently associated with all-cause mortality. Conclusion: Patients with significant AS and AF have a reduced survival as compared to patients with SR. Nonetheless, when correcting for markers of LV diastolic function, AF was not independently associated with outcomes in patients with significant AS.</p

Ethnic differences in body fat distribution among Asian pre-pubertal children: A cross-sectional multicenter study

Background Ethnic differences in body fat distribution contribute to ethnic differences in cardiovascular morbidities and diabetes. However few data are available on differences in fat distribution in Asian children from various backgrounds. Therefore, the current study aimed to explore ethnic differences in body fat distribution among Asian children from four countries. Methods A total of 758 children aged 8-10 y from China, Lebanon, Malaysia and Thailand were recruited using a non-random purposive sampling approach to enrol children encompassing a wide BMI range. Height, weight, waist circumference (WC), fat mass (FM, derived from total body water [TBW] estimation using the deuterium dilution technique) and skinfold thickness (SFT) at biceps, triceps, subscapular, supraspinale and medial calf were collected. Results After controlling for height and weight, Chinese and Thai children had a significantly higher WC than their Lebanese and Malay counterparts. Chinese and Thais tended to have higher trunk fat deposits than Lebanese and Malays reflected in trunk SFT, trunk/upper extremity ratio or supraspinale/upper extremity ratio after adjustment for age and total body fat. The subscapular/supraspinale skinfold ratio was lower in Chinese and Thais compared with Lebanese and Malays after correcting for trunk SFT. Conclusions Asian pre-pubertal children from different origins vary in body fat distribution. These results indicate the importance of population-specific WC cut-off points or other fat distribution indices to identify the population at risk of obesity-related health problems

Left ventricular remodelling patterns in patients with moderate aortic stenosis

Aims: Moderate aortic stenosis (AS) is associated with an increased risk of adverse events. Because outcomes in patients with AS are ultimately driven by the condition of the left ventricle (LV) and not by the valve, assessment of LV remodelling seems important for risk stratification. This study evaluated the association between different LV remodelling patterns and outcomes in patients with moderate AS.Methods and results: Patients with moderate AS (aortic valve area 1.0-1.5 cm2) were identified and stratified into four groups according to the LV remodelling pattern: normal geometry (NG), concentric remodelling (CR), concentric hypertrophy (CH), or eccentric hypertrophy (EH). Clinical outcomes were defined as all-cause mortality and a composite endpoint of all-cause mortality and aortic valve replacement (AVR). Of 1931 patients with moderate AS (age 73 ± 10 years, 52% men), 344 (18%) had NG, 469 (24%) CR, 698 (36%) CH, and 420 (22%) EH. Patients with CH and EH showed higher 3-year mortality rates (28% and 32%, respectively) when compared with patients with NG (19%) (P Conclusion: In patients with moderate AS, those who develop CH already have an increased risk of all-cause mortality. Assessment of the LV remodelling patterns may identify patients at higher risk of adverse events, warranting closer surveillance, and possibly earlier intervention.</p

Molecular Cloning of a New Immunomodulatory Protein from Anoectochilus formosanus which Induces B Cell IgM Secretion through a T-Independent Mechanism

An immunomodulatory protein (IPAF) was purified and cloned from Anoectochilus formosanus, an Orchidaceae herbal plant in Asia. The major targeting immune cells of IPAF and its modulating effects toward B lymphocytes were investigated. Rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) was conducted to clone the IPAF gene, and the obtained sequence was BLAST compared on the NCBI database. MACS-purified mouse T and B lymphocytes were stimulated with IPAF and the cell proliferation, activation, and Igs production were examined. IPAF comprised a 25 amino acids signal peptide and a 138 amino acids protein which was homologous to the lectins from Orchidaceae plant. IPAF selectively induced the cell proliferation in mouse splenic B lymphocytes but not T lymphocytes. The IPAF-induced B cells exhibited increased CD69 and MHC class II expression, and a dose- and time-dependent enhancement in IgM production. These results suggested potential benefits of IPAF to strengthen the humoral immunity

Budesonide and Formoterol Reduce Early Innate Anti-Viral Immune Responses In Vitro

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory airways disease in which respiratory viral infections frequently trigger exacerbations. Current treatment of asthma with combinations of inhaled corticosteroids and long acting beta2 agonists improves asthma control and reduces exacerbations but what impact this might have on innate anti-viral immunity is unclear. We investigated the in vitro effects of asthma drugs on innate anti-viral immunity. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from healthy and asthmatic donors were cultured for 24 hours with the Toll-like receptor 7 agonist, imiquimod, or rhinovirus 16 (RV16) in the presence of budesonide and/or formoterol. Production of proinflammatory cytokines and expression of anti-viral intracellular signalling molecules were measured by ELISA and RT-PCR respectively. In PBMC from healthy donors, budesonide alone inhibited IP-10 and IL-6 production induced by imiquimod in a concentration-dependent manner and the degree of inhibition was amplified when budesonide and formoterol were used in combination. Formoterol alone had little effect on these parameters, except at high concentrations (10−6 M) when IL-6 production increased. In RV16 stimulated PBMC, the combination of budesonide and formoterol inhibited IFNα and IP-10 production in asthmatic as well as healthy donors. Combination of budesonide and formoterol also inhibited RV16-stimulated expression of the type I IFN induced genes myxovirus protein A and 2′, 5′ oligoadenylate synthetise. Notably, RV16 stimulated lower levels of type Myxovirus A and oligoadenylate synthase in PBMC of asthmatics than control donors. These in vitro studies demonstrate that combinations of drugs commonly used in asthma therapy inhibit both early pro-inflammatory cytokines and key aspects of the type I IFN pathway. These findings suggest that budesonide and formoterol curtail excessive inflammation induced by rhinovirus infections in patients with asthma, but whether this inhibits viral clearance in vivo remains to be determined

Effect of Fibrin Glue on the Biomechanical Properties of Human Descemet's Membrane

10.1371/journal.pone.0037456PLoS ONE75